Reviews

My partner and I have been enjoying watching again this great old program that we grew up watching in the early 1960s. Good old fashion storytelling with a mix of old stars and interesting stories. Like William S. Hart the silent film star said of westerns, you could tell all of Shakespeare stories in an old west setting. This particular show was a season ending wrap with several "special guest stars" including: Linda Darnell, Marjorie Main, Dan Duryea, Margaret O'Brien, Roscoe Ates, and George Chandler! If you get a chance see it with the whole family and explain to the young ones who the old ones once were in the hey day of Hollywood's Golden Era.

In late 19th-century India, an incoming telegraph message from the outpost at Tanipur to the British fort at Muree is abruptly cut off. Major Mitchell sends three of his best, the resourceful but rowdy sergeants MaChesney (McLaughlen), Cutter (Grant) and Ballentine (Fairbanks) to investigate. Accompanied by their loyal native water boy Gunga Din (Sam Jaffee), they find the outpost strangely deserted and soon discover it's the work of the savage Thuggee cult who are out to ambush the regiment. Plenty of action, adventure and a large measure of comedy ensues. One on-going gag (borrowed from Screenwriters Hecht & MacArthur's hit play The Front Page) involves MaChesney and Cutter's attempts to thwart Ballentine's plan to resign from the army in order to marry his sweetheart (Joan Fontaine) and go into the tea business. ("The TEA business!!!") Plans had been in the works to make a feature film based on Kipling's poem as early as 1928 by MGM. Finally RKO acquired the rights and Howard Hawks was assigned to the project. RKO replaced Hawks with George Stevens before shooting began in the Sierra Mountains in California. The script was still being tweaked and written during the filming and many bits were improvised, including the entire bugle scene between Grant and Jaffe. Gunga Din was the most expensive film made to date by RKO and the money shows in the big battle finale, which includes 1500 men, several hundred horses and mules, not to mention the four elephants. The three sergeants are ideally cast with the dashing and under-rated Douglas Fairbanks Jr. giving the best performance of his career. Cinematographer Joseph H. August was nominated for an Academy Award.

In this second film version of the hit play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur The Front Page, New York newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson (played by Pat O'Brien in 1931) is now a sassy, confident woman (Rosalind Russell). Hildy has had enough of the newspaper life and is going to quit and marry dependable (boring) Bruce Baldwin (never-gets-the-girl Ralph Bellamy) and move to Albany. The thing is, her editor and ex-husband Walter Burns Cary Grant) doesn't want either thing to happen and tricks Hildy into covering just one more story – that of a deluded radical charged with murder. What follows is a super-charged side-splitting satire of the headline-hungry newspaper business and of course, a bit of romance.

Howard Hawks directs his stars and a brilliant cast of supporting players (Billy Gilbert, a real scene-stealing stand-out) at a breathless pace, using overlapping dialog to increase the feeling of frenzy. You'll want to watch this one again and again to catch all of the terrific dialog. Some of those witty lines (at least as legend has it) were improvised, such as when Grant describes Bruce Baldwin, saying that he "looks like that film actor, Ralph Bellamy." Later, during a rapid-fire telephone exchange, Grant responds to another actor's line with "The last person to say that to me was Archibald Leach just before he cut his throat!" (Archibald Leach of course, being Grant's real name.) Named to the National Film Registry in 1993.

All About Eve tells the story of maturing Broadway diva Margo Channing (Better Davis) and the plot to usurp her crown by the seemingly adoring stage-door Jane, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). Eve first gets herself hired as Margo's PA, then understudy, and is soon after Margo's director-boyfriend and her circle of theater friends. A short story, "The Wisdom of Eve" by Mary Orr that ran in Cosmopolitan magazine was the source of the script. Orr based the character of Margo Channing on German/Austrian actress Elisabeth Bergner (The Rise of Catherine the Great) who once had a would-be Eve in her life; a young actress named Martina Lawrence who (according to Orr) "…lied to her, deceived her, did things behind her back, and even went after her husband."

In a rare Academy occurrence, both Davis and Baxter were Oscar nominated in the same category (Best Actress), which is generally believed to have canceled each other out. (Judy Holliday took home the award for BORN YESTERDAY.) The film garnered a record 14 nominations and seven wins including Best Picture in 1950. Look for ravishing Marilyn Monroe, typecast as an aspiring starlet in the party scene.

So folks, fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!

Named to the National Film Registry in 1990.

Following the overwhelming success of the studio's first full-length animated feature, Snow White in 1937, Disney set out to make an even better follow up. Years in the making, Pinocchio is still considered to be one of the company's finest achievements for its production value, charm, beauty and Academy Award-winning music. Technicians developed an enhanced multiplane camera that could dolly in and out of an animated scene (similar to live-action photography), as opposed to Snow White's vertical method of shooting.

A lonely woodcarver named Geppetto creates a marionette he names Pinocchio. That night he prays upon a star that puppet would become a real boy. The good Blue Fairy hears his wish and brings Pinocchio to life while Gepettto sleeps. She then tells the little wooden fellow that he can become a real boy if he is brave, truthful and unselfish and learns to tell right from wrong. She appoints Jimimy Cricket (the narrator of our story) as Pinocchio's conscience to help him along the way. The overjoyed Gepetto sends his new son to school the next day, but the newness of everything overwhelms the boy and he is soon led astray on a series of frightening adventures.

"Hello - Duffy's Tavern where the elite meet to eat, Archie the manager speakin', Duffy ain't here. – Oh, hello Duffy." This greeting, preceded by "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" played on a tinny piano, announced to millions of radio listeners that it was time for DUFFY'S TAVERN. Fans of this popular program knew they were in store for laughs, big-name guest stars, sometimes a little music and always their favorite characters holding forth at the New York dive headed by Archie himself. Ed Gardner, a former piano player, salesman, talent agent and radio director (in that order) created the program and cast himself in the lead when he couldn't find an actor that spoke "New York bartender" as well as he did. The series ran from 1941-1952, premiering on the CBS Radio Network and later moving to NBC. Each episode opened with the proprietor Duffy, who never appeared, phoning his manager and setting up the action that would follow in the next half hour. Archie was known for insulting his guest stars and his Damon Runyanesque speech. (In fact Abe Burrows, co-writer with Runyon of GUYS AND DOLLS, got his start on DUFFY'S TAVERN.) Regulars included Eddie Green as the wise-cracking Eddie the waiter and Charles Cantor as the intellectually-challenged Finnegan. Gardner's wife Shirley Booth originated the role of Miss Duffy, the ditzy, man-hungry daughter of the owner. At least a dozen other actresses played the role during the series 11 year run. Though DUFFY'S TAVERN made the transition to television in 1954, it only lasted for one season. The program inspired future TV shows with a friendly neighborhood bar as the setting, most notably Jackie Gleason's "Joe the Bartender" sketches with Crazy Googenheim (Frank Fontaine) filling in for Finnegan, ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE, and the 1980's sitcom CHEERS. Lucky for us, at least 100 episodes of the radio series survive and are available on cassette and MP3.

Attempting to duplicate the success of other radio programs that made the transition to the big screen (FIBBER MCGEE & MOLLY, THE GREAT GILDERSLEEVE, HENRY ALDRICH, etc.), studio executives at both MGM and Paramount set their sites on Duffy's for their next radio crossover picture. Paramount's proposal of a "stars-go-all-out-for-the-war-effort" variety film in the vein of Hollywood CANTEEN and THANK YOUR LUCK STARS caught Gardner's fancy. And so it was that contract players Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Robert Benchley and more than two dozen others were signed up for cameos while the radio actors (save for Broadway actress Ann Thomas as a new Miss Duffy) reprised their familiar roles.

The story is a pretty basic "let's put on a show to save the __________." Unbeknownst to his boss Duffy, soft-hearted Archie has been providing out-of-work veterans with free meals and spirits. The servicemen had worked at a phonograph record company owned by Archie's pal Michael O'Malley (Victor Moore) before the war. The factory was forced to close because of a war time shortage of shellac and the bank turned down a loan to O'Malley to reopen the plant. O'Malley's daughter Peggy (Marjorie Reynolds) works as a switchboard operator at a hotel where a number of celebrities are staying. In due course the stars are persuaded to help raise funds to reopen the plant by performing at a block party hosted by our favorite barkeep. There are some yucks along the way, a little romance between Peggy and soldier Danny Murphy (Barry Nelson) and plenty of entertainment at the big show.

Betty Hutton is a tornado of energy performing "Doin' it the Hard Way" and Cass Daly, the gangly gal with the overbite, sings a rousing number, "You Can't Blame a Gal for Trying." Bing and Betty parody the Oscar winning song "Swinging on a Star" from Paramount's 1944 hit GOING MY WAY and Bing shares a scene with his four young sons Gary, Lin and twins Phillip and Dennis.

Variety posted a mixed review, finding the translation of weekly audio program to celluloid "stale," but they praised the vaudeville portion of the film. Eddie Bracken was singled out for "….playing the double role of a cowboy here, taking successively a beating by a bandit mob, a water dunking and some pies in his face, all constituting a nostalgic throwback to the good old Mack Sennett days and as hilarious a sequence as one will find in any film-comedy."

Admittedly, DUFFY'S TAVERN may not hold up well with most present-day viewers who haven't known the wonder of old-time radio and have little or no knowledge of Betty Hutton and Bing Crosby, let alone Cass Daley. Fans of movies from the 40's and Olt-Time radio buffs however, should find DUFFY'S TAVERN an elite place to meet many of their favorite old stars and have a great deal of fun along the way.

Film sequels were a novelty in 1925, when DON Q, SON OF ZORRO marked a big profit for United Artists. Then and now, it is considered to be a better film than the original, THE MARK OF ZORRO (1920), which made star and producer Douglas Fairbanks the personification of the Swashbuckler five years earlier.

Since his screen debut in 1915, Fairbanks had always been cast in contemporary comedies as a fun-loving, never-say-die, go-getter who gets the girl and catches the bad guys – all the while exhibiting his athletic prowess and bravado. He was a major film actor, but his popularity was beginning to wane due to the monotony of his roles and vehicles.

The formation of United Artists Corporation in 1919 gave founders Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith control over their own projects. Fairbanks chose this opportunity to risk reinventing his image by starring in this film adaptation of The Curse of Capistrano. The serialized novel written by Johnston McCulley had been published that year in a popular pulp magazine. It introduced the character of Zorro to the world. The magic of the movie assured Zorro's place among fictional super-heroes. The character lived on in several more film versions as well as books, comics, cartoons, Halloween costumes, toys, and in the popular 1950's television series starring Guy Williams.

In THE MARK OF ZORRO, set in early 19th century California, Fairbanks came up with an ingenious concept – showcasing his likable contemporary stock character into an action/adventure period costume picture. He plays Don Diego Vega, the milksop son of an affluent rancher who, like the Scarlet Pimpernel, dons a disguise to defend the impoverished townsfolk from the tyrants in power. His alter ego Zorro's, (Spanish for fox) trademarks are the black cape and cowl mask he wears and the master swordsmanship he displays. He is known to brand his victims with a "Z" made with three fast strokes of his blade. At the end of the film, after Zorro's greatest triumph, his identity is revealed. He throws his sword into the air. It lodges into a high spot on the wall, as Zorro shouts, "Till I need you again!" Though it was probably not Fairbanks' intention at the time, this line was a prime set-up for a sequel if there ever was one.

After the tremendous financial and critical success of ZORRO, Fairbanks continued to give the public what it wanted – the charismatic Fairbanks persona in lavish period epics. THE THREE MUSKETEERS, ROBIN HOOD and THE THIEF OF BAGDAD were all released in the years between the two Zorro epics.

As one can easily discern by the title of this follow-up, Doug is back as Diego's son - namely Don Cesar, aka "Don Q." The screenplay is based on the novel "Don Q's Love Story" by Hesketh Prichard and Kate Prichard which had no relationship to Zorro at all. But by making Don Q the offspring of the famous hero, it cashed in on the audience's familiarity with the original and made it possible for Doug to play a dual role as both father and son.

In the family tradition, Don Cesar is sent to Spain to continue his education and learn the traditions of his ancestors. His high-spirited ways and showmanship with a bullwhip make him a favorite of the Queen's cousin, Archduke Paul of Austria (Warner Oland). Cesar also makes an enemy of surly Don Sebastian (Donald Crisp), a member of the Queen's guard, and both men fall for the beautiful Dolores de Muro (Mary Astor). After Cesar is framed for murder, he fakes suicide and goes underground until he can prove the guilt of the real killer. Meanwhile, in California, Don Diego receives word of his son's predicament. He retrieves his sword from where it had stuck thirty years before, digs out his mask and cape and travels to Spain to help rescue his son. Father and son take on 15 soldiers in a sword fight during the film's exuberant finale.

Audiences and critics alike loved DON Q even more than the original. Film-making technique and technology had improved rapidly since 1920. The sequel had a stronger plot, higher production values and better pacing. What's more, Fairbanks has fine-tuned his swashbuckler persona to perfection. He was never was he more cocksure, flamboyant and amusing than he appears here. Though already 41 years old, he easily got away with playing a much younger character in no small part due to his physical fitness. He is shown to great advantage, engaging in sword-play, jumping on a horse or – his specialty in this film - cracking a whip. Well known for performing his own stunts, Doug reportedly spent six weeks learning fancy whipmanship. He uses it to light a cigarette, extinguish a candle, slice paper, lasso a bull and swing onto a balcony. He also shows himself to be a dandy on the dance floor in a parody of a Valentino tango.

Donald Crisp, best known for his chilling performance as Lillian Gish's cruel father in BROKEN BLOSSOMS, does double duty in DON Q as both co-star and director. He plays Fairbanks' dastardly nemesis Don Sebastian while directing one of his best films. Crisp directed more than 70 films, including the Buster Keaton classic,THE NAVIGATOR. He got his start in the movies in 1908 with the Biograph Company and appeared on screen for the last time 55 years later as Grandpa Spencer in the 1963 film SPENCER'S MOUNTAIN that starred Henry Fonda. Crisp died in 1974.

The New York Times thought so highly of DON Q, SON OF ZORRO, that they named it one the 10 best films of 1925.

While enjoyable on TV or home video, the movie is twice the fun when watched with live accompaniment and an audience as I was fortunate to experience at Cinevent 2006.

For whatever reason, LOOKING FOR TROUBLE doesn't show up on television and isn't available on video, but I was lucky enough to catch it at Cinevent in Columbus.

LOOKING FOR TROUBLE is given the genre classification of crime drama in the AFI Catalog, but there are healthy doses of wit throughout. With the affable Jack Oakie as second banana, what would you expect? Tracy and Oakie play easygoing telephone linemen troubleshooters with Constance Cummings and Arline Judge as their respective girlfriends. Tracy's disreputable ex-partner Dan Sutter gets fired for his involvement in an illicit gambling joint, and blames Tracy for squealing on him. Cummings sides with Sutter and ends up working for him at the real estate office he opens. She refuses to listen to Tracy's suspicions that her boss is a crook. All sorts of excitement follows as Tracy and Oakie investigate Sutter, including a fire, a murder and an earthquake! The earthquake sequence was a recreation of the immense quake that hit Long Beach on March 10, 1933 – just seven months before filming began on the picture. According to Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide, which gives LOOKING FOR TROUBLE 3 stars, actual footage of the earthquake was used in the film. The AFI states: "The scene in which Tracy is caught in the quake has been included in numerous documentaries on both Hollywood film-making history and earthquakes."

Spencer Tracy got his big break in pictures in 1930 when director John Ford, impressed by Tracy's performance as a Death Row inmate on Broadway, got Fox to sign him for a prison movie he was making. Tracy made an impression with audiences in UP THE RIVER (along with fellow new-comer Humphrey Bogart), but the role got him type-cast as thugs for the next few years. He grew increasingly unhappy with the parts he was given and became difficult to work with. His Fox contract was coming to an end when he was loaned out to Darryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century Pictures for LOOKING FOR TROUBLE (working title, TROUBLE SHOOTER) to be directed by William Wellman. Soon after he left Fox, Irving Thalberg signed Tracy to a long-term contract at MGM where his talents were put to better use.

"Wild Bill" Wellman (so-named for his daring aerial feats while in the Lafayette Flying Corps. in WW1) owed his start in films to his friendship with Douglas Fairbanks. Stories vary on how the two met (one account has it that Wellman made a forced landing on the actor's property), but it's a fact that after Wellman saw himself on screen in Fairbanks' film KNICKERBOCKER BUCKAROO (1919), he decided that he would rather be behind the camera. He worked his way up from prop man, to assistant director and finally to director of Buck Jones westerns at Fox. In the years before LOOKING FOR TROUBLE, Wellman directed such notable films as WINGS (1927), the first picture to win an Academy Award; BEGGARS OF LIFE (1928) with Louise Brooks and THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931). The latter helped to launch the popularity of the gangster movie and the career of James Cagney.

It's always a treat to see the smart and striking Constance Cummings in a featured role. Like Tracy, the Seattle-born actress started in theater. She was discovered while on Broadway by Sam Goldwyn who brought her to Hollywood. Columbia signed her up and cast her as prison warden Walter Huston's naïve daughter in THE CRIMINAL CODE (1931). After 10 films in two years with the studio, Cummings went freelance. It was during this period that she made perhaps her best picture, MOVIE CRAZY (1932) with Harold Lloyd. She moved to England in the mid 1930's with her husband, English playwright and screenwriter Benn W. Levy. There, she continued acting in films and on the stage. In 1974, Cummings was made a Commander of the British Empire for her contributions to the British entertainment industry. She died on November 23, 2005 at the age of 95.

Remarkably, another member of the cast is still with us as of this posting. Hatchet-faced, bespectacled prolific American character actor Charles Lane (billed here as Switchboard Operator) turned 101 on January 26, 2006! Other notables to look for in uncredited parts are Bryant Washburn, star of early Essanay films from the 1910's, as "Richards, Long Beach Manager," and Jason Robards Sr. as "Shotgun Henchman."

Mordaunt Hall in The New York Times gave the film a mixed review, finding the amusing scenes with Tracy and Oakie "highly entertaining, but when it tackles the plot and the inevitable spat between the romantic couple, it slumps." He added that the earthquake scenes "…are done extraordinarily well."

The story of a chump boxer better known for fancy footwork and showmanship than his talent. Pat O'Brien as Ritzy McCarthy gets ahead through a series of, unknown to him, fixed matches. His ego swells and a romantic triangle soon develops between the fighter, his wife-manager (Glenda Farrell) and Claire Dodd as the other woman. The New York Times reported that Pat O'Brien was a former boxing champion at Marquette University and was trained for the film by boxer Jackie Fields. Also two former boxing champions, Mushy Callahan and Marvin Shechter provided opposition in the ring. The review followed this bit of information with the opinion "All this impressive statistical work adds up to zero. Mr. O'Brien and his various opponents in the film paw each other like long-lost brothers and some of the theoretical sleep-producing blows would hardly jar the script girl." The writer liked the picture overall though, calling it a "rather pleasant prizefight film that follows formula…acted with some proficiency and humor by Pat O'Brien and Glenda Farrell." Be on the lookout for silent era comedian Heinie Conklin as a heckler and "Queen of the Hollywood extras" Bess Flowers as a nurse. I screened this film at Cinefest in Syracuse, New York.

Calamity Jane, legendary figure of the old west, has been portrayed on screen by dozens of actresses from the silent era (Ethel Grey Terry in Wild Bill Hickock [1923]) through the present (Robin Weigert in the HBO series Deadwood). Memorable Janes include Jean Arthur in The Plainsman (1936); Doris Day in Calamity Jane (1953); Jane Russell in The Paleface (1948) and Angelica Huston in the 1997 miniseries based on Larry McMurtry's brilliant novel Buffalo Girls. Not one of these movies came close to fact and Caught may be the furthest from the truth, but at least in this account, the robust middle-aged Louise Dresser looks the part. It seems Calamity runs a rough gambling joint and heads a gang of cattle rustlers on the side. The lovely Frances Dee plays a young innocent hired to work as a saloon girl. Richard Arlen as Lt. Colton arrives with his US cavalry troop to clean up the town and fall in love with Dee. But do Calamity and Colton have a past connection? Screened at Cinefest in Syracuse New York.

When we left our gal Sophie in The Notorious Sophie Lang (1934), the bewitching jewel thief made a clean get-away - at least with her leading man, gentleman bandit Max Bernard, if not with the jewels. Lang and Bernard sail into the sunset on a luxury liner bound for London while her priceless purloined pearls are discovered where she had concealed them in the plumbing of Lang's hotel room. After faking her own death so she can go straight and begin a new life, we find Lang five years later living in London under the assumed name Ethel Thomas. Lang/Thomas is a paid companion to the elderly Mrs. Araminta Sedley (Elizabeth Patterson) who just happens to be a jewel collector. (Get thee behind me Satan!) The two board a liner for New York and Mrs. Sedley locks up her valuable Kruger diamond in the ship's safe. On board are Ray Milland as newspaper reporter Jimmy Lawson to provide the romantic interest and Sir Guy Standing as the infamous Max Bernard to provide the conflict. Naturally, the diamond gets stolen, Sophie gets blamed and she redeems her past by catching the culprit. (Remember – this sequel is POST-Code.) The character of Max Bernard, Sophie's beau, was played in the first film by the suave 39 year old Paul Cavanaugh. Curiously in the sequel, Max is portrayed by the much older Sir Guy Standing (63) and their past affair seems to have been forgotten. Likewise, the role of New York police inspector Parr went to a different actor, with Paul Harvey taking over the part from Arthur Byron. On board for directing duties is stalwart screen veteran George Archainbaud, in the middle of his 41 year career. Born in Paris, Archainbaud came to America in 1916 and began directing motion pictures soon after. He worked steadily through the next four decades, largely in television westerns such as Hopalong Cassidy and The Gene Autry Show in the 1950's. His best regarded film is The Lost Squadron, a bittersweet WW1 story. Gertrude Michael was likewise at the brightest point of her Hollywood fame, before succumbing to alcoholism and finding fewer film roles in the 1940's and 50's. She died in 1964. Contemporary reviews were complimentary. Frank Nugent of The New York Times concluded his admiring summation with "…we find ourselves thoroughly in favor of Miss Lang's return. May it be periodic." Alas, there was to be only one more episode in the series, Sophie Lang Goes West (1937).

Columbia Pictures Corporation was still a young Poverty Row contender in 1925 when The Danger Signal, one of at least 21 productions shot by the studio that year, was released. Originally named CBC Film Sales for its founders, brothers Harry and Jack Cohn and attorney Jack Brandt, the motion picture company was soon given the nickname of "Corned Beef & Cabbage" by rivals in the field, much to the mortification of Harry who pushed for the more dignified moniker. In the three years since the company was formed, they had become successful enough to purchase two stages and an office building on Sunset Blvd. Trade ads from this period boast, "Every picture will have a box office cast!" While Dorothy Revier and Robert Gordon might not have been in the same league with Pickford and Fairbanks, their faces were certainly familiar to audiences of the day. Indeed, Revier was named a WAMPAS Baby star in 1925, an honor bestowed by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers to thirteen young women they believed to be the most promising up-and-comers that year. Gordon had costarred with a Pickford (Mary's brother Jack) in Tom Sawyer (1917) and Huck and Tom (1918) as Huckleberry Finn and hadn't been out of work since. Jane Novak (who was interestingly a year younger than Gordon, who played her son) was no slouch either, having appeared in 60 or more films before The Danger Signal, sharing the bill with such notable leading men as William S. Hart, Hobart Bosworth, Tom Mix and Lewis Stone.

Once believed to be a lost film (according to the "Lost Film Files" page on the Silents are Golden web site), a nitrate print of The Danger Signal was purchased by the Library of Congress from a private collector in 2003 and a duplicate negative and safety print were struck this year. The original nitrate material is about 900 feet short of the 5502' listed in the AFI catalog and for reasons that can only be guessed at, scenes were put together wildly out of order. After the safety print was made, it was cut and reassembled into sequence, a job not unlike putting together a jigsaw puzzle without the benefit of the picture on the box. Descriptions of the story in publications from the time (Harrison's Reports and Exhibitors Weekly) proved to be sketchy at best and inaccurate (getting even the character's names wrong) at worst. Harrison's and Variety both praised the acting and direction of the film however, with the former stating that those attributes "…lifted it well out of the class of average productions." The story is a melodrama – sort of Stella Dallas meets The Corsican Brothers. A recently widowed and destitute young mother (Jane Novak) appeals to her wealthy and heartless father-in-law (Robert Edeson) for financial aid. Instead, he convinces her to hand over her new baby to his care so that the child will be brought up with "everything money can buy." Unbeknownst to the grandfather, we learn that there are twin sons and our heroine keeps one baby to raise herself. The narrative jumps ahead to the boy's twenty-first birthday and we see what's become of them. Not surprisingly, the wealthy son has grown up spoiled and greedy while the poor one works hard and loves his mother.

Some special moments to watch for are the rich son's enormous birthday cake complete with a model train circling it, a tender moment when Novak strokes her lost son's discarded glove and remembers caressing his hand when he was an infant, and an exciting runaway train sequence near the end that will have you biting your nails.

Lois Weber was one of the great women directors of the silent era - a time when women directors weren't such a rarity. She began her career as a stage actress in New York. It is there where she met her husband, Phillips Smalley, the manager of the road company in which she was playing. By 1911, Weber and Smalley began working in film: acting, writing scenarios, producing and directing. In the mid-teens, Weber became a top salaried director at Universal Studio. She directed 18 pictures in 1916 alone, including the controversial pro birth-control feature Where Are My Children? The film was banned in Philadelphia and tried by censorship boards across the country. Proving the adage "any publicity is good publicity," the uproar attracted crowds to the theater and made for good box office.

Known primarily for "message" films, Weber, a one-time street corner evangelist, only agreed to helm a production if she approved of its moral stance. Her subject matter included political corruption (Hypocrites, 1914), the evils of child labor (Shoes, 1916) and capital punishment (The People vs. John Doe, 1916). Few of her films survive, though The Blot, made the same year as What's Worth While? is now available on DVD from Milestone Film & Video. Both films utilize two of the same featured players, macho Louis Calhern and luminous Claire Windsor.

By this time, Weber's social commentary had moved to domestic situations (snobbery of the upper class and "don't try to change the one you love" in WWW) and her popularity was waning. Audiences of the jazz age wanted fun and light entertainment – they were tired of being preached to. In a few years she divorced the alcoholic Smalley, lost her film company and suffered a nervous breakdown. In the years before her death in 1939, Weber's work was largely forgotten and she could only find employment as a script doctor.

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The heroine of What's Worth While?, Phoebe Morrison (Claire Windsor) is a spoiled upper-class southern belle, bored with life. When her father (Arthur Stuart Hull), the owner of an oil field out west, shows her a photo of his partner the rough and rugged "Square Elton," Phoebe likes what she sees and decides to accompany her father on his next trip to meet Elton. In spite of their differences, the pair are attracted to each other. Elton senses though, that his uncultured ways are offensive to Miss Morrison and that a match between them would only embarrass her. He decides to travel to London to become educated and refined. They meet again two years later, and while she still has feelings for him, Phoebe discovers that she prefers her man the way she found him.

Critics of the day were not especially kind to the film, finding it slow moving and overly long. The performances were praised however ("…the acting is excellent in general." – Motion Picture World) and Exhibitors Trade Review lauded the photography and lighting: "There are several fine interior views, with luxurious settings, excellent Western shots of rolling plains and woods, and perfect lighting controls every scene." Indeed, close-ups of the fair Miss Windsor will take your breath away.

The restoration of What's Worth While? has been a work in-progress for the Library of Congress for a number of years, using both 16 and 35 mm source material. This film had long been considered too incomplete to show. One reel found in the vaults was misidentified as The Blot. Additional scenes and another reel was preserved under a spurious title and only recently was correctly identified as being from What's Worth While? While the print you will see today is nearly complete, the opening scenes still have not been found. To make up for the missing footage, titles have been created to introduce the characters and to set up the story. Cinesation 2005 in Massillon Ohio will be the first screening of this restoration.

This was the first production of Goldwyn Pictures and the story is quite different (and better!) than the 1932 remake starring Marion Davies. Mae Marsh as Polly is literally born into the circus and orphaned as a child when her aerialist mother falls from the wires. Young Polly is raised by Toby, a circus clown, and becomes a trick bareback rider. She is badly injured in the ring and is taken to the nearby home of a minister (played by Vernon Steele) to recover. Polly thrives during her stay of several months, and the pair fall in love. Naturally, the town gossips are agog. After learning that Toby has fallen ill and needs money for a doctor, she enters a horse race with her circus mount Bingo and wins. But it's too late, Toby has died. After a few more downward turns, it all works out in the end. Mae was sweet, the horse race exciting and well-shot and the circus scenes (featuring a real circus) are authentic.

Glamorous American jewel-thief Sophie Lang returns to the U. S. after lying low in England for five years. New York police inspector Stone is determined to trap the elusive Lang by enlisting the unknowing aid of Max Bernard, a suave European stone-stealer, traveling in America under the pseudonym of Sir Nigel Crane. Max and Sophie chase each other around, evade their pursuers, and of course fall in love. Along for the hunt are Leon Errol as a bumbling health-obsessed detective and Alison Skipworth as Sophie's crafty accomplice. Lots of laughs to be found, including Gertrude Michael's impersonation of a haughty Russian countess which comes out ala Garbo and a great line by Inspector Stone, "Never teach your grandmother to suck eggs." The film proved to be popular enough with audiences to spawn two sequels, The Return of Sophie Lang (1936) and Sophie Lang Goes West (1937). Critics were fond of the caper as well. The New York Times called it "…witty and exuberant entertainment performed with light-hearted gaiety by an excellent cast." Variety stated "Ralph Murphy directed the picture with a rat-tat-tat pace, not allowing it to stop for a minute."

Lady of the Dugout stars two real-life outlaws, brothers Al and Frank Jennings. Al Jennings' story was well known by Americans of the time; tales of his adventures thrilled readers of "The Saturday Evening Post." Born in Virginia in 1863, Jennings moved to the Oklahoma Territory and became a prosecuting attorney. Later, he was falsely accused and convicted of a train robbery actually committed by a former client. Rather than face imprisonment, he went on the lam. He and Frank robbed trains, banks and general stores as founders of "the Jennings Gang," bandits known as Robin Hoods of their day. Al was captured and sent to the Ohio State Penitentiary. After his case was reviewed, his life sentence was reduced and he was later pardoned by President Roosevelt. Jennings turned his life around by becoming an evangelist, politician and writer, eventually forming his own motion picture production company in Arizona.

For the company's first picture, Lady of the Dugout, Jennings hired the young director W.S. (aka Woody, aka "One-Shot") Van Dyke. Brother Frank was on board to play himself in this story of one of their true adventures.

The story is simple one. Following a bank robbery, the outlaw brothers head for their hide-out in the desert. There, they find a desolate woman and her young son who have been abandoned by the woman's husband and come to her rescue. Another bank robbery and a shoot-out provide plenty of action, realistically portrayed.

This tongue-in-cheek romantic caper from RKO stars handsome Preston Foster as crime writer Robert Crane who bases his novels on his secret life as a suave jewel thief. Commissioner David Theron (versatile character actor Samuel Hinds) is out to trap the elusive bandit, nicknamed "The Gentleman," by inviting the two most likely suspects for a weekend at his suburban estate. The bait is the famous Konjer diamonds (or are they the fakes?) stashed away in Theron's safe. Crane, who Theron has befriended and helped with story ideas in the past, and the lovely Carolyn Morgan (Whitney Bourne) are the guests. Each arrives with an accomplice and all four are after the booty, out-conning each other throughout the night. Plenty of humor and some nice location shots of the high-class neighborhoods of southern California in 1938.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. served as producer and star of this motion picture, the first by his new company, Criterion. Shot at the Elstree studio near London and based on the popular 1913 English novel set in the Regency days by James Farnol, The Amateur Gentleman was filmed twice before.

Fairbanks plays Barnabas Barty, the son of ex-boxing champion John Barty, now an innkeeper. During a stay at his inn by visitors from London: the Marquess of Camberhurst, Camberhurst's granddaughter Lady Cleone, and her fiancé Louis Chichester, the elder Barty is falsely accused of stealing a watch from Chichester. The innkeeper is taken away to a London prison to await execution.

Barnabas, suspecting Chichester of a frame-up, follows the Camberhurst party to London posing as a wealthy gentleman named John Beverly, in hopes of finding proof of his father's innocence. He gains access to the Prince Regent's court where he raises money at the gambling tables and in a bare-knuckled boxing match while he unravels the mystery and falls in love with the leading lady.

Some fine acting by Fairbanks and Gordon Harker as his accomplice Natty Bell, lavish sets and costumes, music by Richard Addisell and a suspenseful plot make this a three star film. Unfortunately, it is not available on home video or played on television. A restored 35 mm print will be shown at Cinefest in Syracuse New York on March 5, 2005.

Australian swimming sensation Annette Kellerman is remembered today thanks to the biopic Million Dollar Mermaid starring Esther Williams. Once thought a lost film, Venus of the South Seas was recently restored by the Library of Congress. This film has historical significance for the use of primza color in some underwater scenes and generous use of tinting and toning throughout and the new print was stunning. However, the melodramatic plot was tedious, the direction (by Kellerman's husband James R. Sullivan) was clunky and as an actress, Kellerman was a great swimmer. I was glad to see it, but once was enough. Viewed at Cinesation in Massillon Ohio in October 2004.

Jack Oakie is a band leader at a dance hall who is worried that his best friend (William Collier), the band's saxophonist, is getting in over his head with taxi dancer Miriam Hopkins. Oakie arranges for Collier to get hired by another band in order to get him out of town for a month, hoping this will cool down the affair. In the ensuing month, gangster George Raft shows up with designs on Hopkins and Oakie himself starts falling for the dame. There's a shoot-out at the end and some great music throughout, including 'St. Louis Blues' as sung by Hopkins. Lyda Roberti is fun as Fanny Zobowolski who puts the moves on a reluctant Eugene Palette. Viewed at Cinesation in Massillon Ohio, October 2004.

Predictable froth - but I loved it. Opera diva Grace Moore played Opera diva Elsa Terry who reneged on a performance date in Buenos Aires in favor of a more lucrative offer from Paris. Melvyn Douglas is sent in to win her back. He pretends to fall in love with Moore without revealing his true identity and then, guess what? He really does fall in love! But not before she catches on and is hurt. Of course, all's well in the end. Stuart Erwin and Margaret Hamilton (two years before her Wicked Witch days) are terrific as comedy relief sidekicks for the two leads. Moore performs some lovely arias in full costume including the gavotte from Manon. And the title tune is still running through my head. Screened at Cinefest in Syracuse New York.

I wanted to like this Christy Comedy, but it was just plain irritating. The premise: Millionaire Jim Wilson (Creighton Hale) is recently divorced from his wife Bella (Lilyan Tashman). His rich Aunt Selina, who disapproves of divorce, comes to visit, so Jim's friend Kit Éclair agrees to pretend to be his spouse. The house, now full of guests including a burglar and a wacky woman who thinks she is a psychic, is quarantined for smallpox for seven days. Several gags involve various trapped guests trying to escape. The bugler, trying to keep from being discovered, spends an inconceivable amount of time going up and down a dumbwaiter. Screened at Cinefest in Syracuse New York.

Lionel Barrymore got to play a nice guy for a change in this sentimental drama. In an unusually subdued performance, Barrymore plays a widowed family doctor starting a new life with his young son in a small town. The locals are leery of the outsider and the few cases that come his way are paid for with potatoes and eggs. When one of his patients dies in childbirth, the angry husband wants nothing to do with his infant daughter, so the kind doctor takes her in. Soon feisty May Robson comes aboard as a volunteer housekeeper. The story fast-forwards twenty years to find the son (Joel McCrea) a hotshot Type-A doctor with little time for his beautiful and long-suffering fiancée Frances Dee. At the end of course, everyone realizes how fortunate they really are. It was nice to see the luminescent Miss Dee on the big screen only two days before she died at age 94. Screened at Cinefest in Syracuse New York, March 2004.