Maidel Turner Movies
Money Means Nothing to tire salesman Kenneth (Wallace Ford), mainly because he doesn't have any. But when Kenneth falls in love with wealthy Julie (Gloria Shea), he feels obliged to support her in the manner to which she is accustomed. Thus, when a shipment of tires is hijacked, Kenneth is immediately fingered as the thief. He isn't, of course, and sets about to prove it -- and to be at last accepted by Julie's snobbish mother (Betty Blythe). A Jewish-comedy sequence with dialectian Tenen Holtz may be considered offensive by modern viewers (it was certainly regarded that way back in 1934). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Ford, Gloria Shea, (more)
- 1934
Columbia Pictures workhorse Lambert Hillyer was both writer and director of Men of the Night. Bruce Cabot plays Kelly, a Hollywood detective, assigned to capture a holdup gang. While dallying with carhop Mary (Judith Allen), Kelly jumps to the hasty conclusion that the girl is somehow tied in with the crooks. Acting on this misapprehension, he nearly gets both Mary and himself killed by the villains (headed by Charles Sabin, a stage actor who never quite clicked in films). Ward Bond, a mere supporting player in 1934, goes into his comedy-relief mode as Cabot's dimwitted partner. Men of the Night ran 58 minutes, just long enough to fit comfortably on the bottom half of a Columbia double bill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Cabot, Judith Allen, (more)
- 1934
Produced by Warner Bros. in 1934, A Modern Hero was the only American talkie directed by the great German filmmaker G. W. Pabst. Richard Barthelmess plays Pierre, the bastard son of blowzy, besotted circus performer Mme. Azais (Marjorie Rambeau). Fiercely ambitious, Pierre enters the world of automobile manufacturing, rising to the heights of success by callously using wealthy women to get ahead. After breaking one heart after another, Pierre is finally beaten at his own game by a disgruntled young lady who walks out on him, forcing him to admit that he's an utter flop as a human being. Jean Muir co-stars as Joanna, seduced and abandoned early in the proceedings, while other women crucial to Pierre's ascension are played by Veree Teasdale and Florence Eldredge. Based on a novel by Louis Bromfield, A Modern Hero has been correctly assessed by one of the director's devotees as having "little of Pabst in it." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Barthelmess, Jean Muir, (more)
- 1934
This well-mounted Majestic Pictures effort was inspired by Collusion, a novel by Theodore D. Irwin. Edward Arnold is in his element as Frank Rodie, an honest lawyer who turns dishonest to pay off his wife's stock-market losses. Still desperate for money, Rodie offers to serve as a co-respondent in a divorce case. His far-from-grateful wife (Helen Jerome Eddy) uses this as an excuse to divorce him and desert him for her paramour. Rodie spends the rest of the picture proving that his wife was a fool for deceiving and underestimating him. The "blonde" of the title is played by Dorothy Revier, actually one of the more sympathetic characters in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Jerome Eddy, Edward Arnold, (more)
- 1933
Given the usual pedestal upon which mothers were placed by MGM head Louis Mayer, it's all the more amazing that Mayer gave the go-ahead for Another Language. Louise Closser Hale plays a domineering matriarch who controls the lives of her grown, married sons, using a fabricated heart condition to keep them in line. Helen Hayes marries youngest son Robert Montgomery, only to sit by in mute horror as Mother exerts her authority over her timorous offspring at a weekly family get-together. At the end, only Hayes and Montgomery's nephew John Beal have the courage to break the apron strings, but not without the formidable opposition of Monster Mom. Based on the Broadway play by Rose Franken, Another Language represented the screen debut of Margaret Hamilton, recreating the supporting role she'd played on stage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Hayes, Robert Montgomery, (more)
- 1933
In this romantic comedy, an American art student goes abroad to study and gets a reputation when she marries a wealthy shipping magnate. She eventually returns to her hometown. While en route, a train wreck occurs and she proves herself a heroine by helping out. She then finds herself falling in love with a Kansas school teacher. Romantic mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Benita Hume, Adolphe Menjou, (more)
