Frank Morgan Movies

Joe Smith and Charlie Dale, the Jewish-dialect comedy team famous for their "Dr. Kronkheit" sketch, provide comic relief in Heart of New York, a filmization of Smith and Dale's Broadway hit Mendel Inc. The team costars with another Hebraic comedian, George Sidney, who portrays good-natured plumber Mendel Maranta. Mendel goes into business for himself after inventing a revolutionary washing machine, accruing wealth beyond his wildest dreams. The ex-plumber learns all too soon that money and happiness are not necessarily hand-in-hand commodities, especially in dealing with the romantic misadventures of daughter Marion Byron. Smith and Dale portray Schnapps and Strudel, a pair of bickering professional matchmakers. The team never became full-fledged movie stars, but Heart of New York showcases their talents to excellent advantage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, two partners in the garter business fight for control and decide to play a round of poker to settle their differences. The winner will get to run the company for a year while the loser will serve as his butler. Meanwhile a pretty girl falls in love with one of their sons. Songs include: "Everything Will Happen for the Best" (B.G. DeSylva, Lewis E. Gensler), "Brother, Just Laugh It Off" (Arthur Schwartz, Ralph Rainger), "It Seems to Me", "I'm Afraid of You" (Dick Howard, Rainger), "I Love the Girls in My Own Peculiar Way" (E.Y. Harburg, Henry Souvain). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Having long enjoyed a near-legendary status because of its general unavailability, Dangerous Nan McGrew inevitably disappoints when seen today. In her only starring feature role, Helen Kane, the original "Boop-boop-a-doop" girl, stars as an entertainer in a travelling medicine show. While her boss Doc Foster (Victor Moore) peddles his snake oil and picks as many pockets as possible, Nan shows off her skills as a singer and sharpshooter. Through a series of improbable plot twists, Doc's little show becomes a rendezvous for bank robber Muldoon (Frank Morgan), RCMP officer Bob Dawes (James Hall), and all-around dufus Eustace Macy (Stu Erwin). The comedy sequences are strictly from hunger, and the songs aren't much better, but Helen Kane's sheer likability -- and the combined comic expertise of Victor Moore (in his first talkie) and Frank Morgan -- save the film from being a complete waste of time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 and Paramount on Parade, due mainly to the film's master of ceremonies, the insufferable Frank Fay. Some of the individual acts seen in Show of Shows were pretty good, notably Winnie Lightner's delightful Singing in the Bathtub (a spoof of Hollywood Revue of 1929's Singin' in the Rain) and John Barrymore's brilliant rendition of Richard III's soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry VI. Also easy to take was "Floradora Sextette," featuring such luminaries as Myrna Loy, Patsy Ruth Miller and cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin, and "Eight Sister Acts," including such Hollywood siblings as Dolores and Helene Costello, Sally Blane and Loretta Young and Shirley Mason and Viola Dana (also teamed in this number are Ann Sothern and Marion Byron, who were not sisters). But for the most part, the acts are on a par with "Skull and Crossbones," a boring production number showcasing entertainer Ted Lewis, and "Recitations," a one-joke affair in which three different anecdotes (related by Frank Fay, Louis Fazenda, Lloyd Hamilton and Bea Lillie) are melded into one. Show of Shows was originally released in two-color Technicolor but now exists only in black in white, save for the "Chinese Fantasy" number featuring crooner Nick Lucas and Warner Bros. contractee Myrna Loy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Billy Laidlaw (Kenneth Harlan) sees Peggy Laurence (Bebe Daniels) and her partner, Matt Wilde (T. Roy Barnes), performing at a Bowery amateur night, he resolves to help them. They do well on Broadway, thanks to Laidlaw, who begins falling in love with Peggy, even though he already has a wife, Grace (Helen Lee Worthing). World War I breaks out and Laidlaw enlists. Peggy becomes a "Y" entertainer so she can be near him, while Grace becomes a Red Cross nurse. There is an enemy attack, and Peggy has to choose between saving Laidlaw and saving an entire battalion. She chooses the battalion and becomes temporarily blinded in the fray. Grace nurses her back to health and they both assume that Laidlaw has been lost. When he shows up, Peggy does the right
thing and sends him back to Grace. This drama was based on the play by Channing Pollock and Edgar Selwyn. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Tom Macaulay (Thomas Meighan) and his brother Edwin (Russell Griffin) both hold positions at the bank belonging to their father (Charles Stevenson). Edwin takes forty thousand dollars from the bank to play the stock market, but he loses it all. Lon Morris, a rival banker (Frank Morgan), tips off the state banking commission. To save his brother, Tom takes the blame and is sent to prison. While he is locked up, his sweetheart, Nora Brooks (Virginia Valli) agrees to marry Morris. On her wedding night, Tom breaks out of prison long enough to beat up Morris, and tell Nora that she has married a scoundrel. After he is released permanently, Tom robs Morris' bank in an effort to frame him. Morris has already been misusing funds, and when he sneaks into his own bank to steal more money, he is shot by the night watchman. Tom and the now-widowed Nora are finally united. This drama of finance, prison, and revenge was not one of Booth Tarkington's best stories, and the film was not one of Thomas Meighan's best pictures. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

A young socialite will do almost anything to get her errand husband back in this society comedy starring the on (and off) screen team of Claire Windsor and Bert Lytell. Returning from a vacation in Paris, Chaydeane Fairfax (Windsor) learns that her husband Jimmy (Lytell) has been keeping company with flapper Frances Melrose (Doris Kenyon). In desperation, Chaydeane pretends to have fallen for jazz hound Jack le Moyne (Cullen Landis), but her behavior instead drives poor Jimmy to commit further indiscretions. The couple is reunited, however, when Jimmy appears to have lost his fortune, causing Frances to lose interest. The starring quartet of this film -- Windsor, Lytell, Kenyon and Landis all belonged to the Hollywood B-list, popular and dependable performers who just missed becoming major stars. Windsor and Lytell would marry in 1925, but the union proved to be short-lived. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Knife was adapted from the same-named stage play by Eugene Walter. Alice Brady headed the cast as Southern belle Kate Tarleton, who comes to New York in search of her destiny. Unwise in the ways of the Wicked City, Kate is soon picked up by a no-good who plies her with drugs and then seduces her. Her hometown sweetheart is all for killing the man who "done her wrong" but is dissuaded by surgeon Robert Manning (Frank Morgan), who believes he can "cure" the caddish seducer via a radical form of brain surgery. Adding texture to the tale is the fact that Dr. Manning is the brother of his experimental patient. According to the trade magazine Variety, the harsher elements of the original stage play were toned down to accommodate the recently strengthened censorship limitations of the period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joyce (June Caprice) and Polly (Betty Prendergast) are sisters; their mother's task is to get Polly, the elder girl, married off before too many people begin taking notice of the younger, more comely Joyce. Polly does have two suitors, Tom (Frank Morgan) and Harry (Stanhope Wheatcroft). When Polly starts giving Harry more attention, Joyce and Tom pretend to have a romance in an effort to make Polly jealous, and get her interested once again in Tom. This scheme, of course, backfires because Tom falls in love with Joyce (who was in love with him anyhow), and Polly, at least, has Harry. In spite of the title, there's not very much of a Cinderella type plot here, except for a ball held at the sisters' house, where Joyce loses her slipper. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Margaret Mayo's stage hit Baby Mine was a very slight piece, but evidently held out infinite fascinations for filmmakers: no fewer than three movie adaptations were made between 1917 and 1928. In this first version, Madge Kennedy plays a young bride whose husband (Frank Morgan) walks out after a quarrel. Hoping to make him come crawling back, Kennedy pretends to have given birth to a baby. Complications ensue when Morgan returns home, demanding to see his new kid. It would be fun to see Baby Mine again, if only to watch Wizard of Oz Morgan as an athletic young family man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a group of reformers, led by Mrs. Bowers (Gladys Fairbanks), closes down the red light district, district attorney Osborne (Franklin Hanna) believes it bodes ill for the town. Hattie Fenshaw (Christine Mayo), one of the area's former inhabitants, moves in next door to one of the reformers. Not only is Bryant Harding (Anders Randolph) paying her rent, Dudley Carleton (Frank Morgan) has become so besotted with her that he's broken his engagement to Betty Hamlin (Evelyn Brent). Betty meets Hattie and, unaware of her business, comes by to visit. She interrupts a little party which includes her ex-fiancé and Harding's son, Hal (William Sherwood). Harding himself then arrives, and in the ensuing confusion, almost shoots Betty -- who, it turns out is his daughter. At this juncture, the DA, Mrs. Bowers and some other reformers arrive and find out who their neighbor is. The reformers start to think that perhaps having a red light district for the "girls" isn't so bad after all. The attitude of this picture suggests that perhaps the 1910s wasn't as stuffy an era as typically thought. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Anita Stewart may have received top billing in Vitagraph's The Suspect, but the true star of the proceedings was S. Rankin Drew, who also directed the picture. Set in France and Russia, the plot revolves around the cruelties of Russian Grand Duke Karatoff (Anders Randolf, known to friends and enemies alike as "the butcher." Sophie (Stewart), leader of a band of revolutionaries, attempts to assassinate Karatoff but accidentally wounds his son Paul (Drew) instead. Sophie and Paul subsequently marry, hoping to find a common ground for their individual ideologies. But the Duke spoils this plan by forcing Sophie to become his mistress. Leaving his wife in disgust, Paul is waylaid by a jealous rival, whereupon he loses his memory. Having given up Paul for dead, Sophie travels to England, where she falls in love with Sir Richard Stanhope (Frank Wupperman, who later billed himself as Frank Morgan). Much, much more happens before the melodramatic climax, in which Paul is murdered and Sophie is arrested for the crime (thereby justifying the film's title). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide