Ann Sothern Movies
Born Harriet Lake, the name under which she was billed until 1933, Sothern debuted onscreen in 1929 in a bit part, and went on to play small roles in several other films before leaving Hollywood for Broadway. She soon began landing leads, bringing another invitation from Hollywood. She signed a screen contract and changed her name, then began a very busy film career as the light-hearted heroine of B-movies. In 1939, Sothern switched studios and achieved greater popularity as the star of the "Maisie" comedy-adventure series; she appeared as the energetic, scatterbrained Maisie in ten films during the next eight years. She also appeared in musicals, in which her good voice and comedic talents were displayed. Never a major screen star, she became most popular after switching to TV; she starred in the TV series Private Secretary and The Ann Sothern Show. She went on to tour with stage musicals, then returned to the screen in occasional character roles after 1964. For her work in The Whales of August (1987), her most recent film to date, she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. From 1936-42 she was married to actor Roger Pryor and from 1943-49 she was married to actor Robert Sterling. Her daughter is actress Tisha Sterling, with whom she appeared in Crazy Mama (1975) and The Whales of August (1987); in the latter, Sterling played Sothern's character as a young woman. ~ All Movie Guide- 1934
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
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Ann Sothern, (more)
- 1934
Scrappy society belle Geraldine (Ann Sothern) is The Hell Cat in this peppy Columbia potboiler. Fed up with the intrusions of brash newspaper reporter Dan Collins (Robert Armstrong), Geraldine punches him in the nose -- whereupon he promptly punches her back. Feeling humiliated, Geraldine plots a diabolical revenge by vamping Dan, intending to drop him like a hot potato the minute he falls in love with her. Instead, Dan ends up saving Geraldine's hide by capturing a gang of crooks who've been using her father's yacht to smuggle aliens. In his first major film role, Benny Baker scores a comic bull's-eye as photojournalist Snapper Dugan. The basic plotline of Hell Cat would be reworked by Columbia several times, most memorably as Atlantic Adventure in 1935. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Ann Sothern, (more)
- 1934
The party's barely begun for mild-mannered CPA Bruce (Stuart Erwin); browbeaten by his lazy family and his domineering boss, our hero despairs of ever having a good time. Even Bruce's budding romance with Ruth (Ann Sothern) is threatened by his sponging relatives, who demand that he pump extra money into his sister Phyllis's (Arline Judge) marriage to good-for-nothing Martin (Chick Chandler). At long last, the worm turns, as Bruce kicks all the deadbeats out of his house, tells his boss where to go, and embarks on a whole new life with Ruth. Based on a play by Daniel Kusel, The Party's Over is a serviceable vehicle for Stu Erwin, who does a nice job as a milquetoast-turned-tiger. Otherwise, this Columbia feature isn't a whole lot different from the studio's Andy Clyde 2-reelers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Erwin, Ann Sothern, (more)
- 1934
The all-purpose title Blind Date was trotted out in 1934 for this romantic trifle. Poor Kitty Taylor (Ann Sothern) just can't choose between wealthy Bob Hartwell (Neil Hamilton) and unwealthy mechanic Bill (Paul Kelly). When Kitty gets a modelling job thanks to Bob, she feels beholden to him, even though she still carries a torch for Bill. Bob announces that he'd like to live with Kitty without bothering to get married, whereupon Kitty goes back to Bill, who by now has decided that she'd be better off with Bob, so he deliberately breaks off with her?..This could go on for years, but the film is only 71 minutes long, obliging Kitty to make her final decision a few moments before the "End" title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Sothern, Neil Hamilton, (more)
Brooklyn tugboat worker Eddie (Eddie Cantor), bullied and cowed by his tough-guy stepfather and stepbrothers (a la Harold Lloyd's The Kid Brother), inherits $77 million from his uncle, an Egyptologist. Con artist Dot (Ethel Merman) wants to get her lunchhooks on the money, and to this end offers herself as Eddie's adopted mother (never mind that she's nearly 20 years younger), intending to have her thuggish brother Louie (Warren Hymer) bump off our hero at the first opportunity. The nonsensical plotline ends up with Eddie, Dot, Louie, pompous Southern colonel Larrabee (Berton Churchill), and nominal romantic leads Jerry (George Murphy in his film debut) and Jane (Ann Sothern) trapped in the palace of Arab potentate Mulhulla (Paul Harvey). The better-than-average comic banter includes some funny bits between Cantor and Eve Sully, of the comedy team of "Block and Sully" (her husband-partner Jesse Block is also in the picture, but just barely). Spotted among the featured players in Kid Millions are such "Our Gang" members as Stymie Beard, Scotty Beckett and Tommy Bond, and there's a specialty by the Nicholas Brothers during Cantor's obligatory "blackface" number; and yes, that's Lucille Ball as a blonde Goldwyn Girl in the harem sequence. PS: According to Ethel Merman, the film's elaborate Technicolor ice-cream factory finale, in which Eddie allows dozens of tenement kids to gorge themselves on his tasty confections, posed censorship problems: while producer Sam Goldwyn was allowed to show the little boys with comically extended stomachs, he was not permitted to do so with the little girls, for fear that the audience might think the female moppets were pregnant! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Fields, Eddie Cantor, (more)
- 1934
Radio tenor Lanny Ross made a game but unsuccessful bid for film stardom in Paramount's Melody in Spring. Though Ross, cast as one John Craddock, is given top billing, the picture belongs to the delightful screen team of Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland as Warren and Mary Blodgett, sponsors of a popular network radio program. On vacation in Switzerland, the Blodgetts make the acquaintance of Craddock, who falls in love with the couple's pretty daughter Jane (Ann Sothern). The main plot concerns Blodgett's quest for a rare Swiss antique clock, which results in chaos for all concerned. Everything turns out all right, as Jane throws over her stuffy fiancé in favor of Craddock, who finds success as the star of the Blodgett's weekly radio tunefest. The inimitable Hermann Bing and the three Gale sisters --Joan, Jane and June -- dominate the supporting cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lanny Ross, Mary Boland, (more)
- 1933
This drama was written by famed radio announcer Walter Winchell. It chronicles the tragic love between a racketeer and a singer. So smitten is he by the chorus girl's charms that he buys her a nightclub. Unfortunately for him, the club's male crooner/bandleader also loves the girl. Realizing that he cannot compete, the crook bows out. However, during her wedding the racketeer lays down his life in exchange for hers when others attempt to kidnap her. He is shot, but survives. In the hospital he listens to the radio and hears that he is considered a hero and that the would-be kidnappers have been killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Constance Cummings, Russ Columbo, (more)
- 1930
Buster Keaton's second starring talkie finds him cast as wealthy, pampered Elmer, who heads down to the local employment office to hire a new chauffeur. Elmer isn't aware that the office has been converted into a World War I recruiting center, and before he knows it, he's in an ill-fitting uniform, enduring the verbal cannonades of sergeant Ed Brophy. The film's plot is based in part on Keaton's own wartime experiences, notably the bit in which he marches the wrong way and is trammeled by his fellow soldiers. Though Buster Keaton considered Doughboys the best of his MGM talkies, the film seems today to be one of his worst efforts, helped not at all by the excruciating performance of Ed Brophy. The best sequence is the camp show, with Buster cavorting in drag and performing a ukulele duet with Cliff Edwards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Sally Eilers, (more)
- 1930
The opening attraction at New York's Hollywood Theatre, Hold Everything was adapted from the DeSylva-Brown-Henderson musical of the same name that had served as a vehicle for Bert Lahr. For the film, both Lahr and most of the score were jettisoned, replaced by Joe E. Brown and songs by Al Dubin and Joe Burke. Brown plays Gink Schiner, a third-rate fighter who is at the same training camp as Georges LaVerne (played by Georges Carpentier), a contender for the heavyweight championship. Although he needs to be concentrating all of his energies on the upcoming bout, Georges keeps getting distracted: Norine Lloyd, a society dame, has a distinct interest in him, but the interest is strictly one-sided. Georges prefers Sue, an old buddy and confidante. Gink has woman trouble of his own, as his flirtations do not sit at all well with Toots, his erstwhile girl friend. More trouble arrives when Larkin, manager of current heavyweight champ Bob Morgan, appears at the camp with the goal of fixing the fight. He is sent packing, after which he attempts to slip a Mickey Finn to the challenger -- a plan which goes awry when Gink switches the drinks. Meanwhile, Gink, who is fighting in a preliminary in advance of the big fight, actually wins. Things don't look so bright for Georges, who initially gets the worst of it in his encounter with Morgan, but who eventually comes out on top. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Winnie Lightner, (more)
- 1930
Adapted from Owen Davis's stage comedy The Nervous Wreck (itself filmed in 1927), Flo Ziegfeld's musical spectacular Whoopee! was one of the solid hits of the 1928-29 Broadway season, thanks largely to the irrepressible Eddie Cantor. The property was transferred to film virtually intact in 1930, again produced by Ziegfeld (in collaboration with Sam Goldwyn) and again starring Cantor. The star plays Henry Williams, a wide-eyed hypochondriac who heads to a western resort town in the company of his long-suffering nurse Mary Custer (Ethel Shutta). Meanwhile, Wanenie (Paul Gregory), the son of an Indian chief, pines away out of love for white heiress Sally Morgan (Eleanor Hunt), who has been forbidden to marry Wanenie because of their racial differences. One of the most unsympathetic heroines in screen history, Sally coerces Henry into helping her elope then allows the poor boob to be accused of kidnapping. All sorts of zany complications ensue, not least of which is the side-splitting scene in which Henry, disguised as an Indian, adopts a thick Jewish accent while trying to sell a rug to a tourist. The Sally/Wanenie dilemma ends happily when the young man turns out not to be Indian after all, while Henry, cured of his ills by all the excitement, marries nurse Marie. The "Ziegfeld Touch" is most obvious in the final reels, when the story stops dead in its tracks to offer a long, drawn-out parade of "Glorified" Follies girls wearing enormous headdresses and precious little else. But the film's highlight is Eddie Cantor's sly, insinuating rendition of the title song, in which he details in humorous fashion the pitfalls of "makin' whoopee" with the wrong girl. Featured among the Goldwyn Girls are such future stars as Claire Dodd, Virginia Bruce, and 14-year-old Betty Grable, who energetically performs the very first chorus of the very first song in the film. Lensed in eye-pleasing early Technicolor, Whoopee was a success, launching a long and fruitful cinematic collaboration between Eddie Cantor and Sam Goldwyn. It was remade by Goldwyn in 1944 as Up in Arms, a showcase for the producer's "new Cantor" Danny Kaye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Eleanor Hunt, (more)
- 1930
Based upon an ambitious but unsuccessful stage operetta by Oscar Hammerstein and Vincent Youmans, Song of the West is set in the middle 1800s during the great western Gold Rush. At a fort in Kansas, Lt. Singleton is in love with Virginia, daughter of the fort's Colonel. Singleton encounters Capt. Stanton, who had the misfortune of getting involved in a romantic triangle that produced a bit of a scandal. Stanton quarrels with his rival from that triangle, Davolo, and ends up shooting him. Singleton and the Colonel lock Stanton up and hold him for murder. Stanton escapes, disguises himself as a man of the cloth and hitches up with a wagon train heading for California. As luck would have it, Virginia is part of the wagon train party. Along the way, Stanton and Virginia fall in love. Stanton's guilt over his past haunts him, however, and he worries that he is not good enough for Virginia. He leaves her and is involved in a mishap at a mining camp, after which he re-enlists as a private to avoid deportation and to pay for his sins. Happily, however, he also discovers that Virginia loves him and will always love him, no matter who he is or what he has done. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Boles, Vivienne Segal, (more)
- 1929
In this romance set in Russia, a fisherman's daughter is jilted by her true love and instead marries a baron. Time passes and the two men meet each other in Siberia where they have both been exiled. When the poorer man has the opportunity to come home, he changes places with the baron so that he can return to his wife. Unbeknownst to him, she has gone to the frozen wasteland to search for him. Instead she meets her old love, and they soon find themselves once again involved. The distraught baron tries to get revenge by killing himself. The lovers then are united at last. The film was created with two different happy endings. In one, the couple returns to their home and live in freedom. In the other, they remain together in captivity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolores Costello, Grant Withers, (more)
- 1929
Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 and Paramount on Parade, due mainly to the film's master of ceremonies, the insufferable Frank Fay. Some of the individual acts seen in Show of Shows were pretty good, notably Winnie Lightner's delightful Singing in the Bathtub (a spoof of Hollywood Revue of 1929's Singin' in the Rain) and John Barrymore's brilliant rendition of Richard III's soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry VI. Also easy to take was "Floradora Sextette," featuring such luminaries as Myrna Loy, Patsy Ruth Miller and cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin, and "Eight Sister Acts," including such Hollywood siblings as Dolores and Helene Costello, Sally Blane and Loretta Young and Shirley Mason and Viola Dana (also teamed in this number are Ann Sothern and Marion Byron, who were not sisters). But for the most part, the acts are on a par with "Skull and Crossbones," a boring production number showcasing entertainer Ted Lewis, and "Recitations," a one-joke affair in which three different anecdotes (related by Frank Fay, Louis Fazenda, Lloyd Hamilton and Bea Lillie) are melded into one. Show of Shows was originally released in two-color Technicolor but now exists only in black in white, save for the "Chinese Fantasy" number featuring crooner Nick Lucas and Warner Bros. contractee Myrna Loy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1927
Amateur thespians Fannie (Lois Wilson) and Johnny (Sam Hardy) team up to form a vaudeville act. Along the way, they decide to get married, if only to save on expenses. Things don't go well on "the road" for Fannie and Johnny, and before long Johnny is spending more time shooting craps than trodding the boards. Weary of her husband's improvidence, Fannie strikes out on her own, and in record time becomes a top Broadway star. Though she is ardently pursued by producer Baron (Louis John Bartels), Fannie can't seem to get over Johnnie. Inevitably, Fannie is reunited with her husband, who has given up gambling to become a successful composer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lois Wilson, Sam Hardy, (more)
This artistic tour takes you through The Shelburne Museum that is filled with Electra Havemeyer Webb's collection of American folk art. See the many pieces of art made by just everyday folk. ~ All Movie Guide
