Johnnie Morris Movies
A diminutive comedian/supporting actor, well-known in vaudeville, Johnny Morris played scores of small-time crooks, jockeys, and newspaper vendors in a screen career that lasted from 1927-1941 and included a stint as Pappy Yokum in the 1940 live-action version of Li'l Abner. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1940
Filmed with the full cooperation of the Golden Gloves Tournament Association, this Paramount programmer stars Richard Denning as promising pugilist Bill Crane. Though tempted to sign up with crooked Joe Taggerty (J. Carrol Naish) for a series of fixed bouts, Crane is saved from himself by sportswriter Wally Matson (Robert Paige), the organizer of the local Golden Gloves program. Taggerty tries to get even by pitting the amateur Crane against a seasoned professional, but to no avail. James Cagney's sister Jeanne Cagney is an appealing heroine, while Crane's duplicitious ring opponent is played by Robert Ryan in his first screen appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Denning, J. Carrol Naish, (more)
- 1940
This is the first of two filmed adaptations of Al Capp's classic comic strip, in which the title hillbilly (Granville Owen) does his best to avoid the marital advances of girlfriend Daisy Mae (Martha O'Driscoll). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Granville Owen
- 1939
The "Little Tough Guys" get involved in a circulation war between a paper with underhanded tactics and a paper being mismanaged by the woman who inherited it. The Tough Guys' leader is partial to the latter, since it took him in when his sheriff father was murdered. He helps draw readers away from the other paper and gets to avenge his father's death, since the man playing dirty is his father's killer. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Cooper, Edmund Lowe, (more)
- 1939
The Star Maker is the story (with variations) of vaudeville enterpreneur Gus Edwards, here played by Bing Crosby. Determining that he can attain the uppermost showbiz rungs by spotlighting new, untried talents, Edwards rises to fame by hiring preteen boys and girls for his touring acts, the most famous of which is his "schoolroom" routine. Among Edwards' more prominent discoveries were Eddie Cantor, Georgie Jessel, Bert Wheeler, Walter Winchell and Mae Murray, none of whom are depicting in the film (though composer Walter Damrosch is portrayed "By Himself"). Paramount intended The Star Maker as a showcase for a whole new crop of "stars in the making", though the studio's own discoveries were destined for obscurity--with the exception of Janet Waldo, who in 1997 was still providing the voice of Judy Jetson for a series of TV commercials. Louise Campbell provides the nominal romantic interest as Edwards' super-supportive wife, while a welcome note of cynicism is introduced by the ineffable Ned Sparks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Louise Campbell, (more)
- 1939
This film should have been a press agent's dream: Hollywood's two greatest "big mouths," Joe E. Brown and Martha Raye, together in the same picture. Brown and Raye play a show business couple who inherit a near-bankrupt college. They decide to build up the school's scraggly football team in hopes of improving alumni funding; somewhere along the line it is agreed to grant one thousand dollars for every touchdown scored, hence the title. Slapstick opportunities abound, and with the two stars at the helm, the film should have been far funnier than it is. But thanks to uninspired direction and a threadbare budget, $1000 a Touchdown was a disappointment for fans of both Martha Raye and Joe E. Brown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Martha Raye, (more)
- 1938
The popularity of both Bob Hope and the sentimental tune "Thanks for the Memory" by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin in The Big Broadcast of 1938 led to this plodding little domestic comedy-drama in which Hope plays a stay-at-home author and Shirley Ross his working wife. The situation is, of course, ripe for misunderstandings, and soon each spouse accuses the other of infidelity, with everything neatly solved in the final reel. In addition to the title tune, Hope and Ross also perform Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser's "Two Sleepy People." The film was an unofficial remake of the 1931 production Up Pops the Devil. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Shirley Ross, (more)
- 1938
Stablemates is a typically treacly vehicle for Wallace Beery, who goes through his usual slobbery paces as an eternally inebriated ex-veterinarian named Tom Terry. Aspiring jockey Mickey (Mickey Rooney) idolizes Tom, who reciprocates by passing along horsemanship advice to the boy. The film's dramatic high point is the scene in which Tom, his judgement benumbed by years of alcohol abuse, tries to pull himself long enough to perform a delicate operation on Mickey's beloved horse Lady-Q. It goes without saying perhaps that the film culminates in the standard Big Race, with Mickey and Tom pinning their hopes on the obligatory "long shot." Just as Mickey Rooney has replaced Jackie Cooper as Beery's juvenile costar in Stablemates, so too has Margaret Hamilton supplanted the late Marie Dressler as Beery's romantic sparring partner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Mickey Rooney, (more)
- 1938
Sons of the Legion is a showcase for Paramount's juvenile-talent pool-specifically, Donald O'Connor, Billy Lee and Billy Cook. The plotline is motivated by the formation of a Boy Scout-like organization, formed by members of the American Legion. Billy (Lee) and Davy (Cook) would like to join the group, but their father Charles (Lynne Overman) won't let them. It turns out that Charles was dishonorably discharged from the army, and hopes to keep this information a secret. Redeeming himself by capturing a dangerous criminal, Charles finally permits his boys to join the Sons of the Legion, secure in the knowledge that his past sins have been forgiven. Top-billed Donald O'Connor does a neat Mickey Rooney turn as soft-hearted tough kid Butch Baker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald O'Connor, Billy Lee, (more)
- 1938
Barefoot Boy is a throwback to the sort of bucolic family fare in which Monogram Pictures specialized in the early 1930s. Loosely inspired by the John Greenleaf Whittier poem of the same name, the film stars Jackie Moran as Billy Whittaker, a country lad whose idyllic lifestyle is thrown into confusion upon the arrival of arrogant reform-school graduate Kenneth Hale (Bradley Metcalf). Not only does Kenneth tear down everything that Billy holds dear, but he also has the audacity to make a play for Billy's sweetheart Pige Blaine (Marcia Mae Jones). Eventually Kenneth reforms his ways and becomes a "regular guy", but not without a bit of bare-knuckle persuasion from Billy and a brief escapade involving a gang of out-of-town bond swindlers. The film was directed by Karl Brown, a former cinematographer with an unerring eye for gorgeous exterior shots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Moran, Marcia Mae Jones, (more)
- 1936
On New Year's Eve, aspiring actress Julia Wayne (Joan Bennett) and chronic gambler Larry Stevens (Joel McCrea), both flat broke, each find one-half of a $1000 banknote. They decide to invest their windfall in a race horse and jockey, in hopes of financing a theatrical career for Julia and a new start in life for Larry. Unfortunately, the thousand-dollar note turns out to be stolen, dropped in haste during a bank robbery. This gets hero, heroine and horse mixed up with the crooks, and for a while it looks as though the nag won't show up for the climactic Big Race. Even after the horse arrives at the starting gate, he refuses to gallop until he spies the cart that he used to haul around for coal peddler Jonesy (Andy Clyde). After a great opening, Two in a Crowd runs out of gas, but the two stars are always worth watching. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Bennett, Joel McCrea, (more)
- 1929
In this drama, a junkman, Maurice Chevalier in his American film debut, rescues a drowning boy from the Seine. The boy's mother had been attempting to kill herself and her son as well. The junkman cannot save the mother. He takes the boy to his grandfather. There he encounters the boy's aunt with whom he falls in love. The junkman is spotted while singing in the Flea Market and is hired to sing in a music hall. One of the owners is afraid that the junkman will fall for one of the chorines and begs him to leave, but the junkman is hooked and will not leave. Songs include: "Yes, We have No Bananas", "Les Ananas", "Dites-Moi, Ma Mere", "Louise", "Wait Till You See My Cherie", "It's A Habit of Mine", and "On Top of the World Alone" and "Valentine". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Chevalier, Russell Simpson, (more)
- 1929
Child star Frank "Junior" Coghlan's final film on his DeMille-Pathe contract was the military-academy drama Square Shoulders. After the death of his mother, young Tad (Coghlan) is made a ward of a newsboy's home. Proud of the Distinguished Service Cross left to him by his reportedly dead war-hero father, Tad organizes his fellow "newsies" into an ersatz army. His authority is challenged by wealthy military-school cadet Eddie (Phillipe De Lacy), but after an initial scrap, Tad and Eddie become good pals. Later on, when Tad is left a hefty sum of money by an unknown benefactor, he signs up at the same academy attended by Eddie. Little does Tad suspect that the academy's seedy stablehand Slag (Louis Wolheim) is actually his own father, who did not die on the battlefield but instead spent several years in prison. Not even after Slag sacrifices his own life to save Tad's does the boy ever learn the truth. Conceived as a silent film, Square Shoulders was transformed into a "talkie" by the expedient of adding sound to the final reel (unfortunately, only the silent version survives). Also appearing in the film are two second-generation Hollywoodites, Erich Von Stroheim Jr. and Chuck Reisner Jr. (later known as Dean Reisner). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Wolheim, Philippe DeLacy, (more)
- 1928
Wallace Beery appeared in this silent film with intertitles, a dark drama of hobo life. Jim (Richard Arlen), a wanderer, comes upon young Nancy (Louise Brooks), who has just killed the guardian who was trying to rape her. Disguised as a boy, she takes off with Jim and rides the rails to a hobo camp led by Arkansas Snake (Robert Perry). When Oklahoma Red (Beery) takes over the camp, he begins to pursue Nancy, but before he can take her from Jim, the detectives show up to arrest her. He escapes with Nancy and Jim, and when he sees how much they love each other, Red helps them escape by creating a diversion, during which the detectives kill him. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks, (more)
- 1928
Bebe Daniels struck a blow for feminism--for at least 6 reels, that is--in The Fifty-Fifty Girl. It all begins when Kathleen O'Hara (Daniels) and Jim Donahue (James Hall) find themselves joint owners of a gold mine. Each party would like to get rid of the other and take full ownership. Thus, they strike a deal that might serve as an amusing I Love Lucy plot: O'Hara will dig for gold, while Donahue will stay home and do the housework. The first one to pull out of this agreement will forfeit his or her share. This being a 1920s film, it's O'Hara who weakens first when she's attacked by the villains, but by this time Donahue has fallen in love with her for real, so it's "share and share alike" at fadeout time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, James Hall, (more)
- 1928
Street of Sin was the final American film of Scandinavian director Mauritz Stiller, whose inability to adapt to Hollywood (and vice versa) forced him to return to Sweden where he died, dispirited and disillusioned, not long after the release of this film. The story is set in the seamy Soho section of London, where burglar Basher Bill (Emil Jannings) shares bed and board with his sluttish girlfriend Annie (Olga Baclanova). As wicked as they come, Bill softens when he meets virtuous Salvation Army lass Elizabeth (Fay Wray). He helps her take care of a group of orphans, abandoned in the Army's care. The jealous Annie, assuming (correctly) that her boyfriend's interest in Elizabeth goes far beyond sympathy, betrays Bill to the cops. Mortally wounded in the climactic gun battle, Bill holds no grudge against Annie: in fact, as he breathes his last, he advises her to save her soul by joining the Salvation Army -- which she does! Since the film no longer exists, it is hard to tell whether Street of Sin was truly worthy of Stiller's talents; chances are, however, that Paramount heavily tampered with the film before its release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emil Jannings, Fay Wray, (more)
