Zeffie Tilbury Movies

Eve Arden played her first bonafide film-starring role in the 1941 Warner Bros. "B"-picture She Couldn't Say No. A brilliant lawyer, Alice Hinsdale (Arden) is obliged to act as secretary to her legal-eagle fiancé Wallace Turnbull (Roger Pryor) because he can't abide the notion that his wife might be smarter than he. Taking on a breach-of-promise suit, Turnbull represents the defendant, only to discover that the attorney for the plaintiff is none other than newly-liberated Alice. Once before a judge and jury, Alice and her female client resort to "women's tricks" to win the case -- proof positive that She Couldn't Say No is a product of its times. The film's basic premise was used to better effect in the 1949 Tracy-Hepburn starrer Adam's Rib. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Comin' Round the Mountain was a tailor-made vehicle for bucolic radio humorist Bob "Bazooka" Burns. After striking out in New York, backwoods musician Jed Blower (Burns) and his hillbilly family band return to their native Tennessee. Here they land a job at a tinker-toy radio station in a community plagued by a long-standing family feud. Also causing local headaches is a continuing political tug of war over the maintence of the city's poorhouse. Hoping to solve everyone's problems, Jed runs for mayor, using the radio station as his podium. Old-time radio aficionados will enjoy seeing such Fibber McGee and Molly regulars as Harold Peary (the Great Gildersleeve), Bill Thompson (the "Old Timer") and Cliff Arquette (Grandpappy) in supporting roles, not to mention perennial Bob Hope stooge Jerry Collonna and Jack Benny's rotund announcer Don Wilson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of dirt-poor Dust Bowl migrants by 4-time Oscar-winning director John Ford starred Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, who opens the movie returning to his Oklahoma home after serving jail time for manslaughter. En route, Tom meets family friend Casey (John Carradine), a former preacher who warns Tom that dust storms, crop failures, and new agricultural methods have financially decimated the once prosperous Oklahoma farmland. Upon returning to his family farm, Tom is greeted by his mother (Oscar-winner Jane Darwell), who tells him that the family is packing up for the "promised land" of California. Warned that they shouldn't expect a warm welcome in California--they've already seen the caravan of dispirited farmers, heading back home after striking out at finding work--the Joads push on all the same. Their first stop is a wretched migrant camp, full of starving children and surrounded by armed guards. Further down the road, the Joads drive into an idyllic government camp, with clean lodging, indoor plumbing, and a self-governing clientele. When Tom ultimately bids goodbye to his mother, who asks him where he'll go, he delivers the film's most famous speech: "I'll be all around...Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat...Whenever there's a cop beating a guy, I'll be there...And when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build. I'll be there too." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this romantic musical, a Russian prince sees a lovely singer in a town cafe and falls head-over-heels. Realizing that he cannot be seen with her in royal garb, he masquerades as a worker. Later he secretly arranges for her to sing at the Imperial Opera. Unfortunately, his father the emperor is wounded that night by the wicked Reds. The girl's father is among the would-be assassins. Years pass. Just before the dawn of WWII, the girl and her family are exiled to Siberia while the former prince heads for Paris to become a famous nightcub singer. When revolution erupts in Russia, the girl is freed and the lovers are eventually reunited. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

It may sound like a teenage-romance comedy, but Boy Trouble is actually a sentimental effort about middle-aged parents. Charlie Ruggles stars as a small town shopkeeper whose wife (Mary Boland) adopts a pair of rambunctious orphan boys (Donald O'Connor, Billy Lee). Ruggles is at first hostile towards this invasion of his peace and quiet, but his paternal feelings are aroused when the children become victims of a scarlet fever epidemic. The screenwriters for Boy Trouble were satirist S. J. Perelman and his wife Laura, hardly the most logical candidates for this domestic comedy/drama. The film was meant to launch a B-series titled The Fitch Family, but didn't do well enough at the box office to justify any sequels. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A model of precision and economy, the MGM "B" thriller Tell No Tales represented the feature-film directorial debut of former actor Leslie Fenton. Reportedly an expansion of a "Crime Does Not Pay" 2-reeler, the story follows editor Michael Cassidy (Melvyn Douglas) as he tries to save his newspaper from being shut down by corporate fat-cat Matt Cooper (Douglass Dumbrille). Hoping to track down the perpetrators of a recent kidnapping (and thereby obtaining an "exclusive"), Cassidy illegally gets hold of one of the bills used for the ransom, tracing the bill to all its previous owners. In the course of his odyssey, Cassidy stumbles into a wake for a murdered black boxer, a haunting sequence dominated by the powerhouse performance of Theresa Harris. He also learns that the much-hated Cooper was tenously connected to the ransom bill, though the identity of the actual miscreants aren't revealed until the last two reels. Louise Platt costars as Ellen Frazier, a harried witness to the kidnapping who winds up being taken "for a ride" along with the unconscious Cassidy. Also figuring prominently in the action is gambling boss Arno (Gene Lockhart) and his weakling brother Phil (Tom Collins), not to mention musical-comedy star Lorna Travers (Florence George), the main attraction at a Policeman's benefit show (another highlight). Showing up unbilled is one Jack Carlton, later known as Clayton Moore. Tell No Tales definitely deserves to be better known. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Twenty years after the Armistice, doughboy Stan Laurel continues guarding a trench in France--simply because no one told him the war was over. His rescue coincides with the first wedding anniversary of his old pal Oliver Hardy. Heading to town to pick up a gift for his wife (Minna Gombell), Ollie discovers that Stan has been located and is now residing at the Veteran's Home. The two buddies share a warm reunion, whereupon Ollie invites Stan home to enjoy a "big thick juicy steak" prepared by Mrs. Hardy. As a result of Ollie's hospitality, Stan inadvertently wrecks Ollie's brand new car; the boys spend half the afternoon trudging up and down 13 flights of stairs; Ollie gets into a fight with belligerent Jimmy Finlayson; Mrs. Hardy angrily walks out on her husband; the boys manage to blow up the kitchen while preparing their own meal; and Hardy's beautiful next-door neighbor (Patricia Ellis) ends up minus her dress in Ollie's steamer trunk, with both Mrs. Hardy and the neighbor's husband, big-game hunter Billy Gilbert, converging upon our bethumped heroes. Essentially a remake of the 1929 Laurel and Hardy two-reeler Unnaccustomed as We Are, Block-Heads is a brilliant parade of virtuoso comedy turns. The best bits of business include the mountain of bean cans representing Stan's two decades in the trenches; the "white magic" gags involving Stan's pulling down the shadow of a window shade, producing a glass of water from his pocket and smoking his thumb like a pipe; and an uproarious "black" joke involving Ollie's mistaken belief than Stan has lost a leg in the war. The film sustains its high level of humor for 56 of its 57 minutes, faltering only in its disappointing closing gag (borrowed from the 1928 short We Faw Down). Among the writers of this chucklefest was former silent comedian Harry Langdon. Erroneously announced in 1938 as Laurel and Hardy's final feature, Block-Heads was indeed the last of the team's genuine classics. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this musical comedy of errors, David Brassard, Sr. (William Collier, Sr.) has his heart stolen from him by a conniving, gold-digging nightclub singer named Josette (Tala Birell). Brassard's two sons, Pierre (Robert Young) and David Junior (Don Ameche) are both horrified and vow to lure the temptress away from their dad. However, they somehow become convinced that the woman in question is Renee LaBlanc (Simone Simon), who is merely posing as a chanteuse in order to help out her friend Barney Barnaby (Bert Lahr), whose nightspot is in trouble. In time, Pierre and David Junior both realize that they've been chasing the wrong woman -- but they also realize that they've both fallen in love with her. The supporting cast includes William Demarest and Lon Chaney, Jr., the latter only a year before One Million B.C. would reshape his career and make him a star of horror and science fiction films. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Herbert Marshall finds himself torn between two women: ex-wife Mary Astor and bride-to-be Virginia Bruce. After a while, Marshall's own opinions in the matter mean nothing. The ladies are so involved in their personal battle that they've lost sight of their common goal. Only when Marshall tells the two women to shut up and listen to him does peace descend upon the landscape. Based on a short story by Margaret Culkin Banning, Woman Against Woman is mighty MGM's idea of a modest "B" picture--featuring a stellar cast that at any other studio would be too way costly for an "A". ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

For a studio specializing in glossy soap operas, costume pictures and musicals, MGM made an inordinate number of "B"-grade crime thrillers in 1937. The first on the docket that year was Under Cover of Night, starring Edmund Lowe as intrepid sleuth Christopher Cross. This time the killer is an overachieving psychopath who strikes only at night, and is unaware that he is a murderer. Thus, the question here is not "who done it," but rather -- when will Christopher Cross catch on to what the audience knows almost from the beginning. The best performance is rendered by Henry Daniell as the respectable college professor who literally moonlights as the killer. MGM would resurrect the "Christopher Cross" character as a female private eye (played by Joyce Compton) in 1939's Sky Murder. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

By 1937, everyone was tired of films about silent stars who couldn't make the transition to talkies (and would be until Singin' in the Rain), but this Columbia comedy-drama still had its moments in spite of gross inaccuracies. Richard Dix is Western star Tim Bart, a screen hero who is adored by children everywhere. All that changes when sound comes in -- outdoor pictures are risky because of sound problems and Bart's screen test proves that he can't possibly play indoorsy society men. On the other hand, his co-star Gloria Gay (Fay Wray) is a natural for glamour. The studio offers to keep Bart on if he will play gangsters and bank robbers, but he refuses to let his young fans down by becoming a bad guy. (All this makes you want to ask, "What about 1930's Academy Award-winning Cimarron, in which Dix was the star?" The writers at Columbia must have had extremely short memories!) Bart's career dries up, while Gloria's flourishes -- at least for a while. With his ranch foreclosed and no work forthcoming, Bart decides to leave Hollywood. But then, Billy (Billy Burrud) shows up on his doorstep -- he's one of the kids Bart visited in a hospital. The boy has no family and begs to stay, so Bart relents. He even throws Billy a party which is attended by all the stars of the day (actually they're the stars' doubles, but Billy never guesses). Gloria also shows up and admits that her career is on the outs, too. The desperate Bart walks into a bank just as it's being robbed. He gets into a shoot-out with the crooks and becomes a real-life hero. With his name in all the papers -- and Westerns once again a popular commodity -- the studio signs him up to a new contact, along with Gloria. Franklin Pangborn does one of his amusing turns in a bit part as a dialog coach. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Claudette Colbert is a young freethinking woman living in Salem, Massachusetts during the notorious 17th century "witch trials". Colbert falls in love with adventurer Fred MacMurray, causing no end of scandal with the Puritan townsfolk. A hateful little girl (Bonita Granville) pretends to be "possessed", thereby convincing the Salemites that Claudette is a witch. Tried and convicted of sorcery, the poor girl is sent to be burned at the stake, but is rescued in the nick of time by MacMurray, who convinces the townsfolk that they've been the victim of a hoax. Maid of Salem earned a footnote in entertainment history in 1937 when it was booed off the screen of New York's Paramount theatre by fans who wanted to see the evening's real attraction--a performance by Benny Goodman and his orchestra. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi