Lee Tracy Movies
The son of a traveling railroad worker, Lee Tracy was never in one place long enough to claim a hometown. After attending Western Military Academy, Tracy studied electrical engineering at Union College. He served as a 2nd lieutenant in World War I, later returning to uniform (with higher ranking) during World War II. In the late teens, Tracy decided to give acting a whirl; after experience in stock, he became a Broadway star by way of his starring role in the original 1924 production of George Kelly's The Show Off. Thanks to his finely honed features and mile-a-minute voice, Tracy was most often cast as a newspaperman. He played reporter Hildy Johnson in the 1928 staging of The Front Page and a Walter Winchell-type gossip columnist in 1932's Blessed Event -- the first of many Winchell-esque stage and screen assignments. Even late in life, Tracy couldn't get the newsprint out of his veins, as witness his 1958 TV series New York Confidential. In private life, Tracy had a reputation as a rounder and troublemaker; he lost a plum role in the movie Viva Villa when, while on location in Mexico, he stood on the balcony of his hotel and urinated on a passing military parade. Despite his contentiousness, Tracy was regarded as a thorough professional, well liked by his coworkers because of his willingness to share the spotlight. During his film career, Tracy accepted many a B-picture role, investing his earnings wisely so as to be able to pick and choose his roles later in life. In the latter stages of his career, Lee Tracy was one of four actors to portray the TV detective Martin Kane, and was memorably cast as the peppery Truman-like U.S. president in both the Broadway and film versions of Gore Vidal's The Best Man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1929
One of the few pre-1930 John Ford films currently available, the part-talkie Salute was co-directed by Ford and David Butler. George O'Brien is cast as cadet John Randall, star player for the Army college football team. His principal gridiron opponent is Navy player Paul Randall (William Janney), his own kid brother. In the days before the big Army-Navy game, John and Paul's sibling rivalry intensifies as both pay court to pretty Nancy Wayne (Helen Chandler). The film concludes with the inevitable Big Game, an expert blend of newly shot scenes and Fox Movietone newsreel footage. Stepin Fetchit, a Ford favorite, goes through his usual bizarrely racist routines as the hero's valet. The entire University of Southern California football team appears in Salute, including two strapping young players named John Wayne and Ward Bond. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George O'Brien, William Janney, (more)
- 1929
Big Time was helmed by Howard Hawks' brother Kenneth. This well-paced early talkie stars Lee Tracy as a Broadway hoofer and Mae Clarke as his actress girlfriend. Teaming up, Tracy and Clarke become stars of the Manhattan nightclub circuit. Unfortunately, Tracy can't keep his hands off scheming chorine Josephine Dunn. As a result, the act breaks up: Clarke goes to bigger and better things, while Tracy is reduced to working as a Hollywood extra. Comedy relief is supplied by Stepin Fetchit and diminuitive Laurel and Hardy "regular" Daphne Pollard. As a bonus, director John Ford shows up in a cameo as himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daphne Pollard
- 1930
She Got What She Wanted was director James Cruze's second "special" for Tiffany Pictures in 1930. Betty Compson, previously the female lead of Cruze's The Great Gabbo, stars as Mathyna, the foreign-born girlfriend of vaudeville hoofer Eddie (Lee Tracy). Tired of waiting for Eddie to pop the question, Mathyna marries Boris (Gaston Glass), an aspiring novelist. Soon she gets bored of her housewife status and begins spending time with boorish Dave (Alan Hale) and the ubiquitous Eddie. Leaving Boris in favor of Dave, Mathyna learns to regret her impulsiveness when her new husband gets mixed up with crooks. She ultimately returns to the faithful Boris, while Eddie philosophically soft-shoes out of her life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1930
This drama is set during the mid Twenties when gangsters were a bit more genteel than their 1930s counterparts. Based on a true story, it profiles the experiences of a young gangster who, after getting caught during a robbery is given a choice: he can either go to prison or join the military and fight. He chooses the military. There he becomes a hero. But when he returns home, he immediately returns to gangster life. Trouble ensues when he falls for an aristocratic woman with a daughter. Their happiness is interrupted by an old enemy who kidnaps the girl. The protagonist successfully saves the girl and kills his enemy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Catherine Dale Owen, (more)
- 1930
This first film version of Ferenc Molnar's poignant fantasy Liliom was supposed to have reunited the director Frank Borzage and stars Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor of Fox's 1927 box-office smash Seventh Heaven. But Gaynor was enmeshed in one of her periodic contract disputes with the studio, so she was replaced by Rose Hobart. Set in the suburbs of Budapest, the film centers on the rocky romantic relationship between studdish carnival barker Liliom (Farrell) and his working-girl sweetheart Julie (Hobart). Fired by jealous carnival owner Mme. Muscat (Estelle Taylor), the swaggering Liliom is financially unprepared for Julie's pregnancy. Needing plenty of money fast, he agrees to participate in a robbery masterminded by "The Buzzard" (Lee Tracy), a two-bit thief. The hold-up goes horribly awry, whereupon Liliom, rather than face arrest, commits suicide. His soul is whisked by a modernistic celestial train to the outer gates of Heaven where he stands trial before the Court of Judgment. After ten years in Purgatory, he is given the opportunity to visit Earth for one day to make amends for past wrongs. He meets for the first time his daughter, Marie (Mildred Van Dorn), and tries to give her a stolen gift. When she backs off from him in terror, Liliom slaps the girl, just as he had her mother. A failure in death as in life, Liliom wearily returns to Purgatory, while Julie, somehow sensing what has happened, comforts her confused daughter. At present considered a "lost" film, Liliom was faithfully remade three years later in France, with Charles Boyer as the title character and Fritz Lang in the director's chair; this version is still extant. The property was reworked again as the 1945 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel, itself duly filmed by 20th Century Fox in 1956. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Farrell, Rose Hobart, (more)
- 1932
This drama, made while New York mayor Jimmy Walker was still being reviled by newspapers for similar actions, follows a big-city mayor who loves sports, the theater, the night life, and a beautiful actress. When the press gets a hold of this information and a scandal ensues, he has the actress marry his writer friend to get the media off his back. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Evelyn Knapp, (more)
- 1932
In this political melodrama, an idealistic freshman congressman swears to do his best to get relief for his impoverished constituents who lost everything in the Great Depression. Unfortunately, he discovers that many of his colleagues have been corrupted by avaricious crooks. He begins lobbying to have them ousted from the government. To stop the rebellious young politician, the crooks demand a recount of the votes and then doctor the results to get the man thrown out of office. Fortunately, an older statesman and his granddaughter rally round the honest congressman. Soon they clear his name, and have all the bad apples thrown out of congress. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Constance Cummings, (more)
- 1932
A broad lampoon of celebrity worship, The Half-Naked Truth stars Lee Tracy as a carnival huckster and Lupe Velez as a "kootch" dancer. Reaching for the moon, Tracy passes Lupe off as an exotic foreign princess--and manages to pull the wool over the eyes of all Manhattan. Now "famous for being famous", Lupe is employed for special appearances by Ziegfeldish impresario Frank Morgan. When the fraud is revealed to the world, Tracy returns to the carnival, with Lupe (who's loved him since Reel One) at his side. Half-Naked Truth co-stars Eugene Pallette as Tracy's assistant; the bullfrog-voiced Pallette has a wonderful moment in which he discovers that he's been mistaken for "Princess" Lupe's head eunuch! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lupe Velez, Lee Tracy, (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
Blessed Event is one of several early-1930s films inspired by the meteoric rise to fame of gossip columnist Walter Winchell--and like most such films, its title is based on a Winchell tag line. Lee Tracy plays a glib-tongued reporter who is conducting a feud with popular singer Dick Powell (making his film debut). Along the way, Tracy offends a powerful gangster, and in so doing becomes entangled with chorus girl Mary Brian. The film is at its best when parodying commercial radio of the era (notably an inane jingle for "Shapiro Shoes" warbled by Dick Powell). The original Broadway stage version of Blessed Event was written by Manuel Seff and Forrest Wilson--and reportedly inspired by the career of Ruby Keeler, who rose to stardom thanks in part to the patronage of a New York mobster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Mary Brian, (more)
- 1932
Fay Wray screams when she first lays eyes on Lionel Atwill in Doctor X, but don't let that fool you. Atwill plays Fay's father this time around, and he may very well not be the diabolical "Moon Murderer" whom the police are seeking. Dr. Xavier (Atwill) maintains a research lab in a remote Long Island estate. The police suspect that one of Xavier's assistants--all "second-chancers" whose previous misdemeanors range from botched experiments to cannibalism!--is the mysterious murderer who strikes only when the moon is full. Newspaper reporter Lee Tracy sneaks into the estate to get a swell scoop, whereupon he falls in love with Fay. In trying to help the authorities, Xavier stages an elaborate trap for the Moon Murderer, with his daughter as the willing bait. The killer (we won't tell you who it is, but you'll figure it out anyway) reveals himself by coating his body with "synthetic flesh", which gives him supernatural powers. Based on a play by Howard C. Comstock and Allen C. Miner, Doctor X was originally filmed in two-color Technicolor; available for years only in black and white, the film was restored to its full tinted state in the 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lionel Atwill, Lee Tracy, (more)
- 1932
In this strange, convoluted tale, a hotel clerk ends up pregnant and alone after she has a brief fling with a wealthy playboy. Shortly after her daughter's birth, she hooks up with a criminal. She does not realize that the good-hearted bellboy with whom she works secretly loves her. When the criminal inadvertently involves her in a murder, an eager-beaver reporter, who also grows to lover her, hatches a clever scheme to save her and win her hand. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Dvorak, Lee Tracy, (more)
- 1933
Jean Harlow is the "bombshell" of the title, a popular movie actress named Lola. Though she seemingly has everything a girl could possibly want, Lola is fed up with her sponging relatives, her "work til you drop" studio, and the nonsensical publicity campaigns conducted by press agent Lee Tracy. She tries to escape Hollywood by marrying a titled foreign nobleman, but Tracy has the poor guy arrested as an illegal alien. Finally Lola finds what she thinks is perfect love in the arms of aristocratic Franchot Tone, but she renounces Tone when his snooty father C. Aubrey Smith looks down his nose at Lola and her profession. Upon discovering that Tone and his entire family were actors hired by Tracy, Lola goes ballistic--until she realizes that Tracy, for all his bluff and chicanery, is the man who truly loves her. Allegedly based on the career of Clara Bow (who, like Lola, had a parasitic family and a duplicitous private secretary), Bombshell is a prime example of Jean Harlow at her comic best. So as not to mislead audiences into thinking this was a war picture, MGM retitled the film Blonde Bombshell for its initial run. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, (more)
Based on the Broadway hit by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, Dinner at Eight is a near-flawless comedy/drama with an all-star cast at the peak of their talents. Social butterfly Mrs. Oliver Jordan (Billie Burke) arranges a dinner party that will benefit the busines of her husband (Lionel Barrymore). Among the invited are a crooked executive (Wallace Beery), who is in the process of ruining Jordan; his wife (Jean Harlow), who is carrying on an affair with a doctor (Edmund Lowe); a fading matinee idol (John Barrymore), who has squandered his fortune on liquor and is romantically involved with the Jordan daughter (Madge Evans); and a venerable stage actress (Marie Dressler), who since losing all her money has become a "professional guest." Nothing goes as planned, due to various suicides, double-crosses, compromises, fatal illness, and servant problems. But dinner is served precisely at eight. The script by Herman Mankiewicz, Frances Marion, and Donald Ogden Stewart is a virtual enclyopedia of witty lines and scenes, right down to the unforgettable closing gag. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, (more)
- 1933
In this comedy, an oily tongued sleazy lawyer, who specializes in injuries, makes sure all of clients, regardless of the size of their injuries, make it big in court. He is assisted by a thoroughly convincing doctor who can make the smallest bruise look like life-threatening internal bleeding. The lawyer is so successful, that one of the companies he constantly sues attempts to get him disbarred. To prove that he's a shyster, the company hires a pretty woman to seduce the truth out him. Unfortunately, they end up falling in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Madge Evans, (more)
- 1933
A splashy journalist finds herself embroiled in international intrigue when she hooks up with a sneaky Russian correspondent who curries favor by saving a Secret Police official. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Benita Hume, (more)
- 1933
In this war comedy, the reluctant hero finds himself drafted and forced to fight the Germans whom he feels he has nothing against. He spends as much time as possible working in the kitchen and loving the commander's wife on the sly. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Donald Cook, (more)
- 1933
Lee Tracy is a middle-aged, middle-class man dissatisfied with his life. If he'd only married the girl he wanted to and had been a smarter businessman (he believes), things would have been better. One morning, Tracy wakes up and discovers he's been transported twenty years in the past. Armed with foreknowledge of future events, Tracy determines to correct his mistakes and become what he considers a success. "Be careful what you wish for," goes the old saying. "You just might get it." Tracy comes to regret his "new" life and yearns for things to go back to normal--but will they? A truly imaginative fantasy, Turn Back the Clock is acted with conviction by everybody from star Lee Tracy to a trio of bit players (in the wedding sequence) who later called themselves The Three Stooges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Mae Clarke, (more)
- 1933
Based very loosely on Nathaniel West's Miss Lonelyhearts, Advice to the Lovelorn is a comedy-drama about a hotshot reporter (Lee Tracy) who is forced to become an advice columnist. Hiding behind a female nom de plume, the cynical Tracy dispenses fatuous advice and becomes quite popular. Ever seeking an extra buck, Tracy agrees to promote a shady line of pharmaceutical products in his column--a move that has tragic consequences when Tracy's mother (Jean Adair) dies thanks to bad medicinal drugs. With the aid of his girlfriend (Sally Blane) and his bucolic "leg man" (Sterling Holloway), a chastened Tracy brings the crooked drug dealers to justice. Beaten to a pulp by the criminals, Tracy nonetheless survives to get married (wrapped in surgical bandages!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Sally Blane, (more)
- 1934
Marshall Neilan, a great silent film director on the verge of obscurity, had one last big-studio stand with The Lemon Drop Kid. Lee Tracy plays a racetrack tout who calls himself a "horse medium"--that is, he reads the horse's minds for the gullible bettors. He quits the track for the love of a good woman (Helen Mack) and settles down in a small town, determined to go straight. But when his wife falls ill, Tracy goes back to his old crooked ways to raise money for her treatment. Adapted from a Damon Runyon story, Lemon Drop Kid was refilmed in 1951 with a whole new plot to accommodate Bob Hope, the Christmas season, and the hit song "Silver Bells". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Helen Mack, (more)
- 1934
Paramount's You Belong to Me is a showcase for juvenile performer David Jack Holt, youngest son of action star Jack Holt. The boy is cast as Jimmy Faxon, the son of recently widowed vaudeville performer Florette Faxon (Helen Mack). When Florette marries acrobat Hap Stanley (Arthur Pierson), Jimmy takes an instant dislike to his new stepfather, preferring the company of happy-go-lucky vaudeville comic Bud Hannigan (Lee Tracy). Though Bud tries to encourage Jimmy to give Hap a chance, it turns out that the kid's instincts are correct: Hap is a philandering heel, who walks out on Florette at the earliest opportunity. The upshot of all this is that poor Jimmy is left an orphan, with old reliable Bud providing the boy with a shoulder to cry on at the fadeout. Helen Morgan adds to the overall gloominess with one of her patented torch songs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Helen Mack, (more)
- 1934
Lee Tracy once again plays a Winchellesque newspaper reporter in Universal's I'll Tell the World. More interested in his sex life than his career, news hawk Brown (Tracy) nonetheless agrees to cover the activities of a European archduke (Onslow Stevens) on behalf of his wire service. To circumvent rival reporter Briggs (Roger Pryor), Brown adopts a variety of disguises, and while travelling under an alias he makes the acquaintance of Jane (Gloria Stuart), a princess posing as an American tourist. The finale is a melange of romance, international intrigue, and journalistic double-crosses, culminating in Brown saving Jane's kingdom from revolution. The 1945 Universal minimusical I'll Tell the World is not a remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1935
In this melodramatic comedy a carnival puppeteer must cope with the death of his wife who expired while birthing his daughter. His father-in-law, decides to sue him for custody of the little girl because he believes carnival life with a single father will be harmful to her. The puppeteer takes the baby and runs. Before he goes he bids adieu to his female assistant. Two years pass, and he finally comes back to the show. His faithful assistant welcomes him and introduces her newest friend. Unfortunately the grandfather is still trying to get custody. To keep his daughter, the puppeteer must marry. He does not think to ask the assistant, and she, who of course loves him, runs off. The puppeteer and his new friend decide to enter the girl in a baby contest. They are accused of trying to fix the results and are arrested. His assistant returns and he wakes up to the fact that the perfect mom has been there by his side all along. He asks that she take care of the daughter until he serves his six month sentence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Sally Eilers, (more)
- 1935
Two Fisted is based on the James Gleason-Richard Taber stage play Is Zat So?, previously filmed under its original title in 1927. Lee Tracy stars as fast-lipped fight manager Hay Hurley, while Roscoe Karns co-stars as slow-witted pugilist Chick Moran. Flat broke, Hay and Chick take servant jobs in the household of wealthy Sue Parker (Gail Patrick). Overstepping their bounds, our heroes manage to dissuade Sue from leaving her husband (Gordon Westcott) and son (Billy Lee) to run off with silly-ass Englishman Fitzstanley (G. P. Huntley Jr.) Grace Bradley is featured as Marie, Hay's dumb-dora girlfriend (suggesting perhaps that her role was originally intended for Gracie Allen). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Roscoe Karns, (more)
