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College of Communications
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Robert W. Chambers
Filmography

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  . .
Filmography
1931-1940
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Title and Crew
Cast Credits
Description
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The Common Law (1931)

USA 1931
Produced by: RKO Radio Pictures
Language: English
Produced by: Harry Joe Brown
(associate) Charles R. Rogers
Runtime: USA:77 (72 minutes TV)
Sound Mix: Mono (RCA Photophone System)
Certification: USA:Approved
Release date: July 19, 1931

Directed by 
Paul L. Stein

Written by 
John Farrow (screen story)
Horace Jackson (dialogue)
from the novel by Robert W. Chambers

Cinematography
Hal Mohr

Original music
Arthur Lange

Costume Design
Gwen Wakeling

Film Editing
 Charles Craft

Carroll Clark .... art director
John C. Grubb .... sound
Earl A. Wolcott .... sound

Cast (in credits order)

Constance Bennett .... Valerie West
Joel McCrea .... John Neville, Jr.
Lew Cody .... Nick Cardemon
Robert Williams .... Sam
Hedda Hopper .... Mrs. Claire Collis
Marion Shilling .... Stephanie Brown
Walter Walker .... John Neville Sr.
Paul Ellis .... Querido
Yola d'Avril .... Fifi

Uncredited performances

Emile Chautard .... Doorman
George Davis .... Charles, Dick's Butler 
George Irving  .... Doctor
Dolores Murray .... Queen at the Ball 
Tom Ricketts .... Elderly Party Guest
Nella Walker .... Yacht Guest 


Constance Bennett and Joel McCrea


Lew Cody and Hedda Hopper


Magazine ad for The Common Law:
Two sided page allowed the 
optical illusion.  May take a moment
to load this animated gif version.


Promotional ink blotter given
out to advertize the film.

Summary: 

A movie with an interesting view of marriage as social convention.  This movie has a lot of interesting things to say about marriage. Primarily its message is that marriage is a social convention. Women get married because marriage offers "protection." The emphasis in this movie is on social protection: marriage will protect women from malicious social gossip and from other lecherous males.
     John Neville (Joel McCrea) asks live-in girlfriend Valerie West (Constance Bennett) to marry him because he's "in love." She says she wants to wait because she wants to be sure that their love will last. When she marries, she wants it "to be for keeps." As she says, "I'm really quite an old-fashioned girl -- well, with some modern decorations." Valerie soon changes her mind when John's sister (played by Hedda Hopper) arranges a boat cruise inviting his father (played by Walter Walker), her former lover (played by Lew Cody), and another girl interested in John. Unable to stand the social awkwardness, the gossip, and the blatant advances of her former beau, Valerie decides that perhaps getting married even though she's not sure it will last is the best way to go after all.
     A critique about society's views of women and marriage, this movie also boasts strong performances by Hedda Hopper as John's sister and Walter Walker as John's father. Hedda is particularly good as the nasty, bitchy hypocrite Claire Collis, who does all she can to break John and Valerie up while feigning ignorance about it. Constance Bennett also gives a strong performance as Valerie.
     Being that this was a pre-Code and  Constance's character was supposed to be a nude model, I had hoped that they might have snuck in some flashes of skin. Unfortunately, they don't. Even the portraits of Constance nude cover up the private areas. There is some nudity in the film though, a long shot of a group of presumably naked women posing on a float during a raucous French party.
     Given the performances and the interesting message the movie has, I'd give it a 7/10.
jdeamara (jdeamara@sprintmail.com)
10 March 2003

FROM TV GUIDE: Bennett of the sophisticated manner and voice is living with sugar daddy Cody in Paris when she agrees to model for impoverished artist McCrea. They fall in love and she abandons money for art by moving in with the painter. The story is comprised of stormy breakups and reconciliations, with abortive attempts by Cody to sabotage the affair. Bennett is happy with the arrangement and refuses to consider marrying McCrea until he is called home to Tarrytown, New York, proving he has been a closet conservative all along. The family exerts pressure on them to give up their decadent European lifestyles and tie the knot. There was some titillation over the scene wherein Bennett peels off her clothes for the artist, and the suggestion of Bennett, naked and posing, is well carried through. Mainly though, one is left wondering why she left the sugar daddy in the first place. The lively and literate piece became an RKO money-maker in a very lean Depression year. Remake of silent versions in 1916 and 1923.

Synopsis:   A wealthy man's mistress abandons her luxurious life as a kept woman to be with the struggling Paris artist she has come to love in this third version of Robert W. Chambers' novel. It all began when she agreed to be his model. Soon they fall in love, and she decides to dump her rich old sugar daddy. Unfortunately, her relationship with the artist is tempestuous, and matters aren't helped by her former lover who tries to sabotage them at every turn. Though the artist wants to marry her, the woman isn't interested because he is too Bohemian and irresponsible. Fortunately, it all turns out to be an act and thanks to pressure from his conservative American family, marital bliss ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Constance Bennett

Biography

Constance Bennett was the eldest of three daughters born to theatrical luminary Richard Bennett and his wife, actress Adrienne Morrison. Though her father did everything he could to discourage her from pursuing an acting career, Constance was willful and rebellious almost from the moment of her birth. She tried to break away from Daddy's influence by marrying at age 16, but the union was quickly annulled. At 17, Constance was signed to a Goldwyn movie contract on the strength of her family name. She treated her silent-film career as a lark, but along the way she developed a superb sense of comic timing and an instinctive gift for heavy dramatics. After her second marriage in 1926, Constance left films in favor of the international "party set"; her third husband was the Marquis de la Falaise de la Coudray, a well-known playboy of questionable royal lineage who'd previously been married to Gloria Swanson. In the early 1930s, after the termination of this marriage, Constance returned to films, specializing in "fallen woman" roles before switching to light comedy in such films as The Affairs of Cellini (1934) and Topper (1937). At one point she was the highest paid actress in Hollywood. In 1945 she became a producer, bankrolling a film titled Paris Underground , in which she co-starred with British musical favorite Gracie Fields. During the 1950s, Ms. Bennett appeared in numerous stage productions, and also ran a successful cosmetics firm. Constance's fifth and longest-lasting husband, whom she married in 1946, was Brigadier General John Theron Couper (for the record, husband #4 was actor Gilbert Roland); at age 59, she died of a cerebral hemorrhage in the Walson Army Hospital at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where her husband was stationed. Constance Bennett was the sister of actresses Barbara and Joan Bennett, and the aunt of radio talk-show host Morton Downey Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joel McCrea

Biography

American actor Joel McCrea came from a California family with roots reaching back to the pioneer days. As a youth, McCrea satiated his fascination with movies by appearing as an extra in a serial starring Ruth Roland . By 1920, high schooler McCrea was a movie stunt double, and by the time he attended USC, he was regularly appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. McCrea's big Hollywood break came with a part in the 1929 talkie Jazz Age ; he matriculated into one of the most popular action stars of the 1930s, making lasting friendships with such luminaries as director Cecil B. DeMille and comedian Will Rogers. It was Rogers who instilled in McCrea a strong business sense, as well as a love of ranching; before the 1940s had ended, McCrea was a multi-millionaire, as much from his land holdings and ranching activities as from his film work. Concentrating almost exclusively on westerns after appearing in The Virginian (1946), McCrea became one of that genre's biggest box-office attractions. He extended his western fame to an early-1950s radio series, Tales of the Texas Rangers, and a weekly 1959 TV oater, Wichita Town , in which McCrea costarred with his son Jody. In the late 1960s, McCrea increased his wealth by selling 1200 acres of his Moorpark (California) ranch to an oil company, on the proviso that no drilling would take place within sight of the actor's home. By the time he retired in the early 1970s, McCrea could take pride in having earned an enduring reputation not only as one of Hollywood's shrewdest businessmen, but as one of the few honest-to-goodness gentlemen in the motion picture industry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Operator 13 (1934)

USA 1934
Produced by: Cosmopolitan Pictures / MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) [aka MGM-UA] [us]
Produced by Lucien Hubbard
Language: English
Runtime: USA:86
Sound Mix: Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Certification: USA:Passed
Release date: June 2, 1934
Also Known As: Espía número 13, La (1934) (Spanish title) / Spy 13 (1934)

Directed by Richard Boleslawski
 (as Richard Boleslavsky)

Writing credits
Harvey F. Thew  (as Harvey Thew) & Zelda Sears and Eve Greene 
from the stories "Secret Service Operator 13" by Robert W. Chambers

Cinematography by George J. Folsey   (as George Folsey)
Academy Award Nomination:
Best Cinematography - George Folsey
 

Film Editing by Frank Sullivan 

Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons 

Costume Design by Adrian   (gowns)

Assistant Director: Robert A. Golden  (uncredited)

Art Department
A. Arnold Gillespie .... associate art director (as Arnold Gillespie)
Edwin B. Willis .... associate art director

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer .... recording director
Stan Lambert .... sound (uncredited)

Maurice De Packh .... orchestrator (uncredited)
Howard Dietz .... lyricist: "Jungle Fever" (uncredited)
W. Donn Hayes .... supervising editor: musical sequences (uncredited)
Paul Marquardt .... orchestrator (uncredited)
Charles Maxwell (II) .... orchestrator (uncredited)
Jack Virgil .... orchestrator (uncredited)

Original Music by
William Axt   (synchronization) (as Dr. William Axt)
Walter Donaldson   (songs "Once In a Lifetime", "The Colonel, Major and the Captain", "Roll,
Jordan, Roll", "Sleepy Head", "Jungle Fever", "There's Someone Dreaming Tonight", "Little Liza
Lee", "My Heart Will Sing")
Gus Kahn   (songs "Once In a Lifetime", "The Colonel, Major and the Captain", "Roll, Jordan,
Roll", "Sleepy Head", "There's Someone Dreaming Tonight", "Little Liza Lee", "My Heart Will
Sing")

Non-Original Music by
General Daniel Butterfield   (song "Taps") (uncredited)
Daniel Decatur Emmett   (song "I Wish I Was In Dixie's Land") (uncredited)
Stephen Foster (III)   (song "Oh Susanna") (uncredited)
Louis Lambert   (song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home") (uncredited)
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy   ("The Wedding March" from "A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Op.61") (uncredited)
George Frederick Root   (song "The Battle Cry of Freedom") (uncredited)
William Steffe   (song "Battle Hymn of the Republic") (uncredited)


promo cigarette card


European Movie Magazine
back cover ad.


film promotion button

 

Cast (in credits order) 

Marion Davies .... Gail Loveless, aka Operator 13, Lucille 'Lucy', Anne Claybourne
Gary Cooper .... Capt. Jack Gailliard
Jean Parker .... Eleanor Shackleford
Katharine Alexander .... Pauline Cushman, aka Mrs. Mary Vale, Operator 27
Ted Healy .... Capt. Hitchcock (medicine show doctor)
Russell Hardie .... Capt. Hitchcock (the medicine show doctor)
Henry Wadsworth .... Lt. Gus Lilttledale
Douglass Dumbrille .... Confederate Capt. John Pelham (as Douglas Dumbrille)
Willard Robertson .... Capt. Cornelius Channing
Fuzzy Knight .... Pvt. Sweeney (Stuart's groom)
Sidney Toler .... Maj. Allen, aka Allen Pinkerton
Robert McWade .... Col. Sharpe
Marjorie Gateson .... Mrs. Shackleford
Wade Boteler .... Gaston
Walter Long .... Operator 55

Uncredited Cast Roles: 

Ernie Adams  .... Orderly Larry Adler .... Specialty
Ernie Alexander .... Confederate Sentry
Sam Ash .... Lieutenant 
Zita Baca .... Bit Part 
Reginald Barlow .... Col. Storm
Frank Burt .... Confederate Lieutenant
Claudia Coleman .... Nurse 
Belle Daube .... Mrs. Dandridge
Donald Douglas .... Confederate Officer
John Elliott .... Gen. Robert E. Lee 
Douglas Fowley .... Union Officer 
Arthur Grant .... Chaplain 
William H. Griffith .... Mac 
Sherry Hall .... Army Officer 
William Henry .... Young Lieutenant Kissing Blonde 
Hattie Hill .... Slave 
Samuel S. Hinds .... Union Officer Price, aide to Maj. Allen 
Sterling Holloway .... Wounded Union Soldier 
Wallie Howe .... Clergyman 
Si Jenks .... White Trash 
DeWitt Jennings .... Artillery Man 
Edgar Kennedy .... Confederate Officer Jealous of Artillery Man 
John Kirkley .... Slave 
Lia Lance .... Witch Woman, Operator 18 
John Larkin .... Slave, Fishing for Codfish 
Frank Leighton .... Union Major
Charles Lloyd .... Union Private 
Wilfred Lucas .... Judge 
James A. Marcus .... Staff Colonel
Frank Marlowe .... Confederate Officer 
Hattie McDaniel .... Annie, a Cook 
Sam McDaniel .... Rufus
Francis McDonald .... Officer Denton 
Frank McGlynn Jr. .... Scout
Donald Mills .... One of The Four Mills Brothers, a Medicine Show Singer 
Harry Mills ... One of The Four Mills Brothers, a Medicine Show Singer 
Herbert Mills .... One of The Four Mills Brothers, a Medicine Show Singer)
John Mills .... One of The Four Mills Brothers, a Medicine Show Singer 
James C. Morton .... Secret Service Man 
Wheeler Oakman .... Scout 
Franklin Parker .... John Hay 
Lee Phelps .... Confederate Soldier Getting Lucille as Witness 
Richard Powell .... Confederate Sentry
Buddy Roosevelt .... Civilian 
James Sheridan .... Officer 
Bob Stevenson .... Guard 
Richard Tucker .... Execution Officer
Martin Turner .... Hickman 
Fred Warren .... Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
Poppy Wilde .... Party Guest 
Clarence Wilson .... Josiah Claybourne 


Marion Davies and Gary Cooper

Operator 13
(1934 b 85')
En: 5 Ed: 5

Two actresses serve the Union cause by spying in the South, but one falls in love with a Confederate officer in charge of spying.

After the Bull Run battles Gail Loveless (Marion Davies) sings at Ford's Theater and is recommended by Eleanor to Major Allen (Sidney Toler) as a spy. She becomes Operator 13 and disguises herself as a Negro maid doing laundry, talking with Confederate soldiers. Captain Jack Gailliard (Gary Cooper) spied in the north and is now in uniform as head of spying from Richmond. He meets Mrs. Vale, who is the actress Pauline Cushman (Katharine Alexander) spying for the north as Operator 27. Gail takes clothes to General Stuart and hears the plan, which she tells to Pauline after several songs by the Mills Brothers. Soldiers led by Captain Channing (Willard Robertson) find a federal pass in Mrs. Vale's house. Gail gives the information to traveling Dr. Hitchcock before she is taken as a witness in the spy trial. Gail says Pauline is a Yankee actress, which they already knew; but she helps her to escape. The Confederate attack is met by a cannon barrage as they try to cross the Potomac River. In Washington Pauline and Gail ask Major Allen for a bath.

Gail now blonde again is told of spies trying to organize a confederacy in the midwest, and they suspect Gailliard. Gail is deported south as the Confederate sympathizer Ann Claiborne. Gailliard is told to find out about her at the Shacklefords. There Gail learns of a battery placement at Drury Bluffs. Gailliard arrives and walks with Gail. On a swing she sings "Once In a Lifetime." She passes word of the battery. Gailliard dances with her at a wedding. Union cannon fires on the battery. The bride learns the bridegroom is not coming, because he was killed. Gail cries and tells Gailliard she hates war. They say they love each other. Captain Channing informs Gailliard that Ann Claiborne is in a northern prison. Gailliard looks for Gail, but she rides off in a Confederate uniform as he is wounded. He finds her in an empty house and wakes her up to arrest her, blaming her for being a woman spy. They watch Union troops execute Channing. Gailliard says Gail can call to them; but as fighting breaks out, they run off and break the handcuffs. Gail tells Gailliard to go, because she loves him.

After the war ends, Gailliard tells Gail that all must forget war, hatred, and division, and she says to remember loyalty and love.

Although Gail's initial disguise is absurd, this story does reflect actual incidents in the Civil War, and the romantic love makes the violence of war seem more absurd than anything else.
Copyright © 1999 by Sanderson Beck
http://www.san.beck.org/MM/1934/Operator13.html

 


Operator 13 stars Marion Davies & Gary Cooper

Coop was ideally suited for the role of a cavalry officer in Operator 13, the Civil War drama that was one of producer William Randolph Hearst's favorite movies.  Marion Davies and Gary Cooper became life-long friends after appearing together and Coop and his wife, Rocky, became Hearst favorites and were regular guests at the San Simeon weekends and the big Ocean House parties.

From Coop's bio: Coop next went on loan to MGM for a rather curious Civil War drama, Operator 13, playing a Confederate soldier with whom Union spy Marion Davies falls in love. The filming was not a happy experience for Coop - he did not see eye-to-eye with director Richard Boleslavsky's ideas about 'character motivation', never a big concern for Cooper. Also, Davies' lover, powerful magnate William Randolph Hearst, was constantly on the set, unreasonably jealous and hostile.
 

Synopsis:

(1)  Gail Loveless (Marion Davies) is a singer in the Pauline Cushman players, an acting troupe touring the Union camps during the Civil War. She is spotted by two scouts and is offered a position as a Union Spy. Proclaimed Operator 13, Gail embarks on a mission (as a mulatto launderer!) into the deep south. She meets dashing Captain John Galliard (Gary Cooper) at the river and is taken by his great looks.
     Narrowly escaping capture, Gail and the Mill Brothers (playing a roving medicine show) rescue another operator from execution. Gail returns to the South again as a white Belle fleeing the Yankees who have arrested her father.
     Captain Galliard dines with her hosts and they meet again. In love, it's difficult to send destruction to Galliard's troupe. They separate after Galliard learns that she is a spy. After the war they are together again, this time under one flag.

(2) Gail Loveless (Marion Davies), a spy known as Operator 13 working for the Union and Federal cause during the Civil War, posing as a Confederate woman named Anne Claybourne, meets and falls in love with Confederate Captain Jack Galliard (Gary Cooper.) Dusguised as an octoroom maid at a Confedarate military ball, she learns and relays secrets to the Union forces that are devastating to the Rebel cause. Assigned to the case to track down and kill the spy maid, Galliard learns she is also the woman he loves, but proceeds with his assignment. He captures her but is in danger of being captured himself as Federal forces are approaching. Gail/Anne saves him and they part to wait until peace comes to resume their romance. 
Summary written by Les Adams {longhorn@abilene.com}

(3) Summary: One of Marion Davies' better efforts!  Civil war story with Marion Davis as a Confederate spy disguised as a slave. Not politically correct by today's standards ("Negroes always gossip" is one of the more controversial lines from the script), but it does prove that Marion Davies was a competent actress when given the chance.
Patrick Sullivan (sullivpj@sce.com)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
22 January 1999

TV GUIDE:  Davies is an actress during the Civil War who becomes a Union spy. She goes behind Confederate lines with experienced spy Alexander and they end up at the mansion Gen. Jeb Stuart uses for his headquarters. Alexander is a guest at the mansion and Davies is hired as a washerwoman. Davies meets Cooper, who is a scout. Alexander is discovered as a spy and sentenced to death. Davies helps her escape back to Union lines and learns that Cooper is organizing southern sympathizers in the North. She pretends to be a southern belle at a mansion in Richmond, meets Cooper again, and they fall in love. Eventually, Davies is discovered and makes her escape with another Union spy. Cooper tracks them down as a Union column approaches. The other spy wants to kill Cooper, but Davies handcuffs herself to her lover and they hide in a well. The Union soldiers shoot the other spy, who is dressed as a Confederate soldier, but they leave when they cannot find Davies. Cooper and Davies come out of the well, Cooper breaks the handcuffs, kisses her goodbye, and goes back to his outfit. This was Cooper's third loan-out from Paramount for this strictly Davies film. Folsey was nominated for an Academy Award for his photography.

Operator 13 (1934)

Directed by Richard Boleslawski Writing credits Robert W. Chambers (stories) Harvey F. Thew (screenplay)

Genre: Drama / Romance Plot Summary for Operator 13 (1934) Gail Loveless (Marion Davies), a spy known as Operator 13 working for the Union and Federal cause during the Civil War, posing as a Confederate woman named Anne Claybourne, meets and falls in love with Confederate Captain Jack Galliard (Gary Cooper.) Dusguised as an octoroom maid at a Confedarate military ball, she learns and relays secrets to the Union forces that are devastating to the Rebel cause. Assigned to the case to track down and kill the spy maid, Galliard learns she is also the woman he loves, but proceeds with his assignment. He captures her but is in danger of being captured himself as Federal forces are approaching. Gail/Anne saves him and they part to wait until peace comes to resume their romance. Complete credited cast: Marion Davies .... Gail Loveless, aka Operator 13, Lucille 'Lucy', Anne Claybourne Gary Cooper .... Capt. Jack Gailliard Jean Parker .... Eleanor Shackleford Katharine Alexander .... Pauline Cushman, aka Mrs. Mary Vale, Operator 27 Ted Healy .... Capt. Hitchcock (medicine show doctor) Russell Hardie .... Capt. Hitchcock (the medicine show doctor) Henry Wadsworth .... Lt. Gus Lilttledale Douglass Dumbrille .... Confederate Capt. John Pelham (as Douglas Dumbrille) Willard Robertson .... Capt. Cornelius Channing Fuzzy Knight .... Pvt. Sweeney (Stuart's groom) Sidney Toler .... Maj. Allen, aka Allen Pinkerton Robert McWade (I) .... Col. Sharpe Marjorie Gateson .... Mrs. Shackleford Wade Boteler .... Gaston Walter Long (I) .... Operator 55 (more) Also Known As: Spy 13 (1934) : Outstanding b&w cinematography highlights Civil War spy story. If it weren't for George Folsey's extraordinary cinematography, this would be just another B film. The story is totally implausible and the film's structure is rather disjointed. Competent work from Cooper and Davies (if you can buy her in black face pretending to be a slave, you can buy just about anything). What is mesmerizing and what keeps one glued to the screen are the images. MGM had suddenly achieved its "look" in 1934. Compare to some of its 1933 releases when the photography was still "flat." Here there is a remarkable use of light and shadow, especially in the use of silhouettes. The soft focus in one early dawn river scene is breathtaking. Why MGM and Mr. Folsey would give this such class A treatment for visuals but betray it in other departments is an enigma. Whatever, it's an entertaining and odd little film whose cinematography makes it a must-see!
 

Synopsis:    If you can accept blonde, blue-eyed Marion Davies disguising herself in blackface, chances are you'll swallow the rest of Operator 13 . Davies plays a Belle Boyd-like actress who agrees to become a Northern spy during the Civil War. She assumes the identity of an octoroon servant and heads into Southern territory. Marion meets dashing Confederate captain Gary Cooper , and instantly falls in love with him. Later, she assumes the disguise of a Southern belle to prevent Cooper from recruiting Southern sympathizers in the north. This time Cooper falls for Davies, which makes it hard for her to carry out her mission. After several more reels of espionage and romantic interludes, including a gently kinky sequence in which Cooper and Davies are handcuffed together, the lovers part company, promising to meet again when the war is over. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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