Jed Prouty Movies

In this, the final episode in the "Sophie Lang" trio of crime comedies, the incorrigible female crook is again a fugitive from justice and heading for the West coast. Soon after her arrival, she hooks up with a screenwriter and not only helps him finish his latest script, she also helps him retrieve a valuable stolen necklace. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Ritz Brothers play three goofballs working their way through college by putting in time at a tailor shop. The college football team's star player is Nat Pendleton, a wealthy Native American who has donated a large amount of money to the school. As long as Pendleton is able to play, the football coach (Fred Stone) feels safe in putting the Ritz boys in the game at the last minute, when their zany antics can't possibly effect the final score. In Jim Thorpe fashion, the Indian student is disqualified when it is learned he once played professionally. Thus the coach is forced to utilize an untried player(Dick Baldwin) in the Big Game--and when that player is injured, it's the Ritz Brothers to the rescue. Life Begins in College gives plenty of attention to the comedy of the Ritz Brothers, if that's your idea of a good time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This second entry in the "Jones Family" series finds Pa Jones (Jed Prouty) once again at loggerheads with his oldest son Jack (Kenneth Howell). Sonny boy wants to become a pilot, but dad wants the boy to follow in his own footsteps as a druggist. But when Jones Senior is flown back by Jones Junior from a fishing trip just in time to renew the lease on his drugstore, Pa sees things in a different light. "Guest star" Dixie Dunbar plays Jack's girlfriend, who finds herself along for the ride when the boy solos for the first time (a slapstick highlight). Sharp-eyed filmgoers noticed that the planes seen in the aerial footage weren't always well matched (one was white, the other black), but no one really cared. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Dix is as stalwart and oaklike as ever in Special Investigator. Here he plays courtroom-movie cliche #22B: The wealthy attorney who keeps mobsters out of prison. When Dix's brother, a G-Man, is killed by one of his ex-clients, the attorney switches sides and joins the Department of Justice. Dix uses his inside knowledge on the criminal element to avenge his brother's death. Special Investigator was adapted from a novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This musical satire parodies Southern living as it follows the exploits of a traveling medicine show that ends up on a bankrupt plantation. It is just as well as Doc Gurgle and his daughter have just lost their show. The plantation is run by a Kentucky colonel. Young Miss Gurgle and her pa decide to help save the plantation by putting on an amateur show in the stately mansion. She is assisted by the enthusiastic plantation workers. Songs include: "Uncle Tom's Cabin Is a Cabaret Now." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this children's movie, a feisty little orphan with high moral standards is literally imprisoned in a terrible orphanage. She is elated to discover that she is actually the daughter of a prominent lawyer who has been searching for her, but when she sees that another little girl needs a daddy more than she does, she exchanges papers with her and lets her go the good home. Fortunately, the truth is discovered and she too is reunited with her father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The quaint genetic theories of the 1930s are satirized in College Holiday. Dotty matron Mary Boland runs a ramshackle summer resort, opening her doors to college students of both sexes--but only those collegiates with extra-special physical and mental skills. She hopes to encourage these select co-eds to meet and mate, then produce a breed of "perfect" children. What Boland doesn't count on is the supremacy of the Heart over Science. Engagingly silly, College Holiday devotes generous screen space to some of the biggest comic talents of the 1930s: Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Martha Raye and Ben Blue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Broadway producer George White, who was the title character of 1934's George White's Scandals, heads for Florida following his latest hit. He makes it to Georgia where he sees an advertisement for a show called White's Scandals. Suspicious, he attends and learns that it is a hodge-podge variety show put on by another fellow named White. The show isn't very good but for the talent of its star, a beautiful singer. He is deeply impressed and hires her to headline his next show in New York. Well, just having only one of the entertainers come just won't do and George ends up taking an entire entourage including the Georgia White and the singer's love-interest. Still it's for the best and the New York production is a tremendous success. Things go well until a seductress shows up and steals the singer's beau. This creates personal friction that reflects in their performances. Things get sticky for awhile and it looks as if the show is going to fall apart until the singer's peach of an aunt shows up and puts it all back together. Eleanor Powell makes her screen debut as the troublesome vamp. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this rollicking adaptation of Ring Lardner's short story, Joe E. Brown plays an ace baseball player whose insistence upon making up excuses earns him the nickname "Alibi Ike." In the course of his first season with the Chicago Cubs, Brown also falls in love with Olivia De Havilland, sister-in-law of the team's manager. Brown's "alibi" habit prompts De Havilland to walk out on him, whereupon he goes into a slump-- which coincides with attempts by gamblers to get Brown to throw the World Series. The plot weaves its way towards a climax in which Brown escapes the gamblers by commandeering an ambulance and driving onto the ball field during the final Series game. Alibi Ike was the most successful of Joe E. Brown's "baseball trilogy" (which included Elmer the Great and Fireman Save My Child), and one the best baseball comedies of all time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A best-selling nonfictional book of the 1920s provided the title for this Will Rogers vehicle. Rogers plays a small town newspaper editor who prints all the news that fits his own homespun view of the world. Against the wishes of the town higher-ups, Rogers tries to clear the name of Richard Cromwell, a young man accused of a long-ago bank robbery. Along the way, the genial editor smooths the path of romance between Cromwell and sweet Rochelle Hudson. Life Begins at 40 contains some great bits of dialogue, notably Rogers' comment after unloading a box of canned goods that the American emblem should be changed from an eagle to a can opener. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this tepid melodrama, an aspiring writer and her boyfriend, a professional agitator head off to the Big Apple in search of good fortune. Unfortunately, the agitator soon finds himself in trouble with the cops. Meanwhile the writer attempts to become a Greenwich Village Bohemian type. She and her new friends are all starving for their art until a kindly gent offers them financial assistant. They refuse on principle. Tragedy pays a call when the writer learns that her boyfriend has been untrue. For a time she thinks seriously about ending it all. Fortunately, she reconsiders and success comes her way. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hollywood Party was planned as a lavish, star-studded MGM musical titled Hollywood Revue of 1933. Under the less-than-sterling guidance of "kicked upstairs" MGM producer Harry Rapf, production dragged on interminably, using up the talents of five directors (none of whom were credited) and seven writers. The "all star" cast lineup slowly dwindled down to comparatively inexpensive contract players Jimmy Durante and Jack Pearl (radio's Baron Munchhausen) and a passel of non-MGM personalities. The final product wove a goofy story about The Great Schnarzan (Durante), a jungle-movie star whose films are suffering at the box office because his lions are anemic. Schnarzan schemes to purchase several healthy lions from Baron Munchhausen; to get the baron into a bargaining mood, Schnarzan throws a huge Hollywood party in Munchhausen's honor. Liondora (George Givot), Schnarzan's "hated rival", hopes to purchase the Baron's lions for himself, and crashes the party disguised as a Greek Baron. Also figuring into the plot are the members of the Klemp family (Charles Butterworth, Polly Moran and June Clyde), who are filthy rich and thus quite attractive to both Schnarzan and Liondora; poor-but-honest Eddie Quillan, who romances the Klemp's daughter; and Schnarzan's ex-girlfriend Lupe Velez, who shows up at the party in an astonishingly revealing gown for the express purpose of making trouble. In an amusing animated sequence courtesy of Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse introduces the Technicolor musical exploits of "The Hot Chocolate Soldiers." Shortly before the end, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy make a welcome appearance as a pair of lion-farm owners who wish to collect a debt from Baron Munchhausen. This segues into the classic egg-breaking sequence involving Stan, Ollie, and Lupe Velez. Now we've reached the 65 minute mark, with no logical ending in sight. Director Allan Dwan, brought into the project at the last minute, took a look at the existing footage and declared "It's a nightmare!" Inspired, Dwan directed a closing sequence which suggested that the whole plot had been dreamed by Jimmy Durante; Durante is wakened from his slumbers by his wife--played by Mrs. Jimmy Durante. Hollywood Party makes no sense at all, but it's a must for comedy lovers and 1930s film buffs. Don't miss that opening number, written by Rodgers and Hart and performed by Frances Williams and a chorus of barely dressed telephone operators; and keep an eye peeled for a lengthy uncredited appearance by the Three Stooges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this tear-jerking adaptation of Louis Bromfield's novel A Good Woman, the title character stands tall in the face of small town gossip in order to stay with her already married lover who makes promises to her he does not intend to keep. Matters get complicated when Vergie gets pregnant. At the same time, her lover begins running for political office. Not wanting scandal to destroy his promising career, Vergie begs him not to divorce the wife he doesn't love. The child, a girl, is born. Vergie and her man continue to tryst, but it is far from a perfect situation and back home, he is miserable. One day he decides enough is enough and tells his vindictive wife the truth and announces his intent to divorce her. The wife takes this poorly and her jealousy sets a terrible tragedy in motion that is only resolved at the story's end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide