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- 1930
Whatever rapport comedian Frank Fay enjoyed with Broadway audiences invariably evaporated when he appeared on film. In The Matrimonial Bed, Fay is his usual overbearing self as Adolphe, a small-town husband who is rendered an amnesiac in a train crash. Five years pass, during which time Adolphe marries Southern belle Sylvaine (Lilyan Tashman). In the meantime, Wife Number One Juliette (Florence Eldridge), believing her husband dead, has also remarried, to Gustave (James Gleason). One afternoon, she walks by a neighborhood barbershop, where Adolphe is now working -- and it isn't hard to guess what happens next. The fact that Frank Fay and director Michael Curtiz were constitutionally incapable of getting along undoubtedly hurt the overall effectiveness of this otherwise passable farce. Matrimonial Bed was remade in 1941 as Kisses for Breakfast, where it was frankly much funnier; on the other hand, the earlier film does contain a surprising amount of "gay" humor which still elicits chuckles when seen today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Fay, Lilyan Tashman, (more)
- 1930
The widow in question is wealthy Tamarind Brooks (Gloria Swanson), who flits from one man to another with the rapidity of a butterfly. Beginning in New York and ending in Paris, Tamarind collects men like some people collect stamps. Among her most ardent suitors are lawyer Gerry (Owen Moore), violin virtuoso Baslikoff (Gregory Gaye), opera baritone Alvarado (Herbert Braggiotti), and cabaret dancer Victor (Lew Cody). After playing the field with gay abandon, Tamarind finally returns to square one (in a manner of speaking) and marries Gerry. Gloria Swanson is given opportunity aplenty to display her splendid singing voice, and even gets to hark back to her Keystone Comedy days by indulging in some gratuitous slapstick. In a sense, What a Widow was filmic valentine to Swanson from her sponsor-lover, producer Joseph P. Kennedy (JFK's father). Audiences, however, were not quite as smitten as "Papa Joe," and the film was a box-office bust. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Swanson, Owen Moore, (more)
- 1930
Mammy features Al Jolson as the star of a travelling minstrel show, appearing in a small Southern town. Jolson falls in love with an actress in the troupe (Lois Moran), but she loves another. One of Jolson's fellow minstrels (Lowell Sherman) is shot backstage, and it is assumed thanks to several plot convolutions that Jolson is guilty of the deed. He heads for the hills, but returns to the show, his reputation restored but his love for the actress unrequited. Maudlin in the extreme, Mammy is salvaged by several enjoyable songs by Irving Berlin and by its Technicolor photography (though most TV prints are black and white). The film's fascination with modern viewers rests with the presence of Al Jolson--and with the casual use of profanity during his confrontation scene with Lowell Sherman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Jolson, Lois Moran, (more)
- 1930
In this romance, Mamie, a humble factory worker, falls in love with a cocky, young boxer, Bill "Cyclone" Hickey. To help his flagging career, the young woman hires sportswriter Johnny Trump, to manage him. Unfortunately, Cyclone has attitude problems and Trump leaves him. The fighter's career soon bottoms out. Fortunately, they are able to convince Trump to return and the Cyclone's winning streak is restored. Romance and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1930
Helen Twelvetrees became a major star in this laundered version of the "naughty" Broadway play Frankie and Johnny. A singer in a Havana dive, Frankie is fought over by the proprietor, Johnny (Ricardo Cortez), and Dan O'Keefe (Phillips Holmes), an American sailor who sees some good in the girl. When Frankie decides to leave Havana with Dan, Johnny has his henchmen abduct the couple, but is himself accidentally killed in the ensuing melee. A successful combo, Twelvetrees and Cortez were reunited with director Tay Garnett for the gangster melodrama Bad Company (1931). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Twelvetrees, Marjorie Rambeau, (more)
- 1930
The rise and fall of a popular entertainer provides the basis of this musical drama. Harry Raymond (played by nightclub superstar Harry Richman) begins his career with nothing but his ambition, his talent and the support of friends and loved ones. Eventually he hits the big time and becomes a star. Unfortunately with stardom comes arrogance and selfishness and he disdains his lowly but loyal lover and pals to hang out with the upper crust. His downfall comes from a bottle of tainted homemade gin. Harry nearly dies and ends up permanently blind. Fortunately, at least one of his old crowd is around to help him rebuild his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Richman, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1930
In this romantic comedy, a fighter goes to a southern town to train for the championship. He soon falls in love. The girl loves him too; they are very happy until the girl's grandmother, who wants her granddaughter to marry a rich man, begins interfering. She tries her best to break them up, but she ultimately fails and the couple leads a happy life together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Barbara Kent, (more)
- 1930
Legendary Broadway comedian Joe Cook, who was capable of reducing audiences to paroxysms of helpless laughter by telling them what he wasn't going to do that evening, was invariably better than the shows in which he appeared. Fully aware of this, director Frank Capra brought Cook's 1928 stage musical Rain or Shine to the screen, cutting all of its songs and concentrating almost exclusively on the star. The mere wisp of a plot focuses on the tinker-toy travelling circus owned by heroine Joan Peers. Advance-man Cook does his best to stir up business and to avoid the sheriffs and process-servers, but it's an uphill battle. The climactic tent-fire scene is a cinematic tour de force for Capra, who'd improve upon it one year later in The Miracle Woman (1931). While Joe Cook's non-sequitur patter seems more bizarre than funny at times, he is always worth watching, as are his perennial stooges Tom Howard (who looks astonishingly like Robert Woolsey of Wheeler & Woolsey fame) and Dave Chasen (yes, the same Dave Chasen who later became a celebrated Hollywood restaurateur). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Cook, Louise Fazenda, (more)
- 1929
Director Tay Garnett was still billing himself as "Taylor" when he helmed the patchy actioner The Flying Fool. The title character, played by William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd, is a fearless aviator; his brother, Russell Gleason, is Boyd's rival in the air and on the ground. Both brothers vie for the attention of svelte nightclub singer Marie Prevost, who is faithful to both in her fashion. Boyd wins the girl, but that's hardly the end of the story. A lengthy vignette from The Flying Fool resurfaced in the late 1970s as a prime example of a "bad" early talkie on a TV retrospective of Hollywood in the 1920s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Stage" Boyd, Marie Prevost, (more)
- 1929
The unique directorial touches of Gregory LaCava lift this standard military comedy well above the norm. William Boyd plays Terry Culver, a wise-guy officer who receives his first commission. Amazingly, Culver's commanding officer Colonel Gaylord (Alphonse Ethier) takes a liking to the brash, obnoxious young officer -- as does Gaylord's pretty daughter Judy (Dorothy Sebastian, at the time the wife of co-star Boyd). Despite his blundering and bluster, Culver proves his worth by rescuing a small child from jeopardy, and as a reward wins Judy's hand in marriage. A brief Technicolor sequence and an exciting steeplechase finale add to the film's overall conviviality. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Hopalong" Boyd, Dorothy Sebastian, (more)
- 1929
Two vagabonds find romance in this love story. It all begins when they get jobs as railroad brakemen by proving to the foreman that they are strong. Both of them simultaneously think about giving up their wandering ways when they meet two eligible women: the railroad's paymaster and commissary chief, and a dumbbell waitress. Things are looking up until one of the hoboes loses his savings in a crap shoot and later finds himself framed for theft. Fortunately, the two are able to finger the real thieves before it is too late. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, James Gleason, (more)
- 1929
Although The Shannons of Broadway was not James Gleason's first film appearance as advertised, it might as well as been: Based on Gleason's own stage play, the film co-starred Gleason with his wife Lucille Webster. Mr. and Mrs. G. are cast as Mickey and Emma Shannon, a vaudeville duo who meet with a spectacular lack of success. They decide to quit trodding the boards and settle down as the owners of a hotel. But when a previously dormant real-estate transaction pays off, the Shannons are able to re-finance their return to the stage in a big-time Broadway revue. Released in both sound and silent versions, The Shannons of Broadway was remade in 1938 as Goodbye Broadway. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Gleason, Lucille Gleason, (more)
This landmark MGM backstage musical of the early sound era about broken dreams on the Great White Way features a bevy of standards by the songwriting team of Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. Freed later became unit producer of the legendary Freed Unit at MGM, which is the reason many of the tunes from Broadway Melody --""You Were Meant For Me"", "Broadway Melody", ""The Wedding of the Painted Doll""-- later appeared in Freed's seminal MGM musical Singin' in the Rain. The nominal story concerns midwestern sister act The Mahoney Sisters --Queenie (Anita Page) and Hank (Bessie Love)-- who come to New York to try to make it big on Broadway. Hank's song-and-dance man boyfriend Eddie (Charles King) has promised the gals a part in the new Broadway revue in which he is soon to appear. When Hank and Queenie come to see him, Hank is pleasantly surprised at the way Queenie has filled out. Soon enough, Eddie is making advances to Queenie. Queenie is attracted to Eddie too, but she doesn't want to steal her sister's boyfriend. So she Queenie takes up with a lecherous playboy, leaving it to Hank to put all the confused love relationships in perspective. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anita Page, Bessie Love, (more)
- 1929
In one of her first talking pictures, Carole Lombard played a girl crook falling in love with a handsome lineman (William Boyd) while marooned during a snow storm. Crossing the High Sierras in a bus, a group of travelers find themselves stranded in a small village and at the mercy of Bill Dougherty (Boyd), a lineman who apportions them a small amount of food. Despite warnings from detective Dan Egan (Owen Moore), Billie Davis (Lombard), the girl crook, falls in love with Bill, who turns out to be an escaped convict. Briefly planning to flee, Bill and Billie decide to serve their sentences and share a happier future together. High Voltage was produced by Pathé and featured blonde newcomer Diane Ellis as a young girl en route to her wedding. Ironically, Ellis died less than a year later from a rare tropical disease while honeymooning in India. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1928
Veteran stage actor/playwright James Gleason made his film debut in the Universal comedy The Count of Ten. In fact, Gleason received top billing over onetime screen favorite Charles Ray, an indication that Ray's days of prominence were numbered. Returning to the "yokel" characterization that won him popularity in the teen years, Ray is cast as Johnny McKinney, a gullible prizefighter who permits his wife, family and friends to squander all his money. In dire financial straits, Johnny talks his manager Billy Williams (James Gleason) into arranging a $5000 bout with the champ. Billy doesn't want to do it, inasmuch as Johnny has a broken hand, but he has no choice. Our hero wins the fight, only to discover that his purse is to be used to square his brother-in-law's gambling debts. On the verge of walking out on his parasitic family, Johnny is dissuaded by his wife Betty (Jobyna Ralston), who promises never to take advantage of him again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Gleason, Charles Ray, (more)
- 1922
There seems to be some debate over exactly who directed this amusing Constance Talmadge picture. Since John Emerson directed so many of her films (and co-wrote the screenplays with his wife, Anita Loos), he has automatically been given credit by several sources. However, trade paper Motion Picture News lists Joseph Plunkett as director, and Loos, in her memoir The Talmadge Girls, recalls that Emerson was involved with the Broadway actor's strike in New York, and only marginally available as a screenwriter, much less a director. Perhaps this just proves the strength of a good script, because, review-wise, most of the kudos go to Loos and Emerson's story. Polly Meacham (Talmadge) is a small town girl with a passion for the stage. She puts on an amateur theatrical which broken up by her straight laced uncle, Silas (Horace Knight), and plays a burlesque Cleopatra for a matinee at the Old Soldiers' Home. The next stop for Polly, of course, is new York and the Follies. Florenz Ziegfeld (Bernard Randall) puts her to work, and then Polly makes sure her pal, Alysia Potter (Billie Dove), is hired, too. But Polly blows her opportunity on her first night by coming down off the stage to welcome the folks from back home. She's fired and Alysia is given her part. But Alysia's fiancé, Bob Jones (Kenneth Harlan), has come to love Polly, while Alysia has decided to pursue a career. So even if Polly loses her slot in the Follies, she wins a husband. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
