Bob Perry Movies

In this drama, Pat O'Brien plays James O'Malley, a tough, by-the-book policeman who is so unbending on any minor infraction of the law that he even gives his own mother a ticket for jaywalking. When newspaper reporter Pinky Holden (Hobart Cavanaugh) writes an article making fun of O'Malley's obsession with order, Capt. Cromwell (Donald Crisp), the Chief of Police, demotes the officer to a crossing guard. In his first day on the job, O'Malley, true to form, gives John Phillips (Humphrey Bogart) a ticket for the broken muffler on his rattletrap car. Phillips is in dire financial straits; he's been out of work for some time, and has both a wife (Frieda Inescort) and a handicapped daughter, Barbara (Sybil Jason), to support. O'Malley takes so long writing out his ticket for Phillips that when he finally arrives at work, he's fired. Desperate for cash, Phillips tries to hock his war medals, but a disagreement with the pawnbroker leads to a fight, and after knocking him out, Phillips takes all his money. Phillips is arrested by O'Malley for his faulty muffler around the same time that Barbara wanders into traffic and is seriously injured by a motorist. Eventually, O'Malley puts the pieces together and realizes the terrible toll his unwillingness to compromise has taken on Phillips and his family. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A sort of follow-up to the studio's earlier College Scandal, Paramount's Murder Goes to College once again combines homicide with higher learning. When the titular murder occurs, detective Hank Hyer (Lynne Overman) shows up to investigate, with vacationing reporter Sim Perkins (Roscoe Karns) tagging along. Both of our heroes run up against formidable opposition from a strangely secretive faculty, an openly hostile local constabulary, and sneering racketeer Strike Belno (Larry "Buster" Crabbe). Foremost among the suspects is Greta Barry (Astrid Allwyn), the ex-showgirl spouse of much-despised professor Tom Barry (Earl Foxe). Much of the suspense in Murder Goes to College arises from the possibility that the bibulous Sim Perkins won't remain sober long enough to solve the mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the landmark "screwball" comedies of the 1930s, My Man Godfrey offers the radiant Carole Lombard in her definitive performance as flighty young heiress Irene Bullock, who on a society scavenger hunt stumbles on Godfrey (William Powell), an erudite hobo residing in the city dump. Godfrey becomes the family's butler, much to the dismay of Irene's father Alexander (Eugene Pallette), who thinks his household is crazy enough without another apparent lunatic under his roof. Halfway through the film, we discover that Godfrey isn't a penniless bum at all, but the scion of a wealthy Boston family. Having been burned by an unhappy romance, Godfrey dropped out of life, taking up residence in the dump. Here his faith in humanity was restored by his fellow indigents, who managed to survive and remain optimistic despite the worst deprivations. Meanwhile, however, he wants to straighten out the Bullock family, who he feels are a basically decent bunch beneath all their pretensions and eccentricities -- and along the way, of course, Irene determines that Godfrey will be her husband. While Godfrey's ultimate "solution" to the exigencies of the Depression seems more of a placebo, My Man Godfrey is all in all a totally satisfying jolt of 1930s-style wish fulfillment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The third screen version of Jack London's classic adventure story was also the first with sound, and it toyed with the original story a bit to add a love interest for leading man Clark Gable. Jack Thornton (Gable) is a would-be prospector who has headed to Alaska hoping to cash in on the gold rush. However, he loses most of his stake in a poker game and instead ends up buying a Saint Bernard named Buck. He's able to pick up Buck for a song because he's too ill-tempered to pull a sled; Smith (Reginald Owen), Buck's former owner, treated him with cruelty and the dog mangled Smith's hand in retaliation. Jack loves the dog, though, and treats him with care and kindness. Buck bonds with Jack and soon becomes a loyal companion and a good sled dog. Angry and astounded, Smith bets Jack that Buck can't pull a half-ton sled 100 yards; while the old Buck would never have done it, with Jack's urging the dog manages the feat and Jack now has the funds to set out with his friend Shorty (Jack Oakie) to stake their claim. While searching for gold, Jack and Shorty discover Claire Blake (Loretta Young), the wife of a miner who abandoned her to look for a fresh vein of gold. A warmth grows between Claire and Jack in the frozen North, but Jack is forced to help her husband when he runs afoul of thieves trying to steal his claim. Six more films based on The Call of the Wild would follow this to the screen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Riff-Raff begins riff-raffing when boastful fisherman Dutch (Spencer Tracy) marries down-to-earth cannery worker Hattie (Jean Harlow). Their happiness is marred by Dutch's egomania, which results in the loss of his job and the alienation of his friends. Eventually he deserts Hattie, but she remains in love with him, even going to jail on a theft charge after trying to supply him with money. Reels and reels later, Dutch makes up for his past misdeeds by foiling a plot to sabotage a huge fishing vessel. Unfortunately, his reunion with Hattie is delayed when she tries to break out of prison, earning her an extended sentence, but he magnanimously promises to wait for her. Hard to believe that so sensible a heroine would put up with so much from a guy who's frankly not worth the trouble, but the chemistry between Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow compensates for the film's Grand Canyon-sized logic holes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A satire on radio crooners, Twenty Million Sweethearts stars Dick Powell as a singing waiter--fake handlebar mustache and all. Publicity man Pat O'Brien discovers Powell and gets him a radio gig, leading to nationwide adulation for the nonplused tenor. All of this jeopardizes Powell's happy marriage to Ginger Rogers, but he proves faithful to her despite the twenty million sweethearts (i.e. female radio fans) referred to in the title. Twenty Million Sweethearts is fitfully amusing, with some of the best moments concentrated at the beginning wherein the Radio Rogues imitate several popular personalities of the airwaves. This film was remade in 1949 as My Dream Is Yours, with Doris Day (!) in the Dick Powell role but with the same "signature" tune, "I'll String Along with You." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gangster Cagney allows his powerful political connections to appoint him "deputy inspector" of a state reform school. There he finds the youths abused and battered by a brutal, heartless warden and his thuggish guards. It is a nurse who informs Cagney and pleads with him to clean things up. Something touches Cagney's normally hard heart and he commits himself to enacting more humane reforms. Soon, he gets the warden booted out and begins working closely with the inmates, who come to trust and respect him until Cagney's dark side emerges and he reveals himself for what he is--a ruthless mobster. This destroys the boys' trust and when the old warden is reinstated makes matters even worse until Cagney makes a difficult choice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An admirably tough B-picture enlivened by an energetic James Cagney performance, Picture Snatcher stars Cagney as Danny Kean, a former gangster who has decided to go straight after a stretch in the big house. Danny has fallen for Patricia (Patricia Ellis), the daughter of the cop who put him away (Robert Emmett O'Connor). Dad isn't convinced that Danny has left his life of crime behind him, and he isn't too impressed with his new career taking pictures for a sleazy tabloid newspaper. Between getting a lurid photo of a fireman in front of a burning building (where his wife and her lover met their fate) and a daring shot of a woman being executed (based an actual incident when a New York Daily News photographer got a photo of Ruth Snyder in the electric chair), Danny's work is selling papers but hardly making Officer O'Connor think his daughter is in good hands (especially since he was in charge of press security for the execution). Short, sweet and sassy, Picture Snatcher is the sort of gutsy fare Warner Bros. did best in the 1930's; Ralph Bellamy turns in a great supporting performance as Danny's boozy editor. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Often referred to as an imitation of Warner's legendary prison drama I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), RKO's stirring Hell's Highway was actually released a few months earlier. The two films were in production at the same time, but RKO was determined to beat the competition (which also included Universal's Laughter in Hell, 1933) and not a few corners were cut. All three films were set in a generic Southern state (read Georgia) and depicted a horrid penal system more akin to the Middle Ages than the supposedly enlightened 1930s. In Hell's Highway, the chain gang prisoners wear uniforms with a large target printed on the back and the torture instrument du jour is a so-called sweatbox, in constant operation so that unscrupulous contractor Billings (Oscar Apfel) may construct his "Liberty Highway" on time and under budget. When a prisoner dies from exposure in the dreaded contraption, Duke Ellis (Richard Dix) concocts a plan to escape. The escape comes to an abrupt halt with the sudden arrival of his kid brother, Johnny (Tom Brown). The latter ends up in the sweatbox, but Duke has the kid transferred to office duty by using a bit of blackmail. There is a climactic prison riot, during which Duke is killed after saving his brother once again. Or at least that was what a preview audience saw. The death of the film's hero proved so shocking that RKO hastily filmed an alternative ending and Hell's Highway, as it survives today, concludes with Billings being charged with murder (the sweatbox situation) and Duke asked to testify against him. Typical of pre-code Hollywood, Hell's Highway features an openly gay prisoner (who bats his eyes at the prison guards), several scenes of torture, an appearance of near equality between black and white inmates, a bible-quoting polygamist (Charles Middleton), a wife-murdering guard (Warner Richmond), and, for added verisimilitude, a handicapped character who, when mortally wounded during the riot, signs his farewell to this world. Hell's Highway may not have enjoyed the status of I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, but it remains a powerful indictment of the Georgian penal system of 1931 and a fine, well-acted film in its own right. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A pre-Hopalong Cassidy William Boyd is the robust star of this logging camp melodrama which also featured a very young Ginger Rogers -- who performs Bernard Grossman and Harold Lewis' "How Could I Love You" -- and Hollywood veteran Hobart Bosworth. The latter plays Jim Gannon, a lumberjack boss whose son Buck (Boyd) is neglecting his duties in favor of romancing riverboat entertainer Honey (Rogers). Father and son come to blows but their animosity ends after Buck rescues Jim from a runaway logging train. Feeling left out, Honey plans to leave with the carnival boat but decides to stick around after violence erupts at the hands of villainous lumberjack Hack Logan (Fred Kohler). Carnival Boat was filmed on location at Big Pine, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

William A. Wellman's triangle melodrama "The Steel Highway" -- a title referring to the film's railroad setting -- was changed to the more suggestive Other Men's Women shortly before it's April 19, 1931 New York premiere. Grant Withers and Regis Toomey played lifelong friends and co-workers in love with the same woman, Mary Astor). She, unfortunately, is also Toomey's wife and the two friends have a blow-out on the job. The train derails and Toomey is blinded for life. When the river floods, the repentant Withers concocts a scheme to save an important railroad bridge by driving his engine across, thus stabilizing the construction. Believing his blindness makes him a burden to Astor, Toomey sacrifices himself instead. The ploy fails and Toomey is killed. Toomey and Astor, who had replaced James Hall and Marian Nixon, and Grant Withers were all fine under Wellman's crisp direction but the film was stolen outright by supporting players James Cagney and Joan Blondell, the latter as Wither's former girlfriend. With typical pre-production code frankness, Blondell's tough-talking waitress advises a fresh customer that she is "A.P.O." What does this "A.P.O. means?" the customer asks. Blondell: "Ain't puttin' out!" Blondell and Cagney, who had appeared together in the Broadway play Penny Arcade and its subsequent film version, Sinner's Holiday (1930), would reach stardom in their third film together, the gangster classic The Public Enemy (1931). Overly static at times, Other Men's Women was livened considerably by the climactic bridge collapse, a successful use of miniatures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this courtroom drama, a lawyer defends his sister's fiance after he is accused of murder. The lawyer knows his client is guilty, and that another man, a sailor, also accused of the crime because he gambled away his gun, which became the murder weapon, but he must honor the confidentiality between he and his client. The sailor is given the death sentence. Just before he is to die, the lawyer's client comes forward and tells the truth. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide