77% (1) Block-Heads 57 min, Approved, [Comedy, War] [John G. Blystone] [19 Aug 1938]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, External Reviews
Actors: Minna Gombell, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis, Stan Laurel
Writer: Charley Rogers (original story and screen play), Felix Adler (original story and screen play), James Parrott (original story and screen play), Harry Langdon (original story and screen play), Arnold Belgard (original story and screen play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: It's 1938, but Stan doesn't know the war is over; he's still patrolling the trenches in France, and shoots down a French aviator. Oliver sees his old chum's picture in the paper and goes to visit Stan at the Soldier's Home. Thinking Stan is disabled (it's just that he's sitting on his leg), Oliver takes pity on him and takes him home for a nice home-cooked meal. But Oliver's wife has other ideas and leaves him to fend for himself. After blowing up the kitchen, Oliver is helped by his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Gilbert... until the big-game hunting Mr. Gilbert comes home unexpectedly, carrying a shotgun.
Rotten Tomatoes: After spending 20 years in the trenches (because nobody told him World War I was over), Laurel is reunited with his old friend.
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71% (1) Picture Snatcher 77 min, [Drama, Crime] [Lloyd Bacon] [06 May 1933]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 71%, External Reviews
Actors: Alice White, James Cagney, Patricia Ellis, Ralph Bellamy
Writer: Daniel Ahern (based on a story by), Allen Rivkin (adaptation), P.J. Wolfson (adaptation), Ben Markson (dialogue)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Ex-convict Danny Kean decides to become honest as a photographer for a paper. He falls in love with Patricia, the daughter of the policeman who arrested him. Mr Nolan, her father, doesn't like that relation at first, but McLean, Kean's boss, convinces him of Kean's good nature. But Kean uses his relation to Patricia to make a photo of an execution. Due to this, Nolan loses his stripes and Kean isn't allowed to see Patricia any longer. But when one of his former friends kills two policemen, Kean sees his chance....
Rotten Tomatoes: An admirably tough B-picture enlivened by an energetic James Cagney performance, Picture Snatcher stars Cagney as Danny Kean, a former gangster who has decided to go straight after a stretch in the big house. Danny has fallen for Patricia (Patricia Ellis), the daughter of the cop who put him away (Robert Emmett O'Connor). Dad isn't convinced that Danny has left his life of crime behind him, and he isn't too impressed with his new career taking pictures for a sleazy tabloid newspaper. Between getting a lurid photo of a fireman in front of a burning building (where his wife and her lover met their fate) and a daring shot of a woman being executed (based an actual incident when a New York Daily News photographer got a photo of Ruth Snyder in the electric chair), Danny's work is selling papers but hardly making Officer O'Connor think his daughter is in good hands (especially since he was in charge of press security for the execution). Short, sweet and sassy, Picture Snatcher is the sort of gutsy fare Warner Bros. did best in the 1930's; Ralph Bellamy turns in a great supporting performance as Danny's boozy editor.
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67% (1) The St. Louis Kid 67 min, APPROVED, [Drama, Romance] [Ray Enright] [10 Nov 1934]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 67%, External Reviews
Actors: Allen Jenkins, James Cagney, Patricia Ellis, Robert Barrat
Writer: Warren Duff (screen play), Seton I. Miller (screen play), Frederick Hazlitt Brennan (story "A Perfect Week-End")
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Trucker Eddie Kennedy gets involved with the law when he has an car accident with Ann Reid and knocks the owner of a dairy out. He evades a penalty when he claims, that he had done it as an act of solidarism with the farmers. The farmers start an boycott action against this dairy, so the owner has to bring milk from elsewhere to his dairy, but the farmers closed the road, and Kennedy is arrested once more. He leaves jail at night to meet Ann, but meanwhile the owner has asked some mobsters to deliver the milk. One of the farmers is murdered, Ann Reid is missing and Eddie Kennedy is accused of murder.
Rotten Tomatoes: James Cagney manages to retain his pre-Code cockiness within post-Code limitations in the likeable St. Louis Kid. Cagney and Allen Jenkins, Eddie Kennedy, and Buck Willetts play long-distance truck drivers who get entangled in a battle between a crooked trucking firm and striking milk farmers (a plot thread based on actual events). When one of the dairymen is killed by a hired goon, Eddie is accused of the crime. He breaks out of jail to track down the real killer then has to rescue his girlfriend Ann (Patricia Ellis), who's been kidnapped by henchmen of the truck company. It takes a bit of clever brainwork between Eddie and Buck, but our hero manages to flummox the bad guys and rescue the girl. James Cagney's sheer star power is such that the audience is willing to forgive the fact that, in the early passages of the film, his character is nothing more or less than a "scab." St. Louis Kid is the picture in which Cagney, tired of playing characters who settle differences with their fists, hit upon the novel idea of incapacitating his screen rivals by butting his forehead against theirs, knocking them cold without laying a hand on them!
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62% (1) The Circus Clown 64 min, PASSED, [Comedy] [Ray Enright] [30 Jun 1934]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 62%, External Reviews
Actors: Don Dillaway, Dorothy Burgess, Joe E. Brown, Patricia Ellis
Writer: Bert Kalmar (story), Harry Ruby (story), Bert Kalmar (screenplay), Harry Ruby (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Trying to follow in his father's footsteps, the son of an ex-acrobat runs off and joins a circus, getting a job cleaning up after the animals.
Rotten Tomatoes: Joe E. Brown plays a dual role in Circus Clown, as would-be circus entertainer Happy Howard and his rustic old father. When dad, a former circus man himself, disapproves of Happy hitting the sawdust trail, the boy does so anyway, smitten by a beautiful female bareback rider. So naïve is our hero that he doesn't realize that the "girl" is actually female impersonator Jack (Don Dillaway), who strings Happy along just for laughs. Once this plotline is straightened out, Happy becomes the hero of the day by substituting for a drunken aerialist -- and there is no more proud or enthusiast spectator than Happy's happy dad. If Joe E. Brown looks genuinely frightened in his scene in the lion's cage, he should; the lion affectionately pawed Brown during one take, resulting in six stitches in the comedian's arm. More serious than most Brown vehicles, Circus Clown is distinguished by the star's spectacular acrobatics (the real thing -- no doubles), and by some excellent split-screen work during the "father/son" scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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56% (1) Rhythm in the Clouds 62 min, APPROVED, [Comedy, Music] [John H. Auer] [21 Jun 1937]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 56%, External Reviews
Actors: Patricia Ellis, Richard Carle, Warren Hull, William Newell
Writer: Olive Cooper (screenplay), Nathanael West (screenplay), George Mence (story), Ray Bond (story)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Struggling songwriter Judy Walker talks her way into the apartment of a famous composer, and finds that he's on vacation. Homeless and without any money, she decides to stay at his place ...
Rotten Tomatoes: In this musical comedy, a struggling songwriter fakes a letter of admittance into the apartment of a rich composer. It is most convenient as the successful fellow is out of town. The girl is hungry and unable to pay her own rent, so she takes full advantage until he returns and finds his well-ordered life in shambles.
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