71% (1) Jimmy the Gent 67 min, Passed, [Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance] [Michael Curtiz] [17 Mar 1934]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 71%, External Reviews
Actors: Alan Dinehart, Allen Jenkins, Bette Davis, James Cagney
Writer: Bertram Millhauser (screen play), Laird Doyle (story "The Heir Chaser"), Ray Nazarro (story "The Heir Chaser")
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Unscrupulous investigator of lost heirs Jimmy Corrigan loses his love Joan Martin to apparently upright competitor James Wallingham. He counters by adding a veneer of respectability to his own operation. Meanwhile he exposes Wallingham for a fraud.
Rotten Tomatoes: James Cagney runs a shady missing-heir tracing service, occasionally providing phony heirs in order to collect his fee. He suffers a tinge of jealousy when he takes a gander at the offices of a legitimate tracing firm, where his former girlfriend (Bette Davis) has taken a job. Jimmy soon learns that the reputable organization's boss (Alan Dinehart) is more crooked than Jimmy ever was, but he can't convince the girl of this fact. Using his own street smarts, Cagney exposes the "honest" heir tracer and agrees to go straight if his girl will come back to him. At the time Jimmy the Gent was filmed, James Cagney was getting tired of the formula pictures being handed him; rather than go on suspension, he expressed his displeasure by shaving his hair almost down to the bone, which is why he appears in this film with an uncharacteristic buzz-cut.
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68% (1) Dante's Inferno 89 min, Approved, [Drama] [Harry Lachman] [23 Aug 1935]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 68%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 nomination.
Actors: Alan Dinehart, Claire Trevor, Henry B. Walthall, Spencer Tracy
Writer: Philip Klein (screen play), Robert Yost (screen play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Jim Carter moves in on the McWade's carnival concession which shows scenes from Dante's "Inferno". He makes it a going concern, marrying Betty along the way. An inspector calls the amusement pier unsafe but Carter bribes him. The pier collapses, leading to the inspector's suicide, injury to Pop McWade, trial for Carter, and Betty's leaving him. Carter starts over with an unsafe floating casino.
Rotten Tomatoes: Carnival barker Spencer Tracy befriends elderly concessionaire Henry B. Walthall, who owns a picturesque but stodgy display depicting Dante's Inferno. Walthall is more interested in the spiritual aspects of Man's fascination with Hell, but Tracy uses hoopla and exaggeration to get the suckers into the Inferno. His interest isn't altruistic; Tracy is enamored of Walthall's niece, Claire Trevor. Through his publicity savvy, Tracy builds the Inferno into a major attraction, complete with full orchestra and scantily clad "devil girls". He also buys up the rest of the carnival, using cold-blooded tactics that result in the suicide of a fellow concessionaire. Within five years, Tracy is a millionaire tycoon of the Entertainment industry. While loved by his wife (Trevor) and son (Scotty Beckett), Tracy conducts his business ruthlessly, bribing a city official to look the other way regarding structural defects in his Inferno display. When this duplicity results in a disastrous accident at the exhibit, the bribed official kills himself. Tracy is exonerated thanks to legal chicanery, but his wife is fed up; she walks out on him, taking their son along. Injured in the accident, Inferno creator H. B. Walthall warns Tracy of the pitfalls of success, using an illustrated edition of Dante to make his point. For nearly ten minutes, the movie audience is treated to a lavish depiction of Hell, magnificently photographed by Rudolph Mate. When the plot resumes, Tracy is on hand for his latest venture, a sumptuous gambling ship. Thanks to the drunken negligence of the crew, the ship catches fire, and it is only upon learning that his son has sneaked aboard that Tracy realizes the consequences of his greed. Tracy labors heroically to rescue the passengers--and, incidentally, to atone for his past sins.
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66% (1) Baby, Take a Bow 76 min, PG, [Comedy, Drama, Family] [Harry Lachman] [30 Jun 1934]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 66%, External Reviews
Actors: Alan Dinehart, Claire Trevor, James Dunn, Shirley Temple
Writer: Philip Klein (screen play), Edward E. Paramore Jr. (screen play), James P. Judge (based on a play by)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Eddie Ellison is an ex-con who spent time in Sing-Sing prison. Kay marries him as soon as he serves his time. Five years later, Eddie and his ex-convict buddy Larry, have both gone straight...
Rotten Tomatoes: Shirley Temple's first starring vehicle casts her as the button-cute daughter of ex-convict Eddie Ellison (James Dunn) and his wife Kay (Claire Trevor). Ellison and his old cellmate Larry Scott (Ray Walker) manage to land jobs as chauffeurs for a wealthy family. When a valuable string of pearls disappears, both men are fired and Eddie is accused of the crime. Incredibly, it is little Temple who manages to locate the pearls and clear her father's name. Rather slow going for the most part, Baby Take a Bow comes to life in the final reel, as genuine thief Trigger Stone (Ralf Harolde) grabs Temple and uses her as a human shield during his desperate rooftop escape.
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65% (1) Washington Merry-Go-Round 79 min, TV-G, [Drama] [James Cruze] [15 Oct 1932]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 65%, External Reviews
Actors: Alan Dinehart, Constance Cummings, Lee Tracy, Walter Connolly
Writer: Jo Swerling (screen play), Maxwell Anderson (story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Button Gwinett Brown is a freshman congressman on a mission to rid Washington of corruption. He quickly runs afoul of the powerful Senator Norton, while falling for the granddaughter of the...
Rotten Tomatoes: In this political melodrama, an idealistic freshman congressman swears to do his best to get relief for his impoverished constituents who lost everything in the Great Depression. Unfortunately, he discovers that many of his colleagues have been corrupted by avaricious crooks.
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63% (1) Supernatural 65 min, PASSED, [Horror, Mystery, Thriller] [Victor Halperin] [12 May 1933]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 63%, External Reviews
Actors: Alan Dinehart, Carole Lombard, Randolph Scott, Vivienne Osborne
Writer: Garnett Weston (story), Garnett Weston (adaptation), Harvey F. Thew, Brian Marlow
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: In New York city, Ruth Rogan is convicted of killing 3 of her lovers and sentenced to be executed. Meanwhile, lovely Roma Courtenay becomes a millionaire heiress when her brother dies. A spiritualist approaches Roma with an urgent message from her dead brother. He runs a rigged seance that doesn't convince Roma's boyfriend Grant but has Roma confused. Then unexpectedly, the executed Ruth Rogan's spirit takes control of Roma's body. Roma runs off with the fake spiritualist under Ruth Rogan's control. Grant desperately tries to track Roma down and return her soul.
Rotten Tomatoes: In her only "scare" film, Carole Lombard stars as a young heiress victimized by unscrupulous spiritualist Alan Dinehart. It turns out, however, that the mystic's power is real: Lombard is possessed by the spirit of Dinehart's onetime mistress, an executed murderess.
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59% (1) Dance, Girl, Dance 74 min, [Musical] [Frank R. Strayer] [01 Sep 1933]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 59%, External Reviews
Actors: Ada May, Alan Dinehart, Edward J. Nugent, Evalyn Knapp
Writer: Robert Ellis (story and adaptation)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Vaudeville couple Joe and Sally split on bad terms. Sally, a beautiful and talented young woman, gets a break as a chorus girl in a musical production, and then hits the big time with a song she wrote, which is then used in the big time production. The producer Pat falls in love with her and proposes. Meanwhile the less talented Joe falls on hard times and resorts to selling soap tar in a sailor suit!. But Sally has a secret that is about to change everything!
Rotten Tomatoes: In this film, two-bit hoofer Joe hires starry-eyed Sally for his vaudeville act. They marry, but the pressures of show business leads to a breakup. Lou Kenton, a tough broad with a heart of gold, decides to help the pregnant Sally by introducing her to big-time Broadway producer Wade Valentine.
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57% (1) A Study in Scarlet 72 min, PASSED, [Mystery, Thriller] [Edwin L. Marin] [14 May 1933]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 57%, External Reviews
Actors: Alan Dinehart, Anna May Wong, June Clyde, Reginald Owen
Writer: Arthur Conan Doyle (suggested by book "A Study in Scarlet"), Robert Florey (screenplay), Reginald Owen (continuity), Reginald Owen (dialogue)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: In London, a secret society led by lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew collects the assets of any of its deceased members and divides them among the remaining members. Society members start dropping like flies. Sherlock Holmes is approached by member James Murphy's widow, who is miffed at being left penniless by her husband. When Captain Pyke is shot, Holmes keys in on his mysterious Chinese widow as well as the shady Merrydew. Other members keep dying--Malcom Dearing first, then Mr. Baker. There is also an attempt on the life of young Eileen Forrester, who became a reluctant society member upon the death of her father. Holmes' uncanny observations and insights are put to the test.
Rotten Tomatoes: 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.
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