Wesley Ruggles Movies

A Night at the Show is the most elaborate two-reeler directed by Charlie Chaplin during his 1915-1916 stay at Essanay studios. Based on "A Night in an English Music Hall," the Fred Karno-produced ensemble sketch which brought Chaplin to the U.S. in 1910, the film is set in a crowded theater, where a series of mediocre variety acts try to entertain the audience. Chaplin plays two roles: a slick-haired dandy in the orchestra seats, who flirts with the female performers at every possible opportunity, and "Mr. Rowdy," a walrus-mustached drunkard who heckles the actors from the balcony. The film comes to an abrupt end when Mr. Rowdy gets hold of a fire hose and douses everyone in sight. A Night at the Show is usually released on video in tandem with several other Essanay Chaplin films, notably The Bank and Shanghaied. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Samson Raphaelson's stage play, Accent on Youth focuses on a May-December romance. Herbert Marshall (46 years old at the time) is a successful middle-aged playwright; Constance Cummings is his young secretary, who prefers the company of mature men. She sets her cap on marrying the playwright, while he fends off her attentions. By the time Marshall has grown fond enough of Constance to propose, she has changed her mind and fallen for a man her own age. Accent on Youth was remade as Mr. Music (50) and But Not For Me (59), with, respectively, 49-year-old Bing Crosby and 58-year-old Clark Gable as the "elderly" hero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wesley Ruggles's Arizona is an epic western set in an impoverished Arizona outpost. It tells the story of the feisty, no-nonsense Phoebe Titus (Jean Arthur). Wearing leather breeches, with a bullwhip and gun, she can out-shoot and out-fight nearly every bad hombre in town, and manages to transform the down-and-out community into Tuscon, one of the most respected towns in the West. When handsome Peter Muncie (William Holden) arrives, on his way to California, Phoebe asserts that he is the perfect person to help her run her cattle ranch, and the two fall in love. But one obstacle makes their plans extremely difficult: con man Jefferson Carteret (Warren William), who secretly hatches a plan to cheat Phoebe out of the property and annihilate Peter on the couple's wedding day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Handsome doctor Bryant Washburn specializes in the ailments of women -- more specifically, wealthy widows. Washburn's girlfriend Laura LaPlante is jealous of the doctor's good-looking patients, and not without reason. Heading to the mountains to get married, LaPlante and Washburn are intercepted by predatory widow Kathryn Carver, who intends to land the doc for herself. LaPlante fails to see the humor of the situation and walks out on Washburn, only to return, meek and contrite, just as the doctor is being marched down the aisle by Carver. Pretty location photography manages to obscure some of the lapses of logic in the storyline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cimarron was the first Western to win the Oscar for Best Picture--and, until Dances with Wolves in 1990, the only one. The film begins on April 22, 1889, the opening day of the great Oklahoma Land Rush on the Cherokee Strip. Boisterous Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) is cheated out of his land claim by the devious Dixie Lee (Estelle Taylor). Instead of becoming a homesteader, Cravat establishes a muckraking newspaper, and with pistols in hand he becomes a widely respected (and widely feared) peacekeeper. He also displays a compassionate streak by coming to the defense of Dixie Lee, who is about to be arrested for prostitution. Cravat's insistence on sticking his nose into everyone's affairs drives a wedge between him and his young wife Sabra (Irene Dunne), but she stands by him--until he deserts her and her children, ever in pursuit of new adventures. Sabra takes over the newspaper herself, and with the moral support of her best friend, Mrs. Wyatt (Edna May Oliver), she creates a powerful publishing empire. Cimarron makes the mistake of placing most of the action early in the film, so that everything that follows the spectacular opening land-rush sequence may feel anti-climactic. While it's always enjoyable to watch Irene Dunne persevering through the years, it's rather wearing to sit through the overblown performance of Richard Dix, who seems to think that he can't make a point unless it's at the top of his lungs. Cimarron creaks badly when seen today, but it still outclasses the plodding 1960 remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ronald Colman's second talking picture, Condemned is a snail's-pace melodrama set on a Devil's Island. The evils of the notorious French penal colony are treated head-on, though the awkwardness of early-talkie techniques lessen the impact of several scenes. The plot has Colman, a condemned bank robber, working his way into the confidence of the warden (Dudley Digges) and into the heart of the warden's frustrated wife (Ann Harding). When she leaves for France, Colman escapes in order to join her. Condemned was adapted from Blair Niles' novel Condemned to Devil's Island by future Gone with the Wind screenwriter Sidney Howard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hero Gerald Ackland (Edward Earle) is not inclined to wait for America's entry into WWI. Long before his own country's official declaration, he heads to France to defend the Forces of Democracy against the Kaiser's hordes. While flying his airplane across enemy lines, our hero is forced to bail out, whereupon he locates a conveniently abandoned machine gun. As German bullets whizz around him, he remains at his post, mowing down the enemy with ruthless determination. Even in 1917, audiences didn't swallow the fabricated heroics of For France, so the producer felt obliged to insert a shot of the American flag at the end, just so he could claim that his film ended with a standing ovation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romance, an early talkie containing approximately 4 minutes of dialog and a song, a man is paroled from prison provided he adheres strictly to "Rule No. 3," which states that he cannot get romantically involved, nor marry until he is off parole. He encounters trouble when he saves a doe-eyed girl from drowning and falls instantly in love. Fortunately, his parole officer is sensitive and the office grants the parolee special dispensation to wed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After a year-long period of starring in such heavy fare as Maid of Salem, Claudette Colbert returned to comedy with I Met Him in Paris. Colbert plays a successful American fashion designer, squired by three suitors: playwright Melvyn Douglas, playboy Robert Young and hometown lad Lee Bowman. Bowman is fourth-billed, so that lets him out. Young is already married: Strike Two. That leaves Melvyn Douglas, who is indeed the winner of this three-way race. Most of the film takes place at a vacation resort in Switzerland (actually Sun Valley, Idaho), where several minutes of humor is extracted from the three suitors' clumsiness on skis. I Met Him in Paris charmed the critics in 1937; today it seems like just another pleasant diversion, served up by experts in the comedy field. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This mythical kingdom romance was quite a bit lighter than most of Ethel Clayton's heavily dramatic vehicles. While studying in Paris, Princess Oluf of Kosnia (Andree LeJon) befriends an American girl, Ruth Townley (Clayton), and gives her a locket bearing her name and the royal coat of arms. When Ruth accidentally drops the locket off a balcony, it is returned by a handsome stranger. Back home in Kosnia, Oluf wants to get married, but her choice of mate is challenged by Valdemir, the ruler of a neighboring principality (Warner Baxter). Ruth goes to visit Oluf, but the train wrecks en route and she is rescued by Valdemir, who turns out to be the man who fetched her locket. Since he believes that Ruth is Oluf, he keeps her confined at his castle. In spite of the circumstances, Ruth falls in love with Valdemir, and he plans a royal wedding. Ruth, however, refuses to go along with this, and eventually he discovers the truth. Oluf is allowed to marry the man she loves, and Ruth makes up with Valdemir. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

London Town was painstakingly planned as a huge box-office smash--even unto hiring several Hollywood leading lights to work on the film, including producer/director/writer Wesley Ruggles, Technicolor cinematographer Ernest Hiller, costume designer Orry-Kelly and songsmiths Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke. Veteran music-hall entertainer Sid Field plays a washed-up comedian who hopes to stage a comeback in a glittering new revue. Alas, Field is hired as merely an understudy and bit player. His faithful daughter Petula Clark (yes, Petula Clark) pulls a few fast ones in order to get her dad back on stage in a starring role. Making her film debut in a supporting part is Kay Kendall, who'd have to wait a decade or so for full stardom. Far from a hit, London Town was one of the most notorious flops in the history of the British cinema. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The brother of director Raoul Walsh, George Walsh starred in this low-budget gangster melodrama directed by Wesley Ruggles. Walsh plays Jack Banning, a motorcycle cop by day and undercover agent by night. Disguising himself as "Strongarm Samson," Banning infiltrates a gang of smugglers headed by Richard Courtney (a very young Brian Donlevy). Unfortunately, Marion Marcy (Ruth Dwyer) recognizes him and spills the beans to Courtney. The villain orders his henchman, Spanish Joe (Lucien Prival), to take the undercover cop "for a ride," but Banning escapes with the help of female undercover agent Dorina (Laura De Cardi). Marion, who has come to love the heroic policeman, is kidnapped by Courtney, but Banning manages to rescue her in the nick of time. With the gang behind bars, Banning and Marion can finally plan a future together. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

No Man of Her Own represented the only time that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard co-starred in the same picture (at the time the film was made, both were married to other people; their romance and subsequent marriage was several years in the offing). Gable plays a crooked cardsharp who takes it on the lam from the New York constabulary. He hides out in a small town, where he falls in love with librarian Lombard. Endearing himself to Lombard's family, Gable pretends to be an out-of-town broker. He takes his new bride Lombard back to New York, where he resumes his dishonest activities, all the while keeping his one-and-only in the dark. The fly in the ointment is Gable's ex-lover and former partner in crime Dorothy Mackaill, who threatens to expose Gable to the law. Rather than appear to be a cad in his wife's eyes, Gable turns himself in, telling Lombard that he's about to embark on a long business trip. The truth is revealed sometime before the final reel, but Lombard is willing to forgive and forget so long as Gable promises to go straight. Given the usual wiseacre urbanity of Gable's and Lombard's separate starring vehicles, No Man of Her Own seems unusually banal and sentimental. Still, the film is an opportunity not to be missed by latter-day "Golden Age of Hollywood" aficionados. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide