George Regas Movies

Charlie Murray and George Sidney, the Irish-Jewish duo who'd starred in so many The Cohens and the Kellys comedies of the silent era, team up again for Tiffany Studios' Caught Cheating. The burden of the plot falls on the shoulders of the portly Sidney, who is mistakenly put "on the spot" by a criminal gang. A rival gang comes to Sidney's rescue just in the nick of time. Top-billed Charlie Murray hasn't got much to do outside of reacting in mock dismay to Sidney's fractured English. Caught Cheating was written by W. Scott Darling, whose later scripts for Laurel & Hardy were likewise festooned with gangsters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Suggested" by the book The West That Was by legendary showman William F. Cody, this 12 chapter Universal serial was merely another slam-bang affair in which Cody (Tom Tyler) and his younger sidekick, Dave Archer (Rex Bell), battle a nasty claim jumper, Jim Rodney (Francis Ford), and his gang. Resenting the interference in his plans, Rodney not only incites the local Indian tribe to attack the town but also blackmails the local community to elect him sheriff. Not one of the era's better serials, Battling with Buffalo Bill still manages to engage no less than 10 former silent cowboy stars in the cast, somewhat of a record. Of course, most of the gentlemen in question were finding the new audible Hollywood an inhospitable place and were just happy to be working, even for the lousy wages offered by Universal producer Henry MacRae. Leading man Tom Tyler, who had replaced Tim McCoy, would become a regular serial hero in the sound era, bringing such comic book heroes as "Captain Marvel" (1940) and The Phantom (1943) to life. A former Fox star, second-billed Rex Bell was the husband of Clara Bow and a future lieutenant governor of Nevada. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

An innocent cowboy is once again suspected of a crime he didn't commit in The Lonesome Trail, an obscure early talkie western from low-budget producer Syndicate that wasted the talents of silent western stars Yakima Canutt, Bob Reeves, Art Mix, and Monte Montague. The accuser (Montague), as it turns out, is the leader of a gang of rustlers, a man the hero once trusted. The star of this fiasco, Charles Delaney, gets to warble a couple of tunes (including Oh, Susannah) but did not set the screen aflame with his vocals or start a new trend. Delaney had enjoyed some success playing collegiate roles in the silent era but was consigned to supporting roles thereafter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Intended as a follow-up (and improvement upon) the 1926 epic western The Vanishing American, Redskin was partially filmed in two-color Technicolor -- and, during its first big-city road show engagements, was shown in Magnascope, an early wide-screen process. Written by Elizabeth Pickett, an expert on the Pueblo Indian tribe of New Mexico, the film is in part an indictment of the government's ham-handed efforts to "civilize" the Native American population. Dragged off his reservation by Indian agent John Walton (Larry Steers), Wing Foot (Philip Anderson), the 9-year-old son of a Navajo chief, is forced to speak English and acclimate himself to the ways of the white man. When Wing Foot refuses to salute the American flag, he is brutally whipped by Walton, earning himself the unenviable nickname of Do-Atin, or "The Whipped One." Overcoming his initial resentments, the grown-up Wing Foot (now played by Richard Dix) becomes the first Indian to attend Thorpe College. He excels scholastically and also distinguishes himself as a star athlete, yet still he is subjected to the bigotry of his snobbish classmates. Nor are things any better when Wing Foot graduates from medical school and returns to his own people, hoping to replace their ancient superstitions with modern medical advances. Banished from his tribe for being "too white," Wing Foot finds himself literally a man without a country. Only when he discovers oil on the reservation and manages to avert a tribal war between the Pueblo and Navajo is Wing Foot fully accepted by the two worlds he now straddles. Far superior to The Vanishing American, Redskin is well worth seeing again, if only for the documentary value of its location-filmed Technicolor sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this high seas adventure, a shipload of smugglers decide to mutiny and end up tossing their captain and his officers into the briny. The only one they spare is the navigator who must sail the ship to a safe harbor. But the honorable fellow refuses to do this unless the mutineers settle down and leave the poor young woman they rescued from a shipwreck in peace. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ronald Colman plays the title role in the first of several screen adaptations of Christopher Wren's tale of adventure in the foreign legion. Beau is the youngest of three brothers who fall into an ethical dilemma when their aunt resorts to stealing valuable jewelry from the family's collection to pay off her home. Beau takes the blame for the crime and, before he can be put in jail, flees the country, with his brothers John (Ralph Forbes) and Digby (Neil Hamilton) in tow. The Geste Brothers eventually join the French Foreign Legion, where they suffer under the tyrannical leadership of the cruel Sgt. Lejaune (Noah Beery Sr.). Unknown to Beau, Lejaune is in cahoots with men who want to capture the Geste Brothers and bring them to justice, but when Arab forces attack the Legion compound, the valiant Gestes fight with such bravery that even Lejaune is impressed with their selfless courage. It's said that Ronald Colman considered his performance in Beau Geste the finest work of his career; lip readers might get a chuckle out of some of Noah Beery Sr.'s non-subtitled dialogue, which today would have pushed the film into an R rating if it were audible. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The stars and director of Sally of the Sawdust, namely Carol Dempster, W. C. Fields and D. W. Griffith, were reunited in That Royle Girl. Dempster heads the cast as Daisy Royle, the daughter of a small-time crook (Fields, of course). When Daisy's jazz-musician boyfriend Fred Ketlar (Harrison Ford) is implicated in the murder of his wife, our heroine also falls under suspicion. District attorney Calvin Clarke (James Kirkwood), assigned to investigate Daisy's case, can't help but fall in love with the girl. She likewise falls for him, then sets about to prove herself worthy of his affections. Adopting a disguise, Daisy tries to find out on her own who was responsible for Mrs. Ketlar's murder. Nearly trapped by the actual killer, Daisy manages to escape with the help of a convenient cyclone! Through it all, her unregenerate father continues trying to bilk as many suckers as he can lay his hands on. Alas, That Royle Girl is now considered a lost film, so it's difficult to determine the extent of W. C. Fields' contributions to the proceedings (contemporary reviews indicate that he was something of a square peg in a round hole). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A visually stunning if somewhat overblown melodrama, The Love Light was directed by Mary Pickford's close friend and confidante, screenwriter Frances Marion. Pickford is Angela, a young Italian lighthouse keeper who can only watch while both her brothers (Jean De Briac and Eddie Phillips) and a village admirer, Giovanni (Raymond Bloomer), go off to war with Germany. While mourning the news of the older brother's death, Angela rescues a stranger who has washed up on the beach. Dressed in an unfamiliar sailor's uniform, the boy (Fred Thomson) introduces himself as Joseph, an American whose ship had left him behind. Fearing that he may be mistaken for a deserter, Angela agrees to harbor the young man and they quickly fall in love, Angela sending her secret husband signs of love every night from the lighthouse. When Angela discovers that Joseph is a German spy, and that the nightly messages of love may have caused the drowning death of her returning younger brother, she gives him up to the angry villagers. Grieving over her dead brothers and the treachery of the man she loved, Angela finds comfort only in her newborn baby. But Maria (Evelyn Dumo), who has lost both her husband Pietro (Albert Prisco) and their newborn son, convinces the local nuns to hand over Angela's child to her. When Angela realizes what has happened, Maria flees in a boat operated by Tony (George Regas). In the ensuing storm, Angela's baby almost drowns but the little girl is saved in the nick of time by her mother's "love light." Reunited with a blinded Giovanni, Angela and her baby have finally found a safe harbor. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide