Ferris Taylor Movies

Alison Skipworth and W.C. Fields play Tillie and Augustus Winterbottom, a husband-and-wife team of con artists. The larcenous couple is summoned to a small town by their niece (Jacqueline Wells) and her husband (Clifford Jones) when the niece's father dies. Hoping for a sizeable inheritance, Tillie and Gus discover that the legacy consists of one rundown ferry boat. When they notice that a local lawyer (Clarence Wilson) seems unusually interested in obtaining this seemingly worthless vessel, T and G decide to help their niece restore the boat and keep the ferry line running. The climax occurs during a boat race between Tillie & Gus and the duplicitous lawyer; the prize is a large cash settlement from a major ferry franchise. Disappointingly restrained for a W.C. Fields film, Tillie and Gus is still good for a few quiet chuckles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A lovely stenographer, tired of men falling all over her, tries to make herself homely in this comedy. With her horn rim specs and tweed suits, she finds that she is actually able to get some work done. She begins working as a writer's secretary to help him make his deadline. When the writer catches her without her suit and glasses, he instantly falls in love. Songs include: "Wreaths of Flowers", "Ever Since Eve", and "Shine on Harvest Moon". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a young couple decides to rob the bank where the woman works as a teller. They get 100,000 dollars and hide it in a music box. Unfortunately, they are caught and sentenced to prison. Upon their release, the two hope that the money will still be in the little box, which they left with an antique dealer. Unfortunately, the dealer died and they must frantically scramble to find the missing fortune. In the end, they do find it, but decide to turn it in to the authorities and go straight. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a milquetoast office clerk is forcibly betrothed to a woman by her overbearing mother. The trouble begins when the man buys a rather erotic statue of a woman. The mother and her daughter are so appalled that they leave. The man loves his statue and soon learns that the model is the daughter of a prominent senator. More trouble ensues when the sculpture becomes the object of a blackmailing scheme. The crooks keep trying to get hold of it, but the clever clerk consistently outwits them. In the end, his gallant efforts win the respect and love of the pretty model. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Universal ran into censorship problems with this farfetched but well-acted courtroom drama directed by silent screen veteran Edward Sloman. When corrupt tycoon Brandon Williams (Samuel S. Hinds) is found murdered, the obvious suspect is young William Sheldon (Larry Blake), who had publicly feuded with the victim. The real killer, however, is Williams' ghostwriter Walter Russell (Kent Taylor), an embittered newspaperman who finds himself on the jury hearing Sheldon's case. Confident at first that Walter will vote for an acquittal, New York reporter Linda Ware (Fay Wray) is not so sure after stumbling over the truth of the killing. Using a bit of subterfuge, the girl manages to convince Walter to confess in the proverbial nick of time, thus saving Sheldon from the gas chamber. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this youth-oriented western, a young man's father is wrongfully accused of murder. Unfortunately, his pa can't prove it and so flees into the rugged mountains. He brings his boy with him. In those lonely hills lives a sad, but wealthy young woman. Love blossoms between the son and the girl as the son struggles to clear his father's name and bring the real villains to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This harmless Universal musical comedy is worth having as one of the few filmed records of legendary Broadway comedian Jimmy Savo (his previous starrer, Once in a Blue Moon, is among the rarest of collector's item). The story proper is carried by Robert Wilcox and Nan Grey, cast as a pair of mismatched lovers who share a common interest in horse racing. Hero and heroine get mixed up in a shady get-rich-quick scheme, which threatens to turns disastrous but which ends up solving everyone's problems. Harry Davenport adds a touch of gentle pathos as a blind horseplayer. Jimmy Savo's pantomime turns and musical numbers were not up to his usual standard (at least that's what the critics said), but they play rather well when seen today, even though Savo's patented streak of healthy vulgarity had to be soft-pedalled for the screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frank Capra's classic comedy-drama established James Stewart as a lead actor in one of his finest (and most archetypal) roles. The film opens as a succession of reporters shout into telephones announcing the death of Senator Samuel Foley. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), the state's senior senator, puts in a call to Governor Hubert "Happy" Hopper (Guy Kibbee) reporting the news. Hopper then calls powerful media magnate Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who controls the state -- along with the lawmakers. Taylor orders Hopper to appoint an interim senator to fill out Foley's term; Taylor has proposed a pork barrel bill to finance an unneeded dam at Willet Creek, so he warns Hopper he wants a senator who "can't ask any questions or talk out of turn." After having a number of his appointees rejected, at the suggestion of his children Hopper nominates local hero Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), leader of the state's Boy Rangers group. Smith is an innocent, wide-eyed idealist who quotes Jefferson and Lincoln and idolizes Paine, who had known his crusading editor father. In Washington, after a humiliating introduction to the press corps, Smith threatens to resign, but Paine encourages him to stay and work on a bill for a national boy's camp. With the help of his cynical secretary Clarissa Sanders (Jean Arthur), Smith prepares to introduce his boy's camp bill to the Senate. But when he proposes to build the camp on the Willets Creek site, Taylor and Paine force him to drop the measure. Smith discovers Taylor and Paine want the Willets Creek site for graft and he attempts to expose them, but Paine deflects Smith's charges by accusing Smith of stealing money from the boy rangers. Defeated, Smith is ready to depart Washington, but Saunders, whose patriotic zeal has been renewed by Smith, exhorts him to stay and fight. Smith returns to the Senate chamber and, while Taylor musters the media forces in his state to destroy him, Smith engages in a climactic filibuster to speak his piece: "I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not gonna leave this body until I do get them said." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Stalwart Republic contractee Ralph Byrd wades through a sea of stock footage in SOS-Tidal Wave. Byrd is cast as Jeff Shannon, a hotshot television commentator who goes after a corrupt political machine. When Shannon refuses to be dissuaded by bribes or threats, the villains promise dire consequences for his wife Laurel (Kay Sutton) and son Buddy (Mickey Kuhn) if he doesn't lay off. As a last-ditch measure, the head crook (Marc Lawrence) uses TV technology to scare away voters on election day by faking a devastating tidal wave which supposedly engulfs the city. The spectacularly soggy special-effects climax of SOS-Tidal Wave was lifted in toto from the 1933 fantasy feature Deluge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his starring film for Universal Pictures, W.C. Fields plays circus manager and all-around flim flam man Larson E. Whipsnade. When he's not trying to fleece the customers or elude the sheriff, Whipsnade busys himself trying to break up the romance between his daughter Vicky (Constance Moore) and carnival ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (playing himself). He also carries on a running feud with Bergen's nattily attired dummy Charlie McCarthy ("I'll slash you into venetian blinds!"). Bergen's other dummy is Mortimer Snerd, who occasionally comments upon the action in his own thickheaded fashion. Anxious to arrange a marriage between Vicki and the wealthy Roger Bel-Goodie III (James Bush), Whipsnade disposes of Bergen and his dummies by sending them aloft in a hot-air baloon. Attending a party at the Bel-Goodie mansion, Whipsnade makes a pest of himself by constantly referring to snakes, a subject that invariably causes Mrs. Bel-Goodie (Mary Forbes) to swoon. He also engages in a zany ping-pong tournament with socialite Ronnie (Ivan Lebedeff). But it is Vicki, and not Whipsnade, who breaks up the engagement by telling off her pompous fiance. At that very instant, Bergen, having escaped from the balloon, arrives to claim Vicki and to help Whipsnade escape the sheriff once more. A partial remake of the W.C. Fields silent Two Flaming Youths, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man was scripted by Fields under the pseudonym "Charles Bogle." As published in the 1973 compendium W.C. Fields by Himself, the original screenplay was to have had dramatic overtones, including the death of Fields' trapeze-artist wife and a climactic soul-baring scene wherein Fields expresses his genuine love for his daughter. All this was jettisoned when it was decided to capitalize on the Fields-Charlie McCarthy "feud" then blazing on radio's Chase and Sanborn Show. While nowhere near as funny as Fields' subsequent Universal feature The Bank Dick, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man still contains a generous supply of laughs. Our favorite line: "Somebody's taken the cork out of my lunch." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this courtroom drama a countrified prosecutor deliberately fails in his attempt to convict a notorious gangster so he can protect his adopted daughter, the gangster's moll. As a result the lawyer loses his job. When his troubled girl gets accused of murder, he does all he can to defend her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The second of three films based on the Wyatt Earp biography by Stuart N. Lake, Frontier Marshal stars Randolph Scott as Marshal Earp of Tombstone. Earp and his brothers enforce the law as much by reputation as by gunplay. Occasionally the marshal's efforts are complicated by his "friendly enemy" Doc Halliday (based on Doc Holliday and played by Cesar Romero), a consumptive gunslinger who runs the gambling activities in town. When a murderous outlaw (Joe Sawyer) invades Tombstone and kills Halliday, Earp is moved to action -- and the result is the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. A remake of the 1934 film of the same name, Frontier Marshal was itself remade by John Ford as My Darling Clementine (1946), with Henry Fonda as Earp and Victor Mature as Doc Holliday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ladies Must Live was based on George M. Cohan's play The Hometowners, prievious filmed in 1928. Wayne Morris plays the bumpkinish Lake, who tries to prevent his millionaire pal George (George Reeves) from marrying gold-digging nightclub thrush Pat (Rosemary Lane). As it turns out, however, Pat isn't as mercenary as she seems. In fact, it is through the auspices of Pat's inventor father Halliday (Ferris Taylor) that Lake ends up in the millionaire class himself. This outdated farce served only to keep several of Warner Bros.' young contract players busy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide