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Charles "Chic" Sale Movies

1923  
 
New teacher Sale has his hands full with a classroom of misfits until he proves himself when the schoolhouse catches on fire. ~ Rovi

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1931  
 
Star Witness starts out as a homey family comedy and develops into a rather gutsy thriller. Chic Sale plays a cantankerous Civil War veteran who, while visiting his family, witnesses a gangland shooting. The rest of the family also gets a good look at the gang boss (Ralph Ince) and everyone agrees to testify in court. But the criminals terrorize the father (Grant Mitchell), after failing to bribe him. To insure pa's silence, his son (Dickie Moore) is kidnaped But Grandpa is not easily cowed, and it is he who goes before the jury to expose the crooks. He also engineers the rescue of his grandson (a surprisingly credible sequence). Star Witness was remade as I Am Not Afraid in 1939, with updated dialogue equating American gangsters with Hitler and Mussolini. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Walter HustonCharles "Chic" Sale, (more)
 
1932  
 
Homespun vaudeville monologist Chic Sale repeats his "old geezer" characterization in Warner Bros.' Stranger in Town. Sale is cast as Crickle, a tenacious small-town grocer who stubbornly resists the efforts of a monopolistic chain-store firm to purchase his establishment. The chain manager retaliates by cutting off Crickles' supply of produce, whereupon our hero's friends and neighbors save his business by supplying him with goods from their own farms. As a result, the Depression-plagued village suddenly gets back on its financial feet again. Evidently, Warners regarded Chic Sale as the studio's own Will Rogers, and as such his character spends an ample amount of screen time helping the romantic leads, played by David Manners and Ann Dvorak. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Ann DvorakDavid Manners, (more)
 
1932  
 
In this two-hanky drama, a physically challenged boy wants his overprotective parents to relinquish their tight control so he can be like all the other neighborhood kids. Fortunately, his lively uncle is on his side and helps the boy get up the guts to confront his mom and dad. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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1932  
 
An elderly gentleman finds himself in a difficult situation when he finds himself faced with becoming a burden on his children or going into an old folks home. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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Starring:
Charles "Chic" SaleDickie Moore, (more)
 
1933  
 
Somebody at MGM had the bright idea in 1933 to build a series of feature films around the talents of popular radio comedians. This bright idea fizzled after a handful of misbegotten epics starring the likes of Jack Pearl, aka Baron Munchausen, and Ed Wynn. The Wynn film was titled The Chief, a reference to Wynn's radio fame as Texaco gasoline's "Fire Chief." What plot there is concerns a dimwitted fireman named Henry Summers (who else but Wynn?) who ends up running for the office of alderman. Actually, Henry is merely a cat's paw, a dummy candidate set up by a gang of crooks. But when it looks as though Henry will win the campaign and instigate reforms, the bad guys kidnap our hero's grey-haired mother (Effie Ellsler). To alert the cops to his mother's peril, Henry begins running around and breaking things, shouting "I'm crazy! I'm crazy!" (it's difficult to argue with that). Just when the plot is about to be resolved, the film dissolves to Ed Wynn, standing before an NBC microphone, broadcasting his "Fire Chief" program in the company of announcer Graham McNamee. Wynn apprises the audience as to the film's outcome, tells a few jokes, signs off the air -- and that's all there is! One could postulate that the scriptwriters had run out of jokes by the end of The Chief, but in fact they'd been out of material since the third reel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Ed WynnDorothy Mackaill, (more)
 
1933  
 
In this western, a newcomer to a Western community is suspected of precipitating a crime wave. To prove his innocence and catch the real perpetrator's. the new rancher teams up the general store owner. They succeed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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Starring:
Charles "Chic" SaleDorothy Wilson, (more)
 
1933  
 
Buster the dog is the star of this comedy as he stays loyal to his master through good times and bad times. ~ Rovi

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1934  
NR  
Add Treasure Island to Queue Add Treasure Island to top of Queue  
This fifth film version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island boasts an all-star MGM cast, headed by Wallace Beery as Long John Silver and Jackie Cooper as Jim Hawkins. The screenplay, by John Lee Mahin, John Howard Lawson and Leonard Praskins, remains faithful to the Stevenson original...up to a point. The story begins when drunken old sea dog Billy Bones (Lionel Barrymore) drags himself into the seaside pub managed by Jim and his mother (Dorothy Peterson). After Billy is killed by the scurrilous Blind Pew (William V. Mong) and his henchmen, Jim discovers that the deceased ex-pirate carries a treasure map on his person. Together with Dr. Livesey (Otto Kruger) and Squire Trelawny (Nigel Bruce), Jim books passage on a ship captained by Alexander Smollett (Lewis Stone); their destination is the "treasure island" depicted on the map. Smollett doesn't like the voyage nor the crew, and not without reason: ship's cook Long John Silver has rounded up the crew from the dregs of the earth, fully intending to mutiny and claim the treasure for himself. A further plot complications awaits both treasure-seekers and pirates in the person of half-mad island hermit Ben Gunn (Chic Sale) who's already found the treasure and has stashed it away for himself. Towards the end, the plot strays from the Stevenson version in detailing the ultimate fate of ruthless-but-lovable Long John Silver. While consummately produced, Treasure Island suffers from overlength and a mannered performance by Jackie Cooper. Disney's 1950 remake with Robert Newton and Bobby Driscoll is far more satisfying. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Wallace BeeryJackie Cooper, (more)
 
1935  
 
Add The Fighting Westerner to Queue Add The Fighting Westerner to top of Queue  
Randolph Scott stars in this adequate Zane Grey adaptation. Lawman Larry Sutton (Scott) is assigned to solve a series of murders occurring at a radium mine. Among the suspects is mine owner Mrs. Borg, played by legendary Broadway star Leslie Carter in a rare film appearance. The key to the mystery would seem to be a sinister Chinese gent named Ling Yat (Willie Fung), but he proves to be one of many red herrings. Hoping to beat Sutton to the solution is local sheriff Tex Murdock, played by veteran vaudevillian Chic Sale. With so much high-powered talent, it's small wonder that many reviewers failed to mention the ingenue, a young actress named Anne Sheridan. A remake of the 1922 film Golden Dreams (the original title of the Zane Grey novel), Rocky Mountain Mystery was reissued as Vanishing Pioneer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Randolph ScottCharles "Chic" Sale, (more)
 
1935  
 
This trio of comedy classics includes LePutt, the Specialist, Dumb Luck and Our Gang Follies. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

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1936  
 
It's a Great Life served as a vehicle for once-popular radio singer Joe Morrison (who can also be seen in W.C. Fields' It's the Old Fashioned Way). Morrison plays a young unemployed fellow who joins the Civilian Conservation Corps. Enjoying the twin euphoria of steady work and fresh air, Morrison and his new pal, hobo Paul Kelly, burst into song at the slightest provocation. A rift comes between Morrison and Kelly when Morrison's girl Rosalind Keith falls in love with the tramp, but all differences are swept away during a climactic bursting-dam sequence. It's a Great Life was co-written by future "Dagwood Bumstead" Arthur Lake, who in 1943 would star in a Blondie entry titled...It's a Great Life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Joe MorrisonPaul Kelly, (more)
 
1936  
 
In this drama, set at the turn-of-the-century an ingenious young jockey finds his reputation sullied by criminals. He cleverly outsmarts them and his reputation is restored. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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Starring:
Eddie QuillanCharles "Chic" Sale, (more)
 
1936  
 
The all-purpose title Man Hunt was trotted out for this 1936 Warner Bros. "B". Aging country newspaper editor Chic Sale is laughed off by the rest of his community for his tall tales. When an escaped Public Enemy (Ricardo Cortez) shows up in the vicinity, Sale decides to prove his worth by tracking down the criminal himself. The G-Men on the case tell Sale to mind his own business, but it is the old codger who collars Cortez and drags him in. No one made gangster pictures as well as Warner Bros., so even a low-priority item like Man Hunt has its moments. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Marguerite ChurchillRicardo Cortez, (more)
 
1936  
 
Social butterfly Rena Allen (Doris Nolan) is bored unto tears by her stuffy fiance Throckton Van Cortland (Gerald Oliver Smith). She runs off to the country, where she falls in love with struggling playwright Ken Durkin (Michael Whalen). He is astonished by her uncanny ability to critique his work and offer advice, but the audience knows that Rena is the niece of prominent Broadway producer Robert Hartley (Nigel Bruce). The audience also knows -- but Rena doesn't -- that Durkin is himself a runaway socialite. Elated when his play is purchased by Hartley, Ken is offended when he discovers that Rena was responsible for this stroke of fortune and storms out of her life (the fact that he'd also been deceiving her doesn't seem to bother him too much). It takes a night together in the small-town jail of rustic sheriff Chic Sale for Rena and Robert to kiss and make up. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Doris NolanMichael Whalen, (more)
 
1937  
 
Add You Only Live Once to Queue Add You Only Live Once to top of Queue  
Archetypal depression-era stars Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney are felicitously teamed in Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once. Fonda plays an ex-convict who can't get a break on the "outside". He marries Sidney, who like her husband is one of life's losers. Framed on a murder rap, Fonda is forced to take it on the lam, with his wife and baby in tow. In trying to avoid capture, Fonda becomes a murderer for real, condemning himself and Sidney to an early demise. Partly based on the legend of Bonnie and Clyde, the Gene Towne-Graham Baker screenplay stacks the deck against its protagonists to such an extent that the audience is virtually forced to hate their various antagonists. As superb as Henry Fonda is in portraying the foredoomed hero, Sylvia Sidney is even better as his wife; her reading of such lines as "We just call him...baby" are enough to shrivel the heart even after six decades. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Sylvia SidneyHenry Fonda, (more)