Lowell Sherman

Synopsis:
Jerry Strong is the son of a rich businessman, but wants to be a painter. He hires Kay Arnold, a good girl with a bad past, as a model. They fall in love, and plan to get married. But Jerry’s parents raise strong objections.Read More »

In this sophisticated Jazz Age comedy, a trio of money-hungry women all have sugar daddies who keep them in the lap of luxury, even as they drive the men crazy. Each woman represents a different personality type, from sensitive, to kind-hearted, to difficult and untrustworthy. The twenties come roaring back with immorality and in-fighting.Read More »

Edna May Oliver’s success in this film helped convince RKO to cast her in The Penguin Pool Murder as Hildegarde Withers, which led to a brief series.

Plot Synopsis:
Edna May Oliver portrays a society dowager called for jury duty on a murder trial wherein a pretty young woman is accused of killing her older husband. She takes her job quite seriously, and soon is playing both “prosecutor” and “DA” with judge and witnesses alike. In this unorthodox but highly entertaining fashion, Ms. Oliver gets to the truth and exposes the genuine murderer before the final fade-out. Incidentally, despite the title, there are gentlemen on the jury, but all eyes are on the formidable Ms. Oliver. Ladies of the Jury was remade in 1937 as We’re on the Jury, with Helen Broderick in the Edna May Oliver role. by Hal EricksonRead More »

Synopsis:
Set against the background of the Battle of Waterloo, Becky Sharp is the story of Vanity Fair by Thackeray. Becky and Amelia are girls at school together, but Becky is from a “show biz” family, or in other words, very low class. Becky manages to insinuate herself in Amelia’s family and gets to know all their friends. From this possibly auspicious- beginning, she manages to ruin her own life, becoming sick, broke, and lonely, and also ruins the lives of many other “loved ones”. In the movie we get to see the class distinctions in England at the time, and get a sense of what it was like for the English military at the time of the Napoleonic wars.Read More »