Harry Allen Movies

The fourth cinematic version of the novel Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung, this romantic caper is a virtual remake of the 1930 version. David Niven stars as A.J. Raffles, a famed cricket player of English society's upper crust. Secretly, however, Raffles is a skilled cat burglar known as "The Amateur Cracksman" to Scotland Yard, which has been unable to catch him. Known for returning the items he's filched, Raffles is about to give up a life of crime because he's fallen for Gwen (Olivia de Havilland), a rich society girl. But first Gwen's brother, Bunny (Douglas Walton), needs help to extricate himself from a gambling debt that will be satisfied nicely by the valuable necklace owned by royal Lady Melrose (May Whitty). At a party thrown by Melrose, a rival thief and a detective (Dudley Digges) stand in Raffles' way, although the nimble and perturbed master criminal has a master plan that will result in the least possible harm coming to all involved. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Musical comedy star Phil Regan headlines this modest Republic tunefest. He plays an American bandleader who inherits an Irish castle. With his band members and his singer (Penny Singleton) in tow, Regan takes charge of the castle, hoping turn it into a nightclub. Naturally, these plans arouses the ire of the local landed gentry, but pretty soon they're keeping in step with Regan's entourage. Like many Republic films of the 1930s, Outside of Paradise is generally available only in the 54-minute version prepared for television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Girl with Ideas was Universal Pictures' version of MGM's matchless Libeled Lady. Wendy Barrie plays a society girl miffed at the bad press she's been getting in a local newspaper. Unable to convince publisher Walter Pidgeon to cease and desist, Barrie takes her case to court. She wins not only the case but the newspaper itself, whereupon Pidgeon uses his sneakiest journalistic wiles to force new editor Kent Taylor into bankruptcy. Though plainly derivative of earlier heiress vs. editor epics, Girl with Ideas was praised for its originality by contemporary critics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As the Panama Canal is under construction, a group of doctors try to find a cure for yellow fever, or "Yellow Jack," a deadly disease taking its toll on the canal workers. A pet monkey accidentally frees disease-bearing mosquitoes, resulting in the death of Dr. Fontaine (Ferdinand Gottschalk). However, this leads Dr. Murray (Ian Keith) to the belief that the disease can be carried by someone who shows no symptoms. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

The ambitious Republic melodrama The Girl From Mandalay was based on Tiger Valley, a novel by Reginald Campbell. The title character is Mandalay resort entertainer Jeanie, played by Kay Linaker. When his aristocratic sweetheart gives him the air, Britisher John Foster (Conrad Nagel) marries Jeanie on the rebound. This sparks a minor scandal when Foster's best friend Kenneth Grainger (Donald Cook) assumes that Jeanie is Foster's mistress instead of his wife and treats her accordingly. It takes the invention of a fever epidemic and a marauding tiger to wash away all misunderstandings and hurt feelings, though the audience is left with the feeling that Jeanie would be better off if both Foster and Grainger got out of her life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Briefly breaking away from her high-gloss modern soap operas, Kay Francis stars as Florence Nightingale in this reverent Warner Bros. biopic. The screenplay concentrates on Nightingale's humanitarian activities during the Crimean War of 1854-55. Defiant in the face of military bureaucracy and the male hierarchy, she organizes a volunteer group of nurses to tend to the military wounded, and also works tirelessly to update and improve the primitive, almost barbaric medical conditions of the Victorian Era. Of the supporting characters, only Ian Hunter as Fuller evinces any sort of humanity; the rest, especially Montague Love, are grim-visaged stereotypes. Critics were unkind to Kay Francis' performance in White Angel, with the New York Times speaking for many by suggesting that Francis was too overwhelmed by the historical importance of her character to deliver a believable performance. By today's standards, however, Francis is most effective despite her miscasting, delivering her difficult speeches with quiet and assured eloquence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although some purists hold out for Duck Soup (1933), many Marx Brothers fans consider A Night at the Opera the team's best film. Immediately after the credits roll, we are introduced to Groucho Marx as penny-ante promoter Otis B. Driftwood. After a sumptuous dinner with a beautiful blonde at a fancy Milan restaurant, Driftwood tries to cadge another free meal from his wealthy patroness, Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont). The dignified dowager complains that Driftwood had promised to get her into high society, but has done nothing so far. Otis B. counters by introducing Mrs. C to pompous opera entrepreneur Gottleib (Sig Rumann); all Mrs. Claypool has to do is invest several hundred thousand dollars in Gottleib's opera company, and her entree into society is in the bag. Contingent upon this plan is Driftwood's signing of Rodolfo Lassparri (Walter Woolf King), a self-important tenor. Backstage at the opera, Driftwood meets Fiorello (Chico Marx), who poses as a manager and offers to sell Driftwood the "world's greatest tenor"-not Lassparri, as Driftwood assumes, but Fiorello's pal Ricardo Baroni (Allan Jones). Instantly the two sharpsters try to draw up a contract ("The party of the first part shall hereafter be known as the party of the first part..."), which they proceed to tear up piece by piece whenever coming across a clause that displeases them (Driftwood: "That's a sanity clause"; Fiorello: "You no foola me. There ain't no Sanity Claus"). Having lost Lassparri to Gottleib, Driftwood sails back to America with Mrs. Claypool and the opera company. Gottleib arranges for Driftwood to get the tiniest, least accessible stateroom on the ship. Unpacking his trunk, Driftwood discovers that he's got to share his postage-stamp quarters with Ricardo Baroni, who has stowed away because he's in love with the opera troupe's leading lady Rosa (Kitty Carlisle). Also hiding out in Driftwood's trunk is Fiorello, who's come along because he's still Ricardo's manager, and the wacky Tomasso (Harpo Marx), Lassparri's former dresser, who has come along for the hell of it. Anxious to arrange a tete-a-tete with Mrs. Claypool in his stateroom, Otis finds out that his unwelcome guests won't leave until they're fed ("Do you have any stewed prunes? Well, give them some black coffee, that'll sober 'em up"). After ordering a huge dinner, Otis and his new friends are crowded even farther by a steady stream of intruders, including an engineer and his assistant, a cleaning lady, a manicurist, a girl looking for her Aunt Minnie, and a dozen waiters. The celebrated "stateroom scene" comes to a rollicking conclusion when Mrs. Claypool has the misfortune of opening the door. On the last night of the voyage, Fiorello, Tomasso and Ricardo sneak out of their stateroom to enjoy an impromptu ethnic festival in steerage. Ricardo sings, Fiorello "shoots the keys" on the piano, and Tomasso plays the film's theme song Alone on the harp. The stowaways are caught and thrown in the brig, but with Driftwood's help they escape. To avoid recapture, the stowaways don heavy beards and pose as three famed Russian aviators. After making a shambles of a public reception, the three reprobates hide out in Driftwood's New York apartment, where everyone conspires to drive an investigating detective (Robert Emmet O'Connor) crazy. Driftwood is fired from the opera company for associating with the stowaways, while Rosa is dismissed for refusing Lassparri's affections. In order to restore Rosa's job and put the deserving Ricardo in Lassparri's place during the opening performance of La Traviata, Driftwood, Fiorello and Tomasso concoct a scheme that will reduce the opera to comic chaos. The actual night at the opera in A Night at the Opera must be seen to be believed, but the spirit of the scene can be summed up by Gottleib's anguished cry "A battleship in Il Trovatore!" Opera was the Marx Brothers' first film for MGM, and they dearly coveted a hit after the disappointing box-office showing of their final Paramount films. With the blessing of MGM production chief Irving Thalberg, the Marxes went on the road with their brilliant writing staff (including George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and Al Boasberg) to test their comedy material before live audiences. As a result of this careful preplanning, Night at the Opera was a smash-hit gigglefest, grossing over $3 million and putting the Marxes back on top in the hearts and minds of filmgoers everywhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Legendary stage actress Pauline Lord made but a few films, but was always worth watching whenever she took command of the screen. In Feather in Her Hat, Lord plays cockney storekeeper Clarissa Phipps, who worries that her son Richard will grow up being ashamed of her humble vocation. Thus, she loftily pretends that she's not Richard's mother, and that the boy is actually the offspring of a prominent theatrical family. Upon reaching adulthood, Richard (Louis Hayward) becomes a prominent playwright, confident that the stage is in his blood, while Clarissa secretly sells her store at a loss to finance Richard's first production. Only on her deathbed does Clarissa reveal the truth -- and happily, Richard isn't ashamed of her in the least, and indeed is prouder of her than ever. Basil Rathbone contributes a fascinating characterization as a gin-swilling, unshaven remittance man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beyond the fact that both films shared a "railroad" background, RKO Radio's 1935 actioner The Silver Streak bore no relation to the 1976 Gene Wilder vehicle of the same name. The earlier film stars Charles Starrett as Tom Caldwell, the dynamic young designer of a streamlined, high-speed passenger train. During a polio epidemic, our hero endeavors to prove the efficiency of his train by making a breakneck 2,000-mile trip to deliver iron lungs to the Boulder Dam region. The well-chosen supporting cast includes William Farnum as old-time railroad man B.J. Dexter, who in the film's most moving scene ruminates over the brief but colorful history of his chosen profession. The real-life Burlington Zephyr "plays" the titular train in The Silver Streak, which earned a much-needed profit of 107,000 dollars for RKO. (One a side note, some of the music heard during the final two reels was lifted from Max Steiner's score for King Kong.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tom Mix once again goes up against corrupt Fred Kohler in this would-be epic Western filmed on-location at Kanab, UT. Retiring from a life of train robbing, Benjamin R. Jones (Kohler) takes over the ghost town of Stillwell, knowing full well that the property belongs to Molly O'Rourke (Margaret Lindsay). Enter horse wrangler Tom Mason (Mix), who smells a rat and does his best to unmask Jones as the crook he knows him to be. Molly at first falls for Jones' scheme, but confronts him when a general feeling of lawlessness sets in. The villain, alas, has an ace up his sleeve: Molly owes back taxes on her property, which is ripe for a takeover. The Fourth Horseman was the fifth of nine Westerns Tom Mix would make for Universal from 1932-1933 before an on-the-set accident basically ended his career as a series Western star. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The only Academy Award winning picture for Fox Studios (in its pre-20th Century-Fox era), Cavalcade is a stately film adaptation of the pageant-like stage hit by Noel Coward. The film concentrates on the years 1901 through 1933, as seen through the eyes of an upper-class British family and its servants. Clive Brook and Diana Wynyard portray the "upstairs" Marryots, while Herbert Mundin and Una O'Connor represent the "downstairs" Bridges (the incidents and characterizations in Cavalcade are very, very close to those seen in the popular 1970s BBC series Upstairs, Downstairs). The triumphs and tragedies of both masters and servants are placed in context with the death of Queen Victoria, the Boer War, World War I, the Jazz Age, and the Depression. Both classes have their troubles with their children, what with their offsprings' predilection for opposing authority, marrying the wrong people, and dying at the least opportune moments. The film's highlight was also the most talked-about scene in the original play: newlyweds Edward Marryot (John Warburton) and Edith Harris (Margaret Lindsay), discussing their future while on their honeymoon cruise, reveal at the scene's fadeout that they've been standing in front of a life preserver bearing the name "TITANIC". On the whole, however, Cavalcade creaks a bit when seen today, and is best viewed from a historical perspective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Directed by the prolific Harry L. Fraser, Texas Pioneers features laconic silent screen cowboy Bill Cody as a cavalry captain who is court martialed and removed from service after a disagreement with his commanding officer (John Elliott). It is all a ruse, of course, concocted so that Cody may infiltrate the gang that is providing the Indians with weapons. Aided by his Native American "blood brother" Little Eagle (Iron Eyes Cody) and Andy Thomas (Andy Shuford), the hero-worshipping son of his commanding officer, Cody successfully tracks down the leader of the gang, Mark Collins (Leroy Mason). In the final confrontation, Little Eagle bravely takes a bullet meant for Bill, thus giving his life for peace. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This World War I romance stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Anthony Bushell as two British officers who happen to be brothers. Both men fall for the same girl (Rose Hobart) while on furlough, resulting in dissention at the Front. What might have been a festival of cliches emerges as a superior drama, thanks to the clever (but unobtrusive) direction of Allan Dwan. In one of his first truly worthwhile roles, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is utterly convincing as a young Briton who must balance duty with desire; Anthony Bashell is far less believable, but can be forgiven his excesses since he later retired from acting to become a director. Previously produced as a silent film, Chances was based on a story by A. Hamilton Gibbs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide