Three on a Match

Three on a Match (1932) was another of the Forbidden Hollywood movies of the pre-code era.  It was the twelfth movie for a very blond Bette Davis (1908 - 1989) in what was a pretty small part, but her future is evident even back then.  The stars of this film were Ann Dvorak (1912 - 1979), Warren William (1894 - 1948), and Joan Blondell (1906 - 1979). 

Back in the early days of talkies, you turned out a lot of films if you wanted a decent income.  This was before residuals and advertising, and also before an actor could negotiate for a portion of the profits of a film in lieu of a salary.  The big studios controlled everything.

Ann Dvorak made a total of 86 titles including a few TV shows in the early 1950s.  I must admit that I am unfamiliar with her work and most of the movies she made.  In fact, I have never heard of the TV shows she made, including "Gruen Guild Theater" and "The Bigelow Theatre."

Warren William is a bit better known, at least to me.  He was a big star and has 65 movies in his filmography.  In Gold Diggers of 1933 he played Dick Powell's brother who eventually falls in love with Joan Blondell.  I think everybody in Hollywood knew everybody else in those days.  Look for him as Julius Caesar in the Claudette Colbert version of Cleopatra (1934).  In 1941 he appears in The Wolf Man with Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, and Bela Lugosi. 

What can I say about Joan Blondell?  A former Ziegfeld Girl, Joan also worked in five of Busby Berkeley's best musicals of the era.  She appeared in the movies and on TV 156 times.  At 72 years old she appeared in Grease (1978).  Blondell is one of my favorites, perhaps because she was usually portrayed as an honest working girl, but she also had an angle!  And she's not bad looking!

The Bit Actors included Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957) in a small role.  This was his ninth feature and was two years before The Petrified Forest, one of his defining roles.  I like looking at the early careers of famous stars, just to see where they came from.

We also see Lyle Talbot (1902 - 1996) in one of his many roles.  This was also his ninth film, and his list goes to 309 titles from 1930 to 1987.  Trying to list his highlights would take more time than I have today.  He was famous in B-movies and worked for Ed Wood.  Toward the end of his career he did a lot of television work, including everything from "The Lone Ranger" to "Who's the Boss?" and "Newhart."

See the movie!  Three on a Match touches on some tough topics of the day, and deals with them in a frank manner.  It doesn't glamorize the prohibition era drinking and drug use, and it comes to a tragic end, but somehow you are gratified by it because you know everything will be OK.

Sterling Holloway

Here is another name that is well known to most generations.  Sterling Holloway (1905 - 1992) had a long career, starting in silent films.  He progressed through many stages in his acting.  Some great movies, quite a bit of TV work, and of course, as a popular voice actor for animated features.

In the late silent era, many comedies were two-reelers that ran about 20 minutes.  Features would usually be 60 to 90 minutes.  There were also epic movies such as Napoleon, the 1927 release written by Abel Gance (1889 - 1981), which ran 222 minutes.  Holloway's first feature was Casey at the Bat (1927) starring Wallace Beery (1885 - 1949) and another favorite, Zazu Pitts (1894 - 1963).

Sterling is best known as a comic actor, but he was no stranger to dramas.  In 1933 he appears in Hell Below with Robert Montgomery (1904 - 1981) and Walter Huston (1884 - 1950).

I remember picking him out in Gold Diggers of 1933 in an uncredited part.  He was in two movies with Will Rogers (1879 - 1935), and started working for Walt Disney (1901 - 1966) in Dumbo (1941) and then Bambi (1942), plus many others.  

Another good dramatic role was in the war movie Walk in the Sun in 1945, starring Dana Andrews (1909 - 1992).  He also worked on four Frank Capra (1897 0 1991) films, including two education movies, Our Mr. Sun (1956) and Hemo the Magnificent (1957).

Holloway's earliest TV work was in 1949, before many people had TVs, but he became a regular on "The Adventures of Superman" and "The Life of Riley" in the 1950s.  He can be seen on most of the golden age of TV series'.

In 1963 he scores a part as the fire chief in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, with a cast that has to be the greatest gathering of comedic talent ever attempted.  His last role was on the 1980s hit TV series "Moonlighting" starring Cybill Sheperd (b. 1950) and Bruce Willis (b. 1955).

I think of all his work, his most famous role is as the voice of Winnie the Pooh, which should keep him endeared in the minds of children for years to come.  He was named a Disney Legend in 1991.

Dick Powell

I know, Dick Powell (1904 - 1963) is certainly not a Bit Actor.  I don't think he ever was...well maybe in his first few films.  I like him, its my blog, so deal with it.

His life must have been exciting.  He was married to Joan Blondell (1906 - 1979) and then to June Allyson (1917 - 2006).  He was originally a singer, and after making hundreds of Busby Berkeley (1895 - 1976) films, all with hundreds of beautiful women, he started making detective movies.  He even sold Humphrey Bogart his famous boat, Santana.

OK, I got carried away.  He only made eleven Busby Berkeley films.

Powell made 58 movies and several TV shows, including his own "The Dick Powell Theater" in the 1960s.  After a few less popular films, he made 42nd Street in 1933 with Berkeley as a choreographer, and Ginger Rogers (1911 - 1995) and Ruby Keeler (1910 - 1993) in the cast.

That same year he made two shorts and six movies, including two other Berkeley musicals, Gold Diggers of 1933 and Footlight Parade. 

In 1935 he was a bit out of his element in A Midsummer Night's Dream, starring James Cagney (1899 - 1986) and Mickey Rooney (b. 1920).  I think Cagney was out of his element as well.

The war years brought some war movies, including In The Navy (1941) with Abbott and Costello.  Then, in 1944, he was in one of his most popular films, Murder, My Sweet, as the detective Phillip Marlow.  It is considered film noir at its best.

In the 1950s his popularity started to wane and his movies weren't as memorable.  He found good work on TV, and he played Phillip Marlow again on "Climax!" in 1954.

Dick Powell died of cancer in 1963, which may have been attributed to directing a movie near an atomic bomb test site.  The movie was The Conquerer (1956) with John Wayne playing Genghis Kahn.  (Any relation to Madeline Kahn (1942 - 1999)?)  Apparently, several members of the cast and crew also eventually died of cancer.

To me, the best pairing Dick Powell ever did was with the songs of Al Dubin (1891 - 1945) and Harry Warren (1893 - 1981).  His voice will always ring in my memory.

Short People

I was thinking about Billy Barty a few days ago, so I looked up his filmography.  His first film was Mickey's Eleven.  Of course, I thought...an early version of the story of Ocean's Eleven, as the first thing through my mind. Maybe there was an early version and when Frank Sinatra got the script, he didn't like the name Mickey. WRONG!

Mickey's Eleven was a silent film made in 1927 starring a seven year old Mickey Rooney.  It was his 5th film, and he made a total of 322 films and TV appearances.  I counted 63 films in the Mickey McGuire series listed on IMDb.  Mickey's Eleven was not about a gang of children robbing all the casinos in Las Vegas, but little Mickey was in a football game in the short film. I will have to look for that one.  Amazon and Netflix don't list any DVDs in this series.  Come to think of it, there weren't many casinos in Las Vegas in 1927!

Billy Barty lived from 1924 to 2000 and appeared in 172 roles.  He made 36 of the Mickey McGuire series, so I guess short actors stuck together!  Barty was tapped whenever they needed a baby or child to act in a movie, rather than just look cute.

His part in Gold Diggers of 1933 shows what I mean.  He was nine years old in Gold Diggers, but he was dressed as a baby in a carriage who jumped out and evaded the police on roller skates.  He was 11 years old when he played a little baby in The Bride of Frankenstein in 1935.

His face had a permanent grimace.  His size (3' 9") and face made him perfect to play later roles as a kind of misfit in society who could was befriended by the hero of a movie or TV show.  In the fifties and sixties, you had to show viewing kids that just because someone looks strange they are not necessarily bad.

On TV he was a regular on "The Spike Jones Show" and appeared in several episodes of "Peter Gunn."  His sinister acting ability also showed in "Thriller" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour."

In 1978 he was a bible salesman in the comedy/mystery Foul Play with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase.  He needed to come across as a possible villain to Hawn, but he turned out to be innocent.  The scene in the hospital with Goldie trying to apologize to Billy is a classic.

His career included many children's films, detective stories and fantasies, along with some musicals.  Despite his short stature, he was a tall bit actor.

Busby Berkeley

Bit Actor Busby Berkeley was in three films.  Of course, they were really cameo roles for him, since he was also the choreographer for those films, Palmy Days (1931), Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade (1933).

Gold Diggers of 1933 is one of the best of the Berkeley films.  He didn't direct, but he was the choreographer.  I own the five DVD set of Berkeley films shown at left, with that one and other great movies.

A young Ginger Rogers has a good supporting part, in her 18th film.  She and Ruby Keeler bring a lot of beauty to this film, and Dick Powell's voice is wonderful in the Dubin and Warren tunes that I think are timeless.  But who else was in it?

At the very bottom of the list on IMDb sits Tammany Young.  The next year he was in It's a Gift with W. C. Fields as his store clerk Emmett, playing with Baby Leroy.  He died in 1936, but he started working in films in 1914 and had 126 roles.

Jane Wyman can be seen in her third movie role as one of the gold diggers.  This was 7 years before she married Ronald Reagan.  He was her third husband and she was only 33 when they married.

Sometimes I see a name and I need to write it down for further research.  This movie has a bit actor named Fred "Snowflake" Toones, who lived from 1906 to 1962 and appeared in 209 movies.  There has to be a story to his life.  It turns out he was in Way Out West in 1937 with Laurel and Hardy, his only film with the great comedy team.

Last, I can't skip Charles Lane and Billy Barty.  Both had long careers as bit actors.  Take a look at Lane's filmography here.

Busby Berkeley did his best to make the great depression a little brighter.