Jed Prouty Movies

Given a title like Jimmy and Sally, one might assume that this Fox production is another in the popular series of co-starring vehicles for James Dunn and Sally Eilers. Sure enough, Dunn does play Jimmy, but Eilers was in the midst of a contract dispute with the studio, thus the role of Sally was filled by Claire Trevor. Jimmy is a wiseguy press agent whose efforts to promote a meat-packing firm come to naught. Our hero is fired from his job, whereupon his sweetheart Sally steps in, immediately succeeding where Jimmy had failed. Meanwhile, Jimmy gets entangled with cabaret singer Pola Wenski (Lya Lys), which puts quite a strain on his relationship with Sally. The third-act intervention of gangsters brings the story to swift and action-packed finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Monogram's Skyway stars Ray Walker in his usual role as a brash troublemaker who can't hold down a job. This time he's a hot-shot aviator who loses a bank-clerk job, much to the chagrin of his sweetheart Kathryn Crawford, the bank-president's daughter. Making matters worse, Walker is being held responsible for thousands of dollars in missing funds. Climbing into his trusty plane, our hero chases down the actual miscreant, an embezzling vice president, simultaneously saving his reputation and his romance in the process. The film moves quickly enough for audiences to happily ignore the many plot holes. Elements of both Skyway and the like-vintage Ray Walker vehicle He Couldn't Take It were later reworked into the inaugural Bowery Boys entry Live Wires (1946). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This drama is a compilation of stories occurring in the Empire State Building with the focus on topics such as bank failures, love scenes and odd clerks. ~ All Movie Guide

William Wellman's Night Nurse survives as a potentially interesting but ultimately unsatisfying melodrama about a nurse discovering evildoings in the household where she is caring for a couple of sick children. Based on a 1930 novel by Dora Macy, Wellman's probe into medical corruption is one of the director's more cynical looks on Depression-era America, but most of the characters are weakly drawn and the denouement a cheat, cinematically. Barbara Stanwyck plays Lora Hart, an ambitious student nurse whose first assignment after graduation is tending to a couple of deathly ill little girls, Nanny (Marcia Mae Jones) and Desney (Betty Jane Graham). Despite their posh surroundings, the girls are apparently suffering from malnutrition; their mother, Mrs. Ritchey (Charlotte Merriam), is hopped-up on bootleg booze ("I'm a dipsomaniac! A dipsomaniac I tell ya! And I like it!"), and the girls' physician (Ralf Harolde) is a society quack with a facial tick. Lora soon realizes that the good doctor is deliberately starving the children to death in order to gain access to their trust fund and that Mrs. Ritchey is kept in line by Nick (Clark Gable), a black-clad gangster posing as the family chauffeur. A desperate Lora proposes to contact the authorities, but her medical sponsor (Charles Winninger) deems that unethical and instead suggests that she find a solution from inside the family. Nearly at the end of her ropes -- and having accepted one too many blows to the chin from Nick -- Lora is saved by an admirer, good-natured bootlegger Mortie (Ben Lyon), whose "friends" take the evil chauffeur on a final "ride." None of this makes much sense, and the film appears to have been tampered with along the way. One of the children disappears without any explanation halfway through, and the hospital establishment's reticence is never properly explained. Instead of a coherent plot, Night Nurse, in typical pre-Production Code style, offers quite a few scenes of Barbara Stanwyck and fellow nurse Joan Blondell dressing and undressing and a rather brutal portrayal by a very young Clark Gable on the threshold to fame. Warner Bros. had borrowed Gable from MGM to play the despicable chauffeur when the original choice, James Cagney, suddenly proved too valuable a commodity for what was actually a supporting role. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this screwball comedy, Annabelle Leigh (Jeanette MacDonald) happily spends the $5,000 sent her each month by her husband, whom she hasn't seen since eleven hours after they were married. She explains to friends that while in Montana, she was injured and cared for by a burly, bearded miner, Hefty Jack (Victor McLaglen), who later married her for the sake of appearances. Less than a day later, Annabelle fled back to New York; Hefty Jack struck it rich, and has been sending her money ever since. Now Annabelle finds herself in financial hot water and desperately turns for help to John Rawson, a newcomer to the city; Annabelle is unaware that he is the now-beardless Hefty Jack. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

Norma Shearer stars in this pre-Code melodrama as Lisbeth Corbin, who is in love with Alan (Neil Hamilton), a globe-trotting newspaper reporter, but also strings along Steve (Robert Montgomery), a well-mannered local boy who is good friends with Lisbeth, even though she doesn't love him. When Alan is sent to Mexico to cover a story, love-struck Lisbeth goes with him, but when he's next sent to China, Alan leaves Lisbeth behind. Heartbroken, she heads for Europe, where she tries to forget Alan with a series of short-term love affairs. Try as she might, Lisebth can't forget Alan, but when she returns home, lonely and desperate, she finally agrees to marry Steve. Alan picks this moment to return, but just as she's thrown over Steve for her true love, Alan learns of Lisbeth's escapades in Europe and breaks off the engagement, sending her to the brink of suicide. Keep an eye peeled for an early appearance by Ray Milland as one of Lisbeth's suitors. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Nancy Carroll brings a touch of freshness to the well-worn plot convolutions of Devil's Holiday. Ms. Carroll plays a manicurist who woos and weds wealthy Phillips Holmes. She tells herself that she harbors no mercenary notions, but when Holmes' family offers to buy her off if she'll leave, Carroll accepts the offer. The girl's basic loyalty surfaces when Holmes goes temporarily insane; Carroll reneges on her cash deal with the family and returns to her husband. Devil's Holiday is one of those class-conscious early 1930s pictures that always scored a hit with middle-class filmgoers, who liked to believe that they, too, would behave as altruistically as Nancy Carroll if given the chance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, set during the 1900s, a Florodora girl slowly falls for a gentle millionaire. Songs include: "My Kind Of Man," "Pass The Beer And Pretzels," "Swingin' In The Lane," and a Technicolor stage sequence of "Tell Me Pretty Maiden." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a businessman takes his client with a beautiful escort to a fancy nightclub where he plans to close an important business deal. Unfortunately, the client's joins them. The escort must then pretend to be the businessman's wife. Marital trouble ensues when the businessman's real wife, at home and listening to a radio show originating from the club, hears a request sent out by her husband and his "wife." The suspicious woman wastes no time in getting to the club. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Dixie Lee, best known to latter-day viewers as the first wife of Bing Crosby, essayed a leading role in the early Fox talkie Why Leave Home?. Things get under way when suburban matrons Ethel (Ilka Chase), Susan (Dot Farley) and Maude (Laura Hamilton) discover that their husbands George (Jed Prouty), Elmer (Walter Catlett) and Roy (Gordon DeMain) have been "stepping out" with some chorus girls. To get even, the ladies hire college boys Jose (Richard Keene), Oscar (David Rollins) and Dick (Nick Stuart) as their "gigolos." Caught in the middle are the collegiates' showgirl sweethearts Billie (Dixie Lee), Jackie (Jean Barry) and Mary (Sue Carol). Inevitably, all fifteen protagonists meet at a nightclub, leading to a cascade of slapstick complications. A remake of 1928's The Cradle Snatchers, Why Leave Home? was itself remade as Let's Face It in 1943. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This landmark MGM backstage musical of the early sound era about broken dreams on the Great White Way features a bevy of standards by the songwriting team of Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. Freed later became unit producer of the legendary Freed Unit at MGM, which is the reason many of the tunes from Broadway Melody --""You Were Meant For Me"", "Broadway Melody", ""The Wedding of the Painted Doll""-- later appeared in Freed's seminal MGM musical Singin' in the Rain. The nominal story concerns midwestern sister act The Mahoney Sisters --Queenie (Anita Page) and Hank (Bessie Love)-- who come to New York to try to make it big on Broadway. Hank's song-and-dance man boyfriend Eddie (Charles King) has promised the gals a part in the new Broadway revue in which he is soon to appear. When Hank and Queenie come to see him, Hank is pleasantly surprised at the way Queenie has filled out. Soon enough, Eddie is making advances to Queenie. Queenie is attracted to Eddie too, but she doesn't want to steal her sister's boyfriend. So she Queenie takes up with a lecherous playboy, leaving it to Hank to put all the confused love relationships in perspective. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a traveling troupe of actors find themselves in danger of becoming unemployed when their manager up and leaves. Two of the actors decide to marry and settle down. The lead actor helps set up the rest of the troupe with some performances. He then destroys the new marriage. Later the woman and the head actor fall in love. He then gives her the lead role in his newest show. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide