Barnett Parker Movies

Crime reporter George Melville (Joel McCrea) arrogantly repeated accurate predictions about jewel robberies. He befriends Claire (Jean Arthur), who involves him in a mysterious adventure. Later, George meets producer Blackton Gregory (Reginald Owen), who reveals Claire is an actress hired by other reporters who wanted to show George up. She's starring in a play Gregory is producing, but only as a cover for a tunnel he's having henchmen dig to an art gallery. Gregory is really Belaire, a master thief who everyone but George thinks is dead, so when Claire, now falling in love with George, innocently gives Belaire key information, he uses it against George. To Claire's dismay, this leads to George being fired and, apparently, going nuts. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

The screenplay for this mystery is based upon a story suggested to Liberty Magazine by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is the tale of a prominent lawyer who shocks his snooty friends, family and colleagues by abruptly abandoning his successful practice and his wife to find true happiness. He soon falls in love with another woman and continues to keep a low profile until he learns that his first wife stands accused of murdering him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A never-completed stage musical was the source for the MGM superproduction Born to Dance. The plot is another three-sailors-on-leave affair, with Ted (James Stewart), Mush (Buddy Ebsen) and Gunny (Sid Silvers, who also co-wrote the script) romancing the eminently romanceable Nora (Eleanor Powell), Peppy (Frances Langford) and Jenny (Una Merkel). Nora aspires to become a dancing star, but her career nearly ends before it begins when she inadvertently comes between Broadway luminary Lucy James (Virginia Bruce) and her producer-lover McKay (Alan Dinehart). If anyone watching back in 1936 really cared about the plot, they probably weren't music lovers. The lovely Cole Porter score (his first written directly for the screen) includes "I've Got You Under My Skin", sung by Virginia Bruce to James Stewart, and "Easy to Love", warbled by Stewart to Eleanor Powell. Highlights include Reginald Gardiner's impersonation of a symphony-conducting traffic cop (a routine he'd previously performed on stage) and Eleanor Powell's climactic tap routine on board an art-deco battleship (a sequence later re-deployed for the climax of 1944's I Dood It). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a popular drawing-room drama by Frederick Lonsdale, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney stars Joan Crawford as a jewel thief who poses as an aristocrat. It is Crawford's intention to pilfer a valuable pearl necklace while attending a society party in the company of partner-in-crime William Powell. Here she attracts the attention of Robert Montgomery, a young nobleman who is amused by Crawford's wittiness in the face of the haughty bitchery of Benita Hume. When Montgomery turns out to be a bounder and Powell and Crawford are revealed to be criminals, Crawford does some quick thinking that not only gets her off the hook but puts the two-faced Montgomery in his place as well. Previously filmed in 1929 with Norma Shearer in the lead, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney would itself be remade in 1951 as The Law and the Lady, with Greer Garson as the heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The notorious Orient Express provides the setting for this romance involving two rival reporters in pursuit of a munitions baron. The two rivals eventually fall in love, but not before they are implicated and subsequently cleared of a plot to kill the arms maker. The munitions man also falls in love and decides to use his skills for making more peaceful products. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Baroness Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, came up with the story upon which The Emperor's Candlesticks was based. As in Pimpernel, the theme is international intrigue, but this time the setting is pre-World War One Europe and Russia rather than Revolutionary France. William Powell and Luise Rainer are spies working for opposing empires (Russian and Austrian) who travel undetected amidst the Nobility while plotting their plots. As they waltz about various ballrooms dressed to the nines, they fall in love--resulting in wavering loyalties for both. Emperor's Candlesticks is stronger on decor than on plot, with the talented Luise Rainer once more ill-used by Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

MGM's Navy Blue and Gold prettily dresses up some of the oldest cliches in the "military cadet" movie genre. The film charts the progress of three Annapolis "plebes," all played by actors in the age range of 24 to 30. Wisecracking Roger Ash (Robert Young) is a cynic, wide-eyed Richard Gates Jr. (Tom Brown) is overeager), and reclusive Truck Cross (James Stewart) harbors a dark secret. When not going about their appointed duties, Ash and Cross battle over the attentions of heroine Patricia (Florence Rice), Gates' sister. All the while, Captain Skinny Dawes (Lionel Barrymore), the traditional crusty old seafarin' man with a heart of gold, tries to instill the love of Honor, Duty and Country in all three heroes. The plot is resolved in a climactic football game, with everyone showing his true colors (blue and gold, of course!) Many of the plot devices and stereotypical characters in Navy Blue and Gold would continue to resurface in similar films for the next five decades -- even in the R-rated Officer and a Gentleman (1980). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Its title notwithstanding, We Who Are About to Die has nothing to do with Roman Gladiators. Rather, the film is based on the true story of San Quentin inmate David Lamson, who spent 13 agonizing months on Death Row before the Supreme Court reversed his conviction. Renamed John (and played by John Beal), the Lamson character knows he's innocent but also knows that the date of his execution is drawing ever nearer. Meanwhile, his sweetheart Connie (Ann Dvorak), in collaboration with private eye Matthews (Preston S. Foster), races against time to unearth new evidence and expose the guilty party. Rather pokey for the most part, We Who Are About to Die turns into a real nail-biter during the final 15 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A golddigger finds that romance doesn't always equal finance in this comedy. Crystal Wetherby (Jean Harlow) is an American widow left stranded in London with a stack of debts incurred by her late husband and barely a shilling to her name. Raymond Dabney (Robert Taylor) is the black sheep of a formerly wealthy family who has just been released from prison for fraud and is looking for work. Crystal hires Raymond to watch over her home so that her creditors won't repossess her belongings; Raymond soon learns that Crystal is being courted by his brother Claude (Reginald Owen), much to Raymond's amusement, since both Crystal and Claude are motivated less by love than the mistaken belief that the other has money. However, Crystal and Raymond become increasingly fond of each other, even though they know they're both flat broke. The supporting cast features two of Old Hollywood's favorite U.K. expatriates, E.E. Clive and Una O'Connor. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This third entry in MGM's "Broadway Melody" series may not have been the biggest or best, but thanks to a masterpiece of casting it is one of the most memorable of the batch. Signed by MGM in 1935, 15-year-old Judy Garland made her first feature-film appearance under the aegis of Leo the Lion, immediately capturing the hearts of moviegoers everywhere by singing "You Made Me Love You" to a photograph of Clark Gable (a sequence that has since been excerpted countless times in TV and movie documentaries). She later shares a song-and-dance number with gangly Buddy Ebsen, making an impressive entrance in a white midget car (Ebsen would later be cast as the Tin Man in Judy's The Wizard of Oz, only to be replaced by Jack Haley when he fell ill during shooting). The presence of Garland, coupled with several superlative dance solos by Eleanor Powell and a spectacular musical finale, tends to make one forget about the plot, which has something to do with a racehorse owned by heroine Sally Lee (Powell). The horse wins the Grand Steeplechase, the prize money is poured into the stage production previously bankrolled by Steve Raleigh (Robert Taylor), and the Show Goes On. Movies fans of the 1930s with long memories were gratified to see such old vaudeville favorites as Sophie Tucker and Willie Howard in the cast, even if their material wasn't quite up to standard. Interestingly, one of the best comic turns is performed by "professional sneezer" Robert Wildhack -- leaving another famed movie sneezer, Billy Gilbert, with virtually nothing to do! On the other hand, Robert Benchley is his usual droll self, managing to score a comic bullseye despite all the lavish and noisy competition around him. Broadway Melody of 1938 was followed by a 1940 sequel, distinguished by the "challenge dance" between returnee Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

M.G.M.'s opulent costume drama Marie Antoinette marked a return to the screen after a two-year absence for reigning Queen of M.G.M. Norma Shearer. Shearer plays the title role of an Austrian princess who is married off to Louis Auguste (Robert Morley), the Dauphin of France. Marie, by becoming the Dauphine, finds herself plopped smack in the middle of French palace intrigue between Louis's father King Louis XV (John Barrymore) and his scheming cousin, the Duke of Orleans (Joseph Schildkraut). With Louis unable to consummate his marriage to Marie, she takes to holding elaborate parties and gambling her fortune away. In a casino, she meets the handsome Count Axel de Fersen (Tyrone Power) and they have an affair. But when Louis XV dies and Louis becomes King Louis XVI, Fersen takes his leave, telling her that he could carry on an affair with a dauphine but not the Queen of France. Marie vows to be a great queen and remain loyal to her king. But the Duke of Orleans is plotting against Louis XVI, financing the revolutionary radicals. When the monarchy is overthrown, Louis and Marie are thrown into prison, awaiting execution. But when word gets back to Fersen, he travels back to France in an attempt to rescue Marie. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Two of MGM's top juvenile stars, Judy Garland and Freddie Bartholomew, team up for the otherwise unremarkable Listen, Darling. The story gets rolling when widowed Dotty Wingate (Mary Astor) decides to remarry for the sake of her children Pinkie (Garland) and Billie (Scotty Beckett). To prevent her mother from making this fateful move, Pinkie and her best pal Buzz (Bartholomew) conspire to "kidnap" Dotty by convincing her to take a cross-country motor trip. En route, the vacationers make the acquaintance of lawyer Richard Thurlow (Walter Pidgeon). Immediately altering her plan, Pinkie decides that Thurlow would make a perfect stepfather, and the rest of the film is devoted to the zany methods implemented by the kids to bring Thurlow and Dottie together. Early in the proceedings, Judy Garland sings "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart", easily the film's most memorable moment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Love may be a headache, but without it, how would MGM programmers like this one ever have been made? Franchot Tone is cast as Winchellesque radio commentator Peter Lawrence, who becomes the unexpected savior of fading Broadway favorite Carlotta Lee (Gladys George). Suffering from a string of bad plays, Carlotta is vaunted back to public favor when she decides to adopt two orphans (Mickey Rooney and Virginia Weidler), a bit of "heart interest" exploited by the fast-talking Lawrence. Trouble is, Carlotta can't stand children and has only adopted the tykes for publicity purposes. This puts the kibosh on the blossoming romance between the actress and the commentator, and it takes a comic-opera kidnapping plot to set things right. Ted Healy, mentor of the Three Stooges, made one of his last screen appearances in Love is a Headache, which was released several months after Healy's death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide