William Fox Movies
Hungarian-born filmmaker William Fox was the oldest of a large family of immigrants. Growing up on New York's Lower East Side, Fox held down a series of jobs before setting up his own business in 1900: the Knickerbocker Cloth Examining and Shrinking Company. When his profits reached $50,000 in 1904, Fox sold the company in order to realize even more capital. Two years later, he bought a failing nickelodeon from British film pioneer J. Stuart Blackton, bolstering business by hiring live acts to entertain the audience between movies. He then set up his own film exchange, the Greater New York Rental Company, in defiance of the monopolistic Motion Pictures Patent Company; he earned the respect of his fellow exchange executives by winning a long legal battle against the Patents trusts.Entering the production end of the business with Box Office Attractions in 1913, Fox eventually merged his theatrical, exchange and studio operations into the Fox Film Corporation, which opened for business in 1914. Banking on the popularity of his biggest stars, including Theda Bara and Tom Mix, Fox maintained one of the most successful and prolific studios in Hollywood; he also accumulated a theatre chain numbering 1000 movie houses by 1927. His bread-and-butter product, directed by such dependables as John Ford and Frank Borzage, enabled Fox to engage such "artistic" directors as F. W. Murnau, who wouldn't bring in much at the box office but could be counted upon for the prestige items which won awards and gained critical adulation. In 1927, Fox acquired the Movietone sound-on-film process, far superior to the competing sound-on-disc Vitaphone, which enabled his studio to make a smooth transition to talkies. He also pioneered the wide-screen film with such productions as The Big Trail, but this innovation was not as successful as Movietone.
Ever expanding his empire, Fox acquired a controlling interest in Gaumont-British; when he tried to purchase MGM, however, he over-extended his credit. In dire financial straits thanks to the Wall Street crash, Fox came under attack from many of those in Hollywood who resented his megalomania; this, coupled with the financial mismanagement of certain studio executives, resulted in Fox's ouster from the company which bore his name in 1930. He would bitterly recount his travails in the self-aggrandizing 1933 book Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox. In 1936, one year after his old studio merged with 20th Century, William Fox declared bankruptcy. During the subsequent legal proceedings, Fox tried to bribe a judge and was sentenced to a year in prison in 1941. Paroled in 1943, he tried to set up his own production firm, but no backer was interested in bankrolling the ex-mogul. Though comfortably off thanks to his many patent holdings, William Fox remained "persona non grata" in Hollywood until the time of his death in 1952. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1933
In this romance, two travelling sign painters find themselves inspired by a young woman's lovely smile. Soon her face is found painted on signs and barns throughout New England. Eventually one of the painters and the girl get married. Soon after the wedding, the painters are offered job in New York. There they are challenged to paint an enormous sign. Again, it is the bride's lovely face that inspires them. Meanwhile, the lonely bride decides she cannot bear to be away from her love. By herself, she travels to the Big Apple and finds him on her very first day there. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Marian Nixon, (more)
- 1933
In this military adventure, a Navy lieutenant is stripped of his rank and booted out after he fires at communist ships in China. These circumstances make it almost impossible for him to find a job. He then ends up saving the life of a beautiful young socialite. The girl immediately likes him and when he finally gets a job on a freighter, the plucky lass disobeys her father and stows away to be near her true love. The boat is carrying arms for the Mandarin government, and when the brave former lieutenant saves the shipment from commie raiders, he becomes a hero, regains his rank in the Navy and marries the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Fay Wray, (more)
- 1933
A man on the wrong side of the law has a chance to turn over a new leaf in this crime drama. Edward Carson (Spencer Tracy) is a gangster who made a fortune in bootlegging; however, his lawyer turned on him and set him up on a tax evasion charge that earned him a long stay in prison. While Carson is in stir, prohibition is repealed, and with illegal booze no longer a money-maker, Carson's underlings take up kidnapping as a way to earn a living. When the gang abducts Thomas and Lila Penfield (Howard Lally and Mary Mason) -- the son and daughter of Judge Penfield (Ralph Morgan), who presided at the trial that put Carson behind bars -- Carson is given a chance to redeem himself. He's released on the condition that he help the police track down his former partners in crime before the Judge's children can be harmed. Jane Lee (Claire Trevor), a crusading journalist covering the kidnapping, gets to know Carson, and before long, they develop a close bond both professionally and personally. Keep an eye peeled for Kathleen Burke, who won a substantial cult following for her performance the same year as Lota the Panther Woman in the horror classic The Island of Lost Souls. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Claire Trevor, (more)
- 1932
Set in exotic Singapore, this crime drama centers on a nightclub singer whose life is torn asunder when she is implicated in a murder. Though her involvement was purely accidental, she flees to the harbor where she deceives her ship captain fiance into allowing her passage. They set sail. When he learns the truth, he maroons her on a tiny island. There she meets a handsome fellow. She tells the truth and they get married. Eventually, her former love returns. When he learns that she married the other man, more trouble follows. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Peggy Shannon, (more)
- 1932
In this wisecracking comedy, Dan Dolan (Spencer Tracy) is a cop whose beat is the New York waterfront. Dan has a soft spot for Helen Riley (Joan Bennett), a sharp-tongued waitress at a cheap diner, while her scatter-brained sister Kate (Marion Burns) is in love with Duke Castage (George Walsh), a sleazy low-level mobster. While Duke makes a play for Kate, both Helen and Dan know that he's bad news, and Dan wants to put Duke behind bars before he can break Kate's heart. Me and My Gal was directed by Raoul Walsh, one of the great craftsmen of the studio system -- and also the brother of George Walsh, who plays the villain. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1932
The moral of this drama could very well be for people to exercise caution with what they wish for as they just might get it. So it is with the lovely young woman who wins a beauty contest and the love of a millionaire, two things she had aspired to for ages. Unfortunately, her wealthy hubby is terribly possessive and occasionally, completely insane. One night, the husband really goes nuts and tries to feed his bride to the dogs. Fortunately, he slips and ends up dead himself. Later the sadder but wiser girl goes back to the man who has really loved her all along. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Bennett, Spencer Tracy, (more)
- 1932
By rights, Spencer Tracy should have played the leading role of prizefighter Johnny Malone in the 1932 romantic drama Society Girl. But at the time, James Dunn was a bigger name, thus Dunn was cast as Malone, while Tracy was relegated to the standard "best friend and severest critic" part of Johnny's manager, Briscoe (the sort of role that Tracy would later essay opposite top-billed Clark Gable when he moved from Fox to MGM). The film's title character is flighty debutante Judy Gellett (Peggy Shannon), with whom the oafish Johnny falls in love. Arriving at training camp, Judy manages to take Johnny's mind off his work to such an extent that Briscoe tries to intervene, explaining that boxing and dames don't mix. Angrily, Johnny tells Briscoe to take a hike, whereupon Briscoe does just that. Sure enough, the out of shape Johnny loses the big fight, but there are at least two surprising plot twists ahead for our thick-eared hero (and, by extension, for the audience). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Dunn, Peggy Shannon, (more)
- 1932
Though Spencer Tracy is top-billed in Young America, the film is by no means a star vehicle. Tommy Conlon and Raymond Borzage (the son of director Frank Borzage) play budding juvenile delinquents Arthur and Nutty. After their latest misdemeanor, the boys are paroled by Judge Blake (Ralph Bellamy) in the custody of Arthur's nasty aunt Mrs. Taylor (Sarah Padden), who treats them atrociously. When Arthur's grandma (Beryl Mercer) falls ill, the boys are unable to awaken pharmacist Jack Doray (Spencer Tracy) and are forced to break into Doray's drugstore to steal the necessary medicine. Touched by the boys' plight, Doray's wife Edith (Doris Kenyon) assumes custody of Arthur, who demonstrates his unbounded gratitude by rescuing the druggist from a gang of homicidal burglars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Doris Kenyon, (more)
- 1932
The troubled career of a luckless motorcycle cop provides the basis for this police drama. His difficulties begin when he arrests the woman his captain has been dating for speeding. Unfortunately, her father is one of the most powerful (and villainous) men in town. The cop's eagerness gets him promptly demoted. Angrily, he gets revenge by warning the local gangster of an impending raid. When his captain finds out, he punishes the cop by forcing him to lead that raid. In doing so, the young cop sees the captain's girl in cahoots with the crime boss. Helping her escape, the cop turns around and begins blackmailing her father. Time passes and eventually the gangster boss gets out of prison. He immediately heads out for revenge on the double-crossing copper by killing his nephew. Suddenly filled with guilty remorse, the cop decides to reform and so kills the crook, gives back the extortion money, and confesses his crime to the captain. In turn the captain rewards the repentant officer by restoring him to his previous status. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Eilers, Spencer Tracy, (more)
- 1931
The popular screen romantic team of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell shocked and surprised their fans in the ultra-melodramatic The Man Who Came Back. Based on a 1916 stage success, the film atypically casts Gaynor as Angie, a San Francisco nightclub chanteuse who degenerates into drug addiction. In a parallel development, drunken playboy Steve Randolph (Farrell, in another bit of offbeat casting) destroys his reputation by writing bad checks. Only when Angie and Steve have both reached the dregs in a Shanghai opium den do they find each other and fall in love. It's a hard, uphill climb, but hero and heroine manage to clean themselves up in time for a happy ending. The scenes in which Janet Gaynor is established as a "doper" are quite raw for their time, especially when one considers the actress's normally virginal screen image. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, (more)
- 1931
Truck driver Spencer Tracy claims he's "too lazy to work and too nervous to steal", but he gets mixed up in racketeering all the same. Organizing a trucking association, he lines his pockets by demanding protection money from the other drivers. Naturally, Tracy's underhanded business practices make him a pillar of the community. He plans to marry a society girl (Marguerite Churchill), who loves another. When she spurns him, Tracy arranges to have the girl kidnapped. Instead, his henchman turn on him (they've gotten a better offer) and take Tracy on a one-way ride. The first film for writer-director Rowland Brown (something of an expert on gangsters), Quick Millions is a rugged example of Spencer Tracy's earliest movie work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Marguerite Churchill, (more)
- 1931
This French-style farce is set at a large party. There a young misogynist explains why he cannot trust women. A man overhears him and wagers $10,000 that the woman-hater will not succeed in getting the next woman through the door to kiss him. He has 48 hours to succeed or fail. Unfortunately the woman turns out to be the wagerer's wife. She gets wind of the bet and decides to teach both her hubby and the bitter young man an unforgettable lesson. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Roland Young, (more)
- 1931
In this screwball comedy, Annabelle Leigh (Jeanette MacDonald) happily spends the $5,000 sent her each month by her husband, whom she hasn't seen since eleven hours after they were married. She explains to friends that while in Montana, she was injured and cared for by a burly, bearded miner, Hefty Jack (Victor McLaglen), who later married her for the sake of appearances. Less than a day later, Annabelle fled back to New York; Hefty Jack struck it rich, and has been sending her money ever since. Now Annabelle finds herself in financial hot water and desperately turns for help to John Rawson, a newcomer to the city; Annabelle is unaware that he is the now-beardless Hefty Jack. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor McLaglen, Jeanette MacDonald, (more)
- 1931
A remake of Howard Hawks's 1928 effort A Girl in Every Port, Goldie is the sort of film for which the phrase "Male Chauvinist Pig" was invented. Finding a book of girl's addresses, a sailor named Spike (Warren Hymer) learns to his dismay that every one of the girls has been tattooed by her previous sweetheart. Vowing to beat up the man responsible for this, Spike finally tracks the perpetrator down; he turns out to be another sailor named Bill (Spencer Tracy), who winds up as Spike's closest friend. Later on, the boys find themselves in Calais, where Spike falls in love with carnival girl Goldie (Jean Harlow). Bill considers Goldie to be nothing more nor less than a gold-digger, but Spike refuses to believe him. Goldie shows her true colors when she "comes on" to Bill, whereupon the latter leaves behind another tattoo as a warning for the gullible Spike. Geez, ya just can't trust dem dames! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Warren Hymer, (more)
- 1931
In his third feature-film appearance, Spencer Tracy plays a small-town hotshot named William Donroy, who talks a young married couple, Gilbert and Marilyn Sterling (Lorrin Raker, Sidney Fox), into purchasing an expensive car. At this point, Donroy takes a back seat to the plot proper, as poor Gil and Marilyn suffer mightily for their imprudent purchase. As a culmination to a series of small disasters, the car is smashed up in an accident, and the Sterlings find themselves $5000 in debt. It is up to good old William Donroy to set things right, with the "help" of a dimwitted Swedish janitor (El Brendel). Previously filmed in 1917 and 1923, Six Cylinder Love was based on the popular stage play by William Anthony McGuire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Edward Everett Horton, (more)
- 1930
Shortly before retiring from films to become an actor's agent (and, incidentally, Mrs. Alan Ladd), the ebullient Sue Carol starred in The Big Party. Carol and Dixie Lee (Mrs. Bing Crosby) play a couple of funloving gals who take jobs as dress models. They are invited to the eponymous party by their lecherous bosses Walter Catlett and Charles Judels. Before anything untoward can happen, Carol and Lee find true love in the forms of Frank Albertson and Richard Keane. Radio star Whispering Jack Smith provides a couple of pleasant tunes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Filmed in "Fox Grandeur," an early widescreen process, Happy Days was the immediate follow-up to Fox Studios' Movietone Follies of 1929. Most of the film takes place on the showboat of Mississippi entrepreneur Colonel Billy Batcher (Charles E. Evans). When the Colonel faces foreclosure after several failing seasons, soubrette Margie (Marjorie White) stages a fund-raising revue on the boat, enlisting the aid of all the big stars who got their start with Batcher. By an amazing coincidence, virtually all of the showboat alumni are under contract to Fox Studios! Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell perform "We'll Build a Little World of Our Own," Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe kid their roughneck screen images in the novelty number "Vic and Eddie," Sharon Lynn and Ann Pennington offer the "hot" dance routine "Snake Hips," and "Whispering" Jack Smith offers a rendition of the title tune. Also on hand are Will Rogers, El Brendel, Walter Catlett (who also staged the musical numbers), Lew Brice (Fanny's brother), Dixie Lee (Mrs. Bing Crosby) and Georgie Jessel -- not to mention an uncredited 14-year-old chorus girl named Betty Grable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1930
The one-time-only combination of director John Ford and actors Spencer Tracy (in his first film) and Humphrey Bogart (in his second) should be recommendation enough for the offbeat comedy-drama Up the River. Tracy and Warren Hymer play Saint Louis and Dannemora Dan, two hard-boiled but likeable prison convicts. While in stir, the boys befriend another convict named Steve (Bogart), who is in love with woman's-prison inmate Judy (Claire Luce). Eventually, Steve and Judy are released, whereupon they get married and head to a small town where no one knows of their criminal pasts. It isn't long, however, before the couple's future happiness is threatened by dishonest salesman Frosby (Gaylord Pendleton), the no-good rat who framed Judy. Frosby threatens to expose Steve's prison record if the latter refuses to go along with a scheme to defraud his neighbors. Learning of this situation, Saint Louis and Dan escape from jail, foil Frosby's scheme, and return behind bars just in time to play in a prison all-star baseball game! Nonsensical to say the least, Up the River is also a film that's hard to dislike. It was remade by 20th Century-Fox in 1938, with Preston S. Foster and Tony Martin respectively in the Tracy and Bogart roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Claire Luce, (more)
- 1930
This sprightly romantic comedy chronicles the delightfully unlikely and tempestuous relationship between an opera diva and a sneak thief. They meet after he breaks into her home and attempts to chloroform her. She awakens and arrogantly warns him that the drug could destroy her beautiful voice. The thief then recognizes her as his very favorite singer. The two become friends. She attempts to have him take voice training so that she can reform him from a crook to an opera star, but he hates it and so prepares to resume his previous vocation. This causes her to ask him to marry him, but he refuses until she agrees to give up her career. Unfortunately, their married life is anything but blissful and eventually, he leaves her. Fortunately, they are reunited in the story's romantic conclusion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1930
This version of Shakespeare's most famous love story is set in Scarsdale, New York. This time, the heroine comes from an old monied aristocratic family. Trouble ensues when the hero's newly wealthy, and terribly unsophisticated family from Iowa moves in next door. The young woman becomes interested in the young man when she hears him playing the ukulele. She asks him to teach her to play, and romance ensues. Naturally her snooty parents disapprove of the young man and his family of rubes. They remind the girl that she is already betrothed to a French count. This does not deter the young lovers who elope the night before her marriage to the count. Eventually the family's reconcile their differences and prosperous harmony ensues. Songs include: "I'm In The Market For You," "Eleanor," "High Society Blues," "Just Like In A Story Book," "The Song I Sing In My Dreams," and "I Don't Know You Well Enough For That." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, (more)
- 1930
In this action-adventure opus, Deucalion (Warner Baxter), Machwurth (Noah Beery), Mordiconi (C. Henry Gordon) and Biloxi (George Cooper) are four members of a desert patrol fighting off godless villains amidst the sand dunes. The four soldiers are lured away from their mission by Eleanore (Myrna Loy), a beautiful but dangerous women who persuades them to abandon their cause and join forces with the enemy. In time, Deucalion and his men discover the evil that lurks beneath Eleanore's seductive exterior, but have they come to their senses in time to rejoin their comrades before the cause is lost? Keep an eye peeled for a pre-Dracula Bela Lugosi, who plays one of the bad guys (no great surprise there). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, (more)
- 1929
The popular silent romantic team of Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor made a successful all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing debut in Sunny Side Up. The story is old bromide about a poor girl who falls in love with a rich man, then tries to pass herself off as a woman of wealth. This being a 1929 Fox picture, the supporting cast includes the ineluctable dialect comedian El Brendel, along with squeaky-voiced soubrette Marjorie White. In his feature-film debut, 7-year-old Jackie Cooper shows up as a tenement kid, while Joe E. Brown does a guest bit as a grinning undertaker. The superb DeSylva-Brown-Henderson score includes "If I Had a Talking Picture of You," "Turn on the Heat" (a jaw-droppingly erotic number, in which the gyrations of the chorus girls causes a banana tree to blossom full out!), and the title song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, (more)
- 1929
Irving Cummings was a good choice to direct this third Charlie Chan feature, the first to use sound, as he had previously made the first all-talking picture of any kind, In Old Arizona (also 1929). Chan fans may be disappointed in this globe-trotting mystery, however, as the detective (played by Korean actor E.L. Park) only appears in a few scenes. The story begins with a murder in London and the prime suspect is Colonel John Beetham (Warner Baxter), who is hiding pretty heiress Eve Mannering (Lois Moran) from her evil, philandering husband Eric Durand (Philip Strange). The action goes from England to Persia to India and finally ends up in San Francisco, where Chan prevents the golddigging Durand -- whom Eve has left for good -- from killing Beetham. Gilbert Emery, who plays a dedicated Scotland Yard detective, was originally envisioned as a big matinee idol, but was eventually relegated to thankless roles such as the one he plays here. The film is more noteworthy for its introduction of Boris Karloff to sound features, in a small role as a servant from Sudan who mutters inscrutable nonsense about the whims of the desert. The 20th Century Fox series began with 1928's The Chinese Parrot, starring another Asian performer (Sojin) as Chan, before Swedish actor Warner Oland took over the role in Charlie Chan Carries On and The Black Camel (both 1931), playing the unflappable detective until his death in 1938. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warner Baxter, Lois Moran, (more)
- 1929
Forty-five-year-old Irish tenor John McCormack made his screen debut in Song o' My Heart. Fans of McCormack would have been satisfied if their idol had simply sung his way through the film's 85 minutes, but Fox Studios insisted on a plotline. The star plays Sean O'Callaghan, a world-renowned singer who gives up his career when his sweetheart Mary O'Brien (Alice Joyce) is forced to marry another. Years later, Mary is deserted by her husband and eventually dies of grief. Still carrying a torch for his lost love, Sean assumes the task of looking after Mary's two children. The kids are played by 11-year-old Tommy Clifford and 19-year-old Maureen O'Sullivan, the latter also making her first film appearance. Lensed partly on location in Ireland, the film provides plenty of opportunity for good old-fashioned blarney, as well as moments of honest sentiment, as when McCormick sings his signature tune "Little Boy Blue" (one of eleven musical highlights). It's hardly a coincidence that Song o' My Heart was released just before St. Patrick's Day, 1930. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John McCormack, Maureen O'Sullivan, (more)
