Alberta Vaughn Movies
- 1923
British music hall favorite Lupino Lane enjoyed an energetic if not spectacular film career in Hollywood. Largely confined to 2-reelers, Lane managed to star in one feature film, Friendly Husband. In this one, he plays the very patient spouse of featherbrained Alberta Vaughan. And, of course, he is saddled with the obligatory mother-in-law, here played by the fearsome Eva Thatcher. The martial-farce plot complications allow Lane to indulge in his world-famous athletic slapstick, including his legendary "scissors kick." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lupino Lane, Alberta Vaughn, (more)
- 1926
The Roberston-Cole Studio had just merged with Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices when the company released the 1926 silent comedy The Adorable Deceiver. Alberta Vaughan plays an exiled European princess who, to help support her father after, agrees to impersonate....herself! Her employer, wealthy and handsome Harland Tucker, hopes that by introducing his mother (Cora Williams) to a phony princess, he'll cure mom of her social climbing. Before Alberta reveals her true identity, she exposes a pair of jewel thieves, who are themselves posing as nobility (whew!) Based on the play Triple Trouble by Harry O. Hoyt, Adorable Deceiver was smoothly directed by future Monogram mainstay Phil Rosen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberta Vaughn, Cora Williams, (more)
- 1927
After winning a Charleston contest, Missouri gal Alberta Vaughan heads to Broadway, hoping to achieve stardom. Landing a job as a cabaret chorus girl, our heroine takes the advice of one of her bosses, who suggests that she has to put up a good "front" to impress potential employers. To that end, she rents a fancy apartment with expensive furnishings, paying on the installment plan. But another of her bosses, certain that his partner merely wants to set up a "love nest" to seduce the girl, withdraws his okay on her charge accounts, and soon Vaughan is deeply in debt. The collection agency strips Vaughan of her belongings, including her fancy clothes, forcing her to appear on the cabaret stage in her undies. At this point, the boss who cancelled Vaughan's accounts realizes that he's been a jerk, and offers to marry the girl -- though why she accepts is anyone's guess, since her underdressed dance act is the hit of the show! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberta Vaughn
- 1927
Love ain't all that funny, but this 5-reel comedy elicited a chuckle or two from 1927 audiences. Alberta Vaughn plays a lovely lass who wants to do her part during World War 1. Her idea of contributing to the war effort is to pledge her undying love to every doughboy she meets. The fun begins when Vaughn's many Johnnies all come marching home at once. While it would be presumptive of us to suggest that the pretty but barely talented Alberta Vaughn was cast in Ain't Love Funny? because she appealed to FBO Studios boss Joseph P. Kennedy, we can note that Ms. Vaughn's career went into eclipse after Kennedy left moviemaking and FBO was absorbed into RKO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberta Vaughn
- 1927
The low-budget Sinews of Steel originally premiered in New York as one-half of a double feature, paired with the equally inexpensive She's My Baby. On the outs with his steel-magnate father, young Gaston Glass proves his worth by establishing his own steel mill. Ultimately he finds himself in competition with his dad, besting him in the marketplace and thus bringing about a reconciliation. Alberta Vaughan provides the love interest, though the story was strong enough to do without a romantic subplot. Sinews of Steel was produced by Sam Sax, who prospered into the talkie era as head of Vitaphone's short-subject division. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberta Vaughn
- 1927
The silent The Dropkick stars Richard Barthelmess as a talented but hopelessly conceited college football star. Because of his frequent clashes with his coach, Barthelmess is the prime suspect when said coach is murdered. He manages to clear himself just in time to win the Big Game. Of interest to sports fans is the presence in the cast of the 10 top college football players of 1927. Together with The Patent Leather Kid, The Dropkick was Richard Barthelmess' biggest moneymaker during his tenure at First National Studios. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Barthelmess, Barbara Kent, (more)
- 1927
The direction for Columbia's The Romantic Age is credited to "Scott Florey," but knowledgeable film buffs will recognize this as an alias for "B"-picture stylist Robert Florey. Engaged to middle-aged Eugene O'Brien, Alberta Vaughn develops a yen for O'Brien's handsome younger brother Stanley Taylor. But when Taylor succumbs to her charms, she spurns him with a severe tongue-lashing. Understandably confused, the mild-mannered Taylor turns nasty, causing a rift between himself and O'Brien. The two brothers are reconciled when one saves the other from a burning building. Saddled with a schizophrenic screenplay, Robert Florey did his best to rescue The Romantic Age with his customary visual flair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberta Vaughn, Eugene O'Brien, (more)
- 1928
A pre-Hopalong Cassidy William Boyd stars in the virile Cecil B. DeMille production Skyscraper. Boyd is cast as Blondy, a New York steel riveter with a fondness for girls and practical jokes, though not necessarily in that order. Blondy decides to change his carefree ways when he falls in love with chorus girl Sally (Sue Carol). But when he is seriously injured on the job, Blondy breaks off his engagement with Sally, not wanting to saddle her with a cripple husband. It is Blondy's best pal Slim (Alan Hale Sr.) who saves the day by chewing the hero out and calling him a "quitter," virtually forcing Blondy to rehabilitate himself -- both physically and mentally -- and return to Sally. The skyscraper scenes in Skyscraper were quite thrilling, filmed without benefit of back projection or doubles, but the "thrill" quotient of the film takes a back seat to the love story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Hopalong" Boyd, Alan Hale, (more)
- 1928
Cabaret dancer Alberta Vaughan falls in love with upright Southern gentleman Gareth Hughes. To save Hughes' sister Vivian Rich from ruination, Vaughan "comes on" to Rich's would-be seducer Bud Shaw. The younger girl is kept from losing her virtue, but the price of her salvation is Vaughan's reputation. But when the heroine rides her family's "old" horse to victory in a Big Race -- despite the fact that the race has been fixed in the favor of Shaw's nag -- all is forgiven. Very, very cheaply made, Old Age Handicap was redeemed by the razor-sharp cinematography of Jules Cronjager. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberta Vaughn, Vivian Rich, (more)
- 1929
In this early talkie, a burlesque team grows tired of playing rural gigs. When the fellow is offered a chance to do a solo act in the big-city Frolics, he accepts leaving his partner to keep working in hicksville. Meanwhile, back in the Big Apple, the fellow begins falling for a voluptuous vamp spurring him to write his old partner a letter and tell her of his plans to stay solo for a while longer yet. When he discovers that the sexpot is not interested in him, he frantically tries to get the letter back before she gets it. Unfortunately, he is too late. With an aching heart, the woman carries on with her show. Unbeknownst to her, the other partner has arrived and is in a theater box. When she breaks into one of their old duets, he joins her and a romantic reunion ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belle Bennett, Alberta Vaughn, (more)
- 1929
Only three minutes of the 74-minute Noisy Neighbors contains any dialogue; the rest of the film has hardly any noise at all. Written for the screen by F. Hugh Herbert (of Kiss and Tell and The Moon is Blue fame), the story focuses on a family of second-string vaudevillians, played by genuine vaudeville trouper Eddie Quillan and his real-life family. Inheriting a Southern plantation, Quillan and his brood land in the middle of a raging hillbilly feud. One of the mountain patriarches is played by old DeMille reliable Theodore Roberts, in his final screen appearance; he died shortly before the film's release. Also in the cast is pert ex-Sennett bathing beauty Alberta Vaughan (who appeared in a swimsuit in the film's production stills, but not on screen), and bombastic comedian Billy Gilbert, in his movie debut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberta Vaughn, Theodore Roberts, (more)
- 1929
Universal's top western ace, the charming Hoot Gibson, starred in this average oater about a young man who goes undercover as a bandit to infiltrate the gang responsible for his father's death. As always, Gibson uses guile and wit instead of brute force to unmask and apprehend the guilty party (nasty-looking Frank Campeau). The rather commonplace story was concocted by the prolific B.M. Bowers, AKA novelist Bertha Muzzy Sinclair. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hoot Gibson
- 1929
Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 and Paramount on Parade, due mainly to the film's master of ceremonies, the insufferable Frank Fay. Some of the individual acts seen in Show of Shows were pretty good, notably Winnie Lightner's delightful Singing in the Bathtub (a spoof of Hollywood Revue of 1929's Singin' in the Rain) and John Barrymore's brilliant rendition of Richard III's soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry VI. Also easy to take was "Floradora Sextette," featuring such luminaries as Myrna Loy, Patsy Ruth Miller and cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin, and "Eight Sister Acts," including such Hollywood siblings as Dolores and Helene Costello, Sally Blane and Loretta Young and Shirley Mason and Viola Dana (also teamed in this number are Ann Sothern and Marion Byron, who were not sisters). But for the most part, the acts are on a par with "Skull and Crossbones," a boring production number showcasing entertainer Ted Lewis, and "Recitations," a one-joke affair in which three different anecdotes (related by Frank Fay, Louis Fazenda, Lloyd Hamilton and Bea Lillie) are melded into one. Show of Shows was originally released in two-color Technicolor but now exists only in black in white, save for the "Chinese Fantasy" number featuring crooner Nick Lucas and Warner Bros. contractee Myrna Loy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
By many considered the best of Hoot Gibson's eight Westerns for Gower Gulch producer M.H. Hoffman, Wild Horse starred The Hooter as Jim Wright, a cowpoke hired to work on George Bunny's rodeo ranch. Gibson manages to capture "The Devil Horse," a magnificent steed which had been eluding the wranglers, but the horse is stolen by jealous ranch hand Edmund Cobb, who murders Gibson's buddy Skeeter Bill Robbins) along the way. Gibson is blamed for both but everything is worked out after the usual hard ridin' and shootin'. Gibson, who enjoyed near autonomy in his pictures for Hoffman's Allied Pictures Corp., filled the supporting cast with old friends such as Neal Hart, Fred Gilman, Pete Morrison and Cobb, all of whom had seen better days in the silent era. "The Devil Horse" was "played" by Mutt, a horse from Gibson's own stable. The result was a fast-paced B-Western marred only slightly for modern audiences by the typically demeaning "comedy" of African-American performer Stepin Fetchit. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1931
Working Girls is a slight, dated, but still entertaining comedy, typical of its era. Louise Adams (Frances Dee) and her friend (Claire Dodd) travel to the city in order to get jobs and hopefully find husbands. There they face the usual complications, but the women persevere and all ends well. The film is notable because its director Dorothy Arzner, was one of the few American women directors of the studio era. Arzner began her career as script-girl where she progressed to film editor. Her editing so impressed Paramount that Arzner was allowed to direct. She went on to have a long career and was the first woman member of the Directors Guild of America. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- 1932
Although based on a story by William Colt McDonald, the creator of The Three Mesqueteers, this Tim McCoy effort from Columbia was a conventional Western at best. McCoy played Tim Madigan, a cowpoke coming to the aid of Jerry Norris (Alberta Vaughn), whose father (Murdock MacQuarrie) is in trouble with a gang of cattle rustlers. The leaders of the rustlers, Hugo Distang (Robert Ellis) and Bull Bagley (Richard Alexander), prove to be the very same villains Madigan was trailing. Aided by a new friend, Jughandle (Wallace MacDonald), Madigan manages to catch the rustlers red-handed. The bandits are carted off to jail and Jughandle proves to be an agent for the Cattlemen's Association. McCoy offered a competent and believable performance but this time the material was not quite up to his usual high standard. Future Three Stooges menace Vernon Dent appeared as an ill-fated bartender. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberta Vaughn
Harrison Ford (the original silent era Harrison Ford) and 1924 WAMPAS Baby Star Alberta Vaughn starred in this comedy-thriller from low-budget Mayfair Pictures Corp. When fussy Ronald Courtney (Tyrell Davis) spots his fiancée, Betty (Vaughn), winking at Donald Ransome (Ford) at a friend's wedding, he demands that they get married that very night. While dumb detective Duffy (Fred Kelsey) is chatting up Marie, the French maid, someone steals a valuable diamond. Duffy demands the gates locked, but Ronald manages to get out. The thief, Donald, manages to smuggle the gem out in a suitcase belonging to Betty, who then heads upstate for her wedding to Ronald. Everybody, including Ronald's weird relatives (Ethel Wales and Arthur Hoyt), ends up at the Peak Inn, where a game of "who's got the diamond" begins. After plenty of traffic up and down stairscases and in and out of closets, Donald, who was only returning the diamond to a friend, is reunited with his highborn girlfriend (Nanette Vallon), while Ronald and Betty are finally able to get on with their nuptials. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Alberta Vaughn, (more)
- 1932
The problem with the main characters in Midnight Morals is that they have more midnight than morals in their lives. Rookie cop Charles Delaney falls in love with taxi dancer Alberta Vaughan, much to the consternation of Delaney's chief-detective father DeWitt Jennings. Dad's trepidations seem to be well-founded with Vaughan gets mixed up in a gangland murder. Flying in the face of the rules of evidence and police procedure, Delaney stands by the girl's side, and together they reveal the true identity of the killer. Top-billed Beryl Mercer, who previously played the mothers of Lew Ayres and Jimmy Cagney in All Quiet on the Western Front and Public Enemy respectively, has a good scene as a prison matron. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beryl Mercer, DeWitt Jennings, (more)
- 1932
In this drama, a bandleader thinks that his young friend will be corrupted by his budding relationship with a taxi dancer. To protect the tender youth, the conductor sends him out of town.The bandleader soon finds himself wooing the lovely dancer. Unfortunately, a jealous gangster is also in love with her. When the gangster discovers that the bandleader presents competition, he targets him for a hit. Chaos ensues ending in a shoot-out. The gangster is killed, the bandleader shot, and the callow youth is finally reunited with his beloved dancer. Songs include: "St. Louis Blues." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Jack Oakie, (more)
- 1933
A wife is on trial for murdering her husband's former spouse in this inexpensive melodrama from low-budget Mayfair Pictures Corp. In flashback, it is shown that Joan Armstrong (Helen Chandler), an unemployed stenographer, is hired to act as corespondent for architect John Thurman (Leon Waycoff, aka Leon Ames) in his divorce from Eloise Thurman (Charlotte Merriam), a callous woman who cares more for her pet Pekinese than her husband and who is granted a huge settlement. Joan goes to work for John, with whom she has fallen in love, and they eventually marry and have a son. Several unfortunate events bankrupt John and he is on his way to purchase medicine for his dying son with his last 20 dollar bill when stopped by a process server acting on behalf of Eloise. Little John Jr. dies and when Joan learns that the 20 dollars earmarked for medicine instead went to pay the first Mrs. Thurman's veterinarian bills, she becomes temporarily insane and kills the greedy woman. Back in the courtroom, a weeping jury returns a verdict of "not guilty" and Joan and John are reunited. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Chandler, Edward Earle, (more)
- 1933
In this drama, a young surgeon and his driver must combat the racketeers who have taken over the hospital where he works. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wynne Gibson, William Gargan, (more)
- 1934
- NR
In perhaps the most haunting opening of any B-Western, Randy Rides Alone has John Wayne enter a deserted saloon filled with corpses. To the tinny strains of a player-piano and with someone eerily peeking from behind a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant, Wayne's reconnaissance ends with his arrest for murder. No B-Western ground out in five days for around $10,000 could possibly live up to this introduction and Randy Rides Alone quickly gets down to business as usual. But director Harry L. Fraser and scenarist Lindsley Parsons still manage to get in a couple of off-beat touches. The killers, lead by stunt-man extraordinaire Yakima Canutt, are holed up in a cave picturesquely hidden behind a waterfall, and future comic relief George "Gabby" Hayes, looking for all the world like Lionel Barrymore, plays a mute, hunchbacked shop-keeper who may not be all he appears. Add to the mystery elements some extraordinary stunt-work by Canutt and you have a superior series Western. Cecilia Parker, one of the more gracious actresses to appear in low-budget fare, was all set to co-star as the murdered saloon owner's niece, but Wayne came down with the flu and production was delayed. When producer Paul Malvern was ready to begin again, Miss Parker proved unavailable and had to be replaced with 1924 WAMPAS Baby Star Alberta Vaughn, an actress whose career was all but over. Randy Rides Alone did little to alter that fact but the film remains a minor classic of the genre. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1935
Little more than stock footage from the 1934 serial Pirate Treasure, this low-budget action adventure stars stunt man Richard Talmadge as Dick Nelson, a sailor leading an expedition to an uncharted island where a treasure is supposed to be stored. En route, the vessel suffers a mutiny and eventually explodes, leaving two groups of survivors washed up on shore. Dick's group, which also includes the captain (Charles K. French) and his daughter (Alberta Vaughn), is the first to encounter the treasure but is almost defeated by an opposing faction led by nasty Bull Dennis (George Walsh). Although a Regal Pictures Corp. production, Live Wire was filmed at Universal using standing sets. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
