Sylvia Sidney Movies

Based on Samson Raphaelson's stage play, Accent on Youth focuses on a May-December romance. Herbert Marshall (46 years old at the time) is a successful middle-aged playwright; Constance Cummings is his young secretary, who prefers the company of mature men. She sets her cap on marrying the playwright, while he fends off her attentions. By the time Marshall has grown fond enough of Constance to propose, she has changed her mind and fallen for a man her own age. Accent on Youth was remade as Mr. Music (50) and But Not For Me (59), with, respectively, 49-year-old Bing Crosby and 58-year-old Clark Gable as the "elderly" hero. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, two carneys, a card-sharp, and a peep-show performer, find themselves booted out of the show and decide to team up--platonically. They immediately get adjoining rooms in a hotel. Though the huckster constantly tries to romance the girl, she demurely rejects him. He comes to respect that; and she eventually comes to respect him, despite his tough-guy posturing. Together they try to eke out a living, but eventually, both are arrested: he for purse-snatching, and she for a past offense. In court the card-player staunchly defends the girl. The judge is so moved, that he drops all charges and marries the two. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this romantic drama, an ex-con conceals her criminal past and starts a new life with a kindly cab driver. Together, the two friends leave the city and move to the suburbs where she helps him set up an auto mechanic business. Though they are in love, they cannot marry for she is still legally the wife of her incarcerated ex-crime partner. Things get more sticky when a seductive socialite attempts to steal the cabbie from the ex-con. More trouble follows when her husband busts out of jail and she is blamed with helping him escape. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Joan Blondell, borrowed for the occasion from Warner Bros., earned top-billing in this delightful Hollywood parable, but the real star is of course Stuart Erwin as the irrepressible grocery clerk Merton Gill. Paramount screenwriters Saul Mintz, Walter De Leon and Arthur Kober based their witty scenario on Henry Leon Wilson's 1922 novel Merton of the Movies, the 1923 Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly, and the 1924 Famous Players silent version starring Glenn Hunter. By 1932, the story was indeed well-known: Aspiring to become a famous screen cowboy, small-town delivery boy Merton Gill arrives in Hollywood, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and complete with a diploma from the National Correspondence Academy of Acting. Crashing the gates of Majestic Pictures (read: Paramount), Merton manages to fumble his one line bit in the latest Buck Benson (Dink Templeton) western and is fired on the spot. Unwilling to leave the studio, the hapless thespian survives on leftover scraps from the extra's lunch boxes until discovered by comedy starlet "Flip" Montague (Blondell), who takes pity on him and arranges a meeting with Jeff Baird (Sam Hardy), head of the slapstick comedy unit. Bestowed a new name, Whoop Ryder, Merton is starred in what he assumes to be a serious western melodrama but what in reality is yet another burlesque featuring cross-eyed low comic Ben Turpin. Although a big hit with preview audiences, a humiliated Merton is ready to return to the grocery business when "Flip" persuades him to stay by telling him that he is "darn near perfect." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

This adaptation of the Puccini opera jettisons all the music and retains only David Belasco's timeworn libretto. American actress Sylvia Sidney plays Japanese maiden Cio-Cio San, while Cary Grant is the dashing American navy lieutenant Pinkerton. The girl and the officer have a brief affair, resulting in a child. Cio-Cio San blissfully awaits the return of Pinkerton, who arrives back in Japan with his American wife in tow. The heartbroken Japanese girl bids farewell to her callous lover, then commits hara-kiri. The absence of Puccini's brilliant music makes the plot contrivances of Madame Butterfly seem creakier than ever, though Sylvia Sidney--in real life a New York Jewish girl-- is moderately convincing as the Oriental heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though his parents are street evangelists, Clyde Griffiths (Phillips Holmes) grows up in squalor, but not without ambitions. He first works as a bellhop in Kansas City, but when he's the passenger in a car that kills a little girl, Clyde fears he'll be arrested and flees town. His wealthy uncle Samuel Griffiths (Frederick Burton) gets Clyde a job at a shirt factory in upstate New York where the young man soon becomes foreman of a department that employs only young women. He is attracted to Roberta Alden (Sylvia Sidney), known as "Bert," and though company policy forbids them to fraternize, they begin secretly dating on weekends. Eventually, Clyde seduces the smitten Bert, even though he has already become attracted to Sondra Finchley (Frances Dee), the daughter of a wealthy family. Clyde and Sondra fall in love, and she promises to marry him when she's of age, but by now, Bert has informed Clyde that she is pregnant. With vague thoughts of drowning her in mind, Clyde takes Bert on a vacation in the Adirondacks. While canoeing, he decides not to kill her, but to honorably marry her instead. He reveals to Bert what he'd planned, and in shock, she accidentally falls overboard. However, instead of rescuing her, Clyde swims to shore, and Bert drowns. Eventually, the police track him down and he is arrested, resulting in a trial that gains national attention. ~ Bill Warren, Rovi

Never one to hide his talent under a bushel basket, director Rouben Mamoulien proudly proclaimed that, while there were ten killings in his 1931 gangster drama City Streets, the audience never sees any of them. This was not the only innovation in this fascinating early talkie, in which straight-arrow movie hero Gary Cooper is cast as a racketeer known only as The Kid. He has chosen a life of crime out of love for Nan (Sylvia Sidney), the daughter of mob henchman Pop Cooley (Guy Kibbee). Eventually railroaded into prison by her crooked cohorts, Nan implores The Kid to give up the rackets, but he refuses. Things go downhill very rapidly after that, culminating with The Kid and Nan being taken "for a ride" by rival thugs. Cast in a role originally intended for Clara Bow, Sylvia Sidney does a magnificent job and was soon typecast as a downtrodden Depression victim, born with two strikes against her. Conversely, Gary Cooper never again played anything quite like "The Kid." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A murder trial provides the setting of this drama that presents, via flashback, three very different versions and motives of the killing. According to the prosecution, the deceased's sexy (and very much married) mistress is behind the murder. The defense asserts that the woman's lover killed himself because she would not give into his demands. Unfortunately, neither side is correct. Fortunately, the real culprit confesses in court at the very last minute. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi