Cast: Bessie Love, Conway Tearle, John Holland, Natalie Moorhead, Emma Dunn, June Clyde, Edmund Breese, David Rollins, Lina Basquette, Virginia Lee Corbin, Otis Harlan
65 min
Plot
Helen Hutson, the secretary and mistress of New York businessman Van Dyne, is initially upset when her childhood sweetheart, Paul Cooper, comes to her office to visit. However, she agrees to have dinner with him after he says he is leaving town that night and, feigning a headache, breaks a date with Van.
They go dancing, and Paul, whom Helen once told not to come back into her life until he made good, proposes by the end of the evening. Helen avoids giving an answer, and at the train
They go dancing, and Paul, whom Helen once told not to come back into her life until he made good, proposes by the end of the evening. Helen avoids giving an answer, and at the train station before he leaves, she tries but fails to confess her involvement with Van.
Despite advice from her friend Katherine, Helen, now in love with Paul, plans to return to her hometown of Greenfield, New York and tell him everything before they marry. In Greenfield, Helen finds that her younger sister Lorraine is infatuated with a wealthy boy from the southern school she is attending.
Her father, who has lost his job as a newspaperman, comes in drunk with friends, one of whom asks Helen to repay $200 that her father borrowed. When a boy in town makes insulting innuendos about Helen, her brother Bud defends her reputation, breaking a bottle over the boy’s head. After the sheriff tells Helen that the injured boy’s father will not press charges if he is paid for the hospital expenses, Helen reveals to Bud that the rumors are true.
He embraces her nonetheless, and Helen returns to New York where she placates Van by saying that Paul means nothing to her, and gets the money to bail Bud out of jail. Sometime later, on the night of a party Van demands she hold for some drunken business associates, Helen’s mother and father visit her apartment. That same day, Paul, who has come back from his trip, looks for her at the office, and meets Van instead.
When Paul announces their impending marriage, Van maliciously brings Paul to the party. Meanwhile, Helen’s mother has made lemonade for the surprised guests, while her father gets drunk with two of Van’s associates. When Van, in front of Paul, orders Helen to get him handkerchiefs from his drawer, Paul leaves in disgust. Helen leaves town the next day with her parents. They receive a telegram from Lorraine announcing her marriage, and Helen is happy that her sister is “safe.” Paul comes to the house, and as Bud and his mother watch from the window, Helen and Paul embrace and reconcile.
Cast: Marian Marsh, Owen Moore, Christian Rub, William Bakewell, Emma Dunn, Edmund Breese, Geneve Mitchell, Pat O’Malley, Syd Saylor
62 min
Plot
Herman Heupelkossel, a kindhearted orderly at a New York hospital, is teased by his fellow workers for the sympathy he gives patients. An unconscious, badly bleeding girl under twenty, the victim of a speeding, drunk driver, is brought in by the driver, twenty-four-year-old John Russell, who wants to be punished for his offense.
Herman sees that the girl, Julia Wilkins, will be alright in a few days and convinces John to hide his drunkenness so that he will be able to help Julia, rather than go to jail. With the aid of Limburger cheese, black coffee and Herman’s old pipe, John reluctantly covers up his alcoholic breath.
As Julia gets better, she and John fall in love, and when he brings her home to her roominghouse, he proposes. When the accident occurred, Julia had been on her way to meet her former suitor Stanley Colton, a wealthy playboy, and accept his offer to become his mistress in exchange for luxurious rooms, a piano, musical instruction and eventually a trip to Europe to study.
She now tells Colton, who is waiting at her room, that she only kidded herself into believing that she was a musical genius. Colton still extends an offer to help her, which John rebuffs. John, who has hidden from Julia the fact that he is the black sheep son of wealthy parents, takes her to his home, where his family, especially his snooty sister Doris, make the meeting unpleasant because they think she is after his money. As a result, Julia breaks off the engagement, which leads John to go on a drinking binge. When Herman learns of this, he calls Julia, who brings John to her room.
They plan to marry without financial help from his family, and this time, Julia, anxious to leave before anything else goes wrong, calls Colton to ask him for money. She goes to have dinner at his apartment, and after she refuses his entreaties that she break with John, he has her wait in his bedroom while he answers the door. John, whom Colton craftily had called and asked to visit after he heard from Julia, enters and accuses Julia of selling herself to Colton.
Their engagement broken again, Julia soon is kicked out of her room for non-payment of rent. After two weeks, she is taken to the hospital, suffering from pneumonia. Herman, thinking that John’s presence when she regains consciousness could determine whether she lives or dies, leaves the hospital to find him, at the risk of losing his job, but arrives at John’s house just after John has left to take a steamer to Europe.
Herman convinces John’s father of the urgency of the situation and they find John. As Mr. Russell is the hospital’s heaviest donor, Herman is not fired. Julia recovers and the couple are reconciled.
Cast: El Brendel, Maureen O’Sullivan, John Garrick, Marjorie White, Frank Albertson, Hobart Bosworth, Kenneth Thomson, Micha Auer, Ivan Linow, Joyzelle Joyner, Wilfred Lucas
The film starts with a preamble showing life in 1880, where the people believed themselves the “last word in speed”. It switches to 1930, with the streets crowded with automobiles and lined with electric lights and telephone wires. It then switches to 1980, where the tenement houses have morphed into 250-story buildings, connected by suspension bridges and multi-lane elevated roads.
In 1980, J-21 (John Garrick) sets his aircraft on “hover” mode in New York, lands and converses with the beautiful LN-18 (Maureen O’Sullivan). He describes how the marriage tribunal had refused to consider J-21’s marital filing and applications, and LN-18 is going to be forced to marry the conceited and mean MT-3 (Kenneth Thomson). J-21 plans to visit LN-18 that night.
RT-42 (Frank Albertson) tries to cheer him up by taking him to see a horde of surgeons experimentally revive a man from 1930, who was struck by lightning while playing golf, and was killed. The man (originally named Peterson now is called Single O) is taken in hand by RT-42 and J-21, where it is revealed that aircraft have replaced cars, numbers have replaced names, pills have replaced food and liquor, and the only legal babies come from vending machines.
That night, LN-18 feigns a headache, and her father and the despicable MT-3 decide to go to “the show” without her. The second they are gone, RT-42 and J-21 appear and woo B-27 and LN-18 respectively. MT-3 and LN-18’s father return quite early, as MT-3 was highly suspicious, and RT-42 and J-21 hide. However, the game is foiled by the moronic Single O (El Brendel), the man from 1930, becoming addicted to pill-highballs, getting drunk, and trying to get some more pill-highballs from J-21.
J-21 is depressed, but is contacted by Z-4, the scientist. He is told that Z-4 (Hobart Bosworth) has built a “rocket plane” that can carry three men to Mars. After a farewell party where J-21 works, on the Pegasus, a dirigible they call an “air-liner,” the rocket blasts off, carrying J-21, RT-42 and Single O, who has stowed away for the synthetic rum. Landing on Mars, they are received by the Queen, Looloo and the King, Loko. That night, Looloo and Loko take them to see a “show,” a Martian opera, where a horde of trained Martian ourang-outangs dance about.
They are suddenly attacked by Booboo and Boko, the evil twins (everyone on Mars is a twin) of the King and Queen. They escape and return to Earth, and as one of the first men on another planet, J-21 is permitted to marry LN-18. Finally, Single O is reunited with his aged son, Axel.
The massive, distinctive Art Deco city-scape, for which Just Imagine has come to be best remembered, was built in a former Army balloon hangar by a team of 205 technicians over a five-month period.
The giant miniature cost $168,000 to build and was wired with 15,000 miniature lightbulbs (an additional 74 arc lights were used to light the city from above). Other production credits include costumes by Alice O’Neil and Dolly Tree with graphics by Post Amazers.[1]
Special effects
The sequence in which the El Brendel character is revived from the dead features the first screen appearance of the spectacular electrical equipment assembled by Kenneth Strickfaden, seen again and more famously in James Whale‘s Frankenstein (1931).
Over 50 special effects shots combining previously photographed backgrounds with live foreground action were accomplished using the Dunning Process.[2] Rear projection technology of the scale and quality required was not available at the time.
Of the DeSylva, Brown and Henderson songs introduced in the film, “Never Swat a Fly” was covered as the classic 1930 recording by McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, the 1967 revival by Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band, and more recent recordings by Doc Cheatham among others.
Reception
Mordaunt Hall called Just Imagine, “clever”, “highly imaginative” and “intriguing” and praised the costumes and set design.[4] This expensive film was a one-time-only novelty stunt, bolstered by the short-lived popularity of El Brendel.[5]Wonder Stories “cordially recommended” the film, saying it “shows us many of the wonders that our science fiction authors have been writing about”.[6]
Although a box-office flop, however, it was eventually able to make back some of its production costs in the studio shopping out clips of the futuristic sets for other films of the period. Clips of the cityscape from this movie were later used in the Universal serials Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers; the mock-up Mars spaceship was reused in the former as Dr. Zarkov’s spaceship.
Also seen in the first Flash Gordon serial are the strange hand-weapons carried by J21 and RT42 on Mars, which are held under rather than over the fist, and re-used footage of dancing girls cavorting about and on a Martian idol with moving arms.[7]
By the time Just Imagine was released, movie musicals had greatly declined in popularity.[8] As a result, major American studios would not back another big budget science fiction film until 1951. There was to be only one other American science-fiction musical in that period, It’s Great to Be Alive (1933), which failed at the box-office. Film serials were an exception to this general trend, however.
The first Flash Gordon serial from 1936 had an unusually large budget for a serial of the time, and Gene Autry’s The Phantom Empire from 1935 can loosely be considered a science fiction musical serial.
Altman, Rick. The American Film Musical. Bloomington Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0-253-20514-8.
Kreuger, Miles ed. The Movie Musical from Vitaphone to 42nd Street as Reported in a Great Fan Magazine. New York: Dover Publications, 1974. ISBN 0-486-23154-2.
Film Collectors Corner
Watch Just Imagine Now – Instant Video on You Tube
Cast: Conrad Nagel, Leila Hyams, Tommy Conlon, Claire Windsor, Stanley Fields, Fred Kohler, Alexander Carr, Robert Ellis, Lionel Belmore, Ruth Clifford, Mickey Daniels
76 min
The Constant Woman (1933), also known as Auction in Souls and Hell in a Circus, is an American Pre-Code film directed by Victor Schertzinger. It is based on an early Eugene O’Neill play called Recklessness.
Plot
Marlene Underwood is a star circus performer, whose husband Walt buys the circus while their son Jimmie worships everything his mother does. Marlene leaves them both to go join a larger show, then is killed in a fire, resulting in Walt going into a downward spiral of alcohol and sorrow.
A woman called Lou helps restore Walt’s faith in human nature, but she is resented by young Jimmie, who feels she is trying to take his mother’s place. Walt gets back on his feet, but now must try to stop Jimmie from joining the circus himself.
Cast: Jeanette Loff, Ben Alexander, Arthur Tracy, Emma Dunn, Franklin Pangborn, Al K Hall, Cissy Fitzgerald, Helen McKellar, William Pawley, Corky
58 min
Plot
When Dudley, a young man from the country, comes to the city with his dog “Corky,” he falls in love with an actress named Nancy.
Dudley loses Corky, but when the dog shows up and causes a disruption while Nancy is singing onstage, she is fired. A short time later, Nancy discovers that her mother, who has been led to believe that Nancy is happily married with a baby, is coming to town. To maintain the deception, Nancy convinces Dudley to pretend to be her husband and “borrows” a baby.
The ruse is soon discovered, but by then Nancy and Dudley have fallen in love. Nancy then marries Dudley and they move to his home in the country.
Cast: Madge Bellamy, Gilbert Roland, Natalie Moorhead, Theodore Von Eltz, Molly O’Day, Henry Kolker, Paul Porcasi, Robert Bolder, Ellinor Vanderveer
64 min
Plot
Suzanne Ricord, the prettiest salesgirl at the Parfumerie Parisienne, attracts the attention of wealthy Albert Valraine, who purchases all the expensive perfumes that she recommends.
After work, Suzanne and her roommate Paulette find Valraine waiting. He insists on giving the demure Suzanne a ride home and puts Paulette in the rear outdoor seat, where she still manages to hear Valraine offer Suzanne both the perfumes that he bought and to be her “fairy godfather.”
Suzanne refuses, but after she finds no mail from her lover, Paulette talks her into accepting Valraine’s offer. She removes the ring that her lover gave her, and it is soon replaced by Valraine’s. Suzanne and Paulette now live in a nicely-furnished apartment paid for by Valraine, and Suzanne is his mistress.
However, when she begins to talk about their planned honeymoon, Valraine takes back his ring and, accusing her of not having learned the rules of the game, says that everything has to end sometime.
Suzanne cries in disappointment. Valraine then promises his fiancée Diane that he is finished with his mistress and gives her the ring he took back from Suzanne.
Sometime later, Suzanne sings at a cabaret and accepts gifts from the many wealthy men who come to see her. Her friend, Antoine “Tony” Ferand, a gigolo, dances with Diane, now Valraine’s wife, and Suzanne notices the ring on her finger. When Tony tells Suzanne that Diane is Mrs. Albert Valraine, Suzanne reveals that the ring was her engagement ring and says she wants it back.
Diane gives the ring to Tony supposedly to help finance his business, and when Tony, who really loves Suzanne, gives her the ring, she reveals that her plan is to show Valraine how it feels to be at the losing end of the game. When Tony says that he is sick of their life and has no self-respect, Suzanne refuses to listen.
Valraine, who has just returned from a trip, accompanies his wife to the cabaret, and he notices that her ring is gone. Seeing the ring on a hand holding the curtain leading to the telephone, Valraine grabs it only to find Suzanne waiting for his approach.
When he questions her about the ring, she obliquely threatens to reveal their affair if his inquiries go too far. Back at the table with his wife, after Valraine, noticing Tony staring at Diane, accuses her of humiliating him with a common gigolo, Diane leaves with Tony, who is frustrated with Suzanne’s schemes. In their cab, Tony reveals to Diane that Suzanne had been engaged to Valraine and apologizes.
Although disappointed, Diane refuses his offer to return the ring. Tony goes to Monte Carlo, where he is arrested after he leaves a watch that had been given to Suzanne by a man at the cabaret, at a repair shop. The watch turns out to be stolen property.
The next night, Suzanne, upset that Tony has not come to the club, rebukes Valraine when he apologetically asks if she could ever care for him again. In front of Valraine, she gives the ring as a present to Louie, her waiter.
Meanwhile, Tony, in jail, refuses to say who gave him the watch. Realizing that she really loves Tony, Suzanne goes with Paulette to Monte Carlo to get away. She sees Diane at a table but her fears at finding her with Tony are relieved when her new husband joins her.
After Paulette shows her a newspaper article about the stolen watch, she tells her story to the police. Tony is released and the man who gave her the watch is picked up in Marseilles. Tony and Suzanne plan to marry, and he plans to return to his father’s textile producing business. To their surprise, they find that with the ring, Louie has married Paulette.
Tony is released and the man who gave her the watch is picked up in Marseilles. Tony and Suzanne plan to marry, and he plans to return to his father’s textile producing business. To their surprise, they find that with the ring, Louie has married Paulette.
Cast: Robert Armstrong, Carole Lombard, Roland Drew, Paul Hurst, Kit Guard, Al Hill, Hedda Hopper, John Loder, Jeanette Loff, Winter Hall, Winifred Harris, Robert Parrish
It tells the tale of some members of the criminal class in 1920s America, and in particular one man and one woman’s attempts to help him. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper appears in a minor role. The film is one of the early talkies, and as a result, dialogue is very sparse.
Plot
New York City gangster Mahlon Keene (Robert Armstrong) melts when he meets down-on-her-luck beauty Rhoda (Carole Lombard), a society gal who’s in desperate need of dough to support herself and her boyfriend, Tony (Roland Drew), a brilliant violinist with a serious drinking problem.
Mahlon pulls some strings to help Tony get back on top; in return, Rhoda is to dump the musician and marry the mobster.
The already heated situation is further complicated when the cops decide to crack down on Mahlon.
The screenplay was written by Walter DeLeon, based upon a successful German Vaudeville act entitled Tanzanwaltz, penned by Pordes Milo, Walter Schütt, and Dr. Eric Urban. The German production had been translated for the American stage by DeLeon and Mark Swan and, under the same title as the film.
Edward Everett Horton, in dual roles as Richard and Felix, the Great Zero.
Richard “Dickie” Smith (Edward Everett Horton), is a seemingly respectable defense attorney by day, who turns into a philandering Don Juan when the clock strikes 8 o’clock.
His wife, Madeline (Esther Ralston), has been away for several months, and is not expected back anytime soon. However, Madeline’s mother, Mrs. Mantel (Maude Eburne) is staying with the Smiths, in an effort to curtail the possibility of any straying by Richard.
Unbeknownst to her, he has made plans to go out on the town that night with his new, sultry secretary Kitty Minter (Patsy Ruth Miller), and his new sexy client, Diane O’Dare (Laura La Plante), who, a lonely wife herself, wishes to divorce her husband for neglect.
The issue is how can he go out on the town without alerting his mother-in-law. An issue which is seemingly resolved by the arrival at his home of a vaudeville impersonator: Felix, the Great Zero (also played by Edward Everett Horton). Felix is seeking permission to impersonate the famous lawyer on-stage. At first reluctant, Richard, noticing the striking resemblance between himself and the actor, realizes he might have a way to deceive Mrs. Mantel. In order to obtain his approval, Felix must agree to impersonate him at his house that evening, while he goes out.
While Richard goes out on the town, he discovers that Diane’s husband is none other than Felix. Meanwhile, Madeline arrives home unannounced and early.Thinking that he is about to be exposed, Felix phones the nightclub where Richard has taken the two women for dinner and drinks. As he waits for the return phone call, much to his surprise, rather than exposing him as an imposter, Madeline begins to come on to him. He attempts to resist, trying to hold out until he can speak to Richard, but he succumbs to her charms just as the phone begins ringing.
When Richard returns home the next morning, Felix is still there. He is followed closely by a very inebriated Diane, with whom it seems he has spent his time away from home. When Felix recognizes Diane, and Richard understands that Felix has spent the night at his house, both men believe that his look-a-like has slept with the others’ wife. After a series of events, Smith ends up chasing Zero with a loaded gun. Meanwhile, Andrews, the Butler, (Spencer Charters), thinks he must have the DT’s, seeing double of his employer.
The truth comes out when Madeline admits that she knew it wasn’t Richard all along, and other than the kissing, nothing happened between the two of them. Diane admits that she spent the night in the cab, riding around, and not with Richard. Reconciled, Richard is cured of his wandering ways and Felix and Diane are reunited.
Tie-in advertisement for Jo-Cur Beauty Products and Lonely Wives.
Pathé announced that the film was going into production in mid-November 1930, with Russell Mack at the helm.[6] Shortly after, it was reported that La Plante had been attached to the cast;[7] La Plante was returning to films after a brief seven-month hiatus, during which time speculation arose that her career might be over.
Her appearance in this film, and its success, would re-ignite her career.[8] On December 7, it was learned that DeLeon would be adapting the story into a screenplay,[9] and on the 10th the announcement came that Esther Ralston and Patsy Ruth Miller would be added to the list of cast members, along with Edward Everett Horton.[10]
Horton and Miller had co-starred the prior year in four films together for Warner Brothers.[11] The following day, December 11, The Film Daily announced that the film had begun production.[12]Included in the cast was Spencer Charters, who had acted with Mack in several Broadway plays.[13]
Pathe announced that the film would be part of its 1931 schedule, and it began to appear on its list of upcoming releases in the trades, but without a specific release date.[14] The release was held up in late January due to the sale of Pathe to RKO Pictures. By the end of the month the go-ahead was given to release the film.[15] Finally on February 16 RKO announced they would be releasing the film the following week.[16]
Several days prior to its release, Pathe announced that the marketing campaign for the film would include “tie-ins” with a coterie of manufacturers and retail stores. The campaign would include drug stores and department stores, and have advertising material supplied by manufacturers such as Underwood (typewriters), John H. Woodbury (toiletries), and Jo-Cur Laboratories (beauty products).[17]Lonely Wives was released by RKO on February 22, 1931.[5]
Soundtrack
“Madeline”, unknown composer
“Baby Feet”, unknown composer, sung by Maude Eburne[1]
Reception
Mordaunt Hall, the film critic for the New York Times, gave the film a positive review, calling the direction “skillful”, and singles out the performance of several of the actors, including Esther Ralston, Maude Eburne, Patsy Ruth Miller, and Spencer Charters.
He was especially impressed with Horton, stating that he “delivers a wonderfully clever dual impersonation …”, and is “wonderfully amusing”.[18]The Film Daily also gave the film a nod of approval, calling it “… one of the cleverest and most entertaining comedies of the season”.
They particularly highlighted the direction of Mack, Horton’s performance in his dual role, as well as complimenting the rest of the cast. The trade paper also gave the highest marks to the cinematography of Edward Snyder.[19]
Photoplay listed it as one of the best films of the month in February 1931, singling out the acting talents of Horton, Ralston, La Plante, and Miller.[20]Picture Play Magazine was a bit more reserved in their review of the film.
While they called it “… the most consistently broad comedy of any film since “The Cock-eyed World”,” they also stated that it was “supposedly hilarious”.[21]
Other positive reviews came from: Billboard, “… destined to be one of the laugh highlights of the screen year”; Motion Picture Herald, “Highly sophisticated comedy, goes over with a great laugh”; Los Angeles Express, “Fast, furious, frothy farce. Lonely Wives is a laugh riot”; and Motion Picture Daily, “Laughs keep rolling out in a steady deluge of ultra-sophisticated wise cracks.”[22]
It was released on DVD by Roan/Troma Entertainment in 2001.[24]
The English translation of the 1912 German vaudeville act, Tanzanwaltz, entitled Lonely Wives, written by DeLeon and Mark Swan, was produced by A.H. Woods in Stamford, Connecticut on August 11, 1922.[2] The play was scheduled to open in New York in August 1922, starring a well-known female impersonator of that time, Julian Eltinge as its star, but was never produced, apparently because while humorous, it had no value or integrity.[25]
The film was acquired by RKO when they purchased Pathé Exchange in January 1931.[25]
Cast: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette, Ralph Morgan, Robert McVade, Robert Barratt, Frank Conroy, Etienne Giradot, James Lee, Helen Winson, Paul Cavanagh, Jack La Rue
Philo Vance’s dog does not make it into the final of the Long Island Kennel Club’s dog show.
Fellow competitor Archer Coe (Robert Barrat) is disappointed, having hoped to savor a victory over Vance. Coe is found dead the next morning in his bedroom, locked from the inside. District Attorney Markham (Robert McWade) and Police Sergeant Heath (Eugene Pallette) assume it was suicide, because he was shot through the head and was found holding a pistol.
Vance is not convinced. He soon finds evidence that Coe was murdered. Coroner Dr. Doremus (Etienne Girardot) determines the victim died of a stab wound.
There is no shortage of suspects; Coe was very much disliked. His niece Hilda Lake (Mary Astor) resented her uncle’s tight control of her finances and jealousy of any men who showed interest in her.
Her boyfriend, Sir Thomas MacDonald (Paul Cavanagh), suspected Coe of killing his dog to ensure winning the competition. Raymond Wrede (Ralph Morgan), the dead man’s secretary, was in love with Miss Lake, but had been laughed at when he sought Coe’s support.
Coe’s next-door neighbor and lover Doris Delafield (Helen Vinson) had been cheating on him with Eduardo Grassi (Jack La Rue). When Coe found out, he cancelled a contract to sell his collection of Chinese artworks to the Milan museum for which Grassi worked.
Liang (James Lee), the cook, had worked long, hard, and illegally to help Coe amass his collection. He warned his employer against the proposed sale and was fired as a result. Even Coe’s own brother Brisbane (Frank Conroy) despised Coe. Finally, Gamble (Arthur Hohl), the head servant, had concealed his criminal past.
Brisbane Coe becomes Vance’s prime suspect. His alibi of taking a train at the time of the murder is disproved. When he is found dead in a closet, Vance is both puzzled and enlightened. Among Brisbane’s effects, Vance finds a book titled Unsolved Murders; a bookmarked page details a method of using string to lock a door through the keyhole without leaving a trace. Part of the mystery is solved.
Later, an attempt is made on the life of Sir Thomas using the same dagger used to kill Coe. Finally, a Doberman Pinscher belonging to Miss Delafield is found seriously injured, apparently struck with a fireside poker. From these and other clues, Vance finally solves the crime.
It turns out that two men sought Coe’s life that night. The successful murderer struggled with Coe and stabbed him, leaving him for dead. Coe awakened soon after. Too dazed to recall the fight or notice that he was mortally wounded, he went upstairs to his bedroom and opened his window before dying.
Brisbane entered the chamber, saw his brother apparently asleep in his chair. He shot the corpse and arranged the scene to look like a suicide. Downstairs, he ran into the actual killer, who had seen that Archer Coe was still alive and came back to finish the job. In the darkness, he mistook Brisbane for Archer and killed the wrong man. Delafield’s dog then wandered in, attracted by the commotion, and attacked the murderer.
While sure of the killer’s identity, Vance has no proof. He therefore arranges for Sir Thomas and Wrede to quarrel over Hilda Lake. When Wrede instinctively reaches for the poker to strike his rival, the Doberman recognizes its attacker and leaps on him. Wrede confesses he became enraged when Coe refused to assist his courtship of Miss Lake, precipitating the stabbing.
Many film historians (including William K. Everson, who pronounced it a “masterpiece” in the August 1984 issue of Films in Review) consider it one of the greatest screen adaptations of a Golden Age mystery novel, and rank it with the 1946 film Green for Danger.
Film Collectors Corner
Watch The Kennel Murder Case Now – Amazon Instant Video
Cast: William Powell, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, Hugh Herbert, Verree Teasdale, Reginald Owen, Henry O Neill, Phillip Reed, Gordon Westcott, Dorothy Burgess, Nella Walker
The film stars William Powell, Bette Davis, Hugh Herbert and Frank McHugh, and has songs by Sammy Fain (music) and Irving Kahal (lyrics). (Sometime after the initial release, the title “Fashions of 1934” was changed to “Fashions”, replacing the original title with an insert card stating William Powell in “Fashions”).
When the Manhattan investment firm of Sherwood Nash (William Powell) goes broke, he joins forces with his partner Snap (Frank McHugh) and fashion designer Lynn Mason (Bette Davis) to provide discount shops with cheap copies of Paris couture dresses. Lynn discovers that top designer Oscar Baroque (Reginald Owen) gets his inspiration from old costume books, and she begins to create designs the same way, signing each one with the name of an established designer.
Sherwood realizes Baroque’s companion, the alleged Grand Duchess Alix (Verree Teasdale), is really Mabel McGuire, his old friend from Hoboken, New Jersey, and threatens to reveal her identity unless she convinces Baroque to design the costumes of a musicalrevue in which she will star. Baroque buys a supply of ostrich feathers from Sherwood’s crony Joe Ward (Hugh Herbert) and starts a fashion rage.
Sherwood then opens Maison Elegance, a new Paris fashion house that’s a great success until Baroque discovers Lynn is forging his sketches. He has him arrested, but Sherwood convinces the police to give him time to straighten out the situation. He crashes Baroque and Alix’s wedding and promises to humiliate the designer by publicly revealing who his bride really is unless Baroque withdraws the charges. The designer agrees and purchases Maison Elegance from Sherwood, who assures Lynn he’ll never get involved in another illegal activity if she returns to America with him.
The actress, who had been trying to convince the studio head to loan her to RKO so she could portray slatternly waitress Mildred Rogers in Of Human Bondage, was appalled at the transformation, complaining they were trying to turn her into Greta Garbo.[2] In an interview with Photoplay editor Kathryn Dougherty, she complained, “I can’t get out of these awful ruts. They just won’t take me seriously.
Look at me in this picture – all done up like a third-rate imitation of the MGM glamour queens. That isn’t me. I’ll never be a clothes horse or romantic symbol.”[3] To Gerald Clarke of Time she lamented, “I looked like somebody dressed up in mother’s clothes. But it was a great break because I learned from the experience. I never let them do that to me again. Ever!”[4]
Working titles for the film, which was filmed at Warner Bros. Burbank studios in 1933, were King of Fashion and Fashion Follies of 1934. Warners listed writers Gene Markey and Katherine Scola as having adapted the original story that was the basis of the film, but according to the Screen Writers Guild they had nothing to do with the film.[5]
Songs
The film’s musical numbers included “Spin a Little Web of Dreams” and “Broken Melody” by Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal and “Mon Homme (My Man)” by Maurice Yvain, Albert Willemetz, and Jacques Charles. Harry Warren wrote the untitled theme that accompanies the fashion show.
Critical reception
The New York Times described it as “a brisk show” and added, “The story is lively, the gowns are interesting and the Busby Berkeley spectacles with Hollywood dancing girls are impressive . . . William Dieterle, that expert director who has been responsible for several imaginative pictures, does well by this particular production.”[6]
Variety called it “a bit far-fetched and inconsistent . . . but it has color, flash, dash, class, girls and plenty of clothes . . . Just why and how Bette Davis enters the picture never quite rings true.”[7]
Director: Malcolm St Claire, Frank Tuttle (scenes for talkie version)
Cast: William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Hall, Louise Brooks, Charles Lane, Lawrence Grant, Gustav Von Seyfertitz, E H Calvert, Eugene Pallette, Ned Sparks, Margaret Livingston
The screenplay was written by Willard Huntington Wright (as S.S. Van Dine), Albert S. Le Vino, and Florence Ryerson, based on novel The Canary Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine.
Charles Spotswoode’s son Jimmy became involved with “the Canary”, a conniving star showgirl. Fortunately, Jimmy has regained his senses and reconciled with Alyce LaFosse. However, the Canary is determined to force Jimmy to marry her so she can join the social elite, threatening to reveal that Jimmy was embezzling from his father.
She turns down the elder Spotswoode’s offer of money to leave Jimmy alone. She also telephones two men she has been blackmailing, Cleaver and Mannix, and demands one final generous gift from each of them by the next day.
She also informs “creepy” admirer Dr. Lindquist. Her ex-husband Tony Sheel eavesdrops and wants half, but she refuses to give him anything, even after he hits her. Cleaver, Mannix and Lindquist are all shown lurking about her apartment building late that night.
Spotswoode visits her at her apartment around midnight, but cannot get her to change her mind. After he reaches the lobby of her building, he and another person hear screams from her place. They knock on the door, but she assures them that she is fine.
The next day, she is found strangled to death. The coroner places the time of death around midnight. District Attorney Markham investigates, aided by Philo Vance (a close friend of Charles Spotswoode) and Police Sergeant Heath. After all the prime suspects are questioned, Vance asks Markham to keep them waiting for a few hours.
Markham agrees, as Vance has helped solve another case. Vance subtly maneuvers Cleaver, Mannix, Lindquist and the two Spotswoodes into playing poker to pass the time so he can observe their personality traits.
Only one shows the daring, imagination and discipline required for the crime; that man bluffs Vance, betting everything with just a pair of deuces. The suspects are then released.
Only one shows the daring, imagination and discipline required for the crime; that man bluffs Vance, betting everything with just a pair of deuces. The suspects are then released.
Sheel, who was hiding the closet and witnessed the murder, sends the killer several blackmail letters. For his trouble, he too is strangled. A pen found at the scene has Jimmy’s name on it, so Heath arrests him for the murder. Jimmy then confesses to both murders, but Vance knows better.
He telephones Charles Spotswoode with the news and suggests they meet in an hour. Spotswoode speeds to the city from his country estate to confess, but his chauffeur makes a fatal mistake by trying to beat a train to a crossing, and Spotswoode is killed.
Now Vance has to show how he murdered the Canary in order to free Jimmy. Fortunately, he is able to figure out that the Canary was dead before Spotswoode left her apartment that night. Spotswoode had made a recording (Vance speculates it was Spotswoode himself pretending to be the woman) to fool a stuttering witness into believing she was alive and well. The record is still in the apartment, so Jimmy is released.
This film was initially made as a silent picture, then reworked as a sound film. Louise Brooks’ refusal to cooperate in the sound version had a major impact on her career.
After filming the silent version, Brooks left for Germany to make two films for director G. W. Pabst. Her option with Paramount Pictures was up, and since the studio would not give her a raise, she saw no reason to remain in Hollywood.
Months later, Paramount decided to re-shoot some scenes of Canary with recorded dialogue. The studio cabled Brooks in Berlin, demanding that she return to record her lines. She refused, taking the position that she no longer had an obligation to Paramount. Under the purported threat that she would never work in Hollywood again after such open defiance, she bluntly replied, “Who wants to work in Hollywood?”
Paramount spent considerable money to hire actress Margaret Livingston (the “Woman from the City” in F.W. Murnau‘s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans) to dub the dialogue for Brooks where possible, as well as to re-shoot some scenes, with Livingston seen only in profile or from behind. The golden age of German cinema soon ended with the rise of Nazism, and Brooks found herself back in Hollywood. She was never able to get good roles there again and soon retired. Though her time as a star was over, her battle with studio moguls helped add to her eventual legend.
Director: Lothar Mendes (silent version), Roy Pomeroy ( sound version)
Cast: Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook, William Powell, Doris Kenyon, Brandon Hurst, Tom Ricketts, Louis Payne, Wilfred Noy, Donald Stuart, Raymond Lawrence, Clyde Cook
The film was based on the play Interference, a Play in Three Acts by Roland Pertwee and Howard Dearden. When a first husband turns out not to be dead, blackmail leads to murder.[1]
Cast: William Powell, Marion Shilling, Natalie Moorhead, Regis Toomey, Paul Hurst, George Irving, Frederick Burt, James Durkin, Richard Tucker, Walter James, Broderick O Farrell
A woman being pursued by an intoxicated man breaks into John Nelson’s apartment, imploring his help. Nelson, a young engineer, confronts the man, who accidentally topples through a window to his death.
Unable to prove the circumstances, Nelson is convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. With the aid of his cellmate, he escapes and under an assumed name becomes manager of a textile mill in North Carolina.
Later, his former cellmate, Pete, is commissioned to find Ethel Barry, the woman who can clear him so that he may marry Edith, the mill owner’s daughter; but Ethel forces his hand through blackmail.
Detective Mike Kearney tracks him down, but when Montgomery (Nelson) mutilates his hands in a machine to erase his fingerprint identity, Kearney decides to force Ethel to clear him.
Cast: Richard Arlen, Fay Wray, Clive Brook, William Powell, Theodore von Eltz, Noah Beery Sr., Zack Williams, Noble Johnson, Phillippe De Lacy, Harold Hightower, Rex Ingram
Cast: William Powell, William Stage Boyd, Eugene Pallette, Paul Lukas, Natalie Moorhead, Richard Tucker, May Beatty, E H Calvert, Mischa Auer, Guy Oliver
New York dilettante Philo Vance decides to assist the police in investigating the death of another man-about-town because he finds the psychological aspects of the crime of interest, and feels that they would be beyond the capacities of the police, even those of his friend District Attorney Markham.
Vance investigates the circumstances under which the body was found and reconstructs the crime sufficiently to determine that the murderer is five feet, ten and a half inches in height. Together, Vance and Markham investigate Benson’s business associates and romantic interests until Vance manages to pierce the murderer’s alibi for the time of the murder and force a confession.
Literary significance and criticism
The novel was very loosely based upon a real-life case that had made headlines, the unsolved 1920 murder of bridge expert Joseph Bowne Elwell.
It was considered a roman à clef because the circumstances under which Elwell’s body was found—he was shot to death in a room in his home which was found to be locked from the inside, and he was not wearing his toupee—are duplicated in the novel. Modern knowledge of ballistics reveals that one of the central premises of the novel is fanciful, because the reconstruction of the height of the murderer is impossible (Dashiell Hammett had said as much at the time, in a 1927 book review).
“The first and best, partly because Van Dine had the real-life model of the Joseph Elwell murder (1920) to hold his fancy in check.”[1]
“Vance spots the murderer almost immediately but doesn’t reveal him, allowing Markham and Sergeant Heath to fix the guilt on five successive persons by circumstantial evidence.”[2]
Film adaptations
Paramount Pictures released The Benson Murder Case (1930) a film version directed by Frank Tuttle and starring William Powell as Philo Vance. The film was moderately faithful to the plot of the novel. Paramount also released a Spanish-language version, El Cuerpo del Delito, written by Catalan writer Josep Carner Ribalta (1898–1988), and co-directed by Cyril Gardner and A. Washington Pezet.
References
Jump up^Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. A Catalogue of Crime. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. ISBN 0-06-015796-8
Directors: Dorothy Arzner, Otto Brower, Edmund Goulding, Victor Heerman, Edwin H Knopf, Rowland V Lee, Ernst Lubitsch, Lothar Mendes, Victor Schertzinger, A Edward Sutherland, Frank Tuttle
Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Richard Arlen, Jean Arthur, William Austin, George Bancroft, Clara Bow, Evelyn Brent, Mary Brian, Clive Brook, Nancy Carroll, Kay Francis, Richard Skeets Gallagher, Gary Cooper, Ruth Chatterton, Mitzi Green, Fredric March and many others
Paramount also produced a French-language version Paramount en Parade directed by Charles de Rochefort and a Romanian-language version Parada Paramount (Chevalier and Martini also starred in the French version, and Romanian actress Pola Illéry starred in the Romanian version. There was also a Dutch version, Paramount op Parade with Theo Frenkel. The Scandinavian version starred Ernst Rolf and his wife, Tutta Rolf.
Preservation status
Paramount on Parade featured in a 1930 advertisement for Technicolor
The film, including some of its Technicolor sequences, has been restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The original title sequence and chorus girl number immediately following it, however, are still lost. The sound for two of the Technicolor sequences (“Gallows Song” and “Dream Girl”) are also missing.
According to Robert Gitt, film archivist now retired from UCLA, in a lecture at Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley, the film was also released with sound-on-disc for those theaters not equipped for sound-on-film. The archive had a report of the soundtrack for this film still existing on disc until the 1994 Northridge earthquake destroyed a set of discs that a collector was planning to donate.
In August 2010, CapitolFest in Rome, New York showed a 102-minute version restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive. Some sequences are still missing the sound, for some sequences only the soundtrack exists.
“The Schoolroom” Helen Kane, Mitzi Green. Kane sings “What Did Cleopatra Say?” to her class
“The Gallows Song” Skeets Gallagher and Dennis King (Technicolor footage survives; sound missing, current prints use King’s commercial vocal recording of the song.)[3]
“Rainbow Revels” finale Chevalier and girls’ chorus (including Iris Adrian and Virginia Bruce) sing “Sweeping the Clouds Away” (in Technicolor; survives only in black-and-white)[3]
Parada Paramount (Romanian) with Pola Illéry; directed by Rochefort
Paramount op Parade (Dutch) with Theo Frenkel Jr., Mien Duymaer van Twist, and Louis Davids; directed by Job Weening
At Paramount’s Hollywood studio, Ernst Rolf and his Norwegian wife, Tutta Rolf, filmed introductions and sequences for the Scandinavian version. Japanese comedian Suisei Matsui introduced the film in Japan. Mira Zimińska and Mariusz Maszynski appeared in the Polish version, and Dina Gralla and Eugen Rex appeared in the German version. Paramount filmed most of the above versions, along with Czech, Hungarian, Serbian, and Italian versions, at their Joinville Studios in Paris.
Joyce and Cliffe Wheater, a much-divorced American couple, leave their seven children to fend for themselves as they tour the smart resorts of Europe. Judith, the eldest, takes care of the group. Martin Boyne, an American tourist, meets Judith and the children at the Lido and remembers that he knew their father in America; attracted to Judith, he is quick to sympathize with the problems of the children.
Although he is the way to Switzerland to meet Rose Sellers, his fiancée, Martin delays the trip to help the children through a crisis that threatens to separate them. When he leaves, Judith despairs, feeling that he regards her as only a child, and she decides to take the children to Switzerland; there Martin realizes he loves her, and when Wheater, repenting of his neglect, telephones him to bring the children back, Martin declares that he is marrying Judith and will himself care for the children.
Gardoni, a down-on-his-luck vaudeville performer, is taken in by a fellow performer, a clown who has a bicycle riding act. Gardoni shows his appreciation by stealing the clown’s act and his girlfriend, whom he marries.
Mordaunt Hall, film critic of the New York Times, praised the performances of Powell (“excellent”), Wray (“pleasing”), Skelly (“goes about his part with earnestness and intelligence”), and Francis (“does nicely”), but noted “the story is rather limp and disappointing.”[1]
The Cocoanuts is set in the Hotel de Cocoanut, a resort hotel, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. Mr. Hammer (Groucho Marx) runs the place, assisted by Jamison (Zeppo Marx), who would rather sleep at the front desk than actually help him run it. Chico and Harpo arrive with empty luggage, which they apparently plan to fill by robbing and conning the guests.
Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont, in the first of seven film appearances with the Marxes) is one of the few paying customers. Her daughter Polly (Mary Eaton) is in love with struggling young architect Bob Adams (Oscar Shaw).
He works to support himself as a clerk at the hotel, but has plans for the development of the entire area as Cocoanut Manor. Mrs. Potter wants her daughter to marry Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring), whom she believes to be of higher social standing than the clerk. This suitor is actually a con man out to steal the dowager’s diamond necklace with the help of his conniving partner Penelope (Kay Francis).
The plot is almost beside the point, and the story and setting are little more than an excuse for the brothers to run amok. The film is notable for its musical “production numbers”, including techniques which were soon to become standard, such as overhead shots of dancing girls imitating the patterns of a kaleidoscope.
The musical numbers were recorded live on the soundstage as they were shot, rather than pre-recorded, using an off-camera orchestra. The main titles are superimposed over a negative image of the “Monkey-Doodle-Do” number photographed from an angle that does not appear in the body of the film.
One of the more famous gags in the film has Groucho giving directions to Chico, who keeps misunderstanding “viaduct” as “why-a-duck“. In another sequence Groucho is the auctioneer for some land of possibly questionable value (“You can have any kind of a home you want to; you can even get stucco!
Oh, how you can get stuck-oh!”) He has hired Chico to inflate the sale prices by making phony bids. To Groucho’s frustration, Chico keeps outbidding everyone, even himself. During the auction, Mrs. Potter announces that her necklace has been stolen and offers a thousand dollar reward, whereupon Chico offers two thousand. Still another sequence has Groucho, Mrs. Potter and Harvey Yates (the necklace thief) make formal speeches. Harpo repeatedly walks off, with a grimace on his face, to the punch bowl. (His staggering implies that the fruit punch has been spiked with alcohol.) Another highlight is when the cast, already dressed in traditional Spanish garb for a theme party, erupts into an operatic treatment about a lost shirt to music from Carmen (specifically, Habanera and the song of the Toreador). An earlier scene shows Harpo and Chico abusing a cash register while whistling the Anvil Chorus from Il trovatore, a piece also referenced in several other Marx Brothers films.
Zeppo Marx, Groucho Marx, Chico Marx & Harpo Marx Film: The Cocoanuts (USA 1929) Character(s): Jamison, Hammer, Chico, Harpo Director: Robert Florey & Joseph Santley 03 May 1929 AFF20867 AF Archive Picture Library/PARAMOUNT PICTURES **Warning** This Photograph is for editorial use only and is the copyright of PARAMOUNT PICTURES and/or the Photographer assigned by the Film or Production Company & can only be reproduced by publications in conjunction with the promotion of the above Film. A Mandatory Credit To PARAMOUNT PICTURES is required. The Photographer should also be credited when known. No commercial use can be granted without written authority from the Film Company.
Production
Referring to directors Robert Florey and Joseph Santley, Groucho Marx remarked, “One of them didn’t understand English and the other didn’t understand comedy.”[2]
As was common in the early days of sound film, to eliminate the sound of the camera motors the cameras and the cameramen were enclosed in large soundproof booths with glass fronts to allow filming, hence the largely static camera work. For many years, Marxian legend had it that Florey, who had never seen the Marxes’ work before, was put in the soundproof booth because he could not contain his laughter at the brothers’ spontaneous antics.[3]
Every piece of paper in the movie is soaking wet, to keep crackling paper sounds from overloading the primitive recording equipment of the time. In fact, this did not occur to director Florey until 27 takes had been made (of the “Viaduct” scene) and disposed of because of the noise made by the paper. Florey finally got the idea to soak the paper in water; the 28th take of the “Viaduct” scene used soaked paper, and this take was quiet and used in the film.[4]
The “ink” that Harpo drank from the hotel lobby inkwell was actually Coca-Cola, and the “telephone mouthpiece” that he nibbled was made of chocolate, both inventions of Robert Florey.
“Florida by the Sea” (instrumental with brief vocal by chorus during opening montage)
“When My Dreams Come True” (theme song, Mary Eaton and Oscar Shaw variously, several reprises)
“The Bell-Hops” (instrumental, dance number)
“Monkey Doodle Doo” (vocal by Mary Eaton and dance number)
“Ballet Music” (instrumental, dance number)
“Tale of the Shirt” (vocal by Basil Ruysdael, words set to music from Carmen by Georges Bizet)
“Tango Melody” (vocal included in the stage production, used in the film as background music only)
“Gypsy Love Song” (by Victor Herbert, piano solo by Chico Marx)
The Cocoanuts is one of the few Irving Berlin vehicles that did not yield any particularly memorable songs. Several songs from the stage play were omitted from the film: “Lucky Boy”, sung by the chorus to congratulate Bob on his engagement to Polly and “A Little Bungalow”, a love duet sung by Bob and Polly that was replaced with “When My Dreams Come True” in the film.
Irving Berlin wrote two songs entitled “Monkey Doodle Doo”. The first was published in 1913, the second introduced in the 1925 stage production and featured in the film. They are very different songs.
Although legend claims Berlin wrote the song “Always” for The Cocoanuts, he never meant for the song to be included, writing it, instead, as a gift for his fiancee.[5]
Reception
When the Marx Brothers were shown the final cut of the film, they were so horrified they tried to buy the negative back and prevent its release.[6] Paramount wisely resisted — the movie turned out to be a big box office hit, with a $1,800,000 gross making it one of the most successful early talking films.[1]
It received mostly positive reviews from critics, with the Marx Brothers themselves earning most of the praise while other aspects of the film drew a more mixed reaction. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times reported that the film “aroused considerable merriment” among the viewing audience, and that a sequence using an overhead shot was “so engaging that it elicited plaudits from many in the jammed theatre.”
However, he found the audio quality during some of the singing to be “none too good”, adding, “a deep-voiced bass’s tones almost fade into a whisper in a close-up. Mary Eaton is charming, but one obtains little impression of her real ability as a singer.”[7]
Variety called it “a comedy hit for the regular picture houses. That’s all it has – comedy – but that’s enough.” It reported the sound had “a bit of muffling now and then” and that the dancers weren’t always filmed well: “When the full 48 were at work only 40 could be seen and those behind the first line could be seen but dimly.”[8]
“It is as a funny picture and not as a musical comedy, not for its songs, pretty girls, or spectacular scenes, that The Cocoanuts succeeds”, wrote John Mosher in The New Yorker. “Neither Mary Eaton, nor Oscar Shaw, who contribute the “love interest”, is effective, nor are the chorus scenes in the least superior to others of the same sort in various musical-comedy-movies now running in town. To the Marxes belongs the success of the show, and their peculiar talents seem, surprisingly enough, even more manifest on the screen than on the stage.”[9]
Film Daily called it “a good amount of fun, although some of it proves tiresome. This is another case of a musical comedy transferred almost bodily to the screen and motion picture treatment forgotten. The result is a good many inconsistencies which perhaps may be overlooked provided the audience accepts the offering for what it is.”[10]
Jump up^Paul Zimmerman, The Marx Brothers At The Movies. Putnam, 1968.
Jump up^Paul D. Zimmerman and Burt Goldblatt The Marx Brothers at the Movies,[page needed]
Jump up^Bader, Robert S. (2016). Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. p. 309. ISBN9780810134164.
Cast: Walter Huston, Kay Francis, Charles Ruggles, Betty Lawford, Norman Foster, Duncan Penwarden, Lawrence Leslie, Harry Lee, Brian Donlevy, Victor Killian
80 min
Gentlemen of the Press is a 1929 all-talking film starring Walter Huston in his first feature film role and Kay Francis in her first film role. The film still survives. This film’s copyright has expired and it is now in the public domain. It survives in a copy sold to MCA for television distribution.[1]
The film is based on Ward Morehouse’s 1928 Broadway play Gentlemen of the Press.[2]
Marya is the wife of medical student Victor Sablin, who finds it impossible to deal with military life when he is inducted into the Russian army during World War I. With her husband is sentenced to death by firing squad due to his insubordination, Marya offers herself to General Gregori Platoff in order to save him. When the two unexpectedly fall in love, Victor — not caring that his life has been spared — threatens to kill his rival. His determination to eliminate the general falters when Marya confesses she is not in love with her husband — and never was.
Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times called the film “a clever comedy with a splendid performance by Walter Huston” and added, “There is a constant fund of interest in this picture’s action. It is one of those rare offerings in which youth takes a back seat.[1]
George Cukor’s reflection in 1972
In the book On Cukor, director George Cukor confided to biographer Gavin Lambert: “It wasn’t much good. I’d be in great shock if they [film restorationists & historians] rescued this one. I remember that I enjoyed working with Kay Francis and Walter Huston, though.”[2]
Preservation status
A complete print of this film is held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. However, the UCLA archive’s website says the print is too shrunken for projection.[3]
Jump up^Parish, James Robert; Mank, Gregory W.; Stanke, Don E. (1978), The Hollywood Beauties, New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House Publishers, p. 73, ISBN0-87000-412-3
Cast: Jack Oakie, Jeanette MacDonald, Kay Francis, Richard Skeets Gallagher, James Hall, William Austin, David Newell, Charles Sellon, Eugene Pallette, Virginia Bruce, John Elliott, Douglas Haig
Jerry comments on being the only man on an island populated by women, “It was one of the Virgin Islands, but it drifted.” The tagline was: “Paramount’s wild, merry, mad hilarious farce!”
John Marsden, a famed and powerful New York gambler who refuses to throw a game, is devoted to his wife, Alma, and his impressionistic younger brother, “Babe,” to whom he sends a wedding gift of $10,000, which Babe may keep on the condition that he does not indulge in gambling. Alma, dismayed by John’s ruthless tactics and his obsession with gambling, threatens to leave him unless he takes his winnings and leaves the city with her. He agrees.
However, that evening Babe, who has become a cardsharp, comes to town with his new wife, Judith. He goes to see his brother, whom he believes is a stockbroker, unaware of John’s true profession and the reality that he is trying to quit and rebuild his marriage. Babe insists on playing and tries to win a fortune with his savings in an organized gambling session. He wins remarkably. The professional gambler sees that his card-playing sibling is preparing to make the same mistakes he did.
John therefore decides to risk his life and gamble one more time, and to break the gambler’s code and cheat by throwing the game, in order to disillusion Babe, thereby teaching him an unforgettable lesson. However, John is caught cheating by Dorgan and becomes a marked man. John is later mortally wounded, in spite of his wife’s attempts to save him.
Cast: Kay Francis, William Powell, Scott Kolk, William B Davidson, Thomas E Jackson, Harry Walker, James Finlayson, Charles West, Bertram Marburgh, Billy Bevan, John Cromwell, Sidney D’Albrook
65 min
For the Defense is a 1930 Pre-Codecrimedrama film starring William Powell as a lawyer whose ethics are challenged when the woman he loves hits and kills a pedestrian while out driving with another suitor.
In New York City, William Foster (William Powell) is a criminal defense attorney so successful that prosecutors regard him as a menace. He holds himself to high ethical standards but is willing to mislead without actually lying.
Foster defends a man who planned a murder using explosives. District Attorney Stone (William B. Davidson) displays a vial and says chemical tests have shown that the liquid in it is sensitive nitroglycerin. Foster sniffs the liquid, questions him to verify the chain of custody, and then smashes the vial dramatically on the floor. When order is restored, he explains to the judge that he knew it was safe because nitro has a distinctive smell, and Stone says he had removed the actual nitro for safety after the chemical test. But Foster points out that only the liquid now in the bottle was entered into evidence, and wins his case.
Foster is in love with actress Irene Manners (Kay Francis), and she loves him, but she wants to be married and he does not. When another suitor, Jack Defoe (Scott Kolk), proposes to her, she says she needs to tell Foster about him before she can accept; but she finds she cannot do so. She stays out late enough at night with Defoe to leave only one implication of what they were doing, and while driving him home, she does agree to marry him. He suddenly hugs her and she loses control of the car, killing a bystander.
To protect Irene’s reputation, Defoe urges her to leave the scene, lying that the victim is not badly hurt. Presumed to have been driving while drunk, he is charged with manslaughter. They both still conceal her involvement, but she begs Foster to defend him. He asks why she cares enough about Defoe to insist; she says she and Defoe are just friends, but she had already promised him on Foster’s behalf, assuming Foster would be willing. Foster agrees, but finds that Defoe cannot tell a credible story at trial.
Then Foster finds out that Irene was at the accident scene and therefore must be much more than “just friends” with Defoe. Foster is crushed, but she still begs him to get Defoe acquitted, while Defoe fears Foster will throw the case and Irene will be charged and convicted as well. Foster eventually puts his love for Irene first and, for the first time in his life, bribes a juror to vote not guilty, hanging the jury.
Foster is quickly found out and arrested, and defends himself at trial. As he will not see Irene, she goes to Stone, admits what really happened at the accident, and says Foster was only trying to protect her. If Stone does not agree to recommend mercy, Irene says, she will tell her story in court. Stone says he will think about it.
Although his defense is going well, Foster then offers to plead guilty (and thus be disbarred, no doubt making life easier for prosecutors in future) if only Stone will agree not to retry Defoe; but Stone says he does not make deals. Back in court, Irene sends Foster a note pleading to let her testify and tell the truth. To protect her, Foster immediately changes his plea to guilty. Stone then tells Foster that neither Defoe nor Irene will be prosecuted.
As Foster arrives at Sing Sing to serve his sentence, Irene is there and says she will be waiting for him when he comes out. He says that if she does, then he will marry her.
Film Dialogue 
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