Classic Images
Issue Number 557
January 2022
“It was all just a mistake. I had started at the top and couldn’t possibly work my way in any other direction than down.”
A gregarious song-and-dance man and light leading film star of pre-Code Hollywood, JAMES DUNN (1901-1967) found Depression-era popularity as the cheerful co-star of brisk comedies/smooth dramas opposite Sally Eilers (notably BAD GIRL, 1931)) and splashy Fox Film musicals alongside Alice Faye. The height of his early fame perhaps came as little Shirley Temple’s loyal guardian in several films (notably, BRIGHT EYES, 1934). Sadly, chronic alcoholism put a damper on his reliability as a star and, aside from one brilliant, Oscar-winning moment as a sad but charming dipsomaniac in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945), his career slid into obscurity with low-budget fare.
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All Film Articles
- WILLIAM WELLMAN: A Daughter’s Prospective
- FREDDIE BARTHOLOMEW: Boy Wonder
- RICHARD CROMWELL: Pre-Code Heartthrob
- MARTHA RAYE : Send in the Clown
- TAB HUNTER: Sigh Guy
- STEVE COCHRAN: Life on the Edge
- WILLIAM HOPPER: Out of the Shadows
- MICHAEL CALLAN: Dancing Teen Idol
- KITTY CARLISLE: Straight from the Hart
- LEE PATRICK: I Never Wanted to Be a Star
- WILLIAM FRAWLEY: Diamond in the Gruff
- GERALDINE PAGE: Eccentricities of a ‘Method’ Actress
- GIA SCALA: More Than a Beautiful Face
- ANN ROBINSON: Just a Girl from Hollywood
- JAMES DUNN: Irish Charmer
- NEVA PATTERSON: Liberated Lady
- CHRISTOPHER RIORDAN: An Unorthodox Career
- PIER ANGELI: Little Garbo
- KATHLEEN HUGHES: Bad, Blonde and Beautiful
- GIG YOUNG: Master Farceur
- RICHARD TYLER: Problem Child, Successful Adult
- ARON KINCAID: Tall, Blond and Beachworthy
- MERCEDES McCAMBRIDGE: No Mercy
- JOHN HARRON: Fame and Misfortune
- ROBERT HARRON: Fame and Misfortune
- GIGI PERREAU: The Major Little Minor
- BETTY FIELD: Bicoastal Actress
- PEGGY WEBBER: Marvelous Maven of Radio Theatre
- BUDDY EBSEN: To Dad with Love
- BILLY GRAY: Little Rascal
- BARBARA BATES: All About Barbara
- CARLETON CARPENTER: ALL-AMERICAN INNOCENCE
- PAUL DOUGLAS: Brute Appeal
- JOANNA BARNES: Belying the Big Chill
- CYNTHIA PEPPER: The “Camelot” Blonde
- WILLIAM TALMAN: Film Menace
- PETER LAWFORD: Swinging on a Star
- FRANCHOT TONE: The “Millionaire” Star
- ANITA LOUISE: Depression Era Dreamgirl
- SCOTT BRADY: The Fighting Irishman
- KAYE BALLARD: The Songs and the Laughs Are On Me
- RUTH ROMAN: All Woman
- HOPE HOLIDAY: Wild and Wilder
- TOMMY COOK: Radio’s ‘Golden Boy’
- JACKIE JOSEPH: Puttin’ on the Ditz
- INGER STEVENS: Wounded Butterfly
- ALICE PEARCE: Beauty Inside