Lucille Lund Movies
Although onscreen for a mere few minutes in The Black Cat, Universal's arguably most perverse thriller, starlet Lucille Lund, a sexy Rapunzel with long blonde tresses and feline gait, managed to make an indelible impression as Karen Poelzig. Karen, who appears not only as Boris Karloff's bride-to-be but also his stepdaughter, was really a dual role; Lund also portrayed Karen's beautifully preserved dead mother (and Bela Lugosi's wife), vertically entombed in a glass casket.The role, short as it was, brought Lund a well-earned 1934 WAMPAS Baby Star nod, the last year the honor was bestowed upon various starlets. Despite the award, however, the actress' career with Universal failed to blossom: According to Lund, she had refused the amorous advances of production head Carl Laemmle Jr. and her Universal contract was not renewed.
The winner of Universal's "most beautiful and talented woman student on the American campus" contest while she was attending Northwestern, Lund made her screen debut in the studio's Saturday's Millions (1933), a football comedy. Unfortunately, Lund had to rebuff Laemmle's advances from the outset, which didn't sit well with the Powers That Be, and she soon found herself battling Walter Miller, Al Ferguson, and various wildlife fauna in Pirate Treasure (1934), a typical back-lot action serial.
Lund's subsequent film, The Black Cat must have felt like insult added to injury. Director Edgar G. Ulmer proved a tyrant and sadist, and once left Lund hanging in her glass casket while the company went off to lunch. After that debacle, leaving Universal probably came as a relief.
The remainder of Lucille Lund's less-than-rewarding screen career was spent supporting lower-echelon cowboy stars such as Reb Russell and the slap-happy comedy team of the Three Stooges. Apart from The Black Cat, she is best known for her work with the Stooges in such two-reel comedies as 3 Dumb Clucks (1937) and Healthy, Wealthy, and Dumb (1938). Widowed by radio producer Kenneth Higgins and long out of public view, the actress returned to the limelight in the early '90s when she graced various film festivals with her reflections on both The Black Cat and the Stooges. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1941
Three different Universal pictures made between 1922 and 1941 bore the catchall title Don't Get Personal. The 1941 film stars Hugh Herbert as a ditzy pickle manufacturer whose favorite radio program stars Jane Frazee and Robert Paige. The couple plays a bickering husband and wife on the air, and Herbert mistakes their scripted bouts for the real thing. He heads to the radio station to patch up their differences, but succeeds in embroiling the actors in a real battle. Don't Get Personal seems to have been made at the same time as Universal Hellzapoppin' (41), with at least four actors (Hugh Herbert, Robert Paige, Jane Frazee and Mischa Auer) appearing in both films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Herbert, Mischa Auer, (more)
- 1938
There's That Woman Again was the second and last entry in Columbia's own spin on MGM's "Thin Man" series. Virginia Bruce and Melvyn Douglas star as Sally and Bill Reardon, husband-and-wife private eyes (Bruce took over from Joan Blondell, who costarred with Douglas in 1938's There's Always a Woman). This time around, the Reardons investigate a series of jewel robberies which lead to a brace of murders. At times the comedy threatens to overwhelm the mystery angle, but rest assured that Bill Reardon will have collared the guilty party (or, in this case, guilty parties) a few minutes before closing. In emulation of MGM's "Thin Man" art direction, the leading characters in There's That Woman Again live in a lavishly furnished apartment roughly the size of Rhode Island. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvyn Douglas, Virginia Bruce, (more)
- 1938
The Three Stooges strike it rich -- at least temporarily -- in this comic short. While Moe and Larry are playing cards (using pancakes as chips), Curly is trying to come up with a winning slogan for a radio contest involving Stickfast glue. The only result of his efforts is that Moe accidentally glues his mouth shut. But Curly does win fifty thousand dollars from Coffin Nail Cigarettes and they boys are in the money. Dressed in tuxedos, they check into the Hotel Costa Plenty, where the manager has the misfortune of putting them in the same room as a five thousand dollar Ming vase, and a bed that dates back to Henry VIII (they're more used to Sears Roebuck the third). Needless to say, both items wind up thoroughly destroyed. To their relief, the Stooges receive the telegram containing the prize money -- but after taxes it only amounts to $4.85. The suspicious manager plants a hotel detective (Bud Jamison) outside their door as the boys plot an escape. Meanwhile, down the hall, three scheming women are plotting to nab the supposedly rich Stooges. After they've tricked marriage proposals out of the boys, they find the telegram. While the hotel manager is on his way up the fire escape to catch the Stooges, the girls storm over to their suite and knock them out with a trio of empty champagne bottles. This picture was remade with Shemp Howard in 1952 as A Missed Fortune. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1937
Columbia's Criminals of the Air is another entry in the "alien-smuggling" movie cycle -- and as such includes the obligatory scene in which the airborne smugglers escape detection by pulling a lever and disposing of their human cargo. Hoping to collar the crooks, detective Mark Owens (Charles Quigley) poses as a down-and-out pilot looking for work. He is hired by the "Honeymoon Express," ostensibly designed to transport newlyweds across the Mexican border and back again, but actually a front for smuggling activities. Fearless girl reporter Nancy Rawlings (Rosalind Keith) covertly covers Owens' activities, ultimately landing in a heap o' trouble when the crooks catch on. In one of her last "B"-picture assignments, Rita Hayworth plays a voluptuous Latina dancer in a Mexican cabaret sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Keith, Charles Quigley, (more)
- 1937
A feud between taxicab companies forms the basis of this drama. The trouble begins when the hero is double-crossed and framed for a murder by his rival with whom he was competing for the position of fleet superintendent in the city's biggest cab company. The hero does not know who framed him until he is released from prison. Enraged, he and some of his old cabbie cronies get together and create their own cab company. The war is on until the police get involved. Eventually, the real murderer is convicted and the hero wins the biggest cab company. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Terry, Rosalind Keith, (more)
- 1937
In this crime drama, a cop is ashamed because a fearful moment prevented him from stopping a bank robbery. He feels so bad he turns in his badge. He then joins the bank robbers' gang and brings them to justice. The story was originally titled What Price Vengeance? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lyle Talbot, Wendy Barrie, (more)
- 1937
In this crime drama, an evil ex-con makes his living selling cheap booze masked under expensive labels. He runs a drugstore as a front and also sponsors a girl's baseball team. The story is split between the gangster's illegal activities and the action on the baseball field where the lovely players practice. Trouble ensues when one of the dishonest ex-con's prison buddies appears. To protect his scam, the ex-con kills his friend. Later, the team catcher is poisoned during a game. A dullard cop is assigned the case as a brainless rookie reporter. The ex-con ends up attempting to sell his drugstore and illicit booze in order to escape them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Quigley, Rita Hayworth, (more)
- 1936
Like most of Kermit Maynard's "northerns" for Ambassador Films, Timber War is ostensibly based on a story by James Oliver Curwood. Maynard is cast as Jim Dolan, a two-fisted young man forced by circumstance to impersonate weak-willed playboy Larry Keene (Lawrence Gray), scion of a powerful lumber family. In this guise, Dolan saves Keene's relatives from the sinister machinations of timber-baron Murdock (Wheeler Oakman). Along the way, he also rehabilitates the wastrelly Keene, who proves to have more backbone than previously suspected. Most of the lumberjack sequences in Timber War were lifted from stock footage, but the thrilling climax is all "new," and all Kermit Maynard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kermit Maynard, Lucille Lund, (more)
- 1936
One of the few non-western releases from Sam Katzman's Victory Productions, Put on the Spot stars Eddie Nugent as G-Man Bob Andrews. When Joe Bradley (George Walsh) is railroaded into prison for a murder he didn't commit, Andrews takes it upon himself to clear the man. Digging up new evidence, our hero discovers that culprits are involved in smuggling activities along the Rio Grande. The script allows Andrews to travel several hundred miles along both sides of the border, though it is clear that most of the picture was filmed in Chatsworth California. Based on a novel by Peter B. Kyne, Put on the Spot went into production as Rio Grande Romance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Nugent, Maxine Doyle, (more)
- 1936
In this crime drama, a G-man goes on vacation and ends up pursing a crook disguised as an honest lawyer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Nugent, Maxine Doyle, (more)
- 1936
In this romantic comedy, two college boys get expelled because they could not pay tuition. They decide to scare up some cash by auctioning off their services in Central Park. A pretty woman makes the highest bid. She hires the boys to drive her and her car to Ohio. The adventure culminates with one of the boys stealing the woman away from her groom on her wedding day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Eilers, James Dunn, (more)
- 1936
Prison Shadows was put together by the Mercury Productions division of Puritan Pictures, the same folks responsible for the above-average horror thriller Rogue's Tavern. Eddie Nugent plays rising young boxer Gene Harris, who is thrown into jail on a manslaughter charge after one of his opponents dies in the ring. Out on parole, Gene can't get over the fact that he has blood on his hands and is reluctant to climb back into the ring. But his crooked manager has already exploited Gene's grief by advertising him as "Killer" Harris, so our hero figures he's got nothing to lose. Reluctantly, he agrees to another fight -- and once again, his opponent is killed. By this time, the audience is way ahead of Gene in suspecting that there's some sort of criminal conspiracy going on, with the luckless boxer pegged as the fall guy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Nugent, Lucille Lund, (more)
- 1934
The first cinematic teaming of horror greats Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi is a bizarre, haunting, and relentlessly eerie film that was surprisingly morbid and perverse for its time. Peter (David Manners) and Joan Allison (Julie Bishop) are honeymooning in Budapest when they meet mysterious scientist Dr. Vitus Verdegast (Lugosi) aboard a train. When the trio's bus from the train station gets into an accident, the young couple accompanies Verdegast to the castle of the spectral Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff), an architect and the leader of a Satanic cult. Poelzig's treachery in World War I caused the deaths of thousands of his and Verdegast's countrymen, as well as Verdegast's own internment as a prisoner of war. While Verdegast was detained, Poelzig married first his wife, who later died, then his daughter. Now Verdegast has come back for retribution, and the honeymooners are trapped in the two men's horrifying battle of wits. Corpses preserved in glass cases, frightening Satanic rituals, and a climactic confrontation in which one of the characters is skinned alive add to the film's pervasive sense of evil and doom, along with the stark black-and-white photography by John Mescall that makes Poelzig's futuristic mountaintop mansion even more disturbing. Karloff and Lugosi are both excellent, with Lugosi doing a rare turn as a good guy, albeit one who has gone off the rails. Having little to do with the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, The Black Cat has grown in stature over the years and is now widely regarded as the masterpiece of director Edgar G. Ulmer and one of the finest horror films ever made. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, (more)
- 1934
One of the least known of Cary Grant's starring vehicles, Kiss and Make Up was based on a European play by Stephen Bekeffi. Grant stars as high-priced beautician Dr. Maurice Lamar, who does so spectacular a job on his plain-jane client Eve Caron (Genevieve Tobin) that Eve's jealous husband Marcel (Edward Everett Horton) divorces her. Eve marries Maurice on the rebound, but she drives him crazy with her shallow vanity. Maurice would prefer the company of his faithful secretary Anne (Helen Mack), but she has wed the vengeful Caron! But when Anne discovers that Caron is as self-involved as Eve, she goes back to Marcel, while Eve, who started it all, quickly finds comfort in the arms of gigolo Rolando (Rafael Storm). Highlights in Kiss and Make Up includes Cary Grant's musical numbers (yes, he can sing) and a hilarious bit involving Cecil Cunningham as one of Dr. Lamar's less successful "experiments." The film also serves as a showcase for the 1934 crop of Wampas Baby Stars, including George M. Cohan's pretty daughter Helen and Jean Gale of the singing Gale Sisters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Genevieve Tobin, (more)
- 1934
His dramatic fall broken by sacks of flour, Dick (Richard Talmadge) once again emerges unharmed and the voyage to the Caribbean island can begin. En route, Dorothy (Lucille Lund) accidentally discovers the group of gang members hiding in the hold of the Lottie Carson. Unaware that he is the secret leader of the gang, she appeals to Stanley Brasset (Walter Miller) for help and he secretly orders his men to take over the ship. A carelessly tossed cigarette starts a fire in the hold and Dick fearlessly enters the ship's cargo room. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Talmadge, Lucille Lund, (more)
- 1934
Produced by small-scale Mascot Pictures, this behind-the-scenes look at a now forgotten annual Hollywood event, the WAMPAS Baby Star selection, starred former MGM light leading man William Haines in his penultimate film role. Well cast as Bob Preston, the brash publicity director of Superba Pictures, Haines will stop at nothing to make his girlfriend, WAMPAS Baby Star June Dale (Judith Allen) a movie queen, never mind if the result should strain their relationship. Finagling a contract with Superba's Samuel Goldwyn-like president (Joseph Cawthorn), Preston nevertheless nearly loses June to a Pasadena playboy (John Miljan), winning her back only by staging a fake suicide attempt. While Bob pursues June, the other 12 WAMPAS babies get to join vaudeville comedians Shaw and Lee in a rousing production number to J. Keirn Brennan and Ted Snyder's "Hush Your Fuss" and generally strut their stuff. Inaugurated in 1922, the yearly selection by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers (WAMPAS) produced such future stars as Colleen Moore (1922), Clara Bow (1923), Joan Crawford (1926), and Ginger Rogers (1932), but by 1934 studio interference and competing pageants had made the event nearly obsolete. Instead of the yearly coming-out party, Hollywood studios were asked to feature the year's crop in their productions but only Paramount (with Kiss and Make Up) and Mascot obliged. In the end, only ten of the 1934 winners actually appeared in Young and Beautiful, albeit billed above the title: Judith Arlen, Betty Bryson, Jean Carmen, Dorothy Drake, Jean Gale, Hazel Hayes, Ann Hovey, Lucille Lund, Lu Anne Meredith, and Katherine Williams. One had to be left out to make room for the film's non-WAMPAS leading lady, Judith Allen, and the other two were apparently busy elsewhere. Helen Cohan, the daughter of George M. Cohan, Gigi Parrish, and Jacqueline Wells (aka Julie Bishop) were the no-shows and two of them were replaced with alternates Naomi Judge and Lenore Keefe. With the possible exception of Miss Wells/Bishop, none of the girls lasted more than a year or two and the yearly WAMPAS selection went the way of the Model-T. Aside from this now obscure yearly pageant, the best reasons to view Young and Beautiful today are William Haines' engaging performance and an enticing peek behind the gates at Mascot Pictures, the former Mack Sennett studios and future home of Republic Pictures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Haines, Judith Allen, (more)
- 1934
In his second starring Western for low-budget producer Willis Kent, former All-American fullback Reb Russell played just that, a former football star for Northwestern. He is also a detective for the Cattlemen's Association, assigned to look into a series of cattle rustlings. Posing as a cowboy, Reb makes the acquaintance with Big Jack Thorpe (Yakima Canutt), another football veteran, and together they unmask saloon keeper Lenihan (Edward Hearn) as the leader of the rustlers, saving lovely Lucille (Lucille Lund) from a fate worse than death along the way. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1933
Young football hero Jim Fowler (Robert Young) isn't in it for the love of the game. The hardworking young man is simply using the sport as a means to help him pay for school, and doesn't consider it any different from the laundry service he runs in his spare time. Rather than stroking his ego, the constant onslaught of football fanatics and sports reporters disgust Jim (Young) to the extent that his football coach (Joe Sawyer) tells old football chums--Jim's father Ezra (Grant Mitchell) and the father of Jim's girlfriend--about the star player's erratic behavior. The men, being passionate football fans themselves, are saddened by Jim's lackluster attitude towards the game. Convinced that people only respect him because of his skills on the field, Jim distances himself from Joan (Leila Hyams), his girlfriend, and seeks out a woman he believes knows nothing about football or his role in it. To his surprise, however, she not only knows of his career, but blackmails him to throw the game. When he refuses, her husband breaks Jim's hand. Suddenly inspired, Jim refuses to let the coach know about his condition and heroically takes to the field with a new perspective. Regardless of whether the big game is one or lost, Jim realizes that his teammates, being true friends after all, would rather lose with him than win without him. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Leila Hyams, (more)
- 1933
In this comedy, two rubes from Montana find a fortune after they discover radium on their ranch. The nouveau riche ranchers then take a trip to England to see one of their girlfriends whose father sent her to stay with her blue-blooded relatives to keep her away from the red-necked country boy. As soon as the boys get to London, they really start paintin' the town red and getting into all sorts of trouble until they manage to reveal the true identity of a phony nobleman, a fugitive from justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George "Slim" Summerville, Andy Devine, (more)
