Frank Yaconelli Movies
Born in Italy, Frank Yaconelli emigrated to the U.S. after WWI, where he thrived in vaudeville as a monologist, dialectician, and comic musician. Yaconelli went to Hollywood in 1929, spending the next three decades playing innumerable character bits in such films as W.C. Fields' The Barber Shop (1933) and the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera (1935). In the early '40s, he began showing up as comic relief in Tex Ritter's B-Westerns. Frank Yaconelli later played Pancho opposite Gilbert Roland's Cisco in a series of Cisco Kid Westerns for Monogram. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Although some purists hold out for Duck Soup (1933), many Marx Brothers fans consider A Night at the Opera the team's best film. Immediately after the credits roll, we are introduced to Groucho Marx as penny-ante promoter Otis B. Driftwood. After a sumptuous dinner with a beautiful blonde at a fancy Milan restaurant, Driftwood tries to cadge another free meal from his wealthy patroness, Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont). The dignified dowager complains that Driftwood had promised to get her into high society, but has done nothing so far. Otis B. counters by introducing Mrs. C to pompous opera entrepreneur Gottleib (Sig Rumann); all Mrs. Claypool has to do is invest several hundred thousand dollars in Gottleib's opera company, and her entree into society is in the bag. Contingent upon this plan is Driftwood's signing of Rodolfo Lassparri (Walter Woolf King), a self-important tenor. Backstage at the opera, Driftwood meets Fiorello (Chico Marx), who poses as a manager and offers to sell Driftwood the "world's greatest tenor"-not Lassparri, as Driftwood assumes, but Fiorello's pal Ricardo Baroni (Allan Jones). Instantly the two sharpsters try to draw up a contract ("The party of the first part shall hereafter be known as the party of the first part..."), which they proceed to tear up piece by piece whenever coming across a clause that displeases them (Driftwood: "That's a sanity clause"; Fiorello: "You no foola me. There ain't no Sanity Claus"). Having lost Lassparri to Gottleib, Driftwood sails back to America with Mrs. Claypool and the opera company. Gottleib arranges for Driftwood to get the tiniest, least accessible stateroom on the ship. Unpacking his trunk, Driftwood discovers that he's got to share his postage-stamp quarters with Ricardo Baroni, who has stowed away because he's in love with the opera troupe's leading lady Rosa (Kitty Carlisle). Also hiding out in Driftwood's trunk is Fiorello, who's come along because he's still Ricardo's manager, and the wacky Tomasso (Harpo Marx), Lassparri's former dresser, who has come along for the hell of it. Anxious to arrange a tete-a-tete with Mrs. Claypool in his stateroom, Otis finds out that his unwelcome guests won't leave until they're fed ("Do you have any stewed prunes? Well, give them some black coffee, that'll sober 'em up"). After ordering a huge dinner, Otis and his new friends are crowded even farther by a steady stream of intruders, including an engineer and his assistant, a cleaning lady, a manicurist, a girl looking for her Aunt Minnie, and a dozen waiters. The celebrated "stateroom scene" comes to a rollicking conclusion when Mrs. Claypool has the misfortune of opening the door. On the last night of the voyage, Fiorello, Tomasso and Ricardo sneak out of their stateroom to enjoy an impromptu ethnic festival in steerage. Ricardo sings, Fiorello "shoots the keys" on the piano, and Tomasso plays the film's theme song Alone on the harp. The stowaways are caught and thrown in the brig, but with Driftwood's help they escape. To avoid recapture, the stowaways don heavy beards and pose as three famed Russian aviators. After making a shambles of a public reception, the three reprobates hide out in Driftwood's New York apartment, where everyone conspires to drive an investigating detective (Robert Emmet O'Connor) crazy. Driftwood is fired from the opera company for associating with the stowaways, while Rosa is dismissed for refusing Lassparri's affections. In order to restore Rosa's job and put the deserving Ricardo in Lassparri's place during the opening performance of La Traviata, Driftwood, Fiorello and Tomasso concoct a scheme that will reduce the opera to comic chaos. The actual night at the opera in A Night at the Opera must be seen to be believed, but the spirit of the scene can be summed up by Gottleib's anguished cry "A battleship in Il Trovatore!" Opera was the Marx Brothers' first film for MGM, and they dearly coveted a hit after the disappointing box-office showing of their final Paramount films. With the blessing of MGM production chief Irving Thalberg, the Marxes went on the road with their brilliant writing staff (including George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and Al Boasberg) to test their comedy material before live audiences. As a result of this careful preplanning, Night at the Opera was a smash-hit gigglefest, grossing over $3 million and putting the Marxes back on top in the hearts and minds of filmgoers everywhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, (more)
Previously filmed in 1931 under its original title, Theodore Dreiser's bulky but brilliant novel An American Tragedy was remade in 1951 by George Stevens as A Place in the Sun. Montgomery Clift stars as George Eastman, a handsome and charming but basically aimless young man who goes to work in a factory run by a distant, wealthy relative. Feeling lonely one evening, he has a brief rendezvous with assembly-line worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), but he forgets all about her when he falls for dazzling socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). Alice can't forget about him, though: she is pregnant with his child. Just when George's personal and professional futures seem assured, Alice demands that he marry her or she'll expose him to his society friends. This predicament sets in motion a chain of events that will ultimately include George's arrest and numerous other tragedies, including a vicious cross-examination by a D.A. played by future Perry Mason Raymond Burr. A huge improvement over the 1931 An American Tragedy, directed by Josef von Sternberg, A Place in the Sun softens some of the rough edges of Dreiser's naturalism, most notably in the passages pertaining to George's and Angela's romance. Even those 1951 bobbysoxers who wouldn't have been caught dead poring through the Dreiser original were mesmerized by the loving, near-erotic full facial closeups of Clift and Taylor as they pledge eternal devotion. A Place in the Sun won six Oscars, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, although it lost Best Picture to An American in Paris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, (more)
- 1952
Though out of favor with many Abbott and Costello buffs, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd is actually a lot of fun, so long as the viewer parks logic and dignity at the door. Captain Kidd is played by no less than Charles Laughton, who reportedly agreed to sign up for this film because he wanted to learn how to perform a comedy double-take. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are cast as Rocky and Puddn'head, waiters at a pirate hangout on the island of Tortuga. Entrusted with a love letter written by the beautiful Lady Jane (Fran Warren) to cabaret singer Bruce Martingale (Bill Shirley), Puddn'head manages to get this missive mixed up with a treasure map coveted by both Captain Kidd and his rival, lady pirate Captain Bonney (Hillary Brooke). The upshot of all this finds Rocky, Pudd'nhead, Lady Jane and Bruce being shanghaied by Kidd, setting the stage for a climactic treasure hunt and chase on a faraway island. Laughton takes to broad slapstick comedy like a fish to water; indeed, at times he's a lot funnier than Bud and Lou! Filmed in Cinecolor, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd was the second of the team's independent productions for Warner Bros. release; like the first, Jack and the Beanstalk, it was well received by the public, even while critics tore their hair and gnashed their teeth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, (more)
- 1939
Having explored the old wheeze about the young man searching for his brother's killer and the one about the cowboy impersonating an outlaw, Robert Emmett Tansey, the producer/writer of Monogram's Jack Randall Westerns, turned to the ever popular "brothers separated during an attack of their wagon train" story. Fortunately, this time around director Spencer Gordon Bennet and his cast traveled to picturesque Lone Pine, CA, and Across the Plains emerged as one of Randall's better vehicles. After a gang of outlaws attack their wagon train, Little Jack (Buddy Cox) is adopted by a roving band of Indians while Little Jimmy (Texi-Ray Cox) is abducted by the outlaws. Years later, the adult Jack (now Jack Randall) and Jimmy (Dennis Moore) meet again but on opposing sides of the law regarding a shipment of gold. Ignorant of the fact that they are brothers, Jack and Jimmy are about to square off when Buckskin (Hal Price), the old wagon master, brings their true relationship to light. Jimmy, now an outlaw known as the Kansas Kid, discovers that a member of his gang, Buff (Robert Card), is the villain who murdered their parents. Mortally wounded in the ensuing battle, Jimmy, alias the Kid, meets his maker with the knowledge that the death of his parents has been avenged at last. Jack, meanwhile, proposes to Mary Masters (Joyce Bryant), the daughter of the stage line owner. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Randall, Frank Yaconelli, (more)
- 1949
Robert Rockwell, Republic Pictures' resident all-purpose hero, stars in Alias the Champ. This time, Rockwell plays Lt. Ron Peterson, who doubles as a homicide detective and local administrator of the professional wrestling code. When real-life rassler Gorgeous George (that's how he billed himself) is framed for murder by a gang of crooks, Lt. Peterson tries to prove George's innocence. It isn't just the job that motivates Peterson: he's sweet on the wrestler's pretty manager Lorraine (Audrey Long). Fans of the current WWF and WCW TV wrestling extravaganzas might get a kick out of the scenes wherein Gorgeous George, Bomber Kulkavitch, Billy Varga, Jack "Sockeye" MacDonald, the Super-Swedish Angel (aka Tor Johnson) and their confreres hunker down to business in the ring. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Rockwell, Barbara Fuller, (more)
- 1942
A Federal agent masquerades as a horse trader in order to bring outlaw terrorists to justice in this western. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1941
MGM tried to recapture the magic of the Wallace Beery/Marie Dressler films of the 1930s with Barnacle Bill. Beery is teamed with Marjorie Main, a Dressler "type" who had a roughneck style all her own. In the film, grumbly old fisherman Beery spends most of his screen time avoiding Main, who intends to trap him into matrimony. The rest of the time, Beery must contend with a daughter he never knew he had and with landlubbers who want to rob him of his seagoing livelihood. Barnacle Bill was one of six MGM films costarring Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main, an experience neither star enjoyed very much. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, (more)
- 1946
Gilbert Roland dominates the action in a colorful performance as the bandit hero the Cisco Kid, this time up against a surprisingly vicious plot by a local doctor to steal land from the local peasants and small ranchers by poisoning them to drive them off, and then reselling the property to absentee European landlords. He finds an unexpected ally in Jeanne DuBois (Ramsay Ames), who starts out as part of the plot but is turned around by Roland's charm and charisma after a few fireworks. The direction is uneven, with William Nigh not quite able to make the flatter parts of the script as entertaining or smooth as they ought to be. Evidently, the producers knew they were in trouble with this downbeat script and took steps to rescue the picture. Seeing the sparks fly in the scenes in the first third of the picture, in which Ames is disguised as a man (which evokes echoes -- albeit very distant -- of Shakespeare's As You Like It) and verbally jousts with Roland, more material was written on the spot for the two of them, depicting a competition that becomes much more heated when her gender is revealed. By her own account, Nigh and Ames were friends, and she was a good sport on this shoot whatever they had her doing, and it's a pity they didn't go further with the rivalry between Roland's and Ames' characters, who might've been the Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones of their era. Roland also wrote some of his own dialogue and poetry for this effort, which seems very hackneyed today, but played just fine for audiences in 1946. (Note: In early TV prints of Beauty And The Bandit, all references to the Cisco Kid and O. Henry in the credits were blacked out, and mentions of the Cisco Kid and "Cisco" in the dialogue awkwardly dubbed over as "Chico" -- one suspects this was because the exclusive TV rights to the Cisco Kid had been sold to another producer for the TV series starring Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1936
The penultimate Bill Cody Western in a series of nine produced by Gower Gulch company Spectrum Pictures, Blazing Justice featured its weatherbeaten star as a lawman mistaken for an outlaw by pretty Gertrude Messinger. Naturally, the real culprit is the very man Cody was trailing in the first place. Whew the girl's father (Budd Buster) is found murdered, Cody becomes an obvious suspect but a $10,000 insurance settlement eventually lures the real killer (Gordon Griffith) into a trap. A holdover from the silent era, Cody cut a rather dismal figure at this point in his career and was beaten not once but twice by villain Griffith in Blazing Justice. Producer Ray Kirkwood announced in late 1935 that Cody would nevertheless star in a second series for Spectrum, but following Outlaws of the Range (1936) the veteran performer found himself replaced with crooner Fred Scott. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1934
In this adaptation of Alberto Casella's stage play, Death assumes human form in order to discover why men fear him. Posing as a Prince Sirki (and played by Fredric March), Death appears as a house guest at the villa of an Italian duke. While "Sirki" is present, Death takes his titular holiday, and no one on Earth dies. Grazia (Evelyn Venable) the fiance of the duke's son, becomes attracted by the strangely ethereal Sirki. Against his better judgment, Sirki falls in love, and Death for the first time experiences Humanity. Disturbed by the sensation, he decides to shuffle off his mortal coil, but before leaving he tries to shun Grazia, who insists upon going with him. The duke, who has been in on Sirki's secret all along, begs Death not to take away the girl. To scare her off, Death assumes his actual form, only to discover that this is how Grazia has always seen him. Determining that love is as strong as death, Death allows the willing Grazia to accompany him into the nether world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Evelyn Venable, (more)
- 1936
In its first few years of existence, Republic Pictures evinced an eagerness to tackle any sort of offbeat subject. The studio's Down to the Sea has to be one of the only films of the 1930s to concentrate on a pair of Greek sponge fishermen. Played by Russell Hardie and Ben Lyon, the heroes battle over the affections of Ann Rutherford, whose father controls much of Florida's sponge industry. The climactic scenes benefit from the fine location and underwater photography, courtesy of cinematographer Harry Neumann. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Russell Hardie, Ben Lyon, (more)
- 1940
The first Technicolor horror film since Mystery of the Wax Museum, Dr. Cyclops was directed by Ernest Schoedsack, of King Kong fame. Albert Dekker chews the scenery as mad scientist Dr. Thorkel, who has developed a process that will shrink human beings to doll size. His first victims include mining engineers Bill Stockton (Thomas Coley) and Steve Baker (Victor Kilian) and biologists Mary Mitchell (Janice Logan) and Dr. Bullfinch (Charles Halton). At first willing to play-act the role of benevolent despot with his miniaturized captives, Thorkel reveals the more sinister side of his personality by abruptly murdering Bullfinch in cold blood (easily the film's most frightening sequence). The rest of the picture details the escape efforts of the three pint-sized protagonists as they hack their way through a jungle of gigantic foliage and do battle with oversized wildlife. Though the cheery Technicolor hues tend to dilute the "scare" quotient in Dr. Cyclops, the special effects are superbly convincing throughout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Dekker, Thomas Coley, (more)
- 1954
Completed in 1953, Dragon's Gold was released by United Artists early the following year. John Archer (the father of present-day leading lady Anne Archer) stars as an insurance investigator, sent to China to locate a missing client. The official story is that the client stole $7 million from his employer, but Archer smells a rat. His olfactory senses are right on target: The supposed theft was actually a smokescreen, contrived by a Red Chinese general (Noel Cravath). Also intimately involved in the intrigue is Hillary Brooke, playing straight once more after several years' worth of TV work on The Abbott and Costello Show and My Little Margie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Archer, Hillary Brooke, (more)
- 1939
Not exactly famous for its innovative story lines, Monogram's Jack Randall Westerns were mostly written by genre hack Robert Emmett Tansey. After employing the old wheeze about a cowboy searching for his brother's killer in no less than three consecutive entries (Mexicali Kid, Wild Horse Canyon, and Trigger Smith), Tansey blithely trotted out the one about the cowboy impersonating an outlaw in order to infiltrate a gang of crooks. Randall, as Jack Clark, and his sidekick, Lopez (Frank Yaconelli), come to the aid of Don Careta (Julian Rivero) and his daughter, Wanda (Edna Duran), whose hidden silver mine has become the object of desire for a gang lead by Careta's evil brother, Manuel (Octavio Giraud), the even more unscrupulous Carga (Stanley Blystone), and Manuel's mistress, Nicki (Carmen Bailey). Impersonating a notorious gunman, Jack gains the trust of Carga but his real identity is always in danger of being revealed by Piute (James Sheridan, aka Sherry Tansey), Carga's henchman. Everyone is soon searching for a secret map to the mine but in the end Jack and Lopez emerge victorious. The villains carted off to jail, Jack proposes to Wanda. The brother of supervising producer/screenwriter Robert Emmett Tansey, Sherry Tansey played bit parts in most of the Randall oaters but obtained a featured role this time around. A general purpose supporting actor, Tansey enjoyed a long, 125-Western screen career that lasted from the silent era through the early '40s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Yaconelli
Police detective Pat O'Day (Leon Ames) involves himself with a gang of slum kids led by Dutch Kuhn (Hally Chester) and Danny Dolan (Harris Berger). He tries to keep them from getting into trouble and to help out Danny, whose brother, Knuckles Dolan (Dave "Tex" O'Brien), is about to be executed for a murder allegedly committed as part of his involvement in a counterfeiting ring. O'Day knows Knuckles, having tried to keep him on the right side of the law, and knows that he couldn't have done the shooting, regardless of the circumstantial evidence, because Knuckles resolutely refused to carry a gun -- the real killer is the gang leader, Mileaway (Dennis Moore), a smooth-talker who earned his nickname through his knack for always being "a mile away" whenever a crime is committed by his gang. O'Day not only wants to catch Mileaway, but tries to keep the teenagers from falling in with the hood. When the detective starts to get too close, Mileaway sets him up for a brutality charge using crooked shop owner Schmidt, and gets O'Day busted back to uniformed patrolman. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leon Ames, Dennis Moore, (more)
- 1939
In this musical adventure, a Latin American motorcycle-taxi driver shows an American tourist around his city. He next fixes the tourista up with a pretty Senorita. Then he causes trouble by illegally purchasing tea leaves in the tourist's name. Fortunately, the tourist ends up making a bundle by exporting the leaves. He also wins the senorita's heart. Songs include: "Tra-LaLa", "Rhythm of the Rio", and "Ay, Ay, Ay". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bobby Breen, Kent Taylor, (more)
- 1947
Esther Williams moves from the swimming pool to the bull ring in this musical drama. Antonio Morales (Fortunio Bonanova) was once a champion bullfighter; now in retirement, Antonio and his wife (Mary Astor) have high hopes that their son Mario (Ricardo Montalban) will follow in his father's footsteps as a matador. However, Mario's great passion is music, and he longs to pursue a career as a composer. But there is a budding toreador in the family: Mario's sister Maria (Esther Williams), who has learned the basics of bullfighting from her sibling. Not wanting to be thought a coward, but with no desire to enter the ring, Mario allows Maria to disguise herself as him and take his place in the bullring, allowing her to compete in a traditionally male sport while Mario devotes his time to his music. Fiesta gave Ricardo Montalban his first English-speaking role, with Cyd Charisse appearing as Conchita, his love interest and dancing partner. Classical music buffs might notice that Mario's composition "Fantasia Mexican" is actually Aaron Copland's "El Salon Mexico." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Williams, Akim Tamiroff, (more)
- 1930
Poverty row entrepreneur John R. Freuler's Big Four Corporation released this oater produced by one of Hollywood's few women producers, Flora E. Douglas. Douglas did not deal in filmmaking on the grand scale, to say the least, and Firebrand Jordan played the hinterlands only. Yakima Canutt, while probably the finest stuntman of his era, did not possess a heroic voice and was demoted to character parts in talkies. The hero here was Lane Chandler a strapping young actor who, like Canutt, was really better-suited to playing villains. Chandler plays a cowboy on the trail of a gang of counterfeiters. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lane Chandler, Sheldon Lewis, (more)
- 1941
In this war drama, a commercial pilot joins the air corps of a South Pacific island, and there he finds that he must contend with a dictator. He also falls quietly in love with the leader's girlfriend. Unfortunately, the evil leader is the head of the air corps, and to get rid of the young man who threatens his relationship, he send the hero on a suicide mission. The two rivals end up in a dogfight. Fortunately, the hero wins the fight and gets the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
The last of five inexpensive Westerns produced by small-scale Beacon Pictures, Gun Play starred brawny Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as a drifter who unwittingly comes into possession of a treasure map concealed in an old boot. The inheritance of siblings Madge (Marion Shilling) and George Holt (Wally Wales, the treasure is also sought after by the unscrupulous Meeker (Tom London). The latter sponsors a novelty folk dance in order to gather up all the local boots, which he then offers to exchange for brand new pairs. Suspicious of this unprecedented largesse, Big Boy refuses to part with his own footgear, only to become the target of Meeker's gang of ruffians. Discovering the map in the broken heel of his boot, Big Boy leads Madge and George on a treasure hunt that yields several bags of gold. Meeker and his henchmen, meanwhile, are disarmed in a final confrontation, and Big Boy and Madge embrace for a happy ending. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marion Shilling
Randolph Scott is the commander of a Confederate raiding party. They rob a Yankee gold shipment and are told by a dying Union soldier that the war ended a month ago. Knowing that they will now be forced to face criminal charges, they hide out but are soon under attack by a gang of bandits who want the gold they stole. Well done, tense western with a good, dry sense of humor. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Donna Reed, (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)
- 1937
It Could Happen to You is one of those captivating "little" pictures whose reputation is built up via word of mouth. Alan Baxter and Owen Davis Jr. star as Bob and Fred, the sons of immigrant Pa Barrett (Al Shean). Fred is a dutiful offspring, but Bob, an adoptee, is a no-good, stealing money from the old man to further his ambitions. When Pa Barrett confronts Bob with this discovery, the young man accidentally kills his stepfather. As fate would have it, Fred has become a lawyer, and it is he who takes on the job of defending Bob in court. Fred wins an acquittal, but Bob learns to his chagrin that he will never be able to escape the "judge and jury" of his own conscience. The script for It Could Happen to You was co-written by Nathaniel West, later the author of the trenchant anti-Hollywood novel Day of the Locust. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Baxter, Andrea Leeds, (more)
Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling today. Claudette Colbert plays Ellie Andrews, a spoiled heiress who has married fortune-hunting aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas), despite her father (Walter Connolly)'s objections. To keep Ellie from marrying this lothario, her father has been holding her prisoner aboard his yacht. But Ellie bolts from the yacht, swims ashore in her clothes, and eventually slips onto a Greyhound bus bound for New York. Aboard the bus is newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who has recently been fired for drinking on the job. Peter gets the last seat on the bus -- but when he gets up to argue with the bus driver, Ellie takes his seat. Since it is the last seat on the bus, they have to share it. When Ellie has her purse stolen and she refuses to report it, Peter begins to suspect something. The next morning, they both miss the bus after a leisurely breakfast, and Peter reveals that he knows her identity. She makes a deal with him: if he helps her get to New York, he can write a scoop about her for his paper. Peter thinks she is a spoiled brat, however, and refuses a monetary bribe: "I'm not interested in your money or your problem. You, King Westley, your father -- you're all a lot of hooey to me!" But as they travel northward and engage in a series of misadventures, the gruff newspaperman and the spoiled rich girl, thrown together by circumstances, fall in love with each other. This movie set the pace for the "screwball" comedy, the witty and romantic clash of temperaments between a man and a woman mismatched in both personality and social position, a type of movie often associated with Katherine Hepburn in such classics as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), and, with Spencer Tracy, Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), and Desk Set (1957), among others. The only other movies to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay) were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, (more)
- 1941
For his first feature-film appearance in two years, comedian Bert Wheeler (of Wheeler & Woolsey fame) teamed up with bandleader Phil Regan. The story gets under way when a quartet of vaudevillians-Bill Stevens (Regan), Stu Grant (Wheeler) and Norma and Mildred Jennings (Constance Moore, Lillian Cornell) show up in Vegas with nary a cent between them. Norma manages to win big at a gambling joint, whereupon the money is put in Stu's care. Alas, Stu makes a beeline to the gaming tables, where he manages to lose all. The winsome foursome is saved from utter ruin by a real estate operator who happens to be the father of one of the protagonists. Even Bert Wheeler admitted that Las Vegas Nights was a bomb, noting on "a picture like that can come back and haunt you." Still, it holds some historical value as the film that introduced Frank Sinatra, here appearing as the uncredited vocalist for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phil Regan, Bert Wheeler, (more)
