John G. Adolphi Movies

In this comedy drama, a wealthy shoe magnate is bored with his life. The trouble really begins when his chief rival dies. His company was on the brink of financial ruin and now the bored shoemaker finds himself without even the joy of competition to motivate him. The fellow decides to take a vacation. He leaves his eager-beaver nephew to run the company. During the holiday, he meets a free-spirited and rambunctious brother and sister. As they are the heirs to his rival company, he decides to masquerade as an impoverished hobo. They hire him to work in the factory. Soon he takes the place and turns it into a financial success and a genuine competitor to his smarty-pants nephew. He also teaches the carefree brother and sister a few lessons about real life when he forces them to begin working in their own factory. Eventually he becomes their legal guardian. At the story's end, he reveals his true identity and allows his new step-daughter to marry his chastened nephew. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

One of George Arliss' "smaller" vehicles, The King's Vacation casts the eminent British stage star (always billed as "Mr. George Arliss") as an abdicating monarch. Seeking the simple life, he comes to America in search of the wife (Marjorie Gateson) he'd been forced to divorce years earlier in order keep his crown. Upon locating her, Arliss discovers that his ex-wife has remarried into wealth, and is now better off than he's ever been. His disillusionment complete, Arliss returns to his queen (Florence Arliss), who has likewise renounced her throne for an austere existence. Only George Arliss could get away with telling us that "poor is better" in a picture made in the middle of the Depression! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Veteran stage and screen star George Arliss forsakes his biographical roles for domestic comedy in A Successful Calamity. Arliss plays an elderly millionaire saddled with a selfish young second wife (Mary Astor) and a pair of spoiled grown children (William Janney and Evelyn Knapp). To test his family's mettle, Arliss pretends to have gone broke. Just as he suspected they would, his children rally to their father's side and change their ways: The daughter forsakes a fortune hunter (Hardie Albright) for the nice young man she's really in love with (Randolph Scott), while the son applies for a demanding job and performs admirably. Only Arliss' young wife seems to desert him--but even she turns out to be true blue, hocking her jewels to save Arliss from ruin. A Successful Calamity was based on a play by Claire Kummer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, a rebellious son of a powerful industrialist returns home to prepare to take over the company. While their he marries a boarding-house servant because she helped him heal from a hangover. His actions enrage his family. The rest of the movie chronicles the sly father's attempts to destroy the relationship. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Alexander Hamilton was not precisely the life story of America's first secretary of the treasury--in fact, it doesn't even depict the most portentous moment of Hamilton's life, his fatal duel with Aaron Burr. Instead, Alexander Hamilton concentrates on Hamilton's efforts to pass the "Assumption Bill," which required the federal government to assume the debts incurred by the 13 states during the Revolutionary War. Hamilton's enemies attempt to blackmail him into silence by calling forth a Mrs. Reynolds, with whom the married Hamilton had had a brief affair while in London. Hamilton confounds his enemies by admitting publicly to the affair and condemning his opponents for compromising the goodwill of the country with such sordid tactics. George Arliss, who'd played Alexander Hamilton on stage, here revives the role, in the company of Alan Mowbray as George Washington (delivering a memorable "farewell to the troops") scene, Montagu Love as Thomas Jefferson, Morgan Wallace as James Monroe, and June Collyer as the hapless Mrs. Reynolds. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, a married woman's life is destroyed when her husband falls in love with a pretty chorine and divorces her. He then marries the chorus girl who uses him, then merrily cheats on him at every turn causing him to go sniveling and crawling back to his ex-wife who lovingly takes the shallow, philandering creep back. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this youthful sports comedy two football jocks, Eddie Smith and Tiny Courtlay are grid iron rivals competing to win the heart of coed Mary Hutton who loves a nerd. In the film's climax. Eddie and Tiny quibble over which of them will get to take the ball for the final yard in the big game. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this crime melodrama, Iverson (George Fawcett) is a stockbroker who has been sent to prison for illegally manipulating the market; however, as a matter of honor, he refuses to implicate his partner John Hardin (Edmund Breese), who was responsible for most of the wrong-doing. Iverson's daughter, Naomi (Audrey Ferris), is outraged that Hardin has refused to step forward and take his punishment for his part in the scandal, and is determined to find the evidence that will set the record straight. Naomi makes her way aboard Hardin's yacht in search of incriminating documents, but instead she finds Ernest Hardin (Wallace MacDonald), John's son. Naomi and Ernest quickly hit it off, and they fall in love, but after a disagreement, Namoi takes up with a dangerous bootlegger, and soon Ernest must save her from a desperate situation. This early sound film is very rarely screened, and is believed lost by some experts; Myrna Loy appears in a small role (though she receives higher billing thanks to her later success). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 and Paramount on Parade, due mainly to the film's master of ceremonies, the insufferable Frank Fay. Some of the individual acts seen in Show of Shows were pretty good, notably Winnie Lightner's delightful Singing in the Bathtub (a spoof of Hollywood Revue of 1929's Singin' in the Rain) and John Barrymore's brilliant rendition of Richard III's soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry VI. Also easy to take was "Floradora Sextette," featuring such luminaries as Myrna Loy, Patsy Ruth Miller and cross-eyed comedian Ben Turpin, and "Eight Sister Acts," including such Hollywood siblings as Dolores and Helene Costello, Sally Blane and Loretta Young and Shirley Mason and Viola Dana (also teamed in this number are Ann Sothern and Marion Byron, who were not sisters). But for the most part, the acts are on a par with "Skull and Crossbones," a boring production number showcasing entertainer Ted Lewis, and "Recitations," a one-joke affair in which three different anecdotes (related by Frank Fay, Louis Fazenda, Lloyd Hamilton and Bea Lillie) are melded into one. Show of Shows was originally released in two-color Technicolor but now exists only in black in white, save for the "Chinese Fantasy" number featuring crooner Nick Lucas and Warner Bros. contractee Myrna Loy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

May McAvoy plays the nose-in-the-air title character in Warner Bros' The Little Snob. The daughter of Coney Island concessionaire Alec B. Francis, McAvoy is shipped off to a posh finishing school. Upon her return, she turns her back on her blue-collar family and begins hobnobbing with the New York Upper Crust. McAvoy recovers her basic values just in time to find true happiness in the arms of her sideshow-barker sweetheart Robert Frazer. The Little Snob was May McAvoy's final silent effort; thereafter, she would appear only in talkies or part-talkies, billed by her studio as "The Vitaphone Girl." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Fading star Mae Busch and up-and-coming Jean Arthur play major roles in Husband Hunters. A variation of the old "Gold-Diggers of Broadway" formula, the story concerns the amorous exploits of chorus girls Marie (Busch) and Helen (Duane Thompson), who dedicate themselves to landing millionaire hubbies. The girls enlist innocent young Letty Crane (Jean Arthur), a small-town girl who hopes to make it big on Broadway, in their scheme. Sure enough, Letty's heart is broken by a no-good cad, but by fade-out time she is the only one of the three female protagonists who has found lasting romance. Mildred Harris, the former wife of Charlie Chaplin, appears in a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This hastily assembled programmer stars Wallace MacDonald as a car mechanic who invents a revolutionary new carburetor. To prove the efficiency of his creation, MacDonald enters an important auto race. It soon develops that our hero is in direct competition with a car owned by Lionel Belmore, the father of his girl friend Elaine Hammerstein. This potentially sticky situation is forgotten when MacDonald proves that rival racer Jack Reese has sabotaged Belmore's auto. No great shakes for most of its running time, Checkered Flag springs into life during the climactic chase sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi