Helen Vinson Movies

This 1940s drama implies that children do indeed learn what they live as it tells the story of a teenage girl who runs away from her posh boarding school to be with her ne'er-do-well, blue-collar boy friend because she believes her wealthy parents do not care about her. Soon the idle kids are getting into minor trouble that turns major when they find themselves accused of murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Lady and the Monster was the first film version of the classic Curt Siodmak sci-fi/horror tale Donovan's Brain. The plot involves the brain of a famous but unscrupulous financier, recently deceased. The brain is kept alive artificially by overenthusiastic scientist Erich Von Stroheim, with the help of lab assistants Vera Hruba Ralston (the "lady" of the title) and Richard Arlen. Gradually, the dead financier's brain takes over the mind of Arlen, turning him into the helpless conduit for the financier's evil machinations. Lady and the Monster was remade in 1954, using the original Siodmak title Donovan's Brain. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A Broadway producer and a director conspire to destroy the career of an aging star so they can tear up her contract and use fresher talent in this comedy drama. First they must choose an appropriately horrible script. They find one, "The End of Everything," written by a lovely female playwright. Unfortunately, the old diva adores the script and somehow turns the play into the hit of the season. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Torrid Zone star James Cagney once described the film as "The Front Page among the bananas." Indeed, the screenplay diligently follows the Front Page plot device of a tough boss (Pat O'Brien) pulling every underhanded trick in the book to keep his top man (Cagney) from quitting. This time the setting is a Central American plantation owned by O'Brien, which supervisor Cagney would dearly love to leave behind. Complicating the plot is a nightclub singer (Anne Sheridan) over whom O'Brien and Tracy do battle; a bored married woman (Helen Vinson) with eyes for Cagney; and a gang of Latino bandits, led by George Tobias (providing comic relief). What Torrid Zone lacked in originality it made up for in sheer energy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Festooned with flashbacks, Married and in Love is a minor domestic drama given Tiffany treatment by director John Farrow. Helen Vinson plays a vain, selfish woman, unhappily married to Patrick Knowles. Impulsively, Helen decides to kick over the traces an elope with college sweetheart Alan Marshal. It so happens that Marshal is also married, to Barbara Read. The events leading up to Helen and Alan's rash behavior are detailed with a complexity that rivals Citizen Kane. All Married and In Love would have needed to move into the A-picture category was a more bankable cast. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on Memory of Love, a novel by Bessie Breuer, In Name Only is soap opera par excellence, blessed with a peerless cast. Carole Lombard plays widow Julie Eden, who meets and falls in love with unhappily married Alec Walker (Cary Grant). Having married Alec solely for his wealth and family prestige, his manipulative wife, Maida (Kay Francis), has managed to convince everyone -- even Alec's parents -- that she is the victimized one and that Alec is an irresponsible philanderer. Making matters worse, Maida refuses to give Alec a divorce so that he can find happiness in the arms of the sweet, unassuming Julie. Almost miraculously, Maida agrees to let Alec go, only to capriciously renege at the last minute and sue Julie for alienation of affections. Disconsolately, Alec goes on a bender, falling asleep in front of an open window and contracting pneumonia. As Alec lays seriously ill in a hospital bed, Julie tearfully agrees to give him up if only Maida will try to make him happy. But Maida isn't about to give up this moment of triumph, cheerfully bragging about her underhanded methods and her intention to take Alec for every penny that he has. Without giving away the outcome, it can be noted that, figuratively speaking, loose lips sink ships. Though In Name Only could have been a wallow in bathos, the performances by the stars -- and the knowing direction of John Cromwell -- elevate the production to the level of "romance classic." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Starving artist Robert Montgomery could care less if his paintings sell, so long as he's happy. Montgomery falls in love with Rosalind Russell, an heiress who's gone "slumming" in Greenwich Village. Russell becomes Montgomery's patroness as well as his wife, urging him to make his paintings more commercial. He becomes a success following her advice, but popularity goes to his head and soon Russell realizes she's created a monster. She walks out, he gets his act together, she comes back, and they return to their blissful hand-to-mouth existence. Live, Love and Learn scores its biggest laughs unintentionally with MGM's prettified concept of what a "run down" Greenwich village apartment looks like. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When a king suddenly abdicates, his subjects are lead to believe that it is for the love of a foreigner in this romance. In reality, he is stepping down so avaricious businessmen can crown their own man king. The deposed monarch spends his exile on the Riviera, while the woman, filled with guilt because he stepped down for her, lives in Holland. Interestingly enough, Edward VIII the King of England abdicated for the love of American woman Wallis Simpson a few weeks after this British film was released. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The first major film about psychiatry, Private Worlds stars Claudette Colbert as a psychiatrist with more than a few problems of her own. Colbert's appointment to a top mental hospital is frowned upon by head doctor Charles Boyer, who doesn't have much confidence in woman doctors of any kind. A secondary storyline involves Boyer's sister Helen Vinson, who lusts for a young married doctor (Joel McCrea). The doctor's wife (Joan Bennett) subsequently goes insane in an "off-angled" scene anticipating the techniques of film noir by nearly a decade. Meanwhile, doctors Boyer and Colbert establish a mutual respect which deepens into love. Based on a novel by Phyllis Bottomes, Private Worlds is stronger in its vignettes (including a scene in which Boyer comforts a dying patient by speaking a few words in the patient's native tongue) than in its longer "plot" scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Critics in 1935 recognized immediately that Age of Indiscretion drew its inspiration from the well-publicized Gloria Vanderbilt custody battle. Paul Lukas plays publisher Robert Lenhart, a man of conservative tastes who is unfortunately saddled with a footloose socialite wife named Eve (Helen Vinson). When Lenhart begs his wife to curb her excesses, she retaliates by entering into an illicit affair with Felix Shaw (Ralph Forbes), deserting her young son Bill (David Jack Holt). Providing moral support for Lenhart and his son during this crisis is faithful secretary Maxine Bennett (Madge Evans). Upon paying a visit to Lenhart's home, Felix Shaw's wealthy and powerful mother Emma (May Robson) finds Maxine in the living room. Assuming the worst, Emma forces Eve to sue for custody of her child, then distorts the evidence in court to paint Lenhart as a philandering monster. The outcome of the case hinges on the child's testimony, and it is this which forces Emma to realize how wrong she's been. Too bad that the litigants in the Vanderbilt case weren't as polite and reasonable as the characters in Age of Indiscretion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Transatlantic Tunnel is the English-language version of the 1932 French-German speculative drama The Tunnel. Set sometime in the future (complete with two-way televisions, art-deco airships and self-propelled automobiles), the film stars Richard Dix as McAllen, a visionary architect who devotes his life to the construction of a tunnel linking the United States with England. Despite devastating professional and personal setbacks, including the death of his own son in a tunnel cave-in, nothing dissuades Dix from completing the project. Guest stars Walter Huston and George Arliss are cast respectively as the American President and the British Prime Minister, roles that they'd played before on several occasions. Like William Cameron Menzie's Things to Come, the film is more impressive for its futuristic sets and state-of-the-art special effects than for its dramatic content. Originally released at 94 minutes, Transatlantic Tunnel is currently available only in its 70-minute reissue form. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Just after completing It Happened One Night, director Frank Capra churned out a bread-and-butter picture titled Broadway Bill. Warner Baxter plays the carefree scion of a wealthy, highly-respected family. Baxter's cold but socially correct wife Helen Vinson forces her husband into the family business, but Baxter would rather spend his time at the racetrack. He buys a nag named Broadway Bill and tries to build the horse into a winner--if he doesn't bankrupt himself first. Only Baxter's sister-in-law Myrna Loy and black stable hand Clarence Muse have faith in Broadway Bill. The horse wins a crucial race, but dies suddenly at the finish line. Baxter is comforted and given encouragement by Loy, who is now his sweetheart, Vinson having long since washed her hands of her "irresponsible" husband. Broadway Bill was remade by Capra as Riding High (1950), utilizing generous portions of stock footage and even going so far as to rehire several of the original film's cast members (Douglass Dumbrille, Clarence Muse, Charles Lane, Raymond Walburn, Margaret Hamilton, Frankie Darro) to recreate their roles and match up their scenes from the earlier production. Long withheld from distribution due to Riding High, Broadway Bill was made available for videocassette in the mid-1980s. Keep an eye out for Lucille Ball as a blonde telephone operator and Alan Hale Sr. as a racetrack announcer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi