Jerry Miley Movies

A remake of Wife, Husband and Friend (1938), Everybody Does It is a frantic satire of the opera world. Businessman Paul Douglas is forced to suffer in silence when his wife (Celeste Holm) decides to become an opera star. Compelled to bankroll a concert for his missus, Douglas meets genuine opera diva Linda Darnell at the concert. While passing the time, Darnell discovers that Douglas in fact has a magnificent singing voice. Partly because he is flattered by Darnell's attentions, and partly to show up his wife, Douglas embarks on his own operatic career. But on the night of his debut, Douglas suffers a severe attack of stage fright, gets "doped up" on medicine in order to survive the performance, and hilariously humiliates himself in front of everyone. Darnell l angrily stalks out of the scene, and the sadder-but-wiser Douglas and Celeste Holm return to each other's arms. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nightmare Alley is the sordid tale of a conniving young man who, in the words of one of the film's supporting characters, ends up low because he aimed so high. Drifter Tyrone Power sweet-talks his way into a job as barker for a rundown carnival. He is fascinated by an illegal side-show attraction called "The Geek," a near-lunatic who bites the heads off live chickens and then is "paid off" with a cheap bottle of rotgut and a warm place to sleep it off. Otherwise, Power's attention is focussed on a beautiful if slightly stupid carnival performer (Coleen Gray) who works in an "electricity" act with an equally dense strongman (Mike Mazurki). Power also befriends an alcoholic mentalist (Ian Keith), who demonstrates how easy it is to fool an audience into thinking that his mind reading is genuine. When the mentalist dies after accidentally drinking wood alcohol, Power works his way into the confidence of the performer's widow (Joan Blondell), who teaches Power all the tricks and code words of the mind-reading racket. Power walks out on Blondell in favor of Cathy Downs, who marries him and becomes his partner in a classy nightclub mentalist act. But Power is dissatisfied with show business, and with the help of a beautiful but shifty psychiatrist (Helen Walker) he convinces several wealthy people that he can communicate with their dead loved ones...for a price. One elderly millionaire (Taylor Holmes) offers Power a fortune if he can conjure up the spirit of the millionaire's dead daughter. Power enlists his wife to impersonate the deceased girl, but at the crucial moment she has an attack of conscience and exposes the fraud. His career ruined, Power goes to the crooked psychiatrist for help, but she laughs in his face and calls the cops. He escapes the law by going on the bum, and before long is a drunken derelict. When he approaches a carnival for work, he is told that there is only one job open...as a "geek." When asked if he wants the job, the defeated Power replies "Mister, I was born for it." Based on a lurid bestseller by William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley was Tyrone Power's attempt to break away from romantic leads in favor of roles with more substance. The picture wasn't a success, but it proved that Power was more than just a pretty face. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tulio Carminati, who was previously and felicitously teamed with Grace Moore in One Night of Love, co-stars with another splendid operatic singer, Mary Ellis, in Paris in Spring. Ellis plays Simone, who breaks up her long-standing engagement with Paul de Lille (Carminati) because she balks at the notion of marriage. Simultaneously, young lovers Mignon (Ida Lupino) and Albert (James Blakely) split up for the same reason. In desperation, Mignon heads to the Eiffel Tower, intending to leap to her death. She is dissuaded from doing away with herself by Paul, who'd come to the tower with the same thought in mind. The symbiotic relationship between the two couples is played to the hilt, especially when Mignon and Albert conspire to make Simone and Albert jealous. The distinctly American character actor Lynne Overman is bizarrely but effectively cast as a dry-witted French gendarme. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hoping to match the success of his boisterous (and Oscar-winning) silent comedy Two Arabian Knights, and at the same time indulging in his fascination for aviation, erstwhile Hollywood producer Howard Hughes came up with the relentlessly silly Sky Devils. Spencer Tracy and George Cooper star as Wilkie and Mitchell, a pair of buddies who are so stupid that the make Laurel and Hardy seem like Rhodes Scholars. After losing their lifeguard jobs because they can't swim, Wilkie and Mitchell try to avoid being conscripted into the army when WW1 breaks out. Unfortunately for the army, our heroes are put in uniform and placed under the charge of irascible Sergeant Hogan (William "Stage" Boyd). Before long, the boys go AWOL, dallying long enough to fight over the lovely Mary (Ann Dvorak). Eventually, Wilkie and Mitchell inadvertently take off in an airplane, accidentally blow up a German munitions dump, and by a gosh-darned miracle are lauded as heroes--long enough to screw up yet again for the finale. As hard as it is to believe that Spencer Tracy would appear in this low-brow extravaganza, it is even harder to comprehend the fact that the witty, urbane humorist Robert Benchley penned much of the "Sez you--sez me" dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This playful Allan Dwan effort stars Olive Borden as impulsive flapper Jewel Courage, who dumps the man she loves, a humble chauffeur (Jimmy Grainger Jr.) in favor of millionaire John Jeffrey Fleet (Neil Hamilton). Jewel soon discovers that Fleet is actually the chauffeur and her ex-beau is the millionaire; the two merely traded places for a lark. Briefly taken aback, Jewel decides to prove that she, too, can changes her spots, and before long she has become a wealthy Bodaceia of Big Business. Stills from The Joy Girl suggest that the film's principal selling angle was the stunning beauty of Olive Borden, who appeared in a variety of revealing outfits. A lengthy Technicolor sequence allowed the viewer several tantalizing glimpses of Palm Beach, Florida, vintage 1927. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hardly an important film, Finger Prints pleased the crowd with its heady combination of slapstick comedy and old-dark-house melodrama. A professional crook is collared by the law, but not before squirreling away a fortune in hidden money in a crumbling country mansion. The crook's sister is kidnapped by his accomplices, who take the girl to the mansion, hoping to force her to reveal the whereabouts of the loot. What they don't know is that the house has been fitted with all sorts of modern, push-button devices, which thoroughly flummox the bad guys while delighting their unterrified captive. The day is saved by the timely intervention of comic-relief servant Louise Fazenda (who certainly deserves the top billing bestowed upon her). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Winsome Lois Wilson stars as The Gingham Girl in this cinemadaptation of the popular musical comedy of the same name. Wilson plays Mary Thompson, the sweetheart of small-town wise guy Johnny Cousins (George K. Arthur). Hoping to strike it rich, Johnny heads for the Big City, while the more level-headed Mary opts to remain in her own back yard. Starting a cookie-baking operation in her kitchen, Mary's burgeoning business is financed by city slicker Pat O'Day (Charles B. Crockett), who has designs on our heroine. Meanwhile, Johnny returns home, evidently having failed to make a dent in New York. In an astonishing and thoroughly unbelievable climactic twist, Johnny turns out to be a representative for a big-time cookie manufacturer, who offers Mary an enormous amount of money to sell her business. She does, whereupon Mary and Johnny settle down for a blissful -- and wealthy -- marriage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmgoers of the silent era liked to see crooks reform -- it was a popular theme in motion pictures. This drama, adapted from a play by George Broadhurst (which was based on the novel The Gambling Chaplain by Gerard Beaumont), involved the reformation of not one but two characters. A young couple from Pennsylvania (Viola Dana and Robert Agnew) are separated on the eve of their wedding. The boy has gotten involved with some crooks and is taken away to jail. The girl becomes entangled in a white slavery ring. They lose track of each other. The girl makes the acquaintance of a Bowery priest (John MacSweeny) and begins her regeneration. The boy, meanwhile, is released from prison, but he is still hounded by the police. Eventually he gravitates toward the priest and is reunited with his fiancée. The priest marries them. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide