Eric Blore Movies
Most often cast as a snide gentleman's gentleman or dissipated nobleman, British actor Eric Blore abandoned the business world for the theatre when he was in his mid-twenties. Established in both London and New York, Blore began adding movies to his acting achievements with 1920's A Night Out and a Day In(1920); he also appeared in the 1926 silent version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. A scene-stealing role in RKO's Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical Flying Down to Rio (1933) led to Blore's becoming a fixture in such subsequent Astaire-Rogers projects as Gay Divorcee (1934), Top Hat (1935) and Shall We Dance? (1937). The actor also became a "regular" in the unorthodox film comedies of Preston Sturges, notably The Lady Eve (1941) and Sullivan's Travels(1942). In addition, Blore found himself in support of several "star" comedians, from Laurel and Hardy to Bob Hope to The Marx Brothers. When pickings became lean for "veddy" British character actors in the mid 1950s, Blore was reduced to co-starring with the bargain-counter Bowery Boys in Bowery to Baghdad (1955); he played an inebriated genie in this, his last film. On a more artistically rewarding note, cartoon fans will recall the pixilated voice of Blore as the automobile-happy Mr. Toad in the 1949 Disney animated feature Ichabod and Mr. Toad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1942
In this lighthearted musical comedy, Marjory Stuart (Mary Martin) is a girl who works in the hatcheck room at a Manhattan nightclub and dreams of being a rich socialite herself. Toward that end, Marjory wants to land a rich husband, so she saves up her money and takes a cruise to the Caribbean, where she poses as wealthy debutante. Marjory quickly makes friends with Bubbles Hennessy (Betty Hutton), a brassy but good-natured singer who's on board to rendezvous with her boyfriend Wally Case (Eddie Bracken). Tagging along with Wally is his pal Pete Hamilton (Dick Powell), a beach bum with charm and personality but no bankroll. Bubbles, Wally, and Pete soon realize that Marjory is hardly a member of the upper crust, but they like her enough to help her snag the man she has her eye on, stiff-as-a-board millionaire Alfred Monroe (Rudy Vallee). However, just as Marjory begins making progress with Alfred, she and Pete begin to realize that they've fallen in love. Both Betty Hutton and Mary Martin sing several songs along the way (Hutton's standout number, "Murder, He Says," later found it's way into Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors), and legendary calypso performer Sir Lancelot performs "Ugly Woman" (later a hit for Jimmy Soul under the title "If You Want To Be Happy"). Hutton and Bracken were reunited a year later in the Preston Sturges classic The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Martin, Dick Powell, (more)
- 1942
Counter-Espionage was the ninth film in Columbia's "Lone Wolf" series, based on characters created by Louis Joseph Vance. Warren William stars as Michael Lanyard, the suave ex-criminal known as The Lone Wolf. This time around, Lanyard is in London during the Blitz, where he finds himself up to his neck in Nazi spies. Counter-Espionage was one of several mid-1940s Columbia "series" films which dropped the name of the series from the title in hopes of attracting new audiences. Other examples of this trend include the "Blondie" episode It's a Great Life (43) and the "Boston Blackie" opus The Chance of a Lifetime (43). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren William, Eric Blore, (more)
- 1941
The title of this series entry may strike some as a tad redundant: After all, isn't crook-turned-sleuth Michael Lanyard, aka the Lone Wolf, always taking a chance? On this occasion, Lanyard (Warren William) and his trusty valet Jamison (Eric Blore) are framed on a murder charge. The actual miscreants are a gang of counterfeiters, shipping their plates into the country in a thief-proof carrier invented by Johnny Baker (Lloyd Bridges). In the course of clearing their names, Lanyard and Jamison are sealed up with poor Johnny in one of his own carriers, which is then filled with poison gas. Will they escape? Is there really any doubt? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- June Storey, Warren William, (more)
- 1941
Fred MacMurray is a breezy New York street photographer; Mary Martin is a small town girl hoping to make her fortune in the Big Apple. Fred and Mary meet, bicker, fall in love, fall out of love, fall in love again, and so it goes. The main story is occasionally leavened by subplots involving such indispensable supporting players as Lynne Overman, Akim Tamiroff, Cecil Kellaway, Eric Blore and Iris Adrian. Robert Preston is the second lead who loses Mary Martin to Fred MacMurray, though Preston and Martin would re-team on Broadway 25 years later in the musical I Do, I Do. Instantly capturing the audience's attention with a remarkable opening "single take" which establishes the personalities of several apartment dwellers, New York Town is a diverting and agreeable Paramount romantic comedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, (more)
- 1941
A partial remake of 1936's Wanted: Jane Turner, Lady Scarface is a seedy but entertaining tour de force for the great Judith Anderson. Embittered over the ugly facial scar which covers the left side of her face, a woman named Slade becomes a criminal mastermind. The cops have no idea that the elusive Slade is female, which enables her to move about freely without attracting attention. After a robbery-murder, Slade has her share of the loot mailed to her at a post-office box registered under the phony name of Mary Powell. When the real Mary Powell (Mildred Coles) receives the stolen loot in the mail, the fur-and the bullets-really begin to fly. Judith Anderson once explained that she accepted the starring role in Lady Scarface in hopes that the film would do for her what Little Caesar did for Edward G. Robinson. It didn't. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis O'Keefe, Frances Neal, (more)
- 1941
Michael Lanyard, the reformed criminal known as the Lone Wolf, is played in this Columbia B picture by the suave Warren William. The script contrives to have Lanyard's faithful butler Jamison (Eric Blore) to be mistaken for his boss by a gang of jewel robbers. They force poor Jamison to participate in the theft of the valuable "Napoleon gems" which Lanyard has been hired to protect. Most of the action takes place during a steamship voyage, allowing Columbia to trot out its standard (but impressive) shipboard sets and to cloud the budget limitations with heavy fog. Secrets of the Lone Wolf was the eighth in Columbia's series based on the mystery stories of Louis Joseph Vance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren William, Ruth Ford, (more)
- 1941
Gorgeous June Lang, plays the title character in Redhead. Johnny Downs costars as a spoiled, ill-tempered rich boy. In desperation, his father pays Lang $10,000 to wrap Johnny around her little finger-and then steer him into a worthwhile life. Once this is accomplished, June, who's fallen in love with Johnny, turns down the money. Based on a novel by Vera Brown, Redhead was previously filmed in 1934, with Grace Bradley and Bruce Cabot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- June Lang, Johnny Downs, (more)
- 1941
Faith, Hope and Charity motivate the wacky storyline of Columbia's Three Girls About Town--or to be more exact, gorgeous sisters Faith, Hope and Charity Banner, played respectively by Binnie Barnes, Joan Blondell and Janet Blair. Faith and Hope are gainfully employed as New York hotel hostesses, whose job it is to entertain wealthy out-of-town conventioneers (but no hanky panky, if you please!) They've remained in this profession in order to afford the expensive private-school education of their sister Charity, who shows up in the Big Apple in pursuit of her own career, or a wealthy husband, or both. Charity's arrival coincides with several big-time conventions, one of which is being covered by Faith's newspaper-reporter boyfriend Tommy Hopkins (John Howard). Things get dicey when the three girls discover a corpse in one of the hotel rooms. Certain that they'll be blamed for the death (or at the very least fired from their jobs!), the sisters conspire with Tommy to hide the body from the cops. Trouble is, the body just won't stay hidden, not even when our heroines try to dispose of the awkward stiff in one of the coffins brought into the hotel for an undertaker's convention. Blessed with a generous supply of belly-laughs and an unending stream of familiar character actors, Three Girls About Town sustains a proper level of zaniness right up to the cop-out finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Binnie Barnes, (more)
- 1941
Don Ameche, an American news bureau chief stationed in London, is frustrated by the British government's censorship of his wildly speculative dispatches to the United States. Joan Bennett is the government Teletype operator assigned to make sure that Ameche doesn't send out any story that hasn't been cleared. At first adversarial towards each other, Ameche and Bennet fall in love while huddled in various bomb shelters during the 1940 London blitz. Clearly inspired by Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (40), Confirm or Deny was one of many "preparedness" films turned out by Hollywood in the months just prior to Pearl Harbor. Any political proselytizing, however, takes second place to the Don Ameche/Joan Bennett love story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Ameche, Joan Bennett, (more)
In Preston Sturges' classic comedy of Depression-era America, filmmaker John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea), fed up with directing profitable comedies like "Ants in Your Plants of 1939," is consumed with the desire to make a serious social statement in his upcoming film, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" Unable to function in the rarefied atmosphere of Hollywood, Sullivan decides to hit the road, disguised as a tramp, and touch base with the "real" people of America. But Sullivan's studio transforms his odyssey into a publicity stunt, providing the would-be nomad with a luxury van, complete with butler (Robert Greig) and valet (Eric Blore). Advised by his servants that the poor resent having the rich intrude upon them, Sullivan escapes his retinue and continues his travels incognito. En route, he meets a down-and-out failed actress (Veronica Lake). Experiencing firsthand the scroungy existence of real-life hoboes, Sullivan returns to Hollywood full of bleeding-heart fervor. After first arranging for the girl's screen test, he heads for the railyards, intending to improve the lot of the local rail-riders and bindlestiffs by handing out ten thousand dollars in five-dollar bills. Instead, Sullivan is coldcocked by a tramp, who steals Sullivan's clothes and identification. When the tramp is run over by a speeding train, the world at large is convinced that the great John L. Sullivan is dead. Meanwhile, the dazed Sullivan, dressed like a bum with no identification on his person, is arrested and put to work on a brutal Southern chain gang. With its almost Shakespearean combination of uproarious comedy and grim tragedy, Sullivan's Travels is Sturges' masterpiece and one of the finest movies about movies ever made. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, (more)
Josef von Sternberg made his first return to exotic Shanghai since 1932's Shanghai Express in this baroque conflagration, based on a 1925 play by John Colton that required 30 revisions before it was sufficiently sanitized to pass muster with Hays Office censors. The film takes place in the gambling den of Mother Gin Sling (Ona Munson), who finds her casino threatened with closing by stuffed shirt English financier Sir Guy Charteris (Walter Huston). Gin Sling knows that the key to keeping her casino open is to dig up some dirt on Sir Guy, and it's quick in coming. She finds that Sir Guy was compelled to leave China in a hurry some time in the past, stealing his wife's money and plotting to kill her. Sir Guy ended up abandoning his wife in China and leaving her with an infant daughter. She also finds out that Sir Guy's grown-up daughter, Poppy (Gene Tierney, is a frequent and deeply indebted guest of Gin Sling's casino. Gin Sling is now ready to blackmail Sir Guy into keeping her casino open. He tracks down his daughter and tries to convince her to leave town. But Poppy refuses to budge, having fallen in love with Doctor Omar (Victor Mature). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Tierney, Victor Mature, (more)
(Preston Sturges) wrote and directed this classic romantic comedy starring Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, who are involved in a scintillating battle of the sexes, as Sturges points up the terrors of sexual passion and the unattainability of the romantic ideal. Henry Fonda plays Charles Pike, the heir to the Pike Ale fortune ("The Ale That Won for Yale"). An ophiologist (a snake expert), he just spent a year "up the Amazon" looking for rare snakes with his cynical and protective guardian/valet Muggsy (William Demarest). He arrives to board the S.S. Southern Queen bound for New York, and immediately becomes the main order of business for a collection of single women looking to nab the eligible bachelor. Amongst those watching Charles board are a trio of con men and cardsharps -- Colonel Handsome Harry Harrington (Charles Coburn), his partner Gerald (Melville Cooper), and the Colonel's daughter Jean (Barbara Stanwyck). All three see Charles as a pushover and at dinner, while all the women are ogling Charles, Jean wins the day by sticking out her foot and tripping him. Complaining to Charles that he should watch where he is going, she gets him to escort her to her cabin so that she can replace her broken heel. Charles is sexually attracted to Jean, but when Charles is about to make a pass at her, she pulls back, telling him, "You ought to be put in a cage." Back in the dining room, Charles is introduced to the Colonel and the three play cards, Charles winning $500 from the Colonel and $100 from Jean. But Charles is merely being set-up for the next game when the Colonel will come in for the kill. Back at Jean's cabin, Charles and Jean sit close and something happens she hadn't planned -- she becomes attracted to Charles too. The next morning, Muggsy warns Charles that the Colonel and Jean are cardsharks, but Charles won't hear of it. Meanwhile, the Colonel is looking forward to fleecing Charles, but Jean doesn't want any part of it. Jean participates in the card game between Charles and the Colonel, making sure than the Colonel doesn't cheat. But while Jean waits on deck for Charles after the game, the Colonel plays Charles a game of double-or-nothing, with Charles losing $32,000. Jean, angry with her father, makes the Colonel tears up Charles' check. The next morning, Muggsy proves to Charles the three are con artists. Devastated, Charles shows Jean the photograph, claiming he knew she was a criminal the morning after he met her. Jean is determined to get even with Charles ("I hate that mug!"). Docking in New York, the Colonel reveals he merely palmed the $32,000 check. But that's not enough revenge for Jean. Impersonating an aristocratic English woman, Lady Eve Sidwich, Jean has herself introduced to Charles. Planning to make Charles to fall in love with her again, she intends to break his heart like he broke her own. As she explains, "I've got some unfinished business with him -- I need him like the axe needs the turkey." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Fonda, Barbara Stanwyck, (more)
The second Bing Crosby/Bob Hope "Road" picture casts Crosby as a penny-ante sideshow promoter and Hope as Crosby's only client, "Fearless Frazier." Under Crosby's tutelage, Hope has been shot from a cannon, zapped in an electric chair and nearly strangled by an octopus. Now they're practically broke and stranded on the African coast. Crosby spends the last of their money to spring helpless Dorothy Lamour from a native slave market. Actually, Lamour and her pal Una Merkel are scamming Crosby and Hope to finance a safari across Africa, so that Lamour can link up with her wealthy fiance in Zanzibar. En route through the deepest, darkest jungle, both Hope and Crosby fall in love with Lamour. But when they find out they're being taken for chumps, the boys leave the safari and strike out on their own. Captured by cannibals, the boys try and fail to win their freedom by having Hope wrestle a particularly grumpy gorilla. Making their escape after teaching the natives their time-honored "Patty Cake" routine, they head for Zanzibar. Once again, Crosby spends his ready money to spring Lamour from her captured-by-slavers con game, obliging Hope, Crosby, Lamour and Merkel to try to earn passage money home by staging a "sawing the lady in half" routine for the locals. Crosby: "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Hope: "If I don't, one of us is going back half fare." Like the earlier Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar sticks too closely to the script and plot to allow those inveterate adlibbers Hope and Crosby free reign. Still, there are some choice moments: our favorite bit occurs when Crosby comments to Lamour on the artificiality of movie musicals--whereupon the sound of an orchestra pops up out of nowhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, (more)
- 1940
South of Suez is where diamond-mine foreman John Gamble (George Brent) plies his trade. When his boss is murdered, Gamble is held for murder, forcing him to take it on the lam. With the reluctant aid of heroine Katherine Sheffield (Brenda Marshall), Gamble endeavors to prove his innocence. He is finally cleared not because of any exceptional detective work, but through the bungling of the actual killer (no, his name will not be revealed here). Strictly B-grade material, South of Suez is a virtual compendium of stock shots from earlier Warner Bros. films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Brent, Brenda Marshall, (more)
- 1940
Warren William is back as suave thief-turned-sleuth Michael Lanyard, alias the Lone Wolf, in Columbia's The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date. Freshly arrived at the Miami airport after a sojourn in Havana, Lanyard and his general factotum Jamison (Eric Blore) rescue beautiful Pat Lawrence (Frances Robinson) from a pair of hooligans. It turns out that the thugs were after the satchelful of ransom money carried by Pat, with which she hopes to rescue a kidnapped millionaire. Invetibly, the money is stolen, leading Lanyard and Jamison on a merry chase all through Miami and its environs. Along the way, Lanyard tries to spring Pat's boyfriend Scotty (Bruce Bennett), who's been thrown in jail because the authorities think he was responsible for the kidnapping. In the final scenes, Lanyard exposes the genuine miscreant, and also unearths an insidious fraud scheme. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren William, Frances Robinson, (more)
- 1940
The lady in question in this delightful whodunit is Joan Bradley (Jean Muir), a former secretary who is about to marry her employer's son, Bob Pennison (Warren Hull). Mrs. Pennison (Georgia Caine) graciously lends her future daughter-in-law a priceless necklace, but when Joan returns to her apartment, she is met by what at first appears to be the ghost of her late husband, Rennick (Roger Pryor). He is no ghost -- but very much alive, in fact. Rennick grabs the necklace, shoves poor Joan away, and he's promptly shot and killed by...well, that is indeed the question. Brought into the case by accident (literally), former jewel thief-turned-master sleuth Michael Lanyard (Warren William) must once again cross swords not only with a dangerous criminal but with the ubiquitous foe, Inspector Crane (Thurston Hall). The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady was the third entry in the Lone Wolf series. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren William, Jean Muir, (more)
- 1940
In this entry in the long-running series, the reformed master jewel thief rushes to help a lovely heiress whose pearl necklace has been stolen by other thieves. Using his consummate skill, the Wolf pulls a deft switcheroo and substitutes the real ones for fakes. He then brings the real necklace back to the socialite. The crooks are soon arrested by the cops. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren William, Joan Perry, (more)
- 1940
Earl of Puddlestone was released minus a director credit out of respect for megger Gus Meins, who committed suicide shortly after its completion. This latest entry in Republic's "Higgins Family" series once more stars James Gleason, his wife Lucille and his son Russell as Joe, Lil and Sidney Higgins. Thanks to a joke perpetrated by Grandpa Higgins (Harry Davenport), poor Joe finds himself posing as one Henry Potter-Potter, aka the Earl of Puddlestone. He manages to successfully pull off the ruse until the real Potter-Potter (William Halligan) arrives on the scene, leading to a hectic finale. The role of Higgins daughter Betty, played by a variety of actresses in the past (including Russell Gleason's wife Shirley Deane), is herein portrayed by Lois Ranson, a singer-dancer whom Republic was hoping to groom for stardom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Gleason, Lucille Gleason, (more)
- 1940
'Til We Meet Again is an inflated remake of 1932's One Way Passage. As in the original, the hero is a convicted murderer en route to the death house by way of a merchant ship; the heroine is suffering from a terminal illness. Once more, hero and heroine fall in love, each keeping the facts of his or her imminent doom from the other. The principal difference this time is that instead of William Powell and Kay Francis, the stars are George Brent and Merle Oberon. This cast change does no damage to the basic storyline, but the decision in 'Til We Meet Again to expand upon the secondary romance between the arresting detective (Pat O'Brien) and an accomplice of the condemned man (Geraldine Fitzgerald) throws the focus of the film completely out of kilter. One decided benefit to both One Way Passage and 'Til We Meet Again is the comic presence of Frank McHugh, who plays the same role--a tipsy pickpocket--in both pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, George Brent, (more)
- 1940
The Valiant, a stage play by Holworthy Hall and Robert M. Middlemass, starred Paul Muni in the 1929 film version. The play was filmed a second time in 1940 as The Man Who Wouldn't Talk, this time with Lloyd Nolan in the lead. Nolan is peripherally involved in a crime; he accidentally kills the main witness and surrenders to the police. Changing his name to avoid disgracing his family, Nolan is sentenced to death. The police aren't happy with the cut-and-dried solution to the homicide and investigate the details of the murder. The results allow Nolan to escape execution--an arbitrary happy ending not in the original play. Despite its shortcomings, Man Who Wouldn't Talk was Lloyd Nolan's favorite starring film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Nolan, Jean Rogers, (more)
- 1940
Considering that it was adapted from a Broadway musical by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and George Abbott, The Boys From Syracuse must rank as a disappointment, though it manages to remain entertaining throughout its surprisingly brief 74-minute running time. Like its theatrical predecessor, the film was inspired by Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors ("After a play by William Shakespeare long, long after" reads the opening title). In ancient Ephesus, young tyrant Antipholus (Allan Jones) sentences elderly merchant Aegeon (Samuel S. Hinds) to death unless the latter can come up with a handsome ransom. What Antipholus doesn't know is that Aegeon is his own father; he also doesn't know that he has a twin brother, also named Antipholus (and also played by Allan Jones) who has just arrived from Syracuse in search of dear old daddy. Further complicating matters is that Antiopholus of Ephesus and Antipholus of Syracuse both have slaves named Dromio (Joe Penner)-likewise identical twins! The mistaken-identity angle is played to the hilt, with A. of E.'s wife Adriana (Irene Hervey), A. of S.'s girlfirend Phyllis (Rosemary Lane), and Dromio of Ephesus' main squeeze Luce (Martha Raye) ending up just as confused as everyone else. Only four of the original Rodgers & Hart songs were retained-"This Can't Be Love", "Falling in Love with Love", "Sing for Your Supper", and "Oh, Diogenes"-while two new ones were written for the film. Most of the best jokes are based on anachronisms, with Dromio the slave organizing a labor union (complete with placards), a cheering section at an execution shouting "Give him the ax", and a parchment newspaper bearing such headlines as "Ephesus Blitzkriegs Syracuse". Originally purchased by Universal as a vehicle for the Ritz Brothers, The Boys from Syracuse isn't any great shakes, but it would certainly be well worth seeing again (last telecast in the 1970s, it seems to have fallen off the face of the earth in recent years!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Allan Jones, Joe Penner, (more)
Boasting Tony Martin and Rita Hayworth and bandleader Andre Kostelanitz as its leading players, it's surprising that Music in My Heart isn't better than it is. Martin plays European-born actor Robert Gregory, who while rehearsing for a Broadway musical falls in love with chorine Patricia O'Malley (Rita Hayworth). She likewise falls in love with him, even though she's scheduled to marry millionaire Charles Gardner (Alan Mowbray). The relationship is endangered when Gregory faces deportation to his own country, but baton-wieldig Kostelanitz comes to the rescue by making Gregory a radio singing sensation. Talented child actress Edith Fellows, who in previous films had been given top billing over Rita Hayworth, is somewhat wasted in the role of Rita's kid sister. Of the film's six songs, "It's a Blue World" is the singular highlight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Martin, Rita Hayworth, (more)
- 1939
This film should have been a press agent's dream: Hollywood's two greatest "big mouths," Joe E. Brown and Martha Raye, together in the same picture. Brown and Raye play a show business couple who inherit a near-bankrupt college. They decide to build up the school's scraggly football team in hopes of improving alumni funding; somewhere along the line it is agreed to grant one thousand dollars for every touchdown scored, hence the title. Slapstick opportunities abound, and with the two stars at the helm, the film should have been far funnier than it is. But thanks to uninspired direction and a threadbare budget, $1000 a Touchdown was a disappointment for fans of both Martha Raye and Joe E. Brown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Martha Raye, (more)
- 1939
A wealthy man's valet, Blore, concocts a blackmail scheme about an attempted poisoning when his employer passes out at a party in this farcical comedy. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1939
Anna May Wong and J. Carroll Naish, so memorably teamed in Paramount's Dangerous to Know, are costarred once more in Island of Lost Men. Naish plays ruthless jungle plantation owner Gregory Prin, who runs his domain like a dictatorship and treats his workers little better than slaves. Into Prin's world comes Kim Ling (Wong), daughter of a disgraced Chinese general. Kim Ling hopes to clear her father's name by bringing his primary accuser, Prin, to justice. The native-uprising finale is rendered in gloriously gruesome detail. A remake of the 1931 Charles Laughton-Carole Lombard starrer White Woman, Island of Lost Men also offers early but well-rounded performances by Anthony Quinn (as a Chinese patriot!) and Broderick Crawford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna May Wong, J. Carrol Naish, (more)
