Vernon Steele Movies

A remake of the French Le Corbeau ("The Raven"), The Thirteenth Letter is a film noir in a curious setting -- a rural village deep in Quebec, seemingly sleepy and typical. Dr. Laurent (Charles Boyer) returns from a medical convention in Montreal, anxious to see his much younger wife, Cora (Constance Smith). Cora is attracted to Dr. Pearson (Michael Rennie), a young doctor who moved into the town soon after his unfaithful wife killed herself. Soon Pearson, Laurent and Cora all receive letters -- signed "the Raven" -- hinting at an affair between Pearson and Cora. Soon more poison pen letters are showing up around town, including one which insinuates that Pearson has not been telling the truth about the medical condition of a wounded war hero. Distraught, the veteran takes his life, unaware that the information in the letter was a lie. Meanwhile, Pearson has become attracted to Denise, (Linda Darnell), a romance-starved young woman born with a clubfoot. As suspicion builds about who is sending the letters -- and about whether Pearson should be trusted -- the Mayor takes charge of the investigation, and Pearson doubles his efforts to prove his innocence. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

The relatively relaxed movie censorship in the postwar years enabled Columbia to produce To the Ends of the Earth, a film which dealt with the previously taboo subject of drug smuggling. T-man Dick Powell is sent to several foreign locales to track down an Opium ring. The villains are subversives (Red? Fascist?) who plan to take over the world by hooking everyone on the "hard stuff." The film is chock full of mysterious European and Oriental types like Vladimir Sokoloff, Ludwig Donath and Fritz Leiber; even leading lady Signe Hasso speaks with an accent, which in 1948 was enough to immediately put her under suspicion. Lending credence to this sprawling adventure yarn is the presence of several actual treasury agents in bit parts, including commissioner Harry J. Anslinger. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Michael Lanyard, aka the Lone Wolf, ventures into Sherlock Holmes territory in this series entry. When a cache of internationally famous diamonds is stolen, Scotland Yard automatically suspects Lanyard (Gerald Mohr). While trying to prove his innocence, Lanyard is approached by Sir John Helmscott (Vernon Steele), who wants our hero to arrange a sale of Helmscott's gem collection. Lanyard figures out that there's a connection between his new client and the stolen jewels when Helmscott's butler Robards (Tom Stevenson) is murdered. The Lone Wolf in London represents Gerald Mohr's second appearance as Louis Joseph Vance's celebrated criminal-turned-sleuth. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Riders of the Northwest Mounted was one of a handful of "northerns" produced by Columbia's B-western unit. Stalwart Russell Hayden and prankish Dub Taylor go through their paces in Mountie garb and Smokey-the-bear hats. They're on the trail of escaped criminal Dick Curtis, who has the whole great white north as his hiding place. Leading lady Adele Mara waits at home patiently for Hayden and Taylor to get their man. A musical number by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys lends an enjoyable if incongruous touch. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this mystery, a newspaper executive and three of his colleagues conspire to have the owner of the highly-respected London Sun committed to an insane asylum. The hapless publisher manages to escape. Soon after, the four collaborators begin dying one-by-one. Oddly their obituaries appear in a rival publication before they are actually killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Originally designed for exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair, Land of Liberty is a 137-minute compendium of filmclips from past American historical epics. The project was sponsored by the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc. and supervised by Cecil B. DeMille, who also edited the film with the assistance of his crack Paramount production staff. The narration was written by old DeMille hands Jeannie MacPherson and Jesse Lasky Jr. and spoken by a talented team of uncredited announcers (one of whom sounded suspiciously like old C. B. himself). Clips from such Hollywood productions as America (1924), Abraham Lincoln (1930), Alexander Hamilton (1931), Show Boat (1936), Man of Conquest (1939) and DeMille's own The Plainsman (1936), The Buccaneer (1938) and Union Pacific (1939) are woven together into a chronological continuity, tracing American history from the Revolutionary War to the "present," which is largely represented by newsreel footage of President Roosevelt, the TVA project, and other current personalities and events. In later years, Land of Liberty was redistributed on the classroom circuit, with new footage added from historical dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Scheduled to marry a man she doesn't love (and for good reason), spoiled heiress Barbara Blanchard (Claire Trevor) runs away from her wedding and hits the road. While hitchhiking, Trevor is given a ride by Bob Reynolds (Michael Whalen), a personable young auto salesman who's been hired to deliver what was then called a "caravan car" but would now be labelled an RV. As luck and the screenwriters would have it, a fugitive jewel thief hides his stolen gems in Bob's vehicle. Our hero is arrested, causing Barbara to cease her incessant put-downs of the poor guy. In trying to spring Bob from jail, Barbara realizes that she's fallen in love with him (why didn't she just ask the audience, who knew it all along?) It's positively awe-inspiring how many runaway-heiress films were spawned by the freak success of It Happened One Night. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Kay Francis stars as Stella Parish, a London stage favorite who suddenly disappears without a trace. British news correspondent Keith Lockridge (Ian Hunter) girdles the globe in search of Stella, who has left her beloved daughter Gloria (Sybil Jason) in the care of an aunt (Jessie Ralph). Finally locating his quarry, Lockridge learns that Stella dropped from view to hide the fact that she once served a jail sentence as an accessory to murder. He promises to kill the story for Gloria's sake, but his dispatch is inadvertently published away, forcing Stella into a tawdry career as a "freak" stage attraction (not unlike Evelyn Nesbit Shaw). After hitting rock-bottom in a burlesque show, Stella is rescued by her old director Stephan Norman (Paul Lukas), who invites her to revive the show she was starring in at the time of her disappearance. Little does she know that this comeback has been arranged by Lockridge, who hopes to atone for betraying her trust. All roads lead to a tear-stained reunion between Stella and her daughter, a denouement as inevitable as death and taxes. For years, it was believed that Errol Flynn played an unbilled bit in I Found Stella Parish, but a researcher in the late 1960s discovered that the Flynn look-alike was actually Francis X. Bushman Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Stanley MacLaurel (Stan Laurel), the American "black sheep" of the MacLaurel clan, stows away on a cattle boat to Scotland in the company of his pal Ollie (Oliver Hardy) so that he can claim his share of his late uncle Angus Ian MacLaurel's fortune. Alas, Stan's inheritance consists of a snuffbox and a pair of bagpipes, while the bulk of the estate goes to Angus' granddaughter Lorna MacLaurel (June Lang) -- provided she move from Scotland to India, where she and her aunt Lady Vi Ormsby (Anne Grey) will reside with Vi's handsome brother, Colonel Gregor MacGregor (Vernon Steele) of His Majesty's Service. After nearly setting fire to their lodgings while trying to cook a fish, the penniless Stan and Ollie are booted out into the street, with Ollie rendered pants-less by a previous misadventure. Heading to a tailor shop to get a new suit of clothes on approval, the boys inadvertently join the British Army, and soon they're shipped off to Colonel MacGregor's regiment in India. Accompanying our heroes is Lorna's sweetheart, law clerk Alan Douglas (William Janney), who has joined the army to be reunited with his lady love. This could prove disadvantageous to Lady Vi, who has been scheming to separate Alan from Lorna and marry off the girl to Col. MacGregor, thereby gaining control of Lorna's fortune.

Meanwhile, Stan and Ollie get off on the wrong foot with their grouchy Sergeant (James Finalyson), redeeming themselves only when they help put down a native uprising (with the assistance of several fully-occupied beehives!) Though it proved to be their biggest moneymaker to date, Bonnie Scotland was one of the weaker Laurel & Hardy features, with far too much time devoted to the supporting characters. Too, the picture was rather raggedly re-edited after several unsatisfactory previews: as it now stands, the film stops cold after 80 minutes, without even bothering to wrap up the plotline. Still, it contains two of the team's funniest sequences: the boys' impromptu dance to the tune of "A Hundred Pipers", and the classic marching scene, wherein an out-of-step Stan manages to convince everyone in the regiment that they're out of step! Bonnie Scotland was later reissued theatrically as Heroes of the Regiment, and was distributed to TV in four abridged versions, each running approximately 20 minutes: All Wet, In a Mess, The Rookies and Bang! Bang! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Where Sinners Meet was based on The Dover Road, a whimsical play by A. A. Milne. Clive Brook and Diana Wynyard, stars of the 1933 Oscar-winner Cavalcade, are reunited herein. A reclusive eccentric who has survived two unhappy marriages, Mr. Latimer pursues the strange hobby of arranging traffic accidents so that he can "kidnap" extramarital couples to warn them of the pitfalls of infidelity. His latest captives are Anne and Leonard (Wynyard and Reginald Owen) and Eustacia and Nicholas (Billie Burke and Alan Mowbray), all four of whom are escaping what they believe to be mismatched marriages. Genteelly imprisoning the two couples in his comfortable country estate, Mr. Latimer allows them enough time together to get on one another's nerves and realize that they should all return to their legal mates. Both Leonard and Nicholas are sufficiently frightened to make a break for it, but Anne and Eustacia insist upon remaining with their host -- which isn't exactly what Latimer had in mind! Where Sinners Meet was previously filmed in 1927 as The Little Adventuress. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Design for Living was based on the stage comedy by Noel Coward, though little of his dialogue actually made it to the screen. Playwright Fredric March and artist Gary Cooper both fall in love with Miriam Hopkins, an American living in Paris. Both men love the girl, and the girl can't make up her mind between the two men, so the threesome decide to move in together--strictly platonically, of course. As the men gain in success and prominence, the chasteness of the "menage a trois" begins to be threatened, and soon both March and Cooper clash over Hopkins. She reacts by marrying her wealthy but dull boss (Edward Everett Horton). Miriam is bored to tears until March and Cooper invade one of her husband's stuffy parties and chase the tiresome guests away. Miriam's husband huffily agrees to a divorce, and the girl returns to her unorthodox relationship with her two former suitors. The subtle homosexual implications of the Noel Coward stage original were dissipated by the presence of the aggressively masculine Gary Cooper and Fredric March in the film version of Design for Living. Replacing these implications were the equally subtle but more "mainstream" boudoir innuendos of director Ernst Lubitsch. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of George Arliss' "smaller" vehicles, The King's Vacation casts the eminent British stage star (always billed as "Mr. George Arliss") as an abdicating monarch. Seeking the simple life, he comes to America in search of the wife (Marjorie Gateson) he'd been forced to divorce years earlier in order keep his crown. Upon locating her, Arliss discovers that his ex-wife has remarried into wealth, and is now better off than he's ever been. His disillusionment complete, Arliss returns to his queen (Florence Arliss), who has likewise renounced her throne for an austere existence. Only George Arliss could get away with telling us that "poor is better" in a picture made in the middle of the Depression! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When the jazz era of the 1920s was in full swing, it seemed like every week several new pictures about the scandalous behavior of "modern youth" appeared. This one had a spectacular beginning: Corinna Endicott (Jacqueline Logan) and her escort, Spike Blaine (Malcolm McGregor) are so anxious to get to the country club dance that Blaine drives his car right through the building's plate glass windows and onto the dance floor. He agrees to park his vehicle elsewhere only after every young lovely in the place has given him a kiss. Corinna should know better than to behave so wildly; she was raised properly by well-to-do parents (as was nearly every other film flapper). So when she runs into Rhodes Winston (Vernon Steele), who she knew in France, she decides to do right by her station and settle down. Not long after the couple becomes engaged, Mitch Hardy, a married man (Richard Travers), convinces Corinna to accompany him to a road house. The joint is raided and both of them are arrested and fined. The scandal hits the papers and Winston drops Corinna like a hot potato. Blaine offers to marry her, but she turns him down. They stick together, however, and open a "Fresh Air Farm" for poor kids and learn the true meaning of life. Winston decides he still wants to marry Corinna, but she turns down his proposal and finally accepts Blaine. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi