Charles Smith Movies

Battling Butler has to be the strangest of Buster Keaton's silent features. Based on the musical comedy of the same name, the film casts Keaton as wimpy millionaire Alfred Butler, who goes on a vacation in the mountains in the company of his faithful valet (Snitz Edwards). While communing with nature, Alfred falls in love with a beautiful young girl (Sally O'Neil), who barely acknowledges his existence. Without his master's knowledge, the valet tries to smooth the path of romance by telling the girl that Alfred is, in reality, boxing champion Battling Butler (Francis McDonald). The real champ, a mean-spirited sort, gets wind of this deception and decides to allow Alfred to continue the charade, fully intending to mop the floor with the puny millionaire in the boxing ring. But on the night of the big fight, Alfred suddenly gets tired of being pushed around and turns into a savage opponent, leaving the bullying Butler positively groggy. At this point our hero discovers that the girl would have loved him whether he was Battling Butler or not, and all ends well. Played as traditional Keaton comedy for most of its running time, Battling Butler goes dramatic with a vengeance in the climactic fight scene, with Keaton really giving his ring opponent a going over. The final scene is all the more powerful because it is so completely unexpected; if it surprises today's audiences, one can only imagine the effect it had on Buster Keaton's fans way back in 1926. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second entry in Warner Bros.' popular detective series, Nancy Drew, Reporter presented young sleuth Bonita Granville at her busybody best. This time, the irrepressible Miss Drew has entered a junior newspaper-reporter contest and, determined to win, insinuates herself into the ongoing investigation of the Lambert murder. Despite overwhelming evidence, Nancy refuses to believe that the murder victim's young ward (Betty Amann) is the culprit and instead shadows a mysterious man (Jack Perry) sporting a cauliflower ear. The brutish stranger and his floozy of a girlfriend (Sheila Bromley) lead Nancy and her faithful sidekick, Ted Nickerson (Frankie Thomas Jr.), on a merry chase that, naturally, ends with the apprehension of the real murderer. Trapped in the Bledenburg Hotel along the way, Nancy and Ted ingeniously call attention to their plight by changing the hostelry's neon sign to "Bedbug Hotel." Juvenile stars Granville and Thomas are this time aided by teenage singer Mary Lee, of Gene Autry Western fame, and child actor Dickie Jones, the latter insisting on imitating Donald Duck. A highlight of the film has the four youngsters performing swing versions of nursery rhymes in order to pay for their Chinese dinner. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Hey, gang! Let's put on a swell show and call it Strike Up the Band! Yes, it's the irrepressible Mickey Rooney, teamed up again with Judy Garland to show the grownups how to do things right. This time, Rooney wants to organize a high-school band. He hopes to enter a competition being held in Chicago by the great orchestra leader Paul Whiteman; all he needs is two hundred dollars for train fare. To raise the money, Rooney, Garland and company stage a student "mellerdrammer" that in real life would have cost the equivalent of a third-world-nation annual budget. They get the dough, but soft-hearted Rooney turns over the money to the mother of student musician Larry Nunn, who is in desperate need of emergency surgery. It looks hopeless until, luck of luck, Paul Whiteman arrives in Rooney's town. The original George and Ira Gershwin Broadway musical Strike Up the Band was a satire of warfare, with America declaring war on Switzerland in order to corner the chocolate industry. You'll see none of that subversive stuff in this MGM musical; instead, we are treated to such highlights as a George Pal animated sequence involving dancing fruit. It ain't profound, but Strike Up the Band is sure entertaining. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If Edward G. Robinson thought he'd get away from tough-guy roles by moving from Warners to MGM, he was sorely mistaken. Robinson plays the editor of a 1920s tabloid newspaper, compelled to accept financial aid from a gangster (Edward Arnold). Defying his "unholy partner," Robinson adopts an editorial stance in direct opposition to the gangster's activities. The crook is less upset by this than by the fact that Robinson's star reporter (William T. Orr) is romantically interested in the crook's girlfriend (Marsha Hunt). When Robinson tries to expose the gangster's insurance racket, the young reporter is kidnapped. Robinson kills the crook, then covers his tracks in noble fashion by participating in a suicidal airplane test flight. Unholy Partners manages to keep its multitude of plot threads in order, resulting in one of Edward G. Robinson's most solid vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A daffy romantic comedy released in Great Britain under the title Good Morning Doctor, this film reunites the two stars of The Lady Eve. Henry Fonda plays Peter Kirk, a wealthy but bored playboy who has a skiing accident while admiring a beautiful woman. The woman turns out to be a doctor, Helen Hunt (Barbara Stanwyck), who treats the injuries to his rear end. The two fall in love and marry. But Peter, who has too much time on his hands, becomes jealous of his wife's time with her male patients. Helen makes him look for a job to keep him from stewing. Because he has no experience, the only position that Peter can get is as a department store clerk. The other workers there discover that he's a millionaire and force him to leave, causing him to rethink how he is going to spend his free time. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Something of a distaff Mr. Chips, schoolteacher Ella Bishop (Martha Scott) devotes her life to her work, ageing 50 years (from 19 to 69) in the course of the film. At a testimonial dinner on the occasion of her retirement, Miss Bishop's former students wonder why their beloved teacher never married. In flashback, the audience learns that town grocer Sam (William Gargan) has carried a torch for her for five decades, while she obliviously pursued unfortunate romantic relationships with weak-willed Delbert Thompson (Donald Douglas) and unhappily married John Stevens (Sidney Blackmer). Adapted by Stephen Vincent Benet from the melancholy novel by Bess Streeter Aldrich, Cheers for Miss Bishop was not only a tour de force for Scott, but also represented the screen debut of another young character actress, Rosemary De Camp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Henry Aldrich for President was the second of Paramount's "Henry Aldrich" series to star Jimmy Lydon in the teenaged title role. This time Henry is pitted against an arrogant jock for the presidency of the Centerville High School student council. Henry's chances don't seem bright, especially since a pompous teacher (Lucien Littlefield) is writing the opponent's speeches for him. As often happens in these films, a misunderstanding threatens not only to lose Henry the election but to get him expelled from school as well. Somehow the plot is resolved by a wild climactic airplane ride, with hapless Henry at the controls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A minor heart-tugger filmed on leftover Mr. Smith Goes to Washington sets, this Columbia production stars the very British Herbert Marshall as US senator John Coleridge. Befriending young Marty Driscoll (Gene Reynolds), a tough kid from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks, Senator Coleridge tries to put Marty on the right track by installing him as a Senate page boy. When Marty sells top-secret information to the press, Coleridge refuses to punish the boy himself: instead, Marty is tried before a jury of his peers-the rest of the pages, who've been anxious to show what they've learned while observing the senators at work. Virginia Bruce does what she can with the thankless role of a DC newspaper sob sister. The link between Adventure in Washington and Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is strengthened by the presence in the cast of Dickie Jones and Pierre Watkin, both of whom had appeared in similar roles in the Capra film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yankee Doodle Dandy is no more the true-life story of George M. Cohan than The Jolson Story was the unvarnished truth about Al Jolson -- but who the heck cares? Dandy has song, dance, pathos, pageantry, uproarious comedy, and, best of all, James Cagney at his Oscar-winning best. After several failed attempts to bring the life of legendary, flag-waving song-and-dance man Cohan to the screen, Warners scenarist Robert Buckner opted for the anecdotal approach, unifying the film's largely unrelated episodes with a flashback framework. Summoned to the White House by President Roosevelt, the aging Cohan is encouraged to relate the events leading up to this momentous occasion. He recalls his birth on the Fourth of July, 1878; his early years as a cocky child performer in his family's vaudeville act; his decision to go out as a "single"; his sealed-with-a-handshake partnership with writer/producer Sam Harris (Richard Whorf); his first Broadway success, 1903's Little Johnny Jones; his blissful marriage to winsome wife Mary (a fictional amalgam of Cohan's two wives, played by Joan Leslie -- who, incredibly, was only 17 at the time); his patriotic civilian activities during World War I, culminating with his writing of that conflict's unofficial anthem "Over There" (performed by Nora Bayes, as played by Frances Langford); the deaths of his sister, Josie (played by Cagney's real-life sister Jeanne), his mother, Nellie (Rosemary DeCamp), and his father, Jerry (Walter Huston); his abortive attempt to retire; and his triumphant return to Broadway in Rodgers & Hart's I'd Rather Be Right.

His story told, Cohan is surprised -- and profoundly moved -- when FDR presents him with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the first such honor bestowed upon an entertainer. His eyes welling up with tears, Cohan expresses his gratitude by invoking his old vaudeville curtain speech: "My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you." Glossing over such unsavory moments in Cohan's life as his bitter opposition of the formation of Actor's Equity -- not to mention George M.'s intense hatred of FDR! -- Yankee Doodle Dandy offers the George M. Cohan that people in 1942 wanted to see (proof of the pudding was the film's five-million-dollar gross). And besides, the plot and its fabrications were secondary to those marvelous Cohan melodies -- "Give My Regards to Broadway," "Harrigan," "Mary," "You're a Grand Old Flag," "45 Minutes from Broadway," and the title tune -- performed with brio by Cagney (who modifies his own loose-limbed dancing style in order to imitate Cohan's inimitable stiff-legged technique) and the rest of the spirited cast. Beyond its leading players, movie buffs will have a ball spotting the myriad of familiar character actors parading before the screen: S.Z. Sakall, George Tobias, Walter Catlett, George Barbier, Eddie Foy Jr. (playing his own father), Frank Faylen, Minor Watson, Tom Dugan, John Hamilton, and on and on and on. In addition to Cagney, music directors Ray Heindorf and Heinz Roemheld also won Oscars for their efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Lydon makes his second screen appearance as "typical" teenager Henry Aldrich in Henry and Dizzy. The plot complications begin insuinating themselves when Henry and his pal Dizzy Stevens (Charles Smith) inadvertently wreck an outboard motor. Our heroes spend the rest of the picture trying to raise the necessary 120 bucks to repair the damage before Henry's dad (John Litel) finds out. As a result, they wreak plenty more damage before the film's slapstick denoument at beautiful Lake Wopacotapotalong. As always, Henry and Dizzy scores its biggest points with its stellar supporting cast, including Maude Eburne as a snooty dowager, Warren Hymer as a cheeful bum, former "Our Gang" kid Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as an obnoxious brat and future "Lois Lane" Noel Neill as Dizzy's waterlogged girl friend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adenoidal teenager Henry Aldrich (James Lydon) "gets glamour" when he wins first prize in a movie-magazine contest. Before he quite knows what's happening, Henry is whisked to Hollywood for a date with glamorous "sarong girl" Hilary Dane (Frances Gifford). All of this coincides with a local scandal, innocently fomented by our hero, which threatens the election of Henry's father Sam (John Litel) to the office of public welfare commissioner. The plot is resolved at the end when Hilary Dane, for reasons of her own, shows up as Henry's date at a country club dance, an act which somehow vindicates Sam Aldrich (the plot makes much more sense on screen than on print!) In addition to the lissome Frances Gifford, Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour showcases such promising starlets as Diana Lynn and Gail Russell. An unbilled Johnny Arthur earns some of the film's biggest laughs as a prissy publicity agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic musical, a chipper radio crooner does everything she can and is still unable to get a break. Later her agent comes up with a sure-fire scheme to get her some publicity by announcing that she is the true love of a WW II hero who has just come home. Fortunately for her, the agent's ploy is quite prophetic and by the story's end, the hero and the singer are hopelessly in love. Musical numbers and songs include: "My Wife's a WAAC", "What Do You Do When It Rains?", "I'd Do It for You", "Left, Right" and ""Valse Continental"". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

For this entry in the popular Henry Aldrich series, bumbling typical high school student Henry (Jimmy Lydon) catches sight of the new band teacher Louise Elliott (Marian Hall) and really likes what he sees. Quickly developing a mad crush on her, Henry goes so far as to join the band just to be near her. Although he's initially upset that she likes "square" music, she surprises him with her diversity -- it turns out she can play a mean boogie woogie when necessary. Hoping to impress the teacher, Henry agrees to take up the violin. Henry, of course, does not have a violin, which means he has to try to convince the rather tightfisted Mr. Aldrich to buy one. His task is made easier when Miss Elliott makes the request herself and Mr. Aldrich sees for himself why Henry is so anxious to impress his teacher. Henry gets the violin, but in typical fashion, it somehow gets switched with the priceless instrument of a visiting concert violinist. Before Henry discovers the mix-up, he somehow misplaces the rare violin -- and must then track it down and recover it before it's too late. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide