Jack McHugh Movies
- 1939
Radio crooner Tex Fletcher was given a one-time-only chance at western stardom in Grand National's Six-Gun Rhythm. The plot offers a bit of novelty value, with Fletcher starting out as an eastern-seaboard football player who heads westward when his rancher father is murdered. Heroine Joan Barclay's brother has been accused from the crime, but our hero exposes the genuine miscreant during a climactic fist-fight in a raging sandstorm (a standout sequence). The star plays his guitar left-handed, so there's little chance of his being confused with Autry or Rogers. All in all, Six-Gun Rhythm isn't bad, but all plans for a Tex Fletcher series were scotched when Grand National went out of business in late 1939. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tex Fletcher, Joan Barclay, (more)
- 1935
The agent of the title is George Brent, a journalist sent by the Government to get the goods on a crime syndicate. Brent befriends Bette Davis, bookkeeper for suspected crime boss Ricardo Cortez. Bette's cooperation nearly costs her life, but both she and Brent manage a tricky escape during a final shoot-out. The IRS busts Cortez' gang on income tax evasion: Can you say "Al Capone"? Special Agent was remade in 1940 as Gambling on the High Seas, with Wayne Morris and Jane Wyman in the leading roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, George Brent, (more)
- 1935
This fast-paced Warner Bros. comedy stars James Cagney and Pat O'Brien as brothers who fight over the same girl. Mrs. O'Hara (Mary Gordon) is the loving mother of three sons: fireman Mike (Frank McHugh), policeman Pat (O'Brien), and the boxing promoter Danny (Cagney). Mike wants to marry Lucille Jackson (Olivia deHaviland), the daughter of his boss, Captain Jackson (John Farrell MacDonald). However, Lucille falls for Danny, causing a fued between the two brothers at the Fireman's Ball. Danny believes he can make a fortune when he meets up with boxer Carbarn Hammerschlag (Allen Jenkins), who starts fighting whenever he hears a bell. On the night of his big fight against champion boxer Joe Delancey (Harvey Parry), Carbarn gets a toothache and Mike gives him some gin. He ends up getting drunk in the locker room and Danny has to fight Delancey in his place. With the help of his brothers, Danny wins the fight and the girl. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1934
The Man with Two Faces is based on The Dark Tower, a stage comedy-mystery by Alexander Woollcott and George S. Kaufman. Edward G. Robinson is at his hammy best as flamboyant, temperamental, but withal endearing theatrical actor-manager Dawson Wells. Mary Astor co-stars as Damon's beloved actress sister Jessica, making a stage comeback after a disastrously unhappy marriage. Alas, Jessica's caddish husband Stanley Vance (Louis Calhern) soon returns, exerting a Svengali-like hold on the poor girl and setting her back on the road to ruin. Unable to buy off Vance, Wells plots a clever revenge, and shortly afterward, Vance is visited by one Monsieur Chautard, an effusive European producer with murder on his mind. The central "gimmick" in Man With Two Faces, which was adroitly concealed in the original Dark Tower, is a bit more obvious on screen due to the dynamic personalities involved. Also, the play's ending, in which Vance's murderer is allowed to escape scot-free by a sympathetic detective, was obviously altered at the very last minute to appease the new Production Code. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, (more)
- 1930
The Our Gang kids reluctantly participate in a stage presentation of Quo Vadis, retitled "The Gladiator's Dilemma" by its pretentious director, Mrs. Funston Evergreen Kennedy (Gertrude Sutton). Alas, none of the kids can remember their lines, the props and settings fall apart at the slightest provocation, and worst of all, a gang of tough kids is determined to disrupt the performance by tossing raw tomatoes and rotten eggs at the youthful thespians. Ultimately, the play degenerates into a slow-motion pie fight, with the kids onstage and the adults in the audience all participating with reckless abandon. Edgar Kennedy plays the director's long-suffering husband, while familiar comedy-film stalwarts Lyle Tayo, Ham Kinsey, Charles McAvoy and Harry Keaton (brother of Buster Keaton) show up in bit parts. Also: keep an eye peeled for former "Our Gang" member Mickey Daniels and teenaged terpsichorean Jerry McGowan, daughter of series producer Robert F. McGowan. "Shivering Shakespeare" was originally released on January 25, 1930. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Ann Jackson, Norman "Chubby" Chaney, (more)
- 1929
Despite the creative input of producer David O. Selznick and director William A. Wellman, Chinatown Nights was just so much chop suey. In her first (and last) talking-picture appearance, silent screen queen Florence Vidor plays Joan Fry, a San Francisco socialite who ruins her reputation when she falls in love with Chinatown gang boss Chuck Riley (Wallace Beery). When she fails to convince Chuck to quit the rackets, the couple splits up. Unable to return to her own social class, unlucky Joan ends up as a streetwalker (albeit a very glamorous one!) Realizing that he is responsible for the girl's present sorry state, Chuck promises to reform, and together he and Joan leave Frisco to start life anew. In later years, the long-retired Florence Vidor described Chinatown Nights as "absurd," citing producer Selznick's decision to team her with the rough-hewn Wallace Beery as its biggest absurdity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Florence Vidor, (more)
