Ben Lyon Movies

This droll, sophisticated comedy stars Constance Bennett as Venice Muir, a shy young lady with no "past" of any kind -- and very little romance in her life. Hoping to overcome her bashfulness during a trip to Europe, she invents a lurid history for herself, then engages the services of paid escort Guy Bryson (Ben Lyon) to accompany her to all the continent's hot spots. Through word of mouth, Venice gains the reputation of being a sexual adventuress (though she's still nothing of the kind), and soon she is headline fodder for all the Parisian newspapers. Her fabricated randy reputation catches the eye of wealthy Donnie Wainright (David Manners), but it is Guy Bryson who ultimately makes an "honest woman" out of her. Lady With a Past was adapted from the equally delightful novel by Harriet Henry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "Crooked Circle" gang consists of a dozen or so hooded villains, all of whom have sworn revenge on the Sphinx Club, a dedicated anti-criminal organization. It's difficult to differentiate the heroes and the villains without a score card: sinister swami Yoganda (C. Henry Gordon), for example, turns out to be an operative for the secret service. The story comes to a head in a supposedly haunted house, where hero Brand Osborne (Ben Lyon) and heroine Thelma (Irene Purcell) try to make sense of things before ending up victims of the Crooked Circle. Rather top-heavy with comedy relief, the film features ZaSu Pitts and James Gleason during their usual ZaSu Pitts and James Gleason imitations. The Crooked Circle was written by Ralph H. Spence, who borrows heavily from his own stage comedy-melodrama The Gorilla. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romance, a recently impoverished but formerly wealthy young woman ends up working as a nightclub hostess. There she meets a handsome, sophisticated and wealthy fellow who hires her to help him spice up his weekend parties. She begins helping him and regains her lost wealth and posh lifestyle. Unfortunately, her starving-artist boyfriend knows nothing of her secret life. Trouble ensues when he learns the truth, but by the end the two reconcile and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

William Wellman's Night Nurse survives as a potentially interesting but ultimately unsatisfying melodrama about a nurse discovering evildoings in the household where she is caring for a couple of sick children. Based on a 1930 novel by Dora Macy, Wellman's probe into medical corruption is one of the director's more cynical looks on Depression-era America, but most of the characters are weakly drawn and the denouement a cheat, cinematically. Barbara Stanwyck plays Lora Hart, an ambitious student nurse whose first assignment after graduation is tending to a couple of deathly ill little girls, Nanny (Marcia Mae Jones) and Desney (Betty Jane Graham). Despite their posh surroundings, the girls are apparently suffering from malnutrition; their mother, Mrs. Ritchey (Charlotte Merriam), is hopped-up on bootleg booze ("I'm a dipsomaniac! A dipsomaniac I tell ya! And I like it!"), and the girls' physician (Ralf Harolde) is a society quack with a facial tick. Lora soon realizes that the good doctor is deliberately starving the children to death in order to gain access to their trust fund and that Mrs. Ritchey is kept in line by Nick (Clark Gable), a black-clad gangster posing as the family chauffeur. A desperate Lora proposes to contact the authorities, but her medical sponsor (Charles Winninger) deems that unethical and instead suggests that she find a solution from inside the family. Nearly at the end of her ropes -- and having accepted one too many blows to the chin from Nick -- Lora is saved by an admirer, good-natured bootlegger Mortie (Ben Lyon), whose "friends" take the evil chauffeur on a final "ride." None of this makes much sense, and the film appears to have been tampered with along the way. One of the children disappears without any explanation halfway through, and the hospital establishment's reticence is never properly explained. Instead of a coherent plot, Night Nurse, in typical pre-Production Code style, offers quite a few scenes of Barbara Stanwyck and fellow nurse Joan Blondell dressing and undressing and a rather brutal portrayal by a very young Clark Gable on the threshold to fame. Warner Bros. had borrowed Gable from MGM to play the despicable chauffeur when the original choice, James Cagney, suddenly proved too valuable a commodity for what was actually a supporting role. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a rebellious son of a powerful industrialist returns home to prepare to take over the company. While their he marries a boarding-house servant because she helped him heal from a hangover. His actions enrage his family. The rest of the movie chronicles the sly father's attempts to destroy the relationship. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

It is difficult to explain why the fly-by-night distribution firm of Road Show Pictures dragged the silent sagebrusher West of the Rockies off the shelf in 1931, three years into the talkie era. Outfitted with an unconvincing beard, Ben Lyon is cast as frontier scout Kit Carson, leading a wagon train through Indian country. Heroine Marie Prevost is in love with Carson, but he prefers to spend his time with Gladys Johnston. An Indian attack and buffalo stampede, obviously lifted from another picture, have been arbitrarily inserted in the narrative. The only other recognizable actors in the picture were Russell Simpson and Anders Randolph. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When European princess Lee comes back to her Midwestern hometown, she is thought to be a seamstress and goes along with the ruse in this comedy. ~ All Movie Guide

In this WW I comedy, several young men decide to join the army. Each one has his own reason for joining up. Songs include: "Forever," "Qui, Qui," "Honey Boy," "Ja, Ja, Ja," "Side by Side." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In the South Seas, half-caste Ilanu (Raquel Torres) refuses to marry Kahea (Donald Reed), as she loves Jimmy Bradford (Ben Lyon), heir to an American fortune; her grandfather warns her that her own mother's marriage to a white man was so unhappy that she'd leaped into a volcano. Despite misgivings over her race, and lingering feelings for his previous fiancee Elaine (Marian Douglas), Jimmy does marry Ilanu and takes her to San Francisco with him. His father (Robert Edeson) and sister Winnie (Thelma Todd) are shocked by Ilanu's apparent vulgarity, but Jimmy remains loyal to Ilanu, even though this means they return to her island, penniless. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

No one was surprised in 1929 that aviation mogul Howard R. Hughes would produce a paean to World War I flying aces like Hell's Angels. Given Hughes' comparative inexperience as a moviemaker, however, everyone was taken slightly aback that the finished film was as good as it was. The very American Ben Lyon and James Hall play (respectively) Monte and Roy Rutledge, a couple of British brothers who drop out of Oxford to join the British Royal Flying Corps. Several early scenes establish Lyon and Hall's romantic rivalry over two-timing socialite Helen (Jean Harlow). While flying a dangerous bombing mission over Germany, the brothers are shot down. The commandant (Lucien Prival), who'd earlier been cuckolded by one of the brothers, savors his opportunity for revenge. He offers the boys their freedom if they'll reveal the time of the next British attack; if they don't cooperate, they face unspeakable consequences. Roy, driven mad by his combat experiences, is about to tell all when he is shot and killed by Monte. The latter is himself condemned to a firing squad by the disgruntled commandant -- who, it is implied, will soon meet his own doom at the hands of the British bombers. Nobody really cares about this hoary old plot, however; Hell's Angels culls most of its strength from its crackerjack aerial sequences. The highlight is a Zeppelin raid over London, one of the most hauntingly effective sequences ever put on film. From the first ghost-like appearance of the Zeppelin breaking through the clouds, to the self-sacrificing behavior of the German crew members as they jump to their deaths rather than provide "excess weight," this is a scene that lingers in the memory far longer than all that good-of-the-service nonsense in the finale. Also worth noting is the star-making appearance of Jean Harlow. When Hell's Angels was begun as a silent film, Norwegian actress Greta Nissen played the female lead. During the switchover to sound, producer Hughes decided that her accent was at odds with her characterization, so he reshot her scenes with his latest discovery, Harlow. While she appears awkward in some of her scenes, there's no clumsiness whatsoever in her delivery of the classic line about slipping into "something more comfortable." Originally, Marshall Neilan was signed to direct the film, but became so rattled by Howard Hughes' interference that he handed the reins to Hughes himself, who was in turn given an uncredited assist by Luther Reed. Also ignored in the film's credits are the dialogue contributions by future Frankenstein director James Whale, who'd been hired as the film's English-dialect coach. Modern audiences expecting a musty museum piece are generally surprised by Hell's Angels' high entertainment content: they are also startled by the pre-code frankness of the dialogue, with phrases like "The hell with you" bandied about with reckless abandon. In recent years, archivists have restored the film's two-color Technicolor sequence, providing us with our only color glimpses of the radiant Jean Harlow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bebe Daniels plays a safecracker posing as a French maid in order to gain access to wealthy homes. In the midst of a nocturnal search for a cache of valuables, Daniels is interrupted by Ben Lyon, another safecracker. Narrowly escaping arrest, Bebe and Ben decide to pool their talents, but Bebe gets the urge to reform and encourages Ben to do the same. As it turns out, both thieves are swindled out of their own savings by a seemingly benign old couple. Alias French Gertie, based on the Bayard Veiller play The Chatterbox, represents the first screen teaming of future newlyweds Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

FBO Pictures was in the process of transforming into RKO Radio when the silent actioner Air Legion was filmed. Ben Lyon stars as Dave, the son of a late, legendary WWI flight commander. On the strength of his dad's reputation, Dave is hired by an airmail service run by ex-flying ace Steve (Antonio Moreno). Alas, Dave turns out to be a craven coward, going so far as to wound himself to avoid flying into dangerous weather. Even so, he redeems himself in the final reel by saving Steve's life, and, presumably as a reward, ends up with Steve's former girlfriend Sally (Martha Sleeper). Star Ben Lyon would fare better two years later with a far more ambition aviation effort, Hell's Angels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dance Magic was one of the earliest directorial efforts of Victor Halperin, of White Zombie fame. Hoping to make it big as a dancer, small-town girl Pauline Starke storms into the office of a Manhattan theatrical agent, demanding an interview. Impressed by her spunk, the producer arranges for Starke to work in the chorus of a major musical production. One night, the star gets sick, and our heroine goes on in her place. By rights, she should be able to return to her hometown in triumph, but this is not to be. Back home, dancing is considered sinful, and Starke is regarded as a Jezebel. Only by renouncing her "sins" in the pulpit is our heroine absolved and allowed to marry the hero (Ben Lyon). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide