Marjorie Main Movies

"A house divided against itself cannot stand" declared Abraham Lincoln; proof that a house divided can be repaired is provided in this early talkie effort from director William Wyler. Walter Huston plays alcoholic fisherman Seth Law, who, recently widowed, signs up for a mail-order bride. Ruth Evans (Helen Chandler), Seth's wife-to-be, is instantly attracted...to Seth's ne'er-do- well son, Matt (Kent Douglass). Father and son duke it out, leaving Seth crippled. Though he now despises Ruth, Seth aligns with his son to save the girl when a sudden storm blows up. Seth is killed, but he is satisfied that Ruth is happy and that his son is not the wastrel he thought he was. Interestingly enough, the dialogue for A House Divided was penned by Walter Huston's own son, John. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Easily the best of Eddie Cantor's gargantuan musical comedies for producer Sam Goldwyn, Roman Scandals begins in the middle-America community of West Rome, where our hero Eddie (Cantor) is employed as a delivery boy. A self-styled authority of Ancient Roman history, Cantor bemoans the fact that the local shanty community is about to be wiped out by scheming politicians, certain that such an outrage could never have happened during Rome's Golden Days. After a blow on the head, Cantor wakes up in Imperial Rome, where he is sold on the slave auction block to good-natured tribune Josephus (David Manners). Cantor soon discovers that the evil emperor Valerius (Edward Arnold) is every bit a crook and grafter as the politicians in West Rome, and he intends to do something about it. He gets a job as food taster for Valerius -- a none-too-secure position, inasmuch as the emperor's wife Agrippa (Veree Teasdale) is constantly trying to poison her husband -- and does his best to smooth the path of romance for Josephus and recently captured princess Sylvia (Gloria Stuart). Cantor's well-intentioned interference earns him a session in the torture chamber, but he escapes and commandeers a chariot, setting the stage for a spectacular slapstick climax. On the verge of recapture, Cantor wakes to find himself in West Rome U.S.A. again, where he quickly foils the modern-day despots and brings about a happy ending for all his friends.

Co-written by George S. Kaufman, Robert E. Sherwood, George Oppenheimer and Arthur Sheekman (the soon-to-be husband of leading lady Gloria Stuart), Roman Scandals manages to get off a few clever satirical licks, but essentially it's a "lappy" lowbrow vehicle for Eddie Cantor, and in this it succeeds immensely. The Busby Berkeley-staged musical numbers, written by Harry Warren, Al Dubin and L. Wolfe Gilbert, must be seen to be believed: In "No More Love", Ruth Etting, playing the Emperor's cast-off mistress Olga, sings a plaintive torch song as dozens of enslaved Goldwyn Girls (including Lucille Ball and Barbara Pepper), wearing nothing but long, blonde wigs, are chained to a rotating pedestal; and in "Keep Young and Beautiful", these same maidens gleefully cavort around a Roman bathhouse in the near-altogether while Cantor, in blackface, hops about, rolls his eyes and claps his hands -- just before a jet of steam "shrinks" him, at which point he metamorphoses into midget Billy Barty! The quintessence of Depression-era escapism, Roman Scandals is must-see entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Crime Without Passion is an odd, almost existential murder yarn. Famed attorney Claude Rains, incensed that his mistress (Margo) has been seeing other men, kills the girl--or at least thinks he does. Rains believes he is "above" such irritations as conscience and morality, and calmly arranges to cover his crime, using his knowledge of the law to escape detection. But Rains cannot truly escape from himself, and is cajoled by a surprising turn of events to break down and confess. Crime without Passion was ostensibly directed by Ben Hecht, who cowrote the screenplay with his longtime partner Charles McArthur, but most of the actual direction was the responsibility of cameraman Lee Garmes. Watch for cameo appearances by Fanny Brice, by MacArthur's wife Helen Hayes, and by Hecht and MacArthur themselves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Barrymore is the Long Lost Father in this lightweight seriocomedy. Barrymore is felicitously cast as Carl Bellairs, who is unexpectedly reunited with Lindsay Lane (Helen Chandler), the daughter he deserted years earlier. Not surprisingly, Lindsay wants nothing to do with her prodigal dad, even though both are employed by nightclub owner Tony Gelding (Alan Mowbray). Despite Lindsay's icy hostility, Bellairs rescues her when she is falsely accused of theft. The bittersweet ending is somehow appropriate to this impeccably tailored star vehicle. Scripted by Dwight Taylor, Long Lost Father is a rare foray into sophisticated comedy by King Kong director Ernest B. Schoesdack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Raymond McCarey, the prolific if less-inspired brother of Leo McCarey, called the directorial shots for Universal's Love in a Bungalow. Nan Grey stars as young real estate agent Mary Callahan, whose job it is to guide potential house-buyers through a "model" bungalow. Enter Jeff Langan (Kent Taylor), a handsome young indigent who moves into the bungalow and steadfastly refuses to move out. Falling in love with the stubborn but charming Jeff, Mary conspires with him to enter a radio contest in hopes of winning the bungalow rent-free. But there's a catch: Jeff and Mary have to pretend to be married. Never a studio to throw anything away, Universal recycled the plot of Love in a Bungalow for one of its mini-musicals of the 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this urban drama, a teenage street punk learns a valuable lesson about the dangers of crime. Jackie Cooper is the tough gangleader with political aspirations. He tries to get himself involved in the graft and corruption of local city government. He almost dies after he is plugged by a gangster. That is the turning point in his life. He decides to forego the crooked path for the straight and narrow. He takes his sweetheart along for the ride. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

No relation to the radio program of the same name, The Shadow is a lightning-paced murder mystery with a Big Top background. Rita Hayworth plays Mary Gillespie, the young owner of a travelling circus in danger of losing financial control of her show to hissable bareback rider Peter Martinet (Donald Kirke). Since Martinet has made it known that he intends to fire everybody in the troupe, he has no shortage of dangerous enemies -- few more dangerous than knife-thrower Carlos (Dick Curtis) or hunchbacked horse-wrangler Vindecco (Dwight Frye). On cue, Martinet is murdered during a performance in front of hundreds of witnesses -- but how, and by whom? Road manager Jim Quinn (Charles Quigley) hopes to find out before the cops close the show down or lovely Mary is herself murdered, or both. The ending is a beaut, even if it does fly in the face of logic. Fans of Columbia's "Three Stooges" two-reelers will enjoy seeing such Stooge supporting players as Dick Curtis, Vernon Dent, John Tyrrell and Bess Flowers in important roles, while devotees of Universal's "Ma and Pa Kettle" features will get a kick out of Marjorie Main's interpretation of "the world's only female ringmaster." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romance, a girl from the bayou falls in love with an aspiring lawyer who lives on the nicer side of the tracks. It is tragedy that brings the two together, when the man her avaricious auntie betrothed her to is murdered. The suspected killer is defended by the rookie attorney -it is his first case. Naturally he wins, and so does the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The first of the "splinter" groups to emerge from the Dead End Kids was the Little Tough Guys, consisting of veteran Dead-Enders Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsly and David Gorcey (Hally Chester and Billy Benedict would also appear in this new grouping from time to time). Though most of the "Little Tough Guy" vehicles were played for laugh, the initial entry was not. When labor activist Jim Boylan (Edward Pawley) is executed for a murder he didn't commit, his son Johnny (Billy Halop) decides to become a crook. He and his pals Pig (Huntz Hall), String (Gabe Dell), Sniper (David Gorcey) and Dopey (Hally Chester), embark upon a crime spree, aided and abetted by thrill-seeking rich kid Cyril (Jackie Searl), who happens to be the son of the district attorney. While committing a robbery orchestrated by Cyril, Johnny and Pig are trapped by the police. Pig makes a break for it, only to be killed in a hail of bullets. This startling turn of events convinces Johnny to mend his ways, but not before an obligatory stretch in reform school with his fellow Little Tough Guys-including Cyril! Beyond the spectacle of Huntz Hall dying in agony, Little Tough Guy offers very little that is new and innovational: still, the film made money, prompting a whole series of "Little Tough Guy" quickies from the Universal assembly line. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Three Comrades represented one of the few successful screenwriting efforts of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in Germany in the years just following World War I, the film stars Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone and Robert Young as three battle-weary, thoroughly disillusioned returning soldiers. The three friends pool their savings and open an auto-repair shop, and it is this that brings them in contact with wealthy motorist Lionel Atwill--and with Atwill's lovely travelling companion Margaret Sullavan. Taylor begins a romance with Sullavan, who soon joins the three comrades, making the group a jovial, fun-seeking foursome (this plot element bears traces of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, as well as the 1931 film The Last Flight). Though Sullavan suffers from tuberculosis (her shady past is only alluded to), she is encouraged by her male companions to fully enjoy what is left of her life. This becomes increasingly difficult when one of the comrades, Young, is killed during a political riot (it's a Nazi riot, though not so-labelled by ever-careful MGM). In the end, the four comrades are only two in number, with nothing but memories to see them through the cataclysmic years to come. Despite its Hollywoodized bowdlerization of the Remarque original, Three Comrades remains a poignant, haunting experience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Penitentiary was the first of two remakes of Howard Hawks' 1931 prison flick The Criminal Code (the second remake was 1950's Convicted). Sent to prison on a manslaughter charge, young William Jordan (John Howard) is befriended by the man who sent him up, Judge Mathews (Walter Connolly). The judge sees to it that Jordan is given every opportunity to rehabilitate himself, though he's a bit uncomfortable when his own daughter Elizabeth (Jean Parker) falls in love with the young convict. All of this extra effort goes out the window when Jordan, adhering to the "criminal code" of never snitching on a fellow con, allows himself to be implicated in the murder of a stoolie. Jordan is saved from the hot seat by the last-minute confession from the real killer, a hard-bitten but honorable "lifer" named Finch (Arthur Hohl). In the original Criminal Code, Walter Huston, Philips Holmes, Constance Cummings and Boris Karloff essayed the roles played in Penitentiary by Connolly, Howard, Parker and Hohl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this tearful crime melodrama, a waitress becomes so taken with her dream of living in posh luxury and comfort that she leaves her honest boyfriend the district attorney to take up with a notorious gangster who lavishes her with stolen furs and fabulous diamonds. She has no idea that the crook is only using her as a pawn in his scheme to learn the DA's secrets. When she finally does learn the truth, she gives up her life for truth, justice and love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Heiress Virginia Bruce tries to prove her worth by taking a job as a shopgirl in the store owned by her family. The pampered young lady is given a crash course in pragmatism by her worldly roommates Patsy Kelly and Nancy Carroll. Reporter Fredric March learns of Bruce's ruse and plans to tell all in his newspaper. Thrown together by circumstances, the reporter and the heiress are shipwrecked and end up on a small island. They continue to bicker with one another until the "deus ex machina" arrival of a kindly minister (played by former silent comedy star Harry Langdon) convinces March and Bruce that they truly love one another. More than a little inspired by It Happened One Night, There Goes My Heart is an uneven but pleasant romantic comedy. It was the first Hal Roach Studios production to be released by United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide