Sally Blane Movies
Throughout her career, American actress Sally Blane would be noted less for her acting achievements than for the fact that she was the older sister of film star Loretta Young. It couldn't be helped; not only did Sally look just like Loretta (albeit with lighter hair), she tended to play the same type of roles.Blane was one of four children born to a Salt Lake City railroad auditor and his wife. Her real name was Elizabeth Jane Young: she had two sisters, Polly Ann and Loretta, and a brother named John Royal (her youngest sister Georgiana was born in 1920, after her mother had remarried). When her parents separated, Elizabeth Jane's mother took the children to live with her married sister in Hollywood. The four Young children were quite photogenic, and had no trouble securing $3.50 per day extra work in the movies. After convent school, Elizabeth Jane resumed her film work under the studio-imposed name of Sally Blane; she appeared as leading lady in The Collegians, a series of youth-oriented two reel comedies. In 1929, Sally and sister Loretta were among the "Wampas Baby Stars," a group of promising young actresses promoted for publicity purposes by the Western Association of Motion Pictures Advertisers. Loretta was dedicated to becoming a full-fledged star, but Sally lost interest in pursuing fame early on, settling instead for the life of a freelance working actress. Occasionally she'd attain the lead in an upper-echelon picture like Advice for the Lovelorn (1933) or The Silver Streak (1934), but for the most part she was content to appear in less demanding low-budget westerns and crime melodramas. In 1935, Blane married actor/director Norman Foster and virtually retired to raise a family. In 1939, Loretta Young insisted that all her sisters appear as her fictional sisters in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell; thus, for the only time in her adult career, Sally costarred with Loretta, Polly Ann and Georgianna Young (it would be Georgianna's only movie appearance; expressing no interest at all in performing, she married actor Ricardo Montalban and settled for the "career" of Hollywood wife). After Bell, Sally Blane concluded her starring career, though her husband was occasionally able to coax her back before the cameras in small supporting roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A communist spy plots the abduction of an important American atomic scientist in this espionage drama. To do his evil deed, he coerces a notorious gangster to do the kidnapping. Meanwhile a G-man is hot on the spy's trail and is determined to protect the endangered scientist. Unfortunately, the spy is on to the detective and plans to bump him off first. The spy does not count on the fact that he has chosen a patriotic gangster to do his deeds and when the crook learns the spy's true alignment he takes action. Between him and the G-man, the world ends up safe for democracy once again. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, George Raft, (more)
- 1939
Movie buffs are nearly unanimous in agreement: Charlie Chan at Treasure Island is the best of the Sidney Toler "Charlie Chan" entries. The film wastes no time getting started, with Chan (Toler) and his son Jimmy (Sen Yung) on hand when Charlie's writer friend Paul Essex (Louis Jean Heydt) dies on the Honolulu Clipper while en route to San Francisco. The police rule Essex' death a suicide, but Chan believes differently. He follows the trail of clues to the mysterious Zodiac, a crooked spiritualist. The oriental detective is aided in his investigation by Rhadini (Cesar Romero), a charming stage magician who hopes to expose Zodiac as a phony and blackmailer. After several plot twists and a couple of additional murders, all the likely suspects are gathered together during one of Rhadini's performances at Treasure Island, the San Francisco branch of the 1939 World's Fair. In a truly eerie climax, mystic Eve (Pauline Moore) who really does have psychic powers, prepares to name the killer. The revelation of the culprit is a genuine surprise, staged with topnotch showmanship by director Norman Foster, whose wife Sally Blane (Loretta Young's sister) appears in a small role as Essex's widow. Many of the magicians' props utilized in Charlie Chan at Treasure Island would do service again in 1942 in the Laurel & Hardy vehicle A-Haunting We Will Go. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Toler, Cesar Romero, (more)
- 1939
This fictionalized biography of the famed American inventor's life provided actor Don Ameche with his signature role. For years after its release, people even referred to the telephone as "an Ameche." The story begins in 1873 Boston as Bell endeavors to teach deaf people to speak in the manner invented by his father. When not teaching, Bell tinkers with his various inventions. Opportunity knocks when Bell is befriended by an aristocratic fellow (Charles Coburn) who wants Bell to help teach his daughter (Loretta Young) to speak. Bell agrees and falls in love with her. It is she who inspires and encourages him to invent the telephone, while it is young Watson (Henry Fonda) who assists him. After they meet with success, the inventors must do battle in court with Western Union, the company that held the patent to the telegraph. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Ameche, Loretta Young, (more)
Way Down South ranks as among the better Bobby Breen musicals, if only because of its impressive production credits. The film is set in antebellum Louisiana, where young Tim Reid's (Breen) inheritance is highly coveted by crooked attorney Martin Dill (Edwin Maxwell). With the help of kindly Cajun innkeeper Jacques Bouton (Alan Mowbray), Tim is able to foil the villain, with time left over for a number of Southern-fried tunes. The film's attitudes towards slavery-to a man, the "darkies" are blissfully content with their lot in life-is astonishing, inasmuch as the film was cowritten by Clarence Muse (one of the more militant black performers in Hollywood) and African American poet Langston Hughes! The screenwriters were also responsible for the songs, including "Louisiana" and "Good Ground." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bobby Breen, Alan Mowbray, (more)
- 1939
Fighting Mad was the second of producer Phil Krasne's "Renfrew of the Royal Mounted" films to be released by Monogram (taking over from the defunct Grand National Pictures). In this endeavor, Renfrew (James Newill) and his young pal Kelly (Dave O'Brien) take on American gangster Cardigan (Milburn Stone), who muscles his way into the Great White North. Cardigan has enlisted the reluctant aid of heroine Ann (Sally Blane), who out of fear of being arrested on a trumped-up charge is helping the villain smuggle stolen loot across the border. Comedy relief is provided by Benny Rubin as a Lower East Side type who aspires to become a mountie. In the next "Renfrew" outing, Murder on the Yukon, the heroine was played by Polly Ann Young, sister of Fighting Mad's Sally Blane. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Newill, Sally Blane, (more)
- 1938
This poverty-row quickie stars Ray Walker, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, and James Bush as troubleshooting telephone linemen Torchy, Slim and Eddie. When their supervisor is killed, the boys offer to adopt the dead man's "little" daughter Ann (Sally Blane), actually a curvaceous young lady for whom both men harbor romantic inclinations. Things get serious again when Eddie dies while stringing wire during severely inclement weather. This leaves Torchy and Slim to battle over Ann's affections-and neither one is much of a prize. With an unprepossessing cast and only fair production values, Crashin' Thru Danger could only hope to make back its cost, which wasn't much to begin with. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Walker, Sally Blane, (more)
- 1938
A couple are shipwrecked and saved by a sea captain. The ruthless man blinds the husband in a fight and his sexual advances drive the wife to suicide. Twenty years later, the husband recognizes the captain's laugh and seeks to avenge their treatment. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1937
Within the framework of a conventional newspaper yarn, One Mile From Heaven raises several controversial issues. Scoop-happy reporter Lucy "Tex" Warren (Claire Trevor) senses a big story in the plight of Flora Jackson (Fredi Washington), a young black woman who claims to be the mother of a white baby. In the course of her investigation, Luch discovers that the child actually belongs to Barbara Harrison (Sally Blane), now remarried to a wealthy young man and anxious to bury her past. A gang of extortionists pounce upon this information to victimize Barbara and Flora, but Lucy uses her newspaper connections to help both women. In the end, it is decided that the public's "right to know" can best be ignored in this case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claire Trevor, Sally Blane, (more)
- 1937
The Great Hospital Mystery is based on one of Mignon Eberhardt's "Nurse Sarah Keate" whodunits. Physically and temperamentally, Jane Darwell at least approximates the middle-aged Sarah (here renamed Miss Keats), but otherwise the film runs far afield from Eberhardt's original concept. As the night superintendent of a metropolitan hospital, Miss Keats does her best to handle the personal problems of her staff -- especially nurse Ann (Sally Blane), whose brother Tracy (George Walcott) is being victimized by mobsters. To save Tracy from assassination, Keats and Ann make it appear as though he has died in the hospital while a patient there. Their plan is compromised when another patient is murdered -- or is he? Joan Davis provides gratuitous comic relief as a klutzy "girl in white." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Darwell, Sig Rumann, (more)
- 1937
Lively June (Jane Withers), teen-aged daughter of mystery writer Waldo Everett (Jon Qualen), who calls her "Angel," becomes involved in intrigue centering on movie star Pauline Kaye (Sally Blane) and her companion Stivers (Joan Davis). Reporter Nick Moore (Robert Kent), once sweet on Pauline, is convinced that her sudden disappearance is a publicity stunt, which is true -- until gangster Bat Regan (Harold Huber) decides to get involved. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Withers, Robert Kent, (more)
- 1935
Marshall Neilan had fallen from the top ranks of directors by the time he helmed the Jane Withers vehicle This is the Life, but he still had it in him to deliver a first-rate job. Withers is cast as pint-sized vaudeville artiste Geraldine Revier. Tired of being professionally exploited by her parents (Gloria Roy and Gordon Westcott), Geraldine disguises herself as a boy and runs away from home. While on the road, she teams up with Michael Grant (John McGuire), a fugitive from justice. Naturally, Michael is innocent, and equally naturally, it is Geraldine who proves it. Future "Charlie Chan" Sidney Toler is a riot as blowhard medicine-show entrepreneur Professor Breckenridge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Withers, John McGuire, (more)
- 1934
The rivalry between two deep-sea diver is chronicled in this adventure. The trouble begins when a young woman inherits one of the diver's boats and promptly hires his rival to help out. At first they swear to stay away from her, but they cannot and many arguments ensue culminating in a fistfight aboard a roller coaster in an amusement park. During the scuffle, one of the men falls and lands in the ocean. He quickly swims away and is presumed dead causing the other man to be arrested for murder. Later a ship filled with gold founders, and the surviving salvager and his new partner must retrieve it with the agreement that they will split the take. Unfortunately, the new partner is avaricious and during the dive attempts to kill the other. Fortunately, the embattled salvager is saved by his ex-partner who was recently released from jail. They defeat their foe, but end up in the hospital where they continue arguing until the woman comes in and announces that she is engaged to the ship's captain. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen, (more)
- 1934
Half a Sinner is the first film version of the 1925 John E. Hymer-LeRoy Clemens play Alias the Deacon. Berton Churchill re-creates his stage role as an indigent cardsharp who poses as a deacon to fleece the countryside. While going about his business in a small town, he helps straighten out the lives of John (Joel McCrea) and Phyllis (Sally Blane), fellow hoboes whom he'd met while riding the rails. "The Deacon" ends up clearing John of a murder charge before moving on to new vistas and new suckers. The property was remade under its original cognomen Alias the Deacon in 1940, with radio humorist Bob Burns in the title role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Blane, Joel McCrea, (more)
- 1934
The independently produced Stolen Sweets was lensed in a hurry on standing sets at Universal. Future western star Charles Starrett plays a poor insurance salesman who falls in love with wealthy Sally Blane. The girl's parents would prefer that Sally marry a man of her own class, the insufferable Jameson Thomas (who made a career out of playing "the wrong man"). Eventually, however, Sally's parents realize that Starrett is the right choice for her little girl. The film's comic highlight is the old "walk this way, please" bit. Watch for Sally Blane's younger sister Polly Ann Young as one of Charles Starrett's low-born pals (Sally's other sister, Loretta Young, was busy on more expensive projects). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Blane, Charles Starrett, (more)
- 1934
Chesterfield's City Park is dominated by the strong performances of venerable character actors Henry B. Walthall, Wilson Benge and Lafe McKee. When impoverished Rose Wentworth (Sally Blane) poses as a streetwalker in order to get arrested and secure herself food and shelter, she is paroled in the custody of eccentric-but-lovable Colonel Ransome (Walthall). The Colonel brings Rose into his own home as part of her reformation process, which displeases his wife (Judith Voselli) and son Raymond (Matty Kemp). The Ransome family responds to this "outrage" by cutting off the Colonel's funds and throwing him out of the house. Undaunted, the Colonel and his two park-bench chums (Benge and McKee) move into a boarding house, bringing Rose along as housekeeper. Having at long last proven her worthiness and virtue (which the Colonel never doubted for a minute), Rose finds happiness in the arms of handsome Charlie Hooper (Johnny Harron). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Blane, Henry B. Walthall, (more)
- 1934
Beyond the fact that both films shared a "railroad" background, RKO Radio's 1935 actioner The Silver Streak bore no relation to the 1976 Gene Wilder vehicle of the same name. The earlier film stars Charles Starrett as Tom Caldwell, the dynamic young designer of a streamlined, high-speed passenger train. During a polio epidemic, our hero endeavors to prove the efficiency of his train by making a breakneck 2,000-mile trip to deliver iron lungs to the Boulder Dam region. The well-chosen supporting cast includes William Farnum as old-time railroad man B.J. Dexter, who in the film's most moving scene ruminates over the brief but colorful history of his chosen profession. The real-life Burlington Zephyr "plays" the titular train in The Silver Streak, which earned a much-needed profit of 107,000 dollars for RKO. (One a side note, some of the music heard during the final two reels was lifted from Max Steiner's score for King Kong.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Blane, Charles Starrett, (more)
- 1934
After briefly enjoying an "A" budget as Mae West's vis-a-vis in Belle of the Nineties, Johnny Mack Brown returned to the "B"-picture mills with Columbia's Against the Law. Brown plays ambulance driver Steve Wayne, whose devotion to his interne pal Bert Andrews (George Meeker) supersedes all else in his life, including his romance with Martha Gray (Sally Blane). When Bert gets mixed up with gangsters, Steve tries to bail him out, nearly losing his job as a result. Ultimately Bert is bumped off by the villains, leading to a pulse-pounding climax as Steve commandeers his ambulance to bring the mob to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Mack Brown, Sally Blane, (more)
- 1934
Sally Bates (|$Isabel Jewell) is a young Texas woman trying to make it to Hollywood on too little money and driving a car that's too old. She gets stranded one night, nearly out of money and gas, in a college town where she meets Bill Cutler (Larry "Buster" Crabbe), a poor-but-honest and hard-working campus hunk -- he's a football hero and also runs the local drive-in restaurant for his mother (Maidel Turner). They take a light-hearted liking to each other and are thrust together even more forcefully when she helps break up a robbery. Sally ends up being taken into Bill's mother's home and working at the drive-in; but Bill is always spending time with his longtime steady Clara Berry (Sally Blane), who's got a lot of money and a lot of interest in Bill -- she and her family have big plans for him, when they marry, and Sally doesn't want to get in the way. She ends up going out with Clara's brother Jack (Regis Toomey), whose fun-loving nature masks a drinking problem and a mean and reckless streak. A series of misunderstandings ensues, culminating in Bill beating Jack to death -- despite the evidence that it was, at worst, manslaughter, the district attorney (Wallis Clark) does his best to prove murder. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Isabel Jewell, (more)
- 1934
This comedy tracks the relationship between an ailing railroad president and the dogged reporter who tries to infiltrate his inner council by impersonating a doctor's assistant. The president desperately needs a respite from all the pressures of his illness and his failing company, and so takes off on his private train. During his journey, he encounters two tramps. Meanwhile the reporter finds the president's lovely daughter. Upon his return, the old railroad man is much refreshed and gives the reporter his story. He then saves the company. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Craven, Sally Blane, (more)
- 1933
Mascot Films, the feisty precursor to Republic Pictures, was responsible for 1933's The Big Payoff. In a rare top-billed role, chameleon-like character-actor Lucien Littlefield plays an innocent man who has been railroaded to the electric chair. Coming to the rescue is Victor Jory, a disgraced police officer who redeems himself by locating the guilty party. More than one reviewer caught on that The Big Payoff resembled a western in modern garb. And small wonder, since the film was based on a short story by Peter B. Kyne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucien Littlefield, Ralph Ince, (more)
- 1933
Top-billed Bela Lugosi has only a minor role in this routine variant on the Old Dark House scenario, playing a mysterious Indian mystic who is but one of numerous eccentric characters lingering about in an eerie mansion, stalked by an unseen murderer. Other potential victims/suspects include a reporter, a pair of exotic house servants, a fetching heroine, even an extra psychopath thrown in as a red herring. The real killer is eventually discovered and destroyed but, in an inventive and chilling twist, comes back to life to speak directly to the audience in the film's surprise coda -- the only real moment of interest in this otherwise humdrum who-done-it. Also known as He Lived to Kill. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bela Lugosi, Sally Blane, (more)
- 1933
Reported to have cost a whopping $2 million, this musical was actually made for far less -- and looks it. But unlike She Done Him Wrong (1932), filmed simultaneously next door, Hello, Everybody! made nary a nickel. Both films starred newcomers, but unlike the irrepressible Mae West, hefty Kate Smith, of radio fame, was given very little opportunity to shine. Awarded script and casting approval, the radio star had chosen a Fannie Hurst tearjerker about a goodhearted but plump farm girl who finds solace in music while her boyfriend takes off with her svelte sister. Paramount, however, made the fatal mistake of casting Smith's real-life manager Ted Collins as her on-screen agent as well, and Collins' overbearing presence was of no help whatsoever to the nervous songbird. Adding insult to injury, Sally Blane, the nearly emaciated sister of equally svelte Loretta Young, played Smith's sibling, insuring that Kate's ungainly girth remained steadfastly in focus. A wardrobe consisting of matronly housedresses and an especially atrocious production number entitled &Pickanninnies' Heaven" put the final nail in the coffin. In the end, Hello, Everybody! proved enough of a loser for Kate Smith to stay away from feature films entirely until a brief cameo in the all-star wartime extravaganza This is the Army(1943). Mae West, meanwhile, considered the phrase "Hello, Everybody!" such a jinx that she reportedly prohibited anyone from using it in her presence! ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Smith, Randolph Scott, (more)
