Alice Brady Movies

With comedian Stan Laurel temporarily off his payroll due to a contract dispute, Hal Roach hastily put together a solo starring vehicle for Laurel's longtime partner Oliver Hardy. Digging into his files, Roach pulled out Zenobia's Infidelity, an H.C. Bunner story originally purchased as a vehicle for Roland Young. Hardy was cast in the semi-serious role of John Tibbitt, a 19th century Mississippi doctor whose heart is bigger than his bank account. At the insistence of travelling carnival man Professor McCrackle (played by former silent comedy star Harry Langdon, then under contract to Roach as a gag writer), Tibbitt tends to the Professor's ailing elephant, Miss Zenobia. Once cured, the precious pachyderm refuses to leave Dr. Tibbitt's side-whereupon McCrackle sues the doctor for alienation of Zenobia's affections! The ensuing scandal plays right into the hands of Mrs. Carter (Alice Brady), the town's richest and snobbiest woman, who has long opposed the romance between her son John (James Ellison) and Tibbitt's daughter Mary (Jean Parker). All problems are resolved during the climactic courtroom trial, despite occasional interruptions by Miss Zenobia and the dizzy interpolations of Tibbitt's wife (Billie Burke). The film's intended highlight, the recitation of the Declaration of Independence by black child Philip Hurlic, was obviously inspired by Charles Laughton's "Gettysburg Address" scene in Ruggles of Red Gap (1935). Evidently sensing that Zenobia was doomed from the start, producer Hal Roach stirred up some publicity by encouraging the notion that he was creating a new comedy team consisting of Oliver Hardy and Harry Langdon-even though the characters never function as a team in the course of the story. A major box office disappointment, Zenobia (British title: Elephants Never Forget) is a pleasant but utterly inconsequential effort; still, it's worth seeing once, if only for the quietly subdued performance by Oliver Hardy, who is very good indeed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Goddbye Broadway is wrapped up by two stage & screen veterans, Alice Brady and Charles Winninger. The stars play vaudevillians Molly and Pat Malloy, who are suckered into investing $4000 in a ramschackle New England hotel. After a variety of predictable but amusing complications, the Malloys turn the tables on the sharpsters (Jed Prouty and Frank Jenks) who unloaded the property on them. Radio fans will enjoy seeing comedian Tommy Riggs, whose squeaky-voiced "Betty Lou" alter ego was a major airwaves attraction throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Directed by Leo McCarey's brother Raymond, Goodbye Broadway is based on James Gleason's 1927 stage comedy The Shannons of Broadway, previously filmed in 1929. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In Old Chicago was 20th Century-Fox's spin on MGM's San Francisco--a personal saga played out against the backdrop of a famous 19th Century disaster. Alice Brady plays Mrs. O'Leary, a widow who brings her two young boys to the sleepy village of Chicago. As the city grows in prominence and prestige, so do the boys: One son (Tyrone Power) becomes a rascal who dreams of creating his own entertainment empire, while the other son (Don Ameche) matures into an honest, straight-laced lawyer. Both boys woo a beautiful singer (Alice Faye), who favors the more reckless of the two. As the headstrong son gains control of the more disreputable forms of Chicago entertainment, the serious son becomes the city's Mayor. The requisite rivalry between the two reaches a fever pitch just before their mother's cow knocks over a lantern and sets off the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The O'Leary boys unite in trying to fight the conflagration and rescue the populace; the mayor dies, and the wastrel son vows to mend his ways and help build a "new" Chicago. In Old Chicago is climaxed spectacularly by the famous fire, a masterwork of special effects courtesy of 20th Century-Fox's Fred Sersen. The film, which originally ran 115 minutes, is currently available only in its shorter (and better paced) reissue version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Even the mighty MGM had to keep the home fires burning with B pictures. The studio's Mama Steps Out is a harmless confection built around the considerable talents of Alice Brady. She plays her standard empty-headed flibbertygibbet, this time vacationing on the Riviera after inheriting a fortune. Alice, her husband Guy Kibbee and her daughter Betty Furness soon tire of their shallow new society chums, and head back home a little sadder and wiser. For what was basically a lower-berth comedy, Mama Steps Out has impeccable credentials: it was adapted by Anita Loos from a play by John Kirkpatrick, and produced by Ms. Loos' husband John Emerson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a Boy Scout leader hosts a local gossip show. Trouble ensues when he predicts a politician's murder just before it occurs. He is arrested by the DA, but before getting to jail, he is abducted by irate gangsters--the real killers. Fortunately, his loyal Scout troop rallies to his rescue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The girl is teenaged singing sensation Deanna Durbin; the one hundred men are out-of-work musicians. Still in her "little miss fix-it" stage, Durbin connives to help the musicians crack the big time. The person Durbin is most concerned with is her father (Adolphe Menjou) the 100th and most underemployed of the bunch. The men organize their own orchestra; all they need is a prestigious leader. Enter legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski, who after several refusals to listen to Durbin's entreaties is captivated when he hears the sounds of Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody, as played by 100 shabby instrumentalists camped out on the stairway of his house. This film literally saved Universal Studios from receivership in 1937, assuring Ms. Durbin a movie career until she was too rich to care. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Go West, Young Man represented the first time that Mae West starred in a film not originally written with her in mind. Based on Lawrence Riley's stage comedy Personal Appearance (which starred Gladys George on Broadway), the film casts La West as Mavis Alden, a pretentious and somewhat stupid movie star who is shipped out on a nationwide promotional tour of her latest picture, Drifting Lady. Stranded in a backwater Pennsylvania town, she finds time for a chaste romance with local gas-station attendant Bud (Randolph Scott). Her enthusiastic press agent tries to stage-manage a wedding between the two casual lovers, whereupon West wriggles out of the commitment by renouncing Scott -- repeating the flowery dialogue from her newest cinematic masterpiece. Mae West is moderately amusing in an uncharacteristic assignment, but one wonders what the results would have been if Paramount had allowed her to star in her first choice of assignments: A satirical biography of Catherine the Great. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

What would such second-echelon studios as Republic have done without the popular "rural" novels of Gene Stratton-Porter? This adaptation of Stratton-Porter's The Harvester stars Alice Brady in a rare dramatic role as Mrs. Biddle, the domineering matriarch of a farming family. Hoping to secure the future happiness of her daughter Thelma (Joyce Compton), Mrs. B practically ropes and hog-ties eligible bachelor David Langston (Russell Hardie). But it's a bad match, as David discovers when he falls in love with winsome Ruth Jameson (Ann Rutherford). The Harvester was treated as a prestige production by Republic, who accordingly gave the film as close to an "A" treatment as economically possible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A variation on the Lady for a Day theme, Universal's Lady Tubbs stars Alice Brady as Henrietta "Mom" Tubbs, the no-nonsense cook in a rowdy railroad construction camp. Upon inheriting a fortune, Mom Tubbs trains herself to enter high society, not so much for her sake as for that of her pretty niece Wynne (Anita Louise). But before she can stage-manage the marriage between Wynne and Long-Island socialite Phil Ash-Orcutt, Mom must expose a few pompous stuffed shirts for the hypocritical phonies that they really are. Lady Tubbs scores most of its laughs from its central situation, but it's never above resorting to slapstick to make a few comic points. Particularly amusing is a wild fox-hunt sequence, portions of which later showed up in Abbott and Costello's In Society. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Metropolitan was the first release from the newly merged 20th Century-Fox corporation. Famed operatic baritone Lawrence Tibbett stars as Thomas Renwick, the new leading man for temperamental diva Ghita Galin (Alice Brady). After storming out of the Metropolitan Opera, Ghita organizes her own troupe, full of young, untried singers. On the eve of the company's first performance, Ghita walks out again, and it's up to Renwick to pull himself and his cohorts together to put on their own show. In other words, it's Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland with better music. Lawrence Tibbett's splendid singing voice was, alas, not enough to transform him into a satisfying screen personality. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

German actress Dorothea Wieck, who achieved international fame in Maedchen in Uniform, was given a brief shot at Hollywood stardom in 1933 and 1934. Miss Fane's Baby is Stolen stars Ms. Wieck as an actress whose child (Baby LeRoy) is kidnapped. As Wieck takes to the radio to beg for her boy's safe return, the abductors cover their trail by disguising the kid with black hair dye. Farm wife Alice Brady, who gives the impression of being a little light in the belfry, saves the day when she tumbles to the kidnappers' deception. Based on the recent Lindbergh kidnapping, Miss Fane's Baby is Stolen did absolutely nothing to advance the reputation of Dorothea Wieck. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a middle-aged woman married to a much older man begins a harmless flirtation with an artistically inclined gigolo after she mistakes him for her long-lost lover. Unfortunately, the opportunist really loves the woman's daughter. He is also smitten with another woman. Romantic mayhem ensues when the artist's true identity is revealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After the death of her circus-aerialist husband, Kitty Lorraine (Alice Brady) dedicates herself to transforming her daughter Shirley (Maureen O'Sullivan) into a celebrity. Kitty is so determined that Shirley will hit the "big time" that she continues to issue instructions to the girl even while undergoing an emergency appendectomy. Artist Warren Foster (Franchot Tone) upsets Kitty's plans by falling in love with Shirley, so mom plans to throw Foster off the scent by marrying her daughter off to titled nobleman Lord Aylesworth (Phillips Holmes). Finally realizing that she may be loving her girl to death, Kitty reunites Shirley with ever-patient Warren. A blend of themes previously explored by such dramas as Applause and Stella Dallas, Stage Mother was the film that introduced the syrupy ballad Beautiful Girl, later showcased (and gently mocked) in Singin' in the Rain. The film's best scenes are Alice Brady's verbal duels with her brash business partner Ted Healy -- and incidentally, one of Healy's stooges, the inimitable Larry Fine, shows up in a one-line bit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide