Writing
American screenwriter.
A semi-fictionalized account of the life of Mata Hari, an exotic dancer who was accused of spying for Germany during World War I.
ZaSu Pitts and Slim Summerville meet when both are sold deeds to an abandoned ranch in the California desert. Their lonely lives become much more crowded when a drifter discovers gold on the property—though all he’s found is Slim’s missing filling. (adapted from MoMA capsule)
Elliot's affair prompts his wife Doris to love millionaire Bruce. After a messy gathering, a flat tire stops Doris from chasing Bruce's departing ship, which traps Elliot and Myra on board instead, leaving Bruce free to propose to Doris ashore.
Charming Sinners was a stilted adaptation of Somerset Maugham's play The Constant Wife. Robert Miles (Clive Brook) starts the ball rolling when he falls in love with Anne-Marie Whitley (Mary Nolan), the best friend of his own wife Kathryn (Ruth Chatterton). In retaliation, Kathryn begins a flirtation with her former boyfriend Karl Kraley (William Powell). After reels and reels of verbal fencing, the status quo is re-established, and Robert and Kathryn are reunited.
Salomy Jane, a California mountain girl, is sought after by a number of men in the nearby small town of Redwood City. She is affected when two criminals are pursued by authorities: one for killing a hypocritical mayoral candidate, the other for robbing the stagecoach.
The daughter of a pineapple plantation owner in Hawaii sets her sights on a married English engineer.
Gail Grant, the impetuous daughter of a Pittsburgh steel magnate, arrives at a hotel in Venice and demands the Imperial Suite; in London, George Banning-Green, a persistent admirer, believes that she has gone to Berlin. Searching for "imperial" furnishings, the hotel manager goes to the palace of Prince Dantarini, who is selling the contents of his villa as an aftermath of the war. Dantarini agrees to be her guide in Venice, and when he proposes in his garden, Gail accepts.
An irascible retired old lawyer exposes a diamond thief.
Kay Kingsley, a sophisticated and successful songwriter in New York City. falls in love with a widowed rancher, Chris Heyward, she meets at the Madison Square Garden Rodeo and they get married, and leave for his ranch in the west. Her friends warn her of an early disillusionment with life on a ranch, far away from the glitter and bright lights of Broadway. Kay makes one difficulty adjustment after another, as the ranch is presided over by Chris's kids, and an incident occurs with a neighbor that prompts Kay to return to her glamorous life in New York. But she soon finds her heart is with Chris and his children.
Raised by Natalie Brennan, a flamboyant and irresponsible mother, Ziggy Brennan gets involved in hustling men at a young age. She hangs around with a wild crowd and learns gets her "street smarts" first from her mother, who wants everyone to think they are sisters, and then from Denny Reagan, an older man. He starts teaching her his tricks of the trade and she falls right in line with his crooked ways. Then one night she meets Martin J. 'Mart' Neilson, a tall, handsome, honest farmer boy who's a sailor and they fall in love. While he's away fighting the war, she discovers she's pregnant.
In a reversal of the usual situation, it is the wife, not the husband, who is the neglectful one. As hubby sits at home twiddling his thumbs, Jane starts her own prosperous business, becoming so absorbed that she has no time for anything else. Not unexpectedly, her husband begins keeping time with a gorgeous blonde, whereupon Jane wins back her mate by simultaneously inaugurating an affair with the blonde's husband.
A delightful pre-code cocktail recipe. Take three couples (add gin and tonic), their several divorces and the seven children/stepchildren of their intermarriages and blend thoroughly, and you have a mixture a too-young-to-believe Frederic March will try to straighten out.
The only son of Gov. Adele Fenway, Bob, is engaged to Marian Lee, and at a dinner Adele announces her intention of giving them a wedding house. Having refused to support a water power bill endorsed by Jim Dornton, the political boss of the state, the governor is threatened.
Patience Winslow is an impulsive heiress who marries a much-older man whom she really doesn't love. While honeymooning on her yacht without her new husband, Patience is marooned on a desert island with handsome Captain Edmunds. Her head full of notions that she's gleaned from radio dramas and pulp novels, Patience demands that she and Edmunds enter into an in-name-only marriage, observing the responsibilities and proprieties of matrimony without the sexual entanglements. Complications naturally arise.
Jim and Walter are two brother sailors in the United States Navy. Walter tells Jim as soon as they get home he is going to ask his beautiful girlfriend, Nancy Larkin to marry him. But Jim is also in love with Nancy so he begs Nancy's ugly duckling sister, Letty to help break Walter and Nancy up. Letty agrees only under one condition, he help her to win Walter!
A bitter widow and a grumpy widower find themselves stuck in a hotel that is cut off from the outside by a snowstorm. Although both have no intention of getting married again, they begin to fall for each other. Their children, however, are determined to see that the "romance" never gets off the ground and do everything they can to see that they are kept apart.
Pre-code melodrama about high society marriage and fidelity.
Press agent Jimmy Gates gets an idea while watching a New York parade, for a returned war hero Sergeant Buzz McAllister, with his chief client, singer Judy Ames; Dona Drake, leader of an all-girl orchestra; his photographer Foggy, and his secretary Myrt. Jimmy, thinking Judy needs publicity in order to get a singing job on a radio program, thinks that a romance between her and the war hero would be just the ticket.
A lawyer, left by his wife, gets drunk and marries a chorus girl, or so he learns the morning after.
Denny breaks up with his fiancée Jean to marries wealthy Flora. When Jean is fired from her job she decides to market the face cream she invented. After sending it to twelve rich woman, only Flora decides to invest in the business. As Denny has no job, the girls give him an office at the factory. The business takes off, but Jean finds that she is still in love with Denny and Denny seems to forget he is married to Flora.
