George Bunny Movies

Summer Stock represented Judy Garland's swan song at MGM. Garland plays the owner of a New England farm which entrepreneur Gene Kelly hopes to convert into a summer theatre. Gloria DeHaven, a member of Kelly's troupe, also happens to be Garland's sister. Aware that the farm is having financial difficulties, DeHaven talks the recalcitrant Garland into allowing the troupe to set up shop in the barn. All sorts of romances wind their way through the summer air as Kelly mounts his production. In the long-anticipated finale, Garland herself steps into the leading-lady slot vacated by her petulant sister DeHaven, and of course the show is a smasheroo. To watch Garland joyfully perform such numbers as "Friendly Star," "If You Feel Like Singing, Sing," and her legendary "drag" specialty "Get Happy," you'd never suspect that she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown (the film opened while Garland was recovering from a suicide attempt). Adding to the overall exuberance of Summer Stock are such dependable supporting players as Eddie Bracken, Phil Silvers, Marjorie Main and Hans Conried (cast as the troupe's resident romantic baritone!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Former army pilot Robert Taylor is accused, on the basis of strong circumstantial evidence, of his wife's murder. Suffering from periodic blackouts, Taylor isn't so certain of his innocence himself. When offered a brain operation, Taylor refuses, knowing that if he is proven sane he will be executed for murder. Instead, he opts for confinement in a high-walled veteran's mental institution. A compassionate lady doctor (Audrey Totter) falls in love with Taylor, convincing him to have the operation. Even after emerging from the ether, Taylor cannot remember any of the details concerning his wife's death--but he does recall that the dead woman had recently taken a job with a publisher (Herbert Marshall) of religious books. While the killer's identity is tipped off by this revelation, the audience is never certain that Robert Taylor isn't a murderer--especially since he'd previously appeared as a homicidal maniac in the 1946 film Undercurrent. The best moment in High Wall is the casual disposal of the sole witness to the murder, via a long, dark elevator shaft. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

William Powell plays a cynical con man who graduates from penny-ante operations to a big-time charity racket. The scam involves collecting money on behalf of St. Dismas, bringing Powell in close contact with several men of the cloth. As the racket rolls on, Powell is touched by the sincerity of the religious men and the plights of the charity's rightful recipients. He has a change of heart, confessing his original criminal intentions but seeing to it that the money goes to the right people. Hoodlum Saint was typical of the facile religiosity often found in MGM pictures of the period. The film is best remembered as the first non-aquatic performance of MGM swimming star Esther Williams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second and last of the Fred Astaire-Rita Hayworth vehicles, You Were Never Lovelier takes place in Argentina (courtesy of the Columbia Pictures art-direction department). Fred plays an American dancer whose fondness for betting on horse races has left him broke. Rita is the daughter of wealthy Argentinian nightclub owner Adolphe Menjou, who has vowed that his daughters will marry in the order of their ages-and since older sister Leslie Brooks is about to walk to the altar, Rita is next in line. To encourage his daughter to seek out an eligible husband, Menjou sends Rita unsigned love notes so that she'll think she has a secret admirer. Through a series of misunderstandings that could only happen in the movies, Rita becomes convinced that Fred is the man who's been plying her with notes and gifts. Menjou hires the impoverished Astaire as a potential son-in-law. Fred bridles at the thought of being a "bought spouse", but changes his mind when he falls in love with Rita on his own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

By many considered the best of Hoot Gibson's eight Westerns for Gower Gulch producer M.H. Hoffman, Wild Horse starred The Hooter as Jim Wright, a cowpoke hired to work on George Bunny's rodeo ranch. Gibson manages to capture "The Devil Horse," a magnificent steed which had been eluding the wranglers, but the horse is stolen by jealous ranch hand Edmund Cobb, who murders Gibson's buddy Skeeter Bill Robbins) along the way. Gibson is blamed for both but everything is worked out after the usual hard ridin' and shootin'. Gibson, who enjoyed near autonomy in his pictures for Hoffman's Allied Pictures Corp., filled the supporting cast with old friends such as Neal Hart, Fred Gilman, Pete Morrison and Cobb, all of whom had seen better days in the silent era. "The Devil Horse" was "played" by Mutt, a horse from Gibson's own stable. The result was a fast-paced B-Western marred only slightly for modern audiences by the typically demeaning "comedy" of African-American performer Stepin Fetchit. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this drama, which marks Barbara Stawyck's Hollywood film debut, a woman is taken to an illegal cabaret set aboard a wealthy man's yacht. Her captor, the owner, then locks her in a stateroom. When the cops raid the joint, she is photographed with the wealthy cad. Time passes and the woman ends up marrying her new boss. The cad gets involved with her sister-in-law. Later her new husband and the creep get in a fight over the woman. A shot is fired and the millionaire dies. The police then find the woman locked in her room. To spare her husband, the woman confesses to killing the cad. Her husband refuses to let her take the fall for his crime and she is freed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Lovely senorita Maria Alvaro (Dorothy Kitchen) is rescued from a gunshot wedding to foppish Senor Valdez (former Charlie Chaplin associate Leo White) practically on the steps to the church by daredevil rider Jim Collins (Bob Steele). The young man simply kidnaps her and holds her until her father (George Bunny) accepts him as a more appropriate son-in-law. The comic Breed of the Sunset was directed by Wallace Fox, a one-time black-face comic and an old hand at these sort of things, and scripted by a young Oliver Drake, whose deft handling of both action and gag humor would be even better utilized in the sound era. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Heroes in Blue is predicated on the rivalry between two Irish-American clans. Sally Rand, the daughter of one family, falls for John Bowers, the policeman son of the other family. Their relationship is sorely strained when Rand's stepbrother Gareth Hughes turns out to be the pyromaniac whom Bowers has been ordered to seek out and arrest. Hughes ends up killing Bowers' father and brother, sparking a "retribution" climax in which Rand's fireman dad is forced to kill Hughes while the latter is setting fire to a tenement building. Heroes in Blue includes a cute "inside" gag in which Sally Rand and John Bowers attend a movie -- in which the stars are Sally Rand and John Bowers! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sentimental drama, based on the stage play by H.B. Trevelyan (actually a pseudonym for Guy Bolton), was the American film debut of Vilma Banky, and it made her a star overnight. The setting is World War I, and Captain Alan Trent (Ronald Coleman) and Kitty Vane (Banky) are making their wedding plans. But Trent is suddenly called back to the front, and the ceremony is put on hold. During a battle, Trent is blinded, and instead of burdening Kitty with his disability, he allows her to believe he has been killed. Kitty eventually agrees to marry Trent's best friend, Gerald Shannon (Wyndham Standing). Shannon, however, discovers that Trent is still alive and writing for a living. Being an honorable man, he tells Kitty the truth and she goes to Trent. Trent is determined to send Kitty away, so he memorizes the location of everything in his home and pretends to reject her. Kitty is fooled until the end, when she holds out her hand and he doesn't see it. Finally the truth comes out and she rushes into his arms. Producer Sam Goldwyn -- who had discovered Banky during a trip to Europe -- remade the film as a talkie in 1935, with Merle Oberon as Kitty and Frederic March and Herbert Marshall as Trent and Shannon, respectively. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Because Little Old New York was so successful, MGM and newspaper/sometime film magnate William Randolph Hearst decided to put Marion Davies into another picturesque tale of New York in the 1800s -- this time a few decades later, circa 1870. The idea actually worked. The film, based on the Laurence Eyre play The Merry Wives of Gotham, was charming and it turned a profit (something not all of Davies' films did). Davies has a dual role, as Fely and Anne O'Tandy, twin sisters who are orphaned on a ship sailing from Ireland to America. Fely is taken in by a family that lives in a shantytown on the edge of New York, and Anne is adopted by the wealthy de Rondes. Fely becomes a singer at Tony Pastor's while Anne is a member of the elite. The de Rhonde son, Dirk (Conrad Nagel), experiments in electricity. He's fond of Anne, but it is Fely whom he falls for. He meets her during a shantytown uprising. The rioters see his well-tailored clothes and attack him. Fely rescues him and finds some rags for him to wear so he can pass through safely. Dirk is not bothered by her poor surroundings. His parents (Frank Currier and Julia Swayne Gordon) are bothered, however, and they disown him. Fely's father has bought a little electric stock, and when it takes off, this winds up saving the de Rhondes' bank from bankruptcy. After that, the de Rhondes gratefully welcome Fely into their home. Fely and Dirk go to pick up her father and as they leave downtown, the electric lights of the city are turned on for the first time. This picture featured a five-minute Technicolor sequence during the riot scene. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This light romantic comedy was based on Miles Brewster and the Super-Sex by Frank R. Adams. Young Miles Brewster Higgins (Robert Gordon) feels that life has turned against him. His girl, Irene Hayes (Charlotte Pierce), has become infatuated with a car salesman, his father (Tully Marshall) complains about the quality of his work in the lumber yard, and there's no way he can live up to the high standards of his grandmother (Gertrude Claire). When his cousin Roy (Albert MacQuarries) shows up and offers to sell him some oil stock, Miles takes him up on the offer and plunks down his life savings. The oil well is a gusher and the young man suddenly finds himself rich. He decides to let all the doubters around him have it, starting with Irene who he plans to woo and then jilt. But when he hears that his money went towards a different oil well and, instead of being wealthy, he is deeply in debt, he decides to run away to South America. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Philip Verrill Mighel's Bruvver Jim's Baby, about a shiftless gold miner whose life changes with the discovery of an abandoned baby, was made into a fine silent Western starring the dependable Harry Carey. There is a villain (Charles Brinley), who's after Carey's gold, and a nice postmistress (Carol Holloway), who is willing to become both wife and mother. Universal surrounded their veteran Western star with a fine supporting cast in this film, including former serial queen Holloway as the post mistress, rotund comedy actor George Bunny, and one Minnie Prevost, a Native American supporting player who, billed as "Minnie Ha Ha", had made an indelible impression in Mabel Normand's Mickey (1919). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide