Russell Simpson Movies

Michael Curtiz directs this Technicolor Western based on the familiar story by Clements Ripley about the rivalry between farmers and miners in the Sacramento valley during the years following the California Gold Rush. Handsome engineer Jared Whitney (George Brent) from the Golden Moon mining company arrives in a small town to supervise their operations. He oversees boorish mining foreman Slag Minton (Burton MacLane), then goes to bar where he befriends Lance (Tim Holt), the son of prominent wheat farmer Colonel Chris Ferris (Claude Rains). He ends up falling in love with Lance's sister, Serena (Olivia deHavilland), despite their alliances with opposing forces. They are forbidden to see each other when her father finds out, so Jared goes back to San Francisco to work with his boss, Harrison McCooey (Sidney Toler), on a dam construction project. Meanwhile, Lance chooses the side of the miners over the farmers when he leaves the town to stay with his Uncle Ralph (John Litel). When local farmer John McKenzie (Russell Simpson) loses his family and his farm due to the destruction caused by the miners, Chris supports him in a law suit against the mining company. This all escalates into a violent armed confrontation between the farmers and the miners, leading up to an explosive conclusion and a romantic reunion. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

MGM's leading musical team of the 30's, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy are paired once again in this fourth film version of David Belasco's creaky melodrama, featuring music by Sigmund Romberg and Gus Kahn. Jeanette MacDonald is Mary Robbins, the owner of a bawdy, rough-house saloon in a western mining town, who falls in love with the Mexican bandit Ramerez (Nelson Eddy), who has disguised himself as a cavalry officer. But when local sheriff Jack Rance (Walter Pidgeon) tracks down Ramerez and wounds him, Mary discovers Ramerez's ruse and begs Rance for the outlaw's freedom. The only problem is that Nance is also in love with Mary. Girl of the Golden West was originally tinted in a sepia-tone to create a look as burnished as the MGM production design. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this depressing drama, even though she is an adult, the eldest daughter of a hillbilly clan headed by a brutal patriarch still must endure his vicious beatings. Finally her mother and other friends counsel her to leave the hills. She does and ends up in New York where she enrolls in nursing classes. While studying, she also meets the dashing young attorney who helped convict her father of a shooting several months before. After graduating, she returns home to assist a doctor in a free clinic. Unfortunately, her father will not let her back into the family home, which causes her no pain at all. When the ruthless father begins attempting to sell off her younger sister as a child bride, the nurse comes to her aide. A fight ensues between father and daughter culminating in the father's accidental death. Her beau defends her in court, but she is sentenced to 25 years in prison anyway. Unfortunately, the locals are angered by the killing and decide to get their own revenge and lynch her. Fortunately, the lawyer saves her and bundles her on a plane and gets her away from there. This film is adapted from a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Mexican actress Movita, who rose to fame as one of the native girls in the Oscar-winning Mutiny on the Bounty, heads the cast of Monogram's Paradise Isle. On a remote South Sea Island, sun-kissed maiden Ila (Movita) finds white man Richard Kennedy (Warren Hull) washed up on shore. Once a celebrated painter, Kennedy has been stricken blind, and was on his way to a European eye specialist when his ship was destroyed in an explosion. Confused, disillusioned and embittered, Kennedy is nursed back to health by Ila, who tries her best to restore his will to live. Complicating her efforts are her jealous native boyfriend Tono (George Pilita) and scurrilous pearl trader Hoener (William B. Davidson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Errol Flynn insisted that Warner Bros. cook up a non-swashbuckler for his next vehicle, the result was Green Light. Based on a novel by Lloyd C. Douglas (Magnificent Obsession, The Robe etc.), the film tells the story of a young surgeon (Flynn) who willingly takes blame for a fatal mistake committed by an older doctor (Henry O'Neill). Disgraced, Flynn takes the near-suicidal assignment of testing a new vaccine for spotted fever; to ascertain the serum's effectiveness, he must expose himself to the disease. Flynn's fiancee (Anita Louise), having learned that her lover was not responsible for the older doctor's error, is reunited with Flynn as he lies recuperating from the fever. Weaving in and out of Green Light is the kindly old spiritual leader (Cedric Hardwicke) who espouses the values of sacrifice and faith. Green Light did acceptable box office business, but Errol Flynn was back at his sword-wielding best in his next film, The Prince and the Pauper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this adventure, a young man allows criminals to talk him into cracking a safe. He is caught and sent to prison. After three years, he is released. The criminals again force him to do more crimes. He does, but as soon as the crooks no longer need him, they kill a policeman and frame the lad for the crime. This time, the boy and a waitress hit the road. A gentle peddler assists them until the young man can clear his name. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

What would such second-echelon studios as Republic have done without the popular "rural" novels of Gene Stratton-Porter? This adaptation of Stratton-Porter's The Harvester stars Alice Brady in a rare dramatic role as Mrs. Biddle, the domineering matriarch of a farming family. Hoping to secure the future happiness of her daughter Thelma (Joyce Compton), Mrs. B practically ropes and hog-ties eligible bachelor David Langston (Russell Hardie). But it's a bad match, as David discovers when he falls in love with winsome Ruth Jameson (Ann Rutherford). The Harvester was treated as a prestige production by Republic, who accordingly gave the film as close to an "A" treatment as economically possible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The MGM historical "spectacular" San Francisco was allegedly based on a three-sentence synopsis, submitted verbally to producer B.F. Zeidman by studio troubleshooter Bob Hopkins. The story begins on the Barbary Coast on New Year's Eve, 1906, as rakish but likeable political boss Blackie Norton (Clark Gable) hires demure young singer Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) to perform at his rowdy Paradise gambling house. Local priest Father Mullin (Spencer Tracy), Blackie's best friend, disapproves of the exploitation of the lovely Mary, feeling that she's suited for classier surroundings. Jack Hurley (Jack Holt), Nob Hill socialite and Blackie's political rival, agrees with Father Mullin and offers the girl the opportunity to sing with the San Francisco Opera. Blackie, who's fallen in love with Mary but won't admit it to himself, jealously holds on to her contract, forcing Mary to walk out on him. For the rest of the film, Mary is torn between the "respectable" lifestyle offered her by Hurley and the baser creature comforts provided by Blackie. It looks for a while that Hurley has won out, but fate takes a hand in the form of the devastating San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906 (a special effects tour de force for art directors Arnold Gillespie and his uncredited associate James Basevi). Hurley is killed in the holocaust, while Blackie, desperately searching for Mary in the rubble, at long last finds religion and prays to God for his sweetheart's salvation. At the end, an unidentified bit player shouts defiantly "We'll build a new San Francisco!" -- and by golly, they do! The Hollywood censors were not so much bothered by the sexual subtext of San Francisco or its harrowing earthquake finale as they were by a scene in which Father Mullin is knocked down by an unrepentant Blackie. To "purify" this potentially blasphemous sequence, screenwriter Anita Loos quickly added an earlier scene in which Mullin and Blackie, both dressed in turtleneck sweaters, genially duke it out at an exercise gym, whereupon the priest cold-cocks Blackie with the greatest of ease. By establishing that Mullin could have punched out Blackie, but chooses not to in the controversial later scene, not only allows that scene to pass, but also strengthened the priest's character. San Francisco proved to be one of MGM's biggest hits, remaining in almost constant reissue for the next three decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

First filmed in 1910, the venerable Helen Hunt Jackson novel Ramona was remade in 1936 in full Technicolor (20th Century-Fox's first such production). Loretta Young plays Ramona, a half-Indian girl raised by a white family in Spanish California. She falls in love with the young man of the household (Kent Taylor), but her joy turns to sorrow when the matriarch of the household expresses disgust at "race-mixing." Ramona turns instead to the family's Native American servant (Don Ameche), a relationship that proves fatal for him. Ramona is rare for a 1930s film in that it depicts its racist characters as being totally in the wrong, rather than treating them compassionately so as not to offend the bigots in the audience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This tragic melodrama is a remake of Griffith's 1920 film, Way Down East. The story centers upon a starving, impoverished gamin who lost everything after a wicked millionaire tricked her into a marriage and impregnated her. The baby doesn't survive the ordeal and the poor girl ends up sheltered by a puritanical farm family. While there, she falls in love with the son. Unfortunately, as soon as they learn of her checkered past, the woman is tossed out. The distraught young woman is trying to cross a frozen river when a sudden thaw strikes, stranding her upon the treacherous floes. As they drift inexorably towards a deadly waterfall, her lover tries to save her. Unfortunately he cannot, and as the film ends, she is seen tumbling over the falls to certain doom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

George Ade's turn-of-the-century stage success The County Chairman was retailored as a Will Rogers vehicle in 1935. Set in 1904, the film casts Rogers as Jim Hackler, political-party chairman of Tomahawk County, Wyoming. At rise, Hackler is running for county prosecutor against his old political and romantic rival, crooked Elias Rigby (Berton Churchill). Complications arise when Jim's protégé Ben Harvey (Kent Taylor) falls in love with Rigby's daughter Lucy (Evelyn Venable). Presented with the opportunity to smear Rigby in public by digging up an old scandal, Jim refuses to stoop to his opponent's level -- and miracle of miracles, he wins the election anyway! The film's best moments occur when Will Rogers departs from the script to offer extemporaneous comments on a wide variety of subjects: he even manages to poke gentle fun at Henry Ford, who was hardly a "major player" in 1904! The supporting cast ranges from such Rogers "regulars" as Charles Middleton and Stepin Fetchit (at his most incomprehensible!) to such relative newcomers as 15-year-old Mickey Rooney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eight year old Paddy O'Day (Jane Withers) arrives at Ellis Island after a long sea voyage from Ireland, to be with her mother. But her mother is nowhere to be found when the ship docks, and the authorities are notified that Mrs. O'Day has died, only a few days ago -- the little girl will have to be sent back. Paddy has only been told that her mother is ill, and manages to sneak out off the island. After encountering a group of street urchins who try to make trouble for her -- and proving that she's got what it takes to take care of herself -- she makes her way to the large mansion on Long Island where her mother works, and learns the truth. The home is owned by Roy Ford (Pinky Tomlin), a studious upper-class bird fancier who has been browbeaten into life as an eccentric collector of stuffed birds by his two overbearing aunts (Vera Lewis, Louise Carter) -- their intention is to notify the authorities if Paddy shows up. But the servants, led by kindly maid Jane Darwell and initially unwilling butler Russell Simpson, decide to hide the child in the house while the aunts are away. Paddy chances to meet Roy, who takes a liking to her and decides to try and help her as well -- and when Paddy's very pretty shipboard friend Tamara Petrovich (Rita Cansino) shows up, along with her restauranteur cousin Mischa (George Givot), he starts to really come out of his shell. Mischa and Tamara will hide the little girl, and Mischa -- with help from a beverage new to Roy, called vodka -- convinces the young millionaire that there is a future in investing in his establishment. Roy likes the loosening up effect that vodka has on him, and also likes even more being around Tamara, and he soon becomes a new man -- not only a partner in the business, but a performer in the stage show that Mischa works up for his now-expanded restaurant/night club, which includes Paddy along with Tamara. But Roy's aunts have returned home, and are as appalled by their nephew's new, joyful approach to life as they are by his apparent infatuation with an immigrant girl and her family. They hire an investigator (Clarence H. Wilson) to try to prove that Roy is mentally incompetent, and he soon discovers that the little Irish waif working in the act is in the United States illegally, a fact that, once reported to the authorities, will get not only get Paddy deported by Tamara as well. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide