Martha Sleeper Movies

In this follow-up to director Leo McCarey's Going My Way (1944), Bing Crosby repeats his Oscar-winning characterization of happy-go-lucky priest Father O'Malley. The good father is sent to help out financially strapped St. Mary's Academy, a parochial school presided over by lovely nun Sister Benedict (Ingrid Bergman). The film is constructed in anecdotal fashion: Nun and priest gently quarrel over teaching methods; they help patch up the tottering marriage of William Gargan and Martha Sleeper; Sister Benedict plays baseball and teaches a student how to box; Father O'Malley softens the heart of the man who holds the mortgage (Henry Travers) by convincing the poor fellow that he's only got a few months to live; and the kids of St. Mary's put on a much-revised stage version of the Nativity, complete with a chorus of "Happy Birthday" on the occasion of the Virgin Birth. A huge hit at the box office, Bells of St. Mary's was nominated for nine Academy Awards. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bing Crosby's only western (outside of the 1966 version of Stagecoach), Rhythm on the Range stars Crosby as a casual cowpoke on his way back to the Wide Open Spaces after an eastern visit. He meets a young train stowaway (Frances Farmer), whom he regards as a hoydenish vagabond until learning that she's the owner of the ranch where he works. Farmer resists Crosby's charms until he rescues her from a gang of rustlers. Among the supporting cast is Mischa Auer, Bob "Bazooka" Burns, and, in her film debut, 19-year-old Martha Raye. The film also introduces the song hit "I'm an Old Cowhand", which is sung at one point or another by everyone in the cast, including Russian-born Mischa Auer. Rhythm on the Range was remade in 1956 as Pardners, with a few minor alterations--notably the casting of Jerry Lewis in the Frances Farmer role! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Baby-faced child star Dickie Moore toplines this overtly sentimental melodrama. Helmed by director Charles Lamont (Ma and Pa Kettle), the movie was a product of the B-picture-oriented Monogram Studios. Seven-year-old Thomas Hall, Jr.'s(Moore) mother leaves his unfaithful father. The parents' actions not only break the family in half, but threaten to destroy the child's life and permanently rob him of innocence. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

One of the first releases of newly-formed Republic Pictures, Two Sinners was adapted from The Black Sheep, a serialized magazine story by Warwick Deeping. Otto Kruger stars as Henry Vane, who uncomplainingly serves a lengthy prison term for shooting the cad who compromised Vane's wife. Hoping to leave his past behind him, Vane falls in love with Elsie Summerstone (Martha Sleeper), the governess for bratty Sally Pym (Cora Sue Collins). Thanks to the infidelities of Sally's mother (Minna Gombell), Vane is unable to stay out of trouble for long. In true "Shirley Temple" fashion, it is up to little Sally to straighten out the storyline. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

RKO Radio's first official 1935 release was the Zane Grey adaptation West of the Pecos. Richard Dix stars as Pecos Smith, a strong, silent Westerner suspected of cattle rustling. He spends half of the film proving his innocence, and the other half trying to deal with the tempestuous Terrell (Martha Sleeper), who has disguised herself as a boy to avoid molestation during her westward trek. The film's highlights include a Comanche attack and the climactic fistic duel between hero Pecos and villain Sawtelle (Fred Kohler). West of the Pecos was remade in 1945, with Robert Mitchum and Barbara Hale in the leading roles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Society-lawyer Warner Baxter loses his prestige in the legal community when he successfully defends gangster boss Nat Pendleton. Later on, the soft-hearted Pendleton gets the opportunity to "do right" by saving Baxter's life. This redemptive move comes at the end of a complicated plot involving Baxter's efforts to save Phillips Holmes, who has been framed by nasty mobster C. Henry Gordon, from the hot seat. He is aided in this effort by Gordon's former mistress Myrna Loy, who has all of the film's best lines (When her protecter Baxter falls asleep on a couch, Loy complains "A few more nights like this and I'll be out of condition.") Also in the cast of Penthouse is crime-movie perennial Mae Clarke, here cast as the murder victim. Penthouse was later remade (and highly sanitized in the process) as Society Lawyer, with Walter Pidgeon in the Warner Baxter part. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this melodrama a father rejects his son after his wife dies in childbirth. As a result, the boy is sent to live with his relatives. Six years later, the father reconsiders and tries to regain custody of his son. A custody battle ensues with the father emerging victorious. But the victory is bittersweet as he must now cope with problems between his second wife and his son. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy have been working for a circus as two halves of an ersatz horse. When the circus closes, in lieu of pay, each employee gets a portion of the show. Stan gets the flea circus and Ollie gets Ethel the chimp. They try to check into a boarding house, but the proprietor (Billy Gilbert) -- who also has a wife named Ethel -- turns the chimp away. To get her in, the boys dress her in Ollie's clothes, while Ollie puts on her tutu. After the usual Laurel and Hardy confusion, they all wind up in the same room together -- Stan and Ollie, sharing a bed, unfortunately, with the flea circus. Someone in another room puts on some music; Ethel, overhearing it, starts to dance. The boys start yelling at Ethel, and the boarding house proprietor, thinking it is his wife, dashes in brandishing a gun. Ethel, the wife, actually does walk in, but runs off when she sees the chimp. Ethel, the chimp, gets ahold of the gun, and Stan, Ollie, and the proprietor take off, too. This is a loose variant on the same situation that drives two other Laurel and Hardy shorts, 1929's Angora Love and 1931's Laughing Gravy. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Previously filmed in 1922, the 1917 stage farce The Impostor was reheated in 1931 as the William Haines vehicle A Tailor Made Man. Essaying his usual brash wisecracker, Haines plays John Paul Bart, a pants-presser who tries to crash High Society by borrowing the dress suit owned by millionaire Jellicott (William Austin). Thus garbed, he attends the weekend party held by socialite Mrs. Stanlaw (Hedda Hopper), doing his best to avoid the baleful eye of Jellicott, likewise a party guest. Through a combination of prevarication and chutzpa, Bart saves Jellicott's business from bankruptcy and also wins the heart of heroine Tanya (Dorothy Jordan). By 1931, William Haines could have done this sort of role in his sleep, which at times seemed to be the case. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

No relation to the 1935 Mascot programmer of the same name, Girls Demand Excitement offers an early starring appearance by John Wayne. The Duke is cast as college basketball player Peter Brooks, who's in love with sports-happy Joan Madison (Virginia Cherrill). Their hot-and-cold relationship culminates in a boys-against-the-girls basketball match, a scene only slightly less ridiculous than an early sequence in which a bunch of sexually integrated psychology students are assigned to test the "emotional reaction" to a group necking session! Evidently designed as a musical, Girls Demand Excitement contains no songs whatsoever, robbing future generations of the spectacle of John Wayne serenading his lady love. With films like these, it's no wonder that Wayne had to start his career all over again in cheap westerns. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The second of Cecil B. DeMille's talkies (as well as his second for MGM), Madam Satan is an exercise in incoherence, but this doesn't detract one iota from its entertainment value. Kay Johnson plays the sedate wife of philandering Reginald Denny, who is currently carrying on with "jazz baby" Lillian Roth. In a desperate effort to win back her husband, Johnson disguises herself as the alluring, provocatively clothed "Madame Satan." In this guise, she attends a lavish charity costume party being thrown by socialite Roland Young on a dirigible moored high above New York Harbor. Failing to recognize his mousey little wife, Denny arranges for a rendezvous with Madame Satan. When she reveals her true identity, Denny is outraged and threatens divorce. Suddenly, the dirigible is struck by lightning; it breaks loose from its moorings, tossing its terrified passengers around and about. Denny behaves heroically in shepherding the passengers into their parachutes; meanwhile, Johnson gives up her own parachute to save Roth. Coming to the mutual realization that each is worthy of the other's love, Johnson and Denny are reunited. Though when taken out of context, the dirigible sequence appears to be the ultimate in campy melodrama, this scene and all the scenes that built up to it are played for laughs: DeMille didn't take this farrago any more seriously in 1930 than we do today. Highlights include several unexpected and charmingly innapropriate musical numbers, including a bizarre "Ballet Mechanique" featuring dancer Theodore Kosloff. Though DeMille carefully threw in every ingredient that he hoped would appeal to a mass audience, Madam Satan was one of his few box office flops. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Karl Dane, the hulking comedy relief in many an MGM film, is top-billed in the FBO action melodrama Voice of the Storm. Dane and Warner P. Richmond play a couple of rough-and-tumble telephone lineman who find themselves up to their hip-boots in danger when Richmond falls in love with scientist's daughter Martha Sleeper. While working on a mysterious "doomsday" weapon, the scientist is murdered by an enemy spy and his formula is stolen. Richmond is blamed for the murder, whereupon Dane decides to play detective and track down the real killer. Just as Dane and Sleeper find the evidence necessary to free Richmond, the latter is preparing to take the "long walk" to the electric chair. With all the telephone lines down, Dane must brave a ferocious storm to rescue his pal (A question: If the power lines are down, wouldn't that affect the "chair" as well?) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Orville Caldwell, who registered well as Marion Davies' leading man in MGM's The Patsy, was afforded star billing in FBO's The Little Yellow House. A backwoods drama, the story details the tribulations of the Milburns, a farming family headed by an irresponsible alcoholic (William Orlamond). A wealthy relative offers to help out the Milburns, but the proud patriarch refuses to take charity. Fed up with her shabby existence, young Emily Milburn (Martha Sleeper) walks out on her family and heads to the Big City, where she is nearly violated by all-around cad Wells Harbison (Freeman Wood). Emily is rescued just in time by her hometown sweetheart Rob Hollis (Orville Caldwell). She returns home, vowing to make the best of things despite her dad's shiftless ways. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi