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Neurotic coward Eddie Cantor decides to defend an amusement park against gangsters, and nothing but fun ensues! Ethel Merman has a small role here, but we're more than entertained by Parkyakarkus, Brian Donlevy, William Frawley, Jack Larue. Plus Sally Eilers, the Goldwyn Girls and a terrific forgotten talent, billed in this movie as Rita Rio. Strike Me Pink DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1936 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 100 min. / Street Date August 4,, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Sally Eilers, Parkyakarkus, Rita Rio (Dona Drake), Brian Donlevy, William Frawley, Jack Larue, Gordon Jones, Helen Lowell The Goldwyn Girls. Cinematography Merritt Gerstad, Gregg Toland Film Editor Sherman Todd Original Music (Alfred Newman) Dance Director Robert Alton Special Effects Gilbert Pratt, Ray Binger, Paul Eagler Written by Francis Martin, Frank Butler, Walter Deleon from the story and novel Dreamland by Clarence Buddington Kelland Produced by Samuel Goldwyn Directed by...

The Hurricane

Written by Dudley Nichols

Directed by John Ford

USA, 1937

“My name is John Ford and I make Westerns,” so the legendary filmmaker once declared. As has been pointed out (by Martin Scorsese among others) that statement in a sense discounts the great director’s non-genre works, like the four features for which he won Academy Awards: The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952). But with more than 140 directing credits on his résumé, it also sidesteps many lesser known, though quality, Ford films, those that either fall into the middle of the road category or those that are very good, if not quite great. That’s where his 1937 romantic drama The Hurricane comes in.

Produced by Samuel Goldwyn, directed by Ford (two years after The Informer and two years before his groundbreaking Stagecoach [1939]), and written by Dudley Nichols, himself an Oscar-winner for his writing The Informer,...

John Ford and Samuel Goldwyn's South Seas disaster picture can boast spectacular action and compelling romance. The unjustly imprisoned Jon Hall crosses half an ocean to rejoin his beloved Dorothy Lamour under The Moon of Manakoora, before an incredible (and incredibly expensive) hurricane blows the island to smithereens. Ford's direction is flawless, as are the screenplay by Dudley Nichols and the Hollywood-exotic music score by Alfred Newman. The Hurricane Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1937 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 110 min. / Street Date November 24, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall, Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, Thomas Mitchell, Raymond Massey, John Carradine, Jerome Cowan, Al Kikume, Kuulei De Clercq, Layne Tom Jr., Mamo Clark, Movita, Inez Courtney, Chris-Pin Martin. Cinematography Bert Glennon Film Editor Lloyd Nosler Special Effects James Basevi, Ray Binger, R.T. Layton, Lee Zavitz Original Music Alfred Newman Written by Dudley Nichols, Oliver H.P. Garrett from the...