Gregory La Cava Movies
Although former cartoonist Gregory La Cava's comedies earned him a notable reputation behind the camera, he also crafted remarkable dramas like Gabriel Over the White House (1933) and The Affairs of Cellini (1934), both testaments to the director's largely underappreciated diversity. La Cava was born in Towanda, PA, in 1892, and his early work with Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz on The Katzenjammer Kids and Mutt and Jeff caught the attention of the Hearst Corp. Subsequently hired as the editor-in-chief for the company's International Comic Films division, La Cava served as the producer/director of such animated shorts as 20,000 Legs Under the Sea (1917) and How Could William Tell? (1919). After making more than 100 successful animated shorts, La Cava graduated to live-action films with a series of successful comedy shorts. A few short years later, he was directing such luminaries as Doris Kenyon, Richard Dix, and W.C. Fields in feature films. He put his name on the map with Womanhandled (1925), So's Your Old Man (1926), and Feel My Pulse (1928), and the advent of sound found La Cava segueing to drama with The Age of Consent (1932) and Private Worlds (1935). The director never truly abandoned the genre on which his career was founded, and, in 1936, he paired William Powell and Carole Lombard for the enduring 1936 comedy My Man Godfrey (the first film to receive four acting nominations at the Academy Awards). Quickly following with the memorable drama Stage Door 1937, La Cava was at the peak of his career when he received Best Director nominations from the Academy for both features. By this point, he had earned something of reputation as an actor's director, and though he continued working behind the camera throughout the '40s, his output ceased following uncredited work on 1948's One Touch of Venus. La Cava died of a heart attack four years later in Malibu, CA. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide- 1947
Despite MGM's insistence that star Gene Kelly, just returning from military service in 1947, appear exclusively in big-budget Technicolor musicals, maverick director Gregory La Cava showcased Kelly in the modest black and white tunefest Living in a Big Way. Kelly is cast as an ex-GI who discovers that his wealthy war bride (Marie McDonald) is an insufferable snob. Flying in the face of his in-laws, Kelly insists upon using his wife's money to open a charity home for the families of those soldiers who didn't come back. Kelly's major musical number, which takes place during the building of his dream home, is a bizarre ballet utilizing such props as ladders and two-by-fours. Living In a Big Way turned out to be the flop that MGM had predicted, but the film was impressive enough to win La Cava the coveted directorial post for Mary Pickford Productions' One Touch of Venus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Kelly, Marie McDonald, (more)
- 1942
Irene Dunne plays a flibbetygibbet socialite who inherits a farm in Arizona. She can't seem to manage either her money or her private life, thus seeks advice from outside sources. Irene falls in love with fledgling Manhattan psychiatrist Patric Knowles, and marries him in the hope that he'll solve all her problems. Lady in a Jam was advertised as one of the most expensive comedies ever made; the studio was banking on the reputations of star Irene Dunne and director Gregory LaCava to draw crowds. But when the film failed (it shifted emotional gears a bit too often for 1942 film fans), both the lady and the gentleman found their careers in "a jam"--from which Dunne recovered but LaCava didn't. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Patric Knowles, (more)
- 1941
The Hollywood "establishment" had been waiting a long time for maverick director Gregory La Cava to fall from grace, and when his Unfinished Business failed to live up to its expectations, La Cava's enemies swooped down like vultures. Seen today, the film is hardly one of the director's best efforts, but neither is it his worst. Irene Dunne stars as aspiring singer Nancy Andrews, who falls desperately in love with playboy Steve Duncan (Preston Foster). When it becomes clear that Steve isn't about to take their casual relationship seriously, Nancy marries his brother Tommy (Robert Montgomery) on the rebound. After a fun-filled honeymoon, the couple can't seem to adjust to the "normalcy" of married life; as a result of this and Nancy's ongoing fascination with older brother Steve, the disillusioned Tommy walks out on her and joins the army. Only when Nancy deals with the "unfinished business" of her unrequited love for Steve can she and Tommy find true happiness. There are many deft LaCava-esque directorial touches in Unfinished Business, but for the most part the film could have been made by any Hollywood director; still, the film does not deserve its current tarnished reputation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Robert Montgomery, (more)
- 1940
In her third film for innovative director Gregory LaCava, Ginger Rogers briefly turns her back on her established screen image by playing the daughter and granddaughter of prostitutes. Determined not to pursue the "family business", Ellie May Adams (Rogers) opts for respectability, as personified by clean-limbed Ed Wallace (Joel McCrea, teamed with Rogers for the first time since 1933's Chance at Heaven). Alas, all of Ellie May's dreams of connubial bliss fly out the window when Ed is introduced to her alcoholic father Homer (Miles Mander), her round-heeled mother Mamie (Marjorie Rambeau) and her equally randy grandmother (Queenie Vassar). Briefly losing Ed's affections, Ellie May tearfully resigns herself to taking care of her family-but will she resort to the World's Oldest Profession to keep food on the table? Adapted from Victoria Lincoln's novel February Hill (Lincoln's name didn't appear on the credits due to legal entanglements), Primrose Path managed to retain a goodly portion of the novel's bite without unduly straining RKO Radio's relationship with Joe Breen's censorship office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea, (more)
- 1939
A wealthy older man and a poor young woman each get a chance to see how the other half lives in this comedy. Alfred Borden (Walter Connolly) is a millionaire who feels neglected by his family. His wife Martha (Verree Teasdale), daughter Katherine (Kathryn Adams), and son Tim (Tim Holt) usually ignore him, and all three manage to forget his birthday completely. Depressed and alone, Alfred bumps into Mary Grey (Ginger Rogers), a young woman who is out of work but is still happy with her lot in life. Alfred invites her to go to a night spot with him, and he soon hatches a scheme by which Mary will move into the guest room of the Borden Mansion and pose as a gold digger who is toying with Alfred's affections to get at his money. Mary's presence has a sudden impact on the family; Martha realizes that she needs to pay more attention to her husband, Katherine falls in love with the family's leftist chauffeur (James Ellison), and Tim starts taking an interest in the family business, and in Mary. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Walter Connolly, (more)
Adapted from the Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman play, Stage Door is a comedic portrait of the theatrical community in New York. Katharine Hepburn stars as Terry Randall a young woman who comes from a wealthy, socially connected family. Aspiring for a career on the stage, Terry opts to see if she can make it on her own gumption and moves into a boarding house with several other wannabe Broadway starlets attempting to make a mark for themselves in show business. Terry's sassy roommate Jean (Ginger Rogers) just might get the opportunity to do that when she meets a lecherous producer, but at what cost? Unamused by Terry's attempts to pull herself up by her bootstraps, her father offers her an opportunity for a starring role in a show that's sure to fail. Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, and Ann Miller are among the other residents of the boarding house. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, (more)
One of the landmark "screwball" comedies of the 1930s, My Man Godfrey offers the radiant Carole Lombard in her definitive performance as flighty young heiress Irene Bullock, who on a society scavenger hunt stumbles on Godfrey (William Powell), an erudite hobo residing in the city dump. Godfrey becomes the family's butler, much to the dismay of Irene's father Alexander (Eugene Pallette), who thinks his household is crazy enough without another apparent lunatic under his roof. Halfway through the film, we discover that Godfrey isn't a penniless bum at all, but the scion of a wealthy Boston family. Having been burned by an unhappy romance, Godfrey dropped out of life, taking up residence in the dump. Here his faith in humanity was restored by his fellow indigents, who managed to survive and remain optimistic despite the worst deprivations. Meanwhile, however, he wants to straighten out the Bullock family, who he feels are a basically decent bunch beneath all their pretensions and eccentricities -- and along the way, of course, Irene determines that Godfrey will be her husband. While Godfrey's ultimate "solution" to the exigencies of the Depression seems more of a placebo, My Man Godfrey is all in all a totally satisfying jolt of 1930s-style wish fulfillment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Carole Lombard, (more)
- 1935
The first major film about psychiatry, Private Worlds stars Claudette Colbert as a psychiatrist with more than a few problems of her own. Colbert's appointment to a top mental hospital is frowned upon by head doctor Charles Boyer, who doesn't have much confidence in woman doctors of any kind. A secondary storyline involves Boyer's sister Helen Vinson, who lusts for a young married doctor (Joel McCrea). The doctor's wife (Joan Bennett) subsequently goes insane in an "off-angled" scene anticipating the techniques of film noir by nearly a decade. Meanwhile, doctors Boyer and Colbert establish a mutual respect which deepens into love. Based on a novel by Phyllis Bottomes, Private Worlds is stronger in its vignettes (including a scene in which Boyer comforts a dying patient by speaking a few words in the patient's native tongue) than in its longer "plot" scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1935
"She" is secretary Claudette Colbert and "Her Boss" is Melvyn Douglas. Once married, Colbert discovers that Douglas expects her to work as usual. She must also contend with his wealthy, snooty family, whose most hateful member is his spoiled brat of a daughter (Edith Fellows) by a previous marriage. Rebelling against her repressive existence, Colbert eventually puts her in-laws in their place and arouses the ardor of the "strictly business" Douglas. While consistently amusing throughout, the highlight of She Married Her Boss is a first-reel bit of pantomimic whimsy involving Claudette Colbert and a roomful of department store mannequins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Melvyn Douglas, (more)
- 1934
The Affairs of Cellini is based on Edwin Justus Mayer's popular stage play The Firebrand, which in turn was based on the life and times of Renaissance artist/political reactionary Benvenuto Cellini. Fredric March plays the tempestuous, amorous Cellini, who spends as much time in swordplay with jealous husbands as he does in his artist's loft. When the duke of Florence (Frank Morgan) falls for Cellini's beautiful model (Fay Wray), Cellini is presented in court, whereupon he revives an ongoing affair with the duchess of Florence (Constance Bennett). Though a bumbling buffoon, the duke nonetheless holds the power of life and death over everyone in his domain, including Cellini. Thanks to his political activities and his overactive libido, Cellini is nearly executed, but a series of farce-like complications allows the plotline to turn out to the artist's advantage. Though hardly reliable as history, The Affairs of Cellini scores on its comic content, including the hilarious performances of Frank Morgan as the cuckolded duke and Fay Wray as the monumentally stupid artist's model. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Constance Bennett, Fredric March, (more)
- 1934
Ann Harding, one of screendom's finest sufferers, stars in Gregory LaCava's Gallant Lady. Left pregnant by her (apparently) deceased lover Dan (Clive Brook, cast against type as a drunken lout), Sally (Harding ) tearfully gives up her son Didi (Dickie Moore) for adoption and endeavors to start life anew. She enjoys success as an interior decorator, yet still she longs to be reunited with her son. Sally is ultimately able to marry Philip Lawrence (Otto Kruger), the man who adopted Didi, when Lawrence's first wife (Betty Lawford) conveniently expires? but what about Dan, who may not be dead after all? Filmed by Twentieth Century Pictures a year before that company's merger with Fox, Gallant Lady was remade in 1938 as Always Goodbye, with Barbara Stanwyck in the Ann Harding role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Harding, Clive Brook, (more)
- 1934
Legendary "improvisational" director Gregory La Cava elected to stick to the script for his film version of the James M. Barrie play What Every Woman Knows. Helen Hayes repeats her stage role as a Victorian Scotswoman of far-reaching ambition. Using her supposedly frail feminine wiles, Hayes maneuvers her fatuous husband Brian Aherne into a successful political career. He rises to a parliamentary seat, never quite realizing that he hasn't done it alone. The charm of What Every Woman Knows was augmented by the pleasing Scots burr adopted by the American leading lady. An earlier version of the Barrie play was filmed in 1921, starring Lois Wilson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne, (more)
- 1933
In this sassy dramatic comedy, two reform-school girls finally graduate and as soon as they get out decide to board a New Orleans-bound stern-wheeler and rustle up a couple of handsome, wealthy men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, (more)
- 1933
In 1933, at the height of the bleakness and desperation of the Depression, MGM released this genuine curiosity piece -- directed by comedy (!) director Gregory La Cava -- concerning a Warren G. Harding-like partisan hand-shaker President of the United States who, after seeing a vision, revokes the Constitution, becomes a reigning dictator, and solves all of the nation's problems. Walter Huston plays Judson Hammond, recently elected President of the United States, who treats his elected office as a joke and acts as a dispenser of Party favors. But after an automobile accident, he sees the Archangel Gabriel, who inspires him to declare himself dictator. His first line of business after his conversion is to fire his Cabinet. This leads to impeachment proceedings, but Hammond enters the Senate chamber and takes over the Congress. He then tackles unemployment by meeting with John Bronson (David Landau), the leader of masses of marching unemployed men. When gangster Nick Diamond (Henry C. Gordon) and his goons assassinate Bronson, Hammond uses his brown-shirted storm troopers to blast their way into Diamond's headquarters and blow him away. The President then intimidates the leaders of countries that owe money to the United States to pay their debts then forces them to disarm and pledge world peace. Hammond rapidly becomes the most popular fascist President in United States history. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Huston, Karen Morley, (more)
- 1932
In this misleadingly-titled 1932 medical (not musical) drama, the resolve of a young surgeon is severely tested. Dr. Felix Klauber (Ricardo Cortez), is a selfless Jewish physician who has grown up in the segregated slums of New York City. Through hard work, he becomes a wealthy Park Avenue doctor. He is called to operate on his father, Meyer Klauber (Gregory Ratoff), to remove a small tumor. But Dr. Klauber makes a fatal mistake, and his father dies on the operating table. Klauber now becomes plagued by guilt and self-doubt and is afraid to practice his profession. His girlfriend Jessica (Irene Dunne) urges him to continue. When it turns out that she, too, requires surgery, his love for her and her entreaties compel him to return to perform the delicate operation. This RKO Studios production was based on a novel by Fannie Hurst. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, (more)
- 1932
A broad lampoon of celebrity worship, The Half-Naked Truth stars Lee Tracy as a carnival huckster and Lupe Velez as a "kootch" dancer. Reaching for the moon, Tracy passes Lupe off as an exotic foreign princess--and manages to pull the wool over the eyes of all Manhattan. Now "famous for being famous", Lupe is employed for special appearances by Ziegfeldish impresario Frank Morgan. When the fraud is revealed to the world, Tracy returns to the carnival, with Lupe (who's loved him since Reel One) at his side. Half-Naked Truth co-stars Eugene Pallette as Tracy's assistant; the bullfrog-voiced Pallette has a wonderful moment in which he discovers that he's been mistaken for "Princess" Lupe's head eunuch! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lupe Velez, Lee Tracy, (more)
- 1932
Dorothy Wilson, who'd previously been a stenographer at RKO Radio studios, plays the lead in RKO's Age of Consent. Wilson and co-star Richard Cromwell play a couple of green-as-grass college coeds, whose puppy love blossoms into genuine romance. But with love comes responsibilities, and soon it looks as though they will have to give up their education if they want to make a go of their relationship. Director Gregory La Cava's fondness for on-set improvisation results in a number of endearingly spontaneous moments from the talented young cast. It was also refreshing to see a 1932 movie in which college life was depicted with a semblance of reality, and not as an endless series of frat parties and football games. Watch for 16-year-old Betty Grable in an uncredited bit role. Age of Consent is based on Cross Roads, a stage play by onetime College Humor editor Martin Flavin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Wilson, Richard Cromwell, (more)
- 1931
This Depression-era comedy takes place in the boarding house run by the indomitable Sarah Austin (Edna May Oliver). Sarah's indigent husband Joe (Hugh Herbert), spends most of his time cooking up pie-in-the-sky get-rich-quick schemes, few of which come to fruition. In time-honored "domestic comedy" tradition, one of Joe's wacky inventions is purchased by a major manufacturer, saving the household from bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Sarah and Joe's daughter Alice (Dorothy Lee) experiences an endless series of romantic travails. Director Gregory LaCava reportedly allowed the actors to improvise much of their dialogue during rehearsals; even so, the fine comedic hand of veteran scenarist Ralph Spence is evident throughout the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Herbert, Edna May Oliver, (more)
- 1931
In this comedy drama, a young wife returns from a vacation abroad and learns that her sleazy husband is playing around with another woman. In order to win him back, the wife decides to make him jealous. She enlists the aide of a willing cohort. Unfortunately, she finds herself genuinely interested in him and so decides to divorce her cad of a spouse. She travels to Reno, but once there decides that she'd rather stay married to her husband after all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Astor, Robert Ames, (more)
- 1929
Playwright Maxwell Anderson's domestic comedy drama Saturday's Children was adapted for the screen three times between 1929 and 1940, each time by Warner Bros. The first version, a part-talkie, starred Corinne Griffith and Grant Withers as youthful sweethearts Bobby Halevy and Jim O'Neill. A self-styled "ladies' man" with big plans for his financial future, Jim balks when Bobby suggests that they marry and settle down in their sleepy hometown. Eventually, Jim walks out on Bobby, whereupon our heroine resorts to "women's tricks" -- the selfsame stratagems that she's condemned all her life -- to win her sweetheart back. Despite the directorial dexterity of Gregory LaCava, not much could be done to hide the fact that Corinne Griffith's voice did not match her screen image. Incidentally, the "Charles Lane" who plays the heroine's plot-resolving father is not the same Charles Lane who later played Homer Bedloe on TV's Petticoat Junction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Corinne Griffith, Grant Withers, (more)
- 1929
A primitive early talkie from Pathé, this crime drama starred relative newcomers Robert Armstrong and Carole Lombard, the latter still spelling her first name Carol. They play husband and wife, she threatening divorce unless he devotes more of his time to their marriage. In reality, Armstrong is an undercover detective busy investigating a dope ring lead by Reno (Sam Hardy), a crook with friends in high places. When Armstrong gets too close to the truth, Reno has him framed in the murder of corrupt newspaper publisher Addison (Charles Sellon). A Dictaphone recording Addison was making when he was murdered ultimately exonerates Banks, who can now return to his forgiving wife. Both Robert Armstrong and Carole Lombard would see their careers soar in the 1930s, he as the nominal star of King Kong (1933), she as one of Hollywood's best light comediennes. In fact, director Gregory La Cava and Lombard would collaborate again on My Man Godfrey (1936), one of the era's best screwball comedies and a far cry from the pedestrian Big News. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Carole Lombard, (more)
- 1929
The unique directorial touches of Gregory LaCava lift this standard military comedy well above the norm. William Boyd plays Terry Culver, a wise-guy officer who receives his first commission. Amazingly, Culver's commanding officer Colonel Gaylord (Alphonse Ethier) takes a liking to the brash, obnoxious young officer -- as does Gaylord's pretty daughter Judy (Dorothy Sebastian, at the time the wife of co-star Boyd). Despite his blundering and bluster, Culver proves his worth by rescuing a small child from jeopardy, and as a reward wins Judy's hand in marriage. A brief Technicolor sequence and an exciting steeplechase finale add to the film's overall conviviality. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Hopalong" Boyd, Dorothy Sebastian, (more)
- 1928
The fertile creative mind of director Gregory LaCava is well in evidence throughout Half a Bride. Esther Ralston stars as Patience Winslow, an impulsive heiress who marries a much-older man whom she really doesn't love. While honeymooning on her yacht without her new husband, Patience is marooned on a desert island with handsome Captain Edmunds (Gary Cooper). Her head full of notions that she's gleaned from radio dramas and pulp novels, Patience demands that she and Edmunds enter into an in-name-only marriage, observing the responsibilities and proprieties of matrimony without the sexual entanglements. So guess who's in love with whom by the time Patience and Edmunds are rescued? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1928
Bebe Daniels' popular Paramount comedies of the 1920s frequently cast the sprightly heroine as a female Douglas Fairbanks, saving the day with equal parts cleverness and physical dexterity. Feel My Pulse is a typically Fairbanksian romp, with Daniels playing a sheltered rich girl who has been convinced (and has convinced herself) that she is suffering from multiple maladies. When Daniels inherits a health sanitarium, she moves in bag and baggage, hoping to cure her many imagined ailments. Actually, all she needs is a good jolt of adventure, excitement, and romance, and this she gets when bootleggers set up shop at the sanitarium. Daniels is so full of vim, vigor and vitality at the end of the film that she's even willing to kiss leading-man Richard Arlen without worrying about catching any germs. Like many of the Daniels' comedies, Feel My Pulse is benefited immeasurably by the roguish villainy of star-in-the-making William Powell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, George Irving, (more)
- 1927
The freewheeling direction of Gregory LaCava helps to enliven the otherwise standard actioner The Gay Defender. Decked out with sideburns and mustache, Richard Dix stars as real-life outlaw Joaquin Murietta, who (according to this film, anyway) is a latter-day Robin Hood, dedicated to driving land-grabbers and corrupt politicians out of Spanish California. The fictional love interest, played by Thelma Todd (long before establishing herself as a comedienne), is Ruth Ainsworth, the daughter of a United States commissioner whose murder Murietta hopes to avenge. A festival of cliches, the film manages to avoid the most obvious plot ploy of all: the attack on the heroine by the villains (the girl manages to get through the entire picture without having to be rescued). The Joaquin Murietta story would be told again -- once more with scant fidelity to the facts -- in 1936's Robin Hood of El Dorado. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dix, Thelma Todd, (more)
