James Bradbury Movies

Beyond the fact that both films shared a "railroad" background, RKO Radio's 1935 actioner The Silver Streak bore no relation to the 1976 Gene Wilder vehicle of the same name. The earlier film stars Charles Starrett as Tom Caldwell, the dynamic young designer of a streamlined, high-speed passenger train. During a polio epidemic, our hero endeavors to prove the efficiency of his train by making a breakneck 2,000-mile trip to deliver iron lungs to the Boulder Dam region. The well-chosen supporting cast includes William Farnum as old-time railroad man B.J. Dexter, who in the film's most moving scene ruminates over the brief but colorful history of his chosen profession. The real-life Burlington Zephyr "plays" the titular train in The Silver Streak, which earned a much-needed profit of 107,000 dollars for RKO. (One a side note, some of the music heard during the final two reels was lifted from Max Steiner's score for King Kong.) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, a bandleader thinks that his young friend will be corrupted by his budding relationship with a taxi dancer. To protect the tender youth, the conductor sends him out of town.The bandleader soon finds himself wooing the lovely dancer. Unfortunately, a jealous gangster is also in love with her. When the gangster discovers that the bandleader presents competition, he targets him for a hit. Chaos ensues ending in a shoot-out. The gangster is killed, the bandleader shot, and the callow youth is finally reunited with his beloved dancer. Songs include: "St. Louis Blues." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A dedicated priest sets up a mission in the slums of a great metropolitan city, hoping to clean up the community by cleansing the souls of its denizens. The plot concentrates on one of these unfortunates, a falsely accused convict played by William Collier Jr. Released from jail, Collier returns to his tenement neighborhood, seeking revenge on the man who framed him. But upon meeting mission worker Blanche Mehaffey, the ex-girlfriend of his would-be victim, Collier vows to change his ways. He also sees to it that his two ex-cellmates (Murray Smith and James Bradbury Jr., a sort of poor man's Laurel and Hardy) will likewise follow the straight and narrow. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Metropolitan opera star Lawrence Tibbett headed the cast of The Rogue Song, an opulent Technicolor adaptation of the Franz Lehar operetta Gypsy Love. Set (vaguely) in 19th-century Russia, the film stars Tibbett as Yegor, dashing leader of an outlaw band called "The Robbing Larks." During one of his excursions into Moscow, Yegor falls in love with beautiful Russian princess Vera (Catherine Dale Owen). But when Yegor's sister (Florence Lake) is betrayed by Vera's brother Prince Serge (Ulrich Haupt), the bandit kills the prince and kidnaps the princess. Upon her rescue, she orders Yegor's arrest and has him flogged. As the defiant bandit merrily sings away while the whip tears across his back, Vera realizes that she's still in love with him. Knowing that they can never live together as man and wife, Vera bids Yegor a tearful farewell as he rides off into the sunset with his comrades. After previewing the rough cut of Rogue Song, MGM realized that the film was in desperate need of comedy relief, so the studio borrowed Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy from Hal Roach, casting the team as two members of Yegor's outlaw gang. Written and directed without credit by Hal Roach himself, Laurel & Hardy's scenes wear spotted throughout the picture, bearing only the faintest relevance to the plot. In typical fashion, the two comedians tried to eat a wheel of cheese while being plagued by pesky flies, attempted to shave one another while being distracted by pretty girls and a flock of chickens, shared a darkened cave with a surly bear, and in general behaved more like "Stan and Ollie" than a pair of Russian bandits. Critics were divided as to the merits of Laurel & Hardy's contributions to the film, but audiences loved their antics, and indeed they were billed above star Lawrence Tibbett on some movie marquees. No matter what the reason, The Rogue Song was a huge moneymaker for MGM, earning a "Best Picture" Oscar nomination in the bargain. Alas, the film has apparently vanished from the face of the earth; the negative was destroyed decades ago, and no original prints are known to survive. In the mid-1970s, the film's soundtrack discs were rediscovered, and in the early 1980s a Laurel & Hardy collector came across a worn Technicolor dupe of a three-minute routine. A few years after that, a black-and-white print of the film was found in a Czechoslovakian archive -- with all the musical numbers and Laurel & Hardy scenes removed! One of the ten highest-priority titles on the American Film Institute's "most wanted" list of lost movies, The Rogue Song may indeed turn up intact some day, but the chances grow slimmer with each passing year. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

To date, this D.W. Griffith epic is the only talking-picture effort to encapsulate the entire life of Abraham Lincoln, from cradle to grave. The script, credited to Stephen Vincent Benet, manages to include all the familiar high points, including Lincoln's tragic romance with Ann Rutledge (Una Merkel, allegedly cast because of her resemblance to Griffith favorite Lillian Gish), his lawyer days in Illinois, his contentious marriage to Mary Todd (Kay Hammond), his heartbreaking decision to declare war upon the South, his pardoning of a condemned sentry during the Civil War, and his assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth (expansively portrayed by Ian Keith). This was D.W. Griffith's first talkie, and the master does his best with the somewhat pedantic dialogue sequences; but as always, Griffith's forte was spectacle and montage, as witness the cross-cut scenes of Yankees and Rebels marching off to war and the pulse-pounding ride of General Sheridan (Frank Campeau) through the Shenandoah Valley. Thanks to the wizardry of production designer William Cameron Menzies, many of the scenes appear far more elaborate than they really were; Menzies can also be credited with the unforgettable finale, as Honest Abe's Kentucky log cabin dissolves to the Lincoln Memorial. As Abraham Lincoln, Walter Huston is a tower of strength, making even the most florid of speeches sound human and credible; only during the protracted death scene of Ann Rutledge does Huston falter, and then the fault is as much Griffith's as his. Road-shown at nearly two hours (including a prologue showing slaves being brought to America), Abraham Lincoln was pared down to 97 minutes by United Artists, and in that length it proved a box-office success, boding well for D.W. Griffith's future in talkies (alas, it proved to be his next-to-last film; Griffith's final effort, The Struggle was a financial disaster). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Never one to take his metier too serious, Universal cowboy hero Hoot Gibson came dangerously close to outright burlesque in the aptly titled Smilin' Guns. As "Dirty Neck" Jack Purvin, Gibson is his old uncouth self but when he sees a newspaper photograph of Eastern socialite Helen Van Smythe, soon to arrive at the nearby dude ranch, Gibson hightails it to San Francisco in order to learn how to become a gentleman. Returning to the ranch, the new but not necessarily improved Gibson shreds his dandified image in order to save Helen from a lecherous but decidedly fake count and her mother (Virginia Pearson) from a jewel thief (Robert Graves). The count was played by none other than Leo White, whose mustache-twirling continental noblemen/revolutionists had graced several Charles Chaplin comedies in the 1910s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

The last of the major film companies to fully convert to sound, MGM had yet another box-office bomb in Tide of Empire, a would-be epic western set in the days of increasing Yankee influence in hitherto Spanish California. Based on a Peter B. Kyne novel, the film came complete with a synchronized score, but audiences were now demanding at least a few scenes of dialogue. The fresh-faced leading man George Duryea did get a stab at western stardom in the early 1930s, however, but under the moniker Tom Keene and for RKO. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

In this actioner, a sea captain saves a Shanghai whore who is being tossed out of town. He puts her on board and heads out to sea; unfortunately, the ship sinks and the two are trapped on a lifeboat until they are found by a ship filled with tough mutineers whom the hero quickly fights, thereby saving the other ship's captain and daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Waterfront was the latest entry in First National's popular Jack Mulhall-Dorothy Mackaill series, and the first to qualify as a "sound" picture, even though its audibility was confined to a musical score and sound effects. Mulhall plays Breezy O'Connor, a womanizing sailor with a sentimental streak. Mackaill is Sadie Seastrom, a tomboyish waterfront lassie with a yen to sail the Seven Seas (she even wears a navy uniform in hopes that someone will get the hint). Sadie's ex-sea captain father (Knute Erickson) despises sailors, but takes a liking to Breezy when our hero expresses the wish to settle down on a farm. Captain Seastrom and Breezy conspire to discourage Sadie from her maritime yearnings by framing a fake kidnapping and a phony mutiny, but the plan misfires, and Breezy is obliged to rescue the heroine from a few genuine perils. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Back in the late teens, Bryant Washburn starred in a successful series based on the "Skinner" stories by Henry Irving Dodge. After the success of Reginald Denny's Skinner's Dress Suit (1926), Washburn returned to the fold with Skinner's Big Idea in 1928. As before, the star plays Skinner, a young businessman on the way up. Now a partner in his business firm, Skinner is ordered by his boss to fire two of the older employees. Feeling beholden to the old fellows, he decides to save their jobs by enlivening their work performance. To do this, he hires cute, vivacious secretary Dorothy (Martha Sleeper), whose presence "rejuvenates" the two geezers. Naturally, Mrs. Skinner (Ethel Grey Terry) suspects the worst -- until the last reel, of course. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jacqueline Logan stars as Paula, a beautiful and fearless circus leopard trainer. Working hand-in-glove with the police, Paula joins a circus where several murders have occurred. Among the suspects is gorilla trainer Caesar (Alan Hale Sr.), who previously in the picture had saved Paula's life. Nonetheless, when Caesar is revealed to be the murderer, he unleashes one of his killer apes with orders to tear Paula and her sweetheart Chris (Robert Armstrong) apart. Luckily, Paula proves to be as adept at "staring down" the ape as she is at pacifying the big cats. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This was comedian Harold Lloyd's last silent film, and one of his most charming. Lloyd's character here is called Harold "Speedy" Swift, an upbeat young man whose fatal attraction for baseball always causes him to lose his jobs. After his latest firing, he impulsively spends a day at Coney Island with his sweetheart, Jane Dillon (Ann Christy). Ann's grandfather, Pop Dillon (Bert Woodruff), meanwhile, has a dilemma -- he runs the last horse-drawn trolley in New York City, and the railway magnates desperately want his route. Since Pop won't sell it to them, they plan to get it by underhanded means. Pop must make his rounds at least once every 24 hours, so the magnates hire thugs to stop him. Speedy hears about this plan and, being gainfully unemployed, takes over the route to protect the old man. But the magnates then steal the trolley, and the climax of the film involves Speedy's dash to find the trolley and get it back to its route before the 24 hours are up. He makes it just in time and then forces the magnates to buy the route for a cool 100,000 dollars. This picture was shot on location in a Manhattan that now looks almost quaint for all its concrete and steel. Baseball legend Babe Ruth had a cameo role, playing himself as a very harassed fare when Speedy is working as a cabbie. Their wild ride ends at the old Yankee Stadium. Other historically interesting sites include Coney Island's Luna Park, and Columbus Circle and Wall Street as they were in 1928. In the film's climax, the trolley has a spectacular crash at the Brooklyn Bridge -- this accident was not planned, but was left in the film anyhow. At the time of this picture's release, Lloyd was a top box-office draw, a bigger moneymaker than Charlie Chaplin (whose releases during the '20s was infrequent) and Buster Keaton (whose quirky comedy wouldn't be fully appreciated for several decades). While Lloyd made some fairly amusing sound films, he never again matched the quality of his silent work. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Silent screen Western star Tom Mix falls in love with a lovely circus performer in this fanciful (and typically overblown) star vehicle. Mix plays a sharpshooter and roping specialist who joins a travelling one-ring circus and falls for a lovely trapeze artiste (Natalie Joyce). There is the obligatory crooked politician whose greatest ambition is to close down the show but most of the screen time is dedicated to Mix's shootin' and ridin' (he even ropes an elephant!) and various big top acts. A 1925 WAMPAS Baby Star, Natalie Joyce ran away with the notices for this film and was reunited with Mix in Daredevil's Reward later that year. The brunette starlet allegedly told Mix aide Sid Jordan that she would never amount to much in the film industry because of her refusal "to put out." She retired from the screen in 1930. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi