André Beranger Movies

Love Before Breakfast was the scintillating title Universal chose over Spinster Dinner, the Faith Baldwin novel upon which this airy comedy is based. Carole Lombard is a Park Avenue beauty squired by Preston S. Foster and Cesar Romero. Since neither gentleman is a prize catch, Lombard is fey and fickle throughout the film. That's all there is to Love Before Breakfast, which might have been completely forgotten had it not been for a famous 1930s-era painting in which a detailed poster for the film is the focus of attention. There's one iconoclastic alteration in the painting: Carole Lombard has been given a black eye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the least known of Cary Grant's starring vehicles, Kiss and Make Up was based on a European play by Stephen Bekeffi. Grant stars as high-priced beautician Dr. Maurice Lamar, who does so spectacular a job on his plain-jane client Eve Caron (Genevieve Tobin) that Eve's jealous husband Marcel (Edward Everett Horton) divorces her. Eve marries Maurice on the rebound, but she drives him crazy with her shallow vanity. Maurice would prefer the company of his faithful secretary Anne (Helen Mack), but she has wed the vengeful Caron! But when Anne discovers that Caron is as self-involved as Eve, she goes back to Marcel, while Eve, who started it all, quickly finds comfort in the arms of gigolo Rolando (Rafael Storm). Highlights in Kiss and Make Up includes Cary Grant's musical numbers (yes, he can sing) and a hilarious bit involving Cecil Cunningham as one of Dr. Lamar's less successful "experiments." The film also serves as a showcase for the 1934 crop of Wampas Baby Stars, including George M. Cohan's pretty daughter Helen and Jean Gale of the singing Gale Sisters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This drama opens with a most disturbing scene as a jilted lover places a gun to his head and pulls the trigger. Fortunately, he is but an actor in a play and the gun is but a prop. His co-star is a beautiful young woman. A young man is utterly in love with the actress and after the show visits her and presents her with an arm-load of fragrant blossoms. He then invites her to meet his wealthy family in Philadelphia. The family, who lives in an ancient mansion, prove to be a very strange lot. The father is a stern and dour fellow. Grandpa is a lascivious old coot. She also meets an assortment of snobs and perverts. Upon meeting her, they immediately assume that she is a gold digger. Soon the family lawyer offers her a large amount of money for the love letters the young man had written her. She accepts the money and then gives it to the boy to keep him on the straight and narrow. Her good deeds are finally made apparent to the dour patriarch who begins courting her and eventually marries her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

It's a shame that so many of the silent directorial efforts of the innovational Gregory La Cava no longer exist. LaCava's Paradise for Two certainly sounds interesting, and any film combining the talents of Richard Dix and Betty Bronson can't have been too shabby. In addition, the witty subtitles were provided by renowned New York-wit Robert Benchley, representing one of his first forays into moviemaking. The story concerns a bachelor named Steve Porter (Richard Dix) who must be married within two days to collect his family fortune. Not wishing to tie the matrimonial knot just yet, Steve hires budding actress Sally Lane (Betty Bronson) to pose as his wife. The plot is predictable in the extreme, but surely LaCava and Benchley imbued the story with a clever surprise or two. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed through mounds of gauze, silent movie queen Mae Murray stars in MGM's Altars of Desire. Murray plays a willful American lass whose wealthy dad (Robert Edeson) sends her to Paris so that she may pick up some "refinement." Instead, she picks up a fortune-hunting nobleman, played as a frivolous fop by a monocled Andre Beranger. True-blue hero Conway Tearle prevents Murray from making a bigger fool of herself than she already is. Such was Mae Murray's reputation for temperamental tantrums that few of MGM's directors wanted anything to do with her. Thus, the studio went to the bottom of the directorial pecking order and came up with the efficient but uninspired William "Christy" Cabanne, who let Murray run amok on the set, but still came up with a releasable (and very profitable) picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fig Leaves is historically important as the earliest extant film of director Howard Hawks. A partial parody of the Cecil B. DeMille historical spectacles, the film opens in the Garden of Eden, where Adam (George O'Brien) tries to read his morning paper (a stone tablet, a la The Flintstones) while Eve (Olive Borden) complains that she has nothing to wear. As Adam goes to work on the 9:15 dinosaur, Eve is led down the road to perdition by a friendly snake. Flash forward to 1926: Eve Smith (Borden again) complains that she has no decent clothes, whereupon her best friend Alice (the "snake" counterpart, played by Phyllis Haver) suggests that the heroine take a job as fashion model, thereby securing herself a free wardrobe. Catching his wife in a state of dishabille at a fancy dress shop, Adam Smith (O'Brien again) angrily declares that he never wants to see her again. Adam forgives Eve after witnessing a cat-fight between his wife and the troublesome Alice. Critics in 1926 were amused by the "prehistoric" contraptions in the opening scenes and enthralled by the film's Technicolor fashion-show sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eagle of the Sea is based on Charles Tenney Jackson's swashbuckling novel Captain Sazarac. Ricardo Cortez stars as Sazarac, a bold American pirate captain who proves to be putty in the hands of New Orleans belle Louise Lestron (Florence Vidor). While dancing with Louise at a masked ball, Sazarac is recognized by General Andrew Jackson (George Irving), who gives the pirate 24 hours to get out of Louisiana. Months pass before Sazarac and Louise are reunited, and then only because Louise's treacherous uncle (Sam DeGrasse) wants to use the Captain's services in a plot to foment a war between England and Spain. But though Sazarac is a man without a country, he is still loyal to his native United States and refuses to have anything to do with the plan that might endanger his homeland. Louise likewise turns her back on her uncle, whereupon the latter contrives to have the girl kidnapped, spreading the false rumor that Sazarac was her abductor. Thus it is that Captain Sazarac must stay one step ahead of the entire American fleet to rescue Louise from her uncle and his fellow conspirators. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Betty Bronson, who found overnight success when she played the title character in Peter Pan, has the ingenue lead in this curiously named domestic drama. Mr. and Mrs. Hazlitt (Adolphe Menjou and Florence Vidor) have never learned the give and take of a marriage relationship and have decided to divorce for reasons of incompatibility. Their daughter, Lita (Bronson), is away at boarding school, and she's devastated by the news. She read that estranged parents can be brought back together if their child is in danger, and she decides to use this to her advantage. When she is accused of writing a romantic letter to a movie star that her roommate actually penned, she writes a suicide note and runs away from the school. While her parents are in a panic over her whereabouts, she is sleeping in the easy chair of Dr. Dacer (Lawrence Grey), the handsome young physician at the girls' school. Dacer is not even aware that she's there until the morning, when he finds her. By that time, the Hazlitts have reconciled, and Dacer proposes to Lita. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Mabel Normand's last feature-length film is also one of her most entertaining. Sue Graham (Normand) lives in the tiny hamlet of River Bend. When her parents (George Nichols and Anna Hernandez) refuse to let her marry her sweetheart, Dave Giddings (Ralph Graves), she enters a movie contest and wins. But Sue finds stardom in Hollywood very elusive and winds up working in the wardrobe department at a studio. She convinces her parents to sell everything they have to join her in Hollywood, but they are taken in by a swindler and lose all their money. Giddings comes out to help Sue get a better job, but she is determined to track down the swindler and get the money back. Eventually she is successful and everyone returns to River Bend. Normand has one of her most memorable comic moments when she leads a lion around on a leash, fully convinced it is a dog in disguise. Shortly after this picture was released, Normand was involved in a scandal in which her chauffeur shot a male friend with whom she had been drinking. After the 1921 murder scandal involving her colleague Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and the unsolved killing of her good friend, director William Desmond Taylor in 1922, this was the last straw. A number of states banned her from the screen (Ohio's attorney general remarked, "This film star has been entirely too closely connected with disgraceful shooting affairs.") Producer Mack Sennett released Normand from her contract and her career never recovered. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This drama about Cuba's unsuccessful 1850 revolution was based on the novel by Joseph Hergesheimer. Andres Escobar (André Beranger) convinces his wealthy American friend, Charles Abbott (Richard Barthelmess) to join him in Cuba. When Abbott sees how poorly the Spaniards are treating the Cubans, he is more than happy to join in the battle for independence. He is helped by La Clavel, a Spanish dancer who is on the side of the revolutionaries (Dorothy Gish, in an uncharacteristic role). He manages to gather much valuable information before drawing the suspicion of Captain Cesar Y Santacilla (Anders Randolf), a Spanish officer. Santacilla lays a trap for Abbott and La Clavel and catches them. La Clavel dies in the struggle, but Abbott overpowers the captain. After rescuing several of his friends, Abbott gets involved in a duel with another Spanish officer, who ultimately takes pity on him and puts him on a ship bound for America. On board, Abbott is happy to find Escobar's sister, Narcisa (Mary Astor), with whom he has fallen in love. There are two newcomers to the screen in this First National release -- future silent star Jetta Goudal in a small role, and Edward G. Robinson in his only silent film appearance. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The plot of Flirting With Fate probably wasn't new in 1916, and it certainly wouldn't disappear with this film. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. plays a struggling artist whose heart is broken when his sweetheart Jewel Carmen is promised in marriage to someone else. The woebegone Fairbanks decides he has nothing left to live for, but he isn't up to committing suicide; thus, he hires a professional killer to do the deed. When Fairbanks inherits a million dollars, Carmen's parents suddenly decide that he's worthy of their daughter's hand. The trick now is to call off the hired assassin--who is nowhere to be found! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide