The Easiest Way(1931).

The Easiest Way(1931). Drama film directed by Jack Conway. Adapted from the 1909 play of the same name written by Eugene Walter and directed by David Belasco. Cast: Constance Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable and Anita Page.



Laura Murdock and her family live in poverty, because their unemployed father Ben, would rather have his children support him. Her parents want Peg to mary Nick, because he can support her, but.. Laura wants to marry for love.

One day, while working at a department store, Laura is approached by a man, who offers her a modelling job at his agency. Laura accepts the offer and befriends Elfie, another model, who tells her what is really expected of her.

Soon after, Laura is called in to meet Willard Brockton, the head of the agency, who, convinces her to join him for a drive in the park. Laura quickly becomes a successful model. Her mother refuses to see her because she is living with Brockton in his luxury apartment.

When Laura visits her sister Peg, who is now married to Nick and has started a family. Hardworking Nick, thinking she is a bad influence on his wife, asks her to leave.

While vacationing with Brockton in Colorado, Laura meets newspaper reporter Jack Madison and they fall in love. When Jack takes a overseas assignment, Laura, promises to leave Brockton and wait for him to return. Feeling used Brockton, asks her to return all of his gifts and then sticks Laura with the room bill. Destitute, Laura takes a job at Macy's department store and asks Elfie to loan her some money...  Elfie angry, refuses and slams out the door in a huff.

Later, Ben visits Laura telling her that her mother is gravely ill, but still does not want to see her. After her mother's death, Laura calls Brockton for help.. he takes her back on the condition that she break it off with Jack. Soon after, Jack returns from South America looking for Laura. Brockton eavesdrops on the telephone conversation and threatens to tell Jack about their relationship.

Elfie drops in on Laura, asking to borrow money, Laura gives her a piece of jewelry. Elfie then advises Laura to marry Jack and leave Brockton, before she finds herself working in speakeasy picking up men. Laura's plans to elope with Jack ends when Brockton returns home and sees her packed bags and informs Jack about their relationship. Heartbroken, Jack leaves and Laura goes to Peg's on Christmas Eve. Laura stands in the street and watches her family enjoying the holiday... Will she come up with the courage to join them?

It is fin watching Robert Montgomery, in one of his early roles. Clark Gable plays a small role(no mustache), as Bennett's working class brother-in-law. Constance Bennett and Marjorie Rambeau, are both worth watching.

Marjorie Rambeau (July 15, 1889 – July 6, 1970), when her parents separated, she and her mother moved to Nome, Alaska where young Marjorie dressed as a boy, sang and played the banjo in saloons and music halls. Her mother insisted she dress as a boy to keep way the attention from the drunken men.

She made her Broadway debut on March 10, 1913 in a tryout of Willard Mack's play, Kick In.












In 1921, Dorothy Parker memorialized her in verse:

If all the tears you shed so lavishly
Were gathered, as they left each brimming eye.
And were collected in a crystal sea,
The envious ocean would curl up and dry
So awful in its mightiness, that lake,
So fathomless, that clear and salty deep.
For, oh, it seems your gentle heart must break,
To see you weep.

Her silent films with the Mutual company include: Mary Moreland and The Greater Woman (1917).

By the time talkies came along she was in her early forties and she began to take on character roles in films: Min and Bill, The Secret Six, Laughing Sinners, Grand Canary, Joe Palooka, and Primrose Path, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1940, Rambeau had the title role in Tugboat Annie Sails Again as well as second billing under Wallace Beery, in 20 Mule Team.

Other films include: Tobacco Road, A Man Called Peter and Broadway.

In 1953, she was again nominated for an Oscar, for Torch Song.

In 1957, she appeared in a supporting role in, Man of a Thousand Faces about the life of Lon Chaney, although she never worked with the real Chaney in silent films.

According to author and New York Mirror theatre critic Bernard Sobel the Reuben sandwich was invented for Marjorie Rambeau upon a visit to Reuben's Restaurant and Delicatessen in New York City.

Rambeau was married three times with no children: The first was in 1913 to Canadian writer, actor, and director Willard Mack. They divorced in 1917. She then married another actor, Hugh Dillman McGaughey, in 1919. They divorced in 1923. Dillman later married Anna Thompson Dodge, widow of automobile magnate Horace Elgin Dodge, Sr. Rambeau's last marriage was to Francis Asbury Gudger in 1931, with whom she remained until his death in 1967.

She died at her home in Palm Springs, California .

After Tonight (1933).

After Tonight (1933). World War I spy film directed by George Archainbaud. The studio considered firing Bennett after the film lost $100,000 at the box office. Cast:  Constance Bennett, Gilbert Roland , Edward Ellis, Sam Godfrey, Lucien Prival, Mischa Auer. Bennett sings and does a fan dance! She and Roland later married in real life.

The start of World War I, Carla is befriended by German officer Rudolph Ritter, who seems smitten with her, at the train station while buying a ticket to Vienna.

After the over crowed train drops them at the Austrian border and while her new friend is looking for a car, Carla, kisses him good by and leaves without explanation.

In Vienna, Rudolph's job is to break into a Russian spy ring, unaware that Carla, who is actually Russian, is passing and receiving messages in fake coins under the code name K-14 while posing as a cabaret singer dressed in feathers.

After Carla is searched and almost caught with a message during a performance, she is reassigned to a seamstress' shop. When her fellow spy is shot and killed and her cover is exposed, she flees Vienna one step ahead of Rudolph and becomes a nurse at a German military hospital under new orders. She holds up well while the war is going on right outside the hospitals doors.

Later, one of Carla's messages, which she has written in invisible ink in a book, is intercepted by Rudolph as it is being passed from one agent to another.

Rudolph, travels to a German post and makes a promise that he will catch what is claimed to be the most intelligent spy so far.

They meet again and against her better judgment, they dine and dance and under the moonlight, Carla falls in love with her enemy. He finds evidence implicating her as the spy, after she is arrested while having her hair washed. Rudolph, is reluctant to admit that she is K-14. Forced by his sense of duty, Rudolph traps Carla by passing her a phony order, in the ear of a patient sent to the hospital, to meet a contact in a deserted cottage.

Finally caught by Rudolph, who was hoping something to happen to him to protect Carla, so he would not have to arrest her. As they are leaving, she is rescued by another spy dressed as a gypsy, who shoots and wounds Rudolph during the escape.

After the war is over, Rudolph and Carla meet again at a crowded Swiss train station after two years and are happy to find each other still alive.. they fall into each other's arms.

The film is very well made and the films fast pace, will hold your interest until the very end. The theme song of the film, which Bennett sings, is very sweet. This film may remind you of another spy film, Garbo's MATA HARI.

Virginia Weidler (March 21, 1927 – July 1, 1968) was a child actress, popular in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s. Virginia Weidler made her first film appearance in 1933. Over the next few years, she was cast in minor roles for RKO and Paramount Pictures.

Neither studio made more extensive use of her and when Paramount did not extend her contract, she was signed by MGM in 1938. Her first film for MGM was with their leading male star Mickey Rooney in Love Is a Headache (1938). The film was a success and Weidler was now cast in larger roles, most often as precocious tom-boys.

She was one of the all-female cast of the 1939 film The Women, as Norma Shearer's daughter.

Her next major success was The Philadelphia Story (1940) in which she played Dinah Lord, the witty younger sister of Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn).

As a teenager she was less popular with audiences. After a string of box-office disappointments, her film career ended with the 1943 film Best Foot Forward.

At her retirement by age 17, she had appeared in more than forty films, and had acted with some of the biggest stars day: Clark Gable and Myrna Loy in Too Hot to Handle, Bette Davis in All This and Heaven Too and Judy Garland in Babes on Broadway.

 On March 27, 1947, Weidler married Lionel Krisel. They had two sons, Ronnie and Gary. Her older brother, saxophonist George Weidler (01/11/1926 – 12/27/1989) was married to Doris Day from March 1946 to May 1949.

Weidler refused to be interviewed for the remainder of her life, living in private. She remained married to Krisel until her death on July 1, 1968 when she suffered a heart attack in Los Angeles at age 41.

Love Hollywood Style: Constance Bennett.

Constance Bennett was married five times and it all began with her first marriage in 1921, when she eloped with Chester Hirst Moorehead of Chicago, the son of a surgeon. The marriage was annulled in 1923.

After which Bennett, eloped with millionaire Philip Morgan Plant in 1925. They divorced in 1929. In 1932, Bennett brought back from Europe a three-year-old child, whom she claimed to have adopted and named Peter Bennett Plant.

In 1942, during a battle over a large trust fund established to benefit any descendants of her former husband, Bennett announced that her adopted son actually was her natural child by Plant, born after the divorce and kept hidden from the child's biological father, so he would not get custody of his son..

In 1931, she married one of Gloria Swanson's former husbands, Henri le Bailly, the Marquis de La Coudraye de La Falaise (1898–1972), a French nobleman and film director.

Bennett and de la Falaise founded Bennett Pictures Corp. and co-produced two films:  Legong: Dance of the Virgins (1935) and Kilou the Killer Tiger (1936). They were divorced in 1940.

In 1941, Bennett married the actor Gilbert Roland, by whom she had two daughters, Lorinda and Christina. They were divorced in 1946.

In June 1946, Bennett married US Air Force Colonel (later Brigadier General) John Theron Coulter (1912–1995).

After her marriage, she entertained the US troops stationed in Europe, winning military honors for her services.

She was the aunt of Morton Downey Jr.

Constance Bennett and Gilbert Roland

In the last couple of pictures posted, I do not know which husband is which.. Maybe, someone who knows can help identify them in the comments, thanks..

Constance Bennett.

Tail Spin (1939). Is a  aviation film starring Alice Faye, Constance Bennett, Nancy Kelly, Joan Davis, Charles Farrell, and Jane Wyman. The movie was written by Frank Wead and directed by Roy Del Ruth.

Wild Bill Hickok Rides (1942). Belle Andrews' gambling hall burns down and now homeless, she accepts Jim Farrel's, invitation to travel with him to Powder River, Montana, to open a gambling casino together. On the stagecoach to Powder River, they meet Wild Bill Hickok .

Farrel, has plans to get control of all the land in Powder River by hiring henchmen to file claims on the land he wants. Farrel, even  has Ned Nolan, convicted of a framed-up murder charge. Hickok, then organizes the settlers to fight back against Farrel.

Two-Faced Woman (1941). Is a romantic comedy with Greta Garbo, in her final film role, and Melvyn Douglas, with Constance Bennett, Roland Young and Ruth Gordon.

The movie is about a fashion magazine editor who marries a ski instructor and the adventures of the couple when they move to, New York City.

 Directed by George Cukor and produced by Gottfried Reinhardt from a screenplay by S. N. Behrman, Salka Viertel and George Oppenheimer, based on a play by Ludwig Fulda. The music score was by Bronislau Kaper, the cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg, the art direction by Cedric Gibbons and the costume design by Adrian.

Smart Woman (1948). This one is a gender-clasher with district attorney, Robert Larrimore, butting heads in court with defense attorney Paula Rogers. They fall in love. But there is a small problem.. Paula realizes that she must reveal that her on-trial client, Frank McCoy, is also her former husband...and she fears this may damage their relationship.

The Unsuspected(1947) . A film noir directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the novel written by Charlotte Armstrong. The story is about a woman who is found dead hanging from a chandelier in a mansion occupied by Victor Grandison.

Grandison, a popular "true crime" radio story host, has arranged for the murder and set it up to look like suicide. The police have no reason to doubt it, but a mysterious man arrives claiming to be Grandison's niece's husband and immediately begins to investigate the killing. Critics, compare this film to the classic film, Laura.

 

Constance Bennett.

After Office Hours (1935). Is a film starring Clark Gable and Constance Bennett and directed by Robert Z. Leonard. The story is about Jim Branch, a news editor, who falls for Sharon Norwood, while trying to solve a murder.

 

Merrily We Live (1938). A comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod. Cast: Constance Bennett, Brian Aherne, Ann Dvorak, Bonita Granville, Billie Burke, Tom Brown, Alan Mowbray, Clarence Kolb and Patsy Kelly.

The film is thought to have set the standard for later family comedy films and TV sitcoms. Many critics believe that the film is based on the film, My Man Godfrey(1936), when it is really the re-make of the movie, What A Man(1930), based on the 1924 novel, The Dark Chapter. Merrily We Live, earned five Academy Award nominations.

The story begins when Butler Grosvenor, discovers at breakfast that the family silver has been stolen by Ambrose, who Emily Kilbourne has hired as chauffeur, off the street.

Emily, swears off taking in any more tramps. Until, a new tramp Wade Rawlins, comes into their life and is immediately taken in by Emily. All attempts to convince Emily to get rid of him are ignored.

The tramp, Rawlins, becomes the new chauffeur is set up in the servant's quarters. He is overheard talking to himself by the butler, who now thinks that he is crazy. Jerry and Marion, see that the tramp cleans up well and now looks like a gentleman.

Their father, Henry Kilbourne, tells Emily to get rid of the tramp by the next day.

Later that evening, the arrogant boyfriend makes a move on Jerry, who has misplaced her keys, and by the end of the evening of flirting back and forth, Jerry falls in love with Wade. To complicate matters Marion, has also developed a crush on Wade. The next day, Emily Kilbourne, despite her orders to get rid of Wade, trains him to be a footman at the important dinner party that evening for Senator Harlan.

That evening, the new chauffeur and now footman is accidentally invited to the important dinner party for Senator Harlan, who takes quite a liking to him, as does his daughter, Minerva.

The next morning, the family finds Wade sleeping in the guest room. It is impossible to throw him out, after they find out that he is now a confidante of Senator Harlan and that his daughter, has also fallen in love with him. Jerry, becomes very jealous, as she watches Minerva flirting with Wade later that morning.

After getting into an heated argument while making fudge with Jerry, Wade takes the rest of the day off to take care of some business. He has a strange encounter at the general store, where the assistant George, thinks he is a ghost.

Wade, still not home from town, by the time everyone has gone to bed, much to Jerry's disappointment after waiting up for him to apologize.

The next morning at breakfast, the newspaper reports his death in a car crash, much to the shock and heartbreak of the family. Eventually, Wade reappears, very much alive, to Jerry's relief.

Topper (1937). Is a comedy film which tells the story of a stuffy, stuck-in-his-ways man who is haunted by the ghosts of a fun-loving married couple. The film was adapted by Eric Hatch, Jack Jevne and Eddie Moran from the novel by Thorne Smith.

The film was directed by Norman Z. McLeod, produced by Hal Roach.The film stars Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, and Billie Burke.

Topper was a huge hit with film audiences in the summer of 1937 and Cary Grant had a percentage deal on the film. He made quite a bit of money on the successful film. Topper was followed by the sequels Topper Takes a Trip (1938)and Topper Returns (1941).

There was a television series, which premiered in 1953 and ran for two seasons, starring Leo G. Carroll, Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys.

In 1973, a television pilot for a proposed new series Topper Returns (1973)was produced, starring Roddy McDowall, Stefanie Powers and John Fink.

A TV movie remake, Topper (1979) was also produced starring Kate Jackson, Jack Warden and Andrew Stevens.

In 1985, Topper was one of the first films to be re-released in color.

Please click here to view the classic movie Topper(1937) review.

Topper Takes a Trip (1939). Is the film sequel of Topper (1937) Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke and Alan Mowbray reprised their roles from the earlier movie; only Cary Grant was missing (other than in a few shots taken from Topper).

A ghost tries to reunite a couple who she had a hand in splitting up in the prior film. It was followed by another sequel, Topper Returns (1941). The film received one Academy Award in 1939 for Best Special Effects for Roy Seawright.

Bed of Roses (1933) is a Pre-Code comedy film released by RKO Radio Pictures. Constance Bennett and Pert Kelton (the original "Alice" in Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners) are a pair f fun loving prostitutes who enjoy getting  male pursuers drunk before robbing them, at least until the girls are caught and thrown into jail.

The film is laced with witty dialogue as well as scenes that would never be allowed after the adoption of the Production Code in July 1934. The film also features Joel McCrea as the skipper of a small cotton boat who fishes Bennett's character out of the river after she's dived off a ship to escape capture. The movie was directed by Gregory LaCava.

Star of the Month: Constance Bennett.

What Price Hollywood? (1932). Drama directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Gene Fowler, Rowland Brown, Ben Markson, and Jane Murfin is based on a story by Adela Rogers St. Johns.

The film's original title was The Truth About Hollywood. Adela Rogers St. Johns loosely based her story on the life of actress Colleen Moore and her husband, alcoholic producer John McCormick (1893-1961) and the life and death of director Tom Forman, who committed suicide after suffering a nervous breakdown.

Producer David O. Selznick wanted to cast Clara Bow as the female lead, but executives at RKO, really did not want to invest in the film, because similar projects were not very successful.

By the time Selznick convinced them the film was a good idea, Bow was committed to another film. Four years after the film was released, Selznick asked Cukor to direct, A Star Is Born. The plot was similar to What Price Hollywood?. RKO executives thought about filing a plagiarism suit against Selznick International Pictures because of the similarities in the story, but.. later decided not to take any legal action. Cukor, later directed the 1954 musical remake starring Judy Garland.

Please click here for What A Price Hollywood past movie review.

Our Betters (1933). A comedy film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Jane Murfin and Harry Wagstaff Gribble is based on the 1923 play of the same title by W. Somerset Maugham.

Soon after an American heiress Pearl Saunders learns her new husband, Lord George Grayston, has married her only for her money. She is heartbroken, but.. she still wants to make a go of her marriage. Pearl, spends her time socializing with her wealthy friends: divorced duchess Minnie, gossip Thornton Clay, princess Flora and her lover Arthur Fenwick.

Pearl, thinks it a good idea for her younger sister Bessie, to begin a romantic relationship with Lord Harry Bleane, even though Fleming Harvey, is in love with her. Bessie, loves the glamorous life and more than happy to join her sister for a weekend at the beautiful, Grayston country estate.

When Minnie, finds out that her gigolo Pepi D'Costa, is in a relationship Pearl, she jealously exposes their romance. Pearl, does not want her sister to learn about her extramarital affair and tries to blend in quietly with her friends.

When, Bessie accuses her of being a hypocrite, Pearl changes her mind about hooking up her sister and Harry and sends her back to, Fleming. She then convinces Minnie to stay and learn the tango from the dance instructor, Ernest.

Producer David O. Selznick asked Elsa Maxwell, a gossip columnist to over see the film's costumes (designed by Hattie Carnegie) and its story line.

Two Against the World (1932). A drama starring Constance Bennett, as a woman who tries her best to keep her sister and brother out of trouble. It is based on the play A Dangerous Set by Marion Dix and Jerry Horwin.

Law of the Tropics (1941). Cast: Jeffrey Lynn and Constance Bennett. The story begins when, Jim Conwoy works for a rubber company in the Amazon and is very much looking forward to the arrival of his fiancee.

When she never arrives, he marries a woman on the lamb, Joan Madison, who joins him back to the Amazon and then pretends to be the original fiancee.

Rockabye (1932). A drama film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Jane Murfin is based on a play by Lucia Bronder.

When actress Judy Carroll testifies for her former boyfriend, Al Howard, who is on trial for embezzlement, she loses custody of Elizabeth, a little girl she very much wanted to adopt. Her manager Tony, suggests she travel to Europe with her alcoholic mother Snooks, to keep her mind off her loss.

While there, she reads a play called Rockabye, which reminds her of her heartbreak. Despite Tony's warnings, she is wants to star in a Broadway production. Playwright Jacob Van Riker Pell, does not believe Judy will be unable to perform as a tough girl from Second Avenue, until he finds out that is where she grew up.

Judy convinces Tony to produce the play. After his divorce, Jake proposes to Judy and they plan to get married as soon as he is free. Jake, does not show up for the opening night party for Rockabye, and his mother informs Judy, that her soon to be x-daughter-in-law, has just had a baby and asks Judy, to forget about her son.

When Jake arrives he reassures her that their plans have not changed. Judy, thinks that he should return to his wife and newborn child. Tony, takes this opportunity to tell her his feelings.

RKO purchased the rights to the play from Gloria Swanson and hired George Fitzmaurice to direct the film. Anxious to accommodate exhibitors who were awaiting a new Constance Bennett film, the studio rushed the script into production with Phillips Holmes as the male lead.

When the completed film was shown to executives, they did not like it and called in George Cukor to salvage it. The new director replaced Holmes with Joel McCrea and Laura Hope Crews, in the role of Judy's mother, with Jobyna Howland, reshot all their characters' scenes, and re-edited the film.

After Tonight (1933). A World War I drama film starring Constance Bennett as a woman who falls in love with a captain, who is actually her enemy. They begin a romance, but when he finds out she is his enemy, he is forced to arrest her.

The film was directed by George Archainbaud. The studio considered firing Bennett after the film lost $100,000 at the box office.