Charles Winninger Movies
Born with show business in his blood, Charles Winninger was nine years old when he joined his parents' vaudeville act, the Winninger Family Novelty Company. The troupe appeared at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, then spent the next sixteen years touring the provinces. Going out as a "single" in 1909, Winninger trod the boards as a monologist, dialectician, singer, dancer, dramatic actor and master of ceremonies. He made his Broadway debut as a German comic in 1912's Yankee Girl Company. Three years later, he launched his film career at the L-KO comedy studios. The character-actor phase of his Hollywood years began in 1924, though at the time he was still more committed to the stage than film. In 1927, he scored one of his biggest Broadway successes as Cap'n Andy in Showboat, a role he repeated with gusto in the 1936 film version. Except for occasional Dutch-comic turns in such films as Soup to Nuts (1930) and Friendly Enemies (1945) Winninger was generally seen in talkies in "foxy papa" or roguish-reprobate roles. His own favorite screen part was Deanna Durbin's roving-eyed millionaire father in Three Smart Girls (1936) and its three sequels. Winninger's performance as the drink-sodden, grudge-bearing general practitioner in Nothing Sacred (1937) is perhaps his finest cinematic hour, with his portrayal of Iowa farmer Abel Frake in State Fair (1945) running a close second. Usually billed at the top of the supporting cast list, Winninger was afforded a rare starring role as Judge Priest in John Ford's wonderful The Sun Shines Bright (1953). On TV, Winninger co-starred in the 1956 sitcom The Charles Farrell Show as Farrell's dad, and guested as Fred Mertz' down-and-out vaudeville partner in the "Mertz and Kurtz" episode of I Love Lucy. Charles Winninger was at one time married to Broadway favorite Blanche Ring, meaning that he was briefly the brother-in-law of silent screen star Thomas Meighan and comedienne Charlotte Greenwood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Manhattan working girl Jean Arthur bids goodbye to her three erstwhile suitors (Grant Withers, Hans Conried and Grady Sutton) to take a bus tour of the west. En route, she meets handsome rodeo-star John Wayne, whose bucking bronco hurls him directly into her lap. Stranded in a tank town with Wayne and his sidekick Charles Winninger, Arthur is introduced to the sort of frontier activities not covered by the tour books: gambling, boozing and brawling. Not surprisingly, Arthur wants to hightail it back to the East, but by now Wayne has fallen in love with her. Lady Takes a Chance was produced for RKO by Jean Arthur's then-husband, Frank Ross. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Arthur, John Wayne, (more)
- 1953
The much-maligned Vera Ralston turns in an acceptable performance as star of Republic's A Perilous Journey. Though seemingly inspired by MGM's Westward the Women, the film was actually based on The Golden Tide, a novel by Vingie Roe. In the year 1850, a group of 49 young women charter a full-rigger to sail for California to offer themselves as wives to the gold prospectors. As indicated by the title, the journey is indeed fraught with peril (not to mention a few geographical inaccuracies). Vera Ralston plays Francie Landreaux, who has undertaken the voyage in search of her no-good gambler husband. Instead, she finds romance in the arms of rough-and-ready Shard Benton (Scott Brady). A Perilous Journey is pepped up by several song numbers, written by Victor Young and Edward Heyman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vera Ralston, David Brian, (more)
- 1939
This fun-filled spin-off of the Rodgers & Hart Broadway musical by the same name, features Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney as two young children of vaudevillian parents who aren't included in their parents travels, so they set out to produce a show of their own. Rooney's the driver here and he's up against the administrators of a fogy state-run trade school, who think the whole show idea is nonsense. A listening judge gives them 30 days to put on the show and prove they don't belong in the jail-like school. The rest of the action involves the highly talented kids successful efforts to not only stage the show, but to bring the whole troupe to Broadway. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, (more)
- 1931
A naive, wealthy small-town girl, bored with her routine life, falls for a dashing con artist who has come looking for fresh marks to swindle. He soon charms her into faking her prominent father's name on a letter of endorsement, which he presents to the other local merchants. They willingly give him all sorts of goodies and he prepares his escape, but not before conning the girl into becoming his wife. After their wedding night in a sleazy hotel, he abandons her. Fortunately, by the story's end, she is able to reassemble her shattered life and find happiness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Nagel, Bette Davis, (more)
- 1939
The gathering war clouds in the late 1930s prompted a number of Hollywood films about recent political upheavals, one of which was 20th Century-Fox's Barricade. While fleeing war-torn China by train, two Americans-singer Emmy Jordan (Alice Faye) and journalist Hank Topping (Warner Baxter)-are attacked by Mongol bandits. United in danger, Faye and Baxter fall in love as they attempt to escape the American embassy where they're holed up. More than one reviewer noted that Barricade resembled a modern-dress western, with the Mongol hordes substituting for American Indians. Also noted was the fact that the film had been completed as a nine-reel "A" picture in 1938, undergoing drastic cutting and script revisions before it finally emerged in its present truncated 71-minute form. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Faye, Warner Baxter, (more)
Belle Of The Yukon is standard backstage musical fare, featuring Randolph Scott as a reformed con man who has fled north from the law and opened a successful dancehall/ gambling establishment in the upper reaches of Malamute. Meanwhile, his former lover Belle (Gypsy Rose Lee), who he deserted when he went on the lam, arrives as part of a new show troupe and finds her ex-boyfriend's new ways powerfully attractive. But Lettie Candless (Dinah Shore) also has designs on our hero. A thin plot and light characterizations are kept afloat by bouncy performances, glitzy production, and the usual clutch of sprightly musical numbers. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Gypsy Rose Lee, (more)
- 1958
A dramatization of the Philip Barry play about a rich society divorcee who is looking for a real romance and meets a fast-talking reporter who falls in love with her. ~ All Movie Guide
Harry Carey Sr., C. Aubrey Smith and Charles Winninger play three wealthy bachelors who have spent their lives wrapped up in themselves. Left all alone on Christmas eve, the elderly trio invite a couple of strangers to dinner: misplaced cowpoke Richard Carlson and pretty, but aimless, Jean Parker. Hoping that they've accomplished a bit of matchmaking, the three old duffers board a plane and head off to an important business meeting. The plane crashes, killing all three men. They return to their mansion as ghosts, only to discover that Carlson is making the same mistake they made: he's allowing his drive for success to override his affection for Parker. Feeling as though they won't be welcome in Heaven until they rectify this situation, Carey, Smith, and Winninger stick around to set things right. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Carey, C. Aubrey Smith, (more)
- 1944
The plot of the overinflated MGM musical Broadway Rhythm can be summed up briefly: Musical comedy producer Jonnie Demming (George Murphy) dismisses his vaudevillian dad Sam Demming (Charles Winninger) as old-fashioned. Jonnie signs Hollywood star Helen Hoyt (Ginny Simms) to a Broadway show, but she turns it down. Sam saves the day by dredging up an old script he'd done in summer stock-which, of course, Helen agrees to play. All of this can be forgotten, and in fact will be forgotten, once the film's parade of "guest stars" gets under way. Such stage and screen luminaries as Lena Horne, Ben Blue, Nancy Walker, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Hazel Scott and Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra make up for the narrative banalities with such musical numbers as Gershwin's "Somebody Loves Me" and Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Murphy, Ginny Simms, (more)
- 1937
Cafe Metropole stars Tyrone Power as an international playboy with a habit of writing rubber checks. Heavily in debt to cafe owner Adolphe Menjou, Power agrees to pose as a Russian nobleman and woo heiress Loretta Young, so that Menjou can get his mitts on the girl's money. Avarice gives way to love, but not before Young walks out on Power when she catches on to his original selfish intentions. The script for Cafe Metropole was written by actor/director Gregory Ratoff, who also plays a supporting role. The film's first biggest laughs are reserved for the first scene, in which mild-mannered Christian Rub attempts to collect on one of Power's debts by clumsily wielding a loaded revolver. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Tyrone Power, (more)
- 1926
In 1917, Thomas Meighan played the lead in a film adaptation of Somerset Maugham's The Land of Promise. Nine years later he essayed the same role, Alberta wheat farmer Frank Taylor, in the remake, now titled The Canadian. When she loses her family fortune, Englishwoman Nora Marsh (Mona Palma) comes to Canada to live with her brother Earl (Wyndham Standing) and his wife Gertie (Dale Fuller). Though she tries to acclimate herself to her new Spartan lifestyle, Nora quickly alienates everyone with her inbred snobbishness. Upon hearing Earl's friend Frank (Meighan) making crude jokes about an "ideal wife," Nora insults not only Frank but also Gertie, who demands an apology. Refusing to give Gertie the satisfaction, Nora desperately seeks a way to escape Earl's household -- and this she does by offering her "services" as Frank's wife. The rest of the story concentrates on the tension-laden relationship between Frank and Nora, with both parties too proud and stubborn ever to admit being wrong about anything. Filmed on location in the Canadian Rockies, The Canadian may well be the best film ever directed by William "One Take" Beaudine, who lived long enough to see the picture lauded as a masterpiece during a screening at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Meighan, Mona Palma, (more)
- 1953
Based on William Fay's short story The Disappearance of Dolan, Champ for a Day stars Alex Nicol as young pugilist George Wilson. Upon arriving in a small town for a scheduled bout, George discovers that his manager, Dolan, has vanished from sight. Also caught up in the mystery is Dolan's girlfriend Miss Gormley (Audrey Totter). Before long, George finds out that his missing manager was tied up with gangsters--and that George is expected to lose his next fight. How he extricates himself from this dilemma, and also solves his manager's disappearance, consumes the final four reels of this 90-minute Republic "special." The film's topnotch cast includes Harry Morgan as a trainer, Charles Winninger and Hope Emerson as the owners of a roadside hotel, and Joseph Wiseman as a wacko villain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alex Nicol, Audrey Totter, (more)
- 1931
Advertised variously as a "musical romance" and an "operetta style drama", Children of Dreams was the last of three Warner Bros. musicals written directly for the screen by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II. The story revolves around a group of singing migrant workers, laboring away in a Western apple orchard. One of the more talented of the workers, pretty Molly Standing (Margaret Schilling), manages to achieve fame and fortune as an opera star. This turn of events was reportedly inspired by the career of real-life diva Anna Case, who is about the only New York stage personality not seen in this picture. Children of Dreams offers a few amusing turns by vaudevillian Tom Patricola and by Show Boat's original "Captain Andy," Charles Winnigner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Gregory, Tom Patricola, (more)
- 1943
Everything clicks in this tuneful, colorful and profitable Betty Grable musical. The star plays Katie Farley, a gyrating saloon entertainer in turn-of-the-century New York. Convinced that Katie is destined for Bigger Things, Coney Island impresario Eddie Johnson (George Montgomery) tries to turn the raucous song-and-dance girl into a refined entertainer, at one point handcuffing her wrists and ankles so she'll be forced to rely on her voice rather than her undulations. Sure enough, Katie becomes a high-class Broadway star under the aegis of showman Willie Hammerstein (Matt Briggs) -- and equally sure enough, she and Eddie grow apart. After a desultory romance with Eddie's rival, slick saloon owner Joe Rocco (Cesar Romero), Katie eventually returns to the arms of the man she truly loves, as comedy relief Frankie (Phil Silvers) looks on in myopic glee. Among the musical highlights of Coney Island is Betty's delightful rendition of the old chestnut "Cuddle Up a Little Closer". The film was remade, again with Grable, as Wabash Avenue (1950). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Grable, George Montgomery, (more)
Tom Destry (James Stewart), son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn't believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent (Brian Donlevy). His detractors laugh even louder when Destry signs on as deputy to drunken sheriff Wash Dimsdale (Charles Winninger). But the laughter subsides when Destry casually proves himself a crack shot, despite his abhorrence of firearms. Later, when saloon chanteuse Frenchy (Marlene Dietrich), Kent's gal, takes umbrage at Destry's indifferent reaction to her charms, she vows to make a fool of the new deputy. A huge moneymaker, Destry Rides Again served as a spectacular comeback for Marlene Dietrich, who two years earlier had been written off as "box office poison." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, (more)
- 1937
Paramount spent a record one million dollars on its 1937 Mae West vehicle Every Day's a Holiday. La West portrays a turn-of-century confidence trickster who poses as a famous French chanteuse to avoid arrest. In this guise, she manages to expose crooked police chief Lloyd Nolan and smooths the path for reform mayoral candidate Edmund Lowe. A strong cast of supporting comedians, including Charles Winninger, Charles Butterworth and Walter Catlett, match Mae quip for quip. Elaborately produced and snappily directed by Eddie Sutherland, Every Day's a Holiday should have been the hit that Mae West needed to save her flagging film career. Unfortunately, her vogue had passed, plus she was under fire from America's bluenoses because of her previous "racy" vehicles and her recent "lewd and lascivious" appearance on Edgar Bergen's radio show. (When heard today, West's "Adam and Eve" sketch seems harmless enough, but remember the formidability of the Bible Belt back in 1938.) As a result, Every Day's a Holiday lost every penny it cost and then some -- and effectively ended Mae West's relationship with Paramount, the studio she had single-handedly rescued from bankruptcy with She Done Him Wrong back in 1933. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mae West, Edmund Lowe, (more)
- 1950
Father is a Bachelor is a pleasant throwback to the "rural" comedies of the 1930s. William Holden plays Johnny Rutledge, a philosophical hobo to whom fishing is the only reason for living. Rutledge is forced to take a few jolts of responsibility when he crosses the path of five orphans. The kids decide to "adopt" Johnny and find him a bride--preferably small-town girl Prudence Millett (Colleen Gray). Charles Winninger steals the film from everyone--even those five urchins--as a medicine-show charlatan named Professor Mordecai Ford. One of the children is played by Billy Gray, of Father Knows Best fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, Coleen Gray, (more)
Directly after his successful screen teaming with Marlene Dietrich in Morocco, Gary Cooper returned to Paramount's "Zane Grey" western series with Fighting Caravans. Cooper is cast as Clint Belmet, a hell-raisin' frontiersman facing a misdemeanor jail term. To avoid arrest, Clint talks French-born Felice (Lily Damita) into posing as his wife. Having successfully eluded the Law, Clint joins a wagon train heading to California, with Felice in tow. He callously tells her that he expects to exercise his "husbandly" prerogative in bed, but changes his tune when he genuinely falls in love with the girl. Eventually, Clint assumes some responsibility for the first time in his life by becoming the wagon train's sole trail guide, rescuing the other passengers from the villainous machinations of gun-runner Lee Murdock (Fred Kohler). Several stock shots and outtakes from Fighting Caravans (retitled Blazing Arrows for television) later showed up in another Zane Grey series entry, Wagon Wheels (1934). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Lili Damita, (more)
- 1943
In the tradition of his earlier Carnival in Flanders and Tales of Manhattan, director Julien Duvivier's Flesh and Fantasy is a "pormanteau" film, consisting of several short stories. Linking the three tales unfolded herein are clubmen Doakes (Robert Benchley) and Davis (David Hoffman), who carry on a spirited debate about Destiny. In the first story, homely Henrietta (Betty Field) is made beautiful through the love of handsome Mardi Gras reveller Michael (Robert Cummings)-and the help of an enigmatic mask-maker (Edgar Barrier). The second story, based on Oscar Wilde's "Lord Arthur Saville's Crime", concerns a fortune teller named Septimus Podgers (Thomas Mitchell) who predicts that socialite Marshall Tyler (Edward G. Robinson) will commit a murder. In the final tale, psychic high wire artist Paul Gaspar (Charles Boyer) dreams that he will meet his doom during the performance of his act-and then falls in love with Joan Stanley (Barbara Stanwyck), who looks exactly like the girl who appeared in that dream. A fourth story, detailing the doomed romance between a fugitive from justice (Alan Curtis) and a blind girl (Gloria Jean), was cut from Flesh and Fantasy, then expanded and released separately as Destiny (1944). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1931
Flying High was a nonsensical Broadway musical hit of 1930 starring Bert Lahr. The film version, made one year later by MGM, made a few efforts to "cinematize" the stage original, but the focus was on Lahr, re-creating his Broadway performance virtually verbatim -- except for his famous (and notorious) gag sequence involving a urinalysis! Lahr plays the goofy inventor of an "aerocopter" flying machine, who is compelled to prove the efficiency of his invention in a slapstick cross-country airmail delivery race. While Lahr's original Broadway co-star Kate Smith does not appear in the film, he was more than amply matched comedically by Charlotte Greenwood. The musical numbers for Flying High were choreographed by Busby Berkeley; one of his more engaging routines was later excerpted for the 1934 Ted Healy/Three Stooges two-reeler Plane Nuts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bert Lahr, Charlotte Greenwood, (more)
- 1942
In this remake of the 1925 silent film, the breakup of a lifelong friendship between two German millionaires is chronicled. The trouble begins as WW II erupts. One of the men becomes sympathetic to the U.S. while the other becomes a Nazi sympathizer. They spend most of the film arguing about political philosophy. The trouble really starts when the Nazi millionaire is tricked into paying for German sabotage operations. One of the vehicles he inadvertently destroys carries his own son. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Winninger, Charlie Ruggles, (more)
- 1948
Charles Winninger plays the head of a vaudevillian family who, when jobs become scarce, takes a humble factory job. He dreams of sustaining a show-biz dynasty with his grown children, but none of them show any real interest in trodding the boards. Realizing that the golden days are past, Winninger allows his children to follow their own desires. Give My Regards to Broadway is a regulation 20th Century-Fox Technicolor musical, with all the story elements falling into place precisely when the audience expects them to. The film comes to life during the song and dance sequences featuring Winninger and top-billed Dan Dailey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Dailey, Charles Winninger, (more)
- 1931
God's Gift to Women demonstrated conclusively that Warner Bros. would never make a movie star out of Broadway comedian Frank Fay. Portraying a most unlikely Frenchman, Fay pitches woo at every beautiful woman in sight, but falls in love with none of them. When Cupid genuinely strikes him for the first time, Fay is compelled by the girl's father to prove that he's honestly in love with her and not just with her millions. Fay does just that, but it takes ever so long. God's Gift to Women is injured beyond repair by the obnoxious, mannered performance of Frank Fay, and by the fact that Fay and director Michael Curtiz detested each other at first sight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Fay, Laura La Plante, (more)
- 1938
Goddbye Broadway is wrapped up by two stage & screen veterans, Alice Brady and Charles Winninger. The stars play vaudevillians Molly and Pat Malloy, who are suckered into investing $4000 in a ramschackle New England hotel. After a variety of predictable but amusing complications, the Malloys turn the tables on the sharpsters (Jed Prouty and Frank Jenks) who unloaded the property on them. Radio fans will enjoy seeing comedian Tommy Riggs, whose squeaky-voiced "Betty Lou" alter ego was a major airwaves attraction throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Directed by Leo McCarey's brother Raymond, Goodbye Broadway is based on James Gleason's 1927 stage comedy The Shannons of Broadway, previously filmed in 1929. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Brady, Charles Winninger, (more)
- 1931
William Boyd is one of the stars of the Paramount western Gun Smoke -- only it's not the same William Boyd who later essayed the role of Hopalong Cassidy, but another actor who billed himself as William "Stage" Boyd. The plot was a familiar one to western devotees of the early 1930s: a bunch of urban gangsters, forced out of the Big City when the cops put the screws in, head to Idaho to continue their crooked activities in the Wide Open Spaces. Unfortunately, the bad guys, headed by Kedge Davas (Boyd), haven't reckoned with the resourcefulness of cowboy hero Brad Farley (Richard Arlen) and his saddle pals. Farley and company organize a vigilante group to purge the territory of the gangsters, adopting tactics that might in any other circumstances be considered fascistic. The unspeakable Davas finally comes to a well-deserved end when he falls from a mountain top (a cinematic tour de force for cinematographer Archie J. Stout). It may seem hopelessly hokey and outdated in synopsis form, but Gun Smoke is as entertaining in the 1990s as it was six decades earlier; indeed, a recent screening of the film in the small Idaho resort community of Ketchum earned a standing ovation from the audience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Arlen, Mary Brian, (more)
