Claude Gillingwater

  • Melville W. Brown – Fast and Furious (1927)

    1921-1930ComedyMelville W. BrownSilentUSA

    Synopsis
    Another of Reginald Denny’s money-spinning Universal vehicles, Fast and Furious casts Denny as “speed demon” Tom Brown. Fascinated with fast roadsters, Tom enjoys nothing more than “opening up” on the highway — at least, until he’s run off the road by another reckless driver. After emerging from the hospital, Tom discovers that he’s developed a mortal fear of automobiles — in fact, he jumps three feet in the air whenever he hears a honking horn. Naturally, the outcome of the plot hinges on Tom’s willingness to man the controls of a racing car for the sake of his sweetheart Ethel (Barbara Worth). All that prevents Fast and Furious from being a “perfect” Reginald Denny picture is a moment near the climax, when our jailed hero is released from his cell when his father bribes the guard: undoubtedly, Denny’s fans would have preferred that he figure a way out of his dilemma.
    Hal EricksonRead More »

  • John Ford – The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaJohn FordUSA

    A few short hours after President Lincoln has been assassinated, Dr. Samuel Mudd gives medical treatment to a wounded man who shows up at his door. Mudd has no idea that the president is dead and that he is treating his murderer, John Wilkes Booth. But that doesn’t save him when the army posse searching for Booth finds evidence that Booth has been to the doctor’s house. Dr. Mudd is arrested for complicity and sentenced to life imprisonment, to be served in the infamous pestilence-ridden Dry Tortugas.Read More »

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