87% (2)  It  72 min,  Passed,  [Comedy, Romance]  [Clarence G. Badger, Josef von Sternberg]  [15 Feb 1927]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 74%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 100%,   External Reviews
Awards:  1 win.
Actors:  Antonio Moreno, Clara Bow, Priscilla Bonner, William Austin
Writer:  Elinor Glyn (story and adaptation), Hope Loring (screen play), Louis D. Lighton (screen play), George Marion Jr. (titles)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  N/A    Country:  USA
Plot:  Shopgirl Betty Lou has designs on Cyrus Waltham, the handsome owner of the department store where she works. Waltham, though, doesn't even know Betty Lou is around. In hopes of attracting Waltham's attention, she accepts a date with his best friend, Monty, under the condition that they dine at the Ritz, where Waltham also has a dinner date that evening. Her plan works and in no time at all she and Waltham are contemplating marriage. The romance cools when a newspaper reporter mistakenly writes a story depicting Betty Lou as an unwed mother.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Contrary to popular belief, Clara Bow was already Paramount's biggest box-office draw when she starred in this delightful rags-to-riches comedy. But It, from the fertile mind of bizarre best-selling author Elinor Glyn, remains perhaps the quintessential Bow picture. Not that the story of a poor shopgirl falling for her rich employer was anything new (by 1927, Bow could play that role in her sleep), but It came complete with one of the best publicity campaigns in Hollywood history. Glyn herself publicly pointed to Bow as the personification of It, "that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force." Paramount made sure that Glyn's lofty description of the word sunk in and even convinced the author to explain It in the film to leading man Antonio Moreno (who, according to Glyn, simply oozed It as well). The lightweight comedy behind all this hoopla centered on little Betty Lou Spence, a vivacious salesgirl invited to dinner at the Ritz by foppish wastrel and self-described "old fruit" "Monty" Montgomery (William Austin in one of those roles later personified by Edward Everett Horton). Betty is not paying attention to her dinner companion, however, but is ogling department store heir Cyrus Waltham (Moreno). He notices her too, and takes the salesgirl on a whirlwind tour of Coney Island. But when Betty is mistakenly assumed to be the unmarried mother of an infant (actually her roommate Molly's), stern Cyrus no longer sees her as proper marriage material. Betty, of course, gets her man in the end and Waltham's snooty girlfriend ("other woman" specialist Jacqueline Gadsden) ends up in the drink. Delivering all the vivacious punch expected of a Bow comedy, It takes time out for a couple of rather poignant scenes. With the hindsight that Brooklyn's own Bow was never fully accepted by Hollywood society despite her stardom, it is touching to watch Betty being ostracized at the snobbish Ritz; and Bow is never more affecting than when she realizes that Moreno is offering diamonds and pearls instead of marriage. Priscilla Bonner, as Bow's drab, single-mother roommate, adds a touch of realism to her brief role, enviously observing Betty's frivolity. If It only added to Bow's brilliant success, the film did little for the intelligent Bonner. To the end of her life, Bonner maintained that accepting featured billing in It lost her any chance of true stardom. A very young Gary Cooper, has a bit as a reporter and director Josef Von Sternberg reputedly took over for Clarence Badger during a brief illness. Despite its rather trite Cinderella plot, It magnificently demonstrates why Bow's guileless flapper came to define an entire decade. It is heartbreaking to realize that her decline had already set in, and Bow's very public troubles and eventual career destruction were lurking right around the corner!
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77% (2)  Creature from the Black Lagoon  79 min,  G,  [Horror, Sci-Fi]  [Jack Arnold]  [05 Mar 1954]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 70%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 84%,   External Reviews
Awards:  1 win & 1 nomination.
Actors:  Antonio Moreno, Julie Adams, Richard Carlson, Richard Denning
Writer:  Harry Essex (screenplay), Arthur A. Ross (screenplay), Maurice Zimm (story)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  A scientific expedition searching for fossils along the Amazon River discovers a prehistoric Gill-Man in the legendary Black Lagoon. The explorers capture the mysterious creature, but it breaks free. The Gill-Man returns to kidnap the lovely Kay, fiancée of one in the expedition, with whom it has fallen in love.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Universal Pictures introduced audiences to yet another classic movie monster with this superbly crafted film, originally presented in 3-D. The story involves the members of a fossil-hunting expedition down a dark tributary of the mist-shrouded Amazon, where they enter the domain of a prehistoric, amphibious "Gill Man" -- possibly the last of a species of fanged, clawed humanoids who may have evolved entirely underwater. Tranquilized, captured, and brought aboard, the creature still manages to revive and escape -- slaughtering several members of the team -- and abducts their sole female member (Julie Adams), spiriting her off to his mist-shrouded lair. This sparks the surviving crewmen to action -- particularly those who fancy carrying the girl off themselves. Director Jack Arnold makes excellent use of the tropical location, employing heavy mists and eerie jungle noises to create an atmosphere of nearly constant menace. The film's most effective element is certainly the monster itself, with his pulsating gills and fearsome webbed talons. The creature was played on land by stuntman Ben Chapman and underwater by champion swimmer Ricou Browning -- who was forced to hold his breath during long takes because the suit did not allow room for scuba gear. The end result was certainly worth the effort, proven in the famous scene where the Gill Man swims effortlessly beneath his female quarry in an eerie ballet -- a scene echoed much later by Steven Spielberg in the opening of Jaws. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
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85% (1)  Beverly of Graustark  70 min,  [Comedy, Romance]  [Sidney Franklin]  [19 Apr 1926]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 85%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Antonio Moreno, Creighton Hale, Marion Davies, Roy D'Arcy
Writer:  Joseph Farnham (titles), Agnes Christine Johnston, George Barr McCutcheon (novel)
External Links:  Wikipedia  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  N/A
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70% (1)  The Temptress  117 min,  Passed,  [Drama, Romance]  [Fred Niblo, Mauritz Stiller]  [03 Oct 1926]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 70%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Antonio Moreno, Greta Garbo, Lionel Barrymore, Marc McDermott
Writer:  Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Dorothy Farnum (scenario), Marian Ainslee (titles)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  In a masked ball in Paris, Manuel Robledo, a young Argentinian architect, meets Elena, the Marquess of Torre Blanca. Later, the young woman is rightly accused causing the misfortune and loss of wealth of Fontenoy, a man who fell for her charms. To escape social criticism, the Marquis of Torre Blanca transfers his residence to Argentina. There, Elena meets again Manuel, when he is building a river's dam. Manos Duras, a thug, harasses Elena, and when Manuel intervenes, he defies him to a whip duel. The duel is long and vicious, both men suffering many cuts on their faces and naked chests, but in the end, the thug is vanquished and humiliated. Manos Duras sets up an ambush to murder Manuel, but the Marquis of Torre Blanca is killed instead. Now, there only two men in love for Elena, the eternal temptress^Å
Rotten Tomatoes:   The Temptress was Greta Garbo's second American film, and while it may strike modern viewers as excessively melodramatic, Garbo is always worth watching. The star plays Elena, the wife of Monsieur Canterac (Lionel Barrymore) -- and the mistress of rich Parisian banker Monsieur Fontenoy (Marc MacDermott). When the banker's Argentine friend Robledo (Antonio Moreno), a dynamic young engineer, pays a visit to Paris, the fickle Elena immediately falls in love with him. Upon learning that Fontenoy has lost his fortune, Elena dumps him and returns to her husband, whereupon the banker kills himself. Evidently not content with ruining one life, Elena heads to Argentina and goes to work on Robledo, leading to a bloody whip duel between Robledo and his rival Manos Duros (Roy D'Arcy). Inevitably, Elena drives Robledo to perdition and indirectly causes the destruction of the magnificent dam upon which he has worked all his life. Banished from Argentina, she returns to Paris, where she spends the rest of her days as a seedy streetwalker. At least, that was the ending of the European version of The Temptress. The American version incredibly ends happily, five years after the above-described events, as Robledo and the reformed Elena triumphantly supervise the opening of his now-repaired dam! Initially, the film's director was Garbo's mentor-lover, the brilliant Mauritz Stiller, but he was replaced halfway through by the competent but uninspired Fred Niblo -- and the finished picture shows this division of interests all too clearly.
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68% (1)  The Bohemian Girl  71 min,  APPROVED,  [Comedy, Musical]  [James W. Horne, Charley Rogers, Hal Roach]  [14 Feb 1936]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 68%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Antonio Moreno, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, Thelma Todd
Writer:  Michael William Balfe (opera)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  A band of Gypsies are camped outside the walls of Count Arnheim's palace. Oliver's wife kidnaps the Count's daughter Arline, then leaves the child and runs off with her lover, Devilshoof. Not knowing her true identity, Oliver, with the help of "Uncle" Stanley, raises the girl as his own. Years later, Arline, still unaware of her noble birth, is caught trespassing on the Count's grounds and is thrown into the dungeon. Meanwhile, Stanley and Oliver pass the time playing "fingers" and bumblingly ply their trade picking pockets. Finally, just when Oliver needs his help to rescue Arline, Stanley gets drunk while siphoning wine into bottles.
Rotten Tomatoes:   This charming operetta is about a gypsy caravan that adopts an orphan.
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64% (1)  Madame Pompadour  70 min,  [Drama]  [Herbert Wilcox]  [01 Jul 1927]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 64%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Antonio Moreno, Dorothy Gish, Henri Bosc, Nelson Keys
Writer:  Ewald André Dupont, Frances Marion, Rudolph Schanzer (play), Ernst Welisch (play)
External Links:  Wikipedia  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  UK
Plot:  The French king's mistress frees her jailed lover and makes him her bodyguard.
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53% (1)  The Midnight Taxi  64 min,  [N/A]  [John G. Adolfi]  [09 Aug 1929]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 53%,   External Reviews
Actors:  Antonio Moreno, Helene Costello, Myrna Loy, William Russell
Writer:  Freddie Foy, Harvey Gates (adaptation), Harvey Gates (screenplay), Joseph Jackson (titles), Darryl F. Zanuck (story)
External Links:  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  N/A
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