Leonard Penn Movies

In this comedy drama, a newspaper report discovers that a popular religious cult is really a scam. Unbeknownst to him, his wife is messing around with his managing editor. When he finds out, he leaves them and begins his own affair with the female reporter he has secretly loved all along. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Hardys are off to Washington DC in this third entry in MGM's "Hardy Family" series. Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) has been appointed chairman of a special committee, and on occasion offers a subtly "liberal" political observation that the writers have slipped by MGM's ultra-conservative head man Louis B. Mayer. The Judge's daughter Marian (Cecilia Parker) is intoxicated by Washington's social life, while son Andy (Mickey Rooney) falls for a pretty daughter of a French diplomat. Thus, the Judge is obliged to juggle his committee duties with his efforts to keep his children from making fools of themselves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based upon the book The Four Marys, by Fanny Heaslip Lea, Man-Proof involves members of the smart and sophisticated set of Manhattan, circa 1938. Mimi Swift (Myrna Loy), the daughter of a successful romance novelist, is having no luck in getting the man she loves. Although she has made her interest very clear to Alan Wythe (Walter Pidgeon), he is more concerned with marrying someone who can support him. Still, Mimi is unprepared for the shock of discovering that Alan is engaged to her wealthy friend Elizabeth Kent (Rosalind Russell) -- and even more unprepared when they want her to suffer through the ceremony firsthand, as a bridesmaid. Ever the lady, Mimi forces herself to attend the wedding and attempts to put up a good front; unfortunately, she takes a little too much advantage of the free flowing champagne, with the result that she lets Alan know that she hasn't given up on him. While Alan and Elizabeth are on their honeymoon, Mimi becomes involved with Jimmy Kilmartin (Franchot Tone), an illustrator at the New York Chronicle. After the honeymooners return, Mimi tries to accept the fact that lan is Elizabeth's, but she just can't and lets Elizabeth know that things will never be the same. For his part, Alan seems to want to have his cake and eat it, too, and indicates to Mimi that perhaps something can be worked out. As they are talking, Elizabeth enters, puts two-and-two together and tells Alan she knows he only married her for her money and suggests they get a divorce. Eventually, Elizabeth takes Alan back and Mimi suddenly realizes that there is more to Jimmy than she had previously observed -- and more than enough to make her happily forget about Alan. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Three Comrades represented one of the few successful screenwriting efforts of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in Germany in the years just following World War I, the film stars Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone and Robert Young as three battle-weary, thoroughly disillusioned returning soldiers. The three friends pool their savings and open an auto-repair shop, and it is this that brings them in contact with wealthy motorist Lionel Atwill--and with Atwill's lovely travelling companion Margaret Sullavan. Taylor begins a romance with Sullavan, who soon joins the three comrades, making the group a jovial, fun-seeking foursome (this plot element bears traces of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, as well as the 1931 film The Last Flight). Though Sullavan suffers from tuberculosis (her shady past is only alluded to), she is encouraged by her male companions to fully enjoy what is left of her life. This becomes increasingly difficult when one of the comrades, Young, is killed during a political riot (it's a Nazi riot, though not so-labelled by ever-careful MGM). In the end, the four comrades are only two in number, with nothing but memories to see them through the cataclysmic years to come. Despite its Hollywoodized bowdlerization of the Remarque original, Three Comrades remains a poignant, haunting experience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

MGM's leading musical team of the 30's, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy are paired once again in this fourth film version of David Belasco's creaky melodrama, featuring music by Sigmund Romberg and Gus Kahn. Jeanette MacDonald is Mary Robbins, the owner of a bawdy, rough-house saloon in a western mining town, who falls in love with the Mexican bandit Ramerez (Nelson Eddy), who has disguised himself as a cavalry officer. But when local sheriff Jack Rance (Walter Pidgeon) tracks down Ramerez and wounds him, Mary discovers Ramerez's ruse and begs Rance for the outlaw's freedom. The only problem is that Nance is also in love with Mary. Girl of the Golden West was originally tinted in a sepia-tone to create a look as burnished as the MGM production design. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This follow-up to MGM's 1932 John Barrymore vehicle Arsene Lupin stars the ineluctable Melvyn Douglas. Reported to be dead, suave gentleman jewel thief Arsene Lupin (Douglas) resurfaces under the assumed name of Rene Farrand. Intending to follow the straight and narrow path, Lupin/Farrand reverts to his old larcenous ways when the opportunity to pilfer $250,000 in gems presents itself. Slowing down our hero somewhat is the presence of hotshot American private eye Steve Emerson (Warren William) and glamorous adventuress Lorraine de Grissac (Virginia Bruce). Ironically, both Melvyn Douglas and Warren William also played thief-turned-sleuth Michael Lanyard, aka "The Lone Wolf", over at Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is the third film based on a story by Lajos Biro and Jules G. Furthman. The first two were silent films, Cecil B. DeMille's The Whispering Chorus in 1918, and The Way of All Flesh in 1927. In this melodrama, Paul Kriza (Akim Tamiroff), a respectable bank cashier, leaves his wife Anna (Gladys George) and their children to seek greater fortunes in the big city. But instead of making his mark, he makes a mess of his prospects, and he ends up destitute. Ashamed to face his family, he remains in the city, and is presumed to be dead. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

That dependable sleuth of pulp fiction fame, Nick Carter, apparently had an equally stalwart son. Chick Carter, Boy Detective did his sleuthing on radio before Columbia producer Sam Katzman brought him to the screen in Chick Carter, Detective. The juvenile hero of the radio waves had underwent certain changes in order for grown-up actor Lyle Talbot to portray him. Talbot's Chick Carter, however, remained strangely inactive in his own serial, allowing crusading reporter Rusty Farrell (Douglas V. Fowley) to perform most of the necessary derring-do. As plainly told as the title would suggest, Chick Carter, Detective was more or less a straightforward crime melodrama that eschewed the usual ray guns, invisibility inventions, and other paraphernalia of the genre. Former MGM starlet Pamela Blake did some snooping of her own as a rival detective, and a gangster bearing the unfortunate name of Nick Polio (George Meeker) indulged in a bit of insurance fraud on behalf of Charles King. With only two bona fide cliffhanger endings, Chick Carter, Detective found little favor with the small fry, its target audience. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Based on a popular comic strip, this 15 episode Columbia chapterplay produced by legendary cheapskate Sam Katzman (aka "Jungle Sam") heralded the beginning of the end of the American movie serial. Starring the otherwise watchable Kane Richmond in the title role, Brick Bradford had pretensions of becoming the next Flash Gordon, but Katzman's notorious reluctance to part with a dollar bill sealed its fate. Perhaps the cheapest producer releasing through a major company (Columbia) in the '40s, Katzman employed a generous dose of carelessly inserted stock footage in his serials, thus earning the epitaph as the typical cigar-chomping hack producer who is in the movie business merely to make a fast buck (actor Mike Starr eminently portrayed the prototype in Ed Wood, 1995). A Secret Service agent employed by the United States government to protect the Interceptor Ray, a newly invented missile, Brick Bradford gets involved with a mysterious scientist, whose "crystal door" transports him to the moon and back, to 18th century Central America, etc. All of this demanded inspiring sets and special effects and not Jungle Sam's tired potted plants and moth-eaten stock footage fauna. Comic strip hero Brick Bradford deserved better and so did his portrayer, Kane Richmond. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This was the second entry in Pine-Thomas' film series based on the popular radio show Big Town. Philip Reed and Hillary Brooke return respectively as Steve Kilgore, crusading editor of the Illustrated Daily Press, and Steve's plucky Gal Friday Lorelei Kilbourne. In this one, Steve suspects that hard-luck Harry Hilton (Frank Wilcox) has been framed on a murder rap. Investigating on his own, our hero uncovers a conspiracy to bring financial ruin to a construction firm. He also discovers that the person behind it all is the actual murderer. A few scattered laughs are provided when Lorelei faces male chauvinism upon taking over the responsibilities of the Daily Press' police-beat reporter. To avoid confusion with the television version of Big Town, I Cover Big Town was retitled I Cover the Underworld for TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hired to catch a killer horse named Midnight, Jimmy Wakely and sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) get themselves in trouble with a couple of confidence artists, Monica (Christine Larson) and Brent (Leonard Penn). The latter accidentally kills Jimmy's employer, horse breeder Tom Chadwick (Tom Chatterton), and blames Midnight, who is about to race Monica's stallion Ace High. The dead man's daughter, Laura (Kay Morley), at first believes Midnight to be guilty, but is finally persuaded otherwise by Jimmy, who goes after the crooks and their young boss, Lannigan (John James). When not breaking wild horses or engaging in fisticuffs, Jimmy Wakely performs his own and Oliver Drake's "Rose of the Prairie," along with "Dear Okie," by Rudy Sooter and Doye O'Dell, and "Headin' for Home," by Isham Jones. Outlaw Brand also features hillbilly musicians Ray Whitley (who, not coincidentally, was also Wakely's manager), Dick Reinhart, Jack Rivers, and Louis Armstrong. The latter should, of course, not be confused with the jazz legend of the same name. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide