Paul H. Sloan Movies

The Sun Sets at Dawn is a crime melodrama with strong religious overtones. The Boy (Philip Shawn) is about to be executed in the State's brand-new electric chair. On this momentous occasion, dozens of reporters gather around as The Boy tells his sad life story. While this is going on, the person who should be electrocuted is exposed, and it is suggested that a Divine force has brought about this last-minute miracle. Sally Parr co-stars as The Girl, who believes in The Boy's innocence (the characters have no names; this, evidently, is meant to be symbolic). Walter Reed also appears as The Chaplain, who has ever so much to say. The Sun Sets at Dawn represents the return after a lengthy retirement of director Paul H. Sloane, who also wrote and produced. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the rough-and-tumble world of post-Civil War Texas, ex-Confederate soldier Kirk Jordan (Randolph Scott) crosses paths with ranch owner Ivy Preston (Joan Bennett). Although a loyal Southerner, Jordan can't get past the waste and tragedy of the four years that have just ended, but Ivy is eager to help keep the war for the Confederacy alive, running guns to her would-be lover, unrepentant ex-Confederate captain Alan Sanford (Robert Cummings), who is prepared to ally himself with the Mexican emperor Maximilian as a means of starting a new war against the "Yankee" government. Ivy is attracted to Jordan after he boldly helps her evade an army checkpoint, until she finds out how relatively peaceable he is. Jordan and his sidekick, Cal Tuttle (Raymond Hatton), are prepared to make a cattle drive to the new railhead at Abilene and sell at a handsome profit, but Ivy wants nothing to do with the United States or Yankee money, even as her more practically minded grandmother (May Robson) and her foreman, Chuckawalla (Walter Brennan), try to convince her otherwise. Only when Isaiah Middlebrack (Robert H. Barrat), the corrupt local administrator for the occupying Northern government, arrives announcing a head-tax on cattle does she change her mind and begin to see some worth in Jordan's ambition and boldness. Two deaths, of Middlebrack and a much-loved ranch hand, allow the ranchers and the occupying soldiers to reconcile and make the drive together to the border. Jordan and his outfit find a stricken, desperate Abilene, bereft of anything to be shipped on the new rail line. Jordan's arrival accomplishes everything he hopes for and more, and in the end Ivy sees and also glories in his vision, of a United States reunited and restored, growing and thriving as never before. But Jordan can't abide her continued affection for Alan, whose continued obsession with restoring the Confederacy is wearing on him and almost everyone else by now, and he plans on leaving. Ivy doesn't want to see that happen, but is torn over her lingering affection for Alan. But then she learns that he is planning to join a new organization, the Ku Klux Klan, intended to drive the Yankees out of the South, and she suddenly has to choose with which of these men her future lies. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Adapted by director Paul Sloan from the novel by Will James, Lone Cowboy is an "outdoors" epic tailored to the talents of young Jackie Cooper. Actually the title character is not played by Cooper but by character actor Addison Richards, cast as a grizzled old rodeo rider named Dobe Jones. Placed in charge of Eastern lad Scooter O'Neal (Cooper), Dobe forms a strong friendship with the kid, but this does not dissuade him from his main purpose in life -- to track down his runaway wife Eleanor (Lila Lee) and her lover Jim Weston (Gavin Gordon). Finally catching up to the errant couple, Dobe shoots and kills Weston, a violent outburst that also seriously wounds Scooter. Evidently a more sombre ending was planned for Lone Cowboy than the hastily tacked-on happy denouement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Aristocrats weighted down by the Depression charter their yacht to vacationers in this comedy. ~ All Movie Guide

On the eve of her marriage to Cary Grant, socialite Nancy Carroll is visited by her sadistic ex-lover Louis Calhern, who threatens to have his gangster pal Jack LaRue rub out Grant if Carroll doesn't give up her marriage plans. She responds by killing Calhern with a piece of statuary; a sympathetic housekeeper helps Carroll hide all evidence of the crime, but LaRue, whom Calhern had telephoned just before the killing, has heard all. While on her honeymoon ocean voyage with Grant, Carroll is accosted by John Halliday, a friend of Calhern's who suspect her of being responsible for Calhern's death. Halliday's cat-and-mouse game comes to an ugly head during a mock trial held by the partying passengers. Carroll confesses, but the passengers think she's just playacting. Later on, Grant is informed that Carroll's confession was for real. The couple are met at dockside by Halliday, who has produced LaRue as a witness to the crime. Grant strongarms LaRue into changing his testimony; with no evidence, the DA is compelled to free Carroll. Had this labyrinthine melodrama been made after the Production Code went into effect, not only would Nancy Carroll have paid for her crime, but Cary Grant would also have spent a few years in stir for witness tampering. A Woman Accused is based on one of those "committee" literary works (a la The President's Mystery and Naked Came the Stranger) wherein each chapter is written independently by a different author. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this war drama, a brave reporter tries to remain detached while covering the war in Shanghai. While there, he falls for an ex-streetwalker, but must compete with a mercenary pilot for her love. By the end, the correspondent loses his objectivity after he helps the pilot save the woman from the enemy. The rescue costs the pilot his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The peripatetic spouses referred to in the title are all travelling salesmen, scooting to and from their wives via train. In Detroit on business, young unmarried salesman Barry (Frank Albertson) finds himself at a wild party where his fellow drummers, husbands all, are being entertained by a bevy of call-girls. One of these cuties is Ruby (Evelyn Brent), who ends up shooting libidinous salesman Ben (Carl Miller). For a while, it looks as though the cops are going to pin the shooting on Barry, but Ruby confesses at the last moment; meanwhile, Ben recovers from his wound, but may not be able to patch up his marriage when his wife shows up unexpectedly at the scene of the crime. Some much-needed laughs are provided by Hugh Herbert, dropping his usual "woo woo" gestures in favor of a philosophical Jewish characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After serving as comedy relief in three big-budget RKO Radio musicals, the comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were rewarded with their own starring vehicle, the dated but still delightful Half Shot at Sunrise. Set in Paris during WWI, the film casts Bert and Bob as Gilbert and Tommy, two AWOL doughboys. When not posing as officers to impress the local mademoiselles, our heroes spend their time ducking a pair of diligent MPs, and while doing so make the acquaintance of the hoydenish Annette (Dorothy Lee), the daughter of dyspeptic Colonel Marshall (George MacFarlane) and Marshall's snooty wife (Edna May Oliver). Tommy falls in love with Annette, while Gilbert is equally enamored of Olga (Leni Stengel), the Colonel's sultry lady friend. Hoping to save the boys from court-martial by turning them into war heroes, Annette and Olga contrive to send Gilbert and Tommy to the Front with "borrowed" secret orders. After nearly being killed by enemy shellfire, the two errant soldiers are arrested and brought to Marshall's headquarters, averting a firing squad only by revealing that their "secret orders" were actually love letters written to the Colonel by the flirtatious Olga. There are many funny routines in Half Shot at Sunrise (the scene in which Wheeler and Woolsey pose as French waiters is a riot), and the songs, particularly the Wheeler-Lee duet "Whistling the Blues Away," are quite entertaining. But the film's highlight is an uncharacteristic "straight" scene toward the end, when a panic-stricken Woolsey risks death to rescue an injured Wheeler from No Man's Land (and never mind that the scene ends with a satirically comic punch line). Half Shot a Sunrise proved beyond all doubt that Wheeler and Woolsey could carry a picture by themselves; they would remain top box-office attractions until Bob Woolsey's death in 1938. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Together with MGM's Hallelujah, Fox's Hearts in Dixie is historically significant as one of the first all-talkie, big-studio productions to boast a predominately African-American cast. The ineluctable Clarence Muse, all of forty years old, stars as elderly Grandpap Nappus, a former slave whose beloved daughter Chloe (Bernice Pilot) marries the shiftless Gummy (comedian Stepin Fetchit, in his only "straight" role). After Chloe's death, Grandpap determines that his grandson Chinaquapin (Eugene Jackson) will not follow in Gummy's footsteps. He intends to send the boy North for a proper education, a move that is strongly opposed by the no-good Gummy. Essentially a white man's view of the Black South, Hearts in Dixie may strike modern viewers as stereotypical and demeaning, but its intentions were honorable, and the end result was quite pleasing to both black and white audiences in 1929. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If Eve's Leaves has the "look" of a Cecil B. DeMille production, it's because DeMille himself functioned as producer. Salty sea captain Robert Edeson tries to keep his daughter Leatrice Joy away from men, but the rambunctious Joy yearns to experience such forbidden pleasures as kissing. When Edeson's ship docks at a Chinese port, both Joy and seaman William Boyd are captured by river bandits. The bandit chieftain hopes to take Joy as his bride, and to secure her compliance he binds Boyd hand-and-foot and prepares to subject the poor boy to torture. Joy takes this opportunity to steal a kiss from the helpless Boyd, whereupon a melodramatic scene becomes a comic one -- just as the stage play upon which this film was based was essentially a comedy. Captain Edeson rescues the lovers in the nick of time, admitting that it was a big mistake to keep his daughter locked up and agreeing to allow her to live her own life from now on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This picture banked on the publicity surrounding the excavation of King Tut's tomb and contained a weak copy of the classic Cecil B. DeMille historical interlude. Nicholas Ainsworth (Edmund Burns) is an Egyptologist who discovers a tomb in which a pair of lovers were buried alive. Intent on digging further, he neglects his wife, Jean (Leatrice Joy), who proceeds to flirt with several other men, including Prince Mahmoud Bey (Bertram Grassby), who is a tomb robber. Mahmoud is determined to get Ainsworth out of the way and has the excavation site dynamited to seal him inside. Jean, however, happens to be there, too, and she is entombed along with him. While they are wondering if help will ever come, Ainsworth comes to the realization that he should be paying more attention to his wife. At the last possible moment, the couple is rescued. One of the biggest mistakes actress Leatrice Joy made was following Cecil B. DeMille after he left Paramount in 1925. They had a falling out almost immediately and he handed her over to other directors in his production company, most of whom made films that weren't worthy of her talents. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The Paramount backlot doubled as Basque country for this romantic comedy which proved to be a nice showcase for Richard Dix. Richard Gaylord Jr. (Dix) is a pleasure-loving playboy who is constantly getting in trouble with the ladies, much to the chagrin of his father, Richard Gaylord Sr. (Frank Currier). Finally fed up, the elder Gaylord comes up with a plan -- one of his company men, Simmons (Joe Burke), is traveling to the Basque country, and he tells his boss that the Basque women only marry their own people. So Gaylord Sr. sends young Dick along, promising to give him half interest in his business if he will only stay away from women. Upon his arrival, Dick almost immediately becomes involved with Yvonne Hurja (Frances Howard), the daughter of the businessman (Albert Tavernier) that Simmons is working with. Julio, the local police chief -- who does double duty as a bandit chief (William Powell) -- loves Yvonne too. When she expresses her preference for Dick, Julio sends his men to kidnap the brash young Americano. Dick's father shows up just in time to see his son escape from the bandits and duke it out with Julio. Gaylord Sr. approves of Yvonne, and decides to share his company with Dick anyhow. The onscreen career of Frances Howard was extremely brief -- she married producer Samuel Goldwyn before she could make any mark as an actress. Appearing in a bit part is Harpo Marx in one of his rare appearances away from his fellow Marx Brothers. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide