Loretta Young Movies

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

Ladies in Love transplants 20th Century-Fox's favorite film plot--three girls on the prowl for rich husbands--into the Budapest of the mid-1930s. Janet Gaynor, Loretta Young and Constance Bennett combine their earnings to rent a luxurious apartment, in hopes of attracting wealthy potential husbands. Young falls for a nobleman (Tyrone Power), who is engaged to another woman. She contemplates taking poison, but the lethal dose is accidentally ingested by Gaynor, whose plight results in a house call from Dr. Don Ameche, whom Gaynor has worshipped from afar. It is Bennett who snags the wealthy husband, middle-aged businessman Wilfred Lawson. Though Tyrone Power's part was small, he clicked immediately with the audiences, prompting the studio to give Power the big buildup. Ladies in Love would be reworked several times in the future, most obviously as How to Marry a Millionaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Private Number is the old saw about the wealthy young man who marries his family's serving girl. This time Richard Winfield (Robert Taylor) is the handsome, aristocrat hero, while Ellen Neal (Loretta Young) is the gorgeous, low-born heroine. Though they oppose the match, Richard's parents cope with the situation as best they can, but arrogant family butler Wroxton (Basil Rathbone) works overtime to break up the happy couple. Wroxton, of course, is not entirely motivated by snobbery -- he has a craving for Ellen himself. Private Number is based on Cleave Kinkead's stage play Common Clay, previously filmed twice under that title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ronald Colman plays Robert Clive, a true-life 18th century Britisher who works up the ranks to become leader of Britain's military forces in India. Though produced on a superficially lavish scale, the film inexpensively sidesteps several of Clive's more famous battles with Indian insurrectionists, relegating them to offscreen events described by subtitles. The notorious Sepoy Mutiny "Black Hole of Calcutta" incident, hardly a costly event to recreate, is faithfully presented. In real life, Clive was ruined by a trial in the House of Commons, after which he suffered a nervous breakdown and committed suicide. The film tactfully closes on the trial and Clive's reunion with his faithful wife (Loretta Young). Typically jingoistic in its "White Man's Burden" approach to East Indian affairs, Clive of India is best viewed in context of the time it was filmed (1935), when the sun still hadn't set on the British Empire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Holy Wars are given the usual overblown Cecil B. DeMille treatment in The Crusades. It all begins in the 12th-century AD, when Jerusalem falls into the hands of the Saracens, and the Christians are slaughtered or sold into slavery. A holy man known as The Hermit (C. Aubrey Smith) rallies the rulers of England and Europe to launch a Crusade to reclaim Jerusalem in the name of Christianity. Among those embarking upon this massive undertaking is England's King Richard the Lion-Hearted (played as a swaggering roughneck by Henry Wilcoxon), who finances his knights by marrying wealthy French princess Berengaria (Loretta Young) sight unseen. Saladin (Ian Keith), the elegant and well-spoken ruler of the Saracens, attempts to stave off the crusaders by kidnapping Berengaria and holding her hostage. Sensing that he can never win against so formidable a collection of foes, Saladin eventually opens the gates of Jerusalem to all but Richard the Lion-Hearted, with whom he has a personal score to settle. In the film's most memorable scene, the fundamental difference between the boorish Richard and the cultured Saladin is demonstrated when the Saracen ruler delicately cleaves Berengaria's silk scarf in twain with his gleaming sword. It took a great deal of nerve to depict the film's hero as a thuggish brute and the nominal villain as the most sympathetic character in the story, but DeMille gets away with it in The Crusades, and still has time left over to deliver his usual quota of thrills, pageantry, convoluted history and campy dialogue. And yes, that is Ann Sheridan as a Christian captive in the opening scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Arliss plays Nathan Rothschild, the head of a family of celebrated 19th century Jewish bankers. Despite the anti-semitic efforts of a powerful politico (Boris Karloff), Rothschild moves in the best European social circles. He is ultimately knighted for his services to the English crown, which include the financing of the Duke of Wellington's battle against Napoleon at Waterloo. This being a Hollywood picture, the political and financial intrigues have to be offset by romance--in this case the love affair between Rothschild's daughter (Loretta Young) and a handsome military officer (Robert Young). The final scene was photographed in the newly perfected three-strip Technicolor process, though for many years the TV distributors either removed this sequence or reprinted it in black and white. Designed in part as an attack against the burgeoning anti-semitism movement in Hitler's Germany, House of Rothschild was ironically exploited by Nazi functionary Joseph Goebbels, who redubbed and re-edited the film to serve as anti-Jewish propaganda! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Loretta Young, who became known almost exclusively for playing sweet, wholesome roles, is kind of a shocker in this romantic drama as Letty Strong, an unwed mother who survives by living life as a grifter and the next thing to a prostitute -- all for the good of her son Mickey (Jackie Kelk), who, not yet 10 years old, is turning into a street hustler every bit as devious and untrustworthy as she is. Then, one day, he's skating on the street and gets hit by a milk truck, which happens to be driven by Malcolm Trevor (Cary Grant), the owner of the dairy, who was spot-checking his operation. Letty and Mickey try to take Malcolm for a hefty sum in court until their case is blown out of the water, but Malcolm also finds himself appalled by the kind of life that Letty is setting up for the boy. He gets her to agree to let Mickey move in with him and his wife Alice ($Marion Burns), at their estate outside the city. And after some extremely rough patches, Mickey begins to see that there's more to being a boy -- or becoming a man -- than what you can steal or cheat off the next guy. But Letty isn't about to let her son get away that easily, or let Malcolm get away with taking him from her, even if he is right. She tries to wreck Malcolm's home and marriage, all to get her son back and take revenge on him in the process. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Charles Boyer played his first major Hollywood role (and gets to sing in the bargain!) in the oddball musical romance Caravan. A miscast Loretta Young stars as young Countess Wilms, who is forced to wed by midnight or lose her inheritance. She impulsively chooses gypsy vagabond Latzi (Boyer), offering him a huge sum of money if he'll consent. Swallowing his pride, Latzi agrees to the marriage, but soon the coy Countess falls in love with young Lieutenant Von Tokay (Philips Holmes) -- who is himself in love with Latzi's gypsy sweetheart Tinka (Jean Parker). Director Erik Charrell, famed for his European musical productions (notably Congress Dances), seems uncomfortable adapting to the Hollywood movie-making process. Though evidently intended to be taken seriously, there are times that Caravan comes off like a parody of operettas: one half expects the stars to join in a duet of Cole Porter's spoofish "Wunderbar." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Depression-era romantic drama, which offers a surprisingly potent and unsentimental view of the economic hardships of the time, stars Spencer Tracy as Bill, a rough-hewn laborer struggling to get by and sleeping in a Hooverville shack. Bill meets Trina (Loretta Young), a sad and desperate young woman with no prospects and nowhere to go; her plight touches his heart of stone, and he allows her to stay with him. Bill picks up work where and when he can, while Trina tries to turn their hovel into a home. Bill soon makes the acquaintance of Fay LaRue (Glenda Farrell), a brassy showgirl whose career is on the way up and wouldn't mind if Bill tagged along. But Bill learns that leaving Trina behind won't be as simple as he thought. Trina is pregnant with his child, so he ends up planning a dangerous robbery in hopes of raising enough money to provide a proper home for Trina and the baby. Dealing with tough material in an adult manner, A Man's Castle was considered quite daring in its day. A year after its release, Hollywood adopted the Production Code that prohibited the depiction of unwed cohabitation and premarital pregnancy (among many other things), which would have made this a very different film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The French Foreign Legion is the setting for this episodic adventure yarn. Victor Jory plays a Legion doctor falsely accused of murdering his commander over the love of Loretta Young. Jory escapes prosecution by heading for parts unknown, but when a deadly illness strikes his old fort, he returns to aid his comrades. He is arrested, but clears himself of the murder charge and ends up with Young. Devil's in Love is distinguished by the surprise appearance of Bela Lugosi, who shows up unbilled as a relentless prosecuting attorney in the courtroom scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Loaned to MGM by her home studio of Warner Bros., Loretta Young suffers her way through the title role in Midnight Mary. A good girl led astray, Mary (Young) endeavors to save the life of her boyfriend Tom (Franchot Tone) by killing the aptly named Leo the Rat (Ricardo Cortez). As her case is heard in court, the clerk goes over Mary's record, and at this point the flashbacks begin, stretching all the way back to her days as an unwanted orphan. One bad break leads to another, and by the time she reaches adulthood Mary is mixed up with a gang of crooked gamblers. For the sake of Tom, a well-connected socialite who loves her unquestioningly, Mary tries to go straight, but her past, and the ill-fated Leo the Rat, catch up with her. No matter what disaster befalls her in Midnight Mary, Loretta Young always manages to look as though she's just stepped out of a beauty salon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paul Lukas plays a nightclub headwaiter who rises to fame as a bridge expert. He marries hat check girl Loretta Young, likewise a card fanatic. Lukas and Young find themselves vying for the national bridge championship, which results in the expected frictions. All is forgiven in the climactic scenes, in which silver-tongued radio commentator Roscoe Karns gives a play-by-play of the "big game" while director William Dieterle uses freeze frames and slow motion to beef up the tension. Grand Slam is quite an eye-opener for fans of Loretta Young, who displays an unusually generous amount of thigh in her nightclub outfit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though only 19, Loretta Young was an established Hollywood star in 1932, appearing in six films in that year alone. In They Call It Sin, Young plays Marion, a church organist in a picturesque Kansas village. She falls in love with visiting city slicker Jimmy (David Manners) -- who, worse luck, is already married to Enid (Helen Vinson). Arriving in New York to try her luck as a songwriter, Marion continues to be strung along by Jimmy, while faithful Tony (George Brent), who has loved her all along, suffers in stoic silence. All the various plot strands are neatly tied up when Humphries (Louis Calhern), a cagey theatrical producer with evil designs on Marion, takes a headlong plunge from his penthouse apartment. They Call It Sin was based on a novel by Alberta Stedman Eagan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide