Rhea Mitchell Movies
Rhea Mitchell appeared no less than six times opposite early silent Western star William S. Hart; in five of the films -- beginning with On the Night Stage (1914) -- she was his leading lady, usually a saloon girl redeemed by love. In their last film together, The Money Corral (1919), Mitchell lost her taciturn leading man to the younger, blonder Jane Novak, a metaphor for a career that had been on the wane since the failure of the self-explanatory Sequel to the Diamond from the Sky (1916) -- an unmitigated fiasco for Mitchell and everyone concerned and, with only four chapters produced, the shortest serial in history. Rhea Mitchell continued in films through Danger Patrol (1928), but her roles grew gradually smaller. One of several former silent stars offered extra work by MGM's charitable Louis B. Mayer, she returned to the screen in the mid-'30s and appeared in scores of miniscule bit parts through the early '50s. In retirement, Mitchell managed an apartment building in Hollywood, which is where she was found brutally strangled on September 16, 1957. The killer proved to be a young drifter whom the devoutly religious woman had offered to help. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1951
Highly respected defense attorney Dwight Bradley Mason (Walter Pidgeon) is able to clear young Rudi Wallchek (Keefe Brasselle) of a murder rap. When it's all over, however, Rudi lets slip a careless comment which leads Mason to believe that his client was guilty after all. Using the evidence at hand, the attorney retraces his steps, only to discover that one of the town's leading citizens is a criminal mastermind. The solution to this ethical dilemma is straight out of the "postman always rings twice" school of crime fiction. Even after justice has been served, however, Mason's conscience dictates that everyone responsible for all previous legal miscarriages be punished -- including himself! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Pidgeon, Ann Harding, (more)
- 1951
MGM's new musical screen team of Esther Williams and Howard Keel were given plenty to do in the pleasant if unambitious songfest Texas Carnival. Williams plays Debbie Telford, one-half of a carnival performing team. The other half is Corny Quinnell (Red Skelton), who breaks up the act when he is mistaken for Texas millionaire Dan Sabinas (Keenan Wynn). Living high on the hog in Sabinas' absence, Corny manages to smooth the romantic path for Debbie and ranch foreman Slim Shelby (Keel), while he dallies with the luscious Sunshine Jackson (Ann Miller). Red Skelton is given more opportunity to shine than usual, especially during a riotous poker game (this scene was a particular favorite of screenwriter Dorothy Kingsley, who felt it could have been even funnier had director Charles Walters "punched it up" cinematically). Esther Williams' particular highlight is a swimming sequence in a waterless hotel room, a bit of special-effects wizardry that only the MGM tech staff could have dreamed up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Williams, Red Skelton, (more)
- 1950
Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios' best directors, screenwriters and actors; it is narrated by Louis Calhern. Stories are framed by the lecture of a university professor. In one tale a Boston resident becomes angry when the census forgets to record her presence. Another sketch chronicles the achievements of African Americans while still another pays tongue-in-cheek tribute to Texas. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ethel Barrymore, Gary Cooper, (more)
Frank Capra's only MGM film, State of the Union was adapted by Anthony Veiller and Myles Connolly from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse. Spencer Tracy plays an aircraft tycoon who is coerced into seeking the Republican Presidential nomination by predatory newspaper mogul Angela Lansbury. Campaign manager Van Johnson suggests that, for appearance's sake, Tracy be reunited with his estranged wife Katharine Hepburn (replacing Claudette Colbert, who'd ankled the project after a pre-production donnybrook with director Capra). Realizing that Tracy and Lansbury are having an affair, Hepburn nonetheless agrees to grow through the devoted-wife charade because she believes that Tracy just might make a good President. Her faith is shattered when Tracy, corrupted by the Washington power brokers, publicly compromises his values in order to get votes. Only in the film's last moments does Tracy prove himself worthy of Hepburn's love and his own self-respect by admitting his dishonesty during a nationwide radio-TV broadcast. Much of the biting wit in the original Broadway production of State of the Union is sacrificed in favor of the director's patented "Capracorn," but the film is no less entertaining because of this. As usual, the supporting cast is impeccable, from featured players Adolphe Menjou (whose off-camera political arguments with Hepburn threatened to shut down production at times) and Margaret Hamilton, to bit actors like Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and Tor (Plan 9 From Outer Space) Johnson. Because the television rights to State of the Union belonged to Capra's Liberty Films, the picture was released to TV by MCA rather than MGM's syndication division. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Florence Auer, Spencer Tracy, (more)
- 1947
Former army pilot Robert Taylor is accused, on the basis of strong circumstantial evidence, of his wife's murder. Suffering from periodic blackouts, Taylor isn't so certain of his innocence himself. When offered a brain operation, Taylor refuses, knowing that if he is proven sane he will be executed for murder. Instead, he opts for confinement in a high-walled veteran's mental institution. A compassionate lady doctor (Audrey Totter) falls in love with Taylor, convincing him to have the operation. Even after emerging from the ether, Taylor cannot remember any of the details concerning his wife's death--but he does recall that the dead woman had recently taken a job with a publisher (Herbert Marshall) of religious books. While the killer's identity is tipped off by this revelation, the audience is never certain that Robert Taylor isn't a murderer--especially since he'd previously appeared as a homicidal maniac in the 1946 film Undercurrent. The best moment in High Wall is the casual disposal of the sole witness to the murder, via a long, dark elevator shaft. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Audrey Totter, (more)
- 1946
William Powell plays a cynical con man who graduates from penny-ante operations to a big-time charity racket. The scam involves collecting money on behalf of St. Dismas, bringing Powell in close contact with several men of the cloth. As the racket rolls on, Powell is touched by the sincerity of the religious men and the plights of the charity's rightful recipients. He has a change of heart, confessing his original criminal intentions but seeing to it that the money goes to the right people. Hoodlum Saint was typical of the facile religiosity often found in MGM pictures of the period. The film is best remembered as the first non-aquatic performance of MGM swimming star Esther Williams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Esther Williams, (more)
- 1944
The usual modus operandi for Hollywood "through the years" sagas was to gradually age its young actors in the course of the film. In Mrs. Parkington, 35-year-old Greer Garson appears in old-lady makeup for virtually the entire 124-minute running time, even though this filmization of Louis Bromfield's best-selling novel covers the years 1875 through 1938. Eightyish widow Mrs. Susie Parkington (Garson) gathers together all of her grown children in an effort to bail out son-in-law Amory Stilham (Edward Arnold), who's gotten in Dutch through crooked financial deals. As the children and grandchildren bicker over the "impossibility" of giving up any part of their inheritance, Mrs. Parkington's mind wanders back to her marriage to wealthy mine owner Maj. Augustus Parkington (Walter Pidgeon) and her own efforts, as an unlearned Nevada serving girl, to fit into proper Manhattan society. Augustus' ex-love Aspasia Conti (Agnes Moorehead, in a surprisingly sexy role) is engaged to teach Susie the in and outs of which fork to use and how low to curtsy. Shut out by the "400," Susie is avenged by her husband, who wheels and deals to ruin the snobs financially. Later on, he assuages his anger by conducting several extramarital affairs, before perishing in one of those convenient movie auto accidents. Just how all these incidents strengthen Mrs. Parkington's resolve to rescue her wastrel son-in-law is a mystery that even two viewings of this overlong soap opera may not solve. Incidentally, Greer Garson isn't the only one who is prematurely aged in Mrs. Parkington; keep an eye out for 27-year-old Hans Conried, convincingly playing a doddering musician. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, (more)
- 1936
Made with the full cooperation of the real-life Texas Rangers (who never met a publicity gimmick they didn't like), this sprawling historical western stars Fred MacMurray as Jim Hawkins, one of three outlaws working the Lone Star State in the years following the Civil War. Both Hawkins and his partner in crime Wahoo Jones (Jack Oakie) decide to go straight, but their bandit pal Sam McGee (Lloyd Nolan) has not quite seen the light. Eventually, Jim and Wahoo join the fledgling Texas Rangers, an organization dedicated to bringing law, order and honest government to their state, while McGee cuts a swath of terror with his new gang. When the two reformed outlaws are assigned to bring in their old friend Sam, Jim balks but Wahoo accepts. In the film's most talked-about scene, McGee smilingly puts a hole through Wahoo's stomach with a gun he has hidden under a table. Now motivated by revenge (although he couldn't say as much in a post-Production Code film), Jim vows to bring McGee to justice, dead or alive, but preferably the former. Released to coincide with the Texas Centennial, The Texas Rangers was remade in 1949 as Street of Laredo; there was also a 1940 sequel, The Texas Rangers Ride Again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, (more)
- 1935
Radio baritone Joe Morrison was being groomed for stardom by Paramount when he was top-billed in One Hour Late. Morrison is cast as shipping clerk Eddie Blake, whose girlfriend Betty Dunn (Helen Twelvetrees) is secretary to big boss Stephen Barclay (Conrad Nagel). A trusting soul, Betty sees nothing wrong in accepting Barclay's invitation to visit his home for the weekend. But Eddie suspects the worst and tags along to make sure that Betty's virtue remains intact. As it happens, Eddie's fears are groundless -- as are those of Barclay's wife Ellen (Gail Patrick), who was poised to walk out on her husband at the first sign of extramarital hanky-panky. The script contrives to have a radio station located in the building where Eddie works, permitting Joe Morrison to croon a medley of his hit "The Last Roundup." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Morrison, Helen Twelvetrees, (more)
- 1926
Long before he became established as Hollywood's favorite headwaiter, character actor Gino Corrado enjoyed a brief fling at stardom. Billed as Gene Corrado, he played a courageous French army captain in the 1926 cheapie Modern Youth. Tired of warfare and bloodshed, Corrado sheds his uniform and heads to America, there to start life anew as a peace-loving civilian. Instead, he is pressed into duty as a secret agent for the U.S. and shipped off to a revolution-torn banana republic. With swashbuckling panache, Corrado rescues heroine Olive Kirby from her villainous uncle, pausing only to dispatch a soldier or two with his trusty sword. So what does all this have to do with a title like Modern Youth? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gino Corrado, Olive Kirby, (more)
- 1924
Elsie Brent (Dorothy Reiver) is amorously pursued by two brothers in this romantic melodrama. She falls in love with college-educated cad George Benton (Robert Keith) and marries him without realizing he already has a wife (Edith Yorke). His noble brother Adam (William Fairbanks) first beats up his wayward brother before saving him from a suicidal jump from a high cliff. Elsie then switches her romantic allegiance to the heroic Adam while George vows to change his lowdown ways. Rhea Mitchell appears as a chorus girl. Dorothy Reiver and William Fairbanks had previously starred together in Call of the Mate. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Fairbanks, Dorothy Revier, (more)
- 1921
Admired for his comedy timing as much as for his athleticism, cowboy star Tom Mix turned to out and out burlesque in this comedy of mores, which only masqueraded as a western. Mix played Jim Rose, a young ranch hand in love with the boss' daughter, Mabel (Rhea Mitchell). The rancher, King Brentwood (Harry Dunkinson), who is being sued for breach of promise by a local widow (Eugenie Forde, Mix's real-life mother-in-law), opposes the match. Learning that the annoying woman is coming to pay him a visit, Brentwood has his men fake a holdup of her stagecoach. Hoping to win the approval of his boss, Jim "saves" the widow from her "abductors." Charmed by this act of chivalry, Widow Farrell convinces Brentwood to let the youngsters marry. In this and several other "Westerns," Mix displayed a breezy charm that was compared favorably to Douglas Fairbanks. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Mix, Rhea Mitchell, (more)
- 1921
Rosemary Theby is American heiress Katherine Brinkley, a selfish young lady who believes that every woman should be out for herself. When she meets pianist Nicolai Brouevitch (Hamilton Revelle), it matters not one whit to her that he has a wife, Inna (Irene Blackwell), who loves him very much. Katherine convinces the temperamental musician that the two of them are soul mates and that Inna should not stand in the way of their romance. Their scandalous affair, which takes them to Europe, finally convinces her that Brouevitch is a shallow man and she should never have gotten involved with him in the first place. He eventually goes back to Inna, his social standing unaffected by the affair. Not so with Katherine, especially not in the 1920s when the double standard was in full swing. Her reputation is ruined, and she learns too late that she can't flout convention. One of the selling points of this drama was that it featured the same director and cast (excepting Otis Skinner) of 1920's Kismet. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosemary Theby, Hamilton Revelle, (more)
- 1920
Sessue Hayakawa plays Akbar Kahn, a Persian writer who lives in New York's Greenwich Village. Kahn cooly uses Indora (Colleen Moore) to provide fodder for his stories without realizing how cruel he is being. A sociology student, Virginia Crosby (Rhea Mitchell), sees the whole situation and goes to work on Kahn to give him material for his next work -- a romance that involves stolen talismans and a cult of devil worshippers. It's all a thinly veiled reference to Kahn's rocky romance with Indora, and in the end, Virginia reunites the pair with a fresh understanding. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sessue Hayakawa
- 1920
Much of this Allan Dwan-directed drama was distasteful to silent movie-era audiences. In this more religious time, no one wanted to believe that unfortunate circumstances could turn a pious man away from his faith. In addition, they questioned whether it was right to have an abortionist as a prominent character in a film. Dr. Stannard Wayne (James Kirkwood) -- like all "good" men of the times -- is a God-fearing soul. He marries the former mistress of his friend, Dr. Arthur Richards (Philo McCullough), without knowing her past. Richards, an abortionist, resumes his affair with the woman and runs off with her. But before he leaves, he frames Wayne for one of the illegal operations he has done, and the innocent man is sent to prison for five years. When he gets out, Wayne has become angry and cynical. He turns away from religion and swears never to help another suffering soul. He heads for the wilderness of the Northwest where, unbeknownst to him, Richards and his ex-wife are hiding. The pretty, good-hearted Margaret Haddon (Mary Thurman) also lives there, and she tries to get Wayne to help a young boy who has become crippled after a beating by his drunken father. Wayne callously refuses, but Margaret's sweet nature finally turns him around and his faith is restored. While he is operating on the boy, Richards gathers a mob by convincing them that Wayne is butchering the little boy. The mob destroys the home and sets it on fire, but Wayne completes the delicate operation by the light of the blaze. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
A lesser-known William S. Hart vehicle, The Money Corral casts two-gun Bill as a rodeo story. A Chicago banker hires Hart to protect his riches from a criminal gang. The big-money scene finds Hart roping and hog-tying the baddies, just as we knew he would. Eva Novak, one of Hart's favorite leading ladies, provides the feminity to these rugged proceedings. William S. Hart is also credited with the direction of The Money Corral, though as usual he relied upon a battery of faithful assistants. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1916
This self-explanatory serial from the American Company in Santa Barbara proved an unmitigated fiasco. The original 1915 chapterplay had been released to great success in the wake of the sensational The Perils of Pauline (1914), and with 30 produced chapters, it became the longest in history. In the sequel, Esther Stanley (Rhea Mitchell, taking over from Lottie Pickford) and Arthur Stanley II (William Russell, replacing Irving Cummings) are accidentally killed in a train wreck, leaving their orphaned boy the heir to the diamond, which is promptly stolen. Charlotte Burton once again plays the femme fatale, with Orral Humphreys as Marmaduke and William Tedmarsh as Quabba the Hunchback also returning. Alas, only four episodes were actually filmed before the serial was laid to rest. Happily, an eight-reel feature version was salvaged from the wreckage and released December 23, 1916. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Unlike most melodramas, this one offered some strong characterizations. After his father (Charles Wheelock) fires him from his newspaper, Willoughby Whipple (William Stowell) travels from New York to a small country town to try to make good on his own. He starts a paper with the help of a local poet, Virginia Winters (Rhea Mitchell), and "Daddy" Eggleston, a hard-drinking tramp printer (Perry Banks). The town's power broker, Squire Benjamin Barton (Jack Prescott), owns the building in which the Bugle is located and he offers Whipple free rent if he will support his candidacy for mayor. Instead, Whipple exposes his attempted bribe and wins his enmity. Barton evicts the Bugle, and when Whipple can't get space in any of the other office buildings, he runs the paper out of a tent. To get rid of Whipple, Barton plans to set his own office building on fire and saddle the young newspaperman with the guilt. But the night Barton is pouring coal oil all over the building, he encounters Eggleston, who has been on a drunk. He knocks Eggleston out and sets the place on fire. When the old printer awakens, he crawls into a vault to escape the flames. Whipple is arrested for causing the fire, but a tramp locates Eggleston's body in the vault. Before he died of suffocation, he wrote a message on the vault's wall in chalk which implicates Barton in the crime. With Barton's downfall, Whipple is elected mayor and marries Virginia. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1916
Minor-league cowboy star William Stowell is cast as Herbert Drew, a lumberjack in a Northwoods logging camp. Falling in love with Bettina Warren (Rhea Mitchell), the camp's pretty owner, Drew vows to protect the girl from the machinations of her crooked lawyer Daniels (Warren Ellsworth). This entails the vanquishing of a gang of well-armed hooligans, hired by Daniels to wrest control of the camp. The comedy relief was handled by George Ahren as the grizzled camp cook. Though "B" westerns technically did not exist in 1916, Overalls would nonetheless fall within that category. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1915
Reverend Austin (Robert Edeson) and the strapping "Silent" Tex (William S. Hart) fight over the beautiful Belle Shields (Rhea Mitchell) with the reverend emerging the winner. But after she becomes Mrs. Austin, Belle's thoughts frequently center on handsome Tex, now a trusted friend of the family. One night she goes to the saloon and, as she later admits, dances one too many dances with the notorious "Handsome Jack." The following day, a stagecoach is held up, and its only passenger, Handsome Jack, is beaten to a pulp. "I reckon I've paid my debt to the parson," says Tex, the highwayman, to his horse. "But I wonder what is left for me?" William S. Hart was not yet an established star and earned third billing in this typically moralistic love-triangle Western. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1915
A huge undertaking in its day, this 30 chapter serial is arguably the best known film to emerge from the American "Flying A" company of Santa Barbara, California. The company had offered Mary Pickford a staggering $4000 a week to star as the serial's imperiled heroine. "America's Sweetheart" sweetly declined but suggested her sister, Lottie Pickford, instead. Still hoping to exploit the Pickford name, American hired Lottie despite her well-known trouble with alcohol and an increasingly obvious pregnancy. Former cameraman Jacques Jaccard co-wrote the screenplay (with Roy L. McCardell, a Chicago newspaperman who had won a cash prize of $10,000 for coming up with the best story) and directed 10 episodes before he found himself stuck. Enter William Desmond Taylor, the company's latest acquisition, who finished the serial on time and under budget. The Diamond from the Sky had everything: babies switched at birth, mysterious gypsies, a poisonous femme fatale (Charlotte Burton), cliffhangers galore, all packaged in a story about a priceless gem that fell from the sky in a meteor. The producers pronounced it "The Serial Wonderful," and most audiences agreed. As a token of their esteem and gratitude, the board of directors at American presented Taylor with a two-carat diamond ring, a piece of jewelry the director still wore when he was found shot to death in his Los Angeles bungalow, February 1, 1922. A brief four episode sequel -- entitled, rather soberly, The Sequel to The Diamond from the Sky -- was released without much fanfare in 1916. By then everyone concerned had tired of the darn thing. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
