Ray McCarey Movies
The younger brother of director/writer/producer Leo McCarey, McCarey began working in films as a prop boy in the mid '20s, and soon gained experience as an editor, assistant director, and scriptwriter. He began directing short comedies with the Hal Roach studios in the early '30s, and is forever beloved for having guided the debut performance of three-year-old "Spanky" McFarland in the Little Rascals short Free Eats. He also helmed the Laurel and Hardy two-reeler Scram! and with George Marshall co-directed their feature Pack Up Your Troubles. McCarey left Roach soon after and while at Columbia helmed the classic Three Stooges shorts Men in Black and Three Little Pigskins. His subsequent features were mostly low-budget genre films, including the musical Atlantic City and the mystery The Falcon's Alibi. ~ All Movie Guide- 1936
In this musical, a young lady is sent to an East coast finishing school. She doesn't realize that it is a bogus school run by an unemployed stage troupe, her fellow students are chorus girls, and the faculty is comprised of the troupe's star act. The truth is soon revealed. Fortunately, it all turns out well when the girl's father, a prominent Hollywood-producer pays the school a call and sees their performance. He is so impressed that he offers them all contracts. Songs include: "Where Is My Heart?" "The Swing Tap," "Tap Your Feet," "Long Ago and Far Away" (Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin), "Learn to Be Lovely." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleanore Whitney, Robert Cummings, (more)
- 1935
The title doesn't refer to mosquitoes but to the amount of money that could be earned in the radio business of the 1930s. Samuel S. Hinds plays a Major Bowes-type entrepreneur who sponsors a weekly radio amateur contest. Hinds' daughter Wendy Barrie has show-biz aspirations, but dad won't hear of it. She enters his contest under an assumed name, winning not only the prize but the heart of a the program's emcee (John Howard). Millions in the Air is one of the few feature films costarring Broadway comedian Willie Howard, whose Jewish characterization and "blue" humor made him difficult to cast in most Hollywood productions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Howard, Willie Howard, (more)
A curious mix of B-Western heroics and gangster film melodramatics, Sunset Range was the first of two very low-budget Westerns Hoot Gibson would make for Gower Gulch company First Division Productions. Mary Doran, a blonde starlet who had played gangster's molls during the heyday of that genre in the early 1930s was cast as Bonnie Shea, a Chicago girl whose brother Eddie (James Eagles) is a member of a gang headed by hoodlum Grant (Walter McGrail). When Bonnie is leaving to take over her brother's Arizona ranch, Grant forces Eddie to hide the loot from the gang's latest bank heist in her suitcase. In Arizona, Bonnie immediately faces staff problems when sloppy cowhand Reasonin' Bates (Gibson) refuses to work for a lady. But despite Reasonin's early misgivings, he and his fellow cowboys show a united front when Grant and his gang of city slickers arrive to retrieve the loot. As usual in these low-budget affairs, Gibson earned certain casting privileges and Sunset Range featured several long-time associates of the popular star, including Fred Humes, Fred Gilman and stunt-men Len and George Sowards. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Doran, James C. Eagles, (more)
- 1935
Long before its "Teen Agers" series of the 1940s, Monogram Pictures went to college in the minor musical Girl of My Dreams. Heading the somewhat over-aged student body are BMOC Larry Haynes (Edward Nugent) and track-star Don Cooper (a handsome young Lon Chaney Jr., here still billed as Creighton Chaney). The story's focal point is a student election, which obliges Larry and Don to neglect their campus sweeties Gwen (Mary Carlisle) and Mary (GiGi Parrish). Comedy relief comes from Sterling Holloway and Arthur Lake, cast respectively as the school newspaper editor and a fresh frosh. One suspects that the people who made such pictures as Girl of My Dreams never set foot in a real college. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Carlisle, Sterling Holloway, (more)
This peppy Monogram meller stars Robert Armstrong as a big-city newspaper reporter. After getting a bonus, Armstrong over-celebrates and wakes up in faraway St. Louis without a penny to his name. He finagles passing-stranger Maxine Doyle into posing as his wife so that he'll be able to get a hotel room. While thus occupied, Armstrong finds time to solve a local mystery and secure another bonus that will enable him to marry Doyle for real. Mystery Man was directed by Leo McCarey's kid brother Raymond, a veteran of the Hal Roach and Columbia 2-reel comedy factories. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Maxine Doyle, (more)
- 1935
The multitalented James Gleason was both star and co-director of the RKO Radio programmer Hot Tip. Gleason is cast as restaurant owner Jimmy McGill, an inveterate horse player who's a sucker for every race-track tout within a hundred-mile radius. But his wife Jane (ZaSu Pitts) detests gambling, so Jimmy promises to stop playing the ponies. This promise lasts only until our hero needs 200 bucks in a hurry to help out his future son-in-law Ben (played by Gleason's real-life son Russell Gleason). James Gleason and ZaSu Pitts worked so well together that RKO later reteamed them in two "Hildegarde Withers" entries, The Plot Thickens and 40 Naughty Girls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- ZaSu Pitts, James Gleason, (more)
- 1934
Although it was nominated for an Academy Award, the third Three Stooges comedy two-reeler for Columbia has not dated well. A spoof of MGM's Clark Gable vehicle Men in White, Men in Black was a rather shapeless romp in which Moe, Larry, and Curly played dumbbell interns at the Lost Arms Hospital. The team was supported by such veteran comedians as Bud Jamison, Dell Henderson, Hank Mann, and Neal Burns, while Ruth Hiatt, Kay Hughes, and a host of starlets appeared as nurses, but the two-reeler remains one of the team's lesser early efforts. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Moe Howard, Larry Fine, (more)
- 1934
In their fourth two-reeler for Columbia, the Three Stooges are mistaken for college football heroes by a beautiful gangster's moll. The latter was played by a very young Lucille Ball, who would always credit the Stooges with introducing her to "slapstick and physical comedy." According to Jack White, brother of Stooges producer Jules White, Lucille quickly left the studio because "Harry Cohn didn't want to bother with her. He didn't think she had any talent!" ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Moe Howard, Larry Fine, (more)
- 1932
To further her husband's political career, wealthy Mrs. Clark (Lillian Elliot) throws a lavish party in her home for the poor children of the community. Among the invitees are the Our Gang kids, including Matthew "Stymie" Beard, who of late has been getting into trouble because of his tall tales. Thus, no one believes Stymie when he claims that a pair of midgets, disguised as infants, have invaded the party for the purpose of stealing everybody's wallets and jewelry. As it turns out, however, Stymie is telling the truth for the first time in his life. Originally released on February 11, 1932, "Free Eats" benefits from a strong adult supporting cast, including Billy Gilbert and Paul Fix (the latter in female drag!) as a pair of crooks. The film is best remembered, however, as the "Our Gang" debut of 3-year-old George "Spanky" McFarland, who delivers a rambling, impromptu monologue about monkeys, swings, and airplanes --- hardly a high point in American comedy, but enchanting nonetheless. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Kendall McComas, (more)
- 1932
It's a rainy night and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are faced with a particularly ill-tempered judge Rychard Cramer. He'd love to throw them in the clink for vagrancy, but since the jail is full, he gives them just one hour...to leave town. Out on the street, they encounter a drunk (perennial screen inebriate Arthur Housman) who has lost his car keys. He finds them with Stan and Ollie's help, and out of gratitude invites them to spend the night at his house. Once there, the drunk discovers that he has apparently forgotten his house keys. The three of them manage to get in anyway -- the only problem is that it's the wrong house! The drunk has just poured his bootleg gin into a water pitcher when a butler tells him to leave. This wakes up the lady of the house (Vivian Oakland). She's glad the man is gone -- her husband, who isn't home yet, abhors drunks. Stan and Ollie are still around, however, making themselves comfortable and completely unaware of the mix up. Dressed in the husband's silk pajamas and robes, they encounter the wife in the hallway and she faints dead away. To revive her they give her a glass of "water" from the pitcher containing the bootleg gin. This brings her back to consciousness -- and then some! The boys are having a time keeping her antics under control but finally they just relax. The three of them are laughing it up and having a grand old time when her husband finally comes home. It's the judge and he slowly approaches Laurel and Hardy, the menace on his face a frightening sight. Stan goes for the light switch and the screen goes dark. The soundtrack, however, gives a cacophonous idea of the mayhem that is being wreaked. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1932
- NR
Drafted into the army during World War I, those muddled misfits Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy make a shambles of Training Camp before being shipped to France. When their best pal Eddie (Donald Dillaway) is killed in battle, Stan and Ollie vow to locate the grandparents of Eddie's orphaned little daughter (Jacquie Lyn). Unfortunately, the grandparents are named Smith--and they live in New York City. With only a city directory and phone book as their guide, Stan and Ollie undergo several chucklesome misadventures as they scour the canyons of Manhattan to find Mr. and Mrs. Smith. With the orphanage officials hot on their heels, the boys take drastic action to raise enough money to get out of town with the little girl. All turns out well when Eddie's grandfather makes an appearance under the least likely circumstances. But before Laurel & Hardy can enjoy their own happy ending, they cross the path of an old enemy from their army days: a knife-wielding chef with blood in his eye. The second of Laurel & Hardy's feature-length films, Pack Up Your Troubles is, so far as we're concerned (and here we part company with most Laurel & Hardy buffs), infinitely more amusing than their first feature effort, 1931's Pardon Us. Best bit: An overtired Laurel, attempting to tell a bedtime story to the little girl, ends up snoozing away as the kid finishes the story. The powerhouse supporting cast includes such Laurel & Hardy regulars as James Finlayson, Billy Gilbert, Rychard Cramer, Charles Middleton and Charlie Hall. George Marshall, the film's director, proves a mirthsome menace in the small role of the vengeful chef. For years available only in its 62-minute reissue form, Pack Up Your Troubles was restored to its full 68-minute glory in the mid-1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, (more)
