Halliwell HobbesFilmography

That Forsyte Woman

Actors: Errol Flynn, Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Robert Young, Janet Leigh

Synopsis: Though one might have expected friction between MGM's resident "nice lady" Greer Garson and Warner Bros. notorious "bad boy" Errol Flynn, the two got along splendidly during the filming of That Forsyte Woman. Based loosely on The Man of Property, book one of John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga, the Read More

The Black Arrow

Actors: Louis Hayward, Janet Blair, George Macready, Edgar Buchanan, Rhys Williams

Synopsis: This commendably short adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow stars Louis Hayward in the title role. Returning from duty in the 15th-century War of the Roses, young Richard Shelton (Hayward) learns that his estate has been claimed by his usurping uncle Sir Daniel Brackley (George Macready Read More

You Gotta Stay Happy

Actors: Joan Fontaine, James Stewart, Eddie Albert, Roland Young, Willard Parker

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a wealthy heiress marries hastily and realizes her mistake on her honeymoon in New York. Though it is her wedding night, she decides not to consummate the union and so ends up hiding in the room of a fellow whose airplane cargo company is facing financial ruin. He assumes Read More

If Winter Comes

Actors: John Abbott, Walter Pidgeon, Deborah Kerr, Angela Lansbury, Hugh French, Binnie Barnes, Halliwell Hobbes, Janet Leigh

Synopsis: In this drama, set in England, an honorable textbook writer in a village becomes friends with a pregnant girl. The friendship costs him his marriage. Later, the girl dies, and the authorities wonder if it is murder. A coroner's inquest is held, and for a while the writer's social and professional Read More

Canyon Passage

Actors: Dana Andrews, Ward Bond, Lloyd Bridges, Hoagy Carmichael, Victor Cutler

Synopsis: Dana Andrews -- in one of the best performances of his career -- plays Logan Stuart, a bold, ambitious general store and freight company owner based in the mining settlement of Jacksonville, OR, in 1856. He and his best friend, local banker and express company owner George Camrose (Brian Donlevy) Read More

Gaslight

Actors: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Dame May Whitty, Angela Lansbury

Synopsis: Ingrid Bergman won her first of three Oscars for this suspense thriller, crafted with surprising tautness by normally genteel "women's picture" director George Cukor. Bergman stars as Paula Alquist, a late 19th century English singer studying music in Italy. However, Paula abandons her studies Read More

The Invisible Man's Revenge

Actors: Jon Hall, Alan Curtis, Evelyn Ankers, Leon Errol, John Carradine

Synopsis: The fifth in the Invisible Man series stars Jon Hall as Robert Griffin, a convict who takes the invisibility serum and then goes on a crime spree. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Mr. Skeffington

Actors: Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Walter Abel, Richard Waring, George Coulouris, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: From a novel of the same name by "Elizabeth", the film begins in 1914, with Bette Davis cast as vain, flighty society woman Fanny Trellis. Informed by Jewish-American financier Job Skeffington (Claude Rains) that her brother Trippy (Richard Waring) has stolen money to pay his gambling debts, Fanny Read More

Casanova Brown

Actors: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Frank Morgan, Anita Louise, Patricia Collinge

Synopsis: When he finds out his ex-wife has just had his child and plans to give her up for adoption, a timid English instructor dashes to the child's rescue and attempts to care for her in a hotel room. Before too long, however, his new fiancee and his ex confront him and he must decide what he will do. Read More

Forever and a Day

Actors: Brian Aherne, Merle Oberon, Gladys Cooper, Ida Lupino, C. Aubrey Smith, Claude Rains, Robert Cummings, Anna Neagle, Roland Young

Synopsis: The 80-star cast of Forever and a Day would certainly not have been feasible had not most of the actors and production people turned over their salaries to British war relief -- a point driven home during the lengthy opening credits by an unseen narrator. The true star of the film is a stately old Read More

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Milburn Stone, Arthur Margetson

Synopsis: There are those who consider Sherlock Holmes Faces Death to be the best of Universal's Holmes series, though others hold out for 1944's The Scarlet Claw. Based loosely on Conan Doyle's The Musgrave Ritual, the plot finds Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) being summoned to the Read More

His Butler's Sister

Actors: Deanna Durbin, Pat O'Brien, Franchot Tone, Akim Tamiroff, Evelyn Ankers

Synopsis: In this frothy musical comedy, Ann Carter (Deanna Durbin) is an aspiring singer from the Midwest who decides to move to New York in hopes of advancing her career. Her half brother, Martin Murphy (Pat O'Brien), is already living in the Big Apple, and has told her that he's doing well as a Read More

Mr. Muggs Steps Out

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Billy Benedict

Synopsis: The East Side Kids come face to face with High Society in Mr. Muggs Steps Out. Ordered by a judge to get a job, Muggs McGinniss (Leo Gorcey) is hired by wealthy Mrs. Murray (Betty Blythe), who has a penchant for picking up trouble-prone servants. At an engagement party for Mrs. Murray's spoiled Read More

To Be or Not to Be

Actors: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill

Synopsis: Ernst Lubitsch directs the 1942 political satire classic To Be or Not to Be, which marked the final screen appearance of comedienne Carole Lombard. In Warsaw at the beginning of WWII, Maria Tura (Lombard) and husband Joseph (Jack Benny) perform anti-Nazi plays with their theater troupe until they Read More

The Undying Monster

Actors: James Ellison, Heather Angel, John Howard, Bramwell Fletcher, Heather Thatcher

Synopsis: One of two 20th Century-Fox horror melodramas released in 1942 (Dr. Renault's Secret was the second), The Undying Monster is a well-crafted variation on Universal's "Wolf Man" series. Ever since the suicide of its patriarch, the Hammonds, an old and wealthy English family has seemingly lived under Read More

Journey for Margaret

Actors: Margaret O'Brien, Robert Young, Laraine Day, Fay Bainter, Nigel Bruce

Synopsis: This wartime weeper could just as well have been titled Stardom for Margaret, inasmuch as it solidified the popularity of that remarkable child actress Margaret O'Brien. While visiting London, American married couple Robert Young and Laraine Day are caught in the middle of the 1940 blitz. Read More

The War Against Mrs. Hadley

Actors: Edward Arnold, Fay Bainter, Richard Ney, Jean Rogers, Sara Allgood

Synopsis: In this WW II propaganda piece a wealthy American society matron refuses to sacrifice her material comforts to aid the war effort until she realizes that her selfishness is cheating the boys overseas who are fighting for her freedom. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Son of Fury

Actors: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, George Sanders, Frances Farmer, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: This period swashbuckler film is based on the adventure novel Benjamin Blake by Edison Marshall, who also wrote The Vikings (1958). When his brother dies, scheming Arthur Blake (George Sanders) kidnaps his own nephew, Benjamin (played as a youth by Roddy McDowall and as an adult by Tyrone Power). Read More

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains, Rita Johnson, Edward Everett Horton

Synopsis: Robert Montgomery plays saxophone-playing boxer Joe Pendleton, who insists upon piloting his own plane, much to the consternation of his manager Max Corkle (James Gleason). Just before a championship bout, Joe's plane crashes. When he revives, he finds he has been whisked away to Heaven by the Read More

That Hamilton Woman

Actors: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbray, Sara Allgood, Gladys Cooper

Synopsis: Acting spouses Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh star in Alexander Korda's tragic tale of the adulterous love affair between Emma Lady Hamilton and Lord Horatio Nelson. The story begins in 1786, as the young and vivacious Emma Hart (Vivien Leigh) marries Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray), the Read More

The Lady with Red Hair

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Claude Rains, Richard Ainley, Laura Hope Crewes, Helen Westley

Synopsis: The notoriously temperamental Miriam Hopkins is ideally cast as equally contentious theatrical prima donna Mrs. Leslie Carter in The Lady With Red Hair. As rapidly paced as any Warner Bros. gangster picture, the film charts Caroline Carter's rise to fame on Broadway through the auspices of Read More

The Earl of Chicago

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Edward Arnold, Reginald Owen, Edmund Gwenn, E.E. Clive

Synopsis: The schizophrenic screenplay of The Earl of Chicago is rendered even more bizarre by the uneven performance by Robert Montgomery. He plays Silky Kilmont, a Runyonesque American gangster who inherits a British title (Earl of Gorley) and mansion. Taking charge of his new estate, Silky has an amusing Read More

Third Finger, Left Hand

Actors: Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas, Raymond Walburn, Lee Bowman, Bonita Granville

Synopsis: This box-office smash comedy of manners featured the popular Myrna Loy as Margot Sherwood Merrick, the stodgy editor of a glamorous women's fashion magazine. To protect herself from suitors and jealous wives of businessmen, she wears a gold band on the third finger of her left hand and pretends Read More

Waterloo Bridge

Actors: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson, Virginia Field, Maria Ouspenskaya

Synopsis: Given the omnipresence of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1940, the second film version of Robert E. Sherwood's Waterloo Bridge would have to be laundered and softened to pass muster. In the original, made in 1931, the heroine is nothing more or less than a streetwalker, patrolling London's Read More

The Sea Hawk

Actors: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains, Flora Robson, Donald Crisp

Synopsis: In the 1580s, the Sea Hawks -- the name given to the bold privateers who prowl the oceans taking ships and treasure on behalf the British crown -- are the most dedicated defenders of British interests in the face of the expanding power of Philip of Spain. And Captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn) Read More

The Hardys Ride High

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden, Ann Rutherford

Synopsis: The fifth of MGM's "Andy Hardy" series, The Hardys Ride High finds the Hardy family outside their usual small-town environs. The complacently middle-class family (middle class by Hollywood standards, that is!) inherits a large estate, compelling them to move in different social circles. Judge Read More

Tell No Tales

Actors: Melvyn Douglas, Louise Platt, Gene Lockhart, Douglas Dumbrille, Florence George

Synopsis: A model of precision and economy, the MGM "B" thriller Tell No Tales represented the feature-film directorial debut of former actor Leslie Fenton. Reportedly an expansion of a "Crime Does Not Pay" 2-reeler, the story follows editor Michael Cassidy (Melvyn Douglas) as he tries to save his newspaper Read More

Naughty But Nice

Actors: Ann Sheridan, Dick Powell, Gale Page, Helen Broderick

Synopsis: It's Swing Music vs. the Classics in the easy-to-take Warners tunefest Naughty But Nice. Dick Powell dons the obligatory spectacles as a staid music professor Hardwick, who harbors a desire to become a songwriter. With the help of aspiring lyricist Linda McKay (Gale Page), Hardwick pens a little Read More

Nurse Edith Cavell

Actors: Anna Neagle, Edna May Oliver, George Sanders, May Robson, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: Many of the "preparedness" films of the years just prior to World War II sidestepped censorship by depicting past outrages of the Germans. Such a film was British producer Herbert Wilcox's Hollywood production Nurse Edith Cavell, in which Wilcox's future wife Anna Neagle portrayed the titular Read More

Remember?

Actors: Robert Taylor, Greer Garson, Lew Ayres, Billie Burke, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: In this off-beat love story, wealthy socialite Linda Bronson (Greer Garson) is about to marry Sky Ames (Lou Ayres) but then falls in love with handsome Jeff Holland (Robert Taylor). They become engaged. Unfortunately, Jeff is obsessed with work and has no time for an elaborate wedding. Instead Read More

Pacific Liner

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Chester Morris, Wendy Barrie, Alan Hale, Barry Fitzgerald

Synopsis: An outbreak of cholera threatens a luxury liner in this surprisingly low-budget melodrama from RKO. En route from Shanghai to San Francisco, chief engineer Crusher McKay (Victor McLaglen) and shipboard doctor Tony Craig (Chester Morris) become rivals for the attention of nurse Ann Grayson (Wendy Read More

The Light That Failed

Actors: Ronald Colman, Walter Huston, Muriel Angelus, Ida Lupino, Dudley Digges

Synopsis: Based on a classic tale from Rudyard Kipling, this melodrama chronicles the desperate attempt of a painter to finish his greatest painting before he goes blind. His affliction is due to a war wound and his final project is to paint a portrait of London's most notorious prostitute. Trouble begins Read More

A Christmas Carol

Actors: Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Leo G. Carroll, Terry Kilburn, Barry Mackay

Synopsis: For a generation of radio fans, Lionel Barrymore was the definitive Ebeneezer Scrooge. Alas, Barrymore was crippled by arthritis by the time MGM got around to filming Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in 1938, so the Scrooge role went to contract player Reginald Owen - who, though hardly in the Barrymore Read More

The Jury's Secret

Actors: Kent Taylor, Fay Wray, Jane Darwell, Nan Grey, Larry Blake

Synopsis: Universal ran into censorship problems with this farfetched but well-acted courtroom drama directed by silent screen veteran Edward Sloman. When corrupt tycoon Brandon Williams (Samuel S. Hinds) is found murdered, the obvious suspect is young William Sheldon (Larry Blake), who had publicly feuded Read More

Kidnapped

Actors: Warner Baxter, Freddie Bartholomew, Arleen Whelan, C. Aubrey Smith, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure tale of a young 18th century boy betrayed by his wicked uncle didn't need a romantic subplot, but that didn't stop 20th Century-Fox from including a female love interest (Arleen Whelan). Bypassing that plot point, Kidnapped stars Freddie Bartholomew as the heir Read More

Bulldog Drummond's Peril

Actors: John Barrymore, John Howard, Louise Campbell, Reginald Denny, E.E. Clive

Synopsis: Though John Barrymore is top-billed in Bulldog Drummond's Peril, the aging matinee idol is consigned to the supporting role of Inspector Nielsen. Drummond is portrayed by John Howard; once more, he is on the verge of marrying the ever-patient Phyllis Clavering (Louise Campbell). And yet again, the Read More

You Can't Take It with You

Actors: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, Spring Byington

Synopsis: Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play You Can't Take It With You was transformed into a paean to populism by director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. This is the story of the zany Sycamore household, presided over by Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore Read More

Service De Luxe

Actors: Constance Bennett, Vincent Price, Charlie Ruggles, Helen Broderick, Mischa Auer

Synopsis: In this frothy comedy-drama, a businesswoman owns a successful service bureau for the filthy rich. Her service does everything from handling mundane finances to putting on weddings. Her most recent client wants her to prevent his rube of a nephew from coming to New York to visit him. She does her Read More

Storm over Bengal

Actors: Patric Knowles, Richard Cromwell, Rochelle Hudson, Douglas Dumbrille, Colin Tapley

Synopsis: This being a Republic picture, it should come as no surprise that Storm Over Bengal was filmed in its entirety in the San Fernando Valley. Within its concise 65 minutes, the film manages to accommodate a Bengal Lancers main plot, a romantic subplot, the obligatory coward who makes good, intrigue Read More

Fit for a King

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Helen Mack, Paul Kelly, Harry Davenport, Halliwell Hobbes

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Varsity Show

Actors: Dick Powell, Fred Waring, Priscilla Lane, Walter Catlett, Ted Healy

Synopsis: If you're wondering which Warners musical featured the songs "Old King Cole" and "Have You Got Any Castles?," we refer you to Varsity Show. Dick Powell stars as a musical producer, called back to his alma mater to stage the annual college variety show. Uptight dean Walter Catlett is dead set Read More

Maid of Salem

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Harvey Stephens, Gale Sondergaard, Louise Dresser

Synopsis: Claudette Colbert is a young freethinking woman living in Salem, Massachusetts during the notorious 17th century "witch trials". Colbert falls in love with adventurer Fred MacMurray, causing no end of scandal with the Puritan townsfolk. A hateful little girl (Bonita Granville) pretends to be Read More

Parnell

Actors: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Edna May Oliver, Edmund Gwenn, Alan Marshal

Synopsis: The true story of one of Ireland's leading political figures of the late 19th Century inspired this biographical drama. Charles Stewart Parnell (Clark Gable) is a politician and activist whose tireless work towards the cause of Irish independence has earned him the nickname "the Uncrowned King of Read More

The Prince and the Pauper

Actors: Errol Flynn, Claude Rains, Henry Stephenson, Barton MacLane, Billy Mauch

Synopsis: In 1882, Mark Twain published a delightful fairy tale "for young people of all ages"; 45 years later, Warner Bros., inspired by the real-life coronation of Edward VII, created a lavish screen version starring radio favorites Billy and Bobby Mauch in the title roles and Errol Flynn as their dashing Read More

Rose Marie

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, James Stewart, Reginald Owen, Allan Jones

Synopsis: It was standard operating procedure at MGM to cast their favorite singing team of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in new versions of old operettas, then retain only the music, drastically altering the plotlines to conform to popular tastes. This was the treatment afforded the Rudolf Friml-Herbert Stothart Read More

Here Comes Trouble

Actors: Paul Kelly, Arline Judge, Mona Barrie, Gregory Ratoff, Sammy Cohen

Synopsis: In this crime comedy, an ocean liner engineer messes up and ends up relegated to shoveling coal. Later he accepts a lovely cigarette lighter from a beautiful woman. He has no idea that it is chock full of purloined jewels and that she gave them to him to keep rival crooks from stealing them from Read More

Love Letters of a Star

Actors: Henry Hunter, Polly Rowles, Walter Coy, Hobart Cavanaugh

Synopsis: Universal contractee Henry Hunter never became a big star, but during his brief stay at the studio he appeared in a quite a few interesting films. Adapted from a novel by Rufus King, Love Letters of a Star casts Hunter as John Aldrich, the husband of the unfortunate Jenny Aldrich (Mary Alice Read More

Hearts Divided

Actors: Dick Powell, Marion Davies, Charlie Ruggles, Arthur Treacher, Claude Rains, Edward Everett Horton

Synopsis: A remake of 1928's Glorious Betsy (itself based on a stage play by Rida Johnson Young), Hearts Divided is based, believe it or not, on a true story. Marion Davies stars as 19th-century Baltimore belle Betsy Patterson, who falls in love with Jerome Bonaparte (Dick Powell) -- the younger brother of Read More

Spendthrift

Actors: Henry Fonda, Pat Paterson, Mary Brian, June Brewster, George Barbier

Synopsis: Spendthrift gives the modern viewer a pretty good idea how Hollywood planned to "mold" the image of new star Henry Fonda. The Lanky One is cast as a profligate, polo-playing playboy, married to a beautiful but superficial heiress (Mary Brian). They divorce, and the wife gets all the money. But the Read More

The White Angel

Actors: Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Donald Woods, Nigel Bruce, Donald Crisp

Synopsis: Briefly breaking away from her high-gloss modern soap operas, Kay Francis stars as Florence Nightingale in this reverent Warner Bros. biopic. The screenplay concentrates on Nightingale's humanitarian activities during the Crimean War of 1854-55. Defiant in the face of military bureaucracy and the Read More

Whipsaw

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Harvey Stephens, William Harrigan, Clay Clement

Synopsis: Myrna Loy plays the glamorous member of a trio of jewel thieves. G-Man Spencer Tracy goes undercover to join the gang when it transports its stolen jewels from Paris to New York. Loy falls in love with Tracy, has a change of heart, and quits the gang. But Tracy arrests her all the same when he Read More

The Story of Louis Pasteur

Actors: Paul Muni, Akim Tamiroff, Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise, Donald Woods, Fritz Leiber

Synopsis: "Every time Paul Muni parts his beard and looks through a microscope, we lose a million dollars." Producer Jack Warner's lament concerning Muni's historical dramas is cute enough, but hardly backed up by facts; the economically produced The Story of Louis Pasteur proved to be a surprise hit for Read More

Give Me Your Heart

Actors: Kay Francis, George Brent, Roland Young, Patric Knowles, Henry Stephenson

Synopsis: Kay Francis, Warner Bros.' resident "wronged woman," was the star of Give Me Your Heart. Francis plays a socialite whose illicit romance with married Patric Knowles results in a baby. When the father, a titled Englishman of means, declares that the child would be better off in his care, Ms. Read More

Dracula's Daughter

Actors: Gloria Holden, Otto Kruger, Marguerite Churchill, Irving Pichel, Edward Van Sloan

Synopsis: It may be sacrilege to say so, but Dracula's Daughter is an immense improvement over the original 1931 Dracula, despite the absence of Bela Lugosi in the cast. Gloria Holden is first-rate as the title character, alias "Countess Marya Zaleska," who after stealing her father's body from the Read More

The Right to Live

Actors: Josephine Hutchinson, George Brent, Colin Clive, Peggy Wood, Henrietta Crosman

Synopsis: The Right to Live was the second film version of Somerset Maugham's The Sacred Flame (the first, produced in 1929, starred Conrad Nagel), which in its original form posed the question "Can there truly be such a thing as a mercy killing?" Put simply, it is the tragic tale of two brothers: Colin Read More

Millions in the Air

Actors: John Howard, Willie Howard, Robert Cummings, Inez Courtney

Synopsis: The title doesn't refer to mosquitoes but to the amount of money that could be earned in the radio business of the 1930s. Samuel S. Hinds plays a Major Bowes-type entrepreneur who sponsors a weekly radio amateur contest. Hinds' daughter Wendy Barrie has show-biz aspirations, but dad won't hear of Read More

Father Brown, Detective

Actors: Walter Connolly, Paul Lukas, Gertrude Michael, Robert Loraine, Halliwell Hobbes

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Folies Bergère

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Ann Sothern, Merle Oberon, Eric Blore, Ferdinand Munier

Synopsis: This French-language version of the 1935 Hollywood musical Folies Bergere retains the original star (Maurice Chevalier) and director (Roy Del Ruth) and Busby Berkeley's big-scale production numbers. It also follows substantially the same plot: A nightclub entertainer (Chevalier), is hired to pose Read More

Cardinal Richelieu

Actors: George Arliss, Halliwell Hobbes, Edward Arnold, Katherine Alexander

Synopsis: Released generally as Cardinal Richelieu, this George Arliss vehicle was based on the popular 19th-century blank-verse play by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Downplaying the more villainous aspects of the character, Arliss portrays Richelieu as a dry-witted foxy-grandpa type, manipulating the Read More

Charlie Chan in Shanghai

Actors: Warner Oland, Irene Hervey, Charles Locher, Jon Hall, Russell Hicks, Keye Luke

Synopsis: After wrapping up his last case in Egypt, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) heads to Shanghai for a well-deserved rest. It isn't long, however, before Chan has been summoned by the local constabulary to help smash an international dope ring. He is aided by erudite American intelligence agent James Read More

Captain Blood

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Lionel Atwill, Ross Alexander

Synopsis: When British actor Robert Donat dropped out of Warner Bros. Captain Blood, the studio took a chance on its new contractee, Tasmania-born Errol Flynn. Adapted from the novel by Rafael Sabatini, the film is set during the oppressive reign of King James II. Irish physician Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) Read More

Jalna

Actors: Kay Johnson, Ian Hunter, C. Aubrey Smith, Nigel Bruce, David Manners

Synopsis: In this adaptation of author de la Roche's chronicle of the passionate lives of the strange Whiteoaks of Jalna, their beautiful family estate located in souther Ontario. The story begins as a young Whiteoak, a novelist travels to New York where he encounters a charming woman, marries her, and Read More

British Agent

Actors: Leslie Howard, Kay Francis, William Gargan, Phillip Reed, Irving Pichel

Synopsis: British Agent starred the Hungarian/British actor Leslie Howard in the title role, was directed by full-fledged Hungarian Michael Curtiz, and costarred American leading lady Kay Francis as a Russian spy. Based on the memoirs of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, who had been the unofficial British emissary to Read More

The Key

Actors: William Powell, Edna Best, Colin Clive, Hobart Cavanaugh, Halliwell Hobbes

Synopsis: The Key is a story of the Irish "troubles" which avoids taking sides, but spends most of its screen time with the British occupation troops. William Powell stars as a soldier for hire who works on behalf of the British in the Dublin of the early 1920s. Powell is as celebrated for his boudoir Read More

Double Door

Actors: Mary Morris, Evelyn Venable, Kent Taylor, Guy Standing, Anne Revere

Synopsis: Inspired by the eccentric, reclusive Wendel Family of New York's Fifth Avenue, Elizabeth MacFadden's stage melodrama Double Door was adapted for the screen in 1934. Set in 1910 Manhattan, the film stars Mary Morris and Anne Revere, repeating their stage roles as domineering, calculating Victoria Read More

Rip Tide

Actors: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Herbert Marshall, Mrs. Patrick Campbell

Synopsis: A few unique touches aside -- notably the opening costume-party scene, in which the revellers are dressed as insects -- Rip Tide is a standard-issue Norma Shearer soap opera. Shearer plays Mary, a footloose and fancy-free American heiress who weds British nobleman Lord Rexford (Herbert Marshall). Read More

We Live Again

Actors: Anna Sten, Fredric March, Jane Baxter, C. Aubrey Smith, Sam Jaffe, Ethel Griffies

Synopsis: We Live Again was based on Tolstoy's Resurrection; the title was changed upon producer Sam Goldwyn's theory that it meant the same thing as Resurrection and was easier to understand. The film was meant as an introductory showcase for Goldwyn's latest discovery, Russian actress Anna Sten. The Read More

All Men Are Enemies

Actors: Hugh Williams, Helen Twelvetrees, Mona Barrie, Herbert Mundin, Henry Stephenson

Synopsis: Before World War I, free-spirited Englishman Tony Clarendon (Hugh Williams) meets Austrian Katha (Helen Twelvetrees) on the island of Capri, and they fall deeply in love. When war breaks out, however, Tony has to return to England, where old friend Margaret Scrope (Mona Barrie) reveals she wants Read More

Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back

Actors: Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, Warner Oland, Charles Butterworth, Una Merkel

Synopsis: This second and final "Bulldog Drummond" film to star Ronald Colman, finds the famed sleuth in the midst of a sinister plan orchestrated by Warner Oland. Damsel in distress Loretta Young reports that her wealthy and influential uncle is missing, but all those concerned insist that the uncle never Read More

Menace

Actors: Gertrude Michael, Paul Cavanagh, Henrietta Crosman, John Lodge

Synopsis: Not to be confused with Universal's 1932 The Menace, Paramount's 1934 Menace does however included a "revenge" motif similar to the plotline of the earlier film. A mental patient, who has sworn vengeance on the wealthy British family he holds responsible for his brother's death, escapes on a dark Read More

I Am Suzanne

Actors: Lilian Harvey, Gene Raymond, Leslie Banks, Georgia Caine

Synopsis: International musical-comedy favorite Lillian Harvey is as delightful as ever in the bizarre romantic tunefest I Am Suzanne. In a plotline curiously similar to the much-later Lili, Harvey is cast as Suzanne, a crippled dancer in love with young, self-involved puppeteer Tony (Gene Raymond), who Read More

Madame Du Barry

Actors: Dolores Del Rio, Reginald Owen, Victor Jory, Osgood Perkins, Veree Teasdale

Synopsis: No boring historical pageant this, Warner Bros.' Madame DuBarry is a fast-paced, often hilarious romantic romp. Her Mexican accent held in check, the ravishingly beautiful Dolores Del Rio plays 18th-century French courtesan DuBarry like a 20th-century golddigger on the make. Brought to Versailles Read More

Mandalay

Actors: Kay Francis, Lyle Talbot, Ricardo Cortez, Warner Oland, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: The official cast list of Warner Bros. Mandalay states that Kay Francis plays a character named Tanya. For most of the film, however, the heroine -- if she can be called that -- goes by the name of Spot White (or "Spot Cash," as she's cynically designated by one of the lesser characters). Betrayed Read More

Looking Forward

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Benita Hume, Elizabeth Allan, Phillips Holmes

Synopsis: A shopkeeper suffers after he is laid off during the Depression in this drama adapted from the English play Service. He had worked at that shop for over 40 years. It was a family tradition to work at that shop. But now, his boss is selling the shop to a lower-priced rival, and the poor man and his Read More

Should Ladies Behave?

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Alice Brady, Conway Tearle, Katherine Alexander, Mary Carlisle

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a middle-aged woman married to a much older man begins a harmless flirtation with an artistically inclined gigolo after she mistakes him for her long-lost lover. Unfortunately, the opportunist really loves the woman's daughter. He is also smitten with another woman. Read More

Captured

Actors: Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Paul Lukas, Margaret Lindsay, Arthur Hohl

Synopsis: Adapted from a "drawn from life" novel by Sir Phillip Gibbs, Captured is the story of the men in a German POW camp during World War I. Amongst the allied prisoners are Leslie Howard and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (British), and Paul Lukas (French). Adding to the dramatic intensity is the fact that both Howard Read More

A Study in Scarlet

Actors: Reginald Owen, Anna May Wong, June Clyde, Alan Dinehart, John Warburton

Synopsis: Sherlock Holmes and Watson solve a puzzling case in which a bloody foreign word is found beside a murder victim. The plot has little to do with author Doyle's original story of the same name. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

If I Were Free

Actors: Irene Dunne, Nils Asther, Clive Brook, Henry Stephenson, Vivian Tobin

Synopsis: The melodrama If I Were Free was adapted from the play Behold, We Live by John Van Druten. War veteran lawyer Gordon Evers (Clive Brook) is trapped in a loveless marriage to Catherine (Lorraine MacLean). Sarah Cazenove (Irene Dunne) is trapped in a loveless marriage to Tono (Nils Asther). The Read More

Midnight Mary

Actors: Loretta Young, Ricardo Cortez, Franchot Tone, Andy Devine, Una Merkel

Synopsis: Loaned to MGM by her home studio of Warner Bros., Loretta Young suffers her way through the title role in Midnight Mary. A good girl led astray, Mary (Young) endeavors to save the life of her boyfriend Tom (Franchot Tone) by killing the aptly named Leo the Rat (Ricardo Cortez). As her case is Read More

The Masquerader

Actors: Ronald Colman, Elissa Landi, Julie Compton, Halliwell Hobbes, David Torrence

Synopsis: In an interesting precursor to his later vehicle The Prisoner of Zenda, Ronald Colman essays a dual role in Goldwyn's The Masquerader. Colman is cast as Member of Parliament Sir John Chilcote and his identical cousin, a newspaper journalist also named John. A mean-spirited alcoholic and drug Read More

Lady for a Day

Actors: Warren William, May Robson, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: May Robson plays Apple Annie, a slatternly Broadway apple peddler. Annie has a curious setup whereby she is able to finagle other street merchants and beggars to pony up part of their weekly earnings to her--yet she never seems to spend any of the money on herself. This is because Annie has a Read More

Six Hours to Live

Actors: Warner Baxter, John Boles, Beryl Mercer

Synopsis: In this off-beat sci-fi film, an outspoken diplomat is murdered during an international trade conference. This is a terrible blow for his native country because the ambassador had come to stop his country from signing a treaty that would allow their enemy to exploit them. To prevent this from Read More

Week-Ends Only

Actors: Joan Bennett, Ben Lyon, John Halliday, Halliwell Hobbes, Henry Armetta

Synopsis: In this romance, a recently impoverished but formerly wealthy young woman ends up working as a nightclub hostess. There she meets a handsome, sophisticated and wealthy fellow who hires her to help him spice up his weekend parties. She begins helping him and regains her lost wealth and posh Read More

Love Affair

Actors: Dorothy Mackaill, Humphrey Bogart, Jack Kennedy, Barbara Leonard, Astrid Allwyn

Synopsis: Based on a story by Ursula Parrott, this romantic drama from Columbia Pictures was one of Humphrey Bogart's first leading roles. Working-class pilot and mechanic Jim Leonard (Bogart) gives flying lessons to wealthy heiress Carol Owen (Dorothy Mackaill).They fall in love throughout the teaching Read More

Lovers Courageous

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Madge Evans, Roland Young, Frederick Kerr, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: Lovers Courageous represents a rare direct-to-screen original by Frederick Lonsdale, the playwright responsible for such drawing-room comedies as The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. Robert Montgomery and Madge Evans plays the titular lovers, Willy and Mary. After living a peripatetic existence all over the Read More

The Menace

Man About Town

Actors: Warner Baxter, Karen Morley, Conway Tearle, Leni Stengel, Lawrence Grant

Synopsis: Man About Town owns the distinction of being the first espionage film ever set in contemporary America. Warner Baxter stars as Stephen Morrow, an embryonic James Bond who doubles as a gambler and secret agent. The scion of a wealthy Washington family, Morrow is ordered by the government to set up Read More

Payment Deferred

Actors: Charles Laughton, Neil Hamilton, Maureen O'Sullivan, Dorothy Peterson, Veree Teasdale

Synopsis: In this adaptation of Jeffrey Dell's play, Charles Laughton recreates his stage role as a seemingly meek bank clerk. To make good his debts, Laughton ingratiates himself with his wealthy Australian nephew (Ray Milland), then poisons the lad and buries the body in his garden. Using the money the Read More

Forbidden

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, Ralph Bellamy, Dorothy Peterson

Synopsis: In this romance a school marm takes a cruise and falls for an unobtainable man, a district attorney married to a crippled woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Devil's Lottery

Actors: Elissa Landi, Victor McLaglen, Alexander Kirkland, Paul Cavanagh, Ralph Morgan

Synopsis: The Calcutta Sweepstakes is the unifying factor of The Devil's Lottery. Among the winners of the sweepstakes are Evelyn (Elissa Landi), the mistress of suave cardsharp Major Hugo Beresford (Paul Cavanaugh), and roughneck ex-boxer Lem Meech (Victor McLaglen), whose mother (Beryl Mercer) insists Read More

Five and Ten

Actors: Marion Davies, Leslie Howard, Irene Rich, Richard Bennett

Synopsis: Based on a story by Fannie Hurst, Five and Ten stars Marion Davies as Jennifer, the spoiled daughter of department-store magnate John Rarick (Richard Bennett). Because Rarick neglects his family, they all manage to get themselves into hot water. Jennifer's mother, Jenny (Irene Rich), nearly runs Read More

The Lady Refuses

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a British aristocrat befriends a woman and hires her to begin distracting his son away from a conniving golddigger. She does, but finds herself falling in love with her titled boss instead. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Woman Between

Actors: Lili Damita, O.P. Heggie, Lester Vail, Miriam Seegar, Anita Louise

Synopsis: Lily Damita, an actress best known today for her tempestuous marriage to screen idol Errol Flynn, is the Dietrich-like heroine in RKO Radio's The Woman Between. Damita plays a knockout French modiste who marries the much-older widower O.P. Heggie. She immediately incurs the wrath of Heggie's grown Read More

Platinum Blonde

Actors: Loretta Young, Robert Williams, Jean Harlow, Louise Closser Hale, Donald Dilloway, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: A rather bleak comedy-drama from Frank Capra, Platinum Blonde basically starts where Capra's later and much more buoyant It Happened One Night (1934) ends: the marriage between a brash newspaperman and a society dame. But where the latter comedy was enhanced by the director's patented optimism Read More

The Bachelor Father

Actors: Marion Davies, Ralph Forbes, C. Aubrey Smith, Ray Milland, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Synopsis: Edward Childs Carpenter's stock-company perennial Bachelor Father was reshaped as a Marion Davies vehicle in 1931. Davies plays Tony Flagg, one of the three grown children of ageing roue Sir Basil Winterton (C. Aubrey Smith). Tony and her siblings Geoffrey Trent (Ray Milland) and Maria Credaro (Nena Quartero Read More

The Right of Way

Actors: Conrad Nagel, Loretta Young, Fred Kohler, William Janney, Snitz Edwards

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1915 and 1920, Sir Gilbert Parker's novel The Right of Way was exhumed once more in 1931. Conrad Nagel stars as Conrad Steele, a Canadian lawyer saddled with a nagging wife (Olive Tell) and a lazy brother-in-law (William Janney). When the latter steals some of Conrad's money Read More

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Actors: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herbert, Edgar Norton

Synopsis: This first sound version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic morality tale starred Fredric March as the kindly, philanthropic Dr. Jekyll, who makes the fatal mistake of delving into secrets that Man Should Never Know. Fascinated with the notion that within each man lurk impulses for both Good and Read More

The Sin of Madelon Claudet

Actors: Helen Hayes, Neil Hamilton, Robert Young, Cliff Edwards

Synopsis: In the space of 74 minutes, Helen Hayes goes from naïve French country lass to elderly harridan in Sin of Madelon Claudet. Is it any wonder that she won an Academy Award? (She truly deserved this Oscar; the jury is still out concerning her cutesy supporting turn in 1969's Airport, which also Read More

Grumpy

Actors: Cyril Maude, Phillips Holmes, Paul Cavanagh, Frances Dade, Halliwell Hobbes

Synopsis: George Cukor received his first film directorial credit for Grumpy, though he was contractually bound to share billing with Broadway director Cyril Gardner. Cyril Maude recreates his stage role as a cranky retired lawyer with the requisite 14-carat heart. The lawyer's daughter (Frances Dade) has a Read More

Charley's Aunt

Actors: Charlie Ruggles, June Collyer, Hugh Williams, Doris Lloyd, Halliwell Hobbes

Synopsis: This first talkie version of the evergreen Brandon Thomas stage farce Charley's Aunt stars Charlie Ruggles, obviously having the time of his life in the leading role. Though updated to 1930, the film adheres to the familiar plot as set down by Thomas back in 1895. Two Oxford undergraduates Read More

Scotland Yard

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Joan Bennett, Lumsden Hare, Barbara Leonard, Donald Crisp

Synopsis: Dakin Barrolles (played by Edmund Lowe is a criminal who, while escaping from a bank robbery that went wrong, stumbles across a famous banker, Sir John Lasher, and his wife, Xandra. Lasher is deep in his cups, and neither he nor Xandra notice when Barrolles absconds with one of their possessions Read More

Lucky in Love

Actors: Morton Downey, Sr., Betty Lawford, Colin Keith-Johnston, Halliwell Hobbes

Synopsis: In this musical, a singing Yankee stable boy works for a rich Irishman. When he meets his boss's granddaughter and they soon fall for each other until he must head back to the States where he becomes a singing clerk at the music counter of a major department store. Back in Ireland, the girl he Read More

Jealousy

Actors: Jeanne Eagels, Fredric March, Halliwell Hobbes, Blanche Le Clair, Henry Daniell

Synopsis: The brilliant (and ultimately tragic) Broadway actress Jeanne Eagels made her second and last talking-picture appearance in Jealousy. Based on a French stage drama by Louis Verneuil, the film casts Eagels as Yvonne, the wife of temperamental artist Pierre (Fredric March). Jealous of Yvonne's Read More