Mayo Methot Movies

Unexpected Father was designed as a showcase for Universal's infant "star" Baby Sandy (Sandy was a girl, but she played a boy here). Dancer Dennis O'Keefe resigns himself to being stuck with his late partner's baby, but when trying to adopt a child he faces a tough court custody battle. Lovely Shirley Ross is the other applicant, so figure out the ending yourself. The highlight in Unexpected Father is a tense process-screen sequence wherein Sandy toddles around a high skyscraper ledge. Mischa Auer, who'd played a comic doorman in the previous Baby Sandy film East Side of Heaven, repeats the role for Unexpected Father. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Should a Girl Marry? never completely answers its own question, inasmuch as the story concentrates primarily on the male lead. Warren Hull stars as Dr. Robert Benson, so dedicated to his profession that he sorely neglects his ever-loving wife Margaret (Anne Nagel). Things come to a sorry pass when Benson is accused of murder through the machinations of his medical rival Dr. White (Lester Mathews). The outcome hinges on the behavior of hard-boiled Betty Gilbert (Mayo Mathot) and the revelation of a skeleton in Margaret's family closet. Critics in 1939 weren't exactly enchanted by Should a Girl Marry?, citing the film's corny dialogue and Anne Nagel's ever-disappearing British accent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bette Davis' famous walk-out from her home studio of Warner Bros. may have hurt her financially, but in the long run it paid off with bigger parts in better films. Like many Warners films of the period, Marked Woman was "torn from today's headlines." Specifically, it was inspired by the recent downfall of gangster Lucky Luciano, who at one time controlled all prostitution activities in New York. The ladies herein are euphemistically characterized as "night club hostesses," but when Luciano look-alike Johnny Vanning (Eduardo Cianelli) shows up at a fancy clip-joint to give the girls their marching orders, the audience can tell exactly what's going on. Been-there-done-that hostess Mary (Davis) is no better than she ought to be, though she has a definite code of honor; she stands up to the dictatorial Vanning at every opportunity, fending of his amorous attentions and seeing to it that her "over the hill"colleague Estelle (Mayo Methot) is retained on the gangster's payroll. At the same time, Mary tries to shield her seedy profession from her virginal sister Betty (Jane Bryan), but the girl discovers the truth and becomes a "B"-girl herself, a rash move that results in her death. Previously frightened into silence by periodic beatings from Vanning's goons, Mary and four of her girlfriends become state's witnesses, providing testimony to crusading District Attorney David Graham (Humphrey Bogart, playing a character clearly patterned after Thomas E. Dewey). A last-ditch effort to permanently stifle Mary and her friends fails, and the ladies show up in court to put the noose around Vanning's neck. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After her success in Lady for a Day, elderly character actress May Robson was starred in a number of features. She's wonderfully irascible in this depression-era drama as widow Mary Hastings, who has been running the family steel business since the death of her husband forty years before. Her children, Willard (Raymond Walburn) and Henrietta (Josephine Whittell), have been disappointments to her, and the grandchildren she raised after the death of their father, are even more spoiled and selfish. Nobody seems capable of taking over the concern, but she retires anyway, leaving it in the hands of the board of directors. Then Black Tuesday comes, the stock market crashes, and one by one, all the mills are shut down. The workers are on the verge of seeing their families starve. Mrs. Hastings, determined to help them out, calls all her relatives from Europe and begs them to release some of the 40 million dollar trust fund to keep the local mill going. But the greedy family members refuse. On her own Mrs. Hastings scrapes together enough of her own funds to keep the mill open. Meanwhile, Willard -- unaware of his mother's actions -- closes the mill and calls on the cops to squelch any unrest. Granddaughter Jean (Fay Wray), however, comes to her senses when she helps hide labor leader Jim Devlin (Victor Jory) from the police. After spending the night with Jory in his hideaway, she returns and convinces her brother to override their uncle and aunt and help the mill. The workers, furious over Willard's lies, are ready to storm the plant, and the cops are prepared to shoot them. Jean risks her life by heading for the mill, but it is her brother, who has gone after her, who is killed by police gun fire. While the rest of the family returns to Europe, Jean stays behind with her grandmother. Although Devlin has pointed out to Jean that their romance is impossible, he leaves a small window of hope open for the future. This feature, released by Columbia, was incredibly progressive for its day. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Paul Muni is a prominent physician who is kidnapped by gangsters and forced to tend the needs of head crook Barton MacLaine. MacLaine takes a liking to the intellectual doctor and allows him to go home after his job is done. Muni finds himself the reluctant "staff physician" for the gangster, thus is periodically spirited away from his practice to look after the criminal. He has given his word not to "rat" on the crooks, but he can't sit idly by while the gangsters loot the city. Muni foils the crooks by injecting them with a drug which induces temporary blindness. Dr. Socrates was remade in 1939 as King of the Underworld, with Humphrey Bogart as the gangster boss and actress Kay Francis in Paul Muni's role (with surprisingly few dialogue alterations to accommodate the gender switch!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Cagney runs a shady missing-heir tracing service, occasionally providing phony heirs in order to collect his fee. He suffers a tinge of jealousy when he takes a gander at the offices of a legitimate tracing firm, where his former girlfriend (Bette Davis) has taken a job. Jimmy soon learns that the reputable organization's boss (Alan Dinehart) is more crooked than Jimmy ever was, but he can't convince the girl of this fact. Using his own street smarts, Cagney exposes the "honest" heir tracer and agrees to go straight if his girl will come back to him. At the time Jimmy the Gent was filmed, James Cagney was getting tired of the formula pictures being handed him; rather than go on suspension, he expressed his displeasure by shaving his hair almost down to the bone, which is why he appears in this film with an uncharacteristic buzz-cut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

First adapted for the screen in 1928, Carl Ed's popular comic strip Harold Teen was cinematized a second time in 1934. This time it's musical-comedy star Hal LeRoy as the titular high-schooler, with Rochelle Hudson as his sweetheart Lillums Lovell and Hobart Cavanaugh as sweet-shop owner Pop Jenks. Recently graduated from school, Harold lands a newspaper job as a cub reporter, and in this capacity befriends town banker Rathburn (Hugh Herbert). This bodes ill for Harold's relationship with Lillums, who may be forced to marry Rathburn to save her home from foreclosure. But Rathburn is no villain, and it is he who paves the way for a happy ending. Since Hal LeRoy's strong suit was eccentric dancing, it goes without saying that Harold Teen includes a few arbitrarily inserted musical numbers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Goodbye Love is a lampoon of what was once designated the "alimony racket." Refusing to meet his wife's exorbitant alimony demands, Sidney Blackmer volunteers to go to jail, where he finds that his cellmate is his own valet (Charlie Ruggles), incarcerated because he can't make his alimony payments. Finally able to raise enough money to secure his freedom, Ruggles heads to Atlantic City, where he makes the acquaintance of a gold-digger Veree Teasdale. Eventually Teasdale marries Blackmer for the express purpose of later divorcing him and claiming his bank account. When Blackmer learns the truth, he enlists the aid of Ruggles and newspaperman Ray Walker to get even with both his past and present wife. The frivolous storyline requires Charlie Ruggles to pose as a British nobleman and a big-game hunter, which he does with his usual comic aplomb. The final production of Jefferson Pictures Corporation, Goodbye Love was released by RKO Radio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This weepie, adapted from a play by Philip Dunning and George Abbott, is a vehicle for Ruth Chatterton as the titular Lilly. Her sufferings begin when she marries a man who later turns out to be a bigamist. She has their baby but marries another man so the child can have a father. The new husband is alcoholic and so Lilly falls in love with someone else, but when her husband breaks his back protecting her, she elects to stay with him. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

Eric Linden is a bellhop who has the extreme misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time in gangster era of Chicago. After witnessing an assassination staged by gangsters, Linden becomes a pawn, being pushed back and forth by corrupt authorities and the mob. Tension mounts as the possibility that the blame for the crime may eventually rest on Linden. ~ All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a starving orphan deliberately breaks a store window in hopes that she'll be tossed in jail and get a hot meal. The arresting officer does feed her, but then he gets her a job dancing in the Follies. Eventually the girl falls madly in love with the policeman. Unfortunately, he seems to have only a professional interest in her welfare and does not return her affection. This angers the frustrated girl. To try and get the cop's attention, the girl begins dating a notorious local sleazebag who tries to lure her to his bed. Fortunately, she escapes. Later the gigolo is found dead and the girl stands accused of the crime, forcing her beloved cop to arrest her. Later, he proves her innocence and marries her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide