Charles "Buddy" Rogers Movies

In this military comedy, Maj. Richardson (David Niven) and Lt. Burke (Michael Wilding) are two British soldiers on a recognizance mission over Ethiopia in 1941 when their plane crashes in the desert. Capt. Blasi (Alberto Sordi), an Italian officer, finds the Englishmen and offers to help them: he'll let them go if they allow him and his men to take over an old fort nearby and stay there without being bothered. Richardson and Burke agree, and they return to their base of operations, only to discover that they've been ordered to attack the fort and capture Blasi and his men. Richardson considers himself a man of his word and doesn't care for this duty; in time, the two men become friends and exchange banter as they take turns capturing one another. Remarkably enough, Italian actor Alberto Sordi didn't speak English when he made this film, and he learned all his dialogue phonetically. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this B-picture western,Anthony Dexter, plays Billy the Kid, the outlaw of the title and a victim of society. The parson of the title is {%Jack Slade (Sonny Tufts). Billy the Kid tries to mend his ways thanks to the intervention of Slade, but he winds up plugged and planted trying to avenge the preacher's murder. The cast features supporting actors including Marie Windsor, Jean Parker and Bob Steele. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Stork Bites Man was the last of five short-length features from Comet Productions, a company owned by Mary Pickford, her husband Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and former Columbia executive Ralph Cohn. Jackie Cooper plays Ernie, an apartment-house manager whose wife Peg (Gena Roberts) is several months pregnant. The trouble is, Ernie's boss Kimberly (Emory Parnell) can't stand babies, meaning that our hero will be evicted at the moment of the kid's entry into the world. But things are set right through the intervention of an invisible stork (shades of Harvey), who offers Ernie counsel and advice. Only fitfully funny, Stork Bites Man is brightened by the presence of veteran burlesque comedian Gus Schilling, making a meal of his role as a nursery-supply peddler (a picture of Schilling from this film is prominently featured in The Versatiles, a 1970 book on Hollywood character actors). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Abie's Irish Rose, the surprise hit of the 1922-23 Broadway season, was old-fashioned when it was first filmed in 1928, and this 1946 remake, though updated by playwright Anne Nichols, was even more anachronistic. It's the story of what happens when Jewish-American Abie Levy (Richard Norris) marries Irish-Catholic Rosemary Murphy (Joanne Dru, in her film debut). At first, Abie and Rosemary try to hide their ethnic differences from their feuding fathers Solomon Levy (Michael Chekhov) and Patrick Murphy (J. M. Kerrigan). When the truth comes out, the couple attempts to molify their families by going through three wedding ceremonies: Jewish, Catholic and Protestant. But the Cohens and the Murphys are reconciled only when Rosemary has a baby. Produced by Bing Crosby, Abie's Irish Rose was a terrific flop when first released, which may be one of the reasons why director Eddie Sutherland never again worked in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A sequel to the Hal Roach "streamliner" The Devil with Hitler, That Nazty Nuisance is much funnier, albeit nearly as tasteless as the earlier film. Bobby Watson, Hollywood's foremost Adolf Hitler impersonator, plays Der Fuhrer as a pompous imbecile, and who's to say his interpretation wasn't accurate. The plot requires Hitler to summon his Axis partners Mussolini (Joe Devlin) and Suki Yaki (a Hirohito clone played by comedy foil Johnny Arthur) for a secret meeting. For the purposes of secrecy, the three dictators travel to the island nation of Norom (spell it backwards). Fortunately for Truth, Justice and the American Way, Hitler and his stooges are sabotaged by shipwrecked American sailor Benson (Frank Faylen) and island beauty Kela (Jean Porter). A bit strong for contemporary tastes, That Nazty Nuisance provided 48 minutes of solid laughs for its wartime audience. The film has since been released to television as Double Crossed Fool. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The first "Mexican Spitfire" entry of 1942, Mexican Spitfire at Sea is set mainly on a Hawaii-bound ocean liner. Combining business with pleasure, vacationing advertsing man Dennis (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) hopes to sign a contract with a wealthy client. Alas, these plans are scotched by the well-meaning idiocies of Dennis' peppery spouse Carmelita (Lupe Velez), and by a whole flock of Dennis' relatives who have invited themselves along for the voyage. Once again, it's up to Dennis' Uncle Matt (Leon Errol) to save the day-which inevitably requires old Matt to disguise himself as his British lookalike Lord Epping. Marion Martin, the blonde bombshell who'd caused so much trouble in the previous series entry Mexican Spitfire's Baby (1941), is seen in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Former silent screen comic Harry Langdon earned above-title billing for the final time in his long career in this roughhewn but amusing World War II farce released by Poverty Row company PRC. Langdon and Charles "Buddy" Rogers are newspaper messengers helping reporter Ray Walker obtain an interview with journalist-hating inventor Richard Kipling. But before they know it, Harry and Buddy become unwittingly involved in plans to steal the professor's newest invention: a machine gun. A couple of munitions racketeers (John Holland and Guy Kingsford) concoct a scheme to drive down the price of the weapon but despite an ability to stumble over their own feet, the heroes manage not only to foil the plot but also reunite their reporter friend with the inventor's lovely daughter, Marian Marsh. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

In this drama, a female horse trainer works on her grandpa's farm training trotters. Trouble ensues when he is forced to sell his land to a millionaire who endeavors to replace the trotters with regular racehorses. The trainer ends up falling for the new owner. Even though her favorite horse loses the big race, the woman succeeds in getting the owner to return her affections. The grandfather also wins when the couple donates a large amount to his favorite charity, the local community hospital. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this comedy, funny Langdon and Rogers end up working at a bean factory and getting into deep trouble when they accidentally lose an irreplaceable bracelet in a can. Now, before it is too late, they must somehow find that can out of a thousand that look just like it. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Silent-film leading man (and third husband of Mary Pickford) Charles "Buddy" Rogers was a popular band leader at the time he appeared in the British Let's Make a Night of It. Here's the deal: Buddy owns a nightclub; his wife June Clyde runs a rival night spot. That's about it for the plot. The main attraction of Let's Make a Night of It is its cornucopia of guest stars, including impressionist Afrique, legendary Yiddish stage star Molly Picon, and band leaders Jack Jackson, Jack Harris, Sydney Lipton, Joe Loss, Eddie Carroll, Harry Acres and Rudy Starita (all major names on the British entertainment scene of 1937). Let's Make a Night of It was inspired by Henrik N. Ege's radio play The Silver Spoon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this Paris-set comedy, a clerk gets a chance of a lifetime when he is unable to deposit his firm's receipts before the bank closes and has to keep the money over the weekend. He decides to have a little fun and uses the money to fool a fake countess into believing that he too is wealthy. Though he feels bad about it on Monday, he is very surprised to learn that his firm considers him a hero because the bank was robbed over the weekend. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The excellent box-office returns for the previous Laurel & Hardy comic operas The Devil's Brother and Babes in Toyland encouraged Hal Roach to cast the team in still another operatic adaptation, a self-styled "comedy version" of William Balfe's The Bohemian Girl. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play members of a gypsy tribe wandering through middle Europe sometime in the early 19th century. As if he hasn't got enough trouble trying to train dimwitted Stan to be a "first-class pickpocket," Ollie is also saddled with a faithless wife (Mae Busch), who is in love with dashing gypsy robber captain Devil's Hoof (Antonio Moreno). While trying to break into the palace of gypsy-hating Count Arnheim (William P. Carleton), Devil's Hoof is captured and flogged. In retaliation, Ollie's wife kidnaps Arnheim's little daughter Arline (Darla Hood of "Our Gang" fame) and leaves the child in Ollie's care, explaining that the baby is his ("I didn't want to tell her who her father was until she was old enough to stand the shock!") Twelve years later, Arline (now played by Jacqueline Wells) has grown into a beautiful young woman who's forgotten all about her aristocratic childhood, except whenever she dreams "she dwelt in marbl'd halls" (from the song of the same name). By coincidence, Arline one day finds herself wandering around the grounds of her ancestral home. She is captured by the Captain of the Guards (James Finlayson) and sentenced to be flogged, whereupon her foster-daddy Ollie and her drink-besotted Uncle Stanley race to her rescue. There's a happy ending for Arline, but not for Stan and Ollie, who wind up the picture with one of their famous "physical distortion" gags. A troubled production, The Bohemian Girl had to be extensively reshot and re-edited after previews because of the sudden (and still unsolved) death of co-star Thelma Todd, who was originally cast as the Gypsy Queen. It was decided out of respect for Todd to retain only one of her musical numbers and to refilm the rest of her scenes with other actors; as a result, Bohemian Girl is one of the patchiest and most uneven of the Laurel & Hardy features. Fortunately, Stan and Ollie's scenes are well up to par, especially the classic bit wherein Stan inadvertently becomes progressively drunker as he tries to bottle a cask of bubbling wine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi