Mary Boland Movies

Zachary Scott plays Max Thursday, an alcoholic ex-police detective working as a bouncer at a sleazy rooming house owned by Smitty (Mary Boland), a likeable, earthy old lady. Thursday's former wife, Georgia (Faye Emerson), shows up one night, while her ex-husband is in an alcoholic stupor, to tell him that their three-year-old son Jeff is missing, taken by her brother, Fred, on some errand from which he did not return. Thursday goes after his ex-brother-in-law's employer, Doc Elder (Jed Prouty), a broken-down physician with a shady past, who manages to get the former cop drunk before knocking him cold. Awakening in a police cell, Thursday is questioned by his former boss, Capt. Mark Tonetti (Sam Levene), about where he was last night, and who might've murdered Doc Elder. Thursday has no choice but to stay sober as he tries to trace the leads he has left. No one admits to knowing anything about the person named Saint Paul, who Elder was meeting, so he tries to find the man Elder was afraid of, Otto Varkas, a notorious smuggler. Varkas (J. Edward Bromberg) isn't much help, though he reveals that he is worried about a hired killer named Stitch Olivera (Elliott Sullivan). While leaving Varkas' office, Thursday spots Angel (Kay Medford), a "business girl" he last saw near Elder's building. He finds out that she's the girl Fred was seeing, and that she's got him on ice, wounded, but he hasn't said anything about a kid; he also won't reveal the whereabouts of the package that he was picking up for Doc Elder (a diamond necklace worth 400,000 dollars) which was to go to Saint Paul. Before they can get to Fred, two of Varkas' men grab him, and Thursday is just drunk enough from his stop with Angel to be unable to stop them. He tries to get to Varkas, but the gang leader and his men are killed and Fred is taken by Olivera. Thursday fights off the hit man in a vicious battle in a Brooklyn subway station that leaves him with a clue that to his astonishment seems to point Thursday back where he started: to the rooming house where he lives. He pieces it together through a fading alcoholic haze, and figures out what's been bothering him about Olivera being a step ahead of him each time he was getting close to Fred: Smitty is Saint Paul, and has been manipulating Thursday since he left with Georgia. The wounded Fred tells the ex-cop what he knows, and Thursday, sober and focused for the first time, takes Olivera in a sudden explosion of gunfire. Ignoring Smitty's offer of a half-share from the sale of the jewels, he calls police headquarters and then his wife, so they can go and get their son together. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

More a romantic melodrama than the uplifting propaganda piece the producers perhaps envisioned, In Our Time stars Ida Lupino as Jennifer Whittredge, a young antique buyer marrying a Polish count, Stephan Orvid (Paul Henried), after a whirlwind romance in a Warsaw at the brink of World War II. The count's old-fashioned family in general and his aristocratic uncle (Victor Francen) in particular resist the union, but Jennifer brings a breath of fresh air and a sense of good Anglo-Saxon values into the stagnant rooms of the Orvid estate and soon the farm is prosperous once again. When the German military might finally enters Poland, Jennifer and Stephan join the country's scorched earth defense by burning both their property and are soon among the refugees waiting for the day when Poland is once again free from Fascism. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

The second of Laurel & Hardy's two MGM starring films, Nothing But Trouble casts Stan and Ollie as, respectively, an unemployed butler and chef. Despite their inherent ineptitude, there's a wartime servant shortage, so the boys are hired by flighty dowager Mrs. Hawkley (Mary Boland), who hopes to impress visiting dignitaries from the kingdom of Orlandia. While purchasing food for Mrs. Hawkley's dinner party, Stan and Ollie meet a likeable child named Chris (David Leland) - who unbeknownst to them is Orlandia's young monarch-in-exile King Christopher. The boy's uncle, Prince Saul (Philip Merivale), intends to assassinate Chris and take the throne for himself, so the bumbling twosome set out on an improbable rescue mission to save Chris from the Prince's evil clutches. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This slick marital farce features Joel McCrea as T. H. Randall, a race horse owner whose devotion to his work causes a strain in his relationship with wife Valerie (Nancy Kelly). Unable to stand any more neglect, Valerie divorces Randall, even though the audience is well aware that she's still in love with him. Reduced to poverty by his huge alimony payments, Randall cooks up a scheme with lawyer Bill Carter (Roland Young) to marry off Valerie to staid Paul Hunter (Lyle Talbot). But during a weekend party at the home of dowager Ethel (Mary Boland), Randall resents the attentions lavished upon Valerie by rakish young Freddie (Cesar Romero). It doesn't take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out who winds up with whom in the last scene. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The third film version of Earl Derr Biggers' novel Love Insurance, One Night in the Tropics stars Allan Jones as a hotshot insurance salesman who sells a policy to his best pal Robert Cummings. Cummings will earn $1 million if he fails to marry his fiance Nancy Kelly. Half of the policy is underwritten by tough gambling-house owner William Frawley, who panics when Cummings heads for a Caribbean isle in pursuit of Peggy Moran. As for Kelly, she wants no part of Cummings once she finds out she's a pawn in his policy. Well, who cares? The real attraction of One Night in the Tropics is the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, here making their feature film debut in the roles of Frawley's flunkeys. Though they never get in the way of the plot (worse luck!), Abbott and Costello have plenty of time to perform several of their best routines, including "Mustard," "Jonah and the Whale," and a tantalizingly brief excerpt of "Who's on First?" Outside of A&C's contributions, the film boasts several pleasant if forgettable tunes by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. Though not a big box-office success, One Night in the Tropics garnered such positive reviews for Abbott and Costello that the team was rewarded with its own vehicle, the 1941 cash cow Buck Privates. Note: many TV prints of Tropics are struck from the 69-minute reissue of the late 1940s, in which the "straight" plot was pared to down to give more emphasis to Abbott and Costello. The original 82 minute version was recently restored for videocassette release. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this domestic comedy, a husband and wife manage an apartment building owned by the husband's pal. Meanwhile they must also begin caring for an orphaned lad. They take a shine to the boy and desire to adopt him, but first they must convince his grandfather who is not impressed by their eccentricities. ~ 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

In this socially conscious drama a sextet of juvenile delinquents flee a crime screen in their seedy ghetto and wind up getting invited to a posh mansion by a wealthy criminal. Their attempts to accustom themselves to the opulent surroundings nearly results in the destruction of the manse. Eventually they boys decide that they must return to the city and pay for their crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this musical sequel to the highly successful Artists and Models, Jack Benny plays Buck Boswell, the leader of a troupe of performers who end up broke and stranded in gay Paris. To rustle up a little cash, he decides to produce a musical fashion show. Boswell hires an American father and daughter to perform because he thinks they too are impoverished. Things happen, and Boswell nearly loses his show until his two Yanks reveal that they are loaded. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this screwball comedy, a fresh-out-of-college fellow heads for the gold fields of Alaska to find his fortune. He is gone for a long time. He returns to marry his girl friend and is dismayed to discover that she is no longer interested him. When her mother learns that the fellow has struck it rich, she changes her daughter's mind. Unfortunately, the young man has become enamored of the girl's little sister. Catastrophic sibling rivalry ensues as the women vie for the young man's affection. Meanwhile, the fellow's prospector friend tries to mediate and calm things down. In the end, the young man gets the best woman and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this bedroom farce, a writer rails against marriage and touts the benefits of staying single. He then convinces his friend that only relationships based on struggle and strife are worth having. His friend is married so the writer suggests he start trouble by trying to make her jealous. The naive fellow does so by sleeping with a faded French actress. This is the woman the writer wanted. The philanderer then returns home fully expecting his beloved wife to forgive him with open arms. Things don't turn out that way at all. To make it worse, the writer is also very angry at him. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This crime drama is set in the fictional San Francisco eatery, Mary Grady's Chowder House which is presided over by the crusty Mary, a tough broad with a marshmallow heart. One of her regulars is a newspaper reporter who decides to write about the widow Grady's long lost son who disappeared 15-years-ago. The trouble begins when a vagabond fugitive, who got in trouble after trying to prevent a murder, learns of the reporter's search and decides to pretend to be the prodigal son. At first the gruff Mary and her adopted daughter are skeptical. But later when the detective who pursues the killer closes in, they end up defending the young man. When the fugitive sees a picture of Mary's late husband, he realizes that the real killer is Mary's estranged son. Soon the widow and the reporter begin putting things together and find themselves closer to finding her real son. They do not know what he has done so the good-hearted fugitive tries to thwart them at every turn. This puts him in grave danger, but this doesn't sway him. Unfortunately, he fails and Mary finds her long-lost offspring, and just after he admits that he is her son, he is killed in a police shoot out. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi