Henry Roquemore Movies
In films from 1928, heavy-set character actor Henry Roquemore essayed small-to-medium roles as politicians, storekeepers, judges, and "sugar daddies." A typical Roquemore characterization was "the Match King," one of Mae West's many over-the-hill suitors in Goin' to Town (1935). His more memorable roles include the Justice of the Peace who marries Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year (1941). Henry Roquemore was the husband of actress Fern Emmett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1940
As part of his new contract with Warner Bros., Edward G. Robinson agreed to appear in the gangster comedy Brother Orchid on the condition that the studio permit him to play the leading role in the lavish biopic A Dispatch from Reuters. Robinson is cast as Baron Paul Julius Reiter, who in 1833 inaugurates a "pigeon post" messenger service which is soon rendered obsolete by the invention of the telegraph. Eventually adapting to the new communications process, Reuters is able to extends his links to the major capitals of Europe, achieving success by scooping his competition with a transcription of a speech by Louis Napoleon. By 1858, Reuters has expanded his operation to the English-speaking countries, seriously over-extending himself financially. Ultimately, Reuters is rescued from bankruptcy in 1865 when he broadcasts on a worldwide basis the news of President Lincoln's assassination-even before the American ambassador in England has been informed of the tragedy. Throughout the highs and lows of his career, Reuters is encouraged by his loyal and loving wife Ida (Edna Best), who continually reminds him that he is a communicator and not a grandstander. Though not as entertaining and satisfying as Robinson's previous biographical film Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, A Dispatch from Reuters' benefits immeasurably from the almost terrifying expertise of the Warners production staff and its stellar supporting cast (Eddie Albert, Gene Lockhart, Nigel Bruce, Otto Kruger et. al.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Edna Best, (more)
- 1933
This Depression-era romantic drama, which offers a surprisingly potent and unsentimental view of the economic hardships of the time, stars Spencer Tracy as Bill, a rough-hewn laborer struggling to get by and sleeping in a Hooverville shack. Bill meets Trina (Loretta Young), a sad and desperate young woman with no prospects and nowhere to go; her plight touches his heart of stone, and he allows her to stay with him. Bill picks up work where and when he can, while Trina tries to turn their hovel into a home. Bill soon makes the acquaintance of Fay LaRue (Glenda Farrell), a brassy showgirl whose career is on the way up and wouldn't mind if Bill tagged along. But Bill learns that leaving Trina behind won't be as simple as he thought. Trina is pregnant with his child, so he ends up planning a dangerous robbery in hopes of raising enough money to provide a proper home for Trina and the baby. Dealing with tough material in an adult manner, A Man's Castle was considered quite daring in its day. A year after its release, Hollywood adopted the Production Code that prohibited the depiction of unwed cohabitation and premarital pregnancy (among many other things), which would have made this a very different film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Loretta Young, (more)
- 1929
Victor Thorne's 1925 melodrama was turned into a low-budget film starring Shirley Mason four years later. Mason played the title-role, a glamorous musical star having a hard time escaping the clutches of her lecherous producer (Tom Curran. She finds a way out by marrying John Forbes (Jack Mower), who is not only handsome, but rolling in dough. The producer, however, refuses to leave well enough alone, and Anne is tempted to return to her glamorous life. Following this film, Shirley Mason joined her more famous sister Viola Dana in Warner Bros.' The Show of Shows, after which her career completely petered out. "After all those years as a star, it was terrible realizing you had become overnight a has-been," remembered Dana, who had suffered the same fate. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Mason, Jack Mower, (more)
- 1939
This fun-filled spin-off of the Rodgers & Hart Broadway musical by the same name, features Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney as two young children of vaudevillian parents who aren't included in their parents travels, so they set out to produce a show of their own. Rooney's the driver here and he's up against the administrators of a fogy state-run trade school, who think the whole show idea is nonsense. A listening judge gives them 30 days to put on the show and prove they don't belong in the jail-like school. The rest of the action involves the highly talented kids successful efforts to not only stage the show, but to bring the whole troupe to Broadway. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, (more)
Bank Alarm was one of four low-budget but high-entertainment crime melodramas starring Conrad Nagel and Eleanor Hunt as Federal agents Alan O'Connor and Bobbie Reynolds. On this occasion, the two G-people are on the trail of a gang of desperate bank robbers. Making their job slightly easier is the fact that the crooks are leaving behind a trail of counterfeit money. Unfortunately, they're also leaving a trail of corpses, meaning that Alan and Bobbie had better get a move on before someone else gets bumped off. Bank Alarm was the last of the Nagel-Hunt crime series, all of which were produced by the financially canny George A. Hirliman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Nagel, Eleanor Hunt, (more)
- 1938
Barefoot Boy is a throwback to the sort of bucolic family fare in which Monogram Pictures specialized in the early 1930s. Loosely inspired by the John Greenleaf Whittier poem of the same name, the film stars Jackie Moran as Billy Whittaker, a country lad whose idyllic lifestyle is thrown into confusion upon the arrival of arrogant reform-school graduate Kenneth Hale (Bradley Metcalf). Not only does Kenneth tear down everything that Billy holds dear, but he also has the audacity to make a play for Billy's sweetheart Pige Blaine (Marcia Mae Jones). Eventually Kenneth reforms his ways and becomes a "regular guy", but not without a bit of bare-knuckle persuasion from Billy and a brief escapade involving a gang of out-of-town bond swindlers. The film was directed by Karl Brown, a former cinematographer with an unerring eye for gorgeous exterior shots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Moran, Marcia Mae Jones, (more)
- 1935
The Battle of Greed was one of the best of the Tom Keene western series produced by bargain-basement Crescent Productions. Keene takes a job in a Virginia mining town in the mid-19th century. Here he makes the acquaintance of none other than Mark Twain (James Bush), currently employed as a newspaper editor. Keene joins forces with Twain in battling the town's corrupt element. While it may not be nice to say this, James Bush frankly gives a more convincing performance than nominal star Keene, who has this bad habit of laughing uproariously at the slightest provocation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Keene, Gwyn Shipman, (more)
In a slight change of pace, low-budget Western star Bob Steele plays a cowboy-turned-race car driver in this otherwise typical Paul Malvern production directed by the star's father Robert North Bradbury. Steele's happy-go-lucky Speed Brent gets involved with escaped prisoner Killer Joe (Ernie Adams), who hires him to drive him to the Mexican border. Knocked unconscious by one of Joe's henchmen, Speed recovers to find Judge Stafford (John Elliott) seriously wounded and the victim of theft. Along with the judge's bearded foreman Chuck Wiggins (George "Gabby" Hayes), Speed vows to track down the gang and later hooks up with Sonia (Marion Byron), a government agent masquerading as a saloon girl. Killer Joe, meanwhile, attempts to escape by car, but is chased down by Speed, who forces him over a cliff to his death. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Steele, Marion Byron, (more)
- 1942
In this musical, which manages to look back with nostalgia upon prohibition and the depression (no small accomplishment), George Raft plays George, a hoofer looking back on his glory days. His memories are triggered when The Paradise Club, a nightspot where he used to work, is about to be turned into a bowling alley. In the Roaring '20s, George and his partner Billie (Janet Blair) were a star attraction at The Paradise, run by Nick (S.Z. Sakall). George wants his relationship with Billie to be as graceful off-stage as on, but he has several rivals vying for her affections, including gangster Steve (Broderick Crawford) and policeman Dan (Pat O'Brien). Marjorie Rambeau plays Lil, modeled after brassy nightclub owner Texas Guinan. Raft actually worked for Guinan in his early days as a dancer, and he gets a chance to show off his fancy footwork accompanied by a number of classic tunes, including "Alabamy Bound", "Yes Sir, That's My Baby", "Sweet Georgia Brown", and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". Broadway was a loose remake of the 1929 Merna Kennedy vehicle of the same name. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1937
Another of Paramount's efforts to transform Metropolitan Opera diva Gladys Swarthout into a popular movie star, Champagne Waltz casts Swarthout as Elsa Strauss, the daughter of a celebrated Viennese composer (Fritz Leiber). American bandleader Buzzy Bellew (Fred MacMurray) and his aggregation invade Vienna with their own special repertoire of melodies, and before long the Austrian capital has abandoned waltzes in favor of jazz. With her family's waltz palace in danger of going out of business, Elsa heads next door to Buzzy's establishment, hoping to persuade him to pack up and go home. Not unexpectedly, the two fall in love (he even teaches her the art of chewing gum), leading to a harmonious "marriage" of musical genres (intended as the film's highlight, this climactic scene was mercilessly raked over the coals by the movie critics of the era). Jack Oakie's performance as Happy Gallagher does much to lift this predictable tune fest from the ordinary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gladys Swarthout, Fred MacMurray, (more)
Cimarron was the first Western to win the Oscar for Best Picture--and, until Dances with Wolves in 1990, the only one. The film begins on April 22, 1889, the opening day of the great Oklahoma Land Rush on the Cherokee Strip. Boisterous Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) is cheated out of his land claim by the devious Dixie Lee (Estelle Taylor). Instead of becoming a homesteader, Cravat establishes a muckraking newspaper, and with pistols in hand he becomes a widely respected (and widely feared) peacekeeper. He also displays a compassionate streak by coming to the defense of Dixie Lee, who is about to be arrested for prostitution. Cravat's insistence on sticking his nose into everyone's affairs drives a wedge between him and his young wife Sabra (Irene Dunne), but she stands by him--until he deserts her and her children, ever in pursuit of new adventures. Sabra takes over the newspaper herself, and with the moral support of her best friend, Mrs. Wyatt (Edna May Oliver), she creates a powerful publishing empire. Cimarron makes the mistake of placing most of the action early in the film, so that everything that follows the spectacular opening land-rush sequence may feel anti-climactic. While it's always enjoyable to watch Irene Dunne persevering through the years, it's rather wearing to sit through the overblown performance of Richard Dix, who seems to think that he can't make a point unless it's at the top of his lungs. Cimarron creaks badly when seen today, but it still outclasses the plodding 1960 remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, (more)
- 1941
A remake of the 1933 RKO western of the same name, Come on, Danger! stars Tim Holt in the role originally essayed by Tom Keene. Holt goes after a gang of rustlers, commandeered by an attractive young woman (Julie Haydon in the original, Frances Neal in the remake). The girl has been accused of murder, but the actual culprit is the miscreant who drove the girl into a life of crime in the first place. Leading lady Frances Neal displayed an embryonic star quality in this film, but she retired shortly afterward to marry Van Heflin. Come on Danger was a bit longer than the 1933 version, principally because of the three songs warbled by supporting actor Ray Whitley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Holt, Frances Neal, (more)
- 1933
Cowboy star Rex Bell revives a favorite plot device of silent westerner William S. Hart in Crashin' Broadway. Bell temporarily leaves the Wide Open Spaces to conduct business in New York City. He runs afoul of gangsters, who prove no match forBell. Doris Hill is the leading lady whom Bell charms during his visit to the Big Apple. Crashin' Broadway was one of Rex Bell's last starring vehicles; soon afterward, he entered politics, eventually becoming lieutenant governor of Nevada. And as a bonus, he married Hollywood's "It" girl Clara Bow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1939
Gail Patrick plays a brilliant but naive country lawyer brought to the city to defend gangster Sidney Toler. She is subsidized by pillar of society Otto Kruger, who is actually the "big boy" behind the city's rackets. Ms. Patrick must prove that Toler didn't own a weapon that he is accused of pointing at a terrified states' witness. She believes in her client's innocence, but honest district attorney Robert Preston steers her to the side of Right. Patrick is exonerated of a complicity charge, and bad guys Toler and Kruger are carted off to prison. Ironically, Gail Patrick was later the executive producer of the TV series Perry Mason. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gail Patrick, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1943
According to this exuberant Paramount musical, famed pre-Civil War minstrel performer Daniel Decatur Emmett looked and sounded exactly like Bing Crosby! Very loosely based on the real Emmett's life and career, the film is essentially an excuse for an unending stream of Southern-fried ballads and boisterous blackface production numbers. The best scenes involve Emmet's creation of the minstrel tradition, helped along by Billy De Wolfe as the original "Mr. Bones." As Emmet's sweetheart Millie Cook, Dorothy Lamour has less to do than fourth-billed Marjorie Reynolds as Jean Mason, the physically challenged girl whom Emmet ultimately marries. In the midst of several old-time musical numbers, Bing Crosby introduces one of his lasting hits, "Sunday, Monday and Always". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
- 1933
This cheapie but goodie stars Skeets Gallagher as a young man who doesn't want to be strong-armed into a questionable business deal by his pal Johnny Arthur. Thus, he tells Arthur that he doesn't need any extra money because he's inherited a million bucks. Soon a rumor spreads that Gallegher is worth several million -- and he dare not tell the truth for fear of causing his beloved aunt to suffer a fatal heart attack. Among the many perils facing the newly rich, our hero is forced to fend off the attentions of three predatory females. The familiar faces in the supporting cast include three veterans of the Hal Roach two-reeler mill: Pansy Johnny Arthur, tough guy Walter Long, and Gracie Allen sound-alike Gay Seabrook. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Burgess, Merna Kennedy, (more)
Exile Express was the last film produced by Grand National Pictures, and a worthy farewell it was. Anna Sten, former Sam Goldwyn protegee and the wife of Exile Express producer Eugene Frenke, stars as Nadine Nikolas, a young European girl whose chances of becoming an American citizen are scotched when she is implicated in a murder. About to be deported, Nadine is rescued by reporter Steve Reynolds (Alan Marshall), who suspects that the killing was engineered by a gang of international spies. One delightful scene permits the haughty Ms. Sten to "let herself go" by dancing an energetic jitterbug. Directed by Universal contractee Otis Garrett, Exile Express is a satisfying blend of comedy, romance, and edge-of-the-seat suspense. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Sten, Alan Marshal, (more)
- 1934
Intrepid low-budget entrepreneur Sol Lesser attempted to recreate the popularity of the silent dog melodramas with this mix of Depression-era mise-en-scene and Grade-Z western tropes. Juvenile runaways Johnnie Diggins (Gene Toler) and Patsy Bolivar (Ruth Sullivan) meet on a freight train bound for Oregon, where the latter has an uncle. Along the way, they are rescued from a couple of lecherous hoboes (one of whom is B-Western perennial Bud Osborne) by another stowaway, Kazan, a handsome German Shepherd, whom they quickly adopt. In the small Oregon community of Wooltown, the trio uncover a scheme by local entrepreneur Dave Brownell to rustle the area's sheep. Brownell, whose own German Shepherd Champo (Prince) is spreading terror in the small community, accuses Kazan of the widespread "sheepicide" and offers a $500 reward for his capture. But aided by Dr. Elliott (Robert Manning), who has fallen in love with Patsy, Johnnie, Patsy and Kazan unmask the real culprit, Champo, whose master is apprehended by Sheriff Henry Dunkinson. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Dunkinson, Henry Roquemore, (more)
- 1933
B-Western perennial Bob Steele made attempts at diversifying in 1933 by playing a circus acrobat in The Gallant Fool and a would-be boxer in The Fighting Champ, although, truth be told, never veering too far from the range in either. In The Fighting Champ, Steele plays Brick Loring, an itinerant cowboy who shows some promise as a prize-fighter. Crooked fight promoter Nifty Harmon (George Chesebro) attempts to bribe both Brick and his opponent Jock Malone (Charles King) to throw the match and although Brick only pretends to be interested, his backer, rancher Fred Mullins (Frank Ball), publicly accuses him of cheating. Mullins daughter Jean (Arletta Duncan), meanwhile, believes the young cowboy to be innocent and sets a trap for both Harmon and Malone. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Steele, Arletta Duncan, (more)
- 1943
This second film version of the George and Ira Gershwin's Broadway hit Girl Crazy stars reigning MGM musical prince and princess Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. The 1932 version of Girl Crazy de-emphasized the main plot, building up the comic subplot involving a timorous temporary sheriff and a city slicker con man -- the better to accommodate that film's stars, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey. The 1943 remake does without the comic relief, concentrating on Rooney, a teenaged playboy who is sent to a Western mining school by his father (Henry O'Neill), in the hopes that the Rooney will forsake his wastrel ways. Judy Garland is cast in the role originated on stage by Ginger Rogers: the feisty, lovelorn frontier postmistress Ginger Gray, who falls in love with the hero -- the difference being that Garland has been promoted from postmistress to the daughter of mining-school dean Phineas Armour (Guy Kibbee). The new plot involves a contest for rodeo queen, pitting Ginger against Marjorie Tait (Frances Rafferty), who is also her rival for Rooney's affections. The contest serves a double purpose: Rooney is hoping that the publicity engendered by the rivalry will attract students to the failing school, proof positive that for all of his bravado, he's a swell, altruistic guy underneath. These plot complications are merely prologue for a gargantuan musical finale built upon the Gershwin standard "I Got Rhythm," staged by the film's original director, Busby Berkeley. Other musical carryovers from the stage play include "Embraceable You," "Bidin' My Time," and "But Not for Me." Featured in the cast are June Allyson, Rags Ragland, and the Tommy Dorsey Band. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, (more)
- 1942
In this comedy, set in WW II, a Venezuelan rubber planter's son must travel to New York to try and secure a loan for the expansion of the family business. There he encounters an impoverished American girl whose fortune lies frozen in England until the war ends. To make ends meet, she rents her apartment to the Venezuelan and becomes his personal maid. Mayhem ensues as the two get involved in merry mix-ups, fall in love, fall out of love, and fall in love again. Eventually, she helps him get the loan he needs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Ameche, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1931
Although dismissed in its day as just another cheap Western, God's Country and the Man proves to be a surprisingly well-made sagebrush thriller, whose fiddling master villain, Al Bridge, is a revelation. Bridge, who co-wrote the scenario with director J.P. McCarthy and Wellyn Totman, plays Livermore, the gun-running boss of De Vina, a border town inhabited by cutthroats. Strapping Tom Tyler, as Texas lawman Tex Malone, arrives in Da Vina with his latest bounty, Irish-brogued Stingaree Kelly (George Hayes, long before he earned the nickname "Gabby"), there to infiltrate Livermore's gang of smugglers. Malone, using the alias of Steve Rollins, falls for the villain's French mistress, Rose (Betty Mack), and together they set a trap for the bandits. Rose proves to be yet another investigator in disguise -- and not French at all -- and in the final shootout, Stingaree Kelly sacrifices himself so that she and Malone can plan a future together. The surprising demise of the comic relief, and a boss villain who initiates every one of his crimes by playing a sad dirge on his fiddle, are just a few of this strange Western's many breaks with tradition. Produced by Trem Carr for the low-rent Syndicate Pictures Corp., God's Country and the Man remains a startling, well-acted example of a near-Gothic B-Western. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Tyler, Betty Mack, (more)
- 1935
Mae West is Goin' to Town in this elegant post-Production Code vehicle. West plays Cleo Borden, a nouveau riche cattle rancher who hopes to crash into high society. Though she is willing to subject herself to "refinement" lessons, she still has a high old time puncturing the pretensions of those around her: when aristocratic Ivan Valadov (Ivan Lebedeff) haughtily announces that he is the backbone of his family, West gives him the once-over and replies "Then your family'd better see a chiropractor." Through the connections of her husband-by-convenience Fletcher Colton (Monroe Owsley), Cleo is able to move freely among the glitterati of Southhampton but is forced to rely on her tried-and-true "street smarts" when she crosses swords with haughty villainess Grace Brittony (Marjorie Gateson) at a Buenos Aires race track. Through it all, aristocratic British engineer Edward Carrington (Paul Cavanaugh) awaits the opportunity to claim Cleo for his own -- as if anyone could ever "own" our fiercely self-reliant heroine. The film's highlight is a society operatic gala, in which Mae West delivers a serious (and most effective) rendition of "My Heart at Thy Still Voice" from Samson and Delilah. In a more characteristic vein, the star gets down and dirty (well, at least semi-dirty) with "He's a Bad Bad Man, But He's Good Enough for Me." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mae West, Paul Cavanagh, (more)
- 1938
Goddbye Broadway is wrapped up by two stage & screen veterans, Alice Brady and Charles Winninger. The stars play vaudevillians Molly and Pat Malloy, who are suckered into investing $4000 in a ramschackle New England hotel. After a variety of predictable but amusing complications, the Malloys turn the tables on the sharpsters (Jed Prouty and Frank Jenks) who unloaded the property on them. Radio fans will enjoy seeing comedian Tommy Riggs, whose squeaky-voiced "Betty Lou" alter ego was a major airwaves attraction throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Directed by Leo McCarey's brother Raymond, Goodbye Broadway is based on James Gleason's 1927 stage comedy The Shannons of Broadway, previously filmed in 1929. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Brady, Charles Winninger, (more)
After retiring from a boxing career, Johnny Cave (James Cagney) accepts an appointment to serve as head of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. However, when he discovers that his organization is full of corruption and lies, he sets out to uncover the scam, much to the dismay of his girlfriend, Janet (Mae Clarke), and his underhanded coworkers. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Mae Clarke, (more)
