Polly Moran Movies

Written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, Adam's Rib is a peerless comedy predicated on the double standard. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play Adam and Amanda Bonner, a husband-and-wife attorney team, both drawn to a case of attempted murder. The defendant (Judy Holliday) had tearfully attempted to shoot her husband (Tom Ewell) and his mistress (Jean Hagen). Adam argues that the case is open and shut, but Amanda points out that, if the defendant were a man, he'd be set free on the basis of "the unwritten law." Thus it is that Adam works on behalf of the prosecution, while Amanda defends the accused woman. The trial turns into a media circus, while the Bonners' home life suffers. Adam's Rib represented the film debuts of New York-based actors Jean Hagen, Tom Ewell, and David Wayne (as Hepburn's erstwhile songwriting suitor), and the return to Hollywood of Judy Holliday after her Born Yesterday triumph. One of the best of the Tracy-Hepburn efforts, it inspired a brief 1973 TV series starring Ken Howard and Blythe Danner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the long-running "Higgins" series of comedy dramas, Papa Higgins throws his family into turmoil when he decides to retire and become a full-time duck hunter. His wife is particularly upset because she believes her insurance agent who tells her that prolonged idleness leads to an early grave. She therefore valiantly forces her hubby into running for mayor against the corrupt, mob-controlled incumbent with the support of her women's reform group. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This Victorian-era drama is based upon the classic novel by Thomas Hughes. It follows the exploits of a young boy forced to attend a rowdy boarding school. There he finds himself surrounded by budding punks and hoods. It is rough at first, but eventually he learns to make friends and handle himself well in the tough environment. The film is also titled Adventures at Rugby. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When Marie Dressler died in 1934, the career of her frequent screen partner Polly Moran went into eclipse. Four years later, Republic Pictures tried to recapture the Dressler-Moran magic by casting Moran opposite the formidable Alison Skipworth in Ladies in Distress. Skipworth plays female mayor Josephine Bonney, at present having trouble dealing with her town's criminal element. Josephine enlists the aid of home town boy Braddock (Robert Livingston), a pretty tough customer himself, to take on the crooks. By using a few underhanded tactics of his own, Braddock accomplishes his mission, winning the hand of pretty Sally (Virginia Grey) in the bargain. Polly Moran is peripherally involved in the action as Josephine's supercilious sister Lydia, but it's really Alison Skipworth's film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two Wise Maids was an attempt by Republic Pictures to recapture the magic of MGM's Marie Dressler-Polly Moran vehicles. Dressler, alas, had died, but Republic was able to secure the services of Moran, teaming the raucous comedienne with the magnificent Alison Skipworth. The two leading ladies are cast as Prudence and Agatha, a pair of old-fashioned schoolteachers in an old-fashioned small town. Disdaining the wimpy theories of "progressive" education, Prudence and Agatha stick to the reliable "Three R's," often teaching to the tune of a hickory stick. Though ridiculed for their so-called outmoded methods, the heroines manage to turn out quite a few prize students, earning the undying gratitude of the local citizenry. The obligatory romantic subplot involves school principal Bruce (Donald Cook) and substitute teacher Ellen (Hope Manning, later billed as Irene Manning). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hollywood Party was planned as a lavish, star-studded MGM musical titled Hollywood Revue of 1933. Under the less-than-sterling guidance of "kicked upstairs" MGM producer Harry Rapf, production dragged on interminably, using up the talents of five directors (none of whom were credited) and seven writers. The "all star" cast lineup slowly dwindled down to comparatively inexpensive contract players Jimmy Durante and Jack Pearl (radio's Baron Munchhausen) and a passel of non-MGM personalities. The final product wove a goofy story about The Great Schnarzan (Durante), a jungle-movie star whose films are suffering at the box office because his lions are anemic. Schnarzan schemes to purchase several healthy lions from Baron Munchhausen; to get the baron into a bargaining mood, Schnarzan throws a huge Hollywood party in Munchhausen's honor. Liondora (George Givot), Schnarzan's "hated rival", hopes to purchase the Baron's lions for himself, and crashes the party disguised as a Greek Baron. Also figuring into the plot are the members of the Klemp family (Charles Butterworth, Polly Moran and June Clyde), who are filthy rich and thus quite attractive to both Schnarzan and Liondora; poor-but-honest Eddie Quillan, who romances the Klemp's daughter; and Schnarzan's ex-girlfriend Lupe Velez, who shows up at the party in an astonishingly revealing gown for the express purpose of making trouble. In an amusing animated sequence courtesy of Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse introduces the Technicolor musical exploits of "The Hot Chocolate Soldiers." Shortly before the end, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy make a welcome appearance as a pair of lion-farm owners who wish to collect a debt from Baron Munchhausen. This segues into the classic egg-breaking sequence involving Stan, Ollie, and Lupe Velez. Now we've reached the 65 minute mark, with no logical ending in sight. Director Allan Dwan, brought into the project at the last minute, took a look at the existing footage and declared "It's a nightmare!" Inspired, Dwan directed a closing sequence which suggested that the whole plot had been dreamed by Jimmy Durante; Durante is wakened from his slumbers by his wife--played by Mrs. Jimmy Durante. Hollywood Party makes no sense at all, but it's a must for comedy lovers and 1930s film buffs. Don't miss that opening number, written by Rodgers and Hart and performed by Frances Williams and a chorus of barely dressed telephone operators; and keep an eye peeled for a lengthy uncredited appearance by the Three Stooges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Maggie Warren (Marie Dressler) is the matriarch of a banking family who has run the Warren Bank for years, until she turns it over to her son John (Norman Foster) to run, following his marriage to Helen (Anita Page). Maggie and Helen's mother Lizzie (Polly Moran) don't really get along that well, but they tolerate each other -- barely -- for the sake of the children and grandchildren. Then comes the stock market crash, and the Great Depression, and the wave of bank failures -- and a rumor that starts a run on Maggie's bank, just as her son has lost all of the personal bonds, with which she had always secured the depositors' holdings against such an emergency, in a get-rich-quick scheme that collapsed. It takes every bit of personal persuasiveness that Maggie can muster, along with a lot of luck, to keep the bank afloat, and Lizzie -- whose own holdings may have gone up in smoke with the rest of the bank's assets -- won't stop needling her. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The titular hands belong to Lionel Barrymore, who plays a prominent defense attorney. To save his daughter (Madge Evans) from a cad (Alan Mobray), Barrymore murders the man and arranges to make the deed look like suicide. The victim's mistress (Kay Francis) suspects foul play, but the lawyer has done his cover-up job too well. Barrymore very nearly pulls off his ruse--until the corpse itself has the "last word." The central gimmick of Guilty Hands, in which Barrymore establishes an alibi by positioning a revolving cardboard silhouette to create a continually moving shadow, was later appropriated for comic purposes in the Astaire-Rogers musical Gay Divorcee (34). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a female mayoral candidate promises to rid the town of gangsters. She joined the race in the first place when her daughter got involved with a young mobster who has been framed for a murder. With her manager's assistance, the candidate rallies all the women in town and gets them to stop taking care of their husbands unless the men vote for her. It works like a charm and the woman is elected. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Paid was the third film version of the Bayard Veiller stage play Within the Law. Joan Crawford is cast as a shopgirl falsely arrested for stealing and sent to jail for three years. She swears vengeance on the store owner (Purnell Pratt), and to that end sets up a shady but legal racket wherein she and partner Marie Prevost act as "matchmakers" for lonely old men. It's all part of a plan to fleece the store owner by placing him in a compromising position, but Joan is sidetracked when she meets the owner's son (Kent Douglass. Marrying him in order to exact revenge on his father, Crawford falls in love with the young man and abandons her scheme. But once more, Crawford is wrongly accused of a crime, this time of murder. Paid ends happily for all concerned--especially MGM, which remade this reliable property (again!) under its old title Within the Law (1939), with Ruth Hussey in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Screenland magazine summed up the William Haines vehicle The Girl Said No thusly: "The star plays another of his cut-up roles that make the critics gnash their teeth and the audience chortle." Had this review been printed in the 1990s, the character played by Haines might have been labelled a demented stalker; in 1930, however, he was merely whimsically over-enthusiastic. The star plays go-getting bond salesman Tom Ward, who can't take no for an answer when his sweetie Mary Howe (Leila Hyams) throws him over in favor of a collar-ad wimp named McAndrews (Francis X. Bushman Jr.) Tom continues to hound Mary at home and at her job, and when all other tactics fail, he kidnaps her from her own wedding, merrily driving off with the outraged heroine bound and gagged in the back seat! Almost as "funny" as this denouement is the scene in which Tom poses as a doctor and gets his "patient" roaring drunk. Only the antics of Marie Dressler (as a reclusive Hetty Green-style financier) and Polly Moran save this so-called comedy from being an utter disaster. The dialogue in The Girl Said No was written by Charles MacArthur, who hopefully didn't use Bill Haines's caveman tactics while courting his own bride, actress Helen Hayes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide