James Gleason Movies
Character actor James Gleason usually played tough-talking, world-weary guys with a secret heart-of-gold. He is easily recognized for his tendency to talk out of the side of his mouth. Gleason's parents were actors, and after serving in the Spanish-American War, Gleason joined their stock company in Oakland, California. His career was interrupted by service in World War I, following which he began to appear on Broadway. He debuted onscreen in 1922, but didn't begin to appear regularly in films until 1928. Meanwhile, during the '20s he also wrote a number of plays and musicals, several of which were later made into films. In the early sound era, Gleason collaborated on numerous scripts as a screenwriter or dialogue specialist; he also directed one film, Hot Tip (1935). As an actor, he appeared in character roles in over 150 films, playing a wide range of hard-boiled (and often semi-comic) urban characters, including detectives, reporters, marine sergeants, gamblers, fight managers, and heroes' pals. In a series of films in the '30s, he had a recurring lead role as slow-witted police inspector Oscar Piper. James Gleason was married to actress Lucille Webster Gleason; their son was actor Russell Gleason. ~ All Movie Guide- 1934
Edna May Oliver makes the second of her three appearances as Stuart Palmer's crime-solving schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers in RKO Radio's Murder on the Blackboard. The plot begins to percolate when a young female music teacher is murdered in her classroom late at night. Also on the campus is Hildegarde Withers, staying after hours to punish an unruly student. Upon discovering the dead woman's body, Hildegarde tries to solve the mystery herself, much to the dismay of the eternally exasperated Inspector Oscar Piper (James Gleason). Clues essential to the action are a dead ant at the bottom of a liquor glass, a half-empty bottle of scotch, a blood-stained woman's slipper, and (per the title) a musical notation chalked on a blackboard, which when deciphered reveals the killer's identity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, (more)
- 1934
Hollywood movie-making is satirized in this comedy. The trouble begins when an American filmmaker decides to us a British army barracks and soldiers to add a realistic touch to his newest Foreign Legion film. The trouble is, the director is neither very good, nor well informed about military life, something that the brigadier general that helps the filmmaker is quick to point out. But this does not stop the director from trying to get the whole British army into the act. The real kicker is that the American film crew does not have permission to use the soldiers or the facilities. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Greenwood, James Gleason, (more)
- 1934
Four courageous college graduates become heroes when they successfully complete a 15-hour coast-to-coast plane flight. Alas, things don't go so well for the foursome when they return to earth to seek out employment. Chris Thring (Charles Farrell) has a particularly rough time of it, but his sweetheart Catherine Furness (Janet Gaynor) remains faithful through thick and thin. Trouble brews in the form of Chris and Catherine's mutual friends Mack McGowan (James Dunn) and Madge Rountree (Ginger Rogers): Catherine thinks Chris is in love with Madge, while Mack falls in love with Chris? and on and on it goes. Shirley Temple shows up in the early scenes as a plane passenger, while that grand old trouper Gustav von Seyfertitz sheds his usual villainous image as the film's avuncular last-minute problem-solver. Change of Heart is based on a novel by Kathleen Norris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, (more)
- 1934
Dry-goods store owner Tillie Prescott (ZaSu Pitts) has promised to marry meek barber Chris Peterson (El Brendel), but he won't marry her until his business has grown successful enough to allow him to get a second chair in his barber shop -- and it's been 10 years, and he's not any closer to getting that second chair. Then, one day, an acting troupe gets stranded in town, and out-of-work showgirl Lulu White (Pert Kelton) sets herself up in Chris's barber shop doing manicures. Lulu knows a lot of the angles, including how to get men to do what she wants most of the time, and suddenly every male in town is eager to get his nails manicured (and hang around for a shave and haircut) just to get near Lulu. Chris's second chair seems like a real possibility, but Tillie gets jealous of Lulu, and is tricked by a smooth-talking salesman (Skeets Gallagher) into signing with a big retail chain that forces her out of the store she founded. Meanwhile, local wise-guy Duke Slater (James Gleason) gets led on by Lulu and decides he's going to set right what's happened to Tillie, and teach Lulu a lesson in the bargain. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, James Gleason, (more)
- 1934
Back in the 1930s, the "Search for Beauty" contests were designed to scout the hinterlands of America and England for beautiful girls and handsome men who might qualify as movie contractees -- though most the winners were drawn from the ranks of Hollywood residents. These contests, coupled with a play by Schuyler E. Gray and Paul R. Milton, formed the basis for this 1934 comedy. Real-life "Search for Beauty" winners Larry "Buster" Crabbe and Ida Lupino (both of whom had already appeared in a few films) head the cast in this story of a contest staged by a two-bit "physical culture" magazine. When the winners, Don Jackson (Crabbe) and Barbara Hilton (Lupino), realize that they've been hired exclusively to pose in bathing suits for the pin-up trade, they leave for the greener pastures of a legitimate health farm. The magazine's crooked publishers try to extort money from Don and Barbara, but they're foiled by a local justice of the peace (Frank McGlynn Sr.) who turns out to be an agent of the U.S. Department of Justice! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Ida Lupino, (more)
- 1933
A splashy journalist finds herself embroiled in international intrigue when she hooks up with a sneaky Russian correspondent who curries favor by saving a Secret Police official. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Benita Hume, (more)
- 1933
To look at his later dramatic work, one would never guess that award-winning director George Stevens got his start working on two-reel comedies. But that's exactly where he cut his teeth, first as cinematographer, then director for Hal Roach and then as director of two-reelers for Universal and RKO. For this Universal short, Stevens teams up with Roach alumni James W. Horne and Len Powers. James Gleason stars as a cowboy who, along with his two pals Vince Barnett and Raymond Hatton, winds up with an orphaned baby. Being typical bachelor cowpokes, none of them know what to do with the infant. After their unsuccessful attempts at caring for it, they decide that one of them will just have to go and get married, and Gleason draws the unlucky card. The trio head for town, and Gleason quits his griping when he meets the plump, but still pretty Marie Prevost. It's Prevost who discovers that the baby is not actually a fledgling cowboy, but a girl, and Gleason's pals find mates of their own, eventually creating a baby boom back at the ranch. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Gleason, Vince Barnett, (more)
- 1933
In this rough-and-tumble action comedy, Chuck Connors (Wallace Beery) and Steve Brodie (George Raft) are friendly rivals on New York's Bowery in the 1890s. Connors owns a fancy tavern and looks after a streetwise kid named Swipes McGurk (Jackie Cooper), while Brodie is a daredevil willing to do nearly anything to get the better of Connors. When both men fall in love with Lucy Calhoun (Fay Wray), who has fallen on hard times, Brodie takes her under his wing and helps get her back on her feet. Connors is furious that his rival has won her heart, so he goads Brodie into doing something spectacular to prove his love for her -- jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, for example. Reckless but not stupid, Brodie has no intention of making the jump and plans to use a dummy instead, but when Connors and his henchmen show up to make sure that Brodie doesn't back down, the dare is turned into a wager, and Brodie emerges the new owner of Connors' bar after successfully making the jump. In real life, George Raft and Wallace Beery were not nearly so friendly as their characters: Raft persuaded director Raoul Walsh to hire a number of his underworld cronies as extras, which irritated Beery no end. When the two actors had a fight scene, Beery refused to hold back, and the staged fistfight quickly turned into a for-real battle royale. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, George Raft, (more)
- 1933
Clara Bow, the saucy "It" girl of the silent screen, made her film farewell in the ragged musical drama Hoopla. Based on the stage play The Barker (previously filmed in 1927), the story takes place during the Chicago World's Fair of 1933. Bow plays Lou, a hootchy-kootchy dancer who is catapulted into stardom by fast-talking barker Nifty (Preston S. Foster). Hoping to escape her tawdry existence, Lou makes a play for handsome young naif Chris (Richard Cromwell), but by film's end she has bowed to the inevitable and returns to the sort of work she knows best. Despite excellent production values and a big-time promotional campaign, Hoopla was a bomb, convincing the ever-insecure Clara Bow to retire to private life as the wife of cowboy star and future Nevada politician Rex Bell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clara Bow, Preston S. Foster, (more)
- 1932
Gabby Denton (Edmund Lowe) is a slightly down-on-his-luck bettor with a taste for alcohol and the ladies. To tide himself over, he takes a job in the garage owned by his brother-in-law, Beef Evans (James Gleason). Unbeknownst to Gabby -- times being what they are in the midst of the Great Depression -- Beef has had to play along with a stolen car ring operating out of one of the upper floors of the same building, where there's also a speakeasy and a mob hangout in the penthouse. Up there, Mr. Jenkins (Alan Dinehart) and his deaf-mute "servant" (George Rosener), who's a lot more than a valet, run the hot-car operation and Jenkins entertains his current ladyfriend, Silver (Wynne Gibson). Gabby meets her one day when her car runs off the road and in the course of hauling in the wreck they strike sparks, leading to a very obvious sexual assignation (complete with cigarettes after) at her place one afternoon. Gabby does fine juggling the cars and the girl until one of the more reckless wheelmen working for the gang critically injures Beef's son (Dickie Moore) while trying to evade capture; Beef is so upset that he tries to have it out with Jenkins and is knocked cold, killed, and put into a runaway car to cover up the murder. Suddenly, Gabby puts the stolen cars together with the operation on the top two floors and Jenkins; he wants a piece of the gang leader, and is willing to go right through Silver to get it. But the "good time girl" (as they called them politely in those days) proves better and more honorable than anyone (even Gabby) expects -- first she tries to warn him off, then convince him she's back with Jenkins, and finally throws in with him directly when it looks like the hoods have the drop on him. And there are still surprises from there, in this briskly-paced picture. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Dickie Moore, (more)
- 1932
Edna May Oliver makes the first of three appearances as Hildegarde Withers, the schoolteacher/sleuth created by mystery writer Stuart Palmer. While conducting her students on a tour of the Battery Park Aquarium, Hildegarde spots a dead body in the penguin pool. Police inspector Piper (James Gleason) believes it's an open-and-shut case when he collars the faithless wife (Mae Clarke) of the victim, but Hildegarde suspects there's more to the case than meets the eye. Detective and teacher mellow from antagonists to friends in the course of the investigation, the denouement of which isn't revealed until the suspect is put on trial, where she is defended by her attorney-lover (Robert Armstrong). The murderer's identity isn't too surprising, but Penguin Pool Murder takes several unexpected twists all the same, including a neat reversal on the old "reunited lovers" finale. At the end, Hildegarde and Piper are contemplating marriage, but in the subsequent Edna May Oliver/James Gleason "Hildegarde Withers" films (Murder on the Blackboard, Murder on a Honeymoon) they retain their single status. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, (more)
- 1932
In this comedy, a convict uses his skills as a masseur and a fight manager to get out of prison and become the private gym coach for a powerful oil magnate. When the instructor's little brother gets involved with his employer's daughter and they learn that the oil baron is trying to pull off shenanigans with the government all heck breaks loose so the ex-con enlists the aid of two other former inmates to help him set things right. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Constance Cummings, (more)
- 1932
One of four films directed by Stephen Roberts in 1932, just four years before the filmmaker passed away prematurely, Lady and Gent stars George Bancroft as aging prizefighter Stag Bailey. After Stag loses his last match to hotshot up-and-comer Buzz Kinney (a 25-year-old John Wayne in an early role), his manager Pin Streaver (James Gleason) is killed during a hold-up. Whether they like it or not, Stag and his speakeasy-owning lady friend Puff (Wynne Gibson) find themselves responsible for Pin's parentless son Ted. As Ted grows up and the three of them form a strong familiar bond, Stag and Puff attempt to disuade Ted from following in the boxing footsteps of his adopted father. Also known as The Challenger, Lady and Gent was nominated for the 1932 Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Bancroft, Wynne Gibson, (more)
- 1932
In this comedy, a shady jockey, Marty Black, teams up with Silk Henley to con the punters at little racetracks. Marty goes straight after he meets the feisty orphan, Midge. He then falls in love with Sally who runs a boarding house. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Brown, James Gleason, (more)
- 1932
A star football player in college, Garry King (Richard Arlen) finds post-college life very different; he betrays the trust of his best friend Steve (Preston S. Foster), finally losing his job. Meanwhile, his younger brother Bob (John Darrow), also a football star, is on the same track to ruin; when Garry reforms himself, events give him the opportunity to help Bob as well. Many football players and coaches of the time appear as themselves. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Arlen, Andy Devine, (more)
- 1932
Marion Davies and Billie Dove, both veterans of the real-life Ziegfeld Follies, star in the entertaining comedy-drama Blondie of the Follies. Having both grown up in the New York tenement district, Blondie (Davies) and Lurleen (Dove) hope to escape their shabby surroundings in favor of the show-business world. But while Lurleen takes "the easiest path," sleeping her way to the top and living in luxury as the kept woman of playboy Robert Montgomery, Blondie does her best to hold on to her virtue while climbing the rungs of fame and fortune. The rivalry between the two girls reaches a fever pitch when Lurleen inadvertently causes Blondie to suffer a debilitating injury during a particularly treacherous Follies production number. Sticking fast to her principles, Blondie ultimately wins Montgomery, whereupon she and Lurleen renew their rocky friendship. The film's highlight is a delightful party scene in which Marion Davies and Jimmy Durante perform a devastating send-up of Greta Garbo and John Barrymore in Grand Hotel. Blondie of the Follies might have even been better had it been shorter; at 90 minutes, however, it veers towards repetition and predictability in the final reels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marion Davies, Robert Montgomery, (more)
The "Crooked Circle" gang consists of a dozen or so hooded villains, all of whom have sworn revenge on the Sphinx Club, a dedicated anti-criminal organization. It's difficult to differentiate the heroes and the villains without a score card: sinister swami Yoganda (C. Henry Gordon), for example, turns out to be an operative for the secret service. The story comes to a head in a supposedly haunted house, where hero Brand Osborne (Ben Lyon) and heroine Thelma (Irene Purcell) try to make sense of things before ending up victims of the Crooked Circle. Rather top-heavy with comedy relief, the film features ZaSu Pitts and James Gleason during their usual ZaSu Pitts and James Gleason imitations. The Crooked Circle was written by Ralph H. Spence, who borrows heavily from his own stage comedy-melodrama The Gorilla. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Lyon, ZaSu Pitts, (more)
- 1931
Coney island vendors Baltimore Clark (Bill Boyd), Dutch Herman (Robert Armstrong) and Skeets O'Reilly (James Gleason) spend their off-hours (and some of their on-hours) carrying on a friendly rivalry for the affections of pert drugstore counter girl Sally (Ginger Rogers). But when America enters WW1, our three heroes leave Sally behind and join the Navy. Before long, Baltimore, Dutch and Skeets find themselves smack in the middle of an ongoing conflict between the German U-boat fleet and a shadowy "mystery" ship. Naturally, the boys are crewmen on the aforementioned mystery vessel, which is used as a decoy to bring the enemy out into the open. Despite this tense situation, the film spends a goodly amount of time showing the three protagonists cheerfully cheating on Sally with fetching foreign damsels in other ports of call. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, James Gleason, (more)
- 1931
In this Academy Award-winning film, Stephen Ashe (Lionel Barrymore) is a hotshot Californian lawyer from a well-to-do family, whose main failing is his indulgence in alcohol. After winning a case for mobster Ace Wilfong (Clark Gable), Stephen brings his client along to a party at his parents' house for a little celebrating. However, when they arrive at their destination, Ace manages to steal the heart of Stephen's wild daughter, Jan (Norma Shearer), and the two run off together, much to the family's dismay. Stephen struggles to win his foolhardy daughter back from the clutches of her lowlife boyfriend, as she defies her father at every turn. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, (more)
- 1931
Previously filmed in 1926 as Red Dice, The Big Gamble stars future "Hopalong Cassidy" Bill Boyd as a heavily-in-debt gambler. The suicidal Boyd makes a deal with mobster Warner Oland, whereby Oland will collect Boyd's huge insurance policy--provided he facilitates the gambler's entry into The Next World. When Boyd meets beautiful Dorothy Sebastian (then the actor's real-life wife), he finds a new reason for living. Oland, however, refuses to go back on the agreement, and proceeds with his plans to plant Boyd six feet under. The melodramatic elements of The Big Gamble are offset by the welcome comedy relief of James Gleason and ZaSu Pitts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Sebastian, Warner Oland, (more)
- 1931
The exciting world of horse-racing provides the setting for this lively comedy that centers on luckless Bud Doyle, a jockey who was falsely accused of cheating and barred from the track. Desperate for work, the fellow becomes a singing waiter in Tijuana. Eventually he is allowed back and ends up winning the Big Race by encouraging his horse with a few rousing "Whoop-tee-dos" which inspire his charger to run a little faster. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Quillan, James Gleason, (more)
- 1931
In this comedy, a conservative family becomes alarmed when they begin believing their daughter is pregnant. They frantically begin searching for the father. The search is narrowed down to three possibilities: her ex-fiancee, her current one, or her legal guardian. Meanwhile, a drunken son marries the family maid, who is also pregnant. The daughter then admits her pregnancy is false--she only did it to cover for the maid. The son, now sober annuls the marriage and the maid marries the ice man, her real love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marion Davies, Sidney Blackmer, (more)
- 1931
A troubled production that suffered from both severe cuts and retakes under a different director (Edward H. Griffith), this World War I melodrama fell far short of becoming another All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) as had obviously been the original intention. Told in flashbacks, the antiwar drama stars William Boyd as Sergeant Bill Thatcher, the head of an American battalion fighting for control of a French village. As Thatcher listens, three wounded soldiers under his command recall how they came to the battlefields of World War I: A farm boy, Bud (Russell Gleason), defied his mother (Mary Carr) and enlisted despite being the family's sole breadwinner; a New York playboy, trapped between two women, Ina (Marion Shilling), his newest conquest, and a former mistress, Lew (Lew Cody), sought the easy way out by enlisting; finally, Private Jim Mobley (James Gleason) tells the heartfelt story of how his wife, "Mademoiselle" Fritzi (ZaSu Pitts), a carnival knife thrower, got very upset when he decided to escape housekeeping duties by joining the army. Back on the battlefield, Jim finds Bill at the machine gun, where the latter finally tells his own story of how he came to hate his German-born fiancée, Katherine (Lissi Arna), when she warned him of the futility of war. Before blowing up a railroad bridge, Bill admits to Jim that he now fully understands Katherine's sentiments. Wounded in the battle, both soldiers end up in a German Red Cross hospital where Bill is reunited with Katherine. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, Lew Cody, (more)
- 1930
Breezy comic actor Eddie Quillan starred in several amiable Pathe programmers in 1929, 30' and '31. Big Money finds Quillan cast as a go-getting bank messenger, who falls in with unsuccessful gambler Jimmy Gleason. Entering a high-stakes card game, Quillan bets the bank's money, and is promptly cleaned out. Soft-hearted professional gambler Robert Armstrong rescues the pair from the hoosegow. Big Money was among a handful of talking features directed by Russell Mack, who was no mean gambler himself (especially with other people's money). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Quillan, Miriam Seegar, (more)
- 1930
The Fall Guy isn't Lee Majors in this 1930 RKO Radio programmer but instead a hapless druggist played by Jack Mulhall. Upon losing his job, Johnny Quinlan (Mulhall) falls in with underworld chieftain Nifty Herman (played by Thomas Jackson, usually cast as dedicated detectives). Hoping to use Johnny as a dupe to cover up his own shady activities, Herman plants a generous supply of illegal drugs on the poor fellow. Government agent Charles Newton (Pat O'Malley) is prepared to put the cuffs on the lad but instead goes along with Johnny's scheme to trick Herman into a confession. The picture is stolen by Mae Clarke (a full year before her "grapefruit massage" in Public Enemy) as Johnny's wife and Ned Sparks as a saxophone-playing boarder. Based on a stage play by Tim Whelan and George Abbott, The Fall Guy was directed by Leslie Pearce, who later helmed the memorable W.C. Fields two-reeler The Barber Shop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Mulhall, Mae Clarke, (more)
