John Kelly Movies

Blindfold is a crime drama that gets off to a lively (if unbelievable) start when a dedicated cop deliberately gets himself knocked off by the villains so that the hero, ex-cop George O'Brien, will seek vengeance. Things get even more incredible when heroine Lois Moran develops amnesia and joins a criminal gang. O'Brien rescues Moran and avenges his pal's death in what seems to be a matter of three minutes. This last-reel development enables O'Brien, previously bumped from the force because of a series of frivolous arrests, to get back in the good graces of the Chief. Incidentally, leading man George O'Brien was in real life the son of a San Francisco police chief, a fact not ignored in the publicity packet for Blindfold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

So many silent favorites had fallen by the wayside with the comic of talkies that one shouldn't be surprised that canine star Rin-Tin-Tin had to content himself with fourth billing in The Man Hunter. The plot is typical of Rinty's silent vehicles, with the doggie hero tracking down villains, aiding the hero, and rescuing the heroine. The film's singular novelty is its setting: Darkest Africa, where Lady Jane Winston (Nora Lane) has arrived to find out what's been delaying her ivory shipments. It turns out that her overseer is a crook, whereupon Rinty, with the help of nominal human hero George Castle (John Loder), swings into action. The Rin-Tin-Tin features, once a mainstay of the Warner Bros. operation, steadily lost money after the advent of talkies, which is why Rinty ended his movie career starring in serials for low-budget Mascot Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A minister's daughter finds fame as an evangelist but struggles with her own lack of faith in Frank Capra's impassioned drama. Inspired by the true story of Aimee Semple McPherson, the film follows the rise to prominence of Florence Fallon (Barbara Stanwyck). Disillusioned by the mistreatment of her dying father by his church, Florence grows cynical about religion. She nevertheless retains an intimate knowledge of the Bible and natural flair for preaching, talents put to use by promoter Bob Hornsby (Sam Hardy) in a series of phony revival meetings, complete with staged healings and other stunts. Florence plays along, but she soon comes to take her religious mission more seriously, especially after a blind songwriter John Carson (David Manners) claims that her preaching saved his life. Guilt-ridden Florence decides to go straight, but Hornsby sets out to stop her, seeing her new-found morality -- and her budding romance with John -- as a threat to his lucrative business. Foreshadowing many of his better-known classics, Capra addresses issues about the manipulation of the public and the importance of truth while also presenting an unlikely romance. The film's treatment of religion was considered controversial on its initial release; it now seems justifiably complex but far from critical. The film's most notable element is the intense lead performance from Stanwyck, whose combination of fiery charisma and vulnerability is magnetic and convincing, providing Capra's ambitious drama with a gripping emotional core. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Clark Gable was officially elevated to stardom with this airborne MGM action-adventure, but good old Wallace Beery (whom Gable disliked in real life) ended up with more screen time. They played Naval officers training in the newfangled art of dive bombing while spending a great deal of time squabbling over who is more macho. The two rivals, of course, end up crashing on a deserted atoll only to discover that behind the tough veneer they share a common goal. In the end, the gruff but lovable Beery sacrifices himself so that Gable and the stolid Conrad Nagel may live. As usual in this kind of testosterone-driven action fare, the girls are given short shrift and have to literally shout to be heard above the din. Dorothy Jordan is forgettable as Gable's love interest, but both Marjorie Rambeau and Marie Prevost, as a couple of goodhearted floozies, make the most of their all too brief moments. Hell Divers is the kind of film where action in the skies makes up for the lack of any real drama and where characters are constantly uttering such lines as "Gee honey, I'm just goofy about you!" The film was produced with full co-operation from the U.S. Navy on-location at San Pedro and in Panama. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Gabby Denton (Edmund Lowe) is a slightly down-on-his-luck bettor with a taste for alcohol and the ladies. To tide himself over, he takes a job in the garage owned by his brother-in-law, Beef Evans (James Gleason). Unbeknownst to Gabby -- times being what they are in the midst of the Great Depression -- Beef has had to play along with a stolen car ring operating out of one of the upper floors of the same building, where there's also a speakeasy and a mob hangout in the penthouse. Up there, Mr. Jenkins (Alan Dinehart) and his deaf-mute "servant" (George Rosener), who's a lot more than a valet, run the hot-car operation and Jenkins entertains his current ladyfriend, Silver (Wynne Gibson). Gabby meets her one day when her car runs off the road and in the course of hauling in the wreck they strike sparks, leading to a very obvious sexual assignation (complete with cigarettes after) at her place one afternoon. Gabby does fine juggling the cars and the girl until one of the more reckless wheelmen working for the gang critically injures Beef's son (Dickie Moore) while trying to evade capture; Beef is so upset that he tries to have it out with Jenkins and is knocked cold, killed, and put into a runaway car to cover up the murder. Suddenly, Gabby puts the stolen cars together with the operation on the top two floors and Jenkins; he wants a piece of the gang leader, and is willing to go right through Silver to get it. But the "good time girl" (as they called them politely in those days) proves better and more honorable than anyone (even Gabby) expects -- first she tries to warn him off, then convince him she's back with Jenkins, and finally throws in with him directly when it looks like the hoods have the drop on him. And there are still surprises from there, in this briskly-paced picture. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this rough-and-tumble action comedy, Chuck Connors (Wallace Beery) and Steve Brodie (George Raft) are friendly rivals on New York's Bowery in the 1890s. Connors owns a fancy tavern and looks after a streetwise kid named Swipes McGurk (Jackie Cooper), while Brodie is a daredevil willing to do nearly anything to get the better of Connors. When both men fall in love with Lucy Calhoun (Fay Wray), who has fallen on hard times, Brodie takes her under his wing and helps get her back on her feet. Connors is furious that his rival has won her heart, so he goads Brodie into doing something spectacular to prove his love for her -- jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, for example. Reckless but not stupid, Brodie has no intention of making the jump and plans to use a dummy instead, but when Connors and his henchmen show up to make sure that Brodie doesn't back down, the dare is turned into a wager, and Brodie emerges the new owner of Connors' bar after successfully making the jump. In real life, George Raft and Wallace Beery were not nearly so friendly as their characters: Raft persuaded director Raoul Walsh to hire a number of his underworld cronies as extras, which irritated Beery no end. When the two actors had a fight scene, Beery refused to hold back, and the staged fistfight quickly turned into a for-real battle royale. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Columbia Pictures workhorse Lambert Hillyer was both writer and director of Men of the Night. Bruce Cabot plays Kelly, a Hollywood detective, assigned to capture a holdup gang. While dallying with carhop Mary (Judith Allen), Kelly jumps to the hasty conclusion that the girl is somehow tied in with the crooks. Acting on this misapprehension, he nearly gets both Mary and himself killed by the villains (headed by Charles Sabin, a stage actor who never quite clicked in films). Ward Bond, a mere supporting player in 1934, goes into his comedy-relief mode as Cabot's dimwitted partner. Men of the Night ran 58 minutes, just long enough to fit comfortably on the bottom half of a Columbia double bill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Department-store owner Horatio Allen's (George Barbier) biggest mistake is to name his scatterbrained daughter Gracie (Gracie Allen) as his sole heir. Suddenly Gracie becomes obsessed with the notion of converting her dad's store into a bird sanctuary. Psychologist Dr. Otto von Strudel (Egon Brecher) suggests that the best way to dissuade Gracie is to marry her off to Burns (George Burns). Burns vetoes the idea until Allen Sr. offers to pay him 10 dollars for every mile he travels with Gracie away from the store. This leads to a series of zany "on the road" complications, with Gracie's foolishness causing no end of trouble for the long-suffering George. Much ado about nothing, Many Happy Returns is recommended for Burns and Allen's staunchest admirers, though music fans will enjoy Larry Adler's harmonica solo and the dulcet sounds of Guy Lombardo's Orchestra (incidentally, some of Lombardo's numbers are actually performed sans screen credit by the Duke Ellington band). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Brooklyn tugboat worker Eddie (Eddie Cantor), bullied and cowed by his tough-guy stepfather and stepbrothers (a la Harold Lloyd's The Kid Brother), inherits $77 million from his uncle, an Egyptologist. Con artist Dot (Ethel Merman) wants to get her lunchhooks on the money, and to this end offers herself as Eddie's adopted mother (never mind that she's nearly 20 years younger), intending to have her thuggish brother Louie (Warren Hymer) bump off our hero at the first opportunity. The nonsensical plotline ends up with Eddie, Dot, Louie, pompous Southern colonel Larrabee (Berton Churchill), and nominal romantic leads Jerry (George Murphy in his film debut) and Jane (Ann Sothern) trapped in the palace of Arab potentate Mulhulla (Paul Harvey). The better-than-average comic banter includes some funny bits between Cantor and Eve Sully, of the comedy team of "Block and Sully" (her husband-partner Jesse Block is also in the picture, but just barely). Spotted among the featured players in Kid Millions are such "Our Gang" members as Stymie Beard, Scotty Beckett and Tommy Bond, and there's a specialty by the Nicholas Brothers during Cantor's obligatory "blackface" number; and yes, that's Lucille Ball as a blonde Goldwyn Girl in the harem sequence. PS: According to Ethel Merman, the film's elaborate Technicolor ice-cream factory finale, in which Eddie allows dozens of tenement kids to gorge themselves on his tasty confections, posed censorship problems: while producer Sam Goldwyn was allowed to show the little boys with comically extended stomachs, he was not permitted to do so with the little girls, for fear that the audience might think the female moppets were pregnant! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this bouncy musical, a sax-playing ex-convict joins a swing band and embarks upon a cross-country tour. He does really well until an old friend tries to tempt him into becoming a criminal again. The convict refuses the offer so the "friend" retaliates by doing the job anyway and leaving the con to take the rap. Then the band is kidnapped by a powerful person desiring a private concert. The ex-con saves the band by informing on the crook. He is then allowed to play with them again and musical happiness ensues. Songs include: "Would There Be Love," "Let's Spill the Beans," "I Never Had a Man to Cry Over," and "Fagin Youse is a Viper" (Mack Gordon, Harry Revel). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Paul Muni is a prominent physician who is kidnapped by gangsters and forced to tend the needs of head crook Barton MacLaine. MacLaine takes a liking to the intellectual doctor and allows him to go home after his job is done. Muni finds himself the reluctant "staff physician" for the gangster, thus is periodically spirited away from his practice to look after the criminal. He has given his word not to "rat" on the crooks, but he can't sit idly by while the gangsters loot the city. Muni foils the crooks by injecting them with a drug which induces temporary blindness. Dr. Socrates was remade in 1939 as King of the Underworld, with Humphrey Bogart as the gangster boss and actress Kay Francis in Paul Muni's role (with surprisingly few dialogue alterations to accommodate the gender switch!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a burst of creativity in 1933 and 1934, independent Majestic Pictures had settled into the usual "B"-picture rut by 1935. One of the last Majestic efforts was Motive for Revenge, starring Donald Cook as hapless bank teller Barry Webster. Plagued by a domineering mother-in-law (Doris Lloyd), Webster impulsively steals bank funds so that he may properly support his wife Muriel (Irene Hervey). It isn't long before the Law catches up with Webster, and soon he's doing hard time in prison. Holding his mother-in-law responsible for his present sorry state, our anti-hero plots a terrible revenge -- but is he too nice a guy to go through with it? Most of the prison scenes in Motive for Revenge were culled from stock footage, which only served to emphasize the overall cheapness of the whole enterprise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The MGM historical "spectacular" San Francisco was allegedly based on a three-sentence synopsis, submitted verbally to producer B.F. Zeidman by studio troubleshooter Bob Hopkins. The story begins on the Barbary Coast on New Year's Eve, 1906, as rakish but likeable political boss Blackie Norton (Clark Gable) hires demure young singer Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) to perform at his rowdy Paradise gambling house. Local priest Father Mullin (Spencer Tracy), Blackie's best friend, disapproves of the exploitation of the lovely Mary, feeling that she's suited for classier surroundings. Jack Hurley (Jack Holt), Nob Hill socialite and Blackie's political rival, agrees with Father Mullin and offers the girl the opportunity to sing with the San Francisco Opera. Blackie, who's fallen in love with Mary but won't admit it to himself, jealously holds on to her contract, forcing Mary to walk out on him. For the rest of the film, Mary is torn between the "respectable" lifestyle offered her by Hurley and the baser creature comforts provided by Blackie. It looks for a while that Hurley has won out, but fate takes a hand in the form of the devastating San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906 (a special effects tour de force for art directors Arnold Gillespie and his uncredited associate James Basevi). Hurley is killed in the holocaust, while Blackie, desperately searching for Mary in the rubble, at long last finds religion and prays to God for his sweetheart's salvation. At the end, an unidentified bit player shouts defiantly "We'll build a new San Francisco!" -- and by golly, they do! The Hollywood censors were not so much bothered by the sexual subtext of San Francisco or its harrowing earthquake finale as they were by a scene in which Father Mullin is knocked down by an unrepentant Blackie. To "purify" this potentially blasphemous sequence, screenwriter Anita Loos quickly added an earlier scene in which Mullin and Blackie, both dressed in turtleneck sweaters, genially duke it out at an exercise gym, whereupon the priest cold-cocks Blackie with the greatest of ease. By establishing that Mullin could have punched out Blackie, but chooses not to in the controversial later scene, not only allows that scene to pass, but also strengthened the priest's character. San Francisco proved to be one of MGM's biggest hits, remaining in almost constant reissue for the next three decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide