Leo Willis Movies

The Three Stooges are in fine form for their fifth Columbia short. Clyde Bruckman, who worked with silent luminaries Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, was the director, and it's obvious that he added quite a bit to the fun. The boys are working for the Hyden Zeke Detective Agency, as evidenced by their Sherlock Holmes-style hats and pipes. While the boss explains their next assignment -- going out West to save a girl's ranch from the evil Double Deal Decker -- Curly's eyes seem to be glazed over. It turns out he has eyes painted on his eyelids to hide the fact that he's napping. A mouse, however, sends him into a hyperactive fit, which is only cured when Moe and Larry feed him cheese. Soon enough, the Stooges arrive at the gambling hall run by Decker. They take a few turns on a dance floor in an attempt to lift Decker's wallet, which they assume contains the I.O.U. they're looking for. But they're caught and strung-up, only to be saved at the last minute when Curly sees a mouse and knocks everyone unconscious. He comes to the rescue again when the Stooges are found breaking into Decker's safe. Two mice are inside and as a result, Decker and his henchman get floored. Unfortunately, this time the cheese cure also knocks out the other Stooges when they get a whiff of Curly's Limburger breath. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Brooklyn tugboat worker Eddie (Eddie Cantor), bullied and cowed by his tough-guy stepfather and stepbrothers (a la Harold Lloyd's The Kid Brother), inherits $77 million from his uncle, an Egyptologist. Con artist Dot (Ethel Merman) wants to get her lunchhooks on the money, and to this end offers herself as Eddie's adopted mother (never mind that she's nearly 20 years younger), intending to have her thuggish brother Louie (Warren Hymer) bump off our hero at the first opportunity. The nonsensical plotline ends up with Eddie, Dot, Louie, pompous Southern colonel Larrabee (Berton Churchill), and nominal romantic leads Jerry (George Murphy in his film debut) and Jane (Ann Sothern) trapped in the palace of Arab potentate Mulhulla (Paul Harvey). The better-than-average comic banter includes some funny bits between Cantor and Eve Sully, of the comedy team of "Block and Sully" (her husband-partner Jesse Block is also in the picture, but just barely). Spotted among the featured players in Kid Millions are such "Our Gang" members as Stymie Beard, Scotty Beckett and Tommy Bond, and there's a specialty by the Nicholas Brothers during Cantor's obligatory "blackface" number; and yes, that's Lucille Ball as a blonde Goldwyn Girl in the harem sequence. PS: According to Ethel Merman, the film's elaborate Technicolor ice-cream factory finale, in which Eddie allows dozens of tenement kids to gorge themselves on his tasty confections, posed censorship problems: while producer Sam Goldwyn was allowed to show the little boys with comically extended stomachs, he was not permitted to do so with the little girls, for fear that the audience might think the female moppets were pregnant! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Easily the best of Eddie Cantor's gargantuan musical comedies for producer Sam Goldwyn, Roman Scandals begins in the middle-America community of West Rome, where our hero Eddie (Cantor) is employed as a delivery boy. A self-styled authority of Ancient Roman history, Cantor bemoans the fact that the local shanty community is about to be wiped out by scheming politicians, certain that such an outrage could never have happened during Rome's Golden Days. After a blow on the head, Cantor wakes up in Imperial Rome, where he is sold on the slave auction block to good-natured tribune Josephus (David Manners). Cantor soon discovers that the evil emperor Valerius (Edward Arnold) is every bit a crook and grafter as the politicians in West Rome, and he intends to do something about it. He gets a job as food taster for Valerius -- a none-too-secure position, inasmuch as the emperor's wife Agrippa (Veree Teasdale) is constantly trying to poison her husband -- and does his best to smooth the path of romance for Josephus and recently captured princess Sylvia (Gloria Stuart). Cantor's well-intentioned interference earns him a session in the torture chamber, but he escapes and commandeers a chariot, setting the stage for a spectacular slapstick climax. On the verge of recapture, Cantor wakes to find himself in West Rome U.S.A. again, where he quickly foils the modern-day despots and brings about a happy ending for all his friends.

Co-written by George S. Kaufman, Robert E. Sherwood, George Oppenheimer and Arthur Sheekman (the soon-to-be husband of leading lady Gloria Stuart), Roman Scandals manages to get off a few clever satirical licks, but essentially it's a "lappy" lowbrow vehicle for Eddie Cantor, and in this it succeeds immensely. The Busby Berkeley-staged musical numbers, written by Harry Warren, Al Dubin and L. Wolfe Gilbert, must be seen to be believed: In "No More Love", Ruth Etting, playing the Emperor's cast-off mistress Olga, sings a plaintive torch song as dozens of enslaved Goldwyn Girls (including Lucille Ball and Barbara Pepper), wearing nothing but long, blonde wigs, are chained to a rotating pedestal; and in "Keep Young and Beautiful", these same maidens gleefully cavort around a Roman bathhouse in the near-altogether while Cantor, in blackface, hops about, rolls his eyes and claps his hands -- just before a jet of steam "shrinks" him, at which point he metamorphoses into midget Billy Barty! The quintessence of Depression-era escapism, Roman Scandals is must-see entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two-reel comedy favorites Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made their feature-film debut (excluding their guest appearances in Hollywood Revue of 1929 and Rogue Song) in the prison comedy Pardon Us. A spoof of MGM's The Big House, the story begins when erstwhile bootleggers Laurel and Hardy sell a bottle of beer to a Prohibition agent. Shipped off to the pen, our heroes are escorted to the cell occupied by "The Tiger" (Walter Long), the toughest con in the joint. The Tiger immediately becomes the boys' best friend when he mistakes Laurel's loose-tooth "buzz" as an act of defiance! Swept up in one of The Tiger's escape attempts, Laurel and Hardy disguise themselves in blackface and lose themselves among the cotton-pickers in the Deep South, but Stan's buzzing tooth gives the game away when the warden's (Wilfred Lucas) car breaks down near the cotton fields. Carted back to jail, Stan and Ollie become heroes when they inadvertently foul up The Tiger's next prison break. Pardon Us was previewed in late 1930 in a 70-minute version titled The Rap, which included several sequences (including an elaborate prison fire) which never made it to the final, 56-minute release version. More recently, the film has been reissued to TV in the 65-minute print prepared for Great Britain; the "new" footage includes a handful of previously discarded gag punchlines and several outtakes. In its 56-minute state, Pardon Us is not bad for a first feature-length attempt, even though the best Laurel & Hardy features were still to come. Highlights include an "Our Gang"-style schoolroom routine with perennial Laurel & Hardy foil James Finlayson as the teacher (incidentally, June Marlowe, who played Miss Crabtree in the real Our Gang comedies, shows up as the warden's daughter), a pleasant song-and-dance number in blackface, and a hilarious dentist-office routine "borrowed" from the team's 1928 silent comedy Leave 'Em Laughing. Pardon Us was simultaneously filmed in several foreign languages -- one of which, the Spanish-language De Bote en Bote, has popped up from time to time on American cable television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Never one to hide his talent under a bushel basket, director Rouben Mamoulien proudly proclaimed that, while there were ten killings in his 1931 gangster drama City Streets, the audience never sees any of them. This was not the only innovation in this fascinating early talkie, in which straight-arrow movie hero Gary Cooper is cast as a racketeer known only as The Kid. He has chosen a life of crime out of love for Nan (Sylvia Sidney), the daughter of mob henchman Pop Cooley (Guy Kibbee). Eventually railroaded into prison by her crooked cohorts, Nan implores The Kid to give up the rackets, but he refuses. Things go downhill very rapidly after that, culminating with The Kid and Nan being taken "for a ride" by rival thugs. Cast in a role originally intended for Clara Bow, Sylvia Sidney does a magnificent job and was soon typecast as a downtrodden Depression victim, born with two strikes against her. Conversely, Gary Cooper never again played anything quite like "The Kid." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Harold Lloyd's second talkie finds The Bespectacled One playing a shoe clerk in Honolulu. Harboring dreams of becoming an executive, Lloyd passes himself off as a millionaire to heiress Barbara Kent. As the plot merrily rolls along, Harold stows away on a ship bound for the mainland, and ends up at the top of a dizzying skyscraper. In a reversal of his dilemma in 1923's Safety Last, Lloyd must find the safest way to climb down the building--with the dubious assistance of bumbling black janitor Willie Best (here derogatorily billed as "Sleep 'N' Eat"). Attempting to extend his silent-film technique into the talkie era, Harold Lloyd is successful about half the time. The climactic building-climbing sequence, though amusing, pales in comparison to Lloyd's earlier excursions into "high and dizzy" humor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy classic is the sound-film debut of enormously popular and brilliant silent comedian Harold Lloyd. He plays a gentle botany student who must reluctantly succeed his father as chief of police. He does a good job and ends up busting up a ring of drug dealers led by the enigmatic "Dragon." Later he discovers that the Dragon is really one of the most prominent and highly respected men in town. When not chasing bad-guys, the hero falls in love with a woman who has disguised herself as boy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A popular comedy duo towards the end of the silent era, Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatten once again join forces for this rollicking comedy concerning a pair of nitwits who unwittingly become embroiled in an age old feud between two mountain families. When snake-oil salesmen Pete (Beery) and Gus (Hatten) accidentally stumble directly into the battleground of the warring Hicks and Beagle clans, it appears as if our bumbling heroes may have hocked their last bottle of the elixir. Though Pete continually interrupts Gus in his attempts to perform his latest magic trick, Gus eventually gets his moment in the spotlight to predictably disastrous results. Will the feud finally be resolved by the prospect of an impending marriage between members of the warring clans, or Pete and Gus' lame brained antics simply serve to add more fuel to the fire? ~ All Movie Guide

In an ersatz Stone Age, the King orders all single males to marry or be banished -- or worse. A husky caveman known as the Mighty Giant (Oliver Hardy) and Twinkle Star (Stan Laurel), an effeminate warrior wannabe, compete for the hand of Blushing Rose (Viola Richard), daughter of Ye Aged Saxophonus (James Finlayson). The two Cro-magnon rivals match wits and strengths in a series of grueling cave-times contests. This leisurely improvisational vehicle was actually a step backwards for Laurel and Hardy at this particular time. After solidifying themselves as a team just months before, they were now back to playing less classical buffoons (although Hardy mostly manages to stay in character), and mostly apart, as part of the Hal Roach Studios comedy stock company. In fact Roach himself was the ghost director of most of the film, which was withheld from release until 1928 when the two comics were gaining global favor as the hottest team in comedy. Flintstones-style anachronisms abound, and the title is a reference to the local elephants flying south (via cartoon animation) for the winter(!). ~ All Movie Guide

Even taking into consideration such worthy candidates as Safety Last and The Freshman, many Harold Lloyd fans regard The Kid Brother as his finest film. A humorous variation on Tol'able David, the film stars Lloyd as Harold Hickory, the youngest member of the rural Hickory family. Though out-muscled by his sheriff father (Walter James) and brawny brothers (Olin Francis, Leo Willis), Harold is the cleverest of the Hickorys, industriously figuring out all sorts of clever devices to streamline his housekeeping chores. Still, his father and brothers treat him as the baby of the family, leaving him to mind the farm while they head for a town meeting. In his dad's absence, however, Harold is deputized to deliver a "cease and desist" summons to a travelling carnival which has pitched camp nearby. Upon arriving at the carnival, Harold discovers that its owner is the lovely Mary Powers (Jobyna Ralston), whom he'd met the day before. A fire breaks out in the tent, leaving Mary homeless, but Harold invites her to stay the night at his farm -- making certain that his roughneck brothers observe the proper social amenities. The next day, it is discovered that the money for an important dam project, left in the care of Harold's father, has been stolen. The elder Hickory is held responsible, but the real culprit is brutish carnival strongman Sandoni (Constantin Romanoff). Through a chain of incredible coincidences, Harold finds himself facing Sandoni on board a derelict boat. For a while, it looks as though Sandoni is going to mop the deck with Harold, but our hero gains the upper hand when he finds out that his behemoth opponent can't swim! Just as his father is about to be lynched by the angry mob, Harold delivers the unconscious Sandoni to the doorstep of the jail. Proudly, Harold's father declares "Son, you're a true Hickory!" -- but the story isn't quite over yet, since Harold still has to propose to Mary, and to clean the clock of the local bully who's been annoying him all through the picture. Beautifully photographed and expertly directed (Lewis Milestone, though uncredited, helmed many of the important scenes), The Kid Brother is everything a good silent comedy should be, and an enduring testament to the brilliance of Harold Lloyd. Best bit: That eye-popping crane shot as Harold shinnies up a tree to bid several fond farewells to the departing Mary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The beloved humorist Will Rogers, whose own series of Hal Roach two-reelers was produced concurrently with the studio's Our Gang series, makes a guest appearance in the Gang comedy Jubilo Jr.. The film opens with Rogers, as wandering hobo Jubilo, befriending a group of fellow tramps and telling them all about his childhood adventures. The film then flashes back to the younger Jubilo, now played by Our Gang member Mickey Daniels. Determined to purchase a three-dollar hat for his hard-working mother, little Jubilo hatches all manner of moneymaking schemes, including his own neighborhood circus. Though the film ends on a jarringly Pirandellian note, the final image of the Our Gang kids suddenly materializing on the horizon is both poignant and unforgettable. Originally released on June 29, 1924, Jubilo Jr. was remade as the 1932 Our Gang talkie Birthday Blues. Curiously, the earlier film was not included in the first Our Gang TV package; instead, it made its video premiere as part of Paul Killiam's Movie Museum silent-film series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy-melodrama, based on the novel by Rupert Hughes (who also directed), blends fiction and reality to tell the story of a young woman's rise in Hollywood; the film uses real stars and productions (even Charles Chaplin filming A Woman of Paris) as its backdrop. Eleanor Boardman plays Remember Steddon, better known as Mem. Mem is a small-town girl who marries slick bad guy Owen Scudder (Lew Cody); Owen insures his brides and then murders them for the money. After the wedding, Mem starts to have her doubts about him and runs away while their train is chugging through the desert. She happens on a film crew and gets work as an extra, later becoming a famous dramatic actress in Hollywood with the help of director Frank Claymore (Richard Dix). Scudder finally tracks her down during a shoot involving a circus tent; when a storm sets the tent on fire, Scudder loses his life saving Mem from a wind machine's propeller. Freed from her marriage, Mem is able to choose between Claymore and her leading man. Boardman, whose first starring role finds her surrounded by a long and impressive supporting cast, wound up at the Goldwyn studios through a "New Faces" contest. Her co-winner, future star William Haines, also had a bit part as the company's assistant director. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Although this comedy was hailed as Harold Lloyd's first feature, at four reels, it's really more of a glorified short. It was originally meant to be a two-reeler (the previous film, Never Weaken, was considered an anomaly at three reels), but Lloyd and his crew wound up with too many good gags and decided to leave them all in. Unlike Lloyd's subsequent films, this picture is light on characterization and relies more on its wild gags than on the star's winning personality. Lloyd plays an insufferable rich young man. The father of his sweetheart (Mildred Davis) does not approve of him, and insists that he must do something with his life if he is to be worthy of the girl. Harold's answer is to join the Navy. His dream of being an admiral contrasts sharply with reality, where he is at the bottom of the pecking order. His ship lands on the coast of a fictional Middle Eastern country, Khaipura-Bhandanna. The girl and her father have also sailed there and a wicked Maharaja (Dick Sutherland) kidnaps the girl from her father's yacht. It is up to Harold to rescue her, which he does with his famed athletic skills and a lot of humor. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide