Myrtle Stedman Movies

Ronald Reagan is his usual sprightly self as ambitious insurance claims adjuster Eric Gregg. While diligently investigating a phony insurance racket, Gregg remains blissfully unaware that his own wife Nona (Sheila Bromley) has become deeply indebted to the crooks. Once this fact surfaces, Gregg loses both Nona and his job. Picking up the pieces is friendly cigar-stand clerk Patricia Carmody (Gloria Blondell), who ends up helping Gregg round up the villains. At the time Accidents Will Happen was released in 1938, the newspapers were jam-packed with stories about big-money insurance frauds; though the film lacks this timeliness when seen today, it remains an enjoyable trifle thanks to the always-dependable Reagan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi

Gat Brady (John Litel) is a wealthy gangster, though he's never killed anyone, an he is devoted to his teenaged daughter Annabel (Mary Maguire). When he's arrested for tax evasion on the eve of a European trip, he has Annabel's governess Flo Allen (Ann Sheridan) continue on the trip with the girl anyway. Red Carroll (Ben Welden), who hates Gat, kidnaps Annabel, but is caught and sent to the same prison as Gat. A fight with Red results in Gat being sent to the maximum-security prison on Alcatraz Island but, still bent on revenge, Red later arranges to have himself sent there, too. ~ Bill Warren, Rovi

The second of singing cowboy Dick Foran's Warner Bros. westerns, Song of the Saddle was a decided improvement on the first (Moonlight on the Prairie). Foran is cast as Frank Wilson Jr., who heads Westward to avenge the long-ago murder of his father (Addison Richards). Frank had witnessed the killing, but only has a few fragmentary clues to go by. Ultimately he learns what the audience has known all along, that the killer was ruthless land baron Phineas P. Hook (Charles Middleton); heck, that name alone should have given him away! Among the minor players in Song of the Saddle are former western hero William Desmond, up-and-coming child star (and future Lone Ranger producer) Bonita Granville, and, fleetingly, the Sons of the Pioneers (with Roy Rogers). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Produced by M.H. Hoffman's Liberty Pictures, School for Girls is based on Reginald Wright Kauffman's story Our Undisciplined Daughters. It all begins when innocent heroine Annette Eldridge (Sidney Fox) gets mixed up with a slimy jewel thief. Taking the rap for her boyfriend, Annette ends up doing a three-year stretch in a girl's reformatory, where she's subjected to the sadistic excesses of brutal matron Miss Keeble (Lucille La Verne) (the same actress who later provided the voice of the Wicked Queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). Thankfully, young prison-board appointee Gary Waltham (Paul Kelly) dedicates himself to helping Annette -- and by extension, the rest of the unfortunate female inmates. The supporting cast of School for Girls reads like a "B"-picture Who's Who: Lona Andre, Russell Hopton, Kathleen Burke, Fred Kelsey, Edward Le Saint, and former silent-film favorites Anna Q. Nilsson, Charles Ray, Myrtle Stedman and Helene Chadwick. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, a recently convicted criminal boards a train bound for the prison where he will be hanged. His wife rides with him and en route tells a reporter how her husband had accidentally killed a man while protecting her. The reporter, who is dying of tuberculosis, is touched by the story and decides to help them by knocking out a guard, helping the man to escape and jumping off the train to his death. When authorities find the corpse, the assume it belongs to the young convict, and the real killer and his wife are free to start a new life. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Famed aviator Frank Hawks proves anew in Klondike that, as an actor, he was an excellent pilot. Though billed second, Hawks plays a comparatively minor role in the story, which deals with the redemption of one Dr. Cromwell (Lyle Talbot). Having failed to pull off a delicate operation, Cromwell leaves his practice in disgrace, heading to Alaska in hopes of losing himself (or, possibly, finding himself). On cue, another medical emergency arises, enabling Cromwell to prove that he was made of the right stuff all along. Thelma Todd plays the title role of Klondike, a lady of questionable morals whose costumes are remarkably flimsy considering the Arctic climate. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Alias Mary Smith might have been completely forgotten were it not for the diligent efforts of "B"-picture aficionado John Cocchi, who in such books as Second Feature has elevated this unintentionally hilarious cheapie to near-classic status. John Darrow plays a bibulous playboy who rescues put-upon heroine Blanche Mehaffey from a purse-snatcher. Their subsequent romance is complicated by Mehaffey's efforts to prove gangster boss Matthew Betz guilty of murder, a trick she pulls off with the help of a squeezed lemon (no kidding!) The tightness of the film's budget is never more obvious than in the obligatory newspaper-headline close-ups; all of these headlines have been obviously plastered over a single copy of the trade paper Variety (sharp-eyed viewers will note that each news story begins with a report from the Culver City kennel club). The film reaches a giddy high point when the heroine, threatened with a jail sentence by DA Henry B. Walthall, asks plaintively, "Is it a nice jail?" ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Truth About Youth is the third film version of Henry V. Esmond's play, When We Were Twenty-One. Richard Dane (David Manners) is turning twenty-one, and his guardian, Dick Carewe (Conway Tearle) has arranged a nice surprise party for him. Unfortunately, Richard (nicknamed "Imp") never shows up for the party, as he is celebrating in his own wild and free way. This includes visiting a nightclub where the seductive Kara (Myrna Loy) holds forth. Kara has a habit of toying with the affections of young men until she gets bored with them -- which is usually when their money runs out. Not knowing that Richard has no money, Kara quickly becomes involved with him. This does not sit well with Carewe, who hopes to arrange a marriage between his Richard and the sweet, simple Phyllis (Loretta Young), daughter of his housekeeper. Unbeknownst to Carewe, however, Phyllis is in love with him, despite the fact that he is much older than she. Matters become complicated when Richard marries Kara, only to be thrown out by her when she discovers his true financial status. Carewe continues his efforts to bring Richard and Phyllis together, but Phyllis finally makes her true feelings known, and she and Carewe finally get together. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

Based on a 1923 novel by Fannie Hurst, this dreary and primitive early talkie was unleashed on a derisive audience in January of 1930. Winifred Westover played the title-role, a downtrodden Swedish kitchen slavey seduced by the son (Ben Lyon) of her wealthy employer (Ida Darling). When she discovers that the boy is engaged to a society belle, she leaves the household, carefully hiding her pregnancy. Giving the baby up for adoption to a rich family, "Lummox," a la Madame X, can only watch from the sides as her son (Robert Ullman then William Bakewell) grows up in luxury to become a famous concert pianist. Directed by one of the grand old men of the silent era, Herbert Brenon, Lummox was stagebound to the point of ridiculousness with actors speaking their lines carefully into mikes hidden in vases and other such places. The film was also a case of nepotism: Not even a near-star, Winifred Westover was the wife of William S. Hart, the former Western ace rumored to have a financial interest in the producing company, United Artists. Formerly a leading lady of silent Westerns, Westover was singularly incapable of carrying a full-fledged talking picture. The film, her first in nine years, also proved her last. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

The first of Nancy Carroll's talkie films for Paramount had already been released when Fox's silent Sin Sister was taken off the shelf. Carroll is cast as Pearl, a vaudeville dancer stranded somewhere in Alaska. With no local Equity office in the vicinity, Pearl is obliged to accept the hospitality of a wealthy family which has itself been stranded in the Great White North. An ill-tempered fur trader and a looney Eskimo both lust after Pearl, but she is rescued by Peter Van Dykeman (Lawrence Gray), her hosts' male secretary. Despite the presence of four screenwriters in the credits, it would seem as if Sin Sister was made up as it went along. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this mostly silent drama, an overprotective brother tries to keep his sister from getting further involved with a group suspicious characters. Meanwhile he falls in love with a jazz-lover whose father is his father's mortal enemy. At the film's climax, the brother races his car against a trolley car. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi