78% (2)  Captain January  77 min,  G,  [Comedy, Family, Musical]  [David Butler]  [17 Apr 1936]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 71%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 86%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Buddy Ebsen, Guy Kibbee, Shirley Temple, Slim Summerville
Writer:  Sam Hellman (screen play), Gladys Lehman (screen play), Harry Tugend (screen play), Laura E. Richards (based on a story by)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  A little girl named Star lives with a lighthouse keeper who rescued her when her parents drowned. A truant officer decides she should go to boarding school but she's rescued by relatives.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Previously filmed as a vehicle for Baby Peggy Montgomery in 1922, Laura E. Richard's Captain January was warmed up as a Shirley Temple picture 14 years later. Temple plays Star, a child of divorce who is looked after by crusty-but-lovable lighthouse keeper Captain January (Guy Kibbee). Truant officer Agatha Morgan (Sara Haden) determines that the Captain is not providing Star with suitable surroundings or a proper education, and before long our sobbing heroine is whisked away to a boarding school. She is rescued by kindly Mr. and Mrs. Morgan (George Irving and Nella Walker), distant relatives who try to provide the girl with a decent home, but the poor child still yearns for the company of Captain January and his friends Paul (Buddy Ebsen) and Nazro (Slim Summerville). All ends happily when January and his two chums are hired as crew members on the Morgans' yacht. One of Shirley Temple's best films, Captain January would be memorable if only for her singing-dancing duet with Buddy Ebsen, "At the Codfish Ball." Thanks to a legal loophole, the film has lapsed into public domain, joining A Little Princess as the most accessible of Temple's vehicles.
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76% (1)  Charlie Chan in Reno  71 min,  APPROVED,  [Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller]  [Norman Foster]  [16 Jun 1939]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 76%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Phyllis Brooks, Ricardo Cortez, Sidney Toler, Slim Summerville
Writer:  Frances Hyland (screen play), Albert Ray (screen play), Robert E. Kent (screen play), Philip Wylie (original story "Death Makes a Decree"), Earl Derr Biggers (based on: the character "Charlie Chan" created by)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  Mary Whitman has gone to Reno to obtain a divorce. While there she is arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow guest at her hotel (which specializes in divorcers). There are many others at the hotel who wanted the victim out of the way. Charlie comes from his home in Honolulu to solve the murder.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Sidney Toler made his second appearance as oriental sleuth Charlie Chan in the above-average Charlie Chan in Reno. It all begins when nervous young Mary Whitman (Pauline Moore) shows up in Reno to seek a divorce from husband Curtis Whitman (Kane Richmond). Before long, Jeanne Bentley (Louise Henry), another divorce-seeker, is found slain, and the police are certain that Mary, or her estranged husband, is responsible. It so happens that the Whitmans are from Honolulu, the stamping grounds of Charlie Chan, which is why our wily hero shows up in Nevada with son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) in tow. Every so often, the mystery slows down long enough for an amusing battle of wits between Chan and local sheriff Fletcher (Slim Summerville), who admittedly has only half the necessary ammunition. The billing order of the supporting cast is as usual a giveaway of the true killer's identity, but this doesn't lessen the enjoyment of this well-crafted programmer. Charlie Chan in Reno was based on Death Makes a Decree, a story by Philip Wylie.
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70% (1)  The Road Back  100 min,  Approved,  [Drama, War]  [James Whale]  [01 Jun 1937]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 69%,   External Reviews
Actors:  John 'Dusty' King, Maurice Murphy, Richard Cromwell, Slim Summerville
Writer:  Charles Kenyon (screenplay), Erich Maria Remarque (novel), R.C. Sherriff (screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  At the end of the world war, several German soldiers return home to their city to find the social fabric and civil order disintegrating as communist gangs roam the streets and food and jobs become scarce. Riots and massacres lead the erstwhile average men to become cynical and desperate.
Rotten Tomatoes:   A handful of German soldiers readjust to civilian life in the bitter wake of World War I in this follow-up to the classic All Quiet On The Western Front, which like the first film was based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque. After the signing of the armistice, Capt. Von Hagen (John Emery) dismisses what is left of his troops, who march home to an uncertain future. Tjaden (Slim Summerville) finds himself helping to fend off rioters demanding food from a shop owned by the town's mayor (Etienne Girardot); the grateful mayor in turn offers Tjaden his daughter's hand in marriage. Weil (Larry Blake) becomes a political activist and finds himself acting as a spokesman for another group of citizens demanding precious food; this time, Weil is shot by troops led by his former commander, Capt. Von Hagen. Willy (Andy Devine) visits his former schoolteacher, who presents him with an ironic gift -- a toy gun he took away from Willy when he was a boy. And Albert (Maurice Murphy) comes home to discover his fiancée has wed another man, a man who avoided the war but found ways to profit from it at home. In a fit of rage, Albert kills the man, and finds himself on trial for his life. Combining a strong anti-war message with prescient warnings about the dangers of the rising Nazi regime, The Road Back was intended to be a powerful and controversial picture, and Universal entrusted it to their finest director, James Whale. However, by the time shooting was completed, new management had taken over the studio, and Nazi officials began applying pressure to Universal (as well as members of the film's cast) to delete the material critical of the Nazis, threatening to scuttle European distribution of future Universal product if their demands were not met. Universal bowed to their wishes, and the film was partially reshot with another director, and the remainder extensively re-edited, leaving the final product a pale shadow of what Whale had originally intended.
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66% (1)  Air Mail  84 min,  Approved,  [Adventure, Drama]  [John Ford]  [03 Nov 1932]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 64%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Gloria Stuart, Pat O'Brien, Ralph Bellamy, Slim Summerville
Writer:  Dale Van Every (story), Frank Wead (story and screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  Level headed Mike Miller runs Desert Airport, an air mail base full of daring young pilots risking their lives to get the mail through-regardless of the weather. Following the death of one pilot in a horrific crash, Miller is forced to engage the wild and arrogant, yet skillful, Duke Talbot. When pilot Dizzy Wilkins crashes and dies in a storm, Talbot runs off with the young Mrs.Wilkins, leaving Miller to complete the last leg of Wilkins' mail run. Miller crashes on a mountain. Alive but in an inaccessible location, Miller tries to endure his injuries while futile attempts are made by air mail pilots to rescue him. Hearing of the impossibility of reaching Miller's crash site in time to save him, Talbot can't resist the challenge of trying an airborne rescue himself.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Employed in a pinch to take on mail flights, a devil-may-care pilot gets the job done but can't keep himself from pursuing anything in skirts. This average airplane story for director John Ford is mildly entertaining but little more.
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64% (1)  The Farmer Takes a Wife  91 min,  Approved,  [Comedy, Romance]  [Victor Fleming]  [02 Aug 1935]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 64%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Charles Bickford, Henry Fonda, Janet Gaynor, Slim Summerville
Writer:  Walter D. Edmonds (novel), Marc Connelly (play), Frank B. Elser (play), Edwin J. Burke (screenplay), Edward E. Paramore Jr. (contributor to special sequences)
External Links:  Wikipedia  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  Charming love story set on the Erie Canal in the mid-19th Century. A farmer works on the canal to earn money to buy a farm. He meets a cook on a canal boat, but she can't even consider leaving the exciting life on the canal for a banal one on a farm...
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62% (1)  They Just Had to Get Married  69 min,  PASSED,  [Adventure, Comedy, Romance]  [Edward Ludwig]  [05 Jan 1933]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 62%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Roland Young, Slim Summerville, Verree Teasdale, Zasu Pitts
Writer:  Cyril Harcourt (play), Gladys Lehman (screenplay), H.M. Walker (screenplay)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  Molly Hull, a maid, and Sam Sutton, a butler, are bequeathed a million dollars, and they encounter many problems and difficulties as they try to become the newest members of the idle rich.
Rotten Tomatoes:   In this comedy a maid and a butler work for a very rich man. The trouble begins when their employer dies and leaves his estate to them. Once he is gone, they are free to finally marry. Unfortunately, they do not enjoy being wealthy, and they must lose everything and break up before they get back together and have a happy life.
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