Reginald Denny Movies

In the second of Paramount's "Bulldog Drummond" thrillers, Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond (John Howard) is finally about to marry longtime fiancée Phyllis Clavering (Louise Campbell) when the girl is kidnapped. The hijackers, Mikhail Valdin (J. Carroll Naish) and his sister, Erena Soldanis (Helen Freeman), are wanted for the murder of an American millionaire, and Scotland Yard Inspector Neilson (John Barrymore) warns Bulldog that he may be next. But the intrepid hero pays no heed and is soon off on a dangerous journey that culminates at the Mere, a supposed haunted house. Bulldog Drummond Comes Back was based on H.C. "Sapper" McNeile's 1928 novel The Female of the Species, who, an opening credit warns, is "more deadly than the male." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Paramount's "Bulldog Drummond" series got off to a start with 1937's Bulldog Drummond Escapes. Up-and-coming Ray Milland stars as soldier-of-fortune Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, who on this occasion comes to the aid of pretty heiress Phyllis Clavering (Heather Angel). The heroine is being held against her will by scheming "family friend" Merridew (Porter Hall), who hopes to get his mitts on her inheritance. With the help of his silly friend Algy (Reginald Denny) and Scotland Yard inspector Nielsen (Sir Guy Standing), Drummond manages to rescue Phyllis several times -- and, reciprocally, is rescued by her on one occasion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Secretary Carol Baldwin (Jean Arthur) is in love with her boss, health-magazine publisher Fred Gilbert (George Brent). So what else is new? Well, for starters, Carol isn't terribly attractive, so Fred pays but little attention to her. Gee, nothing new here, come to think of it. Well, how about this: Carol undergoes a glamour treatment and wins Fred away from his dumb-blonde tootsie Maizie West (Dorothea Kent). Suffice to say that this cookie-cutter romantic comedy rises and falls on the appeal of its two talented stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's a black night in Hollywood when matinee idol Neil DuBeck (Rod LaRoque) is murdered at the preview of his latest film. Director E. Gordon Smith (Ian Keith), who has long harbored a deep hatred for DuBeck, is the main suspect -- until he too is killed, along with a movie-studio watchman (Spencer Charters). Closing down the studio and refusing to let anyone leave, police lieutenant McKane (Thomas Jackson) sifts through the clues, but it's up to actors Johnny Morgan (Reginald Denny) and Peggy Madison (Frances Drake) to solve the mystery, applying a few tricks they've learned at the movies. Director Robert Florey enlivens Preview Murder Mystery with scores of delightful inside jokes, ranging from an elaborate takeoff of Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to a "television camera" which looks like a reconverted movie projector. Several Paramount contractees appear briefly in guest roles, while a host of silent screen favorites (Jack Mulhall, Bryant Washburn, Chester Conklin, Wilfrid Lucas et. al.) show up in nostalgic bit parts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On New Year's Eve, aspiring actress Julia Wayne (Joan Bennett) and chronic gambler Larry Stevens (Joel McCrea), both flat broke, each find one-half of a $1000 banknote. They decide to invest their windfall in a race horse and jockey, in hopes of financing a theatrical career for Julia and a new start in life for Larry. Unfortunately, the thousand-dollar note turns out to be stolen, dropped in haste during a bank robbery. This gets hero, heroine and horse mixed up with the crooks, and for a while it looks as though the nag won't show up for the climactic Big Race. Even after the horse arrives at the starting gate, he refuses to gallop until he spies the cart that he used to haul around for coal peddler Jonesy (Andy Clyde). After a great opening, Two in a Crowd runs out of gas, but the two stars are always worth watching. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

International singing sensation Nino Martini made his American film debut in the Jesse L. Lasky production Here's to Romance. His career bankrolled by the beneficent opera diva Mme. Schumann-Heink (playing herself), singer Nino Donelli (Martini) hits the big time, and as a bonus falls in love with his leading lady Lydia Lubov (Anita Louise). For a while, however, their romance is nearly loused up by wealthy, self-centered art patrons Kathleen and Emery Gerard (Genevieve Tobin and Reginald Denny). Also complicating matters is amorous ballerina Rosa (Maria Gambarelli), but she leaves the scene after turning down both Nino and Emery. Often listed as a 20th Century-Fox release, Here's to Romance was actually one of the last Fox releases before the merger with 20th Century. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This second filmization of Leo Tolstoy's novel is widely regarded as the best version. Greta Garbo plays the title character, the sheltered wife of Czarist official Rathbone. Intending to dissuade Rathbone's brother (Reginald Owen) from a life of debauchery, Garbo is sidetracked by her own fascination with dashing military officer Fredric March. This indiscreet liaison ruins Garbo's marriage and position in 19th century Russian society; she is even prohibited from seeing her own son (Freddie Bartholomew). In keeping with the censorial strictures of 1935 Hollywood, Anna Karenina is extremely careful in the staging of its final suicide sequence, allowing the audience to determine for itself whether or not Garbo's desperate act of throwing herself under wheels of a train is intentional. Outside of the expected superb performances of Garbo and March, the film's most fascinating characterization is offered by Basil Rathbone, whose cold cruelty in banishing his wife is shown to be the by-product of his own broken heart (though Rathbone never allows himself to descend into cheap sentiment). The first film version of Anna Karenina was the 1927 silent feature Love, also starring Garbo, which substituted an imbecilic happy ending for Tolstoy's bleak denouement (there would be an acceptable third version in 1948, starring Vivien Leigh. The 1935 Anna Karenina is arguably the finest accomplishment of the felicitous 1930s alliance between star Greta Garbo, director Clarence Brown and cinematographer William Daniels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Anxious to graduate from 2-reel comedies to feature films, producer Hal Roach began phasing out his short-subject manifest in 1935. Up until that year, his only talkie features had starred Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, so Vagabond Lady can be seen as the vanguard in Roach's new policy of turning out "sophisticated" pictures a la Sam Goldwyn. Evelyn Venable delivers a remarkably good comic performance as Josephine Spriggins, daughter of "Spriggs" Spriggins (Frank Craven), faithful janitor for the department-store firm of R. D. Spear & Company. Prodigal son Tony Spear (Robert Young) falls in love with Josephine and proposes marriage, but his stuffy older brother John (Reginald Denny) vows to save Tony from making so disastrous a social gaffe by marrying the girl himself. The disgruntled Tony retreats to his yacht, where he finds himself saddled with a reluctant passenger -- Josephine. The two spend the rest of the picture getting on each other's nerves, until at the very last moment they realize they're still madly in love after all. Clearly inspired by It Happened One Night (the twist being that the girl is poor and the boy is rich), Vagabond Lady is a minor but agreeable entry in the screwball-comedy genre. The only clue as to the identity of its producer is the film's utilization of stock Hal Roach background-music themes during a nightclub sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the wake of The Thin Man, every studio in Hollywood scrambled to churn out sophisticated mystery-comedies wherein murders are solved by a wealthy, attractive, fun-loving young couple. One of the best of these Thin Man derivations was Universal's Remember Last Night, adapted from Adam Hobhouse's novel Hangover Murders. During a wild cocktail party at the Long Island estate of Tony and Carlotta Milburn (Robert Young and Constance Cummings), one of the guests is murdered. It does not help at all that the revellers were too drunk to remember exactly what happened -- nor is it beneficial to the case that Detective Danny Harrison (Edward Arnold) is a personal friend of all the suspects. In addition, no one but Harrison seems willing to take the case seriously, though of course eventually Tony and Carlotta are obliged to do a bit of sleuthing on their own. The light-hearted aspects of the film are offset by moments of genuine terror, notably the scene in which Professor Jones (Gustav von Seyffertitz) attempts to solve the mystery by hypnotizing the suspects, only to become a victim himself when he gets too close to the truth. An unbilled E.E. Clive provides some great black-humor moments as a police photographer who prefers to "artfully" arrange the corpses. As always, director James Whale invests his material with several of his visual trademarks, including his fascination with elaborate set decorations. There are probably more off-angle close-ups of fancy wall clocks in this picture than in any other Hollywood film -- and how about that cocktail bar in the Milburn's living room, designed in the shape of a yacht? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Trying a bit too hard to qualify as a "screwball" comedy, RKO Radio's We're Rich Again is based on Alden Nash's stage play And Let Who Will be Clever. Carolyn Page's (Joan Marsh) once-rich family has gone broke thanks to their profligate spending habits. Parents Mr and Mrs. Page (Billie Burke and Grant Mitchell) try to marry Carolyn off to a wealthy banker (Reginald Denny), but he begins having second thoughts as he wades through an assortment of madcaps and loonies. The plot is unexpectedly resolved by the daffiest member of the family, country cousin Arabella (Marian Nixon, the wife of director William A. Seiter), allowing Marsh to marry her true love (Buster Crabbe). Edna May Oliver is hilarious as the family's salty, polo-playing grandmother, while Edgar Kennedy is almost as funny as a flustered bill collector. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the tradition of Fox Studios' Oscar-winning Cavalcade, The World Moves On covers over one hundred years in the lives of two Louisiana families: The Girards, of French extraction, and the Warburtons, formerly of Manchester. Forming an alliance by marriage in 1825, the families rapidly corner the cotton business in the South. Years later, three of Girard/Warburton sons split up to head business operations in England, France and Germany: as a result, descendants of the original families find themselves fighting on opposite sides during WW I (this episode is similar to a memorable sequence in the 1928 silent Four Sons, which like World Moves On was directed by John Ford). Surviving the war, Richard (Franchot Tone), the last of the descendants becomes a sharkish Wall Street speculator in the 1920s, ultimately losing his fortune in the Wall Street Crash. Bloody but unbowed, Richard and his wife Mary (Madeleine Carroll) cut their losses and return to their ancestral home, to start all over again. Both The World Moves On and the subsequent Fox production Road to Glory rely to a considerable extent upon stock footage from the grim 1931 French antiwar drama Wooden Crosses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel and play by James M. Barrie, The Little Minister turned out to be Katharine Hepburn's best vehicle since Little Women. John Beal plays the Reverend Gavin, the sobersided new cleric of a tiny Scottish village. Almost against his better judgment, Beal falls in love with Babbie (Hepburn), a feisty gypsy girl whom the villagers regard as a pariah. Thanks to this "unholy" alliance, the little minister is nearly run out of town, but when he is accidentally stabbed in a fracas, the townsfolk come to their senses. Previously filmed in 1921, The Little Minister was afforded sumptuous production values by RKO Radio (its elaborate Scottish-village set would later pop up in innumerable films, notably Laurel & Hardy's Bonnie Scotland), and benefits immeasurably from the spirited performances of all concerned. Alas, the film was too expensive to post a profit, and despite respectable business it ended up $9000 in the red. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide