Leo White Movies

A few unique touches aside -- notably the opening costume-party scene, in which the revellers are dressed as insects -- Rip Tide is a standard-issue Norma Shearer soap opera. Shearer plays Mary, a footloose and fancy-free American heiress who weds British nobleman Lord Rexford (Herbert Marshall). Five years later, Rexford embarks upon a business trip to New York, while Mary, urged on by her fun-loving aunt, vacations on the Riviera. Here she is reacquainted with her ex-boyfriend Tommie (Robert Montgomery), whose drunken misbehavior causes scandal to befall them both. Refusing to hear Mary's side of the story, Rexford begins divorce proceedings, but a happy ending finally manifests itself after reels and reels of endless high-toned dialogue. Legendary stage star Mrs. Patrick Campbell makes her Hollywood film debut in Rip Tide as Shearer's all-knowing Aunt Hetty, while Walter Brennan and Bruce Bennett show up in microscopic bit roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed on what MGM considered a B-picture budget and schedule (14 days, which at Universal or Columbia would have been considered extravagant), The Thin Man proved to be "sleeper," spawning a popular film, radio, and television series. Contrary to popular belief, the title does not refer to star William Powell, but to Edward Ellis, playing the mean-spirited inventor who sets the plot in motion. The recently divorced Clyde Wynant (Ellis) discovers that his new girlfriend, Julia Wolf (Natalie Moorhead), has stolen 50,000 dollars and is carrying on with other men. Not long afterward, he disappears. Anxious to locate her father, Wynant' daughter, Dorothy (Maureen O'Sullivan), goes to private detective Nick Charles (William Powell) for help. Having just married the lovely and wealthy Nora (Myrna Loy), Nick has no desire to return to sleuthing, but the thrill-seeking Nora eagerly talks him into taking Dorothy's case. Shortly thereafter, Wynant's lady friend is murdered; so far as police detective John Guild (Nat Pendleton) is concerned, the still-missing Wynant is the guilty party. Nick is unsatisfied with this deduction, and with the help of his wire fox terrier, Asta, he manages to uncover several vital clues -- including a decomposed corpse. At a fancy dinner party, between cocktails and the first course, Nick solves the mystery and exposes a hidden murderer. The story itself, lifted almost verbatim by scenarists Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich from the Dashiell Hammett novel on which The Thin Man is based, hardly matters. The film's strong suit is the witty repartee between Nick and Nora Charles, who manage to behave like saucily illicit lovers throughout the film even though they're married. The chemistry between William Powell and Myrna Loy would be adroitly exploited by MGM in several subsequent films, including five additional Thin Man mysteries produced between 1936 and 1948. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After several false starts, opera star Grace Moore became a motion picture success in the sublimely assembled One Night of Love. Moore opens the film by losing a radio talent contest in New York. She disconsolately heads to Europe, where the best job she can come up with is singing in a restaurant. Here she is discovered by brilliant voice-teacher Tulio Carminatti, who carefully nurtures Moore until she becomes the toast of the European opera world. The two fall in love, but jealousy nearly destroys them both. Happily, Moore recovers to the extent of making a triumphant return to the US as reigning diva of the Metropolitan Opera. One Night of Love represents Grace Moore's finest screen work. The film's musical manifest includes such operatic standards as Lucia di Lammermoor, Madame Butterfly and Carmen; the "contemporary" musical lineup was composed by such hands as Louis Silvers (who won an Oscar for his efforts), Victor Schertzinger (who also directed), and Gus Kahn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on an 1830 opera entitled "Fra Diavolo" by Daniel F. Auber, the parts of two bit bandits were built up for Laurel and Hardy, but this was still just a minor effort--a few good laughs but nothing spectacular that wasn't done better elsewhere. Released later as Bogus Bandits and The Virtuous Tramps, changing the title didn't improve the product. A classic impersonation film, it has the comic duo servants to a bandit who is impersonating a Marquis to get his hands on the jewels worn by the upper crust. Standard dual identity film is similar to The Scarlet Pimpernel. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, the wife of a wealthy man abruptly leaves him and sets sail for Cuba leaving him to hire a gumshoe to find out why. The girl left because she was being blackmailed for $50,000 by her former ex-husband who claims that they were never legally divorced. Before heading to Cuba for a hasty divorce, the distraught wife tells all to her sister-in-law. Meanwhile the detective is aboard the same ship as the wife and as he gets to know her cannot help but fall in love with her. The detective doesn't realize that her ex-husband is also on board, but she does and is happy about it because she wants to see if she can get her ex (not a US citizen) barred from reentry. Back at home, the sister-in-law tells her increasingly suspicious brother the truth about the situation and he immediately flies to Cuba to get there just in time for the exciting conclusion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This imitation-Lubitsch romantic comedy stars William Powell as an elegant jewel thief plying his trade in Vienna. Powell's latest victim is bored baroness Kay Francis, who is much taken by the gentleman crook's handsomeness and poise. Since Francis is casting about for a new lover and newer thrills, Powell meets her qualifications, criminal or no. But the lady's husband (Henry Kolker) is not so easily charmed, and he sets about to bring Powell to justice. Jewel Robbery was based on a play by Ladislas Fodor, previously filmed in an Austrian version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Before he settled down to a long career as a jovial character actor, Lloyd Corrigan functioned as screenwriter and director on a number of Hollywood programmers. Corrigan co-directed Paramount's Along Came Youth with Norman Z. McLeod. The frothy story involves heiress Frances Dee, who balks at the wealthy marriage that her aunt is arranging. Enter Charles "Buddy" Rogers, a near-impoverished gent who takes a job as a sandwich board man. Dee assumes that Rogers is the rich man she's expected to marry, and then the fun begins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his second talkie, former silent screen lover John Gilbert plays Jack, a sailor in the merchant marine who takes time out from carousing with pals Tripod (Wallace Beery) and Ginger (Jim Tully) to woo and marry Joan (Leila Hyams), the lovely pay clerk, whom he has promised to quit the sea for good. But "for good" lasts only through the wedding night and she leaves him. They meet again on an ocean liner where Jack is working as the quartermaster but a violent storm threatens to ruin the relationship for eternity when Jack is declared lost. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Never one to take his metier too serious, Universal cowboy hero Hoot Gibson came dangerously close to outright burlesque in the aptly titled Smilin' Guns. As "Dirty Neck" Jack Purvin, Gibson is his old uncouth self but when he sees a newspaper photograph of Eastern socialite Helen Van Smythe, soon to arrive at the nearby dude ranch, Gibson hightails it to San Francisco in order to learn how to become a gentleman. Returning to the ranch, the new but not necessarily improved Gibson shreds his dandified image in order to save Helen from a lecherous but decidedly fake count and her mother (Virginia Pearson) from a jewel thief (Robert Graves). The count was played by none other than Leo White, whose mustache-twirling continental noblemen/revolutionists had graced several Charles Chaplin comedies in the 1910s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Audrey Scott (Shirley Palmer) is a fun-loving but basically proper college coed, who manages to escape the clutches of one over-eager freshman on a date, only to cross paths with Earl Hastings (Raymond McKee), another young woman-chaser on campus. She vows never to look at another man, except to get even with young Hastings; meanwhile, she's also studying with Professor Ezra Hastings (Raymond McKee), Earl's staid and very proper (as well as very eccentric) twin brother. And as the fact that they look alike causes no end of havoc to each man, as well as those pursuing Earl and respecting Ezra, especially when Audrey decides to get even with the man who humiliated her by switching the numbers on his assigned room. Starting from there, both Hastings' careers at the college go downhill in comical fashion until it all gets straightened out. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Directed by a very young William Wyler, this fanciful Ted Wells Western from the assembly-lines at Universal reads like a Hoot Gibson reject. Wells plays Jack Duncan, a ranch hand planning to give his new, female employer Betty Barton (Charlotte Stevens), a welcoming reception she won't soon forget. Arriving from the East with her aunt (Julia Griffith), the girl is delighted to be greeted with a mock Indian attack arranged by Jack and ranch foreman Lon Seeright (William J. Dyer). Jack plans to give Betty yet another chance to experience the wild and woolly West by staging a "kidnapping" during a masked ball. Unfortunately, crooked gambler Lem Dawson (William A. Steele) gets in the way by abducting the pretty girl for real. Wyler, a distant relative of Universal's benign founder Carl Laemmle, began his long, celebrated directorial career helming B-Westerns starring contract cowboys such as Wells and Fred Humes. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Lovely senorita Maria Alvaro (Dorothy Kitchen) is rescued from a gunshot wedding to foppish Senor Valdez (former Charlie Chaplin associate Leo White) practically on the steps to the church by daredevil rider Jim Collins (Bob Steele). The young man simply kidnaps her and holds her until her father (George Bunny) accepts him as a more appropriate son-in-law. The comic Breed of the Sunset was directed by Wallace Fox, a one-time black-face comic and an old hand at these sort of things, and scripted by a young Oliver Drake, whose deft handling of both action and gag humor would be even better utilized in the sound era. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Tenement gal Nora Denahy (Gladys Hulette) is the "Bowery Cinderella" in this standard melting-pot drama. While on a slumming party, wealthy Ned Chandler (Ernest Hilliard) is smitten by Nora. He offers to take her away from her shabby environment, if only she will become his wife. Nora is tempted, but her heart belongs to struggling playwright Larry Dugan (Pat O'Malley). It hardly seems necessary to reveal which of her two beaux ultimately marches Nora down the altar. One of the highlights of Bowery Cinderella is a precision-dance performance by the chorus of The Music Box Revue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide