Ernest Torrence Movies

Max Miller's best-seller forms the basis of this romantic melodrama about cynical, hard-drinking reporter Joe Miller (Ben Lyon), who exploits his romance with Julie Kirk (Claudette Colbert) to hand in a sensational story to his newspaper. Julie's father Eli (Ernest Torrence) is a decrepit sea-captain who smuggles in illegal Chinese on the West Coast. For years, Joe has been promising his newspaper editor a major scoop on Chinese smuggling operations, and he finally delivers when Joe catches Eli red-handed. But his torrid affair with Julie confuses matters. Originally Joe's plan was to get to Eli through Julie, but now he is in love with her, and he is not sure what to do. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

MGM had hopes of turning Metropolitan opera singer Lawrence Tibbett into a movie star, but Cuban Love Song brought this two-year project to an end. Tibbett plays a cocky marine stationed in Havana, who devotes his attention to voluptuous Cuban peanut vendor Lupe Velez. He serenades her with "The Peanut Song" several times in the course of the film, and Velez falls madly in love. But Tibbett is the "love 'em and leave 'em" type, and when World War One breaks out he drops Velez like a hot tamale and heads for Europe. Ten years pass: Tibbett returns to Cuba, only to discover that Velez has died...and then he meets a cute 9-year-old "orphan" boy whose favorite tune is "The Peanut Song". Cuban Love Song is highlighted by an uproariously graphic "castor oil" gag involving supporting actor Jimmy Durante. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Officially released as The New Adventures of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, this William Haines vehicle was snappily adapted by Charles MacArthur from the "Wallingford" short stories by George Randolph Chester. Haines of course plays the title character, a breezy con artist in league with personable pickpocket Schnozzle (who else but Jimmy Durante?) After fleecing a tourist for $25,000, Wallingford realizes that he's been swindled when the tourist's check turns out to be of rubber consistency. Just one step ahead of the law, Wallingford and Schnozzle settle in a small town, where they rescue the family of heroine Dorothy (Leila Hyams) from bankruptcy and foreclosure. Even William Haines must have been aware that the picture was effortlessly stolen by Jimmy Durante, whose second film this was. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clark Gable went from supporting actor to star in the space of one year with Sporting Blood, adapted from a novel by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan. Gable is top-billed as a gambling house proprietor named Rid Riddell. When the owner of a prize thoroughbred loses heavily in Riddell's establishment, he is forced to give up the horse to the gambler as security. Rid enters the horse in several honest races, then pulls the animal during a crucial race in order to collect big money on the losses; then he plans to dope up the horse to assure future wins. But when the horse loses, the gambler, deeply in debt to mobsters, transfers ownership to one of his female dealers (Madge Evans), and then drops out of the plotline. Clark Gable isn't really the lead in Sporting Blood--actually he's something of a rat--but he's the one whom everybody in the audience remembers long after the final fadeout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Officer O'Brien stars future "Hopalong Cassidy" William Boyd in the title role. Though highly respected by his fellow policemen, O'Brien is continually humiliated by the criminal activities of his reprobate father (Ernest Torrence). The old man finally makes amends for his past sins by killing the gangster boss. Still, O'Brien is determined to quit the force and start life all over again -- a determination that lasts, oh, about two minutes. To avoid confusion with stage actor William Boyd, the star of Officer O'Brien was billed as William "Screen" Boyd. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Strictly Unconventional offers two subplots united by irony. British wife Elizabeth (Catherine Dale Owen), weary of her much older M.P. husband Clive (Lewis Stone), dreams of running off with her handsome Canadian lover Ted (Paul Cavanaugh). Hoping to vicariously experience her fantasy, Elizabeth invites her mother-in-law Lady Kitty (Alison Skipworth), who years earlier had stirred up a scandal by leaving her husband in favor of the dashing Lord Proteus (Ernest Torrence), for a weekend party. Our heroine is sorely disillusioned when Lady Kitty turns out to be a superficial old windbag desperately trying to recapture her past while Lord Proteus is likewise -- old, fat, and fatuous. Astonishingly, Elizabeth fails to profit by this example and runs off with her lover all the same -- but only after she is convinced that Ted is not and never will be a Lord Proteus. Strictly Unconventional is a cleaned-up adaptation of Somerset Maugham's The Circle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A group of Londoners gather at the home of their host in order to solve the murders of two company officers. Once assembled the host announces that half of one of the deceased's fortune will go to the guests and if anyone should die, that person's share would go to the others. Before any money is doled out, the doors are locked and the host insists that the murderer confess. Mayhem ensues, but eventually the killer tells all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Desert Nights was the last silent film made by MGM's resident heartthrob John Gilbert -- and the last of his truly successful efforts. The melodramatic plot revolves around the robbery of a diamond mine, masterminded by Steve (Ernest Torrence). The criminals have taken Rand (Gilbert), the mine's manager, hostage, spiriting him off to the desert waste. Hopelessly lost, Steve turns to Rand, who knows the territory like the back of his hand, to lead the crooks back to civilization. Rand refuses but relents for the sake of Steve's partner-in-crime Diana (Mary Nolan). A spectacular climactic sandstorm effectively eliminates the villain and facilitates a happy ending for Rand and Diana. Likewise spectacular was the precipitous fall from popularity of John Gilbert after it was revealed that his voice, though pleasant enough, did not match his dashing screen image -- but this revelation was still several months in the future when Desert Nights was released. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of two film versions of Thornton Wilder's novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey begins at the end. The titular bridge, which stands in 18th-century Peru, collapses, killing five people. The natives believe that the bridge's destruction was the result of Divine intervention. Using this as a cue, the film flashes back on the lives of the five victims, allowing the audience to determine whether or not their deaths were deserved. Top-billed as a wanton Spanish dancer/courtesan is Lily Damita, who later gave up her career to become the first wife of Errol Flynn. Originally a silent film, Bridge of San Luis Rey was hastily fitted with an opening and closing reel of dialogue to take advantage of the "all-talkie" craze of 1929. The film was remade in 1945, with perennial "other woman" Lynn Bari in the Lily Damita role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not the best of Buster Keaton's silents, Steamboat Bill, Jr. nonetheless contains some of Keaton's best and most spectacular sight gags. Keaton plays Willie Canfield, the namby-pamby son of rough-and-tumble steamboat captain "Steamboat Bill" Canfield (Ernest Torrence). When he's not trying to make a man out of his boy, the captain is carrying on a feud with Tom Carter (Tom McGuire), the wealthy owner of a fancy new ferryboat. Carter has a pretty daughter, Mary King (Marion Byron), with whom Willie falls in love. The two younger folks try to patch up the feud, but this seems impossible once the captain is jailed for punching out Carter. Willie tries ineptly to bust his dad out of jail, only to wind up in the hospital while trying to escape the law. As Willie lies unconscious in bed, a huge cyclone hits town, knocking down tall buildings like kindling. Upon awakening, he does his best to remain standing as the winds buffet him about. He takes refuge in a tree, which is promptly uprooted and blown toward the waterfront. Here is where Willie proves his manhood -- and ends the feud between Steamboat Bill and Carter -- by rescuing practically everyone in the cast from a watery grave. Steamboat Bill, Jr. would be memorable if only for one eye-popping (and dangerously real) sight gag: as the cyclone rages, the facade of a three-story building collapses upon Keaton -- who is saved only because the upstairs window has been left open! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Gilbert was one of MGM's top stars when he appeared this melodrama. Playing against his usual matinee idol type, Gilbert plays a tough and restless wanderer. Jerry Fay (Gilbert) and Red McCue (Ernest Torrence) are fierce but not unfriendly rivals who run into each other in various ports. They meet up once again in New York to discover that they have both become bootleggers. Fay has just loaded up his speedboat with rum when he is pursued by the coast guard. He hides out in a home on the seashore, and Jane, the girl living there (Joan Crawford), threatens to call the cops. To prevent her from turning him in, Fay kidnaps her and takes her to his ship. McCue and his men, disguised as revenuers, hijack Fay's boat, and the two men find themselves face to face once again. A drinking contest between the two of them turns into a vicious battle. Fay recaptures the boat and turns it in to save Jane. Jane, who has fallen in love with the wounded Fay, cradles him in her arms. Crawford, whose star was still very much on the ascendant, would appear with Gilbert again in 1928's Four Walls. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Having scored big-time box office with his first Biblical epic, The Ten Commandments (1923), Cecil B. DeMille hoped to top this success with his 1927 The King of Kings. Inasmuch as he was now dealing with the life of Christ, DeMille had to be careful to serve up equal amounts of showmanship and reverence. The first creative challenge: how to "introduce" Christ in a tasteful manner? The answer: as a blind child is cured through Jesus' intervention, DeMille cuts to the child's point-of-view, slowly fading in on the kindly countenance of H.B. Warner as the Son of Man. Still, DeMille remained DeMille, especially in his handling of the character of Mary Magdalene (Jacqueline Logan). No longer a tattered streetwalker, Mary Magdalene is now a glamorous courtesan, replete with legions of gorgeous slave girls (one of whom is "bubble dancer" Sally Rand) and dressed in revealing Hollywood-style gowns. In fact, the film opens on this character, as she ruminates over the defection of her favorite customer, Judas Iscariot (Joseph Schildkraut), who is spending far too much time with Jesus of Nazareth. Upon visiting Jesus herself, she immediately repents, casting off all her prior sins. Once again, the efficacy of the Cecil B. DeMille formula is proven: redemption has no dramatic value unless the film shows viewers why the sinner needs to be redeemed. Once he's gotten his box-office considerations out of the way, DeMille adheres faithfully to the particulars of Jesus' life, betrayal, trial, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. (Again, however, the director improves a bit upon his source material: the storm that follows the Crucifixion is of the same spectacular dimensions as the parting of the Red Sea in Ten Commandments, while the Resurrection is filmed in vibrant Technicolor). To back up the authenticity of his images, DeMille -- with an assist from scenarist Jeannie Macpherson -- utilizes Scriptural quotes in his subtitles. And to avoid any untoward publicity while filming, DeMille required all of his actors to sign legal documents preventing them from indulging in any sort of "sinful" activity; this meant that poor old H.B. Warner had to steer clear of alcoholic beverages for nearly a year, though he more than made up for lost time after his contract ran out. Prepared to mercilessly lambaste The King of Kings, DeMille's critics were disarmed by his reverent, tasteful approach to the subject. Years after the film's release, a specially prepared 60-minute version of the 18-reel King of Kings was making the rounds of religious groups, church basements, and Easter-weekend telecasts. The film was remade in 1961 by producer Samuel Bronston and director Nicholas Ray, with Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide