Alice Brady Movies
American actress Alice Brady first came to prominence in the silent films produced by World Studios, which was owned and operated by Brady's father, the influential theatrical producer William H. Brady. A star from her first film, As Ye Sow (1914), onward, she was applauded for her acting skills, though critics at the time noted that her somewhat offbeat facial features would be better suited to character roles than to ingenues. Brady devoted the 1920s to motherly and matronly portrayals on stage - which, as it turned out, were far more rewarding professionally than the heroines she'd played at World. Making her talking-picture debut in 1933's When Ladies Meet, Brady rapidly became one of Hollywood's most prolific portrayers of addlebrained society matrons and world-weary matriarchs. Her comic skills won her roles in such classics as My Man Godfrey (1936) and Three Smart Girls, but it was for her dramatic portrayal of the resilient, much-maligned Mrs. O'Leary in In Old Chicago (1938) that she won an Academy Award. Shortly after completing her work on John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Brady passed away at the age of 46. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1917
The "Maid of Belgium" is sad-eyed Adoree, played by Alice Brady. When her town is destroyed by the invading Germans during WWI, the shock causes Adoree to completely lose her memory. The girl is rescued from the rubble by Mr. and Mrs. Hudson (George MacQuarrie and Louise de Rigney), a wealthy American couple. Despite her newfound happiness, Adoree does not snap out of her near-catatonic amnesia and sits silently in her room pathetically clutching an old doll. It soon turns out that the heroine is expecting a baby. Upon the child's birth, it is promptly appropriated by the barren Mrs. Hudson, who claims that the baby is hers. Not wishing to be deprived of the only thing she genuinely loves, Adoree steals the baby and hides away on a remote island. Believing the child has been drowned, the grieving Hudsons arrange to dynamite the river in hopes of recovering the body. The sound of the explosion shocks Adoree back to her senses, and at long, long last she remembers that, just before the Germans marched in, she had been married to a prominent Belgian nobleman -- thereby "legitimizing" her baby and paving the way for a happy ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1922
Victor Fleming was still a relatively new director when he helmed this melodrama, an adaptation of the stage play by Harry Chapman Ford. Alice Brady starred on Broadway, and she stars here, too, as Anna Ayyob, a Syrian immigrant living in New York and working at a coffee house owned by Siad Coury (Edouard Durand). The place is really a front for a group of smugglers. This information filters down to Howard Fisk (Robert Ellis), the reporter son of a newspaper publisher. He earns Anna's trust, but just when she is about to tell Fisk what she knows, she is attacked by a member of the gang known as the Baron (David Powell). They struggle and Anna thinks she has killed him. She goes into hiding and three years later reemerges as the anonymous author of a best seller called Anna Ascends. Howard's father (Frederick Burton) assigns him the duty of tracking down the writer and interviewing her. So he and Anna are reunited once again. It turns out that the Baron didn't actually die, and the smugglers are eventually rounded up. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Brady, Robert Ellis, (more)
- 1914
In this convoluted drama a chauffeur falls in love with his boss's daughter and marries her, causing his aged father to suffer a fatal coronary. She quickly becomes pregnant and after the child's birth finds out that her husband is an abusive drunk. She tries to force him to stop drinking, but this only causes him to take all their money, and the baby. He heads back for his native New England, leaves the baby with his mother, and then becomes a merchant seaman. The abandoned wife ends up coming to the Cape Cod village where he left the baby and staying in his mother's boarding house without realizing her identity. Things really get tangled up when she falls in love with her husband's brother, an upstanding minister. Unfortunately, the day she is to marry the minister, a terrible shipwreck nearby brings a most unwelcome visitor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Inspired by the recent Russian Revolution, At the Mercy of Men casts Alice Brady as Vera Souroff, a Petrograd music teacher. While heading to work, Vera is suddenly seized by three officers of the Czar's Imperial Guard and dragged off to a darkened restaurant, where one of the men rapes her. When the police arrive, Vera is unable to determine which of the three men was responsible for the outrage. The shock of the girl's humiliation has a startling effect on her fiance Boris, who immediately swears vengeance on the Czarist regime and joins the revolutionists. Likewise, Vera's father, a retired Army officer, is galvanized into forming "The Forces of the People." The suggestion that the Revolution was inspired solely by a sexual assault on a single woman may have been a bit hard to swallow, but audiences unfamiliar with the actual political turmoil in Russia were willing to suspend disbelief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1933
The beauty-parlor craze of the early 1930s was given a good going-over in MGM's Beauty for Sale. Madge Evans, Florine McKinney and Una Merkel star as Letty, Jane and Carol, three employees of a swank Manhattan beauty salon. While Carol wisecracks her way through life, Letty takes things more seriously -- too seriously, in fact, when it comes to matters of the heart. She falls in love with wealthy Mr. Sherwood (Otto Kruger), who unfortunately is already married to Mrs. Sherwood (Alice Brady). Surprisingly, Letty is permitted a happy ending, which is more than can be said for the equally romantically reckless Jane. Based on a novel by Faith Baldwin, the film boasts some exceptional "glamour" photography by James Wong Howe. In a reversal of the usual chronology, Beauty for Sale hit the screens after a "B"-movie variation of the same basic material, 1932's Beauty Parlor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madge Evans, Otto Kruger, (more)
- 1917
In reflection of the patriotic fervor attending America's entry into WWI, the World Film Corporation felt emboldened to serve up this filmed biography of legendary flagmaker Betsy Ross. Alice Brady, daughter of studio head William A. Brady, played the title role, while Betsy's mentor George Washington was portrayed by George MacQuarrie. Inasmuch as the story of Betsy Ross was largely a fabrication to begin with, the screenwriters had no qualms about concocting a romantic triangle involving Betsy, her sister Carissa (Lillian Cook), and their mutual sweetheart Clarence Vernon (Frank Mayo). Joseph Ashburn (John Bowers), who has a crush on Betsy, challenges Clarence to a duel and apparently kills his opponent, whereupon Ashburn adopts an assumed name and joins General Washington's army. Meanwhile, Clarence recovers from his wounds and rejoins his regiment in the British army. What happens next is eminently predictable, though one has to admit that it is heaps more exciting than watching Betsy Ross sewing the Stars and Stripes together for six reels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1918
This drama was based on the Miriam Michelson novel Michael Thwaite's Wife, and it gave Alice Brady the chance to play a dual role (something that was practically de rigueur for nearly every star in the 1910s). Although Louise and Trixie (both Brady) are identical twins, their temperaments couldn't be more different -- Trixie is flighty and frivolous while Louise is a dutiful homebody. Both of them love the same man, Michael Thwaite (David Powell). Thwaite is dazzled by Trixie's sparkle and marries her, but soon she grows bored with him and starts up a flirtation with Hendrick Thurston (Crauford Kent). While Trixie runs off with Thurston, Thwaite is beaten by thugs and blinded. To save him from suffering the shock of his wife's loss, Louise steps in and takes his wife's place. She happily takes care of Thwaite, but then Trixie shows up once again. Louise's place by Thwaite's side is threatened, but in pictures of the 1910s, the bad girl never came out on top, so by the last frames of the final reel, Trixie is out of the picture and Louise becomes Mrs. Michael Thwaite. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1915
Holbrook Blinn repeated his stage role in this feature-length adaptation of the Broadway hit The Boss. In the early scenes, Blinn is hardly bosslike: A waterfront derelict, his only "assets" are his fists. Putting his pugilistic skills to practical use, Blinn becomes a prizefighter, accumulating a fortune and purchasing a prosperous saloon in the process. He then buys his way into a freight-contracting business, and before long he's one of the most powerful businessmen in town. His next step is to marry into society, which he does by marching down the aisle with pretty heiress Alice Brady. Unfortunately, for "the boss," Brady's brother, a union activist, calls a strike which brings the "hero's" despotic control of the waterfront to a screeching halt. Only when reduced to his former pauper status does Blinn realize that he's genuinely in love with Brady, who has stood by him through thick and thin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1916
This comedy-drama, based on a popular play of the era by George Broadhurst, is the classic story of a poor girl who marries a millionaire. But the millionaire, Robert Stafford (Montagu Love), is an alcoholic who, after one of his nights of heavy drinking, asserts that he "bought and paid for" Virginia, his wife (Alice Brady). Virginia finds his inebriation unbearable and decides her comfortable life isn't worth the suffering, so she leaves him. It takes a lot of effort on the part of Virginia's brother-in-law James (Frank Conlan) and his wife Fanny (Josephine Drake) to get the couple back together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1933
Broadway to Hollywood is a through-the-years saga about a show business family. Frank Morgan and Alice Brady play vaudeville headliners of the 1880s whose fame is eclipsed by their son (played as a youth by Jackie Cooper, then as an adult by Russell Hardie). Morgan and Brady are reduced to bit roles in a musical starring their son and his wife (Madge Evans). Alas, Sonny spoils it all by drinking and philandering, while his wife dies in a freak accident. After Hardie is killed in World War One, Morgan and Brady raise Hardie's son, who grows from Mickey Rooney to Eddie Quillan and becomes a temperamental movie star. Grandpa Morgan gives Quillan a remonstrative on-set speech about professionalism, then drops dead as his chastened grandson goes back to work. Broadway to Hollywood is principally a showcase for several elaborate musical numbers originally filmed for MGM's abandoned 1930 extravaganza The March of Time. While the plotline veers towards the ridiculous, comedy buffs are advised to stick with the film for an uncredited appearance by Moe and Curly of the Three Stooges, both dressed in bizarre clown makeup and speaking in weird German accents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Brady, Frank Morgan, (more)
- 1937
Call It a Day is a Warner Bros. attempt at British light comedy. Nothing much happens of any consequence in this story of a day in the life of a typical middle-class London family, headed by accountant Ian Hunter. The husband is tempted by a seductress (Marcia Ralston), the wife (Freda Inescourt) tries but fails to have a "fling" herself, the daughter (Olivia De Havilland) throws herself at a married artist (Walter Woolf King), and all is set aright before the sun goes down. The film's funniest moments belong to droll Roland Young and sharp-tongued Alice Brady. Call it a Day was adapted from Dodie Smith's gossamer-thin stage play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olivia de Havilland, Ian Hunter, (more)
- 1920
Katherine Dereham (Alice Brady) believes herself to be in love with Prince Anton from the mythical kingdom of Argovinia (Reginald Denny). Because politics demand that he wed Princess Margratha (Roni Purcell), the prince offers Katherine a morganatic marriage. This isn't acceptable to her, and when Dr. Garth Vincent (James L. Crane) comes around to cure the drug addiction of her father (Brandon Hurst), she falls for him instead. Dr. Vincent, however, has decided that women are all hypochondriacs and won't give her the time of day. After a lot of effort, though, Katherine finally wins him over. This was not a great Alice Brady picture, although it's worth noting that James Crane, who plays the hero, was her real-life husband. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Because of her father's death at the hands of Russian soldiers, Ilda Barosky (Alice Brady) carries a grudge against the government. Her brother, Ivan (Norbert Wicki), has more than a grudge -- he's a revolutionary. He secretly marries Olga (Lillian Cook), the daughter of Constantine Karischeff, the minister of police (J. Herbert Frank). Meanwhile, Alexis Nazimoff (John Bowers) romances Ilda. Olga and Alexis's parents, unaware of all these happenings, try to arrange a marriage between them, but when they ask Ilda to play "God Save the Czar" on her violin at the betrothal party, she refuses and is whipped in front of the gathering. All hell breaks loose; Alexis, Ilda and Olga wind up being accused of being in league with the revolutionaries and sent to Siberia. Ilda gets a pardon, but since she wants to stay with Alexis, she has Olga leave in her place. The couple are about to be shot when they, too, are pardoned. They come home, and their families are all reconciled. This picture (based on a play by H. Grattan Donnelly and Sidney R. Ellis) came out just as the overthrow of the Russian government was reaching its full completion, and as a result, it was out of date almost upon its release. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
The stolid direction of Edward H. Griffith does little damage to the entertainment value of Dawn of the East. Alice Brady, best known to movie fans for her dithery society-lady roles in the 1930s, stars as a glamorous refugee from the Bolshevik revolution. Supporting herself and her ailing sister by dancing in a Shanghai dive, Alice is talked into a marriage with a wealthy Chinese gentleman. She has been led to believe that this marriage of convenience is not binding, thus she sees no reason not to marry American diplomat Kenneth Harlan once she's arrived in the States. But villainous Michio Itow soons shows up threatening to expose Brady's marital past. The price for Itow's silence is a packet of military secrets about the Chinese republic. But Itow has not counted on the essential decency of Brady's Chinese husband. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Brady, Kenneth Harlan, (more)
- 1918
Even though Cynthia Maitland (Helen Montrose) throws wild parties and is having an affair with Boresky (Robert Cain), a cabaret dancer, her husband Arnold (H.E. Herbert) won't divorce her. He does go to the cabaret, however, intending to confront Boresky, who doesn't appear. But after a few glasses of wine, Maitland makes a cynical wager with his friend that every woman has her price. His friend suggests that he try dancer Flora Farnsworth (the film's star, Alice Brady, finally making her appearance), and Maitland puts her up in a nice apartment and pays for her singing lessons. Still, she won't succumb to him, and his admiration for her turns to love. He makes arrangements to desert his wife so that she will divorce him and he can marry Flora. But as he is about to depart, he is fatally wounded in a car crash. Before dying, however, he hands Flora evidence of his wife's unfaithfulness. Flora then becomes involved with Maitland's partner, Philip Standish (Mahlon Hamilton), who proposes marriage. Cynthia Maitland, who has discovered the wager and Flora's bills among her dead husband's effects, visits Flora and threatens her with exposure. Flora in turn brandishes the evidence of Cynthia's infidelity. Boresky has been dancing with Flora and is angry with her because her marriage will break up the act; with encouragement from Cynthia, he plans to replace the fake dagger in their dance with a real one that night. But before he can kill Flora, he is stopped by Standish. Defeated, Boresky stabs himself. This convoluted picture didn't do much for Alice Brady's film career. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1920
Although Jim Carson (Fred Burton) supposedly runs Society Chatter, a scandal sheet, it is Maxwell Stone (Frank Losee) who is the publisher and real power behind the paper. There is talk of a juicy scandal going on at a posh Italian resort, and Stone goes to check it out, combining the trip with a visit to his daughter, Sylvia (Alice Brady). At the resort, Sylvia has become friends with Laura Hill (Edith Stockton), the flighty Milly Sayres (Nora Reed), and Milly's brother, Oliver Ellis (Richard Hatteras), who owns a New York morning newspaper. Sylvia also has become infatuated with Ettare Forni, a lusty tenor (Harry Mortimer). They plan to run off together, but Sylvia changes her mind when she discovers he does not plan to marry her. Stone unearths a scandalous tidbit surrounding Laura, and runs it in the paper. Laura is devastated by this and commits suicide. Sylvia returns to New York with Milly and Ellis, intent on avenging Laura's death. Carson tries to stop them by looking for dirt on Ellis. An attempt to link Milly with Forni is unsuccessful, and Carson is revealed as a blackmailer. Sylvia is shocked to discover that her father is the owner of Society Chatter, but he promises to close down the paper and reform, so she forgives him. She and Ellis wind up together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1936
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
- Starring:
- Mae West, Warren William, (more)
- 1935
With little plot but incredible photography and choreography, Gold Diggers of 1935 was exactly what you would expect a Busby Berkeley movie to be--visually stimulating, awe-inspiring and almost Freudian in its obsession toward perfection. The Titanic scale of Berkeleian choreography was especially apparent in the "Lullaby on Broadway" number, showing the last day in the life of a "Broadway Baby" before she kills herself. This scene has some of the most precise choreography ever filmed. This was the second of the Gold Diggers films and it remains a classic for the startling technological display found in all Berkeley efforts. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Powell, Gloria Stuart, (more)
- 1938
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
- Starring:
- Alice Brady, Charles Winninger, (more)
- 1918
Alice Brady stars in this screen adaptation of Fannie Hurst's novel, Golden Fleece. Shopgirl Lola Gray (Brady) is having a romance with Charlie Cox (David Powell), the son of a wealthy man. While Charlie sincerely loves Lola, he doesn't have much sense. He refuses to work as long as his father (Hardy Kirkland) supports him, and he spends his nights whooping it up at road houses. When he asks Lola to marry him, she turns him down. But when Lola's sister Ida (Gloria Goodwin), who is secretary to Charlie's father, finds out that Charlie is being cut out of his dad's will, she lords this over Lola, and this information inspires her to accept Charlie's proposal. They quickly get married, and the next day, they get word that Cox, Sr. has died. Charlie is already starting to count his fortune when Lola reveals that he has been cut out of the will, and that was one of reasons she agreed to marry him -- that way no one could accuse her of wanting his money. So the couple goes to the Midwest and they start life anew on a farm. This was Charles Maigne's first jump from screenwriting to directing. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1918
Arlette (Alice Brady), the granddaughter of a Brittany innkeeper, falls in love with Richard Vale (Henry Clive), an aspiring artist who has come to the village. Also visiting is Prince Boissard (R. Payton Gibbs), an old roué who lusts after Arlette. The Prince is a patron of the arts, and he offers to help Vale out if Arlette will come to Paris and become his mistress. She agrees, but only if he works his magic on Vale first. He does as promised and calls on Arlette to keep her end of the bargain. But the night she is supposed to give herself to the Prince, his mistreated servant Sarthe (Edmund Pardo) decides to protect the girl and murders him. Arlette is then free to marry Vale. This picture was adapted from a play, The Red Mouse, by Henry J.W. Dam. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1919
This farce comedy was based on the play by Lawrence Irving Rising. Moving Picture World, expressing the delicate mores of the era's movie audience, asserted, "it is not, after all, the sort of picture to flaunt in the face of an innocent debutante," in part because one of the characters reveals an identifying mole -- on her ankle! Alice Brady has a dual role, as the mischievous Vi Playfair (the one with the mole), and her tamer twin sister Tiny. Vi is about to marry Joe Damorel (Edward Earle), but first she wants to have a secret meeting with a former suitor, Lent Trevett (James L. Crane). Tiny -- who's more than a little in love with Trevett herself -- is shocked at her sister's plan, and goes to meet him herself. After receiving the kisses and affection meant for her sister, Tiny sends him on his way, but the next day, after the wedding, Trevett shows up in an attempt to convince Vi to run off with him. Tiny is furious when Vi agrees, and since there is a second dress identical to the wedding gown, she puts it on and goes off with Damorel. Now it's Vi's turn to become incensed, but after a lot of confusion, husband and wife get back together, while Tiny and Trevett decide they're happy with each other. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1917
Alice Brady plays the lead in this adaptation of Frou Frou. Frou Frou (Brady) agrees to marry the man chosen by her father, the Marquis de Sartorys (George MacQuarrie), even though she knows her sister Louise (Gerda Holmes) loves him. But Frou Frou is a frivolous girl, and when Louise comes to visit, she ultimately takes her sister's place. Finally Frou Frou sees the error of her ways, but when her husband won't take her back, she runs off with the Comte de Valreas (Edward Langford). Eventually de Sartorys follows and kills de Valreas in a duel. Then Frou Frou comes back home to beg her husband's forgiveness before she dies. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1921
This drama was the first story author Samuel Merwin wrote directly for the screen. Millionaire Alexander Murray (George Fawcett) thinks that because of his wealth he is above the law, so when his daughter, Evelyn (Alice Brady), accidentally hits and injures a newsboy in a car accident, he tries to have the incident hushed up. Evelyn, however, firmly believes in taking responsibility for her actions and shows up at the hospital where the boy has been taken. Her involvement in the matter horrifies both her father and her fiancé, Bert Van Vliet (Laurence Wheat). Their disapproval of her actions causes her to leave home. Murray and Van Vliet make panicked attempts to locate Evelyn, who has gone into hiding. With the help of Bishop Deems (Harry Benham), Evelyn convinces her father that being wealthy does not absolve one from responsibility. Murray and Van Vliet learn their lessons, and Evelyn finally reconciles with them both. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Brady, George Fawcett, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, (more)
