George Cooper Movies

Frank Capra's classic comedy-drama established James Stewart as a lead actor in one of his finest (and most archetypal) roles. The film opens as a succession of reporters shout into telephones announcing the death of Senator Samuel Foley. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), the state's senior senator, puts in a call to Governor Hubert "Happy" Hopper (Guy Kibbee) reporting the news. Hopper then calls powerful media magnate Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who controls the state -- along with the lawmakers. Taylor orders Hopper to appoint an interim senator to fill out Foley's term; Taylor has proposed a pork barrel bill to finance an unneeded dam at Willet Creek, so he warns Hopper he wants a senator who "can't ask any questions or talk out of turn." After having a number of his appointees rejected, at the suggestion of his children Hopper nominates local hero Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), leader of the state's Boy Rangers group. Smith is an innocent, wide-eyed idealist who quotes Jefferson and Lincoln and idolizes Paine, who had known his crusading editor father. In Washington, after a humiliating introduction to the press corps, Smith threatens to resign, but Paine encourages him to stay and work on a bill for a national boy's camp. With the help of his cynical secretary Clarissa Sanders (Jean Arthur), Smith prepares to introduce his boy's camp bill to the Senate. But when he proposes to build the camp on the Willets Creek site, Taylor and Paine force him to drop the measure. Smith discovers Taylor and Paine want the Willets Creek site for graft and he attempts to expose them, but Paine deflects Smith's charges by accusing Smith of stealing money from the boy rangers. Defeated, Smith is ready to depart Washington, but Saunders, whose patriotic zeal has been renewed by Smith, exhorts him to stay and fight. Smith returns to the Senate chamber and, while Taylor musters the media forces in his state to destroy him, Smith engages in a climactic filibuster to speak his piece: "I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not gonna leave this body until I do get them said." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

West of Rainbow's End was one of two Tim McCoy westerns directed by Monogram Pictures workhorse Alan James. Returning to the screen after a tour with the Ringling Bros. circus, McCoy is cast as a former railroad detective who emerges from retirement to solve a series of suspicious accidents. The villains hope to sabotage the railroad so that they can engineer a big-time land swindle. For our hero, it's personal: the bad guys were responsible for the murder of his foster father. Kathleen Elliot, who spent most of her brief film career in westerns, co-stars as Tim's waitress sweetheart Joan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Missing Guest is the first of two remakes of the 1933 melodrama Secret of the Blue Room. The audience knows what it's in for when they're introduced to the hero (Paul Kelly), a hotshot reporter named "Scoop" (what else?) When a young man mysteriously disappears in the "forbidden room" of a supposedly haunted mansion, Scoop arrives on the scene to investigate. After two people meet horrible deaths in the aforementioned room, our hero suspects that the killer isn't supernatural in nature. He's right, but the audience could have told him this from the get-go. Constance Moore is the hand-wringing heroine, while William Lundigan also plays a pivotal role (hint, hint). The Missing Guest was refilmed in 1944 as the old-dark-house musical (!) Murder in the Blue Room--same plot, and even the same killer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lady lawyer Portia Merryman (Frieda Inescourt) defends woebegone Elizabeth Manners (Heather Angel), who is on trial for shooting her lover Earle Condon (Neil Hamilton). Ironically, Portia herself had once had an affair with Earle's father, powerful publisher John Condon (Clarence Kolb). She has a pretty good idea of what is going on in Elizabeth's head, since she herself was on the verge of killing Condon when he ruthlessly took custody of her illegitimate son (not Earle, though that certainly would have brought things full circle). As Portia toils and strains to free her client, she carries on a romance with Dan Foster (Walter Abel) -- the attorney for the prosecution. LA Law and The Practice have nothing on this one! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Think Fast, Mr. Moto was the first of 20th Century-Fox's movie series based on the wily Japanese sleuth created by J. P. Marquand. Moto (Peter Lorre) seems to be a criminal this time around, involved with a gang of international smugglers. Virginia Field is a White Russian expatriate who likewise appears to be an agent of the criminals. The adventure takes Moto, Ms. Field and the son of a legitimate gem dealer (Thomas Beck) from San Francisco to Shanghai. During the inevitable showdown with the head of the smugglers (Sig Rumann), Virginia turns out to be an unwilling pawn of the crooks, while the inscrutable Mr. Moto reveals himself to be a special agent of the International Police. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Step Lively, Jeeves was the second 20th Century-Fox programmer to star Arthur Treacher as P.G. Wodehouse's resourceful butler Jeeves. In the first film, Thank You, Jeeves (36), the faithful family retainer extricated his boss Bertie Wooster (David Niven) from a jam. In the second film, Jeeves is on his own as he heads to America to claim an inheritance. The legacy turns out to be a phony, engineered by a pair of con men who plan to use Jeeves as the fall guy for a gangster plot. But Jeeves foils the scheme using his inbred wit--and a little larceny of his own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Starving artist Robert Montgomery could care less if his paintings sell, so long as he's happy. Montgomery falls in love with Rosalind Russell, an heiress who's gone "slumming" in Greenwich Village. Russell becomes Montgomery's patroness as well as his wife, urging him to make his paintings more commercial. He becomes a success following her advice, but popularity goes to his head and soon Russell realizes she's created a monster. She walks out, he gets his act together, she comes back, and they return to their blissful hand-to-mouth existence. Live, Love and Learn scores its biggest laughs unintentionally with MGM's prettified concept of what a "run down" Greenwich village apartment looks like. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At their best, the Republic musicals of the 1930s could hold their own against anything turned out by MGM or Warner Bros. Republic's Sitting on the Moon is an excellent showcase for second-echelon stars Roger Pryor and Grace Bradley, here cast as songwriter Danny West and fading movie star Polly Blair. Hoping to jump-start Polly's career, Danny breaks up his partnership with lyricist Mike (William Newell), who finds some comfort in the arms of Polly's wisecracking pal Mattie (Pert Kelton). Hoping to tear Danny away from Polly, Mike contrives to have blonde seductress Blossom (Joyce Compton) pretend to be Mike's sweetheart, but all misunderstandings are forgotten during the climactic musical production numbers. Originally released at 66 minutes, Sitting on the Moon was cut to 53 minutes for television, with no discernible loss of continuity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a car crash ends the life of a fabulously wealthy patron of the arts, the decedent's $20,000,000 fortune is inherited by one Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) of Mandrake Falls, Vermont. Already a reasonably successful local businessman, Deeds doesn't really feel the need for anything extra in his life: he just wants enough time to practice his tuba and compose greeting-card doggerel. When Deeds is convinced to move to New York, hard-boiled newspaper reporter Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur) is dispatched to get the inside scoop on "The Cinderella Man." Babe's stories of Deeds' eccentricities and no-nonsense dealings with phonies and poseurs provide excellent headline fodder; but she begins to regret her actions, having fallen in love with the big lug. Deeds ultimately sets up a foundation to dispense his fortune to the country's neediest souls, on the proviso that the recipients do their best to get back on their feet, a turn of events that leads his lawyer John Cedar (Douglas Dumbrille) to try to have him declared insane. By the end of the sanity hearing, the judge (H. B. Walker) declares: "Not only are you sane, but you're the sanest man who ever walked in this courtroom!" A joyously unadulterated hunk of Frank Capra-corn, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town was adapted by Robert Riskin from Clarence Buddington Kelland's short story "Opera Hat." In addition to the pleasure of watching the country bumpkin outwit city slickers, the movie is a film buff's dream, boasting one of the best character-actor casts ever assembled for a single film. Nominated for four Academy Awards, the film won Frank Capra his second Oscar (out of three) as Best Director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A couple of naïve girls get themselves unwittingly involved in the gambling racket in this Poverty Row production directed by the redoubtable Phil Rosen. Runaway Ann Jason (Ann Doran) finds shelter in big, bad New York City with the Traveler's Aid Society, one of those organizations run by bored socialites. The socialite in question is Dorothy Benson (Muriel Evans), the daughter of a state senator (Wallis Clark) who is advocating a bill that would legalize gambling and make the profits taxable. But the senator is murdered by gangster Ben Davis (Noel Madison), who is confident that the blame will fall on racketeer Dan Collins (Sidney Blackmer), the senator's foe. Investigating newspaper reporter Jimmie Dugan (Roger Pryor), meanwhile, would rather go to prison than divulge his sources but changes his mind when Davis kidnaps Ann and Dorothy. Disguised as a hobo, Jimmie locates both the girls and the gangsters and after the inevitable showdown reveals that he is an undercover G-Man. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

RKO Radio's first official 1935 release was the Zane Grey adaptation West of the Pecos. Richard Dix stars as Pecos Smith, a strong, silent Westerner suspected of cattle rustling. He spends half of the film proving his innocence, and the other half trying to deal with the tempestuous Terrell (Martha Sleeper), who has disguised herself as a boy to avoid molestation during her westward trek. The film's highlights include a Comanche attack and the climactic fistic duel between hero Pecos and villain Sawtelle (Fred Kohler). West of the Pecos was remade in 1945, with Robert Mitchum and Barbara Hale in the leading roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first of Columbia Pictures' "Inspector Trent" whodunits, the inspector (Ralph Bellamy) is called in to investigate the death of Edward Arnold (William Jeffrey). Although the young doctor in charge, David Marsh (Arthur Pierson), maintains that Arnold died of natural causes, a family curse causes Trent to become suspicious. The good inspector becomes even more alarmed when the victim, who has indeed been poisoned, proves to be one John Fry, the real Arnold (Claude Gillingwater) having changed places with an old friend in order to defeat the curse. But who killed Fry? Was it the Japanese houseboy, Kono (Otto Yamaoka)? Or the family attorney (Bradley Page)? Suspicion also centers on Arnold's beautiful ward, Janet (June Collyer); Fry's widow, Mavis (Betty Blythe); and sundry other more or less sinister characters lurking about the family's cavernous Forest Lake estate. Before Midnight was followed by three additional "Inspector Trent" mysteries: One Is Guilty, The Crime of Helen Stanley, and Girl in Danger, all released in 1934 and starring the affable Ralph Bellamy. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Lyle Talbot stars as "Three Star" Halsey, a hotshot West Coast aviator with a reputation for recklessness. Time and time again, Halsey promises his stewardess sweetheart Judy Wagner (Ann Dvorak) that he'll stop taking risks, and time and again he breaks his word. After several misadventures, Halsey becomes a hero when he prevents a top-secret explosive formula from falling into the hands of the villains -- and as a bonus, solves four airborne murders. Much of the aerial photography in Murder in the Clouds would be reused in such future Warners programmers as Fly-Away Baby and Fugitive in the Sky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide