Tom Brown Movies

This Buck Privates knockoff concerns the misadventures of the three Patterson brothers: Charley (Wayne Morris), Eddie (Tom Brown) and Kenneth (William T. Orr). Pampered by their pacifistic mother Margaret (Irene Rich), the Patterson boys do everything they can to avoid being drafted into the Army. Once they've donned unifom, however, our heroes calmly and courageously do their patriotic duty, while their mother at last realizes it's all for the best. Before this happens, however, the audience is subjected to all manner of goofy slapstick setpieces, including a trained-seal bit right out of the Mack Sennett era. Incidentally, Three Sons O' Guns costar William T. Orr was the son-in-law of Jack L. Warner, whose studio produced the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of Hal Roach's "streamliners" (feature films running 45 minutes or so), Niagara Falls serves as a showcase for Roach protegee Marjorie Woodworth. The action takes place at a honeymoon hotel in-where else?--Niagara Falls. Gangly Sam Sawyer (Slim Summerville), newly married to matronly Emmy Sawyer (ZaSu Pitts), is constitutionally incapable of minding his own business. As a result, he decides to play cupid for young singles Margie Blake (Woodworth) and Tom Wilson (Tom Drake), contriving to force the couple to share a single room for a single night. It's all very innocent, in the "Imagine my embarrassment" fashion of Hal Roach's old Charley Chase 2-reelers. Roach's daughter Margaret, who later pursued an acting career as Diana Rochelle, plays a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, a traveling salesman gets mixed up with a bratty heiress after she gets in a car wreck as she heads for her elopement. The two begin traveling together and get further mixed up with a fleeing bank robber, a crazy tourist camp, and other troubles. Songs include: "Oh Johnny, How You Can Love," "Maybe I Like What You Like," "Swing Chariot Swing," and "Make Up Your Mind." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The mystery surrounding the gender of infant film star Baby Sandy was finally solved in her penultimate vehicle, Sandy is a Lady. The plot involves the efforts of Sandy's parents Mary and Joe Phillips (Nan Grey and Tom Brown) to improve their financial status, which are alternately aided and endangered by the antics of two-year-old Sandy. The film's climax plays like something out of a "Sweepea" cartoon, with the toddling heroine perilously perambulating atop an unfinished skyscraper. Also on hand for a bit of adolescent deviltry are Butch and Buddy, better known for their appearances in W. C. Fields' Never Give a Sucker an Even Break and Abbott & Costello's In the Navy. And as was often the case in the Baby Sandy films, Sandy is a Lady is enhanced by the presence of such reliable character players as Mischa Auer (who was in all of Sandy's pictures), Edgar Kennedy, Billy Gilbert and Friz Feld. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this interesting drama, a highly respected straight-arrow Irish cop is pleased when his son follows him onto the force. Unfortunately, the son is more interested in promotions than in upholding the law and he makes few friends among his peers. When he shoots a child caught stealing, the others frame him and he is sent to prison where his attitude becomes even worse than before. Upon his escape, the bad seed goes on a crime spree. He then learns that his wife has just borne him a son. When he goes to the hospital to see the babe, his father, who set this trap, arrests him and sends him back to the pokey, proving that in this case, justice is thicker than blood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this boxing drama, an ex-champ finds himself working as a doorman at a nightclub. His son aspires to a high caliber career on Wall Street; he is getting ready to marry a banker's daughter. When not working at the club, the boxer trains a welterweight with championship potential. Later the son gets caught embezzling funds. To help him pay it back the boxer asks that his trainee throw his next fight while he bets everything on the opponent. The young fighter refuses to take a dive and wins the fight. Fortunately, the ex-champ's assistant knew this and bet even more money on their protegee. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ever youthful Tom Brown once more plays a campus football hero in Swing That Cheer. Undeniably talented on the gridiron, Bob Potter (Brown) is equally undeniably an arrogant pain in the posterior. So swell-headed does Potter become that he can never admit to himself that his blocking-back teammate Larry Royal (Robert Wilcox) is equally reponsible for Bob's success. To teach his pal a lesson, Larry feigns an injury and pulls out of the Big Game, forcing Bob to go it alone. Predictably, our hero will have to ingest a bit of humble pie before he can lead his team to victory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Merrily We Live is a blatant imitation of My Man Godfrey, courtesy of producer Hal Roach. This time Brian Aherne is the gentleman vagabond whom flighty society matron Billie Burke hires as a butler. Aherne's down-to-earth attitude jars against the high-toned phoniness of Burke's wealthy household, but soon the butler has "humanized" everyone around him. He also falls in love with Burke's daughter Constance Bennett, the snootiest member of the family. While at least one prominent film historian has applauded Merrily We Live for avoiding the muddled political subtext of My Man Godfrey, critics in 1938 were less politely inclined, blasting Merrily for being so unabashed a carbon copy. Audiences, on the other hand, loved the film, and Merrily We Live was a success. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Louis Hayward plays an arrogant Cambridge student who emigrates to America and enrolls at the West Point. Hayward's superior attitude earns him the enmity of his fellow students and the derisive nickname "the Duke". Those viewers familiar with college pictures will know as early as the opening titles that Hayward is down deep a swell guy. He proves this by helping impoverished plebe Richard Carlson pay his college costs and winning a crucial hockey game against a Canadian team. While Hayward and his student companions all look a bit long in tooth to be West Pointers, 20-year-old leading lady Joan Fontaine fits right in to the predictable proceedings. Like most of producer Edward Small's films, Duke of West Point was a perennial attraction on TV's "Late Late Shows" in the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An actor creates a devious murder plot in this suspenseful, ironic drama. For many years, the aging thespian has been confessing to homicides he never committed. Naturally the cops think he is bonkers so that when he really does kill his victim, no one believes he did it. Unfortunately, his lies work against him when something goes horribly wrong. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

"That Man" is Hugh (woo-woo) Herbert, here cast as lovable eccentric Thomas J. Jesse. Befriending apartment-house elevator operator Jimmy Whalen (Tom Brown), Jesse makes it his mission in life to smooth the course of true love for Jimmy and pretty Australian lass Nancy Lee (Mary Maguire). The plot contrives to drag in a cute little baby, whom Nancy is trying to extricate from an orphanage. The connection between heroine and baby is never explained; all that's important is that Jimmy agrees to adopt the kid by fade-out time. The principal set for That Man's Here Again, a lavish apartment hotel (complete with white telephones), seems too elaborate for a mere 60-minute programmer, suggesting that the set was borrowed from one of Warners' prestige productions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The third of MGM's profitable Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy songfests, Maytime opens in the early 20th century, with a young girl arguing with her boyfriend over her wishes to become an opera singer. The girl's neighbor, a lonely old woman whom we gradually recognize as a convincingly "aged" Jeanette MacDonald, tells the girl of her own career in opera. The old lady was once the radiant young diva Marcia Mornay. In 1868 she was the toast of Europe, thanks to the tutelage of her voice instructor Nikolai Nazarov (John Barrymore). He proposes marriage, and Marcia accepts, more out of gratitude than love. In a euphoric pre-nuptial state, Marcia finds herself on Paris' Left Bank, where she meets handsome café crooner Paul Allison (Nelson Eddy). They meet again at a lavish Maytime festival, falling in love (to the accompaniment of Sigmund Romberg's most dazzling duets) in the process. Sadly, Marcia returns to Nazarov, while Paul goes off to America to lick his wounds. Seven years later, Marcia, making her New York debut in a fictional opera based on the works of Tchaikovsky, finds that the leading baritone is none other than Paul. Unable to envision life without her new love, Marcia begs Nazarov for a divorce. He smiles slyly and promises to give her her freedom-whereupon he heads to Paul's apartment and kills the poor fellow. The flashback done, Marcia advises her pretty young neighbor that one can never have both love and a career. Out of tragedy grows the happy ending, in which the spirit of the now-deceased Marcia is reunited with Paul in a blossom-filled Hereafter. On paper, Maytime may seem to be the ultimate in Hoke, but even in recent revival showings the film never fails to cast its spell over an audience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actual footage of the 1936 Rose Bowl game is cleverly (if not seamlessly) integrated into the action of this sports-oriented comedy. Longtime chums Paddy O'Reilly (Tom Brown) and Dutch Schultz (Benny Baker) may be heroes of the high-school gridiron, but they're persona non grata with the girls, thanks to campus lothario Ossie Merrill (Larry "Buster" Crabbe). Managing to get on the college football team in time for the Rose Bowl competition, Paddy and Dutch finally win out over Ossie by scoring the winning touchdown. Of interest in the cast as one of the campus cuties is curvaceous Priscilla Lawson, who'd previously starred as Princess Aura opposite Buster Crabbe in the Universal serial Flash Gordon. Also on hand is William Frawley, as-what else? -- a college football coach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide