Edward H. Griffith Movies

Pat O'Brien makes the casual acquaintance of fellow American Ruth Warrick while on vacation in Mexico City. What Warrick doesn't know is that O'Brien is a treasury agent, out to get expatriate counterfeiters Alan Hale and Edgar Buchanan. What O'Brien doesn't know is that Warrick is also out to get Hale, whom she holds responsible for her father's death. After a lengthy period of cross purposes, hero and heroine team up to catch the crooks. Perilous Holiday puts Pat O'Brien through his standard paces, and provides an offbeat role for the usually aristocratic Ruth Warrick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Out of the Frying Pan, Francis Swann's perennial community-theatre favorite, came to the screen under the title Young and Willing. It's the unrealistic but funny account of young, aspiring actors combining their resources in hopes of keeping the wolf from the door. The girls and three boys move into the same apartment-a definite no-no in 1943-hoping to keep the landlady (Mabel Paige) in the dark until they can break into the Big Time. When famed Broadway producer Arthur Kenny (Robert Benchley) moves into the apartment below theirs, our heroes and heroines work overtime to curry Kenny's favor. The male leads are played by William Holden, Eddie Bracken and James Brown, with Bracken coming off as the most entertaining of the three: the girls are portrayed by Susan Hayward, Martha O'Driscoll and Barbara Britton, all on the verge of bigger and better things. Young and Willing was one of a group of Paramount films sold outright to United Artists in 1942-43. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bahama Passage is a leisurely bit of Technicolor exotica starring Madeleine Carroll and her future husband Sterling Hayden. Based on Nolson Hayes' novel Dildo Cay, the story takes place on a remote Bahaman island where the principal commodity-in fact, the only--is salt. The owner of the island is young Adrian (Sterling Hayden), who inherited Dildo Cay from his family. The stultifying dullness of life on the island has caused all the wives of Adrian's forebears to eventually descend into insanity, and it looks as though the same thing might happen to Adrian's sweetheart Carol (Madeleine Carroll), despite her uncanny ability to look after herself. While Carol does not go crazy, her presence on the island proves to be something of a jinx, resulting in dissension amongst the native population. The most striking aspect of Bahama Passage is the extremely casual clothing worn by the stars: Why, one would think that Paramount was trying to get the audience's mind off the film's slower passages by showing off as much cheesecake and beefcake as possible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This studio-bound jungle yarn is uplifted by the spirited performances of its stars. After the death of her aviator lover, beautiful Linda Stewart (Madeleine Carroll) marries wealthy sportsman Baron de Courland (Tulio Carminati) on the rebound. When the Baron arrives in Africa for a hunting expedition, he secures the services of jungle guide Jim Logan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) Sure as shootin', Linda and Jim fall in love with one another, prompting the sadistic Baron to plot an appropriate revenge. Lynne Overman does a Jimmy Finlayson impression as a Scottish "Trader Horn" type, while Billy Gilbert is terrific as a malaprop-laden trading post owner. Screenwriter Delmar Daves manages to inject a bit of Left Wing ideology in an early scene, which surprisingly (and happily for Daves) went unnoticed during the HUAC hearing in the late 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paramount's Café Society applies a glossy new coat of paint to a wheezy old plotline. Madeleine Carroll plays a debutante named Christopher, who after a whirlwind courtship marries newspaper photographer Crick O'Banion (Fred MacMurray). But when Crick finds out that he's been rushed to the altar so that Christoper can win a bet with society columnist Sonny DeWitt (Allyn Joslyn) he vows to teach her a good lesson. With the sub rosa help of Christopher's wealthy uncle (Claude Gillingwater Sr.), Crick contrives a latter-day "Taming of the Shrew" scenario. It's all been done before and would all be done again, but the stars are attractive and the production values top-rank. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cafe Metropole stars Tyrone Power as an international playboy with a habit of writing rubber checks. Heavily in debt to cafe owner Adolphe Menjou, Power agrees to pose as a Russian nobleman and woo heiress Loretta Young, so that Menjou can get his mitts on the girl's money. Avarice gives way to love, but not before Young walks out on Power when she catches on to his original selfish intentions. The script for Cafe Metropole was written by actor/director Gregory Ratoff, who also plays a supporting role. The film's first biggest laughs are reserved for the first scene, in which mild-mannered Christian Rub attempts to collect on one of Power's debts by clumsily wielding a loaded revolver. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ladies in Love transplants 20th Century-Fox's favorite film plot--three girls on the prowl for rich husbands--into the Budapest of the mid-1930s. Janet Gaynor, Loretta Young and Constance Bennett combine their earnings to rent a luxurious apartment, in hopes of attracting wealthy potential husbands. Young falls for a nobleman (Tyrone Power), who is engaged to another woman. She contemplates taking poison, but the lethal dose is accidentally ingested by Gaynor, whose plight results in a house call from Dr. Don Ameche, whom Gaynor has worshipped from afar. It is Bennett who snags the wealthy husband, middle-aged businessman Wilfred Lawson. Though Tyrone Power's part was small, he clicked immediately with the audiences, prompting the studio to give Power the big buildup. Ladies in Love would be reworked several times in the future, most obviously as How to Marry a Millionaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic drama a woman with a scandalous past tells all in an autobiography. It seems the woman, an artist, received special favors from a politician in exchange for a few favors from her. The pushy magazine editor who tries to convince her to write her memoirs, despises everything she stands for, yet in the end cannot help falling in love with her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This droll, sophisticated comedy stars Constance Bennett as Venice Muir, a shy young lady with no "past" of any kind -- and very little romance in her life. Hoping to overcome her bashfulness during a trip to Europe, she invents a lurid history for herself, then engages the services of paid escort Guy Bryson (Ben Lyon) to accompany her to all the continent's hot spots. Through word of mouth, Venice gains the reputation of being a sexual adventuress (though she's still nothing of the kind), and soon she is headline fodder for all the Parisian newspapers. Her fabricated randy reputation catches the eye of wealthy Donnie Wainright (David Manners), but it is Guy Bryson who ultimately makes an "honest woman" out of her. Lady With a Past was adapted from the equally delightful novel by Harriet Henry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

The first of the filmizations of Philip Barry's play, Holiday centers around a society wedding. Julia Seton (Mary Astor) intends to marry John Case (Robert Ames), a young Wall Street lion with "radical" ideas that go against the grain of Julia's conservative family. Julia's freewheeling younger sister Linda (Ann Harding), thrilled at the prospect of the unorthodox Case shaking up her household, finds herself drawn to the young man herself. When John shows signs of toning down his recklessness and becoming just another stuffy old financier, Linda is crushed, but eventually the two free spirits are united. Edward Everett Horton, who plays an "idle rich" family friend in Holiday, recreated the role (albeit as a more responsible character) in the 1938 remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic drama, a wealthy, young heiress suffers from ennui and begins rebelling against the restrictions of her class by refusing to marry her equally wealthy fiance. Instead she falls for a serious salesman. Unfortunately, the salesman wants nothing to do with her money and refuses to marry her; she begins to dread her upcoming nuptials to the other fellow. In the end she and salesman reconcile, but she cannot get out of her engagement honorably. She is standing at the alter in her gown on her wedding day, when suddenly a dog wanders up with a note in its mouth. The note tells her that the salesman is leaving town. Suddenly the girl decides to follow her heart and takes off after the dog to profess undying love to the salesman. Humble marital bliss ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide