90% (2) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 129 min, PG, [Drama, Romance] [Elia Kazan] [01 Mar 1945]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 81%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Dorothy McGuire, James Dunn, Joan Blondell, Lloyd Nolan
Writer: Tess Slesinger (screen play), Frank Davis (screen play), Betty Smith (adapted from the novel by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.
Rotten Tomatoes: Based on the novel by Betty Smith, this film relates the trials and tribulations of a turn-of-the-century Brooklyn tenement family. The story is told from the point of view of daughter Peggy Ann Garner, a clear-eyed realist who nonetheless would like to believe in her pie-in-the-sky father, whom she loves,
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76% (2) Bright Eyes 85 min, Approved, [Comedy, Drama, Family, Musical] [David Butler] [28 Dec 1934]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 73%, Rotten Tomatoes: 80%, External Reviews
Actors: James Dunn, Jane Darwell, Judith Allen, Shirley Temple
Writer: William M. Conselman (screen play), David Butler (story), Edwin J. Burke (story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: When a maid is accidentally hit by a car and killed, her young orphaned daughter is forced to live with the snooty couple she used to work for. A custody battle soon ensues between an aviator who adores the little girl and the couple's crotchety Uncle Ned.
Rotten Tomatoes: Despite stiff competition like Poor Little Rich Girl and Heidi, Bright Eyes is arguably the best of Shirley Temple's 1930s vehicles. The little curly-top is cast as Shirley Blake, daughter of Mary Blake (Lois Wilson), the widowed housemaid of snooty J. Wellington and Anita Smythe (Theodore Von Eltz and Dorothy Christy). Though continually terrorized by the Smythe's obnoxious, doll-destroying daughter Joy (Jane Withers), Shirley finds comfort in the fact that she is the darling of the airplane-pilot buddies of her late father. Especially fond of our heroine is flyboy Loop Merritt, who arranges a birthday party for the girl. Alas, even as Shirley sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop" to a gathering of beaming airmen, her mother Mary is run over by a car while shopping for her daughter's birthday cake. It thus becomes Loop's painful duty to tell Shirley that her mother "cracked up," just like her father did (if this scene doesn't move the viewer to tears, the viewer is made of granite). Fortunately, the Smythe's irascible Uncle Ned takes a liking to Shirley, securing her financial future at the expense of his repulsive relatives. But before this happy ending can come about, Shirley must be rescued from an imperiled passenger plane by the resourceful Loop. Though Shirley Temple is inarguably the main drawing card in Bright Eyes, 9-year-old Jane Withers is equally terrific as the pint-sized "villainess"; indeed, some critics felt that Withers stole the show, and it was this as much as anything else that earned Withers her own starring series at 20th Century-Fox.
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66% (1) Bad Girl 90 min, [Drama, Romance] [Frank Borzage] [13 Sep 1931]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 66%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 2 Oscars. Another 1 nomination.
Actors: James Dunn, Minna Gombell, Sally Eilers
Writer: Viña Delmar (novel), Brian Marlow (play), Edwin J. Burke (continuity & dialogue)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A mug and a jane: Dorothy knows that every guy is going to make a pass at her; Eddie knows that every gal wastes her money on good times. He's saving to open a repair shop. When the two of them meet, they can't believe they get along. One evening he leaves her waiting in the rain; she finds his apartment and reads him the riot act. They end up spooning and napping until 4 AM. She's afraid of her brother, who's her guardian, so Eddie figures she should tell her brother that she's getting married the next morning. Dorothy tries out the story but knows Eddie won't show up. It's the first of a series of promises, fears, miscalculations, and hard knocks. Where will they end up?
Rotten Tomatoes: Based on a novel by Vina Delmar, Bad Girl stars Sally Eilers as heroine Dot Haley. The title notwithstanding, Dot isn't bad at all. She enters into a decent marriage with a decent guy, radio store clerk Eddie (James Dunn), and sticks with her man through thick and thin (mostly thin). But Eddie misunderstands Dot's seeming indifference to the new apartment which he has rented and furnished as a first-anniversary surprise. Eddie doesn't know what Dot and the audience do: there's a baby on the way, and that's all that Dot can think about. Once this misunderstanding is cleared up, Eddie takes on all sorts of extra jobs to pay for a pricey obstetrician, even moonlighting as a prizefighter. So impressed is the baby doctor by Eddie's devotion that he refuses to charge a cent when delivering Dot's baby (the bill, by the way, is a daunting $40). Curiously, some synopses of Bad Girl suggest that the hero and heroine never get married, which is hardly the case.
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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.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]
57% (1) Stand Up and Cheer! 68 min, PASSED, [Comedy, Musical] [Hamilton MacFadden] [04 May 1934]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 57%, External Reviews
Actors: James Dunn, Madge Evans, Sylvia Froos, Warner Baxter
Writer: Lew Brown (story and dialogue: collaborator), Will Rogers (story idea suggested), Philip Klein (story idea suggested), Ralph Spence (dialogue)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: President Franklin Roosevelt appoints a theatrical producer as the new Secretary of Amusement in order to cheer up an American public still suffering through the Depression. The new secretary soon runs afoul of political lobbyists out to destroy his department.
Rotten Tomatoes: This lively musical is set during the Depression and centers on the government's attempts to boost the nation's flagging spirits by appointing a Secretary of Entertainment to produce an enormous happiness-inspiring show.
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57% (1) Hearts in Bondage 72 min, APPROVED, [Drama, History, War] [Lew Ayres] [26 May 1936]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 57%, External Reviews
Actors: Charlotte Henry, David Manners, James Dunn, Mae Clarke
Writer: Bernard Schubert (screen play), Olive Cooper (screen play), Karl Brown (adaptation), Wallace MacDonald (original story)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Best friends Kenneth Reynolds and Raymond Jordan are U.S. Navy officers, and Kenneth is engaged to Raymond's sister. But the eruption of the Civil War divides them, as Raymond stands by his native Virginia while Kenneth remains on duty as a Northern officer. Kenneth's uncle, John Ericsson, designs a new kind of ship, an ironclad he calls the Monitor. Eventually the war pits Kenneth, on board the Monitor, against his friend Raymond, serving aboard the South's own ironclad, the Merrimac (as it is called here). A naval battle ensues, one that will go down in history.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this Civil War drama, the epic battles between the iron ships the Monitor and Merimac are chronicled. Much of the story centers upon the romance between a navy hero and a pretty woman.
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53% (1) The Living Ghost 61 min, PASSED, [Horror, Mystery, Thriller] [William Beaudine] [27 Nov 1942]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 53%, External Reviews
Actors: James Dunn, Joan Woodbury, Paul McVey, Vera Gordon
Writer: Howard Dimsdale (original story), Joseph Hoffman (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Website Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Wise-cracking ex-detective Nick Trayne is called in to try to find the whereabouts of wealthy kidnap victim Walter Craig. Craig unexpectedly turns up alive but with apparent brain damage, leaving him in a zombified state. Trayne and his perky assistant Billie Hilton have their work cut out for them as they must sift through a houseload of possible suspects to get at the culprit.
Rotten Tomatoes: Wise-cracking ex-detective Nick Trayne is called in to try to find the whereabouts of wealthy kidnap victim Walter Craig. Craig unexpectedly turns up alive but with apparent brain damage, leaving him in a zombified state. Trayne and his perky assistant Billie Hilton have their work cut out for them as they must sift through a houseload of possible suspects to get at the culprit.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 7]