Tala Birell Movies

Generous stock footage from such previous Columbia aviation epics as Flight and Dirigible helped to make Air Hawks (working title: Air Fury) seem more costly than it really was. Real-life pilot Wiley Post, who'd recently grabbed the headlines with his daring around-the-world flight, plays himself, while the acting relief is provided by Ralph Bellamy (hero), Tala Birrell (heroine) and Douglass Dumbrille (villain). The plot has something to do with an infra-red "death ray" which figures prominently in the rivalry between two competing air services. Singled out for critical praise was the sound-effects work by Edward Bernds, who later became a prolific Columbia "B"-picture and 2-reeler director. Air Hawks was released in late May of 1935; in less than two months, Wiley Post and his close friend Will Rogers would perish in a plane crash of the coast of Alaska. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant star in this inspired comedy about a madcap heiress with a pet leopard who meets an absent-minded paleontologist and unwittingly makes a fiasco of both their lives. David Huxley (Grant) is the stuffy paleontologist who needs to finish an exhibit on dinosaurs and thus land a $1 million grant for his museum. At a golf outing with his potential benefactors, Huxley is spotted by Susan Vance (Hepburn) who decides that she must have the reserved scientist at all costs. She uses her pet leopard, Baby, to trick him into driving to her Connecticut home, where a dog wanders into Huxley's room and steals the vital last bone that he needs to complete his project. The real trouble begins when another leopard escapes from the local zoo and Baby is mistaken for it, leading Huxley and Susan into a series of harebrained and increasingly more insane schemes to save the cat from the authorities. Inevitably, the two end up in the local jail, where things get even more out of hand: Susan pretends to be the gun moll to David's diabolical, supposedly wanted criminal. Naturally, the mismatched pair falls in love through all the lunacy. Director Howard Hawks delivers a funny, fast-paced, and offbeat story, enlivened by animated performances from the two leads, in what has become a definitive screwball comedy. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

The story goes that Peter Lorre wanted to star in a film version of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, but was certain that Columbia Pictures chieftain Harry Cohn would turn the project down flat. So Lorre hired a secretary to type up a synopsis of the story in words of one syllable then submitted this simplified resume to Cohn. Enthusiastic over the project, Cohn gave Lorre the go-ahead -- but first he asked "Tell me -- has this book got a publisher?" Apocryphal story or no, the fact is that Lorre did star in Columbia's Crime and Punishment and in the bargain was directed by the ultra-stylish Josef Von Sternberg. As the arrogant sociopath Raskolnikov, who is convinced that he can get away with the murder of a nasty pawnbroker because he is "above" such intangibles as a conscience, Lorre is excellent, especially when his bravado is slowly eroded by the gentle but determined Inspector Porfiri (Edward Arnold). Like the aforementioned typed-up synopsis, the film oversimplifies the Dostoyevsky original, concentrating only on the crime, the pangs of guilt, the confession and the arrest: the punishment and its aftermath, so essential to the novel's overall impact, are dispensed with entirely. To make the film even more accessible to a mass audience, the story is subtly updated, though any distinctly "contemporary" touches such as automobiles, telephones and current slang are studiously avoided. The supporting cast is wildly inconsistent: Mrs. Patrick Campbell is fine in her brief scenes as the vitriolic pawnbroker, but Marian Marsh is all wrong as the streetwalker heroine Sonya. The principal strength of this Crime and Punishment is the film-long game of cat-and-mouse between the reckless Raskolnikov and the quietly methodical Porfiri. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A women's prison provides the setting for this drama that centers around a naive small-town woman framed by a man whom she met in a nightclub in the big city. She is not welcomed by the inmates and immediately the prisoners are divided. The conflict ends in murder. In the end, the innocent woman's lawyer comes to her rescue and she is at last, freed. Included are two stirring songs sung by the inmates in the prison's rec room. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Secret agent Jeff Clavering (Alan Marshal) is in the employ of a group of businessmen dedicated to world peace. In order to get the goods on war profiteer Kamarov (C. Henry Gordon), Clavering is ordered to romance Kamarov's wife Stephanie (Mady Correll). Our hero and heroine experience any number of thrill-packed adventures while uncovering the villain's nefarious scheme to plunge the World into war. Gee? if Kamarov had only waited a few months, he could have saved himself the trouble. Some much-needed comedy relief is provided by Herbert Mundin as a bumbling British detective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy of errors, David Brassard, Sr. (William Collier, Sr.) has his heart stolen from him by a conniving, gold-digging nightclub singer named Josette (Tala Birell). Brassard's two sons, Pierre (Robert Young) and David Junior (Don Ameche) are both horrified and vow to lure the temptress away from their dad. However, they somehow become convinced that the woman in question is Renee LaBlanc (Simone Simon), who is merely posing as a chanteuse in order to help out her friend Barney Barnaby (Bert Lahr), whose nightspot is in trouble. In time, Pierre and David Junior both realize that they've been chasing the wrong woman -- but they also realize that they've both fallen in love with her. The supporting cast includes William Demarest and Lon Chaney, Jr., the latter only a year before One Million B.C. would reshape his career and make him a star of horror and science fiction films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A genial lampoon of the Greta Garbo craze, Let's Fall in Love stars Ann Sothern as Jean, a Brooklyn-born aspiring actress. It so happens that Ken (Edmund Lowe), an ambitious movie director, is searching for a Swedish actress to replace his temperamental star Forsell (Tala Birrell). In desperation, Ken decides to transform Jean into a Scandinavian film sensation, spending six weeks coaching her in the proper accent and "I vant to be alone" demeanor. The ruse is successful until Ken's jealous ex-fiancee Gerry (Miriam Jordan) exposes Jean as a phony, but by this time the inevitability of a happy ending is never in doubt. The Harold Arlen-Ted Koehler title tune from Let's Fall in Love would become something of an anthem for Columbia Pictures, popping up in everything from Pal Joey to Shake, Rattle and Roll! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Liebe auf Befehl is the German-language version of the American film The Boudoir Diplomat, with Johannes Riemann (who also co-directed) replacing the original film's star Ian Keith. The story concerns the carnal escapades of Baron Valmi, who literally sleeps his way to the top of the social ladder. After wooing, winning and abandoning several influential ladies, the Baron has convinced himself that he can never truly fall in love. It is then that he meets the beautiful Helene. Liebe auf Befehl translates as Command to Love, which was the title of the play upon which the film was based. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Meine Kusine aus Warschau (My Cousin From Warsaw) was based on a stage play by Louis Verneuil. It's a romantic farce, with the heroine posing as her own cousin to carry on two amours at once. Reviewers of the time felt that the film was not so much an adaptation of the Verneuil original as a lampoon, and as such it wasn't quite as good as the play. Audiences disagreed, greeting even the silliest of goings-on with whoops of laughter. Lianne Haid played the lead, while others in the cast included such future Hollywood residents as Tala Birrell and Szoeke Szakall (aka S. Z. Sakall). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The usual modus operandi for Hollywood "through the years" sagas was to gradually age its young actors in the course of the film. In Mrs. Parkington, 35-year-old Greer Garson appears in old-lady makeup for virtually the entire 124-minute running time, even though this filmization of Louis Bromfield's best-selling novel covers the years 1875 through 1938. Eightyish widow Mrs. Susie Parkington (Garson) gathers together all of her grown children in an effort to bail out son-in-law Amory Stilham (Edward Arnold), who's gotten in Dutch through crooked financial deals. As the children and grandchildren bicker over the "impossibility" of giving up any part of their inheritance, Mrs. Parkington's mind wanders back to her marriage to wealthy mine owner Maj. Augustus Parkington (Walter Pidgeon) and her own efforts, as an unlearned Nevada serving girl, to fit into proper Manhattan society. Augustus' ex-love Aspasia Conti (Agnes Moorehead, in a surprisingly sexy role) is engaged to teach Susie the in and outs of which fork to use and how low to curtsy. Shut out by the "400," Susie is avenged by her husband, who wheels and deals to ruin the snobs financially. Later on, he assuages his anger by conducting several extramarital affairs, before perishing in one of those convenient movie auto accidents. Just how all these incidents strengthen Mrs. Parkington's resolve to rescue her wastrel son-in-law is a mystery that even two viewings of this overlong soap opera may not solve. Incidentally, Greer Garson isn't the only one who is prematurely aged in Mrs. Parkington; keep an eye out for 27-year-old Hans Conried, convincingly playing a doddering musician. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the "Lone Wolf" series, the sleuth and former jewel thief, the Lone Wolf finds himself accused of killing a blackmailer in front of the three women he was harassing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

S.S. Van Dine's gentleman detective is reduced to an ordinary "hard boiled" gumshoe in this inexpensive mystery. Philo Vance (Alan Curtis) is hired by a magazine publisher, ostensibly as a technical advisor for a crime periodical. This is a cover for his "secret mission": to learn the truth behind the death of the publisher's former partner seven years earlier. When the publisher is himself killed, Vance learns that practically everyone who came in contact with the dead man had a motive. Vance gets to the bottom of things with the dubious help of his pretty secretary (Sheila Ryan). Philo Vance's Secret Mission was the fourteenth and final Hollywood film based on Van Dyne's creation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tala Birell, one of the more talented of the Garbo wannabes of the 1930s, stars in the Universal quickie She's Dangerous. The star is cast as Stephanie, a glamorous private detective who's been hired to track down a gang of bond thieves. She charms her way into the confidence of gang leader Nick Shelton (Cesar Romero), knowing full well that the outwardly gracious Shelton won't hesitate to kill her if she's found out. Eventually, Stephanie proves too smart for her own good, and it's up to sidelines hero Dr. Logan (Walter Pidgeon) to bail her out. She's Dangerous bears a marked resemblance to 20th Century-Fox's 15 Maiden Lane, which also featured Cesar Romero as a charming-but-deadly crook. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide