Frances Rich Movies

A beautiful orphan girl, faced with the prospect of being forced to work as an indentured servant (more like a slave) until she grows up, runs away to the zoo. There she encounters a kindly zookeeper who has been chastised by his boss for being too nice to the animals. He becomes a fugitive after stealing a wealthy woman's fur coat. He and the girl meet while hiding out in the zoo. Later he saves her from an attack by a vicious co-worker. More scuffles ensue and they result in many dangerous animals being freed from their cages. The errant zookeep later redeems himself by saving a young child from a hungry tiger. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

John Ford directed this emotional drama, which was a considerable change of pace from the westerns and war pictures for which he was best known. Hannah Jessop (Henrietta Crosman) fears being abandoned by her son Jim (Norman Foster), and she doesn't approve of his romance with Mary Saunders (Marian Nixon). When Hannah discovers that Jim and Mary plan to wed, she sends her son off to fight in WWI, unaware that Mary is carrying his child. Jim is killed in combat just as Mary is giving birth, and while Hannah is crushed by the loss of her son, she cannot forgive Mary or abide her grandson, Jim, Jr. (Jay Ward). Years later, Hannah is prodded into joining a group of women who lost their sons in the war on a visit to the battlefields of Europe; en route, she meets Mrs. Hatfield (Lucille La Verne), whose warmth and gracious acceptance of her misfortune forces Hannah to take a look at herself and her attitudes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

It took nerve for low-budget producer M.H. Hoffman to update Gustave Flaubert's 19th century novel Madame Bovary and relocate the story to Rye, New York. It was equally nervy to retitle the film as Unholy Love and to cast Joyce Compton, usually cast as a dumb blonde, in the central role. Compton plays Sheila Bailey, a selfish young woman who enters into a financially beneficial marriage with Jerry Gregory (Lyle Talbot), the son of highly respectable Dr. Gregory (H.B. Warner). Unable to adjust to her new husband's conservative lifestyle, Sheila begins playing the field with other men, resulting in disgrace and tragedy for everyone around her. The tacked-on happy ending finds young Gregory being reunited with his childhood sweetheart Jane Bradford (Lila Lee). No question about it: Vincente Minnelli's 1949 Madame Bovary, despite the censorial restrictions imposed upon it, is infinitely more faithful to its source. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide