Alice Ward Movies
- 1942
An innocent man is put on trial, but is he really as innocent as he claims? Diplomat David Talbot (William Powell) and his bride Lucienne (Hedy Lamarr) are enjoying a honeymoon in Paris when David is confronted by extortionists who demand money in exchange for not turning him in to the police. David has no idea what the men are talking about and ignores their threats, but the men prove good to their word, and David finds himself on trial for a series of thefts. At the trial, David's name is cleared when Henri Sarrow (Basil Rathbone) testifies that he knew the man who committed the crimes, a friend of his who recently died. However, after the trial, David meets Sarrow, who informs David that he lied under oath; according to Sarrow, David did indeed commit the robberies while suffering from amnesia after a severe blow to the head, and if he wants to keep the facts quiet, he'll do whatever Sarrow says. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, (more)
- 1932
A sequel to the 1931 George O'Brien western Riders of the Purple Sage, The Rainbow Trail picks up where the earlier film left off -- sort of. In Riders, fugitive from justice Jim Lassiter (O'Brien) and his sweetheart Jane Withersteen (Marguerite Churchill) escaped to the "lost valley," sealing themselves off from civilization with the aid of a huge boulder. In the sequel, O'Brien assumes the role of Lassiter's nephew Shefford, who has been assigned to search for his missing uncle; thus, in effect, the actor spends the early portions of the film chasing himself. Shefford's search is interrupted by a confrontation with his uncle's old nemesis Dyer (W. L. Thorne), now a masked bandit. On a more pleasant note, our hero inaugurates a romance with the lovely Fay Larkin (Cecilia Parker, in her film debut). Unfortunately, it is necessary to be familiar with Riders of the Purple Sage to be able to follow the convoluted plotline of The Rainbow Trail (both properties, of course, were based on the works of Zane Grey). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George O'Brien, Cecilia Parker, (more)
- 1932
Like the previous years' Ten Nights in a Bar-room, The Face on the Barroom Floor resurrects a corny old title to illustrate the dangers of alcohol abuse. Bramwell Fletcher stars as Bill Bronson, a down-and-out drunkard who is the object of everyone's derision. It was not always thus: once he was a successful banker, with a beautiful wife (Dulcie Cooper) and a rosy future. But when Bronson tries to wean his father-in-law from the influence of an evil bootlegger, and when his own wife insists that he must drink occasionally to "be sociable," our hero succumbs to the family curse of alcoholism. One sip of booze leads to another, and before long Bronson has literally drunk away his entire life. Though it leans towards caricature and overexaggeration at times, Face on the Barroom Floor is in many ways as powerful as such later anti-liquor epics as The Lost Weekend and Come Fill the Cup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dulcie Cooper, Bramwell Fletcher, (more)
- 1931
Though he'd intended to retire when talkies came in, silent-screen matinee idol Thomas Meighan kept returning to the screen by popular demand until 1934, two years before his death. In Skyline, Meighan is cast as James McClellan, a builder specializing in Manhattan skyscrapers. Though fiercely independent, McClellan generously takes on talented young architect John Breen (Hardie Albright) as his partner, nurturing his protégé into a successful career of his own. What McClellan knows, but Breen doesn't, is that the younger man is McClellan's illegitimate son. Before McClellan reveals the truth, there is an unpleasant story twist when Breen falls in love Paula Lambert (Myrna Loy), his father's mistress. Part and parcel of the film's happy ending is Breen's romance with ingenue Kathleen Kearney (Maureen O'Sullivan). Skyline is based on East Side, West Side, a novel by Felix Riesenberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Meighan, Hardie Albright, (more)
- 1926
Baby Face Harry Langdon is a videocassette collection of selected Mack Sennett two-reelers starring pasty-faced comedian Harry Langdon. Langdon's character can best be described as an overgrown baby (with all the bad attributes of infancy as well as the good), and as such he seemed an unlikely candidate for stardom in the mid-1920s. But with Charlie Chaplin between pictures, movie audiences turned to Langdon for large dollops of character comedy seasoned with pathos. Many of Langdon's silent short subjects for Mack Sennett Studios were scripted by Frank Capra, and most were directed by Harry Edwards, a mediocre talent who did his best work with Langdon (who, in turn, trusted Edwards without question). The highlight of this collection is Saturday Afternoon (1926) a near-perfect three-reeler in which Langdon escapes his domineering wife for an afternoon of carefree abandon with his pal Vernon Dent and two flirtatious flappers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1925
Edmund Lowe, who at the time was known for his urbane characterizations, seemed a bit miscast as a South Seas derelict in this Fox melodrama. The film wasn't helped either by the fact that the studio had released the very similar (and much better) Man Who Came Back a few months earlier. Lowe is Kirk Rainsford, who is in love with Marjorie Valli (Hazel Keener). When a fire breaks out at the Vallis house and Rainsford is too cowardly to rescue Marjorie's little sister, his father (William Conklin) disowns him. Rainsford becomes a drifter who eventually lands in Manila. There, in a saloon, he meets Lily (Lilyan Tashman -- who, incidentally, would become Lowe's second wife). The relationship between Lily and Rainsford helps to regenerate them both. They go to a farm to find work and discover that it is owned by Randoph Sherman (William Davidson), who has married Rainsford's ex-sweetheart, Marjorie. When there is a native uprising on the farm, Rainsford heroically rescues Marjorie. Sherman is killed. Lily is willing to let Rainsford reunite with Marjorie, but he prefers to be with the woman who stuck by him at his lowest. Lowe's career would undergo a transformation a few years later when he played the tough, foul-mouthed Sergeant Quirk in What Price Glory? ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Hazel Keener, (more)
