Melville W. Brown Movies

In this drama, set in an office, two veterans are hired after the war by the father of a friend who was killed in battle. Trouble ensues when one discovers that the other is embezzling company funds. The other then threatens to tell their late friend's dad the truth about his demise--he had died a coward. Despite their attempts to keep it quiet, the truth is revealed and the embezzler gets his due. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This amusing lampoon of low-budget filmmaking is set in motion when fly-by-night entrepreneur Bradley Page talks small-towner Mrs. Bent (Betty Alden) into financing a movie. Mrs. Bent's shiftless brother Willie Barton (Wallace Ford) is appointed director of the film, which turns out to be a big-time bomb. The day is saved when the film, a "serious" desert melodrama, is re-edited as a slapstick comedy. The winner in this instance is Mrs. Bent's long-suffering husband (Oscar Apfel), who'd wanted all along to invest his wife's money in the nut farm of the title. Based on a 1929 play by John C. Brownell, The Nut Farm is an interesting precursor to such later moviemaking satires as After the Fox and Sweet Liberty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A pre-Charlie Chan Sidney Toler stars in Champagne for Breakfast as The Judge, a philosophical racetrack tout. Though eternally broke, the Judge manages to smooth the path of life for Vivian Morton (Joan Marsh), a nice girl to whom he's taken a fancy. By and by, the Judge brings together Vivian and handsome young Bob Bentley (Hardie Albright), then rescues Vivian's sister Natalie (Lila Lee) from the clutches of lecherous villain Osborne (Bradley Page). Though top-billed, Mary Carlisle has comparatively little to do as socialite Edie Reach. All things considered, Champagne for Breakfast is really Sidney Toler's film, and it's nice to see this perennial supporting player in a major role for a change. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The inimitable Edna May Oliver makes a meal of the title role in the Technicolor backstage drama Fanny Foley Herself. The star is cast in the Marie Dressler-like role of a vaudeville performer who has trouble dividing her time equally between her career and her two daughters (Helen Chandler, Rochelle Hudson), and as a result she alienates both girls. Fanny Foley's true colors come through in the end, when she braves an airplane ride through a driving storm and makes a perilous parachute jump when she is led to believe that her daughter Carmen (Rochelle Hudson) has been sexually compromised by a cad. The fact that Carmen is living blissfully and respectfully with hubby Teddy (John Darrow) does not alter the fact that Fanny has proven her devotion to her progeny. The film was retitled Top of the Bill in Great Britain, where the name "Fanny" had an objectionable connotation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an impoverished young woman meets a millionaire who marries her on the spot and then begins pampering her with jewels and furs. When not attending to her every need, the business magnate works his mines so he can buy her some more. While he is gone, a gigolo makes advances upon her. At first she resists, but then gives in. When her husband hears of her weakness, he swears he will get revenge. He hires private detectives to make sure the two stay together. Every time the crook tries to abscond with her jewels, the gumshoes bring him back to the girl. When the wife tries to get away from him, the detectives ensure that she can't. In the end, the woman's first husband, who she never divorced, appears and ends up killed by the angry gigolo. He ends up convicted and imprisoned. The chastened woman then returns to her generous second husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two former Fox contractees star in RKO Radio's She's My Weakness, a flat adaptation of Howard Lindsay and Bertrand Robinson's play Tommy. Hero Tommy Mills (Arthur Lake) would like to marry his sweetie Marie Thurber (Sue Carol), but first he's got to get on his feet financially. Attempting to sell a valuable piece of land at a profit, Tommy is constantly thwarted by his crooked uncle, who has no qualms about profiting from Tommy's loss. The ad campaign for this film was peppered with misleading blurbs like "Youth Whoops It Up in the Rumble Seat": in truth, the film is a stiff, with no one whooping about anything. It was films like She's My Weakness which convinced Sue Carol to give up acting and go into the talent-agent business. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The old Winchell Smith-Victor Mapes stage comedy The Boomerang was the source for the Richard Dix vehicle The Love Doctor. Dix plays Dr. Gerald Sumner, an expert on romantic relationships. The story inevitably evolves into a case of "physician heal thyself" when Sumner falls head over heels in love with pretty nurse Virginia Moore (June Collyer). Typical comedy situations include the old one about the hero being caught without his trousers when the heroine comes a-calling. Some crackling good dialogue by Guy Bolton, Herman Mankiewicz and J. Walter Ruben helps this creaky early talkie over its rough spots. Billed last in The Love Doctor is Gale Henry, a once-popular star of comedy shorts here making one of her only talkie appearances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an impoverished songwriter from the South travels to Tin Pan Alley with his trusty piano. He stays at a boarding house where he falls in love with a pretty young woman. When the two are discovered trysting in the same room, the landlady tosses them out on their ears. To help pay for his back rent, the vindictive landlady keeps his piano. Her husband attempts to steal it away, but accidentally drops it down the stairs and smashes it into a jillion pieces. Fortunately, his new love works for two zany music publishers who begin selling the writer's songs which become hits. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The only relation that the 1928 Buck Privates has to the much-later Abbott and Costello vehicle of the same name is the fact that both films were produced by Universal. Set during WWI, the film focuses on the adventures of American doughboy John Smith (Malcolm McGregor) during a brief stopover in Luxembourg. Billeted in the home of a pacifistic landowner, Smith becomes fascinated with his host's daughter Anna (Lya de Putti), with whom he has been prohibited to speak, nor is he even allowed to glance in her direction. Should Anna associate with Smith, she would be branded a "traitor" by the pro-German villagers and have her head shaved as evidence of her betrayal. This doesn't stop Smith from enjoying a midnight rendezvous or two with the girl, despite the interference of his equally lovestruck topkick Sgt. Butts (Eddie Gribbon). Caught in the act of smooching with Anna, Butts is threatened with court-martial unless he marries the girl. But on the day of the wedding, Anna's maidservant Hulda (ZaSu Pitts) substitutes for her mistress, while Anna elopes with her true love John Smith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Red Lips was based on the novel The Plastic Age by Percy Marks, previously filmed under its original title in 1925. Charles "Buddy" Rogers stars as college track star Hugh Carver, who'd rather party than anything else. Hugh's bad habits eventually catch up with him, leading to his expulsion when co-ed Cynthia Day (Marion Nixon) is found in his dorm room (it's all quite innocent, but try telling that to the Dean). Fortunately, Cynthia is able to get Hugh to stop feeling sorry for himself; our hero gets his act back together in record time, is reinstated on the football team, and emerges the winner in the Big Game. The film was also released as Cream of the Earth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Caught in a heavy rainstorm without a car, Edward Everett Horton purchases a dilapidated taxicab so that he can get his girlfriend Marion Nixon home safely. The couple arrives at a rustic church, where Nixon impishly talks Horton into getting married. But before the ceremony concludes, the police arrive; it turns out that Horton had bought the taxi from a gang of crooks who'd stolen the vehicle. Making matters worse, Nixon's guardian shows up, angrily demanding Horton's hide. The couple dashes out of the church, with the cops and the guardian in hot pursuit -- though they manage to circle the building often enough for the preacher to pronounce them husband and wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A battle royal ensues when husband Edward Everett Horton tells his wife Laura LaPlante that she can't buy an expensive new rug. In high dudgeon, LaPlante decides to go back to work so she can earn extra pocket money -- even though Horton has expressly forbidden her from doing so. On her own, our heroine lands a secretarial job at the very company where our hero is employed, requiring a lot of calisthenics to prevent hubby from finding out. The fun really begins when Horton is inveigled into posing as his boss' junior partner at a fancy reception -- and is further ordered to introduce the partner's wife as his own. So guess who also shows up at the party? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide