Lyle Talbot Movies
Born into a family of travelling show folk, Lyle Talbot toured the hinterlands as a teen-aged magician. Talbot went on to work as a regional stock-company actor, pausing long enough in Memphis to form his own troupe, the Talbot Players. Like many other barnstorming performers of the 1920s, Talbot headed to Hollywood during the early-talkie era. Blessed with slick, lounge-lizard good looks, he started out as a utility lead at Warner Bros. Talbot worked steadily throughout the 1930s, playing heroes in B pictures and supporting parts in A pictures. During a loanout to Monogram Pictures in 1932, he was afforded an opportunity to co-star with Ginger Rogers in a brace of entertaining mysteries, The 13th Guest and The Shriek and the Night, which were still making the double-feature rounds into the 1940s. In 1935, Talbot and 23 other film players organized the Screen Actors Guild; to the end of his days, he could be counted upon to proudly display his SAG Card #4 at the drop of a hat. As his hairline receded and his girth widened, Talbot became one of Hollywood's busiest villains. He worked extensively in serials, playing characters on both sides of the law; in 1949 alone, he could be seen as above-suspicion Commissioner Gordon in Batman and Robin and as duplicitous Lex Luthor in Atom Man Vs. Superman. He remained in harness in the 1950s, appearing on Broadway and television. Two of his better-known assignments from this period were Joe Randolph on TV's The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and as Bob Cummings' lascivious Air Force buddy Paul Fonda on Love That Bob. Seemingly willing to work for anyone who met his price, Talbot had no qualms about appearing in the dregs of cheapo horror films of the fifties. He was prominently cast in two of the estimable Edward D. Wood's "classics," Glen or Glenda (1953) and Plan Nine From Outer Space (1955). When asked what it was like to work for the gloriously untalented Wood, Talbot would recall with amusement that the director never failed to pay him up front for each day's work with a handful of stained, crinkly ten-dollar bills. Though he made his last film in 1960, Lyle Talbot continued touring in theatrical productions well into the late 1970s, regaling local talk-show hosts with his bottomless reserve of anecdotes from his three decades in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The quintessential "backstage" musical, 42nd Street traces the history of a Broadway musical comedy, from casting call to opening night. Warner Baxter plays famed director Julian Marsh, who despite failing health is determined to stage one last great production, "Pretty Lady." Others involved include "Pretty Lady" star Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels); Dorothy's "sugar daddy" (Guy Kibbee), who finances the show; her true love Pat (George Brent); leading man Billy Lawlor (Dick Powell); and starry-eyed chorus girl Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler). It practically goes without saying that Dorothy twists her ankle the night before the premiere, forcing Julian Marsh is to put chorine Peggy into the lead: "You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" Delightfully corny, with hilarious wisecracking support from the likes of Ginger Rogers, Una Merkel, and George E. Stone, 42nd Street is perhaps the most famous of Warners' early-1930s Busby Berkeley musicals. Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes (which was a lot steamier than the movie censors would allow), 42nd Street is highlighted by such grandiose musical setpieces as "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," "Young and Healthy," and of course the title song. Nearly fifty years after its premiere, it was successfully revived as a Broadway musical with Tammy Grimes and Jerry Orbach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, (more)
- 1933
The wonderful Warner Bros. stock company goes through its customarily breezy paces in Havana Widows. Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell star as Mae and Sadie, a couple of hard-boiled dames who support themselves by shaking down wealthy and susceptible older men in Havana. Their current target is Deacon Jones (Guy Kibbee), a self-appointed moralist whose rock-ribbed values disappear after the third drink. But Blondell spoils the scam when she falls in love with the Deacon's son Bob (Lyle Talbot). Less than a month after the release of Havana Widows, many of the same cast members were back to their old tricks in Convention City. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, (more)
- 1933
One of the earliest girls-in-prison yarns, Ladies They Talk About has everything but Ida Lupino as the warden--and had she been in Hollywood at the time, she would probably be here as well. Gun moll Barbara Stanwyck is thrown into San Quentin (which looks more like a summer resort than a house of detention), thanks to her involvement in a bank robbery and the machinations of D.A./preacher David Slade (Preston Foster). It isn't political ambition that motivates Slade: he's in love with Stanwyck, and hopes that her incarceration will rehabilitate her. Instead, Stanwyck becomes a hard-bitten prison-block leader, spearheading a jailbreak. When things go awry, she holds Slade responsible. Upon her release, she goes gunning for Slade, and doesn't realize that she's really in love with him until she nearly puts him six feet under. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Preston S. Foster, (more)
- 1933
Grounded daredevil pilot Douglas Fairbanks Jr. secures a job protecting shady Leo Carrillo from his many enemies. Carrillo takes a liking to the young man and promotes him to a flying job--smuggling narcotics into the United States. Fairbanks eventually redeems himself with the help of good girl Bette Davis. Frank McHugh is also around to do his "best buddy" specialty, as Fairbanks' pilot chum. Parachute Jumper was one of Bette Davis' least favorite pictures, a dislike which is all too evident in her substandard performance. In 1962, clips from Parachute Jumper were used in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, which costarred Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, to illustrate that the character Davis was playing was a lousy actress! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Leo Carrillo, (more)
- 1933
Those who only know Pat O'Brien from his later, slightly more avuncular roles may be surprised to see him pumping out almost as much energy as his friend (and sometime co-star) James Cagney, in the lead and title role of College Coach. As James Gore, the head football coach for Calvert College, he leads his team to victory at any cost, including fair-play, decent (if not good) sportsmanship, and honesty -- he's even got his hooks into the financial end of a stadium deal. But all isn't well with those around Gore -- his best and most honorable player, Sargeant (Dick Powell, really wants to get an education while playing college ball, and finally backs out when he sees the hypocrisy around him; and his other top player, Weaver (Lyle Talbott), is a self-centered headline hound with an IQ in low double-digits who is a detriment to the team whenever he isn't scoring touchdowns. And his work seems to be unraveling when his tactics bring about a tragedy on the playing field. But it's when he discovers that his own wife (Ann Dvorak) is feeling so neglected that she's been pushed toward infidelity -- with Weaver -- that he realizes he's gone too far. With Calvert College about to lose much of what it stands for academically over the collapse of its football team, help comes from unexpected places, including a wife who still loves him and the one player Gore had who is smart enough to see the bigger picture. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Powell, Ann Dvorak, (more)
- 1933
In this crime drama, a prizefighter goes on the lam after he engages in fisticuffs with a reporter and believes that he has killed him. He ends up at a crippled children's home. The film is also called The Kid's Last Fight. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Loretta Young, (more)
The second of two low-budget murder melodramas starring Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot, A Shriek in the Night is not quite as good as the first (The Thirteenth Guest), but it far outclasses most other poverty-row thrillers of its period. The titular nocturnal shriek is heard just before a wealthy philanthropist falls from his penthouse balcony to his death. Virtually everybody in the apartment building comes under suspicion when it is determined that this "accidental" death was no accident. Rival reporters Pat Morgan (Rogers) and Ted Rand (Talbot) spend most of the picture snooping around where they don't belong, the better to outscoop one another. Meanwhile, the already baffled police become more flummoxed when three additional murders occur -- each preceded by a cryptic letter sent to the victim, stating "You Will Get It!" The method of execution turns out to be asphyxiation, but how is this being done? And better yet, why is this being done, and by whom? The solution was unfortunately tipped off in the film's lobby posters, which showed the unconscious heroine being carried off by the actor who turns out to be the killer. Even so, A Shriek in the Night remains an entertaining whodunit, with a pre-Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers doing a great job exhibiting stark, screaming terror. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Lyle Talbot, (more)
- 1933
The missing girl in this weak whodunit from Warner Bros. is redheaded Peggy Shannon, once seen as the successor of "It Girl" Clara Bow. Shannon plays Daisy Bradford, a chorine who mysteriously disappears after dallying with millionaire Henry Gibson (Ben Lyon). Not only has Daisy gone missing, the body of gangster Jim Hendricks (Harold Huber) is found in the garden just below the room where she was last seen. Did Daisy kill Hendricks or was she merely an innocent witness? Fellow chorus girls Kay Curtis (Glenda Farrell) and June Dale (Mary Brian) decide to play amateur sleuths and their investigation leads to sundry other suspects, including Henry who has become smitten with June. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Lyon, Glenda Farrell, (more)
- 1933
In this comedy, a hard-working secretary is often too busy taking prospective buyers out on the town to pay much attention to her fiancé. In the end, she drops the jealous fellow in favor of another who seems to be a better prospect. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Regis Toomey, (more)
- 1932
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lyle Talbot, Frank Hawks, (more)
- 1932
Barbara Stanwyck, displayed in all her pre-Code glory, once again plays "damaged goods" in Warner Bros.' The Purchase Price. Hard-boiled nightclub singer Joan Gordon (Stanwyck) gets fed up being the kept woman of her married boss, bootlegger Ed Fields (Lyle Talbot). Fleeing New York City, she ends up in North Dakota as the mail-order bride of wheat farmer Jim Gilson (George Brent). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, (more)
- 1932
James Cagney was originally pegged to play brash Broadway columnist Jimmy Russell in this pleasant if somewhat lightweight newspaper yarn, but when director William Wellman called "action," Douglas Fairbanks Jr. had replaced him. In love with pretty actress Mary Wodehouse (Frances Dee), Jimmy can only watch as gangster Eddie Shaw (Lyle Talbot) takes on the girl's mounting debt. Sending Jimmy on a wild goose chase to Atlantic City, Shaw then attempts to lure Mary to his penthouse but is instead confronted with the girl's gun-toting Aunt Hattie (Cecil Cunningham). Jimmy manages to escape Shaw's goons and arrives at Shaw's apartment just in time to watch Aunt Hattie hide the murder weapon. There is an attempt at a coverup, and the eventual ruling of the court reads suicide. The ambitious Mary, meanwhile, marries theatrical entrepreneur Max Boncour (André Luguet) and Jimmy vows to stay away from the "love racket" for good. Or at least until gal-pal Sally (Ann Dvorak) can convince him otherwise. Although George Raft is listed in most credits for Love is a Racket, he is not in the surviving print. The drama was retitled Such Things Happen for release in Great Britain, where the word "racket" meant something entirely different. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Ann Dvorak, (more)
- 1932
It took nerve for low-budget producer M.H. Hoffman to update Gustave Flaubert's 19th century novel Madame Bovary and relocate the story to Rye, New York. It was equally nervy to retitle the film as Unholy Love and to cast Joyce Compton, usually cast as a dumb blonde, in the central role. Compton plays Sheila Bailey, a selfish young woman who enters into a financially beneficial marriage with Jerry Gregory (Lyle Talbot), the son of highly respectable Dr. Gregory (H.B. Warner). Unable to adjust to her new husband's conservative lifestyle, Sheila begins playing the field with other men, resulting in disgrace and tragedy for everyone around her. The tacked-on happy ending finds young Gregory being reunited with his childhood sweetheart Jane Bradford (Lila Lee). No question about it: Vincente Minnelli's 1949 Madame Bovary, despite the censorial restrictions imposed upon it, is infinitely more faithful to its source. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- H.B. Warner, Lila Lee, (more)
- 1932
Based on the play New York Town by Ward Morehouse, Mervyn LeRoy directs the black-and-white 1932 comedy drama Big City Blues. A small-town innocent from Indiana, Bud Reeves (Eric Linden) inherits money and goes to New York to get in all sorts of trouble. He meets up with his cousin Gibby (Walter Catlett), who introduces him to chorus girl Vida Fleet (Joan Blondell). Bud and Gibby then throw a drunken hotel party with bootleg liquor that gets out of hand and a young woman (Josephine Dunn) is hit on the head and accidentally killed. Bud and Vida go gambling and drinking to escape the cops, but they are caught and arrested with everyone else from the party. Eventually, the police find the real killer and release everyone. Bud leaves for Indiana, but plans to go back, get his dog, and marry Vida. Humphrey Bogart appears in a brief uncredited role as Shep Adkins, a guy who gets into a fight with Lyle Talbot during the party. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, (more)
Thirteen years after a dinner party where the wealthy host dropped, the thirteen guests are invited to reassemble at the dinner table. First to arrive is Ginger Rogers--who is promptly killed. It turns out that the dead woman was an impostor, hired to impersonate a real guest (Ginger Rogers again). Playboy detective Lyle Talbot is called in to investigate. It seems that the man who died 13 years ago was just about to announce the heir to his fortune, thus all the guests fall under suspicion. The culprit's true identity is hidden by a hood; the culprit's method of murder is a complex electrocution device. In an excitingly staged finale, Ginger is kidnapped by the hooded killer, but is rescued by Lyle Talbot. Made on a shoestring by Monogram Pictures, Thirteenth Guest is a marvelous "old house" mystery, with Ginger Rogers giving her all as the damsel in distress. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Lyle Talbot, (more)
- 1932
In this murder mystery, a nurse with an unusual eye for detail solves a puzzling case. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, George Brent, (more)
- 1932
Homespun vaudeville monologist Chic Sale repeats his "old geezer" characterization in Warner Bros.' Stranger in Town. Sale is cast as Crickle, a tenacious small-town grocer who stubbornly resists the efforts of a monopolistic chain-store firm to purchase his establishment. The chain manager retaliates by cutting off Crickles' supply of produce, whereupon our hero's friends and neighbors save his business by supplying him with goods from their own farms. As a result, the Depression-plagued village suddenly gets back on its financial feet again. Evidently, Warners regarded Chic Sale as the studio's own Will Rogers, and as such his character spends an ample amount of screen time helping the romantic leads, played by David Manners and Ann Dvorak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Dvorak, David Manners, (more)
- 1932
Three on a Match covers approximately 13 years in the lives of girlhood chums Mary Keaton (Joan Blondell), Ruth Wescott (Bette Davis) and Vivian Deverse (Ann Dvorak). Having graduated from grammar school together in 1919, the girls stage a reunion ten years later. Hard-boiled Mary is now a chorus girl, level-headed Ruth has a steady job as a secretary, and vixenish Vivian is on the verge of capriciously deserting her wealthy husband Robert Kirkwood (Warren William) and their baby in favor of sexy mob-boss Mike (Lyle Talbot). Several more years pass, during which Mary marries Henry, Ruth is hired as governess for Henry, and Vivian's son and a drug-addicted Vivian become fatally enmeshed in a kidnapping plot involving her own child. In his second Warner Bros. film, tenth-billed Humphrey Bogart essays his first sneering-gangster role. Three on a Match was remade (and considerably laundered) in 1938 as Broadway Musketeers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blondell, Warren William, (more)
