Nick Lukats Movies
Knute Rockne, All American
NR 1940
Knute Rockne-All American was Pat O'Brien's finest hour: thanks to intensive rehearsals and numerous makeup applications, he so closely resembled the title character that,...
Start Cheering
1938
Start Cheering is Columbia Pictures' idea of a college musical: Practically everyone in the cast is past the age of 30. Charles Starrett plays a movie star who wearies of...
Rebellious Daughters
1938
Very cheaply produced, Rebellious Daughters was released on a theater-by-theater basis as an "exploitationer." Such familiar faces as Marjorie Reynolds, Verna Hillie,...
Extortion
1938
Extortion was designed as a sort of trial balloon for Columbia's new contractees Scott Colton and Mary Russell. The story takes place on a college campus, where a...
The Duke of West Point
1938
Louis Hayward plays an arrogant Cambridge student who emigrates to America and enrolls at the West Point. Hayward's superior attitude earns him the enmity of his fellow...
I Am the Law
1938
I Am the Law is arguably the best of the late-1930s films inspired by the racket-busting career of New York district attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Edward G. Robinson switches to...
Hell Town
1937
Paramount borrowed John Wayne from Republic Pictures for the studio's second screen version of Zane Grey's Born to the West, which was also the Western's...
Make Way for Tomorrow
1937
While not a box-office success, this drama, directed by Leo McCarey, developed a potent reputation among film critics and movie buffs for its sensitive and perceptive treatment...
Easy Living
1937
Financier J.B. Ball (Edward Arnold) -- known in the press as "the Bull of Broad Street" -- may be one of the wealthiest investment bankers in the country, but he also knows...
Murder Goes to College
1937
A sort of follow-up to the studio's earlier College Scandal, Paramount's Murder Goes to College once again combines homicide with higher learning. When the titular murder...
Wild Money
1937
In this crime drama, a tightwad accountant for a newspaper becomes friends with a reporter. The bookkeeper goes on vacation, and while there he learns of a kidnapping conspiracy....
Sophie Lang Goes West
1937
In this, the final episode in the "Sophie Lang" trio of crime comedies, the incorrigible female crook is again a fugitive from justice and heading for the West coast. Soon after...
Waikiki Wedding
1937
This happy-go-lucky musical comedy is set in beautiful Hawaii and follows a public relations man who works for a pineapple company (Bing Crosby) and his pal as they escort a...
Hotel Haywire
1937
The inimitable Preston Sturges originally scripted Hotel Haywire with George Burns and Gracie Allen in mind, but by the time the film went before the cameras, the...
Champagne Waltz
1937
Another of Paramount's efforts to transform Metropolitan Opera diva Gladys Swarthout into a popular movie star, Champagne Waltz casts Swarthout as Elsa Strauss, the...
King of Gamblers
1937
Akim Tamiroff, Paramount Pictures' resident crime lord, runs all illegal gambling activities in a major city. Reporter Lloyd Nolan struggles to get the goods on...
Internes Can't Take Money
1937
Pulp fiction writer Max Brand's 1936 creation Dr. Kildare made his screen debut in the amiable person of Joel McCrea in this well-received Paramount production. Aided by...
Swing High, Swing Low
1937
Swing High Swing Low is a new coat of paint on the old stage play Burlesque, first filmed in 1929 as The Dance of Life. Ex-serviceman Skid Johnson (Fred MacMurray)...
Rose Bowl
1936
Actual footage of the 1936 Rose Bowl game is cleverly (if not seamlessly) integrated into the action of this sports-oriented comedy. Longtime chums Paddy O'Reilly (Tom...
Murder With Pictures
1936
Gail Patrick plays a young woman framed for murder. Luckily the newsman on the courtroom beat is ace photographer Lew Ayres. He senses Patrick is innocent (the fact that...