Mona Maris Movies

Camila O'Gorman (Susan Peccaro) is the daughter of an influential 19th century Argentine diplomat (Hector Alterio). Ladislao Gutierez (Imanol Arias) is a Jesuit priest, also living in Argentina. Tortured by her so-called impure thoughts, Camila confesses these to Gutierez. Flouting tradition, convention, and the repressive Rosas political regime, Camila and the priest embark on a torrid affair. Based on a true story, the Spanish/Argentine co-production Camila was honored with a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in Argentina, Republic's The Avengers stars John Carroll as a handsome adventurer known as Don Careless. Our Hero hopes to save heroine Maria Moreno (Adele Mara) from a forced marriage to a ruthless revolutionary (Roberto Airaldi). Both Carroll and supporting actor Vincente Padula play dual roles, for reasons that the film makes clear (even though the official studio resumé does not). Billed tenth, Fernando Lamas is given "and introducing" billing in the credits, and never mind that he'd been in films since 1942. The Avengers is based on a novel by Rex Beach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remake of the 1939 French film Battement de Couer, Heartbeat reunites star Ginger Rogers with her Kitty Foyle director Sam Wood. Ms. Rogers plays Arlette, a reform school alumnus who is recruited by Faginlike Professor Aristide, headmaster at a school for pickpockets. Before long, Arlette becomes Aristide's prize pupil, and is being groomed for bigger things. Assigned by a corrupt foreign ambassador (Adolphe Menjou) to steal a valuable watch from wealthy and handsome diplomat Pierre (Jean Pierre Aumont), Arlette not only bungles the job, but also falls in love with her would-be victim. Heartbeat wasn't the first mediocre American remake of a French film, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not to be confused with the 1971 film of the same name, this World War II espionage drama was the second to last film from German director Lothar Mendes and stars Edward G. Robinson as oil tanker captain Bart Manson. When Manson rescues the survivors of a torpedoed ship in the Gulf of Mexico, he meets the beautiful Kathy Hall (Lynn Bari) and the two fall in love. But when Manson's ship sinks under suspicious circumstances, Hall becomes the prime suspect due to her mysterious past and identity. Believing his beloved to be innocent of the crime, Manson sets out to uncover who the real culprit is. Tampico also stars Victor McLaglen and Robert Bailey. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

The final pairing of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, an adaptation of a Rodgers & Hart musical, stars Eddy as a playboy who fantasizes that he is romancing an angel (MacDonald). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Berlin Correspondent is a cut-rate variation of Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent, courtesy of 20th Century-Fox. In one of his first important film roles, Dana Andrews plays Bill Roberts, an American radio commentator station in Berlin in the months before Pearl Harbor. Having witnessed Nazi brutalities first hand, Roberts hopes to alert his listeners of impending dangers, and does so by sending out coded messages during his broadcasts. The Gestapo begins to suspect something and assigns glamorous secret agent Karen Hauen (Virginia Gilmore) to spy on Roberts. When she discovers that her own father (Erwin Kaiser) is supplying Roberts with vital secrets, she turns her back on the Nazis and joins our hero in his efforts. The film winds up with an exciting airborne escape from Hitler-land. Arte Johnson fans please note: At one point, the head Gestapo officer (Martin Kosleck) actually says "Verrrry interesting"! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This second entry in RKO Radio's "Falcon" series begins with Gay Lawrence (George Sanders), aka the Falcon, promising to give up his private-eye activities for the sake of fiancee Helen Reed (Wendy Barrie). This resolves lasts for about eight minutes, whereupon Lawrence tackles the case of a missing scientist named Waldo Sampson (Alec Craig), the inventor of a synthetic-diamond process. Kidnapped by Sampson's abductors, Lawrence manages to escape, only to be kidnapped again and later accused of murder. The resolution of the plot hinges on the old mistaken-identity device (one of the principal characters has an identical twin, and that's all that can be said without giving the game away). Carryovers from the first "Falcon" film include Allen Jenkins as Lawrence's dimwitted sidekick Goldie and character actor Hans Conried, here cast as a snotty hotel night clerk. A Date with the Falcon was unofficially remade as The Falcon's Adventure, the final entry in the RKO series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Underground is an average Warner Bros. suspenser, given a boost by its unrelenting portrayal of Nazis as verminous scum--several months before America's entry into World War II. Jeffrey Lynn plays an impressionable young European who is intoxicated by the "glories" of National Socialism. Lynn's brother, Philip Dorn, is on the opposite side of the fence as an announcer for an underground Resistance radio station. At first scornful of his brother's activities, Lynn soon learns that Hitler isn't the saint he believed him to be--especially after several of his friends are liquidated by the Gestapo. Lynn belatedly joins his brother's cause and, at the cost of his own life, helps the Resistance thwart a band of fifth columnists. Underground is a solid piece of film craftsmanship, lacking only the big star names that would have made it a box-office hit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having turned down the opportunity to produce Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), MGM's Louis B. Mayer had second thoughts when the Capra film swept the 1935 Oscars ceremony. Mayer hastily commissioned an It Happened One Night wannabe titled Love on the Run, tailored for the talents of Joan Crawford and Clark Gable (who, of course, had starred in the Capra picture, and had copped one of those Oscars). Gable and Franchot Tone play rival journalists Michael Anthony and Barnabas Pells, who travel the length and breadth of Europe to outscoop one another. Crawford portrays madcap heiress Sally Parker, who is engaged to marry fortune-hunting Prince Igor (Ivan Lebedeff). Whereas in It Happened One Night the heroine (Claudette Colbert) linked up with Gable in order to expedite her elopement with the wrong man, in Love on the Run Crawford seeks out Gable's help to escape her impending marriage with Prince Igor. The two stars combine their flight across Europe with business, dogging the trail of international aviator Baron Spandermann (Reginald Owen), whom Anthony suspects of being a spy. Pells goes along with Anthony and Parker, and soon all three of them are tied up (literally, in Pells' case) with an espionage ring. While it is Clark Gable who ends up with Joan Crawford at fadeout time, it was Franchot Tone who claimed her as his bride in real life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

Silent screen legend Mary Pickford makes her final movie appearance in Secrets, adapted from the play by Rudolph Besier and Mary Edgerton. Edgerton plays a 19th century New England belle who accompanies her husband Leslie Howard to the wilds of California. Pickford's first baby is killed when her cabin is besieged by desperadoes. Howard's reaction to the tragedy is to play around with other women, but Pickford stands steadfastly by her husband for the next half-century. The film ends with an aged Pickford surrounded by her grown children in her luxurious mansion, prattling on about secret joys, secret sorrows, lovely secrets and dreadful secrets. Evidently this film was released in secret, for it failed at the box office and convinced Ms. Pickford (who produced the picture) that her starring days were over. Previously filmed as a Norma Talmadge starrer in 1924, Secrets seemed antiquated in the 1930s, but Mary Pickford's scenes with her dead baby proved that her great talent was undiminished. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Spanish-language western, a hero wins a wager by taming a mustang and marrying an untamed woman. The hero also sings. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide