The other night I was watching "Perry Mason" when Barbara Pepper made an appearance. She played the blowsy mother of a pretty young blackmailer and her entrance caused a smile (among the actors) as she was overweight, gaudily dressed and dying for a beer - not what they thought the mother would be like. Yet only 20 years before she had been a flashy blonde, never really a star but always dependable in "schemer" and gangster's moll roles. She first came to attention in "Our Daily Bread", she was the blonde tramp who entered the farming co-op and tried to lure Tom Keene away. Through the years she had her ups and downs and unfortunately turned to food for comfort. Actually this movie is like a Who's Who of "whatever happened to her?". Claudia Dell looked forward to a promising career - she was so beautiful in "Sweet Kitty Belairs". But it was an operetta without songs and in those months at the end of the first musical cycle, studios were desperately advertising "This is Not a Musical" but the public still stayed away. Even though only the next year (1931) she had a very supporting part in "Confessions of a Co-Ed" she managed to eke out a career via poverty row although definitely not the career people would have predicted at the start.
Probably the saddest story was Mary MacLaren who plays Gertrude the governess. She had started at Universal at 16 and at once was given the lead in "Shoes" which was hailed as one of the best films of 1916 and a big future was predicted, her specialty being in heart wrenching dramas. But she made the mistake of letting her elder sister Katharine manage her and Katharine managed to alienate studio bosses and Mary's career petered out. When Mary returned to movies in the mid 30s she found she was forgotten.
After a preachy prologue pointing the finger at people who neglect the real reason for marriage - their children, we meet the Worthingtons, little Freddie (Sonny Bupp) and Marion (a Shirley Temple wannabe) who are upset that their father can't take them to the zoo - he is too busy involved in his favourite pursuits of power and money and of course Mother is too busy lounging around in her bedroom to have time for them - played to perfection by Natalie Moorehead, Queen of the Slinky Sirens. When Marion has a serious accident (from which she recovers quickly!!) the problems of the marriage surface and the parents seek a divorce. The judge reluctantly grants it and also that the children be split up (which does the real damage) with Marion going with her mother and Fred with his father but as the years go on it seems the parents haven't learned a thing.
Fred is making headlines for all the wrong reasons - having punch ups in night clubs and being expelled from yet another college until his father washes his hands of him. That is all Fred needs to try to make good on his own and with the help of night club singer Gale Addams (beautiful Claudia Dell, who seemed to grow lovelier with each year) he finds a job as a piano player. He also remembers his sister. Marion is paying a heavy price for her mother's neglect, she has impulsively married a thug and is, in turn, taken under the wing of tough gal Elsie (Barbara Pepper) who, unbeknownst to Marion, was hoping to marry Scott herself and is livid that he has thrown her over for Marion. She takes Marion to a club to drown their sorrows and it is there that she is reacquainted with her brother Fred, the resident pianist.
The sensational death of Scott puts the siblings in the headlines, brings the parents to their senses and sees them at the film's close trying to be the type of parents they should have been from the start.
Puritan Pictures weren't a releasing company for moralistic movies, they were a typical poverty row outfit, formed in 1935 (and making their last movie in 1937) and initially releasing some interesting actioners. "The Rogue's Tavern" (1936) also with Barbara Pepper, is probably their most prestigious release.
Probably the saddest story was Mary MacLaren who plays Gertrude the governess. She had started at Universal at 16 and at once was given the lead in "Shoes" which was hailed as one of the best films of 1916 and a big future was predicted, her specialty being in heart wrenching dramas. But she made the mistake of letting her elder sister Katharine manage her and Katharine managed to alienate studio bosses and Mary's career petered out. When Mary returned to movies in the mid 30s she found she was forgotten.
After a preachy prologue pointing the finger at people who neglect the real reason for marriage - their children, we meet the Worthingtons, little Freddie (Sonny Bupp) and Marion (a Shirley Temple wannabe) who are upset that their father can't take them to the zoo - he is too busy involved in his favourite pursuits of power and money and of course Mother is too busy lounging around in her bedroom to have time for them - played to perfection by Natalie Moorehead, Queen of the Slinky Sirens. When Marion has a serious accident (from which she recovers quickly!!) the problems of the marriage surface and the parents seek a divorce. The judge reluctantly grants it and also that the children be split up (which does the real damage) with Marion going with her mother and Fred with his father but as the years go on it seems the parents haven't learned a thing.
Fred is making headlines for all the wrong reasons - having punch ups in night clubs and being expelled from yet another college until his father washes his hands of him. That is all Fred needs to try to make good on his own and with the help of night club singer Gale Addams (beautiful Claudia Dell, who seemed to grow lovelier with each year) he finds a job as a piano player. He also remembers his sister. Marion is paying a heavy price for her mother's neglect, she has impulsively married a thug and is, in turn, taken under the wing of tough gal Elsie (Barbara Pepper) who, unbeknownst to Marion, was hoping to marry Scott herself and is livid that he has thrown her over for Marion. She takes Marion to a club to drown their sorrows and it is there that she is reacquainted with her brother Fred, the resident pianist.
The sensational death of Scott puts the siblings in the headlines, brings the parents to their senses and sees them at the film's close trying to be the type of parents they should have been from the start.
Puritan Pictures weren't a releasing company for moralistic movies, they were a typical poverty row outfit, formed in 1935 (and making their last movie in 1937) and initially releasing some interesting actioners. "The Rogue's Tavern" (1936) also with Barbara Pepper, is probably their most prestigious release.