William Sistrom Movies

A somewhat primitive early talkie version of Rex Beach's lusty 1909 novel of Alaska salmon fishers, RKO's The Silver Horde was one of Joel McCrea's earliest breaks. Although third-billed to the more established Evelyn Brent and character star Louis Wolheim, McCrea played the leading role of Boyd Emerson, an adventurer finding himself stranded in the Alaskan wilderness along with sidekick Fraser (Raymond Hatton). Saloon hostess turned copper mine proprietress Cherry Malotte (Brent) falls in love with the newcomer and persuades business associate Tom Hilliard (William Davidson) to bankroll a salmon fishing operation for Emerson and the brutish-looking but lovable Balt (Wolheim). Emerson, however, is in love with Seattle debutante Mildred Wayland (Jean Arthur), whose snobbish father (Purnell Pratt) schemes with salmon industry magnate Frederick Marsh (Gavin Gordon) to sabotage the new endeavor. The rival fishing fleets meet in hand-to-hand battle for superiority with the Emerson-Balt crew emerging the winners. In retaliation, Marsh attempts to slander Cherry Malotte, but is killed by an out-of-control Balt. A major star of the late silent era, Evelyn Brent is struggling to convey her trademark toughness before the microphone, but McCrea makes a stalwart hero and Louis Wolheim is watchable doing almost anything. Jean Arthur is merely window dressing this early in her career, but Blanche Sweet, an icon of the early silent era, is completely wasted in a bit part as the villain's former girlfriend. It became her final screen appearance. The Silver Horde had been filmed once before, by Goldwyn in 1916 starring Myrtle Steadman as Cherry and Curtis Cooksey as Emerson. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Based on a play by Lolita Ann Westman and H.H. Van Loan, The Runaway Bride casts Mary Astor in the title role. Newly wed to Blaine (Lloyd Hughes), Mary (Astor) is all set to enjoy her honeymoon in Atlantic City. But the consummation of her marriage will have to wait, thanks to a jewel robbery, a pickpocket chambermaid (Natalie Moorehead), and an enforced stay at a shady hospital run by gangsters. Throughout it all, our heroine wears a resigned expression on her face -- and who could blame her? Runaway Bride was directed by actor Donald Crisp, who should have stuck to the business-end of the camera. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actress Shelah Fane (Dorothy Revier) is in Honolulu to shoot a movie, but her chaotic personal life is keeping her from concentrating on work. She's supposed to marry millionaire playboy Alan Jaynes (William Post Jr.), but she's also got an ex lurking around and a possible skeleton in her closet in the form of her one-time lover, actor Danny Mayo, who was murdered in Hollywood three years earlier in a case that's still officially unsolved. Fane seems to have resolved some of her problems and is prepared to move forward with her life -- with help from phony mystic Tarnevarro (Bela Lugosi) -- when she turns up murdered. Inspector Chan (Warner Oland) is up to his neck in possible suspects, including Tarnevarro, who was getting inside information on Fane and working some kind of scam; Fane's assistant, Julie O'Neil (Sally Eilers), who felt compelled to tamper with evidence; her would-be fiance, Jimmy Bradshaw (Robert Young), who tried to keep Julie from finding the body; Fane's oily ex (Victor Varconi); Smith (Murray Kinnell), a painter and beachcomber who was lurking around the murder scene; and two servants, Jessup (Dwight Frye) and Anna (Violet Dunn), one of whom seems very nervous. Several of these people had motive and opportunity, and the plot thickens considerably when some seemingly innocuous witnesses admit to hiding evidence, others start turning up dead, and yet others seem to be destroying evidence. Chan, juggling this list of suspects (and the thinly veiled racism of some of them) and the presence of his well-meaning but inept assistant Kashimo (Otto Yamaoka), as well as his family life, maintains his cool, cerebral demeanor throughout, despite attempts on his own life and the slang-laden yammering of his children, which the detective scarcely understands. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

While Paris Sleeps is a grim expose of the European white slave trade. To save his daughter Manon (Helen Mack) from falling into the hands of a vicious gang of pimps, convict Jacques Costard (Victor McLaglen) escapes from jail. Jacques' problems are twofold: he must keep Manon from being abducted into a life of prostitution, and he must also hide his true identity from the girl, who has been raised to believe that Jacques died a hero in WWI. The film's gruesome "money scene" finds the white slavers disposing of a stool pigeon by incinerating him in a huge bakery oven! Can this be the handiwork of the same Allan Dwan who later directed Shirley Temple's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dog of Flanders, the durable novel written in 1872 by the author who signed herself Ouida, was filmed three times, first in 1924 with Jackie Coogan. The second filmization, produced in 1935, stars child actors Frankie Thomas, Helen Parrish and Richard Quine as three poor Flemish youths whose lives are interconnected by a handsome German shepherd (played by "Lightning"). The threesome nurse the abandoned dog back to health; soon afterward, the dog rekindles the creative spark of a reclusive artist, whose painting of the noble hound wins a hefty cash prize. Richard Quine, the third juvenile lead of Dog of Flanders, grew up to become an important Hollywood writer/director of the 1950s. Quine did not, however, work on the 1959 remake of Dog of Flanders--which starred another future filmmaker, David Ladd. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dithery ZaSu Pitts is miscast as novelist Stuart Palmer's crime-solving schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers in The Plot Thickens. As usual, Hildegarde tries to figure out the connection between two ostensibly unrelated murders. The unifying factor turns out to be a priceless museum artifact, targeted for pilfering by a gang of international art thieves. James Gleason, a holdover from RKO Radio's previous Hildegarde Withers films with Edna May Oliver and Helen Broderick, is back as Hildegarde's friendly nemesis, Inspector Oscar Piper. The Plot Thickens was released in Great Britain as The Swinging Pearl Mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Owen Davis Jr. plays Bunker Bean, a meek and mild office worker who loves the boss' daughter (Louise Latimer) from afar. Bunker impulsively visits a mystic, who gazes into a crystal ball and determines that Mr. Bean is the reincarnation of such past leaders of men as Napoleon and an Egyptian Pharaoh. Armed with new confidence, Bunker charges back into his office, gives his boss (Robert McWade) a piece of his mind, and becomes a hotshot businessman. Several reverses later, Bunker Bean realizes that he doesn't need to rely on his imaginary "past lives" to make good and to win the girl. Based on the novel by Harry Leon Wilson (and its stage adaptation by Lee Wilson Dodd), Bunker Bean was the third film version of this enjoyable "worm turns" fable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Professional horsewoman Ann Dvorak is the Racing Lady in this hit-and-miss romantic comedy. The story begins breaking into a trot when millionaire auto tycoon Steven Wendel (Smith Ballew) (later a movie "singing cowboy") purchases a thoroughbred horse and engages the services of Ruth Martin (Dvorak) as a trainer. She begins to fall in love with Steven, but renounces him upon discovering that his "affection" for horses is motivated by his desire for publicity. Harry Carey, no stranger to horseflesh himself, co-stars as Dvorak's crusty father. The Ann Dvorak-Smith Ballew combination in Racing Lady proved unsatisfactory, with Dvorak handily out-acting her stiff-necked co-star throughout the picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

RKO Radio's "Hildegarde Withers" series, based on the mystery stories by Stuart Palmer, ground to a half with 40 Naughty Girls. ZaSu Pitts is once more miscast as crime-solving schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers, while James Gleason is rather better served as Inspector Oscar Piper. The title refers to a "Follies"-style Broadway revue, which serves as the backdrop for a baffling murder mystery. When the show's leading man is killed in full view of the audience, suspicion immediately falls upon the hapless prop man (Frank M. Thomas). But Hildegarde suspects that someone else was responsible, and, acting upon her impulses, assimilates a dizzying succession of contradictory clues to finger the actual killer. Among the "40 Naughty Girls" is 17-year-old Marjorie Lord, some 20 years before her TV fame as Danny Thomas's "wife." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Saint, Leslie Charteris' charming but deadly criminal-turned-sleuth, made his first film appearance in RKO Radio's The Saint of New York. Faithful to Charteris' original concept, this first movie Saint is a cold-blooded murderer, redeemed by the fact that all of his victims are notorious gangsters who'd otherwise elude the clutches of the law. Hired by a coterie of businessmen, Simon Templar (Louis Hayward), aka the Saint, methodically rids New York of its worst criminals, though "The Big Fellow", aka Hutch Rellin (Sig Rumann), continues to elude him. He is aided by Rellin's enigmatic mistress Fay Edwards (Kay Sutton), who pays for her actions with her life. The film's most memorable moment finds Templar disguising himself as a nun to dispose of a particularly nasty villain. The success of The Saint of New York prompted RKO to negotiate with Charteris for a series of "Saint" films, with George Sanders and Hugh Sinclair taking over from Louis Hayward as the title character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, designed to exploit the then current national craze for picture puzzles, an alcoholic advertising exec becomes addicted to inventing puzzles. Trouble ensues when he goes off on a major drunk and forgets to leave the answers to a national breakfast cereal contest. His colleague is assigned to find him. She succeeds and takes him to a rehab farm to sober up. He is kidnapped by gangsters who want those answers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Maxwell Archer, Detective was adapted from Hugh Clevely's novel Meet Maxwell Archer. John Loder plays the famed ficitional private detective whose greatest pleasure in life is to second guess Scotland Yard. Superintendent Gordon (Athole Stewart) calls Archer in to solve an apparently unsolveable case. Ingredients in the stew include a sinister father-and-son duo who may know more than they let on. Loder's leading lady in Leueen McGrath, later famous as the second wife of American playwright George S. Kaufman. Filmed in 1939, Maxwell Archer, Detective was released in the US in 1942, to capitalize on star John Loder's Hollywood popularity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide