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Veteran William Wellman directed this pre-Code thriller that puts an average New York family at odds with a pack of ruthless gangsters. It’s a 1931 tale of drive-by shootings, witness intimidation and child kidnapping — just one year later, movies about child kidnappings were banned, after the tragedy of the Lindbergh baby. Walter Huston is the rather ruthless District Attorney, and the ex-vaudeville funny man Chic Sale plays an old codger that shows his family what Good Americanism really means — the show could serve as a surly critique of what passes for law and order and good citizenship now.

The Star Witness

DVD

The Warner Archive Collection

1931 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 68 min. / Street Date March 12, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 19.99

Starring: Walter Huston, Charles ‘Chic’ Sale, Frances Starr, Grant Mitchell, Sally Blane, Edward J. Nugent, Dickie Moore, Nat Pendleton, George Ernest, Russell Hopton, Allan Lane.

Cinematography: James Van Trees

Film Editor:...

Virginia Bruce: MGM actress ca. 1935. Virginia Bruce movies on TCM: Actress was the cherry on 'The Great Ziegfeld' wedding cake Unfortunately, Turner Classic Movies has chosen not to feature any non-Hollywood stars – or any out-and-out silent film stars – in its 2015 “Summer Under the Stars” series.* On the other hand, TCM has come up with several unusual inclusions, e.g., Lee J. Cobb, Warren Oates, Mae Clarke, and today, Aug. 25, Virginia Bruce. A second-rank MGM leading lady in the 1930s, the Minneapolis-born Virginia Bruce is little remembered today despite her more than 70 feature films in a career that spanned two decades, from the dawn of the talkie era to the dawn of the TV era, in addition to a handful of comebacks going all the way to 1981 – the dawn of the personal computer era. Career highlights were few and not all that bright. Examples range from playing the...

Loretta Young films as TCM celebrates her 102nd birthday (photo: Loretta Young ca. 1935) Loretta Young would have turned 102 years old today. Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the birthday of the Salt Lake City-born, Academy Award-winning actress today, January 6, 2015, with no less than ten Loretta Young films, most of them released by Warner Bros. in the early '30s. Young, who began her film career in a bit part in the 1927 Colleen Moore star vehicle Her Wild Oat, remained a Warners contract player from the late '20s up until 1933. (See also: "Loretta Young Movies.") Now, ten Loretta Young films on one day may sound like a lot, but one should remember that most Warner Bros. -- in fact, most Hollywood -- releases of the late '20s and early '30s were either B Movies or programmers. The latter were relatively short (usually 60 to 75 minutes) feature films starring A (or B+) performers,...

Bette Davis movies: TCM schedule on August 14 (photo: Bette Davis in ‘Dangerous,’ with Franchot Tone) See previous post: “Bette Davis Eyes: They’re Watching You Tonight.” 3:00 Am Parachute Jumper (1933). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd, Harold Huber, Leo Carrillo, Thomas E. Jackson, Lyle Talbot, Leon Ames, Stanley Blystone, Reginald Barlow, George Chandler, Walter Brennan, Pat O’Malley, Paul Panzer, Nat Pendleton, Dewey Robinson, Tom Wilson, Sheila Terry. Bw-72 mins. 4:30 Am The Girl From 10th Avenue (1935). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Bette Davis, Ian Hunter, Colin Clive, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge, Phillip Reed, Katharine Alexander, Helen Jerome Eddy, Bill Elliott, Edward McWade, André Cheron, Wedgwood Nowell, John Quillan, Mary Treen. Bw-69 mins. 6:00 Am Dangerous (1935). Director: Alfred E. Green. Cast: Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge, Dick Foran, Walter Walker, Richard Carle, George Irving, Pierre Watkin, Douglas Wood,...

Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...

One of the joys of William Wellman's pre-Code output, and one of the pleasure of the pre-Code era per se, is how apparent flaws sometimes just add flavor. The filmmakers of that era were mostly not aiming for perfection anyway, but concentrated on grinding 'em out like sausages, trying to preserve a decent overall quality, injecting some special spicy tang of their own devising whenever possible, but moving onto the next one as soon as they could.

The Star Witness (1931) is bizarre, exciting, funny/unfunny, brutal, and generally off-kilter in a way that makes for engaging viewing. If its qualities were transposed to a modern studio picture, we might find it in some way "unsatisfying," but it can certainly hold up its end of a double bill, as it is doing on Saturday, Feb 25 at the Wellman retrospective at New York's Film Forum.

The movie's worst move, really, is...

Universal will mark its 100th anniversary in 2012, and will commemorate its centennial with a yearlong celebration honoring the studio's rich film history and cultural legacy. The campaign draws its inspiration from Universal's extraordinary and diverse library of films, many of which will be highlighted throughout the year, and is designed to engage fans of all ages in the art of moviemaking.

A significant element of the centennial includes the extensive restoration of 13 of the studio's most beloved titles such as To Kill a Mockingbird, All Quiet on the Western Front, Jaws, The Sting, Out of Africa, Frankenstein and Schindler's List.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment will kick off the celebration in January with a special 50th anniversary release of To Kill a Mockingbird, debuting on Blu-ray for the first time ever. Throughout the year, Universal will pay tribute to other influential films in the Universal library with special events and Blu-ray...

Part of a series by David Cairns on forgotten pre-Code films.

"Crime must not pay" is one of the most debilitating rules the Hays Code imposed on Hollywood. It's relatively easy for a filmmaker to work around crazy bans on words ("pregnant"), body parts (gone, all those extreme-longshot buttocks) or gestures (Frank McHugh raises a finger in Parachute Jumper), but when a philosophical ideal is given the weight of narrative law, cinema is forced back into the nursery. The filmmakers operating under this draconian blue pencil developed devious skills to bypass rulings and imply rather than say the unsayable, and it arguably helped their craft, but at the same time, certain kinds of stories just become impossible to tell honestly.

And certain kinds of fun were ruled out too, like much of what happens in Sing and Like It, directed by the lightly likable William A. Seiter, who clocked up well over a hundred films,...

The Thin Man will be helmed by Rob Marshall, starring Johnny Depp in the remake. Marshall just worked with Depp on the eagerly anticipated upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and will produce alongside John DeLuca via their Lucamar company. The 1934 film was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starred William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton and Minna Gombell. Pic was based on the 1933 mystery novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is set in Prohibition-era New York City where the main characters consist of Nick Charles, a private detective, and his wife Nora. Since giving up his career after marrying Nora who is a wealthy socialite, Nick, spends most of his time getting wasted in hotel rooms and speakeasies. They have no kids, but own a schnauzer called Asta.

The Thin Man will be helmed by Rob Marshall, starring Johnny Depp in the remake. Marshall just worked with Depp on the eagerly anticipated upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and will produce alongside John DeLuca via their Lucamar company. The 1934 film was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starred William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton and Minna Gombell. Pic was based on the 1933 mystery novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is set in Prohibition-era New York City where the main characters consist of Nick Charles, a private detective, and his wife Nora. Since giving up his career after marrying Nora who is a wealthy socialite, Nick, spends most of his time getting wasted in hotel rooms and speakeasies. They have no kids, but own a schnauzer called Asta.

The Thin Man will be helmed by Rob Marshall, starring Johnny Depp in the remake. Marshall just worked with Depp on the eagerly anticipated upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and will produce alongside John DeLuca via their Lucamar company. The 1934 film was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starred William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton and Minna Gombell. Pic was based on the 1933 mystery novel by Dashiell Hammett. The story is set in Prohibition-era New York City where the main characters consist of Nick Charles, a private detective, and his wife Nora. Since giving up his career after marrying Nora who is a wealthy socialite, Nick, spends most of his time getting wasted in hotel rooms and speakeasies. They have no kids, but own a schnauzer called Asta.