Charles Richman Movies

Veteran movie heavy Boris Karloff plays a sympathetic role in Devil's Island. Karloff portrays a humanitarian physician, arrested for treating the wounds of a treasonous fugitive. Sent to the Devil's Island penal colony, Dr. Karloff runs afoul of sadistic commandant James Stephenson, who seems obsessed by the guillotine (an execution sequence is one of the film's longest scenes). Stephenson's wife Nedda Harrigan, fed up with her husband's cruelties, aids Karloff in turning the tables on the commandant. Participating in an escape, Karloff makes his way to freedom and clears his name. Devil's Island runs a scant 60 minutes, due to editing demands made by the French consulate in Washington, who felt that the film was detrimental to Franco-American relations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bette Davis earned an Oscar nomination for her role in this classic four-hanky tearjerker. Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) is a very wealthy Long Island heiress whose life is a constant whirl of cocktails, parties, and wild living. Despite her hedonistic lifestyle, Judith derives little pleasure from life except for her horses, cared for by stable master Michael O'Leary (Humphrey Bogart). When Judith begins suffering from headaches and dizzy spells, Dr. Frederick Steele (George Brent) gives her the bad news: she has a brain tumor that could threaten her life if not treated immediately. Judith consents to surgery, and Frederick informs her that the operation was a success. A grateful Judith quickly falls in love with Frederick, and they plan to marry. However, the tumor returns, and when Judith discovers that she has only a few months to live, she calls off the wedding, convinced that Frederick is marrying her only as an act of pity for a dying woman. A major success and perennial favorite, Dark Victory was later remade as Stolen Hours with Susan Hayward and as a TV movie starring Elizabeth Montgomery. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

I Am Not Afraid was the preview title for the 60-minute Warner Bros. crime melodrama The Man Who Dared. A remake of 1931's Star Witness, the film concerns the efforts made by gangster to intimidate murder witness Matthew Carter (Henry O'Neill) into silence. When all else fails, the villains kindap Carter's young son Ralph (Dickie Moore) threatening in no uncertain terms to kill the boy if Carter testifies in court. Coming to the rescue is Ralph's grandpa Ulysses Porterfield (Charley Grapewin), a pugnacious Civil War veteran who deploys military strategy to rescue the kid from the gangster's clutches. Like many other Warner Bros. films of the period, I Am Not Afraid takes a firm and decisive stand against the political hooligans then in charge of Europe: at one point, Porterfield shames Carter into cooperating with the authorities by observing that American gangsters were no better than "Hitler, Mussolini or Stalin" (This at a time went most Hollywood studios were treading very lightly in the field of current affairs, terrified of losing the valuable European market) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1938 version of Adventures of Tom Sawyer appears to be producer David O. Selznick's dry run for Gone with the Wind, what with its similarities in period, costumes, color scheme and production design (both films shared the services of the great Hollywood art director William Cameron Menzies). Selected from hundreds of applicants (a precursor to Selznick's upcoming search for Wind's Scarlet O'Hara), Tommy Kelly is visually perfect as Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer though his acting varies from scene to scene. Better cast is Jackie Moran as the laconic, pipe-smoking Huck Finn (Moran would show up in Wind as Dr. Meade's son). Never forcing its pace, the film manages to include most of Twain's classic sequences, including the fence-whitewashing episode, Tom's rescue of Becky Thatcher (Anne Gillis) from the wrath of their schoolmaster (Olin Howlin), Tom and Huck's "death and resurrection" after the boys briefly skipped town for an idyll on a remote island, the murder trial of town drunk Muff Potter (Walter Brennan) and ultimately unmasking of the vicious Injun Joe (Victor Jory) as the real killer, and of course the chilling climax in the cave, wherein Tom protects Becky from the fugitive Injun Joe. Originally released at 93 minutes, Adventures of Tom Sawyer was trimmed to 77 minutes for a 1959 reissue; it has since been restored to its full length on videotape. In 1960, Tom Sawyer was syndicated to television by Selznick, with accompanying commentary by the film's now-grown-up "Becky Thatcher", Anne Gillis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Both film versions of Phillip Barry's stage comedy Holiday have their merits, but the 1938 version has the added advantage of supercharged star power. Katharine Hepburn and Doris Nolan play Linda and Julia Seton, two daughters of a very well-to-do family. Linda feels a bit lost in the shuffle as sister Julia prepares to marry self-made financier Cary Grant. Hepburn has always rebelled against her privileged trappings, and finds a kindred spirit in the unorthodox, iconoclastic Grant. On the verge of compromising his down-to-earth values with his marriage to the wealth-obsessed Nolan, Grant chooses instead to plight his troth with soul-mate Hepburn, celebrating his "liberation" by doing several cartwheels. Donald Ogden Stewart is careful to bring the pre-Depression frivolities of the Barry play up-to-date, first by changing the character of Grant's best friend (played in both films by Edward Everett Horton) from a lazy socialite to a dedicated professor, and by including several lines indicating how out of touch the privileged classes are--and choose to remain--with 1930s realities. The only element in which the remake does not improve on the original is in the casting of Hepburn's alcoholic younger brother; charming though Lew Ayres is in the 1938 film, he is still outclassed by Monroe Owsley in Holiday (1930). Katharine Hepburn managed to temporarily defray her "box office poison" onus when Holiday proved to be a success; alas, her next film, Bringing Up Baby (which reteamed her with Grant), was a financial bust, compelling her to return to Broadway--where she made a spectacular comeback in another Philip Barry play, The Philadelphia Story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of Paul Muni's biographical films for Warner Bros., the Oscar-winning The Life of Emile Zola is by far the best, even allowing for the dramatic license taken with the material. When first we meet French novelist and essayist Zola, he is starving in a Parisian garret with his painter friend, Paul Cezanne. Each time Zola attempts to write "the truth," he is stymied by governmental censors. Still, he is able to achieve both fame and fortune with the publication of "Nana," an unardorned and best-selling tale of a prostitute (whom we can safely assume was not quite as likeable or attractive as Erin O'Brien-Moore, who plays the novel's "role model"). The lion's share of the film is devoted to Zola's attempts to clear the reputation of Army captain Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut), who has been framed on a charge of treason by his superiors and condemned to Devil's Island. Publishing his famous manifesto "J'accuse," Zola leaves himself wide open for public condemnation and criminal prosecution. Though he delivers a brilliant self-defense in court, Zola is found guilty. Forced to flee to England, he continues railing against the unjust, corrupt military establishment, eventually forcing a retrial and exoneration of Dreyfus. Alas, Zola is killed in a freak accident at home before he can meet the liberated Dreyfus. At his funeral, Emile Zola is eulogized by Anatole France (Morris Carnovsky), who refers to the fallen crusader as "a moment of the conscience of man." For various reasons -- some dramatic, some legal -- the actual facts of "L'affaire Dreyfus" are altered by the Norman Reilly Raine/Heinz Herald/Geza Herczeg screenplay.

The fact that Dreyfus was railroaded because he was Jewish is obscured; in fact, except for a very brief visual reference, the word "Jew" is never mentioned. Only those villains whose names were a matter of public record (Major Dort, Major Esterhazy) are specifically identified. Others are referred to as the Chief of Staff, the Minister of War, etc. to avoid lawsuits from their descendants (remember that the events depicted in the film, most of which take place between 1894 and 1902, were still within living memory in 1937). As for Dreyfus himself, he was not freed and restored to rank in 1902, the year of Zola's death, but in 1906-after being found guilty again in an 1899 retrial (Dreyfus died in 1935, outliving everyone else involved in the case). These historical gaffes can be forgiven in the light of the film's overall message: that a single small, clear voice can fight City Hall. If for nothing else, The Life of Emile Zola deserves classic status due to Paul Muni's towering performance, most notably in the unforgettable summation scene: "By all that I have done for France, by my works -- by all that I have written, I swear to you that Dreyfus is innocent. May all that melt away -- may my name be forgotten, if Dreyfus is not innocent. He is innocent." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For a change of pace, Warner Bros. contract tenor James Melton sings no opera in Sing Me A Love Song -- nor does he sing anything particularly memorable, either. Melton stars as Jerry Haines, a young man-about-town who takes an entry-level job in his dad's department store. Jerry wants no special favors, so he works under an assumed name, a fact that will lead to complications in due time. Music-counter clerk Jean Martin (Patricia Ellis) is attracted to Jerry, especially when he helps her out by singing the latest tunes for her customers. As their off-and-on romance plays itself out, the film's comedy subplot is carried by Hugh Herbert as zany kleptomaniac Siegfried Hammerschlag, ZaSu Pitts is would-be hillbilly crooner Gwen, and Walter Catlett as a stupidly obsequious floorwalker. In fact, there's so much comedy in Sing Me a Love Song that there's hardly any time to sing that love song! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Otto Preminger was able to make his directorial debut on Under Your Spell solely because Darryl Zanuck couldn't care less about the film's quality; it was a contractual obligation film for Lawrence Tibbett, who was proving a washout as a film star. In Spell, Tibbett plays Anthony Allen, a world famous singer who has grown tired of the trials that come with celebrity. Seeking to avoid the spotlight, ceaseless publicity and determined fans, Allen enlists the aid of his butler in secretly escaping to a ranch in Mexico. Allen's manager (Gregory Ratoff) is understandably upset with his client's behavior and so sets in motion a scheme of his own. He contacts celebrity-hunting heiress Cynthia Drexel (Wendy Barrie) and lets her know where to find the reluctant star. Drexel quickly hunts down her prey and sticks to him like glue. Although Allen initially is exasperated with her, he soon finds himself attracted to her. In addition to arias from The Marriage of Figaro and Faust, Tibbert performs Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz's "Amigo," "My Little Mule Wagon" and the title song. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama a high-school principal's principles are put to the test when he, also a member of a parole board, is given the ultimate power to decide whether his son, a brutal criminal is to be paroled. The others do not know about the inmate's relationship to their colleague and the son tries to use this to his advantage. Sure enough his blackmail works and the heartless crook is freed to go on an unparalleled crime spree with his moll until his father comes forth and gives him final justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A lesser but still effective entry in the mid-1930s "prison" cycle, Parole catalogues the many problems facing prisoners who've served their debt to society. The story concentrates on Russ Whalen (Henry Hunter), one of several parolees trying to find work on the outside. The "ex-con" onus forces some of these men to return to crime, but Russ keeps his nose clean and finally finds success. Also given attention are the many abuses in the parole system, which in 1936 frequently favored those with the right connections. Of historical significance, Parole represents the film debut of Anthony Quinn, in a 45-second bit as a prisoner named Zingo Browning. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from one of Dashiell Hammett's best novels, The Glass Key is a lively and straightforward melodrama of political corruption and urban intrigue. George Raft plays Ed Beaumont, the right-hand man to genial ward heeler Paul Madvig (Edward Arnold), who wants to clean up his political act. On the eve of a major election, Madvig is implicated in a murder, and it's up to Beaumont to help him out. Intimately involved in the case is Janet Henry (Claire Dodd), the sister of the murdered man and the daughter of "above reproach" Senator Henry (Charles Richman). Though no babe-in-the-woods, Beaumont is in for quite a few disillusionments as he pursues his investigation, though he does rather better romantically than the redoubtable Madvig. The Glass Key was remade (and improved) in 1942, with Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake and Brian Donlevy; neither version, however, has as much bite and vitriol as the Hammett original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Errol Flynn makes his Hollywood screen debut as a corpse in this funny, fast-paced whodunit, the third of six Perry Mason vehicles produced by Warner Bros. from 1934 to 1937. Flynn's murder victim is one Gregory Moxley, the estranged and long-thought dead husband of Perry's client, Rhoda Montaine (Margaret Lindsey), who, in the meantime, has married a millionaire (Donald Woods) and is ripe for blackmail. Perry agrees to meet with Moxley, but finds him very much dead and this time for good. Rhoda naturally becomes the prime suspect, but, with the able assistance of his wisecracking secretary Della Street (Claire Dodd), Perry is able to reveal the identity of the real culprit, not in the courtroom this time, but at an elegant cocktail party. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, 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