Carroll Nye Movies

This comedy was based on a novel by author Edna Ferber. Although she is merely a classified ads employee, Babs Comet (Corinne Griffith) is determined to have the finer things in life. She spends all her money on clothes and eschews the subway, preferring instead to entice wealthy young men into driving her home -- of course, if any of them get fresh, she lets them have it. One man, however, won't play her game and he turns out to be garage mechanic Lloyd Whiting (Jack Mulhall). Naturally, Babs falls for him. But first she lands herself in trouble when a wealthy man puts her in a compromising position. His car "breaks down" and she is forced to spend the night walking home. Her parents (Edythe Chapman and Charles Murray) are scandalized, but the man offers to marry her. Babs turns down his offer, preferring to wed Whiting instead. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This obscure, locally-lensed silent Western starred became a minor cause célèbre for a scene in which the villain punched the heroine several times in the face! Carroll Nye and Rex, the Dog save the girl (Rada Rae) from her brutal father (Sam Allen). Young Nye's only memorable role came more than a decade later when he played Scarlett O'Hara's second husband in Gone With the Wind (1939). Death Valley was written and produced by supporting actor Raymond Wells. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Gone With the Wind boils down to a story about a spoiled Southern girl's hopeless love for a married man. Producer David O. Selznick managed to expand this concept, and Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel, into nearly four hours' worth of screen time, on a then-astronomical 3.7-million-dollar budget, creating what would become one of the most beloved movies of all time. Gone With the Wind opens in April of 1861, at the palatial Southern estate of Tara, where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) hears that her casual beau Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) plans to marry "mealy mouthed" Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). Despite warnings from her father (Thomas Mitchell) and her faithful servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett intends to throw herself at Ashley at an upcoming barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Alone with Ashley, she goes into a fit of histrionics, all of which is witnessed by roguish Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the black sheep of a wealthy Charleston family, who is instantly fascinated by the feisty, thoroughly self-centered Scarlett: "We're bad lots, both of us." The movie's famous action continues from the burning of Atlanta (actually the destruction of a huge wall left over from King Kong) through the now-classic closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Holding its own against stiff competition (many consider 1939 to be the greatest year of the classical Hollywood studios), Gone With the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar). The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be "The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adele Fenway (Pauline Frederick) is Her Honor the Governor in this complex silent drama. Upon winning the gubernatorial election, Adele discovers that her campaign was a sham: Crooked senator Jim Dornton (Stanton Heck) intends to go on running the state as he's always done, using Adele as a mere figurehead. But she's a lot more savvy than he suspects, as she proves when she successfully blocks a bit of underhanded legislation engineered by Dornton. He, in turn, threatens to reveal that, due to a legal technicality, Adele's son Bob (Carrol Nye) is illegitimate in the eyes of the law. Infuriated, Bob rushes to Dornton's home, demanding an apology -- and the next morning, the Senator is found dead. Desperately trying to save her son from a murder conviction, Adele faces imminent impeachment, but all ends happily when the actual killer is reveled. Boris Karloff appears in a small but showy role as a dope addict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Silent stars Bryant Washburn and Vera Reynolds had both seen better days by the time they made the inexpensive programmer Jazzland. The story is set in motion by newspaper reporter Carroll Nye, (remember him as Frank Kennedy in Gone With the Wind?) who opposes the construction of a nightclub in his respectable small town. Trouble is, the brains behind the club is a mysterious Mister Big who keeps himself hidden from view. While trying to uncover the owner's identity, Nye's brother Forrest Stanley is killed. Good-natured "jazz baby" Vera Reynolds puts her own life in jeopardy to avenge Stanley's murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in India, Arabia, and Darkest Africa, this 12-chapter Mascot Pictures serial had been created for Harry Carey and Edwina Booth, the stars of MGM's highly anticipated Trader Horn (1930). That film, however, needed quite a bit of re-tooling and producer Nat Levine had to settle for lesser names Walter Miller and Nora Lane. A top serial leading man of the 1920s, Miller played a soldier of fortune, falsely accused of murder, who tracks the real killer to the jungles of Africa. Once there, he aligns himself with a young girl (Lane), whose brother (Carroll Nye) has stumbled on a secret diamond mine. Boris Karloff, in his fourth and last serial for Mascot, played one of the villain's henchmen. In the serial's second chapter, "Man-Eaters," the future Frankenstein monster flings poor Carroll Nye into a pit containing -- of all things -- the first and only African tiger. The redoubtable Nye survives not only this surprising encounter, but is also confronted with a bizarre half-man, half-beast creature named Bimi and played by Cyril McLaglen, brother of Victor. Containing one of the more eclectic casts in any serial, King of the Wild also featured the delightful Mischa Auer as an escaped lunatic, Laurel and Hardy regular Dorothy Christy as a society dame, veteran action star Tom Santschi as the killer, and real-life explorer/actor Albert DeWinton. In a case of life imitating art, DeWinton disappeared and apparently perished during an expedition to the Amazon River shortly after finishing this serial. King of the Wild was filmed at Yuma, AZ, and Bronson Caverns (the future "Bat-Cave") in Los Angeles' Griffith Park. A seven-reel feature version was released under the title Bimi. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Land of the Silver Fox was one of the last silent starring vehicles for celebrated canine star Rin Tin Tin. In this one, Rinty heads to the Canadian Northwest, where he befriends likeable fox trapper Carroll Nye. The "human" hero is in love with Leila Hyams, the ward of duplicitous trading-camp operator John Miljan. In league with all-around bad guy Tom Santschi, Miljan tries to dispose of Nye so that he can have Hyams all to himself. But the villains haven't reckoned with Rin Tin Tin, who can be a mighty tough customer when he's got his fur up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alexandre Brisson's weepy 1906 play had already been filmed three times when the 1929 talkie Madame X made its debut. Ruth Chatterton stars as a low-born wife of a socialite, whose aristocratic in-laws kick her out when she gives birth to a baby boy of dubious parentage. The boy, who has been led to believe his mother is dead, grows up to become a renowned attorney (Raymond Hackett). Mama Chatterton takes to the streets, but proudly monitors her son's progress from afar. When Chatterton is accused of murder, her defense attorney is none other than her son. She refuses to tell him the truth about their relationship, even though that information may make the difference between execution and exoneration. Madame X would be remade three more times over the next five decades; to avoid confusion with these later versions, the 1929 Madame X has been retitled Absinthe for its TV showings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1917 and 1932, Kate Douglas Wiggins' bucolic novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is herein refashioned--and completely, totally, utterly rewritten--as a vehicle for 10-year-old Shirley Temple. Unable to land a radio contract for himself and his niece Rebecca Winstead (Temple), fly-by-night vaudevillian Henry Kipper (William Demarest) leaves the girl in the care of her aunt, Miranda Wilkins (Helen Westley), who runs a little farm with the help of hired hands Homer (Slim Summerville) and Aloysius (Bill Robinson). Miranda has an intense dislike for "show folks", but her next-door neighbor Anthony Kent (Randolph Scott), a talent scout for a major radio network, sees great possibilities in the talented Rebecca and secretly arranges an audition. In short order, Rebecca becomes the biggest sensation on the airwaves, whereupon the mercenary Kipper returns out of nowhere and demands that Miranda return the girl to his care. By now, Rebecca and Miranda have grown to love one another dearly, and the girl doesn't want to leave the farm, but she does what she is told--only to foil the conniving Kipper with a convenient last-minute "illness" (a scene that provides a showcase role for Franklin Pangborn) as a nervous standby organist). Future Titanic costar Gloria Stuart appears as Gwen Warren, obligatory love interest for Anthony Kent. Musical highlights include a medley of hit tunes from Shirley Temple's previous films (including, inevitably, "On the Good Ship Lollipop"), and a climactic tap duet spotlighting Temple and the inimitable Bill Robinson, danced to the tune of Raymond Scott's "Toy Trumpet". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A strong-willed young man creates a rift with his father when turns down a safe position in the family business and becomes a traveling musician. Eventually he returns to his father's ad agency to settle down, but he proves to be a trouble maker. When he falls in love with the daughter of his father's biggest professional rival and both companies start fighting over a lucrative pickle account, things really turn topsy-turvy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Belle Bennett, the long-suffering leading lady of Stella Dallas (1926), heads the cast of Columbia's The Sporting Age. The story is motivated by a train wreck which causes racetrack owner Holmes Herbert to temporarily lose his eyesight. Taking advantage of this, Herbert's straying wife Bennett carries on an affair with her husband's male secretary Carroll Nye. What neither of the illicit lovers realize is that Herbert has recovered his vision somewhat ahead of schedule -- and he isn't missing a thing! How long will it be before Bennett and Nye find out that Herbert sees all and knows all? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide