Vivienne Osborne Movies

Years before he became the leading star in horror movies, Vincent Price starred in this gothic thriller based on the best-selling novel by Anya Seton. Nicholas Van Ryn (Vincent Price) is a wealthy feudal heir of Dutch ancestry living in New York's Hudson Valley in the 1840s. Nicholas has come to hate his wife because she has been unable to give him a son; their only child is a daughter he doesn't care for. Miranda Wells (Gene Tierney), a distant relative of the Van Ryns, comes to live at their estate and work as an au pair girl; Nicholas becomes infatuated with her and eventually poisons his wife so they can marry. However, while Miranda gives birth to a son, the boy is sickly and does not live to adulthood. Nicholas begins to slip into insanity, moving to the attic of his mansion and drowning his sorrows in drugs. A distraught Miranda seeks the counsel of the local physician, Dr. Jeff Turner (Glenn Langan); Dr. Turner falls in love with Miranda, and he eventually discovers that Nicholas killed his first wife to be with her, and that Miranda might be next on the madman's list. Dragonwyck was the directorial debut of screenwriter and producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In her third film for innovative director Gregory LaCava, Ginger Rogers briefly turns her back on her established screen image by playing the daughter and granddaughter of prostitutes. Determined not to pursue the "family business", Ellie May Adams (Rogers) opts for respectability, as personified by clean-limbed Ed Wallace (Joel McCrea, teamed with Rogers for the first time since 1933's Chance at Heaven). Alas, all of Ellie May's dreams of connubial bliss fly out the window when Ed is introduced to her alcoholic father Homer (Miles Mander), her round-heeled mother Mamie (Marjorie Rambeau) and her equally randy grandmother (Queenie Vassar). Briefly losing Ed's affections, Ellie May tearfully resigns herself to taking care of her family-but will she resort to the World's Oldest Profession to keep food on the table? Adapted from Victoria Lincoln's novel February Hill (Lincoln's name didn't appear on the credits due to legal entanglements), Primrose Path managed to retain a goodly portion of the novel's bite without unduly straining RKO Radio's relationship with Joe Breen's censorship office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy of mistaken identity, a bookish literary reviewer bows to the desires of his lover and shaves off his whiskers. Suddenly he finds himself in trouble, for without the mustache, he is the spitting image of a gangster who has just been released from prison. When the mobster's gang sees the reviewer, they immediately assume he is the boss and they take him away. Soon he finds himself in deep trouble. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Another of Paramount's efforts to transform Metropolitan Opera diva Gladys Swarthout into a popular movie star, Champagne Waltz casts Swarthout as Elsa Strauss, the daughter of a celebrated Viennese composer (Fritz Leiber). American bandleader Buzzy Bellew (Fred MacMurray) and his aggregation invade Vienna with their own special repertoire of melodies, and before long the Austrian capital has abandoned waltzes in favor of jazz. With her family's waltz palace in danger of going out of business, Elsa heads next door to Buzzy's establishment, hoping to persuade him to pack up and go home. Not unexpectedly, the two fall in love (he even teaches her the art of chewing gum), leading to a harmonious "marriage" of musical genres (intended as the film's highlight, this climactic scene was mercilessly raked over the coals by the movie critics of the era). Jack Oakie's performance as Happy Gallagher does much to lift this predictable tune fest from the ordinary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sinner Takes All shines with the production gloss only MGM could create; the prettiness of the images helps to hide the plot holes in this modest murder mystery. The members of an aristocratic family are murdered one by one, in retribution for the misdeeds of the family's black sheep. Margaret Lindsay is the heroine, Bruce Cabot the hero, and Joseph Calleia a man who is hiding something. As a publicity ploy, the film also featured journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, fresh from a headline-grabbing "round the world" tour. Capped by an ironic ending in which the killer surprisingly refuses to boast about his modus operandi, Sinner Takes All was one of three MGM "B" thrillers filmed virtually back-to-back in 1936 by prolific studio contractee Errol Taggart. The film was based on the novel Murder for a Wanton by Whitman Chambers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Casting an envious eye towards the huge box-office take of Columbia's Grace Moore vehicles, Republic hoped to strike gold in a similar fashion by fashioning a screen property for Kansas-born Metropolitan Opera diva Marion Talley. As it turned out, Follow Your Heart was Talley's first and last film, but Republic at least deserved a gold star for effort. The star is cast as Marian Forrester, the daughter of onetime opera star Madame Bovard (Henrietta Crossman). Recalling the many heartbreaks and disappointments attending her own stardom, Mme. Bovard refuses to allow Marian to pursue a singing career. But with the surreptitious help of handsome Michael Williams (Michael Bartlett, another real-life singer) and bumbling but lovable voice teacher Henri Forrester (Nigel Bruce), Marian makes her Met debut, and her mother gracefully bows to the inevitable. Though there's plenty of "straight" singing throughout Follow Your Heart, the film's highlight is a burlesque of the "Sextet" from Lucia di Lammermoor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

MGM regularly churned out films in the 1930s that were all "star power" and very little plot. No More Ladies is a good example of this. Joan Crawford marries bon vivant Robert Montgomery, hoping to mend his wastrel ways. Montgomery refuses to assumes the proper responsibilities of a husband, so Crawford tries to make him jealous by taking up with Franchot Tone. Everyone involved has limitless money, beautiful clothes and all the time in the world to spend on the trivialities of the plotline. Depression era audiences loved to see good-looking people in sumptuous sets, so No More Ladies was a success. The fact that, when asked, these audiences couldn't remember a single thing about the story was beside the point. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This atmospheric suspense film from the makers of White Zombie marked an unusual turn for glamorous Carole Lombard as heiress Roma Courtenay, who is approached by phony psychic Paul Bavian (Alan Dinehart), who claims to bear an important message from her recently deceased brother. After attending a bogus seance, Roma suddenly becomes possessed by the malevolent spirit of executed triple-murderess Ruth Rogen (Vivienne Osborne), whose unfinished business includes killing Bavian, her one-time lover. Fearing that Roma is actually under the charlatan's control, her fiancé (Randolph Crane Scott) sets out to rescue her -- and eventually discovers that the supernatural influence is quite real. Though too subdued to generate real suspense, this atmospheric film benefits from the visual style of director Victor Halperin. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

A Navy boxer falls in love with a popular dance-hall girl in this romantic drama. The man really should be spending all his energy preparing for his upcoming championship bout, but one night he gets completely blotto and wakes up the next day to find that he has married a wealthy socialite. Though he really tries to make it in the blue-blooded social circuits, he is totally out of place and ends up divorcing her; he then goes back to the hostess, and wins the crucial bout. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This brisk Monogram melodrama includes all the requisite entertainment elements: Talented cast, solid story, a plenitude of suspense, and a few bonus song numbers. Arnold Gray plays Grant Murdock, a popular radio crooner who, truth be told, can't sing a note. For appearance's sake, the handsome Murdock is propped up before the microphone while his voice is supplied by homely hunchback Norman Wilder (Ralph Forbes). When Murdock is murdered, suspicion immediately falls upon Wilder -- who in fact had intended to bump off the phony, except that someone beat him to it. Knowing that no one will believe his story, Wilder scurries off into the night, with police hot on his heels. The actual culprit very nearly gets off scot-free but is ultimately undone by a sudden attack of conscience -- too late, alas, to save Murdock from his inexorable fate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

About to die in the electric chair, John Allen (Edward G. Robinson) uses the last two seconds of his life to recall the events leading up to his present predicament. A $62.50-per-week riveter ("That's more than most college professors make!"), Allen gets drunk at a speakeasy and impulsively marries his steady date Shirley Day (Vivienne Osborne), who almost immediately begins cheating on him with dance-hall proprietor Tony (J. Carroll Naish). When his co-worker pal Bud Clark (Preston S. Foster) tries to warn him of this hanky-panky, Allen angrily takes a punch at Clark, whereupon the other man falls to his death from a skyscraper girder. Told by his "repentant" wife that she's been messing around with Tony so as to borrow money from him, Allen begins playing the horses, earning just enough money to pay off his debts. With money in hand, he heads to Tony's place, only to discover that Shirley has been lying to him all along. In a fit of jealousy, he kills Shirley and subsequently is sentenced to the chair. As the executioner pulls the switch, Allen philosophizes that he's been the victim of the "postman always rings twice" syndrome: He escaped prosecution for Clark's unjustified death, only to be punished for his justifiable murder of Shirley ("It isn't fair to let a rat live and kill a man!") Edward G. Robinson overacts outrageously throughout Two Seconds, but that's part of the charm of this fascinating antique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alfred E. Green directs the political satire The Dark Horse, starring Bette Davis early in her career. The progressive party nominates moronic candidate Zachary Hicks (Guy Kibbee) for governor. Party secretary Kay Russell (Davis) wants to hire her sweetheart, Hal Blake (Warren William), for campaign manager, even though he is in jail for not paying his alimony. Impressed with his slick behavior, the campaign committee bails him out of jail and he goes to work. He teaches Hicks to give cryptic answers to journalists and makes him memorize a speech by Abraham Lincoln. During the big debate, conservative opponent William A. Underwood (Berton Churchill) quotes Lincoln and Hicks calls him a plagiarist. Eventually, Blake's ex-wife, Maybelle (Vivienne Osborne) shows up demanding her alimony payments. The climactic scene involves a set-up at a rural mountain cabin and confusing marital arrangements. Also starring Frank McHugh as aide Joe and Sam Hardy as the conservative manager Mr. Black. Hollywood mogul Darryl F. Zanuck received co-writing credits for the screenplay under the pseudonymn Melville Crossman. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Robert E. Sherwood's play This Is New York was the source for Two Kinds of Women, appropriately filmed at Paramount's Long Island studios. Miriam Hopkins stars as Emma Krull, the free-spirited daughter of a South Dakota senator (Irving Pichel). Warned by her father that New York City is a den of sin and vice, Emma decides to disprove this by heading to the Big Apple herself. Here she meets randy playboy Joseph Greshman (Phillips Holmes), and manages to wangle a proposal out of him almost immediately upon their meeting! Unfortunately, Greshman is presently married to gold-digging chorus girl Phyllis Adrian (Wynne Gibson), who doesn't intend to let him -- or his millions -- off the hook. One thing leads to another, and before long Phyllis has taken a fatal header off of a skyscraper. The ensuing scandal obliges Senator Krull to travel to New York to see what's going on. Rather than say "I told you so," the Senator embraces his daughter and secures a promise that the now-contrite Greshman will give up the Big City and settle down in South Dakota. Director William C. DeMille does a masterful job keeping the audience's mind off the fact that "daughter" Miriam Hopkins is exactly eleven years younger than her screen "daddy" Irving Pichel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide