Arthur Kay Movies

Orson Welles first feature film -- which he directed, produced, and co-wrote, as well as playing the title role -- proved to be his most important and influential work, a ground-breaking drama loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst which is frequently cited as the finest American film ever made. Aging newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) dies in his sprawling Florida estate after uttering a single, enigmatic final word -- "Rosebud" -- and newsreel producer Rawlston (Phil Van Zandt) sends reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) out with the assignment of uncovering the meaning behind the great man's dying thought. As Thompson interviews Kane's friends, family, and associates, we learn the facts of Kane's eventful and ultimately tragic life: his abandonment by his parents (Agnes Moorehead and Harry Shannon) after he becomes the heir to a silver mine; his angry conflicts with his guardian, master financier Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris); his impulsive decision that "it would be fun to run a newspaper" with the help of school chum Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) and loyal assistant Mr. Bernstein (Everett Sloane); his rise from scandal sheet publisher to the owner of America's largest and most influential newspaper chain; his marriage to socially prominent Emily Norton (Ruth Warrick), whose uncle is the President of the United States; Kane's ambitious bid for public office, which is dashed along with his marriage when his opponent, corrupt political boss Jim Gettys (Ray Collins), reveals that Kane is having an affair with aspiring vocalist Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore); Kane's vain attempts to promote second wife Alexander as an opera star; and his final, self-imposed exile to a massive and never-completed pleasure palace called Xanadu. While Citizen Kane was a film full of distinguished debuts -- along with Welles, it was the first feature for Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead, and Ruth Warrick -- the only Academy Award it received was for Best Original Screenplay, for which Welles shared credit with veteran screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An uneven mix of '30s crook melodrama and Rose Marie-inspired mountie romance, Renfrew of the Royal Mounted of radio fame came to the screen in 1937, courtesy of the founder of Grand National, Edward L. Alperson. Chosen to play the strapping title role was James Newill, a Nelson Eddy wannabe whose introduction number, "Mounted Men," was almost a carbon copy of "Stout Hearted Men." Newill's Renfrew is assigned to look into a counterfeiting ring operating on the Canadian border with the United States. The ring is headed by lodge owner George Poulis (William Royle), who is coercing convicted engraver James Bronson (Herbert Corthell) into working for him. When Bronson's daughter, Virginia (Carol Hughes), discovers the truth, she convinces the engraver to flee. Renfrew, who has been chasing the crooks on horseback and by airplane, eventually saves the Bronsons from perishing in a meat locker. Filmed in Grand National's studios on Santa Monica Boulevard and at Big Bear Lake, CA, Renfrew of the Royal Mounted proved popular enough to warrant a series. Grand National collapsed two years later but the series was picked up by Monogram and a total of eight Renfrew movies were ultimately released. A former singer on the Burns & Allen radio program, James Newill later went on to co-star in PRC's "trio" series Texas Rangers, where he was reunited with Dave "Tex" O'Brien, who had played one of the crooks in Renfrew of the Royal Mounted. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Set in the land Down Under but filmed at Sunland, CA, and on Catalina Island, this low-budget action-adventure stars one of the more forgotten of the singing cowboys, baritone George Houston. Fisherman Wallaby Jim has discovered a rich pearl bed, but his constant brawling gets him in trouble with friends and foes alike. Among the latter is one Rickter (William Von Brincken), an unscrupulous competitor who will stop at nothing, including murder, to get his hands on Jim's strike. In between numerous barroom brawls, George Houston sings "Hi Ho Hum," "Moon Over the Islands," and "The Lady with the Two Left Feet," all by Felix Bernard and Irving Bibo. Low-rent producer Bud Barsky proposed a series of at least four Wallaby Jim adventures,but only Wallaby Jim on the Islands was actually made. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Dennis Morgan, still billed as Stanley Morner, essays his first leading role in the Halperin Brothers' I Conquer the Sea. The star is cast as Tommy, a harpooner on a whaling ship who loses an arm during one excursion. Rosita (Steffi Duna) is in love with Tommy, while Tommy's younger brother Leonard (Douglas Walton) is in love with Rosita. Realizing that he'll never be able to properly support Rosita, Tommy sacrifices his own happiness (and his life) for the sake of his brother. A subplot involving prejudice against the whaling community's Portuguese residents wends its way in and out of the plotline. The otherwise pedestrian I Conquer the Sea is enlivened by some authentic (and rather gory) whaling footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Produced on a reasonably lavish scale by the usually parsimonious Mascot Pictures, Harmony Lane was the first of three filmed biographies of 19th-century songwriter Stephen Foster (the others were Fox's Swanee River [1939] and 1952's I Dream of Jeannie, produced by Mascot's successor, Republic Pictures). Douglass Montgomery stars as Foster, with Evelyn Venable and Adrienne Ames as the women in his life and William Frawley as minstrel impresario E.P. Christy (the part played by Al Jolson in Swanee River). The film follows Foster from his early attempts to study for the ministry to his first flush of success in the years just prior to the Civil War, ending with his death in drunken poverty in New York. Just what was it that so attracted Hollywood to this melancholy tale? Perhaps it was the fact that Stephen Foster's songs were in the Public Domain, thereby allowing producers to sidestep expensive copyright and licensing fees. Harmony Lane was written and directed by Joseph Santley, a prolific if uninspired helmsman of early-talkie musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hoping to avoid the new inheritance tax, eccentric millionaire Jasper Whyte (Charles Grapewin) gathers together his greedy relatives and associates and announces that he intends to give away his fortune to his long-lost granddaughter Doris -- but if she doesn't show up for the reading of the will, the money will be divided evenly among the heirs. Among those present are two girls (Mary Carlisle and Evalyn Knapp) who both claim to be Doris. When one of the girls is poisoned, Whyte's heirs waste no time blaming each other for the murder. After an attempt on the life of the remaining girl, the suspect list narrows down to Whyte's great-nephew Tom (Regis Toomey). Combining forces with two-bit vaudeville magician Joe Luvalle (Wallace Ford), Tom manages to expose the genuine murderer. Written by Stuart Palmer of "Hildegarde Withers" fame, One Frightened Night is a class act all the way, from the inventive opening-title sequence to the exciting finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first years of the talkies, every studio drew up plans to release annual "all-star" musical spectacles, but only Fox Pictures truly stuck to the notion. A follow-up to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, Movietone Follies of 1930 once again offers a maximum of production numbers and the barest minimum of plot. Rich young Conrad Sterling (William Collier Jr.) is in love with struggling actress Mary Mason (Miriam Seeger). To prove his love, he hires Mary and the entire company of the show in which she is appearing to entertain his weekend guests at his lavish mansion (a plot device previously utilized, with variations, in Fox's Sunny Side Up). The lion's share of the footage is devoted to dialect comedian El Brendel, cast as a Swedish butler who poses as a millionaire. Likewise good for laughs are Fox's resident soubrette Marjorie White and comic singer Frank Richardson, doing what they did in every picture they were ever in. Of the mostly forgettable songs, the best is I'd Like to Be a Talking Picture Queen, a blatant imitation of the studio's 1929 hit If I Had a Talking Picture of You. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made in 1930, this well-known sci-fi musical chronicles the adventures of a lightning-struck man who awakens to find himself in futuristic New York City, circa 1980. He finds it a strange new world where fantastically attired people are ascribed numbers rather than names and all marriages must be government-approved. He also finds a bewildering array of technical gizmos and innovations that include babies grown in test tubes, videophones, and automatic doors (could the filmmakers see into the future or are our innovations the result of self-fulfilling prophecy?). The story centers on his attempts to get the government to sanction his marriage to his modern girl love. Before the feds will approve, the fellow must prove his worth. He does so by boarding a Mars-bound rocket. Upon the red planet he discovers that it is populated by replicas of the people living on Earth. The film's songs are dismal, but of course that is part of the campy fun. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Are You There? is a characteristically lumpy but enjoyable early-talkie musical from Fox Studios. Broadway luminary Beatrice Lillie stars as a looney lady detective with a penchant for disguises. This plot device allows her to parade her astonishing versatility in a wide array of characterizations, including a dotty nurse in a hospital where a criminal gang is encamped. Are You There? came at the tail end of the first movie-musical cycle; Fox, fearing that musicals were on the way out, removed four of Ms. Lillie's seven musical numbers. This butchery resulted in the negative reputation Are You There? has earned among Bea Lillie's staunchest fans, though even in its truncated form the film is extremely entertaining. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, a young man from Virginia who is heir to a wealthy estate falls in love with a girl who longs to be a Broadway star. He moves to New York to be with her but discovers that she's a lot more interested in her career than in settling down. Hoping to turn her gaze away from the Great White Way (and onto himself), he buys up controlling interest in the show in which she has just been cast -- and fires her. However, the young man first discovers unemployment makes her no more inclined to walk down the aisle with him, and besides, he now has the Actor's Equity to contend with. The cast includes John Breeden, Lola Lane, DeWitt Jennings, and Stepin Fetchit, and features the songs "The Breakaway," "Walking with Susie," and "The Varsity Drag." At this time, no prints of this film are known to exist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The popular silent romantic team of Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor made a successful all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing debut in Sunny Side Up. The story is old bromide about a poor girl who falls in love with a rich man, then tries to pass herself off as a woman of wealth. This being a 1929 Fox picture, the supporting cast includes the ineluctable dialect comedian El Brendel, along with squeaky-voiced soubrette Marjorie White. In his feature-film debut, 7-year-old Jackie Cooper shows up as a tenement kid, while Joe E. Brown does a guest bit as a grinning undertaker. The superb DeSylva-Brown-Henderson score includes "If I Had a Talking Picture of You," "Turn on the Heat" (a jaw-droppingly erotic number, in which the gyrations of the chorus girls causes a banana tree to blossom full out!), and the title song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide