Joe Rock Movies

Onetime Hollywood silent film producer Joe Rock packed himself off to his native England in the 1930s to make British programmers. Captain Bill is a vehicle for the all-but-forgotten music hall comic Leslie Fuller, who teamed with Rock to put up the money for this minor-league production. The corpulent Fuller plays a bargee (dock worker) who develops a fondness for schoolteacher Kay Strozzi. He helps teacher foil a gang of scuzzy criminals. Directed by Ralph Cedar, best known for his fast-paced second unit work on such American comedies as W.C. Fields' The Bank Dick (40), Captain Bill was filmed in 1935, but not released overseas until six years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A key film in the career of director Michael Powell, The Edge of the World was his first original idea to be realized onscreen, and its success attracted the attention of producer Alexander Korda. Korda's bankrolling of Powell's next several films catapulted the filmmaker into the first rank of British directors. Powell was attracted to the idea of building a dramatic story around the evacuation of St. Kilda, an island north of Scotland, whose aging population could not sustain life there. Forbidden from filming on St. Kilda, Powell and his crew journeyed farther north to Foula, an island whose sheer cliffs play an important role in the story. Two young men, Robbie Manson (Eric Berry) and James Gray (Niall MacGinnis), disagree on their island's economic future. James loves Robbie's twin sister Ruth (Belle Chrystal). The rivalry between the two men and their strong-willed fathers threatens to tear apart the island community, but an unexpected pregnancy and a rescue in dangerous seas serve to unite the islanders in common purpose. Powell took full advantage of the magnificent locations to tell this simple but affecting story of survival and adaptation to changing times. A restored version of the film, available on video, also includes the documentary Return to the Edge of the World. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

The daughter of a mill-owner (Mary Lawson) is sent undercover to the mill of a rival, where she gets mixed up in romantic antics. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Popular British music-hall and radio entertainer Harry Roy is the central figure in Everything is Rhythm. A spoof of Ruritanian romances, the story revolves around the mutual attraction between orchestra leader Harry Wade (Roy) and mittel-European Princess Paula (played by one Princess Pearl, who claimed to be of noble blood). The Princess' advisors disapprove of the affair and do everything they can to break up the couple, but love triumphs over all in a closing floor show. Essentially a glorified quota quickie, Everything is Rhythm benefits from the engaging performance by Harry Roy, who though no actor, is a winning screen personality. The film was directed by former Hal Roach contractee Alfred Goulding, who managed to secure a plum role for another ex-Roach employee, comedian Syd Crossley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The British Excuse My Glove proves that Hollywood had no monopoly on trying to turn athletes into actors. Top British boxer Len Harvey stars as a peace-loving collector of fine glass. He is goaded into fisticuffs at a funfair, where the mercenary carnival manager sizes up Harvey as a potential goldmine. The reluctant pugilist rises to fame, despite the efforts of a rival entrepreneur. While Excuse My Glove may seem like so much plum pudding to American moviegoers, the film is a treat for English boxing fans, with many British boxing greats of the 1930s (including the modestly named Bombardier Billy Wells) in supporting and bit roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a railroad stoker and his best buddy, the train's conductor make friends with a young apprentice. the son of the railway chairman. It is they who save the rambunctious lad from the clutches of a greedy gold digger. The film was later retitled Shovel up a Bit More Coal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Produced and directed by onetime comedy impresario Joe Rock, the early talkie The Great Power was a literal adaptation of the same-named stage play by Myron Fagan. Using the facilities of a small studio in Waterbury, Connecticut, Rock hired the cast members of the original play to repeat their roles. Hirshell Mayall stars as John Power, a ruthless millionaire forced to take an accounting of himself when he faces his Judgement Day in the Hereafter. Unfortunately, Mayall can find no one to testify in his behalf; apparently, he has spent his entire life making nothing but enemies. Faced with material that was apparently beyond his creative ken, director Rock was forced to film the entire movie twice when the first version came out looking like a high-school pageant. Despite its flaws, The Great Power managed to obtain a release through MGM. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The crooked butler (Paul Weigel) and maid (Florence Turner) of wealthy Martin Wayland (DeWitt Jennings) concoct an elaborate scam to separate the old man from his dough. First, they frame Wayland's son Harry (Freddie Frederick) on a charge of theft and force the lad to leave the premises. Then, they hire Elinor (Barbara Bedford), a widowed mother, and bring her into the household, claiming that the girl is Harry's new bride. Convinced that she's been hired merely to provide chaste companionship to lonely old Mr. Wayland, Elinor discovers the truth when Harry returns. The villains are foiled, Elinor and Harry fall in love, and the audience goes home happy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One would never guess that the idea for this maudlin exercise sprang from the mind of the usually reliable Anita Loos. Shirley Mason plays Sally Simpson, a small-town girl who heads to Hollywood in hopes of becoming a movie star. Failing in this enterprise, Sally finds herself alone and broke in Tinseltown, while her mother back home suffers in her bed, in dire need of an operation. To raise the necessary medical funds, Sally very nearly compromises her virtue with oily Grant Payne (John Miljan). She is saved from this humiliation by her childhood sweetheart Johnny Nash (William Collier Jr.), who materializes out of nowhere to punch Payne senseless and provide the necessary funds with no strings attached. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With this two-reel comedy, Stan Laurel began taking on some of the characteristics that later became famous when he teamed up with Oliver Hardy, including the slower pacing that was quite different from the hyperkinetic action favored by comics of the day. Stan plays a tramp, who, along with another tramp (Max Asher), tries to steal food from a farmhouse. Although Stan is caught, the farmer's daughter (Julie Leonard) feels sorry for him and feeds him anyhow. When the farm's landlord threatens to evict the family, Stan proves to be helpful -- the man holding the mortgage has stolen the farmer's money, but Stan steals it right back and pays him off. This is not enough, however, to win the farmer's daughter's heart -- she already has a sweetheart (Charles King). Featured in the film is a bit-part actor who would later gain fame in the Our Gang comedies -- Pete the Pup. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This two-reel Stan Laurel comedy (made three years before he teamed up with Oliver Hardy) was produced by Joe Rock -- it was Laurel's first film after leaving the Hal Roach studios. Laurel plays a convict who is in love with the warden's daughter (Julie Leonard). He and another inmate try to burrow out of the prison but instead wind up in the warden's office (this gag was used twice again in the Laurel and Hardy film The Second Hundred Years and The Flying Deuces). Eventually, Stan is pardoned, but by then, the warden and his daughter have grown so fond of him that they're all saddened when he is pardoned. Stan solves their dilemma by picking the warden's pocket as he makes his exit. Some of the gags are borrowed from a previous Stan Laurel film, Picks and Shovels. Much of Detained is lost to time and disintegration; only parts of the footage remain. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide