Getting To Know Adolphe Menjou
My personal picks for a beginner's guide to the slick star of classic Hollywood.
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- DirectorLewis MilestoneStarsAdolphe MenjouPat O'BrienMary BrianA crusading newspaper editor tricks his retiring star reporter into covering one last case.Maybe Menjou's greatest performance, and one that earned him his only Oscar nomination. He plays a fast-talking newspaper editor who connives to keep his ace reporter from leaving the business to get married. The movie is very funny pre-Code fare, and would be adapted in 1940 as the classic "His Girl Friday".
- DirectorAlexander HallStarsAdolphe MenjouDorothy DellCharles BickfordBookie Sorrowful Jones receives a little girl as an IOU.In this Damon Runyon fable (which features young Shirley Temple's breakout performance), Menjou plays a bookie left to care for a small girl. An odd match at first, the bookie and his colorful gambling friends become a surrogate family for the girl.
- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsBarbara StanwyckAdolphe MenjouWilliam HoldenA poor young Italian man, who is a virtuoso on the violin, wishes to become a champion boxer to make a fortune for his family. But what is the road to success and happiness, and what is the price?Menjou plays a struggling boxing manager who strikes gold by taking a chance on a young William Holden.
- DirectorHal RoachStarsJoan BennettAdolphe MenjouJohn HubbardThere is the murder of a gangster. His girlfriend goes to stay with her mother. The mother is the housekeeper of an upper middle-class family with an attractive son. The gangster's gang follows the girl, and the police pursue the gang.Menjou goes over the top in this zany Hal Roach comedy about newspapermen uncovering a murderer. Menjou plays an ace reporter (and smooth operator) who is shown up by a lucky amateur.
- DirectorLeo McCareyRay McCareyNorman Z. McLeodStarsHarold LloydAdolphe MenjouVerree TeasdaleTimid milkman, Burleigh Sullivan (Lloyd), somehow knocks out a boxing champ in a brawl. The fighter's manager decides to build up the milkman's reputation in a series of fixed fights and then have the champ beat him to regain his title.Menjou plays a fast-talking boxing promoter who signs a mild-mannered milkman (Harold Lloyd) as a novelty after he grabs headlines by knocking out the champ.
- DirectorBusby BerkeleyStarsDick PowellAdolphe MenjouGloria StuartRomantic antics abound among the guests at a luxury hotel, including a stage director, an eccentric millionaire, and the daughter of a financial backer.Menjou is in Peter Sellers-mode as a zany Russian impresario hired to stage a summer spectacle at a resort. He steals every scene he's in.
- DirectorGregory La CavaStarsKatharine HepburnGinger RogersAdolphe MenjouA chronicle of the ambitions, dreams, and disappointments of aspiring actresses who all live in the same boarding house.Surrounded by a superb female ensemble, Menjou plays a womanizing Broadway producer who cares little about the hopes and dreams of the actresses he's too busy to see.
- DirectorJack HivelyStarsAdolphe MenjouGloria SwansonJohn HowardFrederick Osborne Junior is slightly agitated because his father, Senior, is acting more like a college student than the president of a huge mercantile fleet. Senior reveals that he is going to marry Leslie Collier, the famous stage star, and Junior and his wife Enid are horrified and expect the worst from the hot-tempered father and the volatile actress. They have been married only five minutes before they have a quarrel, and have to be carried out of the house to begin a sea-voyage honeymoon. Carlos, a penniless stowaway with a high opinion of his singing ability, is invited to stay with Senior and his bride when they return to New York, with the idea that sponsoring Carlos' career will give Leslie the limelight she promised to forego when she married Senior. The routine of arranging Carlos' debut disrupts the Osborne home and Senior goes home to the children. To save Senior's marriage, Junior and Enid invite Carlos to stay in their home. Junior too soon stalks out. Senior and Junior's solution to save their marriages is to finance Carlos' career in the farthest-away place they can find, and still effect a reconciliation with the wives.Menjou gets the rare opportunity to star in this comedy that twists the newlywed story to have the elder generation (Menjou and second-wife Gloria Swanson) as the giddy couple, with the younger generation (the son and daughter-in-law) as the wise mentors.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanJack ConwayVictor FlemingStarsJanet GaynorFredric MarchAdolphe MenjouA young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, and achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him.In this classic Hollywood Cinderella tale, Menjou plays a movie producer who is a friend and father figure to a washed-up actor and the starlet he discovers.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKirk DouglasRalph MeekerAdolphe MenjouAfter a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.An older Menjou plays the villain in this Stanley Kubrick war film. A snobby French general who sees soldiers as mere pawns and who'd sacrifice men's lives to preserve the reputation of the officer class.
- DirectorHenry KosterStarsDeanna DurbinAdolphe MenjouAlice BradyThe daughter of a struggling musician forms a symphony orchestra made up of his unemployed friends and through persistence, charm and a few misunderstandings, is able to get Leopold Stokowski to lead them in a concert that leads to a radio contract.Menjou in one of his most sympathetic roles, as a down-on-his-luck musician struggling to provide for his daughter (singing star Deanna Durbin).
- DirectorFrank BorzageStarsGary CooperHelen HayesAdolphe MenjouAn American ambulance driver and an English nurse fall in love in Italy during World War I.During WWI, Gary Cooper finds romance with nurse Helen Hayes. Menjou plays Cooper's Italian army buddy, a superior officer who could create enough trouble to keep the two lovers apart.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsGinger RogersAdolphe MenjouGeorge MontgomeryRoxie Hart signs a murder confession in order to attract publicity for her dancing career as dames don't swing in Cook County. Will everything go as planned?Menjou plays slick lawyer Billy Flynn in this earlier version of the "Chicago" story, about a murderess at the center of a publicity circus.
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsEddie FisherDebbie ReynoldsAdolphe MenjouAfter finding a baby outside an orphanage, a salesgirl receives sympathy from those around her, including her boss' son, as they all assume the baby is hers.In this musical remake of "Bachelor Mother", Menjou plays Eddie Fisher's father, a wealthy department store owner. It's a late-career role for Menjou, and offers a rare glimpse of him in color.
- DirectorGeorge MelfordStarsRudolph ValentinoAgnes AyresRuth MillerA charming Arabian sheik becomes infatuated with an adventurous, modern-thinking Englishwoman and abducts her to his home in the Saharan desert.As an added bonus, check out Menjou earlier in his career in this landmark silent film. The movie made Rudolph Valentino a sex symbol, but Menjou plays Valentino's European friend, visiting him in the deserts of Araby.