Edward Sedgwick Movies
The son of actors Edward Sedgwick Sr. and Josephine Walker, Edward Sedgwick made his own show business entree as one of the Five Sedgwicks, a circus and vaudeville acrobatic act. Two of the "other" Sedgwicks were Edward's twin sisters Eileen and Josie, who later pursued successful silent-movie acting careers. In 1915, Sedgwick broke into films as a comedian, frequently cast as a zany baseball player. He became a serial director in 1921, then moved on to the Tom Mix western unit. Sedgwick's lifelong love of baseball came in handy as he helmed the ballpark sequences of Mix's Stepping Out (1923), Buck Jones' Hit and Run (1924), William Haines Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927), Buster Keatons The Cameraman (1928) and the 1934 mystery Death on the Diamond. While at MGM in the late 1920s, Sedgwick found a kindred spirit in fellow baseball buff Buster Keaton. At Keaton's insistence, Sedgwick directed all of Keatons silent and sound MGM features, including the aforementioned The Cameraman. Spite Marriage (1929), Free and Easy (1930), Dough Boys (1930), Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931), Speak Easily (1932), Sidewalks of New York (1933) and What, No Beer? (1933). This proved a mixed blessing: though the MGMs were, as a group, Keatons most profitable features, they also contained some of his worst moments on screen. In the mid-1930s, Sedgwick was briefly a producer/director at Hal Roach Studios, responsible for the Jack Haley vehicles Mister Cinderella (1936) and Pick a Star (1937). The latter film featured a guest appearance by Laurel & Hardy. who in 1943 reteamed with Sedgwick for the MGM feature Air Raid Wardens. Considered a relic of a bygone era by the 1940s, Sedgwick sat out the waning years of his MGM contract, chumming around with such old cronies as Buster Keaton. In 1948, Keaton, employed as a gag man for Red Skelton, suggested that Sedgwick would be an ideal director for the upcoming Skelton vehicle A Southern Yankee. Alas, Sedgwick was not up to the challenge: though he receives solo directorial credit on Southern Yankee, the film was directed in its entirety by S. Sylvan Simon. Edward Sedgwick's final film was Universal's Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm (1951). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1951
This third entry in Universal's money-spinning "Ma and Pa Kettle" series once more stars Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as the title characters. This time, the Kettles extend their hospitality to their stuffy Boston in-laws (Ray Collins and Barbara Brown). Trouble brews when the Bostonites offer to raise the Kettles' grandson in a more "suitable" environment--namely, their own. The plot goes off on another tangent when it is presumed that the Kettle farm is rich with uranium. Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm delivers the goods for fans of the series, and even provides a few bright and funny moments for non-fans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, (more)
- 1948
Hot on the heels of Columbia's The Fuller Brush Man, MGM released another Red Skelton gagfest, A Southern Yankee. Set during the Civil War, the film casts Skelton as bumbling bellboy Aubrey Filmore. Yearning to help the Northern cause by becoming an undercover spy, Aubrey succeeds beyond his wildest dreams when circumstances force him to pose as notorious Southern secret agent Major Drumman (George Coulouris), aka "The Grey Spider". Infiltrating rebel territory, our hero does his best (which is none too good) to intercept the Grey Spider's messages and smuggle them to the North. Along the way, he falls in love with pert Southern belle Sallyann Weatherby (Arlene Dahl). Many of the side-splitting gag routines were devised by Buster Keaton, notably the now-famous scene in which Aubrey gingerly walks across the battlefield between Northern and Southern lines carrying a two-sided flag -- the Northern Stars and Stripes on one side, the Southern Stars and Bars on the other -- a strategy that works until the wind suddenly changes! Though Edward Sedgwick is credited with the direction, Red Skelton later revealed that A Southern Yankee was actually directed by S. Sylvan Simon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Red Skelton, Brian Donlevy, (more)
Set in wartime (WW II), this film finds the fat guy, skinny guy comedy duo not much good at any attempted professions; they can't even enlist in the war effort. None of the services want them. But they do become air raid wardens, at least for a while, until their misadventures continue. They get all boozed up and are kicked off the air raid squad, too! But things get better when they thwart a spy ring and save the day. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1940
In this comedy of mistaken identity, a bookish literary reviewer bows to the desires of his lover and shaves off his whiskers. Suddenly he finds himself in trouble, for without the mustache, he is the spitting image of a gangster who has just been released from prison. When the mobster's gang sees the reviewer, they immediately assume he is the boss and they take him away. Soon he finds himself in deep trouble. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Frances Robinson, (more)
- 1939
Though Joe E. Brown's starring vehicles of the late 1930s-early 1940s were on the whole decidedly inferior to his earlier Warner Bros. films, some were better than others. In the "better" category is Columbia's Beware Spooks!, a hectic comedy-mystery set on Coney Island. On the strength of the reputation of his famous police-officer father, hapless Roy Gifford (Brown) is invited to join the "boys in blue". He soon proves himself an inept peacekeeper, and by mid-film he's been booted off the force. Cutting his losses, Roy heads to Coney Island for a honeymoon with his new bride Betty Lou (Mary Carlisle), and while in the fun house-which turns out to be a criminal hideaway--manages to solve a baffling murder. The zany climactic chase through the darkened "spook house" is the funniest scene in the picture, leaving no tried-and-true slapstick gag unturned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Mary Carlisle, (more)
- 1939
The zippy world of auto-racing provided the basis of this off-beat actioner that centers on an auto magnate who is relentlessly driven to break every speed record with his cars. Unfortunately, his drivers keep dying on the track. This doesn't stop the obsessed manufacturer from continuing his quest. One day the tycoon and his daughter are at the race track scouting new drivers when he spots a talented young hayseed who wins the race. Impressed, he signs the naive lad on. The magnate's daughter meets the driver and soon falls in love with him. Even though the rube is well aware that his predecessors have died, he vows that he will succeed. He does, but not before learning the real reason behind the mysterious string of deaths. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis O'Keefe, Cecilia Parker, (more)
- 1939
In this lively comedy, a cop bungles a simple arrest and ends up suspended. He redeems himself by capturing some notorious crooks in a funhouse during a visit to Coney Island. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1938
The most successful of Joe E. Brown's post-Warner Bros. efforts, The Gladiator finds cavern-mouthed Brown winning a cash prize at a movie theatre, then using his windfall to attend college. The son of a legendary athlete, clumsy Brown is unable to live up to his dad's reputation. Genially batty scientist Lucien Littlefield injects Brown with a strength serum that turns Our Hero into a star football player. When he balks at joining the team, the coach sends pretty June Travis, the girlfriend of campus jock Robert Kent, to flatter Brown into suiting up. At first considering Brown a twerp, Travis grows to genuinely love him, especially after he is publicly humiliated by Kent. The climax finds Brown wrestling against Man Mountain Dean, with virtually everyone at the college betting their bankroll on Brown. Trouble is, the serum begins to wear off at the most inopportune moment. Despite his milquetoast characterization, Joe E. Brown was in fact a champion-level athlete; he used no doubles in the wrestling scenes, and as a result landed in the hospital with a double hernia. The Gladiator is a lighthearted adaptation of the satirical novel by Philip Wylie, which was reportedly also the inspiration for the Superman comic strip. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Man Mountain Dean, (more)
- 1937
Film collectors take note: Hal Roach's Pick a Star is not a Laurel and Hardy picture, though the popular comic duo does make a brace of amusing cameo appearances halfway through the film. A remake of Buster Keaton's Free and Easy, this is the story of how small-town gas-station owner Joe Jenkins (Jack Haley) tries to help his sweetheart Cecilia Moore (Rosina Lawrence) realize her ambition to become a movie star. At the behest of travelling entrepreneur Stone (Russell Hicks), Jenkins organizes a talent contest, the first prize being a trip to Hollywood and a screen test. When Stone turns out to be a crook and skips town with the proceeds of the contest, Cecilia is heartbroken, but Joe promises to go to Hollywood himself and make the right connections to assure her rise to stardom. Alas, the best Joe can manage in Tinseltown is a busboy job at the Colonial Club, a fact he tries to conceal from Cecilia and her wisecracking sister Nellie (Patsy Kelly) when they unexpectedly arrive in California as guests of movie-matinee idol Rinaldo Lopez (Mischa Auer). In desperation, Joe pretends to be a nightclub entertainer, but when this ruse is revealed, Cecilia angrily walks out on him, accompanying Rinaldo first to his movie studio and then to his apartment. Naturally Rinaldo has seduction on his mind, but innocent Cecilia doesn't realize this until Joe storms into the apartment with blood in his eye. Ashamed for his lascivious behavior, Rinaldo arranges for Cecilia to have a screen test for producer Klawheimer (Charles Halton). At the last moment, Cecilia suffers an attack of "camera fright," but Joe gently coaches her through her test, and there's a happy ending for all concerned -- even for sister Nellie, who's been relentlessly cynical about the storyline from first scene to last. Cast as "movie stars," Laurel and Hardy show up briefly in the movie-studio scenes to participate in a reciprocal-destruction sequence with their old screen nemesis Walter Long, and to perform an amusing musical routine with "dueling" harmonicas. Pick a Star has been reissued as Movie Struck, while the Laurel & Hardy scenes were released separately to TV as the ersatz two-reeler A Day at the Studio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patsy Kelly, Jack Haley, (more)
In this romantic comedy, a rookie reporter works for his uncle's newspaper and gets assigned to write a story about an elderly archduke. While interviewing him, the young journalist falls in love with the crown princess. He then exposes a conspiracy to kill her and her father. Mayhem ensues as he successfully thwarts the killers, and marries the girl who soon becomes queen. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Helen Mack, (more)
- 1937
A lesser but no less amusing Joe E. Brown vehicle, Riding on Air was adapted from a series of Saturday Evening Post stories by Richard Macaulay. Brown and Vinton Hayworth play Elmer Lane and Harvey Schumann, two rival small-town newspaper reporters who spend half their time fighting over stories (including a juicy murder yarn) and the other half battling over heroine Betty Harrison (Florence Rice). Elmer finally gains the upper hand when he stumbles upon a gang of airborne smugglers; commandeering the crooks' plane, our hero goes on a wild and crazy ride before the aircraft is brought under control by a revolutionary new radio beam. He then settles the hash of local swindler Doc Waddington, played by Brown's old Warner Bros. crony Guy Kibbee. Produced independently by David Loew, Riding on Air was released by RKO Radio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Guy Kibbee, (more)
- 1936
Hotel barber Joe Jenkins (Jack Haley), who's obsessed with newspaper stories about high-society celebrities, is dragooned into posing as eccentric millionaire Aloysius Merriweather (Monroe Owsley) at a fancy weekend party. At first thrilled at the prospect of hobnobbing with the 400, Joe is less than thrilled when he's forced to continue the charade after Merriweather is rendered unconscious in a traffic accident. Getting off to a bad start with heiress Patricia Randolph (Betty Furness) -- who loses her speedboat, beach house and clothes thanks to his bumbling -- Joe redeems himself by saving her father's (Raymond Walburn) automobile business. Whether or not he can save himself from Spike Nolan (Tom Dugan), the gun-wielding brother of Owsley's neurotic bride Mazie (Rosina Lawrence), is another matter! Mister Cinderella is a typically frantic farce from the Hal Roach comedy mills, with a marvelous scene-stealing performance by Arthur Treacher and a brisk musical score (culled mostly from Roach's Laurel & Hardy and "Our Gang" comedies) by Marvin Hatley and LeRoy Shield. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Haley, Betty Furness, (more)
- 1935
G.K. Chesterton's crime-solving cleric Father Brown was first brought to the screen in 1934, in the corpulent form of Walter Connolly. The good father spends most of the film trying to retrieve a valuable diamond cross from elusive thief Flambeau (Paul Lukas). Father Brown is convinced that Flambeau is eminently redeemable, but the double-crossing thief hardly proves to be a prime candidate for salvation. Amazingly, Father Brown's faith in Flambeau's essential decency proves well-founded, but it's certainly touch-and-go for a while. Long unavailable for reappraisal, 1934's Father Brown, Detective has been eclipsed by the popularity of the 1954 Alec Guinness remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Connolly, Paul Lukas, (more)
- 1935
Having gained considerable audience attention for his appearance in the 1935 "Crime Does Not Pay" 2-reeler Buried Loot, new MGM contractee Robert Taylor was awarded with his first starring feature, the modestly budgeted Murder in the Fleet. Taylor is cast as Lt. Tom Randolph, one of several naval officers confined to his ship when a murder occurs. The victim was in the process of delivering the components for a new electrical flight-control device, thus everyone concerned is suspected of being a killer, or a foreign agent, or both. Several more murders occur before Lt. Randolph takes matters in his own hands and tracks down the culprit. The supporting cast is a film-buff's dream, including such favorites as Mischa Auer, Tom Dugan and Ward Bond in minor roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Jean Parker, (more)
- 1935
Vaudeville humorist Walter C. Kelley, who toured for years as "The Virginia Judge," repeated the characterization in this 1935 Paramount film. When not busy dispensing pearls of bucolic wisdom in the courtroom, Judge Davis (Kelly) of Tidewater, Virginia, tries to straighten out his hotheaded stepson Jim Preston (Robert Cummings, in one of his first major roles). The story reaches a dramatic peak when Jim is arrested for shooting his best friend Bob (Johnny Downs) during a quarrel over pretty Mary Lee Calvert (Marsha Hunt). Things look bad for a while, but Judge Davis is able to solve everyone's problems in record time. The presence of Stepin Fetchit in the cast of Virginia Judge indicates that Paramount hoped to build up Walter C. Kelly as a replacement for the late, beloved Will Rogers, who'd co-starred with Fetchit in the remarkably similar Judge Priest (1934). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter "Judge" Kelly, Marsha Hunt, (more)
- 1934
In this comedy, two impoverished cousins inherit a British mansion and decide that one of them should marry a wealthy socialite. To prepare him for her, the female cousin makes it seem as if they are wealthy, but unfortunately, it doesn't work. With the small amount of left over cash, plus the little they made from hocking the furniture, the two open a restaurant in the mansion. In the end, the male cousin and socialite get married anyway. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Everett Horton, Edna May Oliver, (more)
- 1934
No relation to the 1952 Frank Capra comedy of the same name, 1934's Here Comes the Groom stars Jack Haley as an unobtrusive little guy who wants to succeed as a criminal. In order to win the heart of hard-boiled Isabel Jewell, Haley must prove he has what it takes to become a gangster. Enter Patricia Ellis, on the rebound from being jilted by a radio crooner. When Haley sets his sights on Ellis, he forgets all about being a crook--but the mobster cohorts of Ms. Jewell aren't about to let him off so easily. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Haley, Mary Boland, (more)
- 1934
Lee Tracy once again plays a Winchellesque newspaper reporter in Universal's I'll Tell the World. More interested in his sex life than his career, news hawk Brown (Tracy) nonetheless agrees to cover the activities of a European archduke (Onslow Stevens) on behalf of his wire service. To circumvent rival reporter Briggs (Roger Pryor), Brown adopts a variety of disguises, and while travelling under an alias he makes the acquaintance of Jane (Gloria Stuart), a princess posing as an American tourist. The finale is a melange of romance, international intrigue, and journalistic double-crosses, culminating in Brown saving Jane's kingdom from revolution. The 1945 Universal minimusical I'll Tell the World is not a remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1934
Based on a novel by Cortland Fitzsimmons, the storyline of this "gimmick" mystery follows the St. Louis Cardinals during a championship season. The arrival of hotshot pitcher Larry Kelly (Robert Young) coincides with an apparent plot to sabotage the Cards' chances of making it to the World Series. A failed attempt to poison all the pitcher's mitts is followed by a series of murders: catcher Dunk Spencer (Joe Sauers) is shot while sprinting to third base, pitcher Frank Higgins (Robert Livingston) is strangled in the locker room, and lovable catcher Truck Hogan (Nat Pendleton) is killed with an arsenic-laden hot dog. Finding himself one of the many suspects, Kelly nearly becomes a victim as well when he is slipped a booby-trapped baseball. With the help of sportscaster Jimmy Downey (Paul Kelly), Kelly exposes the murderer, surviving to win the pennant and the heroine, team secretary daughter Frances Clark (Madge Evans). Partly filmed on location at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs' minor-league LA farm team), Death on the Diamond offers a fresh slant to the standard whodunit format, with some particularly good work by Ted Healy as an exasperated umpire. That MGM produced the film is tipped off by two of the studio's trademarks: The killer's last-minute confession, wherein the guilty party transforms from a mild-mannered soul into a raving lunatic, and the shoddy process-screen work in the ballgame scenes. Future stars Mickey Rooney, Walter Brennan and Bruce Bennett show up in bit roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Madge Evans, (more)
- 1933
Young football hero Jim Fowler (Robert Young) isn't in it for the love of the game. The hardworking young man is simply using the sport as a means to help him pay for school, and doesn't consider it any different from the laundry service he runs in his spare time. Rather than stroking his ego, the constant onslaught of football fanatics and sports reporters disgust Jim (Young) to the extent that his football coach (Joe Sawyer) tells old football chums--Jim's father Ezra (Grant Mitchell) and the father of Jim's girlfriend--about the star player's erratic behavior. The men, being passionate football fans themselves, are saddened by Jim's lackluster attitude towards the game. Convinced that people only respect him because of his skills on the field, Jim distances himself from Joan (Leila Hyams), his girlfriend, and seeks out a woman he believes knows nothing about football or his role in it. To his surprise, however, she not only knows of his career, but blackmails him to throw the game. When he refuses, her husband breaks Jim's hand. Suddenly inspired, Jim refuses to let the coach know about his condition and heroically takes to the field with a new perspective. Regardless of whether the big game is one or lost, Jim realizes that his teammates, being true friends after all, would rather lose with him than win without him. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Leila Hyams, (more)
- 1933
In this comedy, Jimmy Potts (Jimmy Durante) and Elmer J. Butts (Buster Keaton, Jr.) come up with a scheme to start up a beer brewery with the hope that Prohibition will soon be over. However, things don't work out exactly as they planned, and they end up in a mess of trouble. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, (more)
- 1933
In this comedy, two rubes from Montana find a fortune after they discover radium on their ranch. The nouveau riche ranchers then take a trip to England to see one of their girlfriends whose father sent her to stay with her blue-blooded relatives to keep her away from the red-necked country boy. As soon as the boys get to London, they really start paintin' the town red and getting into all sorts of trouble until they manage to reveal the true identity of a phony nobleman, a fugitive from justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George "Slim" Summerville, Andy Devine, (more)
- 1932
Previously filmed with Marion Davies in 1928, Jacques Deval's warhorse stage property Her Cardboard Lover was revamped four years later as the Buster Keaton vehicle The Passionate Plumber. The Great Stone Face stars as Elmer Tuttle, a Parisian plumber who is hired by dizzy heroine Patricia Alden (Irene Purcell) to make her sweetheart Tony Lagorce (Gilbert Roland) jealous. With the help of Patricia's chauffeur McCracken (Jimmy Durante) and her maid Albine (Polly Moran), the feckless Elmer is transformed into a Great Romeo, doing his job so well that the hot-headed Tony challenges him to a duel. This material was not ideally suited for Buster Keaton, nor was it a particularly brilliant strategy to team the solemn comedian with the bombastic Jimmy Durante. Still, a few hilarious moments shine through, especially during the climactic duel sequence. The Passionate Plumber was remade under the original title Her Cardboard Lover with Norma Shearer in 1942, while Keaton himself distilled the story -- and the best gags -- into his 1941 Columbia two-reeler She's Oil Mine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, (more)
Buster Keaton's best sound feature casts the Great Stone Face as Professor Post, a naïve college pedant who mistakenly believes he has inherited $750,000. Hoping to use this windfall to bring the Fine Arts to the waiting world, Post gets mixed up with a two-bit theatrical troupe, headed by Jimmy the piano player (Jimmy Durante). Enchanted by the troupe's libertine leading lady Eleanor Espere (Thelma Todd), the professor agrees to finance their Broadway-bound musical, assuming it will be presented in tasteful, classical tradition. When he realizes that he's bought into just another girlie show, Post walks onstage to apologize to the opening-night audience, only to become the hit of the show himself as he becomes enmeshed in the production's special stage effects. Post's unconscious silliness saves the musical from becoming a disaster and also somehow wins him the love of Pansy Peets (Ruth Selwyn), the hometown girl he left behind. Based on a novel by Clarence Buddington Kelland, Speak Easily boasts some terrific sight gags, an abundance of hilarious repartee between the usually ill-matched Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante, and a hilarious performance by future "Charlie Chan" Sidney Toler as an apoplectic stage manager. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, (more)
Based on the stage comedy by Charles W. Bell and Mark Swan (previously filmed in 1920), Parlor, Bedroom and Bath is a curious mixture of all that was good and everything that was bad in Buster Keaton's talkie features. Keaton plays Reginald Irving, a dimwitted bill-poster who finds himself the pawn in a scheme cooked up by wealthy Jeffrey Haywood (Reginald Denny). It seems that Jeffrey will not be permitted to marry Virginia Embrey (Sally Eilers) until a suitable husband is found for Virginia's older sister Angelica (Dorothy Christy). Since Angelica has rejected all the available suitors, Jeffrey schemes to offer Reginald as an eligible mate. First, however, he has to transform our dopey hero into a gentleman -- and a great lover. Somehow or other, poor Reginald innocently ends up in a compromising situation involving vampish Polly Hathaway (Charlotte Greenwood) and the very married Nita Leslie (Joan Peers) at a posh no-tell hotel. Keaton is permitted a few choice pantomimic moments in Parlor Bedroom and Bath, notably his scenes with the aggressive Charlotte Greenwood and a spectacular sight gag "borrowed" from his 1920 silent classic One Week. On the whole, however, Keaton is lost in a sea of unfunny dialogue and tired farcical situations -- a not untypical pitfall of his MGM talkies. Long unavailable due to legal complications, Parlor, Bedroom and Bath can be purchased from any of the public-domain video companies proliferating in the U.S. (Incidentally, that baronial "upstate New York" mansion in the film's early scenes was actually Buster Keaton's Beverly Hills home) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Buster Keaton, Charlotte Greenwood, (more)
