Billie Burke Movies

Billie Burke, the wonderfully giddy Broadway star and the wife of impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, made her film debut in the tailor-made vehicle Peggy. The heroine, Peggy Cameron, is a high-society debutante with a mind of her own. After making a public spectacle of herself once too often, Peggy is bundled off to Scotland, where she is to be looked after by her no-nonsense uncle Andrew Cameron (William H. Thompson). If Peggy's family had hoped that she would straighten up and behave herself in Scotland, they were sorely mistaken. Fortunately, her rambunctious behavior soon makes her the most beloved girl in the village, and also wins her the love of sober-sided Reverend Donald Bruce (William Desmond). Popular juvenile lead Charles Ray is here atypically cast as Peggy's doltish Scottish cousin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ziegfeld Follies headliner Billie Burke starred in a handful of silent films, of which Arms and the Girl was the second. Burke plays an American lass who journeys to Europe to be reunited with her fiance. Not only has her sweetheart been unfaithful, but she arrives on the continent just as World War I breaks out. All ends happily when Burke falls in love with true-blue American engineer Thomas Meighan. For those who know Billie Burke only for her flibbertigibbet characters roles in talkies, it's worth noting that, in Arms and the Girl, she was a most appealing and convincing ingenue. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This film was purely a showcase for the charms of ex-Follies girl (and future Glenda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz) Billie Burke. It takes place at a vacation home in the mountains where several young couples have gathered. The group of friends go climbing, but Phyllis Ashbrook (Burke) and John Manning (David Powell) leave the others behind. They get lost and have to spend the night in a cabin. When they are brought back the next day, appearances compel them to marry, even though they are already engaged to others. They intend to get divorced as soon as possible so they can return to their original partners. Since this is a light romantic comedy, Phyllis and John eventually realize they are really in love with each other. Burke's outfits here got as many positive notices as the actress. In a couple of years, another star from the same studio, Paramount -- Gloria Swanson -- would also become famous for her fashions. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

Education of Elizabeth was adapted for the silent screen from a play by Roy Horniman. The film version was designed as a vehicle for Billie Burke, still in her ingenue stage (though she's obviously on the darker side of 30). Burke, the real-life wife of Flo Ziegfeld, plays Ziegfeld Follies dancer Elizabeth Banks who falls for a wealthy young man. His parents are shocked--and so is Elizabeth when she decides she'd rather have her beau's nerdish brother. She turns the mouse into a lion so that he'll be a worthy husband. The material was very fey and fluffy, like Billie Burke herself. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Katharine Hepburn made her auspicious film debut in the otherwise undistinguished A Bill of Divorcement. Based on a play by Clemence Dane, the film is set on the day that Hepburn's mother, Billie Burke, is to divorce her insane and long-institutionalized husband John Barrymore. But Barrymore escapes from the asylum and returns home, only vaguely aware of the passage of time (he was shell-shocked during WWI). His presence puts Burke in an uncomfortable spot, especially since she plans to wed Paul Cavanaugh. Pressured by her idiotically traditional family to renew her vows with her first husband, Burke is saved from a lifetime of misery by her spunky daughter Hepburn, who takes care of her child-like father. The film's attitude towards male-female relationships, not to mention its archaic approach to the problem of mental illness, make Bill of Divorcement a chore to sit through today. Its saving grace is the warm rapport between Katharine Hepburn and John Barrymore (contrary to Hollywood legend, they did not despise one another). Even given its dated quality, Bill of Divorcement is more palatable than its empty 1940 remake, which starred Maureen O'Hara and Adolphe Menjou. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The scandalous doings behind the high-toned exterior of a private school for rich young women provides the framework for this interesting but turgid drama. Much of the story centers on an unhappy socialite and her smart-alecky, world-wise roomy who has no morals at all when it comes to getting what she wants. This of course, puts her at odds with the school's overly class-conscious administration, who live in mortal fear of scandal. As a result, the staff is encouraged to remain cool and aloof, something that causes the lonely socialite, who longs for her parents love, to become deeply depressed. Unfortunately, her father doesn't seem to care and her mother is too busy climbing the social ladder to notice. The socialite becomes increasingly despondent and thinks of suicide. Still she is not immune to the girlish pranks and gaiety of her peers. Her life also improves when she falls in love with the handsome med student who works at the school as a waiter. Unfortunately, things get bad again when he accidentally impregnates her. Fortunately, it all works out for her in the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Distantly related to Frederick Lewis Allen's non-fiction book of the same name, Only Yesterday uses fictional characters to trace the years between 1917 and 1929. Wealthy New Yorker John Boles recalls a long-ago affair with southern belle Margaret Sullavan. She gave birth to his child without ever naming the father, then moved to New York herself and set up a dress shop. As the stock-market crash of 1929 wipes out his life savings, Boles becomes remorseful over how he's forgotten Sullavan, who is now dying. He acknowledges that he is the father of her child, and promises to make a good life for the boy despite his dire financial situation. Only Yesterday opens with a remarkable montage sequence showing the devastating effects of the Depression; after that, it never quite gains momentum despite the superb performance of Margaret Sullavan (in her film debut). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Where Sinners Meet was based on The Dover Road, a whimsical play by A. A. Milne. Clive Brook and Diana Wynyard, stars of the 1933 Oscar-winner Cavalcade, are reunited herein. A reclusive eccentric who has survived two unhappy marriages, Mr. Latimer pursues the strange hobby of arranging traffic accidents so that he can "kidnap" extramarital couples to warn them of the pitfalls of infidelity. His latest captives are Anne and Leonard (Wynyard and Reginald Owen) and Eustacia and Nicholas (Billie Burke and Alan Mowbray), all four of whom are escaping what they believe to be mismatched marriages. Genteelly imprisoning the two couples in his comfortable country estate, Mr. Latimer allows them enough time together to get on one another's nerves and realize that they should all return to their legal mates. Both Leonard and Nicholas are sufficiently frightened to make a break for it, but Anne and Eustacia insist upon remaining with their host -- which isn't exactly what Latimer had in mind! Where Sinners Meet was previously filmed in 1927 as The Little Adventuress. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Society girl Constance Bennett goes to work as a reporter for a big-city newspaper. Harried editor Clark Gable fires the flighty socialite, but rehires her when Bennett starts dating the co-respondent (Harvey Stephens) in a major divorce case. Things get sticky when the wife in the case is murdered and Bennett's beau is accused of the crime. More interested in the well-being of Bennett than in making headlines, Gable tracks down the killer and springs the boy friend. The freed man sizes up the situation and courteously steps out of the picture, allowing Gable and Bennett--who of course have been in love all along--to head for the altar. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A crusading physician supervises his own life-threatening operation in this farfetched potboiler from MGM, which marked Robert Taylor's first co-starring assignment. Taylor plays handsome Dr. Tommy Ellis, whose proposal of marriage is at first turned down by surgical nurse Madge Wilson (Virginia Bruce). But when Madge's paramour, the upstanding young Dr. Bill Morgan (Chester Morris), takes a leave of his principles to cater to a rich hypochondriac (Billie Burke), she gives Tommy her "yes." Shot by an escaping convict (Arthur Vinton), Bill survives a risky operation conducted by Tommy under his own guidance, and when he recovers, he finally pops the question to Madge. With Tommy's blessing, the nurse agrees to become Mrs. Morgan. Society Doctor, which was originally reviewed as Under Eight Hours, was directed by George B. Seitz, the veteran craftsman who later helmed MGM's "Dr. Kildare" films. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Now famous as the first feature film produced in the three-strip Technicolor process, Becky Sharp is also an enjoyable effort in its own right. Adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair, the film stars Miriam Hopkins as Becky Sharp, a resourceful, totally self-involved young lady who manages to survive any number of setbacks and deprivations in the years following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. In her efforts to advance herself, she manages to link up with a number of not altogether attractive gentlemen, including the Marquis of Steyne (Cedric Hardwicke), Joseph Sedley (Nigel Bruce), Rawdon Crawley (Alan Mowbray), and George Osborne (G. P. Huntley Jr.) She rises to the pinnacle of British society, only to tumble and fall into the humiliation of singing for her supper in a cheap back-alley beer hall, but, like her spiritual sister Scarlet O'Hara, Becky never stays down for long. The film ends on an ambiguous note, never hinting that Becky will eventually drop her current beau and settle down to a life of smug piety, as she does in the novel. Begun in 1934 with Lowell Sherman in the director's chair, Becky Sharp was forced to shut down production when Sherman died; he was replaced by Rouben Mamoulien, whose unerring eye for cinematic splendor exploited the new color process to the utmost, especially during the opening Brussels Ball sequence. Until its recent archival restoration, Becky Sharp was available only in a shortened, two-color version, which had the negative effect of diminishing the film's strong points and overemphasizing its weaknesses (This version is still available on the public-domain market). Becky Sharp is an enormous improvement over the low-budget 1932 version of Vanity Fair, which updated the story to the 20th century and cast dumb-blonde specialist Joyce Compton in the role of Becky. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Legendary stage actress Pauline Lord made but a few films, but was always worth watching whenever she took command of the screen. In Feather in Her Hat, Lord plays cockney storekeeper Clarissa Phipps, who worries that her son Richard will grow up being ashamed of her humble vocation. Thus, she loftily pretends that she's not Richard's mother, and that the boy is actually the offspring of a prominent theatrical family. Upon reaching adulthood, Richard (Louis Hayward) becomes a prominent playwright, confident that the stage is in his blood, while Clarissa secretly sells her store at a loss to finance Richard's first production. Only on her deathbed does Clarissa reveal the truth -- and happily, Richard isn't ashamed of her in the least, and indeed is prouder of her than ever. Basil Rathbone contributes a fascinating characterization as a gin-swilling, unshaven remittance man. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

British humorist P. G. Wodehouse wrote the story upon which Piccadilly Jim was based. Frank Morgan and Robert Montgomery play a well-to-do father and son, who find themselves rivals in love. The object of their affection is Madge Evans, who likes them both but favors the son. Everything could have been wrapped up in eight reels, but MGM had a mania about lengthy running times, so Piccadilly Jim lumbers on at 100 minutes. Fortunately, such accomplished farceurs as Billie Burke, Robert Benchley and Eric Blore are around to pep up the dull spots. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi