Edna May Oliver Movies

When Philippa (Mary Thurman) fails to impress the man of her dreams Norman (Edmund Lowe), she conspires to break his heart in this romantic melodrama. After Norman marries Madaline (Florence Dixon), Philippa tells him his father-in-law is the burglar who murdered his mother. Madaline's mother (Edna May Oliver) reveals that it was her first husband who is the killer and that Madaline is no relation to the scoundrel. Arthur Hausman and Tyrone Power co-star in this suspenseful story of a woman scorned and her evil plans for vengeance. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

With this comedy-melodrama, Richard Dix was bumped up from leading man to star status. This also marked the first film for director R.H. Burnside, who was better known for staging spectacles at New York's Hippodrome. Peter Minuit (Dix) comes from an old and very rich New York family, but he is bored with his idle life. He finds excitement when safecracker Spike Malone (Gregory Kelly) breaks into his Fifth Avenue home. Minuit convinces Spike that he is really another crook by the name of Gentleman George. Spike takes him home to his pretty sister, Mary (Jacqueline Logan), and she falls in love with him. Gang leader Bud McGinnis (the imposing George Siegmann) wants Mary for himself and makes plans to do away with the interloper. There is a brutal fight between Minuit and McGinnis, but ultimately McGinnis is shot by one of his own henchmen. The gang is rounded up and Minuit weds Mary and takes her uptown to live. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

If the plot to this breezy romantic comedy sounds like something that would have starred the late Wallace Reid, there's a reason -- the story was penned by Byron Morgan, who wrote most of Reid's racing films. Dandy Farnan (Richard Dix) works in a department store demonstrating camping gear. He wins a racing car in a raffle, but he doesn't realize that the roadster was given up by the owner's son because he was convinced it was "hoodooed." True to form, the car starts causing trouble immediately. Farnan's bad luck continues when Doris McDee (Esther Ralston) and her aunt (Edna May Oliver) mistake him for the car's original owner and snub him. Nevertheless, Farnan is determined to enter a race to help Doris out financially. He has to fight it out with a pugilist to win the entry money. After a thrilling slapstick race, Farnan finally comes through a winner, both of the race and in love. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

After a few films that did not showcase her talent well, Bebe Daniels was able to redeem herself in this comedy based on the F. Tennyson Jesse stage play Quarantined. Although Pamela Gordon (Eden Gray) is engaged to explorer Tony Blunt (Harrison Ford), she gets tired of waiting for him to come back from an expedition and accepts the proposal of Mackintosh Josephs (Alfred Lunt). But Blunt returns from Africa two weeks before the wedding, and, to avoid causing a scene, Pamela makes plans to elope with him. To keep everyone in the dark about her elopement with Blunt, however, she convinces Blunt to court her tomboyish sister, Diana (Bebe Daniels). Diana believes that Blunt has really fallen in love with her, and tricks him so that he marries her. (He thinks he is marrying Pamela.) She then boards a ship with her aunt, Amelia Pincent (Edna May Oliver), and hides from Blunt temporarily. When he discovers he has married Pamela's sister, he is furious, but, by then, the ship has been quarantined. By the time the quarantine is over and Pamela arrives, Diana has won Blunt over. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The physical attributes of lovely leading lady Esther Ralston are amply displayed in American Venus. This satire of beauty contests gets under way when two competing cosmetic companies seek the endorsement of the winner of the American Venus pageant (Ralston, of course). Complication ensue when it appears that our heroine's contest win was rigged. This plot point mirrored a real-life occurrence in 1925, when it was alleged that the Miss America pageant had been fixed; apparently it hadn't, since Miss America herself, Fay Lanphier, makes a cameo appearance in American Venus. Of more interest historically is the presence in the supporting cast of cult favorite Louise Brooks, not to mention the Technicolor bathing-beauty scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After serving as comedy relief in three big-budget RKO Radio musicals, the comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were rewarded with their own starring vehicle, the dated but still delightful Half Shot at Sunrise. Set in Paris during WWI, the film casts Bert and Bob as Gilbert and Tommy, two AWOL doughboys. When not posing as officers to impress the local mademoiselles, our heroes spend their time ducking a pair of diligent MPs, and while doing so make the acquaintance of the hoydenish Annette (Dorothy Lee), the daughter of dyspeptic Colonel Marshall (George MacFarlane) and Marshall's snooty wife (Edna May Oliver). Tommy falls in love with Annette, while Gilbert is equally enamored of Olga (Leni Stengel), the Colonel's sultry lady friend. Hoping to save the boys from court-martial by turning them into war heroes, Annette and Olga contrive to send Gilbert and Tommy to the Front with "borrowed" secret orders. After nearly being killed by enemy shellfire, the two errant soldiers are arrested and brought to Marshall's headquarters, averting a firing squad only by revealing that their "secret orders" were actually love letters written to the Colonel by the flirtatious Olga. There are many funny routines in Half Shot at Sunrise (the scene in which Wheeler and Woolsey pose as French waiters is a riot), and the songs, particularly the Wheeler-Lee duet "Whistling the Blues Away," are quite entertaining. But the film's highlight is an uncharacteristic "straight" scene toward the end, when a panic-stricken Woolsey risks death to rescue an injured Wheeler from No Man's Land (and never mind that the scene ends with a satirically comic punch line). Half Shot a Sunrise proved beyond all doubt that Wheeler and Woolsey could carry a picture by themselves; they would remain top box-office attractions until Bob Woolsey's death in 1938. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey made their fourth film appearance of 1930 in the hectic comedy-melodrama Hook Line and Sinker. This time the boys are cast as itinerant insurance salesmen Wilbur Boswell and J. Addington Ganzy ("Not Pansy -- Ganzy, with a 'G'"!) After talking their way out of a traffic ticket, Wilbur and Addington make the acquaintance of penniless socialite Mary Marsh (Dorothy Lee), who is fleeing a wealthy marriage arranged by her mother Rebecca (Jobyna Howland). Falling in love with Mary himself, Wilbur talks Ganzy into helping her renovate a seedy hotel willed to her by her uncle. With the dubious aid of a decrepit bellboy (George F. Marion) and a nutty house detective (Hugh Herbert), the boys turn the hotel into a thriving enterprise. The plot thickens when a gang of jewel thieves and a band of bootleggers register at the hotel, followed in short order by Mary's mother and the girl's prospective fiance, lawyer John Blackwell (Ralf Harolde) -- who happens to be in league with the bootleggers! A wild gangland shoot-out and nocturnal chase caps this dated but amusing Wheeler and Woolsey vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ostensibly a "team" vehicle for Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, Cracked Nuts is half over before Bert and Bob even get together! The first scenes belong to Wheeler, cast as spendthrift millionaire Wendell Graham, who is in love with Betty Harrington (Dorothy Lee). Betty's aunt Minnie (Edna May Oliver) considers Wendell to be an irresponsible jerk, so our hero decides to prove his worth by financing a revolution in the mythical country of El Dorania, thereby becoming ruler of the postage-stamp kingdom. Meanwhile, Zander U. Parkhurst (Woolsey), aka Zup, has won the crown of El Dorania in a crap game with King Oscar (Harvey Clark) -- who is glad to be rid of the country, inasmuch as he's been targeted for assassination. Unaware that he's been set up as a dead duck, Zup quickly assumes command of El Dorania, wearing a variety of outlandish "official" costumes. When Wendell shows up to stake his claim to the country, he is greeted effusively by his old pal Zup, but the reunion turns sour when scheming General Bogardus (Stanley Fields) orders Wendell to kill Zup. The day of the assassination is a gala event for the El Doranians, who set up concession stands and provide a team of cheerleaders for the occasion. Not wishing to do his pal harm, Wendell arranges for "cockeyed Ben" (Ben Turpin) to fly the plane that is to drop the fatal bombs on Zup and further sees to it that the bombs are disarmed. Alas, the explosions surrounding Zup are all too real, and soon both he and Wendell are fleeing for their lives. Fortunately, one of the bombs brings forth an oil gusher, which has the salutary effect of bringing the revolution to an end -- and also makes Wendell a worthy bridegroom for Betty (remember her?) In recent years, Cracked Nuts has taken on near-legendary status because of its pre-Duck Soup political satire, its Abbott-and-Costello style comedy patter, and the presence of Boris Karloff as one of the revolutionaries. But in the cold light of day, the film doesn't live up to its reputation; though laughs are plentiful, Cracked Nuts must be ranked as a disappointment for all but Wheeler and Woolsey's most fervent fans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Depression-era comedy takes place in the boarding house run by the indomitable Sarah Austin (Edna May Oliver). Sarah's indigent husband Joe (Hugh Herbert), spends most of his time cooking up pie-in-the-sky get-rich-quick schemes, few of which come to fruition. In time-honored "domestic comedy" tradition, one of Joe's wacky inventions is purchased by a major manufacturer, saving the household from bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Sarah and Joe's daughter Alice (Dorothy Lee) experiences an endless series of romantic travails. Director Gregory LaCava reportedly allowed the actors to improvise much of their dialogue during rehearsals; even so, the fine comedic hand of veteran scenarist Ralph Spence is evident throughout the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The most intriguing aspect of the 1932 Bert Wheeler-Robert Woolsey romp Hold 'Em Jail was that it was co-scripted by legendary humorist and frequent Marx Bros. contributor S. J. Perelman. The film bears a slight resemblance to the like-vintage Marx/Perelman collaboration Horse Feathers, in that both pictures are climaxed by a zany football game sequence. But while Horse Feathers is set at a college, Hold 'Em Jail takes place behind the cold gray walls of Bidemore Prison. Edgar Kennedy, Bidemore's warden, is all geared up for an impending all-prisoner football game; alas, his team is woefully short of talent. Kennedy puts out a call to Bidemore's "alumni," one of whom is nightclub-owner John Sheehan. When novelty salesmen Wheeler and Woolsey show up at Sheehan's club, the owner frames the two goofs on a robbery charge so that they'll be carted off to Bidemore and recruited for the football team. W&W make themselves at home in jail, securing jobs as trustees so that Wheeler can romance Kennedy's pretty daughter Betty Grable (who was 16 at the time, and looks it), while Woolsey pitches woo at Kennedy's homely sister Edna May Oliver (explaining that she's spent four years studying music in Paris, Edna confesses "I'm not a virtuoso." "Not after four years in Paris" is Woolsey's response). During the climactic gridiron activity, Wheeler and Woolsey spot the duplicitous John Sheehan on the other team, and struggle manfully to get him to sign a confession that will exonerate them. When originally previewed, Hold 'Em Jail was a musical comedy running 74 minutes; audiences laughed at the comedy scenes but groaned at the songs, whereupon the film was pared down to a 66-minute non-musical. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unable to find steady work after WWI, three former flying aces -- Gibson (Richard Dix), Woody (Robert Armstrong) and Red (Joel McCrea) -- hire themselves out as stunt flyers for the movies. They find themselves employed by tyrannical director Von Furst (Erich Von Stroheim, playing what amounts to a self-caricature), who has no qualms about sending men to their deaths for the sake of "realism." Developing an esprit de corps with their fellow stunt pilots, our heroes regularly converge at the local watering hole to honor the latest casualties, wiping their names from a blackboard just as they'd done back in the Great War. When Von Furst, driven to insane jealousy by his much-abused wife Follette (Mary Astor), murders one of the pilots in cold blood, the others take a grim but thoroughly justifiable revenge. Boasting several first-rate aviation sequences, The Lost Squadron was scripted by real-life Hollywood stunt flyer Dick Grace (who also appears in the film); it was also the first RKO Radio production to carry the screen credit "executive producer, David O. Selznick." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic drama, set at the turn of the century, a womanizing Irish motorman ignores his marital vows, but only to a point. Though he has many affairs, he will not leave his wife. As the years pass, he holds many jobs, and many different women before he retires in Atlantic City where he becomes a moralistic fortune teller for women. He actually helps some of his clients and dies knowing he was not a total lout. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide