Etta McDaniel Movies

"How would you like to star opposite the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood?" Enticed by these words, brunette leading lady Fay Wray dyed her hair blonde and accepted the role of Ann Darrow in King Kong -- and stayed with the project even after learning that her "leading man" was a 50-foot ape. The film introduces us to flamboyant, foolhardy documentary filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who sails off to parts unknown to film his latest epic with leading lady Darrow in tow. Disembarking at Skull Island, they stumble on a ceremony in which the native dancers circle around a terrified-looking young girl, chanting, "Kong! Kong!" The chief (Noble Johnson) and witch doctor (Steve Clemente) spot Denham and company and order them to leave. But upon seeing Ann, the chief offers to buy the "golden woman" to serve as the "bride of Kong." Denham refuses, and he and the others beat a hasty retreat to their ship. Late that night, a party of native warriors sneak on board the ship and kidnap Ann. They strap her to a huge sacrificial altar just outside the gate, then summon Kong, who winds up saving Ann instead of devouring her. Kong is eventually taken back to New York, where he breaks loose on the night of his Broadway premiere, thinking that his beloved Ann is being hurt by the reporters' flash bulbs. Now at large in New York, Kong searches high and low for Ann (in another long-censored scene, he plucks a woman from her high-rise apartment, then drops her to her death when he realizes she isn't the girl he's looking for). After proving his devotion by wrecking an elevated train, Kong winds up at the top of the Empire State Building, facing off against a fleet of World War I fighter planes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Vaudeville humorist Walter C. Kelley, who toured for years as "The Virginia Judge," repeated the characterization in this 1935 Paramount film. When not busy dispensing pearls of bucolic wisdom in the courtroom, Judge Davis (Kelly) of Tidewater, Virginia, tries to straighten out his hotheaded stepson Jim Preston (Robert Cummings, in one of his first major roles). The story reaches a dramatic peak when Jim is arrested for shooting his best friend Bob (Johnny Downs) during a quarrel over pretty Mary Lee Calvert (Marsha Hunt). Things look bad for a while, but Judge Davis is able to solve everyone's problems in record time. The presence of Stepin Fetchit in the cast of Virginia Judge indicates that Paramount hoped to build up Walter C. Kelly as a replacement for the late, beloved Will Rogers, who'd co-starred with Fetchit in the remarkably similar Judge Priest (1934). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Republic's The Lawless Nineties reteams the studio's up-and-coming cowboy star John Wayne with 19-year-old ingenue Ann Rutherford. Wayne plays John Tipton, who is determined to break up the corrupt Wyoming-territory political machine run by Charles K. Plummer (Harry Woods). What Tipton doesn't know is that Plummer is also the head of a night-riding vigilante army, bent on killing anyone who opposes his reign. Among Plummer's victims is newspaper editor Major Carter (George "Gabby" Hayes), but Carter's pretty daughter Janet (Rutherford) vows to carry on her dad's work. Amazingly, hero Tipton doesn't have to rely on his fists or fancy gunplay to rout the villains: this time around, Democracy itself saves the day. And in only 58 minutes! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The last of Universal's three Boris Karloff-Bela Lugosi teamings of the mid-1930s, The Invisible Ray is dominated by Karloff as Dr. Janos Rukh, the inventor of a laser-like heat ray. Despite the scoffing of his colleagues, Rukh intends to use the ray for the benefit of mankind, but first he requires a new element called "Radium X" to perfect his invention. Before long, he has embarked upon an expedition to Africa in search of a radium source, accompanied by his beautiful young wife Diane (Frances Drake), handsome young scientist Ronald Drake (Frank Lawton) and financiers Sir Francis and Lady Arabella Stevens (Walter Kingsford, Beulah Bondi). His system poisoned by increased exposure to radium, Rukh begins acting strangely, virtually forcing Diane into Ronald's arms. Apparently killed during the expedition, Rukh is actually alive, dementedly determined to use his "invisible" radium ray to do away with all his enemies. Soon he is able to kill with the mere touch of his hand, and this is how he disposes of his severest critic (and greatest supporter), humanitarian doctor Benet (Bela Lugosi). Rukh later tries to kill Diane as well but is unable to go through with it. The mad doctor meets his Waterloo when he is confronted by his own avenging-angel mother (Violet Kemble-Cooper). Not as lively as previous Karloff-Lugosi efforts, The Invisible Ray is nonetheless an effective melodrama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A love triangle forms the basis of this drama. It all begins in a steel mill when a steel worker ignores the besotted gazes of his landlady at the boarding house and falls in love with a gold-digger. His best friend also finds himself smitten by the seductive young woman. But when the one of the workers fritters away a collection that had been taken up for the wife of a deceased co-worker on a foolish bet, he and the vamp take off until the good-hearted landlady intervenes and convinces them to stay and take their lumps. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Edmund Goulding directed this remake of his own 1929 The Trespasser, which starred Gloria Swanson. Here Bette Davis assumes the lead role of Mary Donnell, a young innocent married to a bootlegger. When her husband is killed, she decides to pursue a better life and gets a job as a secretary to attorney Lloyd Rogers (Ian Hunter). Lloyd falls in love with Mary but stoically keeps his feelings hidden from her. One of Lloyd's clients is the millionaire Merrick (Donald Crisp), whose playboy son Jack (Henry Fonda) falls in love with Mary. The two elope and take off on their honeymoon, but Merrick, who feels that Mary is not good enough for Jack, asks that the marriage be annulled. Jack reluctantly agrees and Mary goes back to her old job with Lloyd. But Mary finds that she is pregnant and has a baby boy. She swears Lloyd to secrecy concerning her child and Lloyd agrees. Meanwhile, Jack marries a woman of his own class, Flip (Anita Louise), but she is fatally injured in an automobile accident. Lloyd also falls ill and dies at Mary's feet --but not before confessing his love for Mary. When his will is read, it reveals that he has left Mary and her child a vast fortune. Lloyd's wife (Katherine Alexander) believes the baby boy is Lloyd's illegitimate child, and she tries to overturn the terms of the will. Jack hears about Mary's child, and she confesses that the child is actually his. Merrick then tries to have the baby taken away from Mary, contending that she is unfit to raise the baby. Unable to withstand Merrick's legal hammering, Mary offers the child to Jack and Flip. Mary, distraught after abandoning her baby, leaves on a European trip. While she is gone, Flip dies and Jack leaves for Europe to try to find her. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This poverty-row epic stars William Bakewell as Bob, inventor of a futuristic motorboat engine. Bob's new device may be the salvation for the failing shipping business run by Drexel (Wilfred Lucas), the father of Bob's sweetheart Wynne (Arletta Duncan). But villainous Count Ribalto (Duncan Renaldo) enters the picture, cheating Drexel out of his savings and very nearly ruining his business. Putting his new engine into operation, Bob manages to save the day and send Ribalto packing. It's worth noting that the script for Crime Afloat was written by the film's villain, Duncan Renaldo, long before his career turnaround as TV's Cisco Kid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remake of Rafter Romance (1933), which starred Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster, Living On Love treats the story of two unwilling apartment-mates a bit more briskly and broadly, to the point of being downright screwy at times. This time out, it's Solly Ward as landlord Eli White, who takes two tenants (James Dunn, Whitney Bourne) who can't afford the rent they're paying, and puts them together in the same basement apartment -- the idea is that neither one will ever see the other, as Dunn is a would-be artist who works nights at a trucking company garage, and Bourne is a saleswoman with daytime hours. Inevitably, they chafe at each other's presence as each intrudes on the other's space, and come to resent each other, a fact expressed in a series of increasingly ambitious practical jokes played on one another; similar action went on in the original film, but in Living On Love it gets carried over the top, into surreal and silly moments. But as always happens in stories like this -- and in the original film as well -- the two manage to meet away from the apartment and, not realizing who the other is, fall in love. Complications ensue involving her boss (prissy Franklin Pangborn, amazingly and effectively cast as a ladies' man) and his wealthy, dominating would-be fiancee (Joan Woodbury), but the two do finally get together on a round-the-clock, permanent basis. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

A Mississippi flood saves the life of a petty crook who is about to be lynched for a murder he did not commit. After he escapes, he flees to a nearby plantation where he and a woman (claiming to be his wife) are taken in and treated with great kindness. They are happy until the killer that framed the crook shows up. Things look bleak until once again, the Mighty Mississippi roars in to save the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a cafe singer gets into deep financial trouble. Fortunately, a group of amiable sailors endeavor to save her. One of them falls in love with her and nearly abandons his Navy career to be with her until the whole mess is cleared up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Nancy, a jilted bride-to-be, is played by Janet Gaynor in one of her last starring films. The three loves are novelist Robert Montgomery, publisher Franchot Tone, and gormless nebbish Grady Sutton (Sonny TUFTS??). In New York to find her runaway groom Sutton, Janet runs across Montgomery and Tone. More selective since her unfortunate near-wedding, Gaynor decides to have the two swains demonstrate their worthiness, leading to a brief (and chaste) menage-a-trois in which all three are under the same roof. Three Loves Has Nancy is a sedate screwball comedy, carried completely by the charm of its stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this interesting drama, a highly respected straight-arrow Irish cop is pleased when his son follows him onto the force. Unfortunately, the son is more interested in promotions than in upholding the law and he makes few friends among his peers. When he shoots a child caught stealing, the others frame him and he is sent to prison where his attitude becomes even worse than before. Upon his escape, the bad seed goes on a crime spree. He then learns that his wife has just borne him a son. When he goes to the hospital to see the babe, his father, who set this trap, arrests him and sends him back to the pokey, proving that in this case, justice is thicker than blood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Imagine the dismay of those hapless TV station managers who've booked the 1940 Martha Raye vehicle The Farmer's Daughter in the belief that they've actually gotten hold of the same-named 1947 Loretta Young picture. Hardly in the same league as its namesake, the 1940 film casts Raye as Patience Bingham, a starstruck rural gal who hopes to land a part in a musical show being staged in a reconverted barn. The show is being financed by millionaire Nicksie North (Charlie Ruggles) as a vehicle for his untalented girl friend Clarice Sheldon (Gertrude Michael). That's right, folks: Clarice walks off the show on opening night, forcing her understudy-who else but Patience?--to appear in her stead. As a bonus, Patience lands leading man Dennis Crane (Richard Denning) as a husband, to the surprise of no one but Dennis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide