James Burke Movies

Based on a popular novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams, this screwball comedy stars Errol Flynn in the title-role, the heir to an industrial fortune kept hidden from the world by his imperious grandmother (May Robson). Intrigued by the secrecy, peppy Joan Blondell literally crashes the estate to liberate the young man and the two embark on a whirlwind trip through Pennsylvania. Falling in love with the intruder along the way, Flynn learns how life is lived by the other half -- or at least by the wacky Warner Bros. stock company -- and proves himself to be much more capable than "Grandma" Robson ever imagined. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Mae West butts heads with Victor McLaglen in Raoul Walsh's Klondike Annie, but the real victor was the Legion of Decency, whose censorship strictures transformed a saucy and spicy gumbo into something closer to chicken noodle soup. West plays Rose Carlton, the kept woman of Chan Lo (Harold Huber), who takes her from walking the streets to pacing the floors of her high rent apartment. Rose ends up killing Chan and beats it from San Francisco to the frozen north. She boards a ship where burly sea captain Bull Brackett (McLaglen) takes a shine to her; when he finds out she killed Chan, he blackmails her into coming up and seeing him sometime. Boarding the ship in Seattle is missionary Annie Alden (Helen Jerome Eddy), who dies on the way to Alaska. Rose assumes Annie's identity and, upon arrival in Alaska proceeds to preach the Good Book, saving sinners by unorthodox methods. Mountie Jack Forrest (Philip Reed) arrives in town searching for Chan's murderer and he falls in love with Rose, unaware that the woman he loves is the killer he seeks. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Bing Crosby's only western (outside of the 1966 version of Stagecoach), Rhythm on the Range stars Crosby as a casual cowpoke on his way back to the Wide Open Spaces after an eastern visit. He meets a young train stowaway (Frances Farmer), whom he regards as a hoydenish vagabond until learning that she's the owner of the ranch where he works. Farmer resists Crosby's charms until he rescues her from a gang of rustlers. Among the supporting cast is Mischa Auer, Bob "Bazooka" Burns, and, in her film debut, 19-year-old Martha Raye. The film also introduces the song hit "I'm an Old Cowhand", which is sung at one point or another by everyone in the cast, including Russian-born Mischa Auer. Rhythm on the Range was remade in 1956 as Pardners, with a few minor alterations--notably the casting of Jerry Lewis in the Frances Farmer role! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A winning sweepstakes ticket is the catalyst in 36 Hours to Kill. The lucky recipient is gangster Duke Benson (Douglas Fowley), who happens to be a fugitive from justice. Duke hops a train to collect his prize money, keeping a low profile lest he be discovered. Also on board are G-man Frank Evers (Brian Donlevy) and newspaper sob-sister Anne Marvis (Gloria Stuart). Yes, they catch the villain, but before that they stop squabbling long enough to fall in love. The basic premise in 36 Hours to Kill was later reshaped by scenarist Lou Breslow for his 1942 Laurel and Hardy comedy A-Haunting We Will Go. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this remake of the 1920 Will Rogers comedy Honest Hutch, Wallace Beery stars as the eponymous Hutch, the ne'er-do-well patriarch of a large and needy family, who unexpectedly becomes rich when he stumbles upon $100,000 worth of hidden swag. Ironically, because Hutch has become so notorious as the town layabout, he must now reform into a responsible, hard-working member of the community, in order to provide an excuse for the excessive funds suddenly available to him. The money just as abruptly becomes unavailable again when it's stolen by bank robbers, but the yarns Hutch spins to explain away the missing cash wind up leading to the arrest of the thieves. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

After retiring from a boxing career, Johnny Cave (James Cagney) accepts an appointment to serve as head of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. However, when he discovers that his organization is full of corruption and lies, he sets out to uncover the scam, much to the dismay of his girlfriend, Janet (Mae Clarke), and his underhanded coworkers. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

The Leathernecks Have Landed is an adventure yarn revolving around three boisterous marines. Lew Ayres is the headstrong one, James Ellison the sincere one, and Maynard Holmes the roly-poly comic relief. Holmes is killed in a nightclub brawl for which Ayres gets the blame. The real murderers are smugglers; the disgraced Ayres joins the gang to bring them to justice. Republic Pictures must have been entranced by this plotline, since it popped up virtually scene for scene in four subsequent films over the next six years: Forged Passport (39), Rough Rider's Roundup (39 again!), Girl From Havana (40) and Remember Pearl Harbor (42). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A tuneful taxi driver secretly works to achieve his dream of becoming a radio singer in this musical comedy. One day he gives a radio station secretary a lift. She prattles on about a sponsor's new contest. The sponsor, a prominent cheese company, is looking for a singing gondolier to participate in their newest campaign. Later the secretary and the head cheese go to Venice to look for the real McCoy, unaware that the determined cabbie is already there waiting for them. Sure enough, they are fooled and he is hired. Things go really well until he feels compelled to tell the truth during a major broadcast. Songs include: "Lulu's Back in Town", "The Rose in Her Hair", "Lonely Gondolier", and ""You Can Be Kissed"". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy with musical numbers set in the Old South, Bing Crosby plays a singer (talk about a casting stretch!) from Philadelphia named Tom Grayson, who has fallen in love with Southern heiress Elvira Rumford (Gail Patrick). Tom wants to marry Elvira, but a man called Major Patterson (John Miljan) has announced his desire to do the same, and he challenges Tom to a duel to decide who will have Elvira's hand. Tom is not at all agreeable to this idea, which leads Elvira's father (Claude Gillingwater) to proclaim Tom to be a coward and deny him permission to wed his daughter. Elvira's sister Lucy (Joan Bennett), who is infatuated with Tom, thinks that he's merely being sensible, but Tom thinks that Lucy is too young for a serious relationship. In need of work and not especially welcome in the Rumford's community, Tom takes a job performing on a riverboat piloted by the blustery Commodore Orlando Jackson (W.C. Fields). One night, Tom finds himself in a barroom brawl with a man named Captain Blackie (Fred Kohler), who dies accidentally from a shot fired by his own gun. Hoping that his infamy will draw crowds, Jackson begins billing Tom as "The Singing Killer." Tom comes to realize that Lucy may be the right woman for him after all, but Lucy is not interested in a man with blood on his hands, and now Tom must convince her that he's not a killer at all. Noted gambling aficionado Fields has a hilarious poker-playing bit, and he steals most of his scenes from the rest of the cast. Mississippi was loosely based on the play "Magnolia" by Booth Tarkington. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Susan (ZaSu Pitts) is a plain-Jane wallflower who spends a day at Coney Island. Here she catches the eye of equally shy (and twice as homely) Hugh O'Connell. Though both hero and heroine spend every penny and then some riding the rides and trying their luck at the arcade; it hardly matters since, at the end of the day, they have each other. A short story by Mann Page was the principal inspiration of The Affair of Susan; scripters include ex-Laurel and Hardy gagman H. M. Walker and future Three Stooges contributor Andrew Benniston. In no way is this amiable little farce the predecessor to the 1945 political satire The Affairs of Susan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title character in this Columbia quickie is an elusive jewel thief who doesn't like to be photographed. Erstwhile journalist Roger Pryor didn't know that when he snapped a photo of the thief as he sped away from the scene of his latest heist. Thing of it is, Pryor's picture isn't all that clear-but the thief, who isn't above murder, is unaware of this. Pryor's toothsome leading lady in Case of the Missing Man is Joan Perry, later the wife of Columbia chieftain Harry Cohn. Chucklesome comic relief is provided by the reliable Tom Dugan as a street photographer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1918 and 1923, Harry Leon Wilson's novel achieved movie classic status when it was remade by Leo McCarey in 1935. The story opens in Paris, circa 1908. Ruggles, beautifully underplayed by Charles Laughton, is the ultra-obedient manservant to the bibulous Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young). During one of the Earl's nocturnal forays, nouveau riche American cattle baron Egbert Floud (Charles Ruggles) wins Ruggles in a poker game. Terrified at the prospect of being bundled off to the Wild West, Ruggles' resolve is weakened somewhat when he and the raucous but ingratiating Egbert spend a wild night on the town. (The besotted butler's periodic exclamations of "Whoopee!" are priceless.) Back in the frontier "boom town" of Red Gap, a misunderstanding obliges Egbert's social-climbing wife Effie (Mary Boland) to pass off Ruggles as an aristocratic British army officer, immediately arousing the suspicions of priggish social arbiter Charles Belknap-Jackson (Lucien Littlefield). The longer he spends in America, the more Ruggles grows to like the concept of democracy and self-determination. Of the film's many highlights, two are standouts: the scene in which Ruggles silences a rowdy saloon crowd with his recitation of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and the droll, semi-improvised vignette in which dancehall girl Nell Kenner (Leila Hyams) teaches the Earl of Burnstead how to play the drums. Ruggles of Red Gap was filmed for a fourth time in 1950 as the Bob Hope-Lucille Ball musical Fancy Pants. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide