William Le Baron Movies

Although an executive at Paramount came up with the racy title for this comedy-drama, the plot came from a Saturday Evening Post story by Arthur Stringer. Tessie McGuire (Gloria Swanson) is a department store clerk. When her sweetheart, auto mechanic Johnny Hogan (Tom Moore) goes to Detroit with a gas saving invention, Tessie's friend, Pinkie (Lilyan Tashman), drags her to a party. The host, sculptor Robert Brandt (Ian Keith), finds Tessie's talent at impersonations amusing (she mimics Charles Chaplin), and hires her as a model. But when he tries to "manhandle" her, she goes to work at the shop of Arno Riccardi (Frank Morgan) -- her job is impersonating a Russian countess. Every man she encounters at the upper reaches of society tries to have his way with her, but Tessie remains staunchly chaste. However, when Hogan returns from his trip (his invention sold), he sees her fancy dresses and believes she is less than spotless. Ultimately, he realizes that Tessie has been faithful all along and the couple is happily reunited. This picture was a departure for Swanson -- her mimicry of Chaplin was totally unexpected (but would be repeated some 25 years later in Sunset Boulevard). It delighted her fans, though, and the film was a huge box-office hit. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

According to this frothy comedy, the "popular sin" is infidelity, especially in Paris. Philandering husband George Montfort (Philip Strange) purchases railroad tickets for a weekend tryst in the mountains with his latest paramour. When his wife Yvonne (Florence Vidor) finds the tickets, George hastily explains that they were bought as an anniversary present for her. Yvonne doesn't believe George, but she decides to use her ticket anyway, while George remains behind in Paris on "business." During her weekend visit to a French resort, Yvonne meets and falls in love with handsome novelist Jean Corot (Clive Brook). Out of loyalty to her husband, she refuses to consummate her romance with Jean, but George arrives unexpectedly, assumes the worst, and files for divorce. On the rebound, Yvonne marries Jean, only to suffer the pangs of jealousy whenever her new husband is approached by one of his adoring female fans. Eventually, she catches Jean in what seems to be a romantic rendezvous with gorgeous actress Le Belle Toulaise (Greta Nissen). Another divorce follows immediately, whereupon Jean marries La Belle, who turns out to have dozens of lovers -- including Yvonne's first ex-husband George. Upon confronting George, Jean cannot help but like the man, and the two engage in a lively conversation, prompting La Belle to walk out on both of them! Another round of divorces ensues, resulting at long last in a tender reunion between Yvonne and Jean. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Believe it or not, Betty Bronson, who starred in the title role of Peter Pan, was the first choice to play jazz baby Kittens Westcourt, the part which eventually went to Clara Bow. Kittens was the second lead, but Bow turned her into a sympathetic character and stole the show from the film's star, Alice Joyce. This society drama, based on the Broadway hit by Edgar Selwyn, probably wouldn't have been much without Bow and Joyce, but they raised it above soap opera level and helped make it one of the defining films of the 1920s. Ethel Westcourt (Joyce) is a very nice, still-lovely society matron whose womanizing husband, Hugh (Norman Trevor), is keeping a mistress, Irma (Elsie Lawson). Ethel's daughter, Kittens (Bow), takes after her father and begins carrying on with Jerry Naughton (Conway Tearle), a man about town. Ethel finds out about all this and decides to fight fire with fire. She becomes a bit jazzy herself and steals Naughton away from her daughter. The family has an emotional confrontation in Naughton's apartments. Although Hugh and Kittens eventually decide to reconcile with Ethel, she takes off for Europe and leaves them behind -- quite an independent way for a female character to end a film in 1926. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location in Manhattan, the 1927 silent New York explores themes later developed more fully in such films as Manhattan Melodrama and Once Upon a Time in America. A product of the Bowery, Trent Regan (William Powell) grows up to become a powerful gangster. Regan's girlfriend Angie Miller (Esther Ralston), hearing that her childhood sweetheart (and Regan's lifelong pal) Mike Cassidy (Ricardo Cortez) is about to marry Marjorie Church (Lois Wilson), pays a visit to Mike to offer congratulations. Convinced that Angie is fooling around behind his back, Regan accidentally kills her. When Mike is charged with the murder, Regan, feeling that "justice" has been served, keeps silent. Ultimately, however, Mike is cleared, and Regan is trapped by the testimony of their mutual chum Buck (Skeets Gallegher). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Love's Greatest Mistake was based on the serialized Liberty Magazine story of the same name. It all begins when Honey McNeill (Josephine Dunn) leaves her home town of Bangor, Maine to visit her married sister Jane (Evelyn Brent) in New York. En route, Honey meets and falls in love with banker William Ogden (Frank Morgan). She confides in Ogden that she expects her visit to Jane to be a dull one, because nothing earth-shattering ever happens in her sister's household. Little does she realize that Jane is presently engaged in an extramarital affair with oily Don Kendall (William Powell). Our hapless heroine gets mixed up in a blackmailing plot hatched by Don, from which she is rescued by Ogde -- who nonetheless steps gallantly aside when a younger, handsomer man (James Hall) comes into Honey's life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

According to existing information, perennial comedy foil Gertrude Astor was afforded top billing in Stocks and Blondes. Still, the bulk of the story deals with the marriage of unemployed stockbroker Tom Greene (Skeets Gallegher) and nitery dancer Patsy (Jacqueline Logan). To pay for their honeymoon cottage, Patsy secretly acquires stock tips from Tom's former boss Powers (Albert Conti). Kept in the dark about Patsy's behind-the-scenes efforts, Tom begins to believe he's coming up with the tips himself and soon turns into an arrogant jerk. Even worse, Tom suspects that Patsy and Powers have been fooling around behind his back. Everything is straightened out at the end, but one wonders what will happen to everybody in the film when Wall Street lays its famous egg in October of 1929. Title writer Jack Conway was not the director of the same name but instead a former movie critic for the trade magazine Variety. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This crime drama chronicles the exploits of three Irish brothers who have taken dramatically different life paths. Tom is an amiable policeman while Matt is a surgeon. The third brother, Owen, is the family black sheep who makes his living running illegal booze. He operates under the alias Barney Muller. His more honest brothers have no idea what Owen does for his money. Things go well for the Muller gang until they commit a murder and the newly promoted Tom is assigned to investigate the case. Meanwhile, Tom's beloved goes to a party at Muller's house in Manhattan. There she overhears some damning information about Muller. She goes back to Tom and Matt with the info and together the three learn the truth about Muller's identity. When Muller learns that a cop is dogging his gang, he orders him killed. He has no idea that it is his own brother. The killers prepare a trap for the unwitting cop, but suddenly Owen shows up and tries to stop it; as a result he is shot and dies in the arms of Tom. Later Tom lies to their parents to save them from unbearable shame. He tells them that Owen has gone away on a very long trip. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Rio Rita, an expensive filmization of the legendary Florenz Ziegfeld-produced Broadway musical of 1928, was the first major production for fledgling RKO Radio Studios. Bebe Daniels plays Rita, an Irish-Mexican girl (with thick Hispanic accent) who oversees a large ranch near the Mexican border. Rita's brother (Don Alvorado) is suspected of being "The Kinkajou," a notorious bandit. On the trail of the Kinkajou, an undercover Texas Ranger (John Boles) falls in love with Rita, much to the chagrin of a wealthy but despotic landowner (Georges Renavent). The villain arranges to make it appear that the Ranger is the Kinkajou, prompting Rita to consent to marriage with the cad in order to save her lover's life. The true identity of the Kinkajou is revealed at a lavish costume party, filmed in early Technicolor. Counterpointing the main plot are the antics of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, comic carryovers from the original Broadway show. Wheeler is in Mexico to arrange a quickie divorce so that he can marry his true love (Dorothy Lee). Woolsey is Wheeler's shady lawyer, who learns too late that he can't make the divorce stick. Wheeler and Woolsey have some of the film's best moments, including a riotous drunk scene and a closing musical number wherein they slap one another as their girlfriends sing inanely into the camera. Rio Rita not only made oodles of money for RKO (it was being regularly reissued throughout the 1930s), but it solidified the popularity of Wheeler and Woolsey, who'd become the studio's biggest comedy stars of the early 1930s. 1929's Rio Rita was withdrawn from circulation when MGM bought the rights for a 1942 remake, this one starring Abbott and Costello. Available only for museum screenings during the past five decades, Rio Rita has recently been released on videocassette, with its rare Technicolor sequence intact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his movie debut, Rudy Valley portrays the crooning saxophone player who falls in love with a beautiful young woman. Classic romantic tale is fun with Marie Dressler outstanding in her role as the wealthy eccentric. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a notorious pirate meets a Yankee dance-hall girl in the port of Tapit. He also meets her jealous lover whom he kidnaps. He tells the girl that he will only release her lover if she spends a night in his cabin with him. She reluctantly agrees to his terms. After one night, she finds herself in love. She sets sail with the pirate without a backward glance at her lover. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The first official release from RKO Productions (previous films from this company had been produced by RKO antecedent FBO Pictures), Street Girl afforded Betty Compson to exhibit her considerable skills as a violinist. Compson is cast as Frederika "Freddy" Joyzelle, manager and principal attraction of The Four Seasons, a Jazz Quartet. In love with Mike Fall (John Harron), the group's pianist, Freddy briefly and foolishly falls in love with Prince Nicholaus (Ivan Lebedeff), who hails from the girl's home country of Aragon. But by film's end, Freddy and Mike have patched things up and tied the knot. A box-office hit, Street Girl was remade by RKO Radio as That Girl From Paris (1937) and Four Jacks and a Jill (1944). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Fall Guy isn't Lee Majors in this 1930 RKO Radio programmer but instead a hapless druggist played by Jack Mulhall. Upon losing his job, Johnny Quinlan (Mulhall) falls in with underworld chieftain Nifty Herman (played by Thomas Jackson, usually cast as dedicated detectives). Hoping to use Johnny as a dupe to cover up his own shady activities, Herman plants a generous supply of illegal drugs on the poor fellow. Government agent Charles Newton (Pat O'Malley) is prepared to put the cuffs on the lad but instead goes along with Johnny's scheme to trick Herman into a confession. The picture is stolen by Mae Clarke (a full year before her "grapefruit massage" in Public Enemy) as Johnny's wife and Ned Sparks as a saxophone-playing boarder. Based on a stage play by Tim Whelan and George Abbott, The Fall Guy was directed by Leslie Pearce, who later helmed the memorable W.C. Fields two-reeler The Barber Shop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide