Dorothea Wolbert Movies
A veteran character actress from Philadelphia who appeared onscreen from the late 1910s, surly looking Dorothea Wolbert (aka Ella Wolbert) was a favorite of low-budget entrepreneur J.P. McGowan, for whom she played scores of aunts and domestics. Wolbert's career lasted well into the television era and she is perhaps best remembered in the raffle sequence in the 1955 I Love Lucy episode "Rocky's European Booking." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1955
In the first episode of a lengthy story arc, Ricky's band is booked on a European tour. Unfortunately, Ricky (Desi Arnaz) has only enough money for his musicians, and can't take Lucy (Lucille Ball) along. Unwilling to pass up her opportunity to visit Europe, Lucy sets about to raise the necessary funds by staging a raffle for what she calls "The Women's Overseas Aid." Trouble is, there's already a genuine "Women's Overseas Aid" -- and Lucy could go to prison for fraud. This episode includes a performance of the title song from the 1956 Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz theatrical feature Forever Darling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Antrim, Barney Phillips, (more)
Inspired by the 1949 hit A Letter to Three Wives, this takes the other side of the coin with a deceased playboy leaving letters to the husbands accusing their wives of having had affairs with him. Although the 1949 hit was done as a dramatic treatise on the reactions of the wives to the revelations, this movie is played strictly for laughs as the husbands stumble all over themselves trying to dig out the truth behind the allegations. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eve Arden, Ruth Warrick, (more)
- 1946
- NR
Art critic and forgery expert George Steele (Pat O'Brien) is apprehended by the police as he desperately tries to break into the Manhattan Museum in the opening scene of Crack-Up, a noir mystery directed by Irving Reis. Steele does not understand his own bizarre actions, but explains that he was in a train wreck and had to get back to the museum. Questioned by Lt. Cochrane (Wallace Ford), who tells him there have been no train wrecks in months, Steele relates, in flashback, the events leading up to the incident. Earlier in the day the head of the museum had suspended him for alienating wealthy patrons by criticizing "art snobs" in a lecture. He then received a phone call informing him that his mother was sick, and caught the train to the hospital, but never got there. Though suspicious of Steele, Cochrane is persuaded by the shadowy Mr. Traybin (Herbert Marshall) to release him so he can follow Steele. The next day Steele retraces his steps and discovers that someone had set him up to be discredited, though he knows neither who nor why. Following the murder of a friend who was trying to help him, he discovers that forgeries of some very famous paintings are at the heart of the matter, but getting to the culprit is a more difficult task. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Claire Trevor, (more)
- 1942
In this grim melodrama, Barbara Stanwyck plays the eldest of three wealthy sisters who become orphans when their father dies in France. Threatened with the danger of losing the opulent family home, Big Sister makes a grand sacrifice and secretly marries a real estate developer so she can inherit her aunt's fortune. A few years later, she learns that he is after the family estate and wants to tear it down so she leaves him and tries to stop him. More time passes and the husband ends up taking her to court when he learns that she has borne him a son without telling him. The part of "Gig Young" was played by actor Byron Barr who later assumed the name before he became famous. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, (more)
- 1940
This touching romance is based on a play by Rachel Crothers. An aging sea captain squanders his fortune on a bad business deal. Now he faces having to put his beloved wife in a poor house. He himself also has no place to live. Desperate for cash, he sells interest in a ship he has nothing to do with. This money gets her in a decent home for old ladies. To be with her, he dresses as an old woman and goes to live in the home with her. Eventually the administrators allow him to stay and the other residents begin calling him "Old Lady 31." The fortunes of the couple changes after the brave old salt saves a shipwrecked schooner. The salvage rights restore his fortune and all is well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Coburn, Beulah Bondi, (more)
- 1940
Invisible Stripes is a cookie-cutter Warners prison drama which rounds up the usual suspects. George Raft and Humphrey Bogart are top-billed, and as is often the case in such a circumstance, it is Raft who is given the larger (albeit less interesting) role. Raft plays Cliff Taylor, an ex-convict who finds that his "invisible stripes" prevent him from getting a decent job. Cliff's younger brother (William Holden) shows unfortunate signs of following his older sibling's footsteps when he is pressured into crime to support himself and his girl friend (Jane Bryan). To save his brother, Cliff joins Humphrey Bogart's gang and earns enough dishonest money to set his brother up in business. But movie censorship prevails, and all of the miscreants in Invisible Stripes--even those motivated by good intentions--must pay the penalty. Side note: The prankish Humphrey Bogart spent so much time needling newcomer William Holden that Holden nearly came to blows with the older actor; the animosity persisted into the Bogart-Holden costarring feature Sabrina, made fourteen years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Jane Bryan, (more)
- 1938
Viennese-born Luise Rainer plays a young Parisian girl who attends an exclusive drama school, working nights at a factory to pay the tuition. Despite the jealousies of her fellow students, Luise allows nothing to discourage her from her goal to become as great an actress as her idol (Gale Sondergaard). The girl wins the coveted role of Joan of Arc in an upcoming play, but the victory has a bitter taste when she realizes she's beaten out her idol for the part. At the end, Luise manages to have both a happy career and a successful marriage, even though her friends (and enemies) insist that such a combination is impossible. Dramatic School is a film buff's banquet; virtually every bit player in the cast (Ann Rutherford, Lana Turner, Dick Haymes, Hans Conried, etc.) later graduated to show-biz prominence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luise Rainer, Paulette Goddard, (more)
- 1936
In this western, a cowboy finds himself a mine owner and a daddy simultaneously when a friend dies and wills him his mine and his baby. The outlaws eying the mine try to frame the hero for the death. In one of the film's highlights Tarzan the horse takes care of the infant and even saves its life during a mine explosion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard, Joan Perry, (more)
- 1935
Tulio Carminati, who was previously and felicitously teamed with Grace Moore in One Night of Love, co-stars with another splendid operatic singer, Mary Ellis, in Paris in Spring. Ellis plays Simone, who breaks up her long-standing engagement with Paul de Lille (Carminati) because she balks at the notion of marriage. Simultaneously, young lovers Mignon (Ida Lupino) and Albert (James Blakely) split up for the same reason. In desperation, Mignon heads to the Eiffel Tower, intending to leap to her death. She is dissuaded from doing away with herself by Paul, who'd come to the tower with the same thought in mind. The symbiotic relationship between the two couples is played to the hilt, especially when Mignon and Albert conspire to make Simone and Albert jealous. The distinctly American character actor Lynne Overman is bizarrely but effectively cast as a dry-witted French gendarme. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Ellis, Tullio Carminatti, (more)
- 1935
Produced by parsimonious Majestic Pictures, Reckless Roads stars Regis Toomey as perennial wise-guy Speed Demming. To gain access to haughty heroine Edith Adams (Judith Allen), Speed poses as a reporter and for a long while gets away with it. He also manages to dissuade young Wade Adams (Ben Alexander) from frittering away his life. Somehow this all ends at the racetrack, with Wade winning a huge sum of money on a long-shot, neatly negating Speed's warning that nothing comes easy in life. Typical of the film's patchwork construction is a cabaret scene in which the film's least likeable character suddenly bursts into song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judith Allen, Regis Toomey, (more)
- 1935
After a burst of creativity in 1933 and 1934, independent Majestic Pictures had settled into the usual "B"-picture rut by 1935. One of the last Majestic efforts was Motive for Revenge, starring Donald Cook as hapless bank teller Barry Webster. Plagued by a domineering mother-in-law (Doris Lloyd), Webster impulsively steals bank funds so that he may properly support his wife Muriel (Irene Hervey). It isn't long before the Law catches up with Webster, and soon he's doing hard time in prison. Holding his mother-in-law responsible for his present sorry state, our anti-hero plots a terrible revenge -- but is he too nice a guy to go through with it? Most of the prison scenes in Motive for Revenge were culled from stock footage, which only served to emphasize the overall cheapness of the whole enterprise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Cook, Irene Hervey, (more)
- 1934
A W. Somerset Maugham novel was the source for the fair-to-middling Greta Garbo vehicle The Painted Veil. In a situation comparable to the plotlines of most of her silent films, Garbo is lovelessly married to Herbert Marshall, but carries a flaming torch for George Brent. (Also harking back to Garbo's silent days is the fact that neither one of the men in her life is particularly interesting!) Marshall, a brilliant physician, is compelled to go into the interior regions of China to quell a cholera epidemic. He knows that Garbo has been having an affair with politician Brent, and chivalrously gives her the choice of remaining with Brent or accompanying him. Fearing a scandal, Brent bids farewell to Garbo. Once they're in the midst of the epidemic, Garbo tirelessly works by her husband's side; eventually she falls in love with him for the first time. Seriously injured in a peasant uprising, Marshall hovers near death. Brent reappears, offering to take Garbo back with him. She refuses, electing to stay with her husband no matter what the future brings. Among the supporting players in The Painted Veil are Warner Oland and Keye Luke, one year away from their memorable pairing in Fox's Charlie Chan films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greta Garbo, Herbert Marshall, (more)
Previously filmed with Lillian Gish in 1926, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter was given a remarkably faithful treatment by low-budget Majestic Pictures in 1934. In her last film appearance, Colleen Moore stars as 17th-century Salem resident Hester Prynne, who when she delivers a child out of wedlock is forced by the prudish townspeople to wear the scarlet "A" for adultery. The father of the baby is none other than Reverend Dimmesdale (Hardie Albright), who wants to confess to his indiscretion but is prohibited from doing so by the pious Hester. Things come to a sorry pass when Hester's long-missing husband Roger Chillingworth (Henry B. Walthall, repeating his role from the 1926 version) returns to Salem and demands a few immediate answers. The film's colonial-era milieu is not always realized, due to inconsistent period costumes and phraseology; also, the direction and acting ranges from adequate to stilted. Still, this Scarlet Letter is a lot more worthwhile than Demi Moore's vanity remake of 1995. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colleen Moore, Hardie Albright, (more)
Al Jolson's "comeback" picture Hallelujah, I'm a Bum is an offbeat Depression-era concoction with script by Ben Hecht and S.N. Behrmann and music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Jolson plays a genial hobo who wanders happily around Central Park, neither seeking nor accepting honest employment. He is imbued with a sense of responsibility when he rescues pretty Madge Evans from committing suicide. Evans, suffering from amnesia, falls in love with Jolson, completely forgetting her "regular" beau, mayor Frank Morgan. When she regains her memory she heads back to Morgan, leaving Jolson sadder but wiser, and prompting him back to his carefree existence. Much of the dialogue is spoken in rhyme, in the manner of an operetta--though there's nothing Romberg-like about such lyrical phrases as "Hoover's Cossacks." Former silent-film comedy star Harry Langdon has some choice moments as Egghead, a communist streetcleaner, while composers Rodgers and Hartshow up in unbilled cameos. Because the word "Bum" has different connotations in different lands, this film was released in England as Hallelujah, I'm a Tramp. The reissue version, titled Heart of a Tramp, has been severely re-edited, doing considerable damage to the carefully interwoven rhyming dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Jolson, Madge Evans, (more)
- 1932
About to die in the electric chair, John Allen (Edward G. Robinson) uses the last two seconds of his life to recall the events leading up to his present predicament. A $62.50-per-week riveter ("That's more than most college professors make!"), Allen gets drunk at a speakeasy and impulsively marries his steady date Shirley Day (Vivienne Osborne), who almost immediately begins cheating on him with dance-hall proprietor Tony (J. Carroll Naish). When his co-worker pal Bud Clark (Preston S. Foster) tries to warn him of this hanky-panky, Allen angrily takes a punch at Clark, whereupon the other man falls to his death from a skyscraper girder. Told by his "repentant" wife that she's been messing around with Tony so as to borrow money from him, Allen begins playing the horses, earning just enough money to pay off his debts. With money in hand, he heads to Tony's place, only to discover that Shirley has been lying to him all along. In a fit of jealousy, he kills Shirley and subsequently is sentenced to the chair. As the executioner pulls the switch, Allen philosophizes that he's been the victim of the "postman always rings twice" syndrome: He escaped prosecution for Clark's unjustified death, only to be punished for his justifiable murder of Shirley ("It isn't fair to let a rat live and kill a man!") Edward G. Robinson overacts outrageously throughout Two Seconds, but that's part of the charm of this fascinating antique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Preston S. Foster, (more)
- 1932
Barbara Stanwyck overcomes a veritable ocean of clichés and manages to make her "shopworn" heroine come to life in this old-fashioned but rather poignant melodrama. A waitress in her aunt and uncle's café, orphaned Kitty Lane falls in love with society scion Dave Livingston (Regis Toomey). Much to Mrs. Livingston's regret, Dave is equally smitten and the society matron (Clara Blandick) has Kitty convicted on a trumped up charge of prostitution. While Dave accompanies his mother on a long trip to Europe, Kitty serves her time in reform school and later becomes a successful showgirl. Reunited after several years, Dave and Kitty resume their romance and Mrs. Livingston once again attempts to talk Kitty out of marrying her son, this time by brandishing a firearm. Like Marguerite Gautier had before her, Kitty is about to sacrifice her love when Dave's mother suddenly has a change of heart. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Regis Toomey, (more)
- 1932
An elderly gentleman finds himself in a difficult situation when he finds himself faced with becoming a burden on his children or going into an old folks home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Chic" Sale, Dickie Moore, (more)
- 1931
The old bromide about joining the Foreign Legion to "forget," so often parodied by such comedians as Laurel and Hardy, was played straight in 1931's Friends and Lovers. A very young Laurence Olivier plays Lt. Nichols, who has retreated to the desert to get over his affair with Alva Sangrito (Lily Damita). Nichols is befriended by another of Alva's victims, Captain Roberts (Adolphe Menjou). Once back in England, however, the two castaway lovers find themselves rivals once more, leading to a potentially deadly payoff. Erich von Stroheim is delightful in a depraved sort of way as Lily Damita's cynical husband. Based on the novel The Sphinx Has Spoken by Maurice de Kobra, Friends and Lovers represented one of Laurence Olivier's last early-talkie Hollywood films before he returned to England to hone his acting skills. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Lili Damita, (more)
This first of four film versions of the Ben Hecht/Charlrd MacArthur Broadway hit stars Adolphe Menjou as explosive Chicago newspaper-editor Walter Burns and Pat O'Brien as his star reporter Hildy Johnson. Hildy is on the verge of getting married and retiring from Burns' dirty little tabloid, but he agrees to cover one last story: the politically motivated execution of convicted cop killer Earl Williams (George E. Stone). Thanks to the stupidity of the police, Williams manages to escape, and Johnson hides the wounded fugitive in a rolltop desk in the prison pressroom. Burns enters the scene, senses a swell story (and also a means of keeping Johnson on his payroll), and conspires with Johnson to keep Williams out of sight until they can secure an exclusive interview. Burns will do anything to keep Johnson on the scene, including having the reporter's future mother-in-law kidnapped. Complicating matters are Johnson's fiancée Peggy (Mary Brian), Williams' girlfriend Molly Malloy (Mae Clarke), and the corrupt mayor (James Gordon) and sheriff (Clarence C. Wilson), who have railroaded Williams to the death house in order to win votes and are now trying to suppress the news that the governor has commuted Williams' sentence. The Front Page was remade by Howard Hawks in 1939 as His Girl Friday, with the symbiotic relationship between Burns and Johnson changed to a sexual one by transforming Hildy Johnson into a woman (played by Rosalind Russell) with Cary Grant as her old flame Walter. It was again remade by Billy Wilder in 1974 with Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett, and a young Susan Sarandon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Pat O'Brien, (more)
- 1930
Jack Benny wasn't even 39 yet when he starred in the maudlin backstage drama The Medicine Man. Benny plays Dr. John Harvey, the worldly and none-too-honest title character, who while passing through a small town falls in love with winsome Mamie Goltz (Betty Bronson), the victim of what one observer described as the most abusive father in movie history (E. Alyn Warren). Our hero puts his larcenous nature on the back burner to champion Mamie's cause when her despicable dad tries to force her into a marriage with an equally odious elderly millionaire. Forced out of town due to a scandal, the doctor is nowhere to be found during the wedding ceremonies, and for several uncomfortable minutes it looks like poor Mamie will have to go through with it. Not a good film by any standards, The Medicine Man is worth having if only to see Jack Benny in a virtually "straight" role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Benny, Betty Bronson, (more)
- 1930
Intending to get value for money out of their house leading man Rex Lease, Tiffany Studios cast the personable actor in everything from westerns to sports dramas to domestic comedies like Borrowed Wives. Lease plays Peter Foley, who stands to inherit a fortune from his late uncle. The problem: To increase his allowance from his wealthy relative, Peter pretended to have a wife. Naturally, the will stipulates that Peter still be married, lest he lose his $800,000 legacy. The rest of the plotline is implicit in the film's title, with everyone concerned running around at top speed to convince the audience that something funny is going on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rex Lease, Vera Reynolds, (more)
- 1930
Joseph Conrad's novel Victory inspired some of this South Sea drama. Alma (Nancy Carroll), a violinist hired to play at an island resort, is pressured to make herself available to its male visitors. She flees and hides in a skiff belonging to the reclusive Heyst (Richard Arlen), who is said to have hidden a stash of gold. The men in pursuit of Alma -- and of Heyst's gold -- force a confrontation with Heyst and they all wind up dead or arrested; Heyst, who actually has no gold, winds up with Alma. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy Carroll, Richard Arlen, (more)
- 1928
Like many of Esther Ralston's late-1920s vehicles, Love and Learn is primarily an excuse to show off its star in as few clothes as possible. In love with political candidate Anthony Cowles (Lane Chandler), heroine Nancy Blair (Ralston) gets wind of the opposition's scheme to ruin Cowles' reputation. At the risk of her own good name, Nancy decides to turn the tables on the crooked politicos by framing Cowles' opponent in a compromising situation. Things don't go quite as planned, and soon several diverse people are scurrying in and out of bedrooms in various stages of undress. Future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper has a good role as Nancy's mixed-up mother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Ralston
- 1927
It would seem that Warner Bros. was trying to develop hoydenish Louise Fazenda and diminutive Clyde Cook into a screen team, which would explain the existence of such trifles as A Sailor's Sweetheart. Upon inheriting a fortune, old-maid schoolmarm Cynthia Botts (Fazenda) takes a trip to Hawaii in search of a handsome hubby. She ends up the bride of Mark Krisel (John Miljan), who turns out to be not only a fortune-hunter but a bigamist as well. Standing on the sidelines is woebegone sailor MacTavish (Clyde Cook), who, unaware of Cynthia's millions, worships her from afar. Cynthia realizes that MacTavish is the man for her when he rescues her from a vicious bootlegging gang. Myrna Loy has virtually nothing to do in the third-billed role of Claudette Ralston. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Fazenda, Clyde Cook, (more)
