Tom O'Brien Movies

Buster the dog is the star of this comedy as he stays loyal to his master through good times and bad times. ~ All Movie Guide

This drama, made while New York mayor Jimmy Walker was still being reviled by newspapers for similar actions, follows a big-city mayor who loves sports, the theater, the night life, and a beautiful actress. When the press gets a hold of this information and a scandal ensues, he has the actress marry his writer friend to get the media off his back. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

In this romantic crime drama, a railroad telegraph dispatcher loses his job after a train crash. He tries to convince his superiors that he had no choice because he was tied up by crooks and was unable to pull the switch that could have saved the title train. The dispatcher's little brother also loses his job causing both of them to launch private investigations into the situation. The find that the whole mess revolves around another's desperate desire for the dispatcher's girl friend. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a woman falls for a rumrunner who promises to quit bootlegging and marry her. But first he needs to make one more trip. To assist him she is supposed to warn him of any danger by flashing a light from the coast. Unfortunately, a government agent intervenes, stops her and catches the smuggler. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director Tay Garnett was still billing himself as "Taylor" when he helmed the patchy actioner The Flying Fool. The title character, played by William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd, is a fearless aviator; his brother, Russell Gleason, is Boyd's rival in the air and on the ground. Both brothers vie for the attention of svelte nightclub singer Marie Prevost, who is faithful to both in her fashion. Boyd wins the girl, but that's hardly the end of the story. A lengthy vignette from The Flying Fool resurfaced in the late 1970s as a prime example of a "bad" early talkie on a TV retrospective of Hollywood in the 1920s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Reginald Denny starred in this comedy, a part-talkie about a zealous real-estate dealer in love with his client's daughter. Charles Blaydon (Denny) is eager to sell a fashionable suburban house to Weaver (Harvey Clarke), a wealthy art collector, mainly because he has fallen in love with Weaver's brunette daughter Kay (Lorayne DuVal). But there is a catch: In order to unload the mansion, Charles must also sell the neighboring property. Mistaking a gang of thieves for potential buyers, Charles invites them to dinner at the Weavers, where the gang proceeds to steal the valuable Weaver objets d'art. Old man Weaver, however, is delighted with his new "friends" and refuses to believe that they are thieves -- that is, until the gang leader (Eddie Phillips) kidnaps Kay, with Charles in hot pursuit. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a producer reopens a theater where five years before, a lead actor was killed on stage during a performance. The murder remained unsolved. To solve the mystery, the producer stages the same play with the same cast. As the play is performed, the same series of events occurs and the lead actor vanishes. It is eventually discovered that a masked stage manager is behind the it all. He has set up the whole thing to force stockholders to withdraw from the production. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Untamed was touted by MGM as Joan Crawford's talking-picture debut, even though she'd already been heard as well as seen in Hollywood Revue of 1929. Best described as Somerset Maugham on toast, the film casts Crawford as Bingo, an oil heiress who has been raised in the tropics. When her rough-and-tumble guardians Murchison (Ernest Torrence) and Presley (Holmes Herbert) decide it is time to "civilize" the girl, they take her to New York, intending to indoctrinate her in the proper social graces. En route to Manhattan, Bingo falls in love with Andy (Robert Montgomery), whose lack of money and breeding means nothing to her. But when Andy finds out that Bingo is worth millions, he avoids her like the plague, refusing to live off the girl's riches. At her first high-society party, Bingo shocks the New York elite with her crude behavior, going so far as to punch out snooty debutante Marjory (Gwen Lee). Later on, Andy breaks Bingo's heart by again refusing to marry her and running off with Marjory. In desperation, Bingo grabs a gun and pumps Andy full of lead -- which has the curious effect of convincing him that she'll make the perfect bride! Aside from Joan Crawford's scintillating performance, Untamed is difficult to swallow when seen today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a clerk suffers an inferiority complex after he is fired. He is then mistaken for the boss by an author's daughter who offers her his newest manuscript. The clerk likes impersonating his former boss and so attends a publishing convention where he heavily promotes the book. The book becomes quite the hit, and the clerk not only gets his job back, he also gets the daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Having been in show biz since infancy, Broadway chorus girl Beatrice (Virginia Brown Faire) regrets her lack of formal education. Upon unexpectedly falling heir to a huge sum of money, Beatrice decides to make up for lost time by enrolling in a fancy girl's school. Though many of her snooty classmates shun her, our heroine makes a valuable friend in the form of the daughter (Thelma Hill) of an oil-company executive (Bryant Washburn). Said executive falls in love with Beatrice, much to the dismay of wealthy widow Mrs. Garrett (Hedda Hopper), who's set her sights on the man. Mrs. Garrett stirs up animosity and bigotry against Beatrice, but in the end the heroine prevails, if for no other reason than she's the nicest character in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Setting the standard for his later light-hearted biopics The Private Life of Henry VIII and Rembrandt, producer-director Alexander Korda steadfastly refuses to take any of The Private Life of Helen of Troy seriously. Maria Corda, wife of the director, plays the title character as a fetchingly underdressed coquette, oblivious to all the political turmoil she's causing when she allows the handsome Paris (Ricardo Cortez) to kidnap her. Meanwhile, poor King Menelaus (Lewis Stone), Helen's husband, stands by in stoic silence, just as he's done on previous occasions when his wife succumbed to the charms of various sexy suitors (one of whom is played by future cowboy star "Wild Bill" Elliot). Finally galvanized into action, Menelaus reclaims his bride, who seems none the worse for wear for her experiences. Just in case the audience missed the fact that the film isn't meant to be taken seriously, the producers have inserted a number of wisecracking subtitles, juxtaposing stilted "ancient" prose with up-to-date slang. And during the film's New York engagement, the scene in which the Trojan Horse appears was accompanied by an orchestral rendition of Horses, Horses, Horses! The Private Life of Helen of Troy was supposed to have been based on a novel by John Erskine, but don't you believe it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide