H.B. Warner Movies

The Corsican Brothers is based on theDumas novel about "psychic" twins--one feels the pain and experiences the thoughts of the other. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays both Mario and Lucien, siblings separated at birth because of a long-standing feud between various factions of their family. One twin is raised to be evil, the other to be good. In adulthood, the brothers become bitter enemies, not only because of family and political pressures but also because they both fall in love with the beautiful Isabelle (Ruth Warrick). Eventually, however, one twin gives up his life for the sake of the other during a climactic battle with tyrannical Corsican ruler Colonna (Akim Tamiroff). Produced on a virtual shoestring by Edward Small, The Corsican Brothers cannot rely on clever optical effects to convey the idea that Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is two people (some of the process work is embarrassing); instead, Fairbanks carries the story on the strength of his acting, subtly differentiating the two characters so that the audience is seldom confused as to which is which. Incidentally, the actor doubling for Fairbanks in the two-shots, his face averted from the camera, is Peter Cushing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An entertaining amalgam of Universal contract players, leftover sets and stock footage, South of Tahiti stars Brian Donlevy, Broderick Crawford and Andy Devine as Bob, Chuck and Moose, three stooge-like sailors who land on a South Sea island. While Bob pitches woos at voluptuous native girl Melahi (Maria Montez in one of her earliest leading roles), Chuck and Moose try to plunder a valuable-and sacred--bed of pearls. Nothing much happens after this, except for a few dozen shots of gorgeous Universal starlets in various states of undress. H.B. Warner, who in his heyday played Jesus in DeMille's The King of Kings, brings a modicum of dignity to the proceedings as a native chieftan. Even at its weakest, South of Tahiti is slick and pleasantly amusing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A girl reporter discovers that her own father runs a shady "school of fine arts" (read brothel) in this independently made potboiler directed by former silent screen actor Elmer Clifton. When several naive young girls turned "nightclub entertainers" end up dead, snoop sister Nora Page (Astrid Allwyn) enrolls herself in the Crescent School of Fine Arts, a recruiting center for King Peterson's (Philip Van Zandt) notorious nitery. Things get a bit dicey when Nora's ally, a young district attorney (John Archer), is found in a compromising situation with one of the girls (Patricia Knox) but Nora, with the assistance of Police Captain McVeigh (H. B. Warner), follows a different trail, a trail that leads directly to her own father, a supposedly upstanding theatrical agent (Boyd Irwin). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Frank Capra's classic comedy-drama established James Stewart as a lead actor in one of his finest (and most archetypal) roles. The film opens as a succession of reporters shout into telephones announcing the death of Senator Samuel Foley. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), the state's senior senator, puts in a call to Governor Hubert "Happy" Hopper (Guy Kibbee) reporting the news. Hopper then calls powerful media magnate Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who controls the state -- along with the lawmakers. Taylor orders Hopper to appoint an interim senator to fill out Foley's term; Taylor has proposed a pork barrel bill to finance an unneeded dam at Willet Creek, so he warns Hopper he wants a senator who "can't ask any questions or talk out of turn." After having a number of his appointees rejected, at the suggestion of his children Hopper nominates local hero Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), leader of the state's Boy Rangers group. Smith is an innocent, wide-eyed idealist who quotes Jefferson and Lincoln and idolizes Paine, who had known his crusading editor father. In Washington, after a humiliating introduction to the press corps, Smith threatens to resign, but Paine encourages him to stay and work on a bill for a national boy's camp. With the help of his cynical secretary Clarissa Sanders (Jean Arthur), Smith prepares to introduce his boy's camp bill to the Senate. But when he proposes to build the camp on the Willets Creek site, Taylor and Paine force him to drop the measure. Smith discovers Taylor and Paine want the Willets Creek site for graft and he attempts to expose them, but Paine deflects Smith's charges by accusing Smith of stealing money from the boy rangers. Defeated, Smith is ready to depart Washington, but Saunders, whose patriotic zeal has been renewed by Smith, exhorts him to stay and fight. Smith returns to the Senate chamber and, while Taylor musters the media forces in his state to destroy him, Smith engages in a climactic filibuster to speak his piece: "I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not gonna leave this body until I do get them said." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Many of the "preparedness" films of the years just prior to World War II sidestepped censorship by depicting past outrages of the Germans. Such a film was British producer Herbert Wilcox's Hollywood production Nurse Edith Cavell, in which Wilcox's future wife Anna Neagle portrayed the titular martyred Englishwoman. Ms. Neagle plays the legendary Ms. Cavell as a candidate for Canonization. Her selfless efforts to rescue refugee soldiers from World War I Belgium results in her being arrested on charges of espionage. Despite international pleas for clemency, the dastardly Deutschlanders sentence Edith to death. She faces the firing squad with a courageous serenity that makes Joan of Arc look like a hysterical schoolgirl. An earlier, silent version of Nurse Edith Cavell had caused turmoil in England due to its unadorned depiction of war's horrors. In 1939, however, audiences inundated by reports of Hitler's latest outrages were more receptive. Ironically, the film opened in the US a scant few days before war broke out in Europe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The penultimate entry in Paramount's "Bulldog Drummond" series, Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police once more stars John Howard as the private-detective hero, Heather Angel as Bulldog's eternal fiancee Phyllis Clavering, and H. B. Warner as the good gray Inspector Neilsen of the Yard. This one finds Bulldog and Phyllis ready to be married in an ancient castle, when a murder occurs, and Bulldog decides to investigate. He eventually uncovers both an eons-old treasure and a highly unsavory character who wishes to claim it for himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Myrna Loy stars in Clarence Brown's sumptuous and exotic romance, based upon the novel by Louis Bromfield. Loy plays Lady Edwina Esketh, the unhappily married wife of Lord Albert Esketh (Nigel Bruce), a dumpy middle-aged English businessman. Edwina escapes her loneliness by engaging in ephemeral love affairs. When Lord Albert travels to the Indian province of Ranchipur, Edwina encounters one of her past lovers, Tom Ransome (George Brent). Tom wants to renew his acquaintance with Edwina, but she has set her sights on a young Indian doctor, Major Rama Safti (Tyrone Power), the court favorite of the reigning maharajah (H.B. Warner) who may inherit the throne one day. Rama is dedicated to helping the poor and, as Edwina falls deeply in love with him, she begins to notice of the plight of the poverty stricken. When a terrible earthquake decimates Ranchipur, Edwina joins with Rama to help tend to the victims of this tragedy. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Gary Cooper stars in this lavish and often comic retelling of the life of the famed Italian explorer. Marco Polo (Cooper) crosses the sea in search of treasure and adventure, with the help of his loyal if cowardly sidekick Binguccio (Ernest Truex), and finds both in China, where as the nation's first European visitor he is introduced to several practical innovations, such as pasta and explosives. He is also introduced to Kublai Khan (George Barbier), China's wise and benevolent Emperor, and the Emperor's lovely daughter, Princess Kukuchin (Sigrid Gurie). Romance begins to bloom between Marco and the Princess, but Ahmed (Basil Rathbone), the Emperor's ill-tempered assistant, also has his eyes on the Princess, and he is determined to win her hand and usurp Kublai Khan as China's leader. The Adventures of Marco Polo was part of a major star build-up that producer Samuel Goldwyn had engineered for actress Sigrid Gurie, but much of Goldwyn's publicity eventually backfired when it was learned that his Norwegian discovery, "The Siren of the Fjords," was born in the less exotic locale of Brooklyn, New York. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure tale of a young 18th century boy betrayed by his wicked uncle didn't need a romantic subplot, but that didn't stop 20th Century-Fox from including a female love interest (Arleen Whelan). Bypassing that plot point, Kidnapped stars Freddie Bartholomew as the heir to a Scottish estate, whose supposedly beneficent uncle (Reginald Owen) arranges for the boy to be kidnapped and spirited off to sea. The lad is rescued by Scottish rebel leader Alan Breck (Warner Baxter), and together the pair fight against the British army troops as they head back through Scotland. Baxter doesn't quite liberate his homeland, but Bartholomew sees to it that his uncle gets his just deserts. Kidnapped was remade in 1947 with Roddy McDowell (just old enough to be given a girlfriend of his own by the screenwriters), then twice more in 1960 and 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play You Can't Take It With You was transformed into a paean to populism by director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. This is the story of the zany Sycamore household, presided over by Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore), a former businessman who has turned his back on commerce to enjoy life. At the Sycamores', everyone does just what he or she pleases. Penny Sycamore (Spring Byington), Grandpa's daughter, has become a novelist because someone delivered a typewriter to her home by mistake. Penny's husband makes firecrackers in his basement with the help of Mr. DePinna (Halliwell Hobbes), an iceman who showed up at the Sycamore doorstep one day and never left. Their daughter, Essie (Ann Miller), imagines that she's a prima ballerina, even though her dour teacher, Boris (Mischa Auer), assesses her work with, "Confidentially, it steenks!" Essie's husband, Ed (Dub Taylor), who'd rather play a xylophone than work, spends his free time selling Essie's candy, wrapping each package in paper from a used printing press that dispenses anarchistic slogans. The one normal member of the household is Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur), in love with wealthy Tony Kirby (James Stewart).

Naturally, when the stuffy, aristocratic Kirbys come to the Sycamores' for dinner, the event is a disaster, capped with the arrest of everyone in the household. Hart and Kaufman's third act found the previously judgmental Kirby softening his attitude toward the freewheeling Sycamore clan, admitting that he's never had so much fun in his life. Screenwriter Riskin altered the focus of the play by throwing out the third act and concentrating upon Tony Kirby's father, Kirby Sr., who as played by Edward Arnold is transformed from a stock stuffed shirt into a ruthless, grasping tycoon, eager to buy up every house on the Sycamores' block to make room for a munitions plant. The film thus became the story of Kirby's regeneration at the hands of the carefree Sycamores. Enough of the play's screwball elements are retained to compensate for Riskin's speechifying and plot distortions (though the softening of one of the play's vital ingredients, Grandpa's refusal to pay his income tax, borders on the sacrilegious). You Can't Take It With You earned several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Capra's third Oscar). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

MGM's leading musical team of the 30's, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy are paired once again in this fourth film version of David Belasco's creaky melodrama, featuring music by Sigmund Romberg and Gus Kahn. Jeanette MacDonald is Mary Robbins, the owner of a bawdy, rough-house saloon in a western mining town, who falls in love with the Mexican bandit Ramerez (Nelson Eddy), who has disguised himself as a cavalry officer. But when local sheriff Jack Rance (Walter Pidgeon) tracks down Ramerez and wounds him, Mary discovers Ramerez's ruse and begs Rance for the outlaw's freedom. The only problem is that Nance is also in love with Mary. Girl of the Golden West was originally tinted in a sepia-tone to create a look as burnished as the MGM production design. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A trio of American actors head the cast of the British naval drama Torpedoed. Noah Beery appears as the unnamed President of an equally unnamed South American banana republic. When a group of insurgents stage of revolt, His Majesty's Navy is dispatched to put down the uprising. Richard Cromwell carries the romantic subplot as Bill Armstrong, the sweetheart of Pamela (Hazel Terry), daughter of American businessman Mr. Brent (H. B. Warner). Robert Douglas, years before being typecast as a villain, costars as stalwart captain Markham, while Esme Percy, a specialist in indeterminate "foreign" types, plays the rebel leader. Originally filmed as Our Fighting Navy, the title was changed to keep apace of world events-specifically, the torpedoing of the Athenia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide