Charles Wilson Movies
When actor Charles C. Wilson wasn't portraying a police chief onscreen, he was likely to be cast as a newspaper editor. The definitive Wilson performance in this vein was as Joe Gordon, reporter Clark Gable's apoplectic city editor in the 1934 multi-award winner It Happened One Night. Like many easily typecast actors, Wilson was usually consigned to one-scene (and often one-line) bits, making the sort of instant impression that hundreds of scripted words could not adequately convey. Shortly before his death in 1948, Charles C. Wilson could once more be seen at the editor's desk of a big-city newspaper -- this time as the boss of those erstwhile newshounds the Three Stooges in the two-reel comedy Crime on Their Hands (1948). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1940
The mystery surrounding the gender of infant film star Baby Sandy was finally solved in her penultimate vehicle, Sandy is a Lady. The plot involves the efforts of Sandy's parents Mary and Joe Phillips (Nan Grey and Tom Brown) to improve their financial status, which are alternately aided and endangered by the antics of two-year-old Sandy. The film's climax plays like something out of a "Sweepea" cartoon, with the toddling heroine perilously perambulating atop an unfinished skyscraper. Also on hand for a bit of adolescent deviltry are Butch and Buddy, better known for their appearances in W. C. Fields' Never Give a Sucker an Even Break and Abbott & Costello's In the Navy. And as was often the case in the Baby Sandy films, Sandy is a Lady is enhanced by the presence of such reliable character players as Mischa Auer (who was in all of Sandy's pictures), Edgar Kennedy, Billy Gilbert and Friz Feld. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Baby Sandy, Butch and Buddy, (more)
- 1940
Communism-the American variety-is given a hilarious going-over in 20th Century-Fox's Public Deb No. 1. Spoiled society girl Penny Cooper (Brenda Joyce) impulsively lends her voice to a Communist rally, which earns her a public spanking by 100% All-American waiter Alan Blake (George Murphy). Impressed by Blake's boldness, Penny's ulcerated father, soup tycoon Millburn Cooper (Charlie Ruggles), hires the young man as a vice-president, hoping in this way to keep his daughter in line. Murphy manages to win Joyce from her socialite boyfriend Bruce Fairchild (who else but Ralph Bellamy?), but she refuses to abandon her Communist ideology until she is disillusioned by Russia's invasion of Finland. The heroine's rejection of the Red cause is symbolized by an (implicit) act of defecation performed by a passing dog on a crumpled Communist pamphlet. When originally released, the film was titled Elsa Maxwell's Public Deb No. 1, in recognition of the presence in the cast of famed New York social arbiter and partygiver Elsa Maxwell, who in the film's silliest scene shows up at a costume party dressed as Benjamin Franklin! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Murphy, Brenda Joyce, (more)
- 1939
A remake of Paul Leni's The Last Warning (1929), this "Crime Club" series entry once again presents the spectacle of an actor murdered in mid-performance and in front of a sellout crowd. This time the unfortunate thespian is John Wofford (Don Douglas), whose body subsequently disappears. To solve the mystery, police detective Arthur McHugh (William Gargan) goes undercover as a producer wishing to reassemble the original cast for a staging of the seemingly hexed play "Dangerous Currents." During rehearsal, the actor playing Wofford's old role, Carleton (Walter Woolf King), is found murdered and a series of threatening notes purportedly written by the dead actor continue to frighten the surviving cast and crew. Wofford's voice, heard over a disconnected telephone, adds to the terror, as does the actor's very dead body, which reappears behind a crumbling wall. But is the theater really haunted? And, if not, who is behind the strange goings-on and why? To learn the answers to these troubling questions, McHugh and his equally undercover wife, Gloria De Vere (Dorothy Arnold), must discover exactly how the original murder was committed. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Gargan, Irene Hervey, (more)
- 1939
In this romance, a young woman journeys from Syracuse to New York to see her sweetheart, a prominent architect. She is bitterly disappointed to discover that he has lost interest in her. The residents of the women's hotel at which she stays offer the heartbroken lass words of encouragement. They tell her to take a stand and to show him what he is missing. She takes their advice and becomes a renowned fashion model. Naturally this piques the designer's interest and he wishes to court her anew. Of course, she by then has many suitors, so he must really work to win her back. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, (more)
- 1939
In this drama, a miserable wife takes her son and leaves her alcoholic spouse. She ends up traveling to England to begin her new life. There she meets a wealthy Englishman whom she weds. Time passes. The boy grows up and want to return to the States to go to his father's alma mater. Because his father was an athletic hero at the school, he is fondly remembered. The curious boy, hearing all the accolades for his dad, begins looking for him. He finds his estranged father, renews their relationship, and helps his father sober up and begin leading a more productive life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Greene, Richard Dix, (more)
This barely-disguised portrait of singer Fanny Brice led to Brice's lawsuit against 20th Century Fox for defamation of character, a case which was settled out of court. Alice Faye plays Rose Sargent, a New York singer of the 1920s who falls for handsome, cocky wheeler-dealer Bart Clinton (Tyrone Power in a role patterned on Brice's troubled real-life paramour Nicky Arnstein). Rose's new romance is much to the dismay of her pal and former partner Ted Cotter (Al Jolson), who doesn't trust the slick, smooth-talking Bart. Eventually, Rose and Bart marry, but as the entertainment careers of Rose and Ted take off, Bart's tendency to get over his head in get-rich-quick schemes evolves into a bona fide criminal career. Rose finally makes the big time, becoming a popular star with the Ziegfeld Follies, and Bart skips town in order to preserve her reputation. However, Bart is nabbed by the authorities and sentenced to five years in jail. Despite the public scandal, Rose and Bart's devotion remained undiminished. Songs include the classics "California, Here I Come", "Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye", "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and the perhaps unwise inclusion of "Funny Lady" Brice's signature song, "My Man". ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, (more)
- 1939
Ace Secret Service agent Lt. Brass Bancroft is on the case in this crime drama. This time he is assigned to break up a major counterfeiting ring. To do so, he poses as a convicted counterfeiter who goes to prison to sneak into the inner circle. Eventually he learns that the money is coming from the printing press in the prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Reagan, Margot Stevenson, (more)
- 1939
Sigrid Gurie, the Swede from Brooklyn who in 1938 was touted as Sam Goldwyn's answer to Garbo, was taking whatever work she could get in 1939. Forgotten Woman casts Gurie as a woman unjustly sent to prison. Four years go by before the DA unearths new evidence that proves her innocence. But first, the guilty party must be rounded up--and that's no walk in the park, since the miscreant is an influential gangster. Forgotten Woman ran its course, made back its cost, then became the Forgotten Movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eve Arden, William Lundigan, (more)
- 1939
The "Lady" of the title is horse-farm owner Penelope Hollis (Ellen Drew), but during the first half of this film, bookie Marty Black (George Raft) only has eyes for Penelope's prize two-year-old. After losing his gambling joint, Marty finds himself with half ownership of the horse as his sole asset. He tries to persuade Penelope to continue racing the horse, but she will have none of this and packs the nag back to her Kentucky farm. Through Marty's persistence, the horse is entered in an important stake race, but in the process is "ridden out" and rendered useless. The enraged Penelope refuses to have anything to do with Marty again unless he changes his reckless ways-which of course he does. The best moment in The Lady's From Kentucky comes at the end, when supporting players Hugh Herbert ("Woo woo!") and ZaSu Pitts ("Oh, dear, oh, my") imitate each other's catch-phrases, a gag repeated the following year by Mae West and W.C. Fields in My Little Chickadee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Ellen Drew, (more)
- 1939
A tough football scout thinks he has finally found a potential star quarterback when he sees a burly country-store stock boy casually unloading huge sacks of potatoes. Then and there the talent scout signs the boy to play for the Green Bay Packers. This comedy examines what happens when the naive lad's sudden stardom goes to his head and he gets involved with some potentially dangerous gamblers. The story was adapted from the 1929 baseball film Fast Company, which was later remade as Elmer the Great in 1933. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bert Wheeler, Marie Wilson, (more)
- 1939
Humphrey Bogart makes his first and last appearance in a horror movie in this film. Though the title implies that it is a sequel to the classic 1932 chiller Dr. X it is not. The terror begins when an eager-beaver reporter stumbles across the corpse of a popular actress who turns up, after much media hoopla, not to be dead at all. At least she seems to be alive on a surface level and is eager to sue the reporter's paper. The reporter can't help but notice that here skin is unnaturally pale and that she keeps her face concealed beneath a long-black veil. Suspecting that evil is afoot, he--who by now is unemployed--launches a private investigation to prove that she really was the corpse he saw. His search leads him into the terrifying world of a psycho blood doctor, and into a series of unsolved murders in which all the victims were found with no blood in their veins. Ultimately, the reporter finds himself face-to-face with the nefarious Dr. Maurice Xavier (Bogart), a man executed several years ago for murdering patients while performing Frankensteinian experiments. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane, (more)
- 1939
A randy stud, a Kentucky Derby winner, sires a successor on the sly and creates all sorts of problems for his owner in this drama. The mare carrying the heir belongs to an impoverished nobleman and his beautiful granddaughter whom the stud's owner despises. Fortunately, the stable-owner's son, who loves the granddaughter, helps them train the promising young colt for the Big Race. When Derby day finally arrives, her horse is slated to run against one belonging to her rival. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Byrd, Mary Carlisle, (more)
- 1938
There's That Woman Again was the second and last entry in Columbia's own spin on MGM's "Thin Man" series. Virginia Bruce and Melvyn Douglas star as Sally and Bill Reardon, husband-and-wife private eyes (Bruce took over from Joan Blondell, who costarred with Douglas in 1938's There's Always a Woman). This time around, the Reardons investigate a series of jewel robberies which lead to a brace of murders. At times the comedy threatens to overwhelm the mystery angle, but rest assured that Bill Reardon will have collared the guilty party (or, in this case, guilty parties) a few minutes before closing. In emulation of MGM's "Thin Man" art direction, the leading characters in There's That Woman Again live in a lavishly furnished apartment roughly the size of Rhode Island. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvyn Douglas, Virginia Bruce, (more)
- 1938
In this drama, a 12-year-old boy becomes an orphan after seeing a detective shoot his father. Later the detective feels bad and offers to become his friend, but his intentions are not entirely honorable as the detective really wants to know the location of the loot his father stashed during a robbery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Cabot, Beverly Roberts, (more)
- 1938
Several second-echelon Universal contractees earn their paychecks in the two-week wonder State Police. John King stars as Sergeant Dan Prescott, a state trooper assigned to a coal-mining community. A group of gangsters have insinuated themselves into the town's labor-management confrontations, playing one side against the other for their own gain. Prescott tries to beard gangster boss Trigger Magee (Larry Blake) in his den, a gaudy roadhouse, and the results are explosive, to say the least. Predictably, the film is highlighted by a high-speed chase; not so predictably, the chase occurs in the middle of the film rather than the climax. Second-billed William Lundigan is the only member of the youthful cast to go on to a substantial starring career, though leading lady Constance Moore did pretty well for herself in future Universal productions. Comedy relief is provided by David Oliver, who'd risen from the ranks of Universal's newsreel cameramen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Lundigan, Constance Moore, (more)
- 1938
Based on a series of popular pulp-magazine stories, the 15-chapter Columbia serial The Spider's Web stars Warren Hull as one of the busiest heroes in movie history. Whenever crime threatens the city, criminologist Richard Wentworth dispatches underworld stoolie Blinky McQuade to ferret out information, whereupon the masked do-gooder The Spider swings into action. Thing of it is, Wentworth, Blinky and The Spider are all the same person, all played by the peripatetic Warren Hull. On this occasion, the disguise-happy protagonist aims his sights at The Octopus, a mysterious underworld leader who hopes to cripple the nation's transportation systems, thereby giving himself free reign for a spectacular crime spree. Before Wentworth can embark upon his oft-delayed honeymoon with his sweetheart Nina Van Sloan (Iris Meredith), he must rid the world of the Octopus once and for all. Codirector James W. Horne handles the action sequences as if he were still directing Laurel & Hardy comedies, and the effect is incongruously hilarious. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Hull, Iris Meredith, (more)
- 1938
The budget for this amateur feature film was ponied up by the Chicago Daily Times. The story concerns an idealistic doctor who is banished from a leading medical foundation for his "radical" views. Undaunted, the hero continues his experiments in the basement of his home, hoping to eventually develop a cure for infantile paralysis (this was long before the Salk breakthrough of the early 1950s). He is helped along by the son of a prominent Chicago stockbroker, who happens to have studied medicine and who also happens to be in love with the doctor's daughter. The acting is mediocre and the production values are nonexistent; still, It Happened in Chicago scored points with the critics on the basis of its sincerity (even though it began life as a circulation-boosting gimmick for the Times). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Anthony Hughes
- 1938
This tuneful campus comedy features aging star John Barrymore as a sly, blustery Southern governor with his eye on the Senate (aka Louisiana's Huey Long). He sees opportunity knocking when he learns how desperate his constituents have become to build their miserable state college football team into winners. He figures that if the team wins, so will he. To this end, he surreptitiously recruits a number of burly professional wrestlers to pose as football players. Unfortunately his chief opponent is running a similar racket with a rival university. When the governor's trickery is revealed on the eve of the big game, things look bleak until a quick-thinking coed shows up to save the day. The story is also titled Hold That Girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Barrymore, George Murphy, (more)
- 1938
Shirley Ross plays an innocent young girl convicted for complicity in a crime committed by her boy friend (Lloyd Nolan). The male crook is sentence to six months on a prison farm populated by both men and women (segregated, of course). Ross is also incarcerated, suffering the cruelties of the sadistic male and female guards (including J. Carroll Naish and future "Ma Kettle" Marjorie Main!) Since this film leaves no cliche unturned, an escape attempt is inevitable, but Ross is ultimately rescued from her plight for the obligatory happy ending. Nowhere near as exploitive as the later Linda Blair films of the same ilk, Prison Farm was considered reasonably realistic in 1938, earning back its modest cost and then some. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Ross, Lloyd Nolan, (more)
- 1938
In this action-packed crime drama, an ace reporter declares war on the mobsters that killed his best friend, helps a disenchanted hit man steal back his brother's iron lung from gangsters by hiding inside it during transport, busts up two other gangs, discovers a whiskey-smuggling ring, almost gets steamed to death, gets his girlfriend's house shot up by mobsters, and upsets his editor when a rival paper gets the story of his engagement first. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, June Travis, (more)
Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) and Jerry Connelly (Pat O'Brien) grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood. Rocky becomes a hero to a gang of teenaged boys (played by Dead End Kids Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsley). Father Jerry despairs at this, asking Rocky to lay off so he can keep the kids on the straight and narrow. Then Rocky's crooked business associates George Bancroft and Humphrey Bogart attempt to end Father Jerry's radio campaign against the rackets by killing the priest. Rocky (whose cynical outlook on life has been softened by his romance with true-blue Anne Sheridan) shoots them down and takes it on the lam. Arrested and convicted of murder, Rocky sits smugly on death row, fully intending to go to the chair with a smile on his face. A few moments before the execution, Father Jerry pleads with Rocky to "turn yellow" so that the tenement kids will despise his memory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1938
Three manicurists hope to become entertainers through the auspices of their wisecracking agent (Fred Allen). Sally (Alice Faye) is the smart one, Irene (Joan Davis) the funny one, and Mary (Marjorie Weaver) the cute-and-innocent one. The girls secure work in a Greenwich village nitery, where Sally falls for star singer Tony Martin. The threesome's career becomes stalled until Mary inherits an old ferry boat, which she converts into a floating nightclub. Among the highlights of Sally Irene and Mary is a jitterbug number by Joan Davis and supporting appearances by Jimmy Durante and Gypsy Rose Lee (billed under her real name, Louise Hovick). The film was based on a non-musical play by Eddie Dowling and Cyril Rood, previously filmed in 1925. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Faye, Tony Martin, (more)
- 1938
Astrology and murder meet head-on in the Warner Bros. programmer When Were You Born? When horoscope specialist Mary Lee Liang (Anna May Wong) predicts the death of importer Philip Corey (James Stephenson), her prophecy comes true in a surprisingly short time thanks to a mysterious killer. Mary then assists the police in their investigation of Corey's murder, using her knowledge of the zodiac to draw up a psychological profile of the culprit. Could the guilty party be Nina Kenton (Lola Lane), the dead man's sweetheart? Is it Fred Gow (Leonard Mudie), Corey's duplicitous partner? Or maybe it's Doris Kane (Margaret Lindsay), who halfway through the proceedings is revealed to be the victim's secret fiancee. The most novel aspect of When Were You Born? is its opening credits sequence, wherein the actors are billed in the order of their astrological signs rather than their importance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Lindsay, Anna May Wong, (more)
- 1938
In this heartwarming tearjerker, an adorable orphan becomes determined to find her father, whom she is convinced is still alive. She then leaves the nuns who have been her guardians and sets out on her quest. She never finds her real father, but she does manage to find a soft-hearted gambler who takes her under his wing and acts as her father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Litel, Ann Sheridan, (more)
- 1937
In the fine tradition of And Sudden Death, Columbia's The Devil is Driving tabulates the dangers of drunken driving in an exciting, unabashedly melodramatic fashion. In his first true portrayal of a "little creep," Elisha Cook Jr. stars as Tony, the spoiled-rotten son of the wealthy and influential Mr. Stevens (Henry Kolker). Forever climbing behind the wheel after one too many martinis, Tony strikes and kills an old woman and later forces his sweetheart Kitty (Ann Rutherford) over an embankment. By rights, this blatant vehicular homicide should earn Tony a stiff jail sentence, but he is constantly bailed out by his father, who even buys off juries and judges to keep his son out of prison. After helping Stevens spring his son once too often, guilt-stricken district attorney Paul Driscoll (Richard Dix) joins forces with crusading reporter Eve Hammond (Joan Perry) to keep repeat offenders like Tony off the road. Be assured that Tony will receive his comeuppance in spades by fade-out time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dix, Joan Perry, (more)
