Marion Orth Movies
American screenwriter Marion Orth's first-known screen credit was 1917's Price of a Good Time. Orth was gainfully employed at Fox in the late '20s, contributing to the screenplays of such prestige productions as Street Angel (1927), Hangman's House (1928), Four Devils (1928), and City Girl (1929). Subsequent assignments in the talkie era included a number of second features for Republic, RKO, and Universal. Active until 1944, Marion Orth kept busy on such quickie Universal musicals as Six Lessons From Madame Lazonga (1944). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1944
Edmund Lowe was old enough to know better when he starred in the anachronistic Monogram crime comedy Oh, What a Night! Lowe plays Rand, a suave gentleman jewel thief who plans to divest clueless dowager Lil Vanderhoven (Marjorie Rambeau) of her diamonds. Complicating matters is the appearance of Rand's young niece Valerie (Jean Parker), who has no idea what her uncle is up to. Rand's efforts to hide his profession from Valerie, and to successfully pull off the heist, makes for a hectic seven reels. Oh, What a Night! tries hard, but, after all, Monogram wasn't MGM, and Edmund Lowe wasn't William Powell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Marjorie Rambeau, (more)
- 1942
Universal's standing Show Boat sets get another workout in the 60-minute B-picture Mississippi Gambler. On the trail of mob hitman Mathews (Douglas Fowley), reporter Johnny Forbes (Kent Taylor) journeys from New York to Mississippi. Here he finds big-time gangster boss Carvel (John Litel), long thought dead but actually living pseudonymously as a respectable plantation owner. Despite his civilized veneer, Carvel continues mastermining his criminal empire, including a chain of gambling emporiums. With the help of leading ladies Beth (Frances Langford) and La Verne (Claire Dodd), Forbes manages to trap Carvel in his own den. Shemp Howard shows up as a zany taxi driver, doing a lot more for the film than it does for him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kent Taylor, Frances Langford, (more)
- 1941
In this musical, an idealistic college graduate is bitten by the show business bug after he finds success writing and producing the campus variety show. Wanting to launch his career, he convinces his father to allow him to create a production using the workers at the old man's clothing factory. Unfortunately, the young man is naive and an unscrupulous producer bilks his father's advance money from him. Fortunately, the loyal and clever employees help out and the show is a tremendous success. Songs include "Two Weeks Vacation with Pay," "Mister Yankee Doodle," "Rug-Cuttin' Romeo," "Boogie Woogie Man," "Dancing on the Air," "Walk with Me," "We Too Can Sing" (Milton Rosen, Everett Carter). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Downs, Jane Frazee, (more)
- 1941
To those under the age of 60, it should be noted that the title of this lively Universal filler was inspired by a popular song of 1941. Carrying over their antics from RKO Radio's "Mexican Spitfire" series, Lupe Velez and Leon Errol star respectively as Havana nightclub entertainer Madame La Zonga and South American aristocrat Senor Alvarez. What the audience knows but La Zonga doesn't is that Alvarez is a phony, who's no more Latin than a Coney Island hot dog. While the stars carry the comedy burden of the film, a romantic subplot develops between ambitious bandleader Steve (Charles Lang) and his Cuban sweetie Rosita (Helen Parrish). Astonishingly, this 62-minute film manages to crowd in an abundance of musical numbers, including the title tune. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lupe Velez, Leon Errol, (more)
- 1940
Though the peak productivity of Monogram's "rural romance" films was the mid-1930s, the studio continued to put together films like Tomboy well into the early 1940s. Marcia Mae Jones plays the title character, a rambunctious city girl named Pat. Sent to the country to temper her hoydenish behavior, Pat falls in love with farm boy Steve (Jackie Moran), who lives under the thumb of his tyrannical Uncle Matt (Grant Withers). The couple's budding romance is helped along by Kelly (Grant Withers), Pat's ne'er-do-well father. The film's best performance is delivered by Clara Blandick, the immortal "Auntie Em" in The Wizard of Oz. Tomboy was directed by Robert McGowan, formerly the guiding light of Hal Roach's "Our Gang" films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcia Mae Jones, Jackie Moran, (more)
- 1940
In this Navy drama, a young sailor finds himself interested in everything but marriage. But then he encounters a runaway orphan who sees the sailor and decides that he would do anything to make him become his father. He begins dogging the salt, who does everything he can to get rid of the troublesome kid. Eventually he can't help but care for the poor lad and so adopts him. A pretty woman comes along and soon their little family is complete. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Dunn, Jean Parker, (more)
The third of six feature films based on radio's popular Dr. Christian series, Dr. Christian Meets the Women once more stars Jean Hersholt as the kindly eponymous medico. In this entry, the tiny community of River's End is invaded by Professor Kenneth Parker (Rod La Rocque), a charming charlatan who is promoting a "miracle" diet pill. Despite Dr. Christian's warnings, Parker's wares are ravenously consumed by the female population, whereupon the pill's dangerous side effects begin to manifest themselves. Dr. Christian comes to the rescue with a sensible diet formula which, according to studio publicity, was an amalgam of suggestions from 100 leading American doctors. Its health benefits aside, Dr. Christian Meets the Women was only a fair-to-middling series entry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Lovett, (more)
- 1940
The Hidden Enemy concerns the efforts of a group of foreign spies to get their mitts on an experimental super-metal developed by scientist McGregor (George Cleveland). Astonishingly, neither McGregor nor his newspaper-reporter son Bill (Warren Hull) are aware of the spies' activities until the film is half over. Meanwhile, an exotic number named Sonia (Kay Linaker) poses as a rival reporter while trying to obtain McGregor's metal formula for mysterious reasons of her own. In keeping with Hollywood's policy of pre-war neutrality, the nationalities of the villains in Hidden Enemy are unidentified, though their accents are decidedly Germanic and Italian in nature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Hull, Kay Linaker, (more)
- 1938
In this romance, a girl from the bayou falls in love with an aspiring lawyer who lives on the nicer side of the tracks. It is tragedy that brings the two together, when the man her avaricious auntie betrothed her to is murdered. The suspected killer is defended by the rookie attorney -it is his first case. Naturally he wins, and so does the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Parker, Eric Linden, (more)
Veteran cinematographer Karl Brown also had several directorial efforts to his credit. Most were on a par with Monogram's Under the Big Top: slick and mildly entertaining, but not much more. Circus aerialist Penny (Anne Nagel) may be the queen of the trapeze, but she can't seem to manage her life on solid ground. She spends most of the film as the romantic bone of contention between her partners Pablo and Ricardo (Grant Richards and Jack LaRue incongruously cast as brothers). Hostilities break up the act, but by film's end the hatchets have been buried and "The Three Flying Pennies" are soaring again. Future "Ma Kettle" Marjorie Main has a sizeable role as a circus manager. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Nagel, Marjorie Main, (more)
- 1938
In this romance, a wealthy heiress decides that she wants a man who loves her for herself and not for her money. She finds herself a hard-working young man and they marry. Unfortunately, he is not wealthy and soon the couple struggles financially. Things get really bad when he loses his job; still she has chosen well, for despite his unemployment, her new husband refuses to accept her millionaire father's offers to help them out. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Nagel, Weldon Heyburn, (more)
- 1937
Mexican actress Movita, who rose to fame as one of the native girls in the Oscar-winning Mutiny on the Bounty, heads the cast of Monogram's Paradise Isle. On a remote South Sea Island, sun-kissed maiden Ila (Movita) finds white man Richard Kennedy (Warren Hull) washed up on shore. Once a celebrated painter, Kennedy has been stricken blind, and was on his way to a European eye specialist when his ship was destroyed in an explosion. Confused, disillusioned and embittered, Kennedy is nursed back to health by Ila, who tries her best to restore his will to live. Complicating her efforts are her jealous native boyfriend Tono (George Pilita) and scurrilous pearl trader Hoener (William B. Davidson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Hull
In this mystery, an international news correspondent is fatally shot with three bullets. Now three men stand accused of the crime. All three confess their guilt and receive the death penalty, but only one of them is really guilty. Fortunately, a professor has invented a new kind of lie detector. He uses it to reveal the real killer's identity and save the lives of the others. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conway Tearle, Mary Doran, (more)
- 1935
In this comedy, a con artist gets elected to the chamber of commerce in his home town. He then goes there with three fellow grifters who are not welcome until they pay off the bad bonds they sold the town. Fortunately, the protagonist wins a fortune at the track and pays the debt. Despite this, the three persist with their con games and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Dunn, Arline Judge, (more)
In this comedy, an experienced newspaperman caves in to the constant badgering of his thoughtless family and ends up losing his job. Fortunately, he finds a new niche on the radio. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1933
Warner Oland returns as wily, philosophical oriental detective Charlie Chan in this expensive-looking series entry. This time, Chan follows the trail of clues when a "respectable" Honolulu businessman sidelining in blackmail and other unsavory activities is murdered. Like the earlier Black Camel, the film was made virtually in its entirety in Hawaii, save for a brief expository scene in San Francisco. Alas, this is one of four "Chan" films that apparently no longer exist, but stills and existing publicity material indicate that it was an elaborate production, faster-paced than usual, with Heather Angel attractively garbed in a swimsuit in most of her scenes. A few outtakes of Charlie Chan's Greatest Case were preserved for a Fox Studios "blooper" reel, showing Warner Oland reacting in hilarious rage as he muffs his lines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warner Oland, Heather Angel, (more)
- 1932
Before he moved to MGM, director Richard Thorpe virtually lived at the tiny production firm of Chesterfield-Invincible. Thorpe's Beauty Parlor is a Chesterfield programmer that aspires to be Grand Hotel. The titular parlor is the setting for a multitude of comic and dramatic episodes, most of them involving manicurists Barbara Kent and Joyce Compton. Among the supporting players is Mischa Auer, essaying one of the villainous roles he was stuck with before turning to zany comedy parts in the mid-1930s. Beauty Parlor wraps up all its loose plot strands in 66 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Kent, Joyce Compton, (more)
- 1930
This comedy follows the attempts of a young woman to have her cake and eat it too. She is dating two nice young men, but she cannot decide which one she really wants. The men do not help as neither is willing to bow out. A dashing young engineer solves her problem after he bowls her over with his charm. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Robards, Sr., Regis Toomey, (more)
- 1930
In his next-to-last film, silent-screen favorite Milton Sills stars as a tough but good-natured Manhattan bootlegger. Saving the life of aspiring singer Dorothy Mackaill, Sills gives her a job in his nightclub. She's grateful for the break, but she can't fall in love with Sills, since her heart belongs to newspaperman Kenneth MacKenna. Any other hoodlum would put the reporter "on the spot," but Sills shows he's a right guy by giving his blessings to the couple. Though supposedly too old for the heroine, the 47-year-old Milton Sills looks far more handsome and virile than the antiseptic Kenneth MacKenna (and he's a better actor to boot!) Man Trouble was based on "A Very Practical Joke," a short story by Ben Ames Williams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill, (more)
- 1930
This melodrama follows the lives of three sisters. One dies while giving birth, another gets married and goes to the US, and the last one gets involved with a Viennese musician. The two survivors become wealthy, and seem to forget about their impoverished mother back in Italy. Unbeknownst to any of the parties, the money the good daughters send home is being taken by a third party. That person's identity is discovered when the women and their spouses come to Italy to visit. They later leave the poor woman with a nice retirement fund. Songs include: "Italian Kisses" (L. Wolfe Gilbert, Abel Baer), "Lonely Feet," "Hand in Hand," "Keep Smiling," "Won't Dance," "Roll on Rolling Road," "What Good are Words," "You Are Doing Very Well" (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Dresser, Tom Patricola, (more)
- 1930
Director F.W. Murnau began City Girl as a silent film, hoping to match the artistic triumph of his earlier Sunrise. Murnau was frustrated by two elements: Fox's decision to hastily convert the film into a talkie, and his inability to secure the services of Sunrise star Janet Gaynor. The director was forced by the studio to substitute the pretty but untalented Mary Duncan, reportedly because she was the girlfriend of one of the Fox executives. The resulting film is a plodding drama about farmer's son Charles Farrell coming to the Big City, where he falls in love with Duncan, bringing her home to meet the folks. Farrell's dad David Torrence predicts that Duncan will be unfaithful, a prophecy which apparently comes true on a dark and stormy night. Based on Elliot Lester's play The Mud Turtle, City Girl has a fascinating image or two to its credit, but the film is a distressingly ordinary effort for the otherwise imaginative F.W. Murnau. The 1938 20th Century-Fox film City Girl is not a remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Farrell, David Torrence, (more)
- 1930
This early talkie is the third version of the popular Booth Tarkington play. It is set in the mid 19th-century and centers upon a good-hearted riverboat gambler who takes on a group of criminals in New Orleans during Mardis Gras when he rushes in to save a young woman from ruination. But she is a tough cookie and doesn't even thank him. Instead, she runs away. Later he meets her again after he wins her daddy's cotton plantation in a card game. None of the locals are pleased by the gambler's presence and he is nearly lynched. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Terris, Douglas Gilmore, (more)
- 1929
In this early, early talkie containing only 15 minutes of spoken word, an aging nightclub performer takes a young woman under her wing and rescues her from the suspicious fellow she hangs around with. The two women get very close; soon they discover they are long-lost mother and daughter who were separated when the older woman was widowed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- June Collyer, Louise Dresser, (more)
- 1929
Fox's immediate follow-up to its successful early-talkie western In Old Arizona was 1929's Romance of the Rio Grande. As Pablo Wharton Cameron, Warner Baxter essentially repeats his "Cisco Kid" characterization from the earlier picture. The story focuses on the Alvarez family of Mexico, specifically fabulously wealthy Don Fernando (Robert Edeson). Intending to bequeath his vast fortune and estate to his long-estranged grandson Pancho, Don Fernando must contend with his ne'er-do-well nephew Juan (Antonio Moreno). But Pancho saves the family's name and as an extra added attraction wins the hand of fair senorita Manuelita (Mona Maris). Romance of the Rio Grande was based on the Kathleen Norris novel Conquistador; it was refilmed in 1941 as one of Cesar Romero's "Cisco Kid" series entries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warner Baxter, Mary Duncan, (more)
- 1929
Marceline Day plays two women in the late-silent Fox release One-Woman Idea. The actress is cast as haughty aristocrat Lady Alicia Douglas, and as alluring half-caste dancing girl Alizar. Honorable Prince Ahmed (Rod La Rocque) harbors a platonic love for the prim-and-proper Lady Alicia, while her less-than-honorable husband Lord Douglas (Douglas Gilmore) lusts after the sexy Alizia. It's an "East is East, West is West" class-consciousness drama, with "East" coming off far more sympathetically than "West." Featured as a cabin boy is child actor Coy Watson, who later became a prolific producer of "behind the scenes" Hollywood newsreels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod La Rocque, Marceline Day, (more)
