Grant Mitchell Movies
The son of a general and a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, Ohioan Grant Mitchell was a lawyer (he certainly looked the part) for several years before going into acting. He made his stage bow at the age of 27, and spent the next quarter of a century as a leading player, often billed above the title of the play. Mitchell was a special favorite of showman George M. Cohan, who wrote a vehicle specifically tailored to Mitchell's talents, The Baby Cyclone, in 1927. Though he reportedly appeared in a 1923 film, Mitchell's movie career officially began in 1932, first in bits (the deathhouse priest in If I Had a Million), then in sizeable supporting roles at Warner Bros. Often cast as the father of the heroine, Mitchell socked across his standard dyspeptic-papa lines with a delivery somewhat reminiscent of James Cagney (leading one to wonder if the much-younger Cagney didn't take a few pointers from Mitchell during his own formative years). While he sparkled in a variety of secondary roles as businessmen, bank clerks and school principals, Mitchell was occasionally honored with a B-picture lead, as in 1939's Father is a Prince. With years of theatrical experience behind him, Mitchell was shown to best advantage in Warners' many adaptations of stage plays, notably A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942). Freelancing in the mid '40s, Grant Mitchell occasionally showed up in unbilled one-scene cameos (Leave Her to Heaven [1945]) and in reprises of his small-town bigwig characterizations in such B-films as Blondie's Anniversary (1947) and Who Killed Doc Robbin? (1948). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1923
This curious picture is a cross between fantasy and science fiction (at least, the 1920s' version of science fiction) and features Broadway actors Grant Mitchell and Margaret Irving in their motion picture debuts. Arthur Wyman (Mitchell) is the typical absent-minded scientist. He is in love with Mary Langdon (Irving), the daughter of his landlady (Gertrude Hillman). To help her out, he invents an alarm clock that doesn't tick (this being long before the days of electronic devices). Using the money he has earned writing an article, Wyman tries to put the finishing touches on a radio that will contact Mars. He falls asleep as he's tinkering with it and dreams that he has gotten in touch with the Martians. They give him a lot of valuable information -- he learns a special way to make diamonds from coal, fashion gold from clay, and create steel that weighs "less than nothing." What he learns makes him fabulously wealthy -- until, much to his disappointment, he wakes up. But then Mary arrives and tells him that the rights to the "tickless" alarm clock have been sold for a lot of money, so things work out after all. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
