George Cooper Movies

An idealistic but naive pharmacist believes the mobsters who claim they want him to manufacture illegal medicine to help out the poor. That the deal will pad his own pockets with much-needed cash only sweetens the arrangement. This melodrama chronicles the tragic results of his actions. He wants the extra money so he can get married. The scheme works and things are fine until his bride announces her pregnancy and insists that he get out of the racket. Unfortunately, the brutal mobsters refuse to let him out. Not long after, his bride miscarries the baby and nearly dies when a well-meaning doctor injects her with some of the druggist's own bad medicine. This causes the pharmacist to go berserk with rage and have a violent confrontation with the villainous mob boss. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a female physician encounters professional and personal turmoil when she finds herself having an affair with an alcoholic peer. He impregnates her and she travels to Paris to have the baby in private. As she is returning to the States, the baby dies from infantile paralysis. This does not prevent her from saving the lives of two other children aboard the same ocean liner. When she returns, she discovers that her lover has divorced his wife and wants to marry her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Paul Lukas plays a nightclub headwaiter who rises to fame as a bridge expert. He marries hat check girl Loretta Young, likewise a card fanatic. Lukas and Young find themselves vying for the national bridge championship, which results in the expected frictions. All is forgiven in the climactic scenes, in which silver-tongued radio commentator Roscoe Karns gives a play-by-play of the "big game" while director William Dieterle uses freeze frames and slow motion to beef up the tension. Grand Slam is quite an eye-opener for fans of Loretta Young, who displays an unusually generous amount of thigh in her nightclub outfit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hoping to match the success of his boisterous (and Oscar-winning) silent comedy Two Arabian Knights, and at the same time indulging in his fascination for aviation, erstwhile Hollywood producer Howard Hughes came up with the relentlessly silly Sky Devils. Spencer Tracy and George Cooper star as Wilkie and Mitchell, a pair of buddies who are so stupid that the make Laurel and Hardy seem like Rhodes Scholars. After losing their lifeguard jobs because they can't swim, Wilkie and Mitchell try to avoid being conscripted into the army when WW1 breaks out. Unfortunately for the army, our heroes are put in uniform and placed under the charge of irascible Sergeant Hogan (William "Stage" Boyd). Before long, the boys go AWOL, dallying long enough to fight over the lovely Mary (Ann Dvorak). Eventually, Wilkie and Mitchell inadvertently take off in an airplane, accidentally blow up a German munitions dump, and by a gosh-darned miracle are lauded as heroes--long enough to screw up yet again for the finale. As hard as it is to believe that Spencer Tracy would appear in this low-brow extravaganza, it is even harder to comprehend the fact that the witty, urbane humorist Robert Benchley penned much of the "Sez you--sez me" dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Warner Bros.' hard-hitting chain-gang movie was a faithful adaptation of the similarly titled autobiography of Robert Elliot Burns. Paul Muni plays World War I veteran James Allen, whose plans of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Flat broke, Allen is forced to pawn his war medals, which have become a glut on the market. When Allen is innocently involved in a restaurant holdup, the police don't buy his story that the robber (Preston S. Foster) had forced him to clean out the cash register, and Allen is sentenced to ten years on a chain gang. The brutal scenes that follow make the later chain-gang movie Cool Hand Luke (1967) look like a picnic in the country. Unable to stand any more, Allen escapes and heads to Chicago. Using an alias, he builds a new life for himself and within five years is the respected president of a bridge-building firm. His landlady (Glenda Farrell), learning about his past, forces Allen to marry her. When he falls in love with another girl (Helen Vinson) and asks for a divorce, his wife turns him over to the authorities. The real-life Robert Elliot Burns was still a fugitive when he wrote his exposé of the chain-gang system; the publication of Burns' book led to the abolishment of that system and an erasure of Burns' sentence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Roly-poly comedian Jack Oakie in a serious role? Yes, that is exactly what you get with Uptown New York, an otherwise humdrum melodrama from lower echelon company World Wide Pictures. Oakie plays Eddie Doyle, a gumball machine salesman who marries Pat Smith (Shirley Grey) knowing full well that the girl is on the rebound from a failed romance with aspiring Jewish doctor Max Silver (Leon Ames). But when Pat is nearly killed in an effort to protect her husband's gumball machines from hoodlums and is in need of a lifesaving operation, Eddie calls on Dr. Max and then nobly fades into the background. While recuperating, Pat learns from one of Eddie's pals that her husband is languishing in prison, convicted of selling the business without consulting her, the part owner. The girl finally realizes that she truly loves the self-sacrificing Eddie and they reconcile. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Comedian Frank Fay and director Michael Curtiz reportedly despised one another at sight, and their mutual animosity tends to seep through every frame of Under a Texas Moon. The vainglorious Fay is cast as Don Carlos, a gay caballero ("gay" meaning "carefree") whose serenades every senorita he meets. When a group of ranchers post a $7000 dollar reward for the capture of the Bad Man of the Pool (Fred Kohler), a notorious bandit, Don Carlos passes himself off as a daring cattle rustler and promises to bring the Bad Man to heel within 10 days. Characteristically, he spends nine of those ten days romancing such lovelies as Raquella (Raquel Torres), Lolita (Myrna Loy) and Dolores (Armida). All of this was played for laughs, but Frank Fay's special brand of quiet put-down humor didn't play quite as well on screen as it did on stage. Under a Texas Moon was originally released in Technicolor, but try finding a color print today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this, its third cinema incarnation, David Belasco's hoary old Girl of the Golden West received the full swagger treatment from the otherwise lady-like Ann Harding as the gun-toting saloon belle who falls for a handsome outlaw (James Rennie). Again, the story's climax is the dramatic poker game between Harding and Sheriff Jack Rance, the stakes of which is the outlaw's freedom. Unfortunately, Miss Harding insisted that her husband, phlegmatic stage actor Harry Bannister, play the sheriff, a casting decision that somewhat upset the story's apple cart. A Broadway veteran but a cinematic novice, Bannister reportedly insisted on lecturing director John Francis Dillon on the finer aspects of art in general and film-making in particular. Needless to say, Mr. Bannister's screen career, like his marriage to Ann Harding, proved short-lived. The "Girl" herself, however, enjoyed incredible stamina and would experience two subsequent remakes: a lavish 1938 musical version starring (of course) Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy (with Walter Pidgeon as Rance) and a 1942 war-time Italian production featuring Isa Pola, Michel Simon and Rossano Brazzi as the leads. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this lively drama, a gambler believes he has killed a man and so boards the first train out of town. Unfortunately, a crash ensues and the wounded fugitive ends up recuperating at the home of a minister who has mistaken the card sharp for a traveling evangelist. The opportunistic gambler begins playing along. Time passes and he finds himself falling in love with the preacher's lovely daughter. The gambler is doing well in his new role, but just as he settles down into his happy new life, his past exploits return to haunt him. Luckily he is exonerated and his love finds forgiveness in her heart. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A group of Londoners gather at the home of their host in order to solve the murders of two company officers. Once assembled the host announces that half of one of the deceased's fortune will go to the guests and if anyone should die, that person's share would go to the others. Before any money is doled out, the doors are locked and the host insists that the murderer confess. Mayhem ensues, but eventually the killer tells all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this mysterious comedy, two free-spirited sailors and their parrot find themselves involved in a series of mishaps. The trouble begins when they begin helping a young woman find her brother. To help her, they must first dodge their cruel boatswain who is out to get them. The boys look and look, but cannot find the brother; they therefore conclude that she was lying. Then they discover that the brother has been right under their noses all along. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide