Douglass Montgomery Movies
Canadian actor Robert Douglass Montgomery played leads in a number of Hollywood second features, and the occasional first feature, during the 1930s. Early in his film career, he billed himself as Kent Douglass. He began working in British films during the '40s. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1937
Otto Kruger once again plays a dynamic, bombastic attorney in Columbia's Counsel for Crime. Kruger plays William Mellon, a shifty shyster whose underhanded methods loses him the love of his sweetheart Anne (Nana Bryant), who subsequently marries a powerful senator (Thurston Hall). What Mellon doesn't know is that Anne has borne him a son, whom the senator has adopted. Reaching adulthood, Paul (Douglass Montgomery) opts for a legal career himself, taking a clerical job with his own father's firm. In typical "B"-picture, Mellon is charged with murdering one of his more odious clients -- and Paul is appointed prosecuting attorney in the case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Otto Kruger, Douglass Montgomery, (more)
- 1934
Paramount's Eight Girls in a Boat was a remake of the 1932 German film of the same name. Impregnated by medical student David Perrin (Douglass Montgomery), European schoolgirl Christa Storm (Dorothy Wilson) contemplates killing herself. Wisely, she chooses instead to explain her plight to her sympathetic teacher Hanna (Kay Johnson), who arranges a marriage for the girl despite the protests of her wealthy father (Walter Connolly). Before this happens, however, Christa's seven best friends agree to mutually adopt the girl's baby, and are sorely put out when she opts for matrimony. Many cynical reviewers presumed that Eight Girls in a Boat was merely an excuse to show off an octet of well-developed ingenues in shorts, tight blouses and bathing suits. Perhaps it was, but few filmgoers complained back in 1934. The film was one of the few made by starlet Barbara Barondess before she forsook acting for a lucrative career as a Hollywood interior decorator. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Wilson, Douglass Montgomery, (more)
- 1936
A stellar Hollywood cast gives an extra boost to the atmospheric British feature Everything is Thunder. The story involves a Canadian POW being hidden by a German citizen during World War I. The surprise herein is that the German is Constance Bennett, one hundred percent sympathetic and (eventually) apolitical. Douglass Montgomery is the prisoner, first discovered in Connie's bathroom while the police scramble through her apartment building. Despite the possibility of being liquidated as a traitor, Ms. Bennett, who has a remarkable propensity for disguise, helps the likeable Montgomery reach the allied lines. The pro-German sentiments in Everything is Thunder (and in the Jocelyn L. Hardy book on which it was based) were not all that uncommon in 1936 Britain; funny, though, how this film disappeared from circulation in 1939. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Constance Bennett, Douglass Montgomery, (more)
- 1949
In this drama, a medicine seller falls for an ice cream vendor. Unfortunately, his wife won't grant him a divorce. In order to help her change her mind, he slips her some pills in an attempt to give her a coronary. It works and so he buries her. As he does, he finds the extra pills. She had died of natural causes. The police chase him down because they think she was murdered. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1934
In this musical, a radio-announcer is fired after giving a false interview. For consolation he begins to drink heavily. It is his girlfriend who helps him sober up when she provides him with a major scoop--a missing airplane. He enthusiastically sets out after it and eventually finds it. As a publicity stunt, he skydives to the downed plane while broadcasting live. Songs include: Talking To Myself," "I Ain't Gonna Sin No More," "Gift Of Gab," "Somebody Looks Good," "Don't Let This Waltz Mean Goodbye," "Walkin' On Air," "What A Wonderful Day," "Tomorrow--Who Cares?" and "Blue Sky Avenue." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Gloria Stuart, (more)
- 1935
Produced on a reasonably lavish scale by the usually parsimonious Mascot Pictures, Harmony Lane was the first of three filmed biographies of 19th-century songwriter Stephen Foster (the others were Fox's Swanee River [1939] and 1952's I Dream of Jeannie, produced by Mascot's successor, Republic Pictures). Douglass Montgomery stars as Foster, with Evelyn Venable and Adrienne Ames as the women in his life and William Frawley as minstrel impresario E.P. Christy (the part played by Al Jolson in Swanee River). The film follows Foster from his early attempts to study for the ministry to his first flush of success in the years just prior to the Civil War, ending with his death in drunken poverty in New York. Just what was it that so attracted Hollywood to this melancholy tale? Perhaps it was the fact that Stephen Foster's songs were in the Public Domain, thereby allowing producers to sidestep expensive copyright and licensing fees. Harmony Lane was written and directed by Joseph Santley, a prolific if uninspired helmsman of early-talkie musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglass Montgomery, Evelyn Venable, (more)
- 1935
A variation on the Lady for a Day theme, Universal's Lady Tubbs stars Alice Brady as Henrietta "Mom" Tubbs, the no-nonsense cook in a rowdy railroad construction camp. Upon inheriting a fortune, Mom Tubbs trains herself to enter high society, not so much for her sake as for that of her pretty niece Wynne (Anita Louise). But before she can stage-manage the marriage between Wynne and Long-Island socialite Phil Ash-Orcutt, Mom must expose a few pompous stuffed shirts for the hypocritical phonies that they really are. Lady Tubbs scores most of its laughs from its central situation, but it's never above resorting to slapstick to make a few comic points. Particularly amusing is a wild fox-hunt sequence, portions of which later showed up in Abbott and Costello's In Society. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Brady, Douglass Montgomery, (more)
- 1937
In this drama, a millionaire heir finds himself in trouble deep after during a night of drunkenness he pledges his fortune to charity. To keep from having to honor his pledge--and to avoid the luscious golddigger that pursues him--the young lout disguises himself as janitor and begins working at a nearly bankrupt nursery school. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Parker, Douglass Montgomery, (more)
- 1934
Set in Germany shortly before the collapse of the Weimar Republic, this romantic drama chronicles the travails of an impoverished newlywed couple who leave their home village and move in with the groom's stepmother in bustling Berlin to find success. The husband gets a small job in a department store and things are okay until they discover that the stepmother is really a notorious madame and runs an exclusive brothel. This leads the groom to quit his job and take his pregnant bride on the road in search of opportunity. The plot is based on a novel by Hans Fallada. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Sullavan, Douglass Montgomery, (more)
George Cukor directed this classic adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's sentimental novel with a shimmering lavishness that is a prime example of the classic Hollywood style at its best. The story concerns the lives of four New England sisters -- Jo (Katharine Hepburn), Amy (Joan Bennett), Meg (Frances Dee), and Beth (Jean Parker) -- during the time of the Civil War. Jo desires to leave home to become a writer, but decides to stay to help the family. But Meg announces her plans to get married, so Jo leaves for New York City. As she settles down to a writing career, she meets Professor Fritz Bhaer (Paul Lukas), who helps her with her work. While Jo is away, Amy falls in love and marries Jo's old flame Laurie Laurence (Douglass Montgomery). But Jo is forced to return to New England when she discovers Beth is dying. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1934
The 1932 Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein Broadway hit Music in the Air was brought to the screen two years later by Fox Studios. Temperamental Bavarian prima donna Frieda (Gloria Swanson) and equally volatile lyricist Bruno (John Boles) spend half their time quarrelling and the other half making love. To arouse each other's jealousy, Frieda and Bruno pair off respectively with music teacher Lessing's (Al Shean) virginal daughter Sieglinde (June Lang) and her schoolmaster fiancee Karl (Douglass Montgomery). The impressionable young couple respond to the attentions heaped upon them until they realize they're being used, whereupon the tables are turned upon the main characters. Though boasting such lilting tunes as "The Song is You" and "I've Told Every Evening Star" and the stylish direction of Joe May (perhaps his best American film), audiences didn't respond to Music in the Air; as a result, star Gloria Swanson vowed for the millionth time to "permanently" retire from pictures, a promise she kept to herself for a whole seven years. Incidentally, one of the screenwriters of Music in the Air was Billy Wilder, who later co-wrote and directed Swanson's 1949 "comeback" feature Sunset Boulevard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Swanson, John Boles, (more)
- 1939
The classic "old dark house" motif is given sterling treatment in this second filmed version of the hit play. Bob Hope's status as a star was assured with his role as Wallie Campbell, the cowardly protector of Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard), who must spend one night in the eerie mansion of her late, eccentric, millionaire uncle. If she can make it through the night without losing her mind, Joyce stands to inherit her uncle's entire fortune. Of course, all the other potential heirs now have a motive to drive her insane. The frights are nonstop as hands reach out from nowhere, people disappear between trap doors, the halls echo with terrifying sounds, and secret doorways lead to hidden passageways. Three people are murdered before Wallie solves the mystery and sees Goddard through the night. Hope integrates his wiseacre comedic style into a essentially straight role, with the humor well-placed in the otherwise moody material. Creepy lighting and music also aid director Elliott Nugent in crafting an effective and fun version of one the genre's archetypal stories. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, (more)
- 1935
Charles Dickens' unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, has been a source of speculation and controversy ever since its posthumous publication. Even so, the ending concocted by scenarists John Balderston and Gladys Unger for the 1935 film version of Edwin Drood met with near-unanimous approval from Dickens buffs, who felt that Balderston and Unger had remained faithful to the author's original intention. Claude Rains stars as John Jasper, the seemingly respectable choirmaster of Cloisterham Cathedral. What no one suspects is that Jasper is an opium addict, given to fits of paranoia and jealousy. Pushing him over the edge is the fact that his beautiful ward, Rosa Bud (Heather Angel), has fallen in love with handsome Edwin Drood (David Manners). That Drood is murdered by Jasper is made abundantly clear: it is the mystery of how he was murdered and how Jasper disposed of the body that holds the viewer's interest. The film's relatively short running time required the screenwriters to drop several of Dickens' more colorful supporting characters: of those retained, Francis L. Sullivan is a standout as Mr. Crisparkle. The Mystery of Edwin Drood was transformed into a Broadway musical in 1980s (which offered several alternate endings), then was refilmed in 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Rains, Douglass Montgomery, (more)
- 1945
Originally released in England as The Way to the Stars, Johnny in the Clouds is the story of how the Battle of Britain affected the lives of combatants and civilians alike. Terence Rattigan's screenplay concentrates on three groups of people: an American pilot and his wife, a doomed British officer with a wife and child, and a young couple who plan to marry despite the precariousness of wartime romances. Most of the action takes place at an air base and the neighboring village, where the private citizens react to rationing and other restrictions with various degrees of nobility and selfishness. The American title of this film is derived from the poem "Johnny in the Clouds," recited in tribute to the decease British airman; the U.S. version, which was released after the war, includes a prologue set in the deserted air base, with the bulk of the film offered as a flashback. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Michael Redgrave, (more)
- 1946
The British Woman to Woman was the third film version of the war-horse stage play by Michael Morton. Hollywood's Douglass Montgomery plays David, a Canadian officer attached to the British secret service. Unhappily married to "ice princess" socialite Sylvia (Adele Dixon), David throws himself wholeheartedly into his espionage activities. While on a life-and-death mission in Paris, he falls in love with cabaret dancer Nicolette (Joyce Howard). Forced to evacuate Paris when the Nazis march in, David is unaware that Nicolette is pregnant. Years later, David searches desperately for Nicolette and the child he never knew, unaware that both are living in London. Will a happy ending follow? Well? best to wait until the final fadeout to be sure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglass Montgomery, Joyce Howard, (more)
