Luther Reed Movies

In this grim drama, a conniving young man is brought up on charges of reckless driving. To "prove" his innocence and good character, he goes to a nursing home and adopts an old woman whom he presents as his loving mother. Unfortunately for him, she really gets into her role and when he falls in love with a seductive, shady lady, the old lady does all she can to protect him from her; this includes getting him tossed in jail and shooting the young trollop. Afterward, the old lady must stand trial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hoping to repeat the success of its 1929 musical spectacular Rio Rita, RKO Radio reteamed leading lady Bebe Daniels and the comedy team of Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey for the equally lavish Dixiana. Set in antebellum Louisiana, the film casts Daniels as the title character, a lovely and charming circus entertainer. Dixiana is loved by Carl Van Horn (Everett Marshall), the son of plantation owner Cornelius Van Horn (Joseph Cawthorn). Though Cornelius approves of his son's choice, his imperious wife (Jobyna Howland) orders Dixiana out of her house, much to the delight of crooked gambler Royal Montague (Ralf Harolde), who has his own wicked designs on our heroine. Fired by her circus, Dixiana is forced to go to work at Montague's gambling establishment, and it is here that the love-struck Carl catches up with her. Hoping to bankrupt Carl and force him to relinquish the deed to the Van Doren plantation, Montague engages the young man in a crooked card game, but Dixiana turns the tables on the villain. Elected queen of the Mardi Gras, Dixiana is kidnapped by the disgruntled Montague, who intends to goad Carl into a duel, knowing full well that the boy's guns have been tampered with. Dixiana is the film debut of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who performs a "stair dance" routine during the Technicolor Mardi Gras finale. Incidentally, the film's final color reels were for many years considered lost, with only the black-and-white scenes remaining: thus, many TV prints of Dixiana come to an end long before the plot has been resolved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No one was surprised in 1929 that aviation mogul Howard R. Hughes would produce a paean to World War I flying aces like Hell's Angels. Given Hughes' comparative inexperience as a moviemaker, however, everyone was taken slightly aback that the finished film was as good as it was. The very American Ben Lyon and James Hall play (respectively) Monte and Roy Rutledge, a couple of British brothers who drop out of Oxford to join the British Royal Flying Corps. Several early scenes establish Lyon and Hall's romantic rivalry over two-timing socialite Helen (Jean Harlow). While flying a dangerous bombing mission over Germany, the brothers are shot down. The commandant (Lucien Prival), who'd earlier been cuckolded by one of the brothers, savors his opportunity for revenge. He offers the boys their freedom if they'll reveal the time of the next British attack; if they don't cooperate, they face unspeakable consequences. Roy, driven mad by his combat experiences, is about to tell all when he is shot and killed by Monte. The latter is himself condemned to a firing squad by the disgruntled commandant -- who, it is implied, will soon meet his own doom at the hands of the British bombers. Nobody really cares about this hoary old plot, however; Hell's Angels culls most of its strength from its crackerjack aerial sequences. The highlight is a Zeppelin raid over London, one of the most hauntingly effective sequences ever put on film. From the first ghost-like appearance of the Zeppelin breaking through the clouds, to the self-sacrificing behavior of the German crew members as they jump to their deaths rather than provide "excess weight," this is a scene that lingers in the memory far longer than all that good-of-the-service nonsense in the finale. Also worth noting is the star-making appearance of Jean Harlow. When Hell's Angels was begun as a silent film, Norwegian actress Greta Nissen played the female lead. During the switchover to sound, producer Hughes decided that her accent was at odds with her characterization, so he reshot her scenes with his latest discovery, Harlow. While she appears awkward in some of her scenes, there's no clumsiness whatsoever in her delivery of the classic line about slipping into "something more comfortable." Originally, Marshall Neilan was signed to direct the film, but became so rattled by Howard Hughes' interference that he handed the reins to Hughes himself, who was in turn given an uncredited assist by Luther Reed. Also ignored in the film's credits are the dialogue contributions by future Frankenstein director James Whale, who'd been hired as the film's English-dialect coach. Modern audiences expecting a musty museum piece are generally surprised by Hell's Angels' high entertainment content: they are also startled by the pre-code frankness of the dialogue, with phrases like "The hell with you" bandied about with reckless abandon. In recent years, archivists have restored the film's two-color Technicolor sequence, providing us with our only color glimpses of the radiant Jean Harlow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Snobbish socialite Gail Grant (Florence Vidor) is accustomed to getting everything she wants. Thus, when she storms into a Venetian antique shop and announces her intention of buying a rare tapestry to transform into a gown, she fully expects the staff to grovel at her feet. Instead, the owner of the shop refuses to sell her the tapestry at any price. Little does Gail suspect that the shop owner is actually Prince Danitari (Tullio Carminatti), whose war debts have forced him to go into the antique business. Though Gail walks out of the shop in a huff, the Prince is fascinated by her, thus he hires himself out as her tour guide, with the intention of pulling a "taming of the shrew" act. Ultimately, Gail and the Prince are married -- but who ends up taming whom? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This rugged Richard Dix vehicle casts the star as rough-and-tumble sea captain Jim Bucklin. Landing at a Chinese port, Bucklin and his passengers are threatened by a marauding war lord, who intends to kill the captain and hold the others hostage as part of his campaign of destruction against all white men. Rallying the passengers and a few nervous hotel guests, our hero decides to "hang tough" and hold out against the bandit hordes. The climax finds Bucklin and the principal heavy fighting to the death, while several feet underwater! Mary Brian and Jocelyn Lee provide glamour as, respectively, the virginal Mary and the been-around Shanghai Rose (guess which one survives?) Shanghai Bound was partially remade, again with Richard Dix, as Roar of the Dragon (1932). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This characteristically free-wheeling Greg LaCava production was based on The Man From Mexico, a play by Harry A. Douchet. Richard Dix stars as razzmatazz college football hero Billie Dexter, who lives to party -- until he meets demure Mary Corbin (Lois Wilson). Certain that Mary is just another "jazz baby," Billie's dad (Joseph Kilgour) orders him to stay away from her, sending him out of town to entertain an important business client, Bible salesman J. W. Smith. Imagine Billie's dismay when "Mr." Smith turns out to be a high-stepping old lady (Edna May Oliver) with a fondness for liquor. As it turns out, however, Ms. Smith is the fairy godmother who ultimately brings Billie and Mary together again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the musical comedy of the same name, Kid Boots was the first of two silent vehicles for irrepressible Ziegfeld Follies star Eddie "Banjo Eyes" Cantor. Old "Banjo Eyes" stars as a tailor's assistant named Kid Boots, who tries to save his pal Tom Sterling (Lawrence Gray) from the clutches of gold-digger Polly Pendleton (Billie Dove). Since Tom is a pro golfer, this requires Kid Boots to hire himself out as a caddy, leading to a series of slapstick complications. With the help of Tom's true-blue sweetheart Jane Martin (Clara Bow), our hero incapacitates Tom's golf-tournament rival George (Malcolm Waite) and exposes Polly for the predator that she is. Legend has it that Eddie Cantor had a brief affair with Clara Bow while working on Kid Boots, but this has been refuted by most of Bow's biographers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a few films that did not showcase her talent well, Bebe Daniels was able to redeem herself in this comedy based on the F. Tennyson Jesse stage play Quarantined. Although Pamela Gordon (Eden Gray) is engaged to explorer Tony Blunt (Harrison Ford), she gets tired of waiting for him to come back from an expedition and accepts the proposal of Mackintosh Josephs (Alfred Lunt). But Blunt returns from Africa two weeks before the wedding, and, to avoid causing a scene, Pamela makes plans to elope with him. To keep everyone in the dark about her elopement with Blunt, however, she convinces Blunt to court her tomboyish sister, Diana (Bebe Daniels). Diana believes that Blunt has really fallen in love with her, and tricks him so that he marries her. (He thinks he is marrying Pamela.) She then boards a ship with her aunt, Amelia Pincent (Edna May Oliver), and hides from Blunt temporarily. When he discovers he has married Pamela's sister, he is furious, but, by then, the ship has been quarantined. By the time the quarantine is over and Pamela arrives, Diana has won Blunt over. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This romance was based on a magazine serial by the talented John Monk Saunders. Dan Savage (Theodore Babcock) prepares his son, Randall (Richard Dix), to fight in the business world by having him trained as a pugilist. Randall shows a flare for fisticuffs, so he is taken to the Ironworkers Ball to try out his infamous "shock punch." He knocks out Bull Mularkey (Walter Long), who is working on a high rise being built by Jim Clark (Percy Moore). Randall falls in love with Clark's daughter, Dorothy (Frances Howard), and gets a job on her father's construction project. While working, he discovers a plot, led by Mularkey, to delay the construction long enough to ruin Clark, who has invested his whole fortune on the project. With the help of his friend, Giuseppi (Paul Panzer), Randall foils Mularkey's scheme and gets the iron work done in the allotted amount of time. And, of course, he wins the girl. In real life, producer Sam Goldwyn won Frances Howard -- she married him a month before this picture was released. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

If the Hearst newspapers seem to get a lot of attention in this comedy-drama, it only makes sense -- William Randolph Hearst's production company, Cosmopolitan, produced the picture, which blends a fictional story with real-life events. Press agent Jack Murray (T. Roy Barnes) is having trouble getting publicity for his client, stage star Mabel Vandergrift (Anita Stewart). When he starts working for prize fighter Joe Cain (Oscar Shaw) he gets a brainstorm. He links the two together romantically and eventually they do fall in love. The backer of Mabel's show is not thrilled with the match and arranges it so that the couple lose their money at the races. Cain and Mabel both make attempts to work outside of their normal professions by getting jobs at a department store. Although he has sworn to give up fighting, Cain goes back into the ring and uses the advance money to buy Mabel's show. She becomes mad when she discovers he is fighting again and turns down his proposal. The disheartened Cain is about to lose the fight, but Mabel returns to him and he emerges victorious. He also reconciles with his father (Stanley Forde), who offers to take the happy couple back West with him. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This light comedy is based on the stage play Dear Me written by Luther Reed and Hale Hamilton. Madge Kennedy returned from Broadway to star in this picture, but she would go back to the theater to co-star with W.C. Fields in Poppy. Mr. Quail, a wealthy philanthropist (William H. Tooker), founds a Home for Artistic Failures, not realizing that it will eventually house his son Dudley, an unsuccessful playwright (Vincent Coleman). April Blair (Kennedy) gets a job at the home as a drudge, but she has a beautiful voice that Dudley and musician Joe Renard (Pedro de Cordoba) find inspiring. When April is fired, the two men accompany her to New York where they once again give free reign to their aspirations. The men produce a play and give April the starring role. It's a success and April comes to the attention of a young millionaire. Dudley, who has fallen in love with her, is willing to let her go, but April realizes that she prefers him over the millionaire. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide