Marie Wilson Movies

Waterfront moves so quickly that the film is half over by the time all the characters have been introduced. Dockworker Jim Dolan (Dennis Morgan) keeps landing in jail because he can't keep his fists to himself. He mends his ways with the help of waterfront priest Father Dunn (Aldrich Bowker), but goes back to his old bad habits when his brother is murdered. Attempting to outguess the cops, Dolan tries to hunt down the murderer by himself, much to the dismay of Jim's wife level-headed wife Ann (Gloria Dickson). Basically a Jimmy Cagney film without Cagney, Waterfront is fascinating in that Dennis Morgan, whom Warners was then building up as a star, plays a character with practically no sympathetic qualities whatsoever-at least until the climax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy chronicles the further exploits of the hilarious "Higgins Family." In this entry, the father eagerly awaits a promotion. Unfortunately, he is temporarily derailed when his wife accidentally reveals a business secret concerning an upcoming merger. This results in the wife taking over her husband's position while he tries to manage the home front. Predictably funny mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Once a staple of summer stock and community theatres, Bella and Samuel Spewack's Broadway farce Boy Meets Girl dates rather badly when seen today. The 1938 movie version is also a bit mildewed, though it is saved by the dynamo-like energy of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The stars are cast as Robert Law and J.C. Benson, a pair of iconoclastic Hollywood screenwriters based upon Ben Hecht and Charlie McArthur. Cynically declaring that every film can be boiled down to "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl", Law and Benson drive their studio-executive bosses crazy with their zany irreverence. Their pet target is bigwig C. Elliot Friday (Ralph Bellamy), a delicious take-off of 20th Century-Fox prexy Darryl F. Zanuck. Friday orders the boys to concoct a screenplay for cowboy star Larry Toms (Dick Foran), whose popularity is on the wane. Upon making the acquaintance of pregnant, unmaried waitress Susie (Marie Wilson), Law and Benson hit upon a brilliant scheme: they'll transform Susie's baby into a child star and team the kid with Toms in his latest epic ("based on an original story by William Shakespeare"). Complication piles upon complication, reaching a high point of hilarity when the baby gives Larry Toms the measles. Ronald Reagan appears briefly as a radio announcer covering the Hollywood premiere of Law and Bensen's newest masterpiece. Boy Meets Girl was originally conceived as a Marion Davies vehicle, with the comedy team of Olsen & Johnson playing the screenwriters, but things changed radically (and for the better) when Davies' sponsor William Randolph Hearst huffily pulled his Cosmopolitan Pictures unit off the Warner Bros. lot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Broadway Musketeers is a remake of the 1932 Warner Bros. drama Three on a Match, with numerous concessions made to the now more stringent Hollywood censors. Brought up together in an orphanage, three young ladies-Isabel (Margaret Lindsay), Fay (Ann Sheridan) and Connie (Marie Wilson)-vow to remain friends through thick and thin. Fate, however, has other things in store for the three heroines, obliging them to trod widely divergent paths in life. One of the three girls deserts her husband in favor of a group of crooked gamblers, culminating in the kidnapping of her beloved child (Janet Chapman). Horace McMahon essays the tough-guy role originally played in Three on a Match by Humphrey Bogart. Producer Bryan Foy is careful to add several new plot twists and characters to prevent Broadway Musketeers from being a carbon copy of its predecessor, not least of which is transforming the character originally enacted by Joan Blondell into a dizzy-blonde type played by Marie Wilson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Operatic tenor James Melton stars as on-the-skids bandleader Tod Weaver, who finds himself in charge of an all-girl orchestra. Though he tries to remain oblivious to his musicians' charms, he can't help but fall in love with assistant conductor Gale Starr (Patricia Ellis). Things look bad for hero and heroine when seductive Lorna Wray (Winifred Shaw) comes between them, but Tod is brought back to earth with a well-aimed slap. The cast of Melody for Two contains some potent comedy talent, including Marie Wilson and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, but the spotlight is on the golden-throated James Melton. The film's one memorable song is "September in the Rain," later hilariously re-created in the "Looney Tunes" installment Porky's Preview (1938). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Big Noise is retired textile manufacturer Julius Trent (Guy Kibbee). Seeking a new outlet for his entrepreneurial energies, Trent buys a half interest in a thriving dry-cleaning establishment. This gets him mixed up with a gang of protection racketeers, who promise dire consequences if Trent doesn't dance to their tune. But our hero is not so easily frightened, and with the help of his fellow merchants Trent forms a strong united front against the crooks, utilizing a clever strategy of "divide and conquer." This Warner Bros. programmer bears no relation to the later Laurel and Hardy vehicle The Big Noise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

King of Hockey was one of three low-budget hockey films released during the 1936-37 season, each one produced by a different studio. Dick Purcell stars as swell-headed hockey champ Gabby Dugan, whose career is abruptly terminated when he's accused of shaving points during a crucial game. Even worse, a blow on the skull induces temporary blindness, causing Gabby to wonder if he'll ever get to play again. Not only does he stage a spectacular comeback, but he also wins back the love of his estranged sweetheart Kathleen O'Rourke (Anne Nagel). A goodly portion of the film is given over to juvenile performer Ann Gillis, whom Warner Bros. evidently hoped would develop into the "new Shirley Temple" (even though there was still plenty of mileage left in the "old" Shirley Temple). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While John Huston's screen adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon is widely regarded as a screen classic, it wasn't the first time Hammett's novel had been brought to the screen, and this comedy drama offers a decidedly different spin on the same story. Detective Ted Shayne (Warren William) is hired by a woman named Valerie Purvis (Bette Davis) to find a woman named Mme. Barrabas (Alison Skipworth). Valerie, however, won't tell Ted what she wants from her, and as he tries to track down Barrabas, Barrabas' people come to him in search of Valerie. When Ted and Barrabas finally meet, she claims Valerie has a valuable piece of her property -- a jewel-encrusted ram's horn -- and she'll gladly pay Ted to return it to her. Certain Valerie hasn't been on the level with him, Ted asks his partner to trail her, but when Valerie discovers she's being watched, she kills the second detective. Unaware that she's killed Ted's partner, Valerie asks that Ted pick up a package for her from a ship arriving from Asia the next day, which Ted realizes is the precious horn that has caused all the trouble. Satan Met a Lady was actually the second feature film based on The Maltese Falcon; the first, also called The Maltese Falcon, was released in 1931. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An aspiring singer learns the bitter price of stardom in this musical drama. She starts out a small-town girl and soon becomes a big star. Unfortunately, she still cannot find true love and so must lead a successful but lonely life. Songs include: "He Was Her Man", "Let It Be Me", "Weary", and ""Who But You"". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

March of the Wooden Soldiers is the 1952 reissue title for Hal Roach's 1934 film version of Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star as Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee, bumbling apprentices to the master toymaker of Toyland. This joyous fairy-tale community is populated by all the colorful Mother Goose characters we know and love; the one sour apple in the barrel is mean old Silas Barnaby (portrayed by Henry Kleinbach, aka Henry Brandon). Barnaby holds the mortgage on the outsized shoe where Widow Peep (Florence Roberts) and her daughter Little Bo Peep (Charlotte Henry) reside, and where Stannie and Ollie pay room and board. Bo Peep will be forced to marry the odious Barnaby if the rent isn't paid, so Stannie and Ollie try to raise the money by asking the toymaker for a raise. But the boys are fired when Stannie messes up an order from Santa Claus: instead of making six hundred toy soldiers one foot high, the dumb Mr. Dum makes one hundred toy soldiers six feet high. The wedding between Barnaby and Bo Peep goes on as planned--except that it's Stannie, disguised as the bride, who ends up walking down the altar. Publicly humiliated, Barnaby vows revenge. He steals one of the Three Little Pigs and places the blame on Bo Peep's boy friend, Tom-Tom the Piper's Son (Felix Knight). The penalty for pignapping is banishment to Bogeyland, a fearsome subterranean world populated by hideous bogeymen (look closely and you'll see the zippers on their costumes!) Stannie and Ollie expose Barnaby's perfidy and rescue Tom-Tom from Bogeyland, whereupon Barnaby rallies the bogeymen and leads an all-out attack on Toyland. Taking refuge in the toy warehouse, Stannie and Ollie activate the 100 6-foot wooden soldiers (a neat bit of stop-motion photography, courtesy of Hal Roach's "fx" wizard Roy Seawright), who vanquish the Bogeymen and save the day. One of the best of all the Laurel and Hardy features, March of the Wooden Soldiers has been a television holiday perennial ever since the cathode tube was invented. Only a handful of Victor Herbert's songs are utilized, but these lilting compositions more than compensate for the omissions (one song, "I Can't Do That Sum", is used as the leitmotif for the clueless Stannie and Ollie). For years available only in the 70-minute reissue version, March of the Wooden Soldiers has recently been fully restored to its full glorious 78 minutes. The parent property Babes in Toyland was remade by Disney in 1961 (with Gene Sheldon and Henry Calvin as Laurel and Hardy wannabes) and for television in 1986, with new songs by Leslie Bricusse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide