Monty O'Grady Movies
A member of the early Our Gang group, child actor Monty O'Grady appeared in Our Gang (1922), A Pleasant Journey (1923), Dogs of War (1923), and Every Man for Himself (1924). O'Grady was Splutters, one of Mary Pickford's fellow orphans in Sparrows, and Lafe McKee's little son in the Western Baited Trap (1926). Although he disappears from film credits after 1927, apparently Monty O'Grady continued to appear in films (and later television) for the remainder of his life, mainly as an extra. He died at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA, oddly enough on the very same day as yet another silent screen child actor, Stanley Goethals. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1995
- PG13
High schooler Angus (Charlie Talbert), a jumbo-sized lad, seems underappreciated in all aspects of his life: he is a standout offensive lineman on the football team, but golden-boy quarterback Rick (James Van der Beek) gets all the accolades for his blood, sweat, and pass-blocking; he is also an outstanding student, but his classmates still regard him as a dork; the girl of his dreams (Arian Richards), Rick's girlfriend, seems to ignore him. Only when Angus musters the courage to put on a maroon tuxedo and head off to the school dance at the urging of his loving, free-spirit mom (Kathy Bates) does he finally get the recognition he deserves (as does Rick, who attempts to publicly humiliate Angus with a cruel prank). While the story is familiar, director Patric Johnson and the entire cast infuse the film with real warmth, making Angus a winner (as does its refreshing attitude toward violence). ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Talbert, George C. Scott, (more)
Cary Grant made his last film appearance before retiring from the screen in this agreeable piece of fluff based on the 1943 comedy The More the Merrier, which dealt with the romantic complications inherent in the housing shortage in Washington D.C. during World War II. In Walk, Don't Run, the story is updated to a housing shortage in Tokyo during the Olympic Games of 1964. British industrialist Sir William Rutland (Cary Grant) arrives in Tokyo two days before the start of the games and cannot find any suitable accommodations. As a result, he answers an ad for an "apartment to share" and convinces the occupant, Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar), to rent a room to him. The next day he meets the handsome Steve Davis (Jim Hutton), a member of the United States Olympic walking team. Steve also needs a room and convinces Christine to take him on as a second tenant. After meeting Christine's pompous fiancé, Julius D. Haversack (John Standing), Rutland begins to ply his matchmaking skills in an effort to get Christine and Steve to fall in love with each other. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Samantha Eggar, (more)
- 1957
Edward Chodorov's stage farce Oh, Men! Oh, Women! is somewhat unnecessarily overburdened by star names in this 1957 film version. Dan Dailey plays psychiatrist Arthur Turner, who is somewhat put out when he discovers that one of his patients is the ex-boyfriend of his supposedly "normal" fiancée, Myra Hagerman (Barbara Rush). Having always prided himself on keeping his professional and personal life separated, Dr. Turner finds that he's just as mixed up as any of his patients in matters of the heart. Nominally, David Niven and Barbara Rush are the stars, but top billing is bestowed upon Dan Dailey and Ginger Rogers as bickering married couple Arthur and Mildred Turner, two secondary characters in the original play. Director Nunnally Johnson's screenplay also fleshes out the roles played by Dailey and Rogers with a lengthy, amusing "fantasy" sequence wherein Ginger offers a highly fanciful version of her marital life. In his motion picture debut, Tony Randall is hilarious as Cobbler, Myra Hagerman's neurosis-ridden former beau. Watch for Franklin Pangborn and Roy Glenn Sr. in unbilled cameo roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Dailey, Ginger Rogers, (more)
- 1927
Based on a novel by Kathleen Morris, The Callahans and the Murphys was the first of several MGM films costarring veteran comediennes Marie Dressler and Polly Moran. These formidable ladies are cast as Mrs. Callahan and Mrs. Murphy, feuding tenement housewives who spend most of their time keeping their multitudes of children under control. Polly's son Dan (Lawrence Gray) falls in love with with Marie's daughter Eileen (Sally O'Neill). Dan falls into a bad crowd and disappears, leaving Eileen and with a baby on the way. Mrs. Callahan tries to save her daughter's reputation by adopting the baby, but finds to her delight that the kid was "legit" all along. The film is highlighted by the drunken antics of its two female stars: in one scene, while downing bottle after bottle of beer ("This stuff makes me see double and feel single!"), Marie and Polly begin pouring the brew down each other's blouses. So raunchy were the antics of Dressler and Moran that The Callahans and the Murphys was withdrawn from distribution after protests were lodged by various Irish-American organizations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, (more)
Sparrows, Mary Pickford's 1926 release, superbly combines the two elements--sentiment and adventure--that characterized Pickford's best work. At first glance, the film seems to be a horror picture, as satanic potato farmer Grimes (Gustav Von Seyfertitz) crushes a child's doll with his thumb and forefinger and tosses the plaything into the dismal swamps surrounding his lands. We learn that Grimes has been exploiting the children from a local orphanage, forcing them to work his farm day and night. Though collecting a hefty maintenance pay for the orphans, Grimes dresses them in rags and feeds them a starvation diet. Happily, Mary Pickford, the oldest of the orphans, has enough gumption to stand up to Grimes and prohibit him from inflicting any further atrocities. The plot thickens when a kidnaped child is left in Grimes' care in exchange for a generous portion of the ransom money. Mary rescues the abducted child, as well as all the other orphans, by leading them through the alligator-infested and quicksand-festooned swamp--a truly frightening sequence, made even more so by the use of real gators. Sparrows falters only in those scenes where Pickford, with genuine but somewhat misguided piety, "converses" with the Almighty, and in the final motorboat-chase sequence, which seems prolonged (and unnecessary!) after that heart-pounding swamp escape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Pickford, Gustav von Seyffertitz, (more)
- 1924
The Our Gang kids are sorely confused by the new kid in town, who transforms from a sissy to a tough guy and back again without warning. Little do the kids realize that this supposedly schizophrenic newcomer -- whom Mickey Daniels characterizes as "Mr. Jekyll and Dr. Hyde" -- is not one youngster, but a set of identical twins. This plot device aside, the silent Our Gang two-reeler Every Man for Himself scores its biggest laughs in the opening reel, in which the gang operates its own athletic club and shoe-shine emporium. The closing gag, one of the most painful in the Our Gang canon, has often been removed from TV showings. Every Man for Himself was originally released on October 19, 1924. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, (more)
- 1923
Originally released on July 1, 1923, the silent, two-reel Dogs of War may well have been the most schizophrenic entry in the entire Our Gang series. The film begins with an elaborate sandlot recreation of a battlefield, with the Our Gang kids staging an elaborate mock war, complete with such "artillery" as rotten eggs and overripe vegetables, and with makeshift tanks and cannons adding to the imaginary carnage. Suddenly an armistice is declared when "Red Cross Nurse" Mary Kornman is called away to the local movie studio to appear in an epic titled Should Husbands Work? for a magnificent five dollars a day. Recognizing a good thing when they see it, the rest of the kids head to the studio (actually the Hal Roach lot) and offer their services as actors. Ordered to get out and stay out, the youngsters devise a clever method to gain access to the studio where, in addition to wreaking their usual havoc, they produce a one-reel "masterpiece" that more closely resembles an Andy Warhol experimental picture of the 1960s. Watch for comedy great Harold Lloyd in an amusing cameo -- which also serves as a plug for Lloyd's latest release, Why Worry?. One TV version of Dogs of War, retitled Hollywood USA, jettisons the "war" sequence entirely, with little damage to the film's continuity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Daniels, Mary Kornman, (more)
- 1923
Not unexpectedly, the benign title of this silent, two-reel Our Gang comedy is a misnomer. Escaping from the local cop on the beat, the Our Gang kids take refuge in a railway station, where they exchange clothes with a group of runaway boys scheduled to be returned to their home in San Francisco. Unaware that a "good licking" awaits the kids in Frisco, the gang boards the train, where they are immediately placed in the care of the persnickety, child-hating boyfriend (William Gillespie) of a temporarily incapacitated welfare worker. Inevitably the kids wreak all sorts of havoc on the train and its passengers, especially when they come across the wares of a traveling fireworks salesman. Originally released on March 18, 1923, A Pleasant Journey was partially remade as the 1932 Our Gang entry Choo-Choo! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1922
The Our Gang kids form a volunteer fire brigade, with little Jackie Condon appointed Chief because he happens to own a fireman's hat. After constructing a variety of ramshackle firefighting devices, the youngsters get the opportunity to prove their mettle by putting out what they think is a roaring blaze -- but is actually a smoking still owned by a pair of moonshiners. Among the Gang members appearing in this silent two-reeler is black youngster Allen "Farina" Hoskins, making his series debut. Originally released on October 8, 1922, Fire Fighters is still available, though many current prints lack a bizarre opening-reel sequence involving the "social life" of a well-heeled pet duck! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1922
The first Our Gang comedy to be produced -- and the film for which the entire series was named -- this silent, two-reel comedy no longer exists, except for a tantalizingly brief fragment. According to all available records, the plot concerns the efforts by a group of kids to save a widow's general store from the villainous machinations of a rival merchant (a storyline repeated in the 1931 Our Gang talkie Helping Grandma). For the record, the youngsters appearing in this landmark comedy were "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, Jackie Condon, Peggy Cartwright, Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman. Our Gang was withheld from release until November 5, 1922, and as such was the third Our Gang short to be seen by the public, after One Terrible Day and Fire Fighters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
