This Is My Affair | |
---|---|
Directed by | William A. Seiter |
Written by | Kubec Glasmon (contributor to screenplay construction) (uncredited) Wallace Sullivan (contributor to treatment) (uncredited) |
Screenplay by | Allen Rivkin Lamar Trotti |
Story by | Allen Rivkin Lamar Trotti Darryl F. Zanuck (uncredited) |
Produced by | Kenneth Macgowan |
Starring | Robert Taylor Barbara Stanwyck Victor McLaglen Brian Donlevy |
Cinematography | Robert H. Planck |
Edited by | Allen McNeil |
Music by | Arthur Lange Charles Maxwell |
Production company | |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
This Is My Affair is a 1937 American period crime film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, Victor McLaglen and Brian Donlevy. It was produced and released by 20th Century Fox.
In 1901, US President William McKinley is put under great pressure by everyone, even US Bank Examiner Henry Maxwell, to do something about a gang of bank robbers nobody has been able to bring to justice. He sends U.S. Navy Lieutenant Richard L. Perry undercover without notifying anyone, not even the Secret Service.
Richard, using the alias Joe Patrick, makes a pass at singer Lil Duryea. Her stepbrother, Batiste, not only owns the casino in Saint Paul, Minnesota where she performs, but is also one of the ringleaders of the gang. Lil takes a liking to Joe, but since Batiste's hulking right-hand man, Jock Ramsay, considers her his girl, she tries to brush Joe off. Joe is undeterred and soon persuades her to go out with him whenever Batiste and Jock leave town on one of their robberies.
When Batiste learns that Lil loves Joe and is convinced that he is a bank robber himself, Batiste invites Joe to join the gang. Later, though, Lil tries to talk Joe into running away with her. He agrees, even writing a letter of resignation addressed to McKinley, but changes his mind. He has yet to learn the identity of the mastermind behind the whole thing. As a result, however, Lil breaks up with him.
Joe notifies the President about the next robbery, hoping that when they are caught, he can find out the boss's name. Batiste is killed and Jock wounded when they put up a fight.
In prison, Joe works on Jock, finally getting him to reveal that the Bank Examiner is the mastermind. However, McKinley is shot before getting Joe's letter. Nobody believes Joe's story, and both he and Jock are sentenced to death.
When Lil visits him, he confesses everything and begs her to go to see Admiral George Dewey. Embittered that he lied to her and got her stepbrother killed, Lil refuses, but as the executions near, she rushes to George. Together, they go to see the new President, Theodore Roosevelt. He does not believe her until an official finally remembers McKinley instructing him to read a secret paper in the event of a letter being received with a certain symbol on it and him being unavailable. Convinced, Roosevelt telephones just after Jock's execution and before Joe's. Afterward, Joe and Lil are reunited.
Writing for Night and Day in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a good review, asserting that it was "the best American melodrama of the year". Although Greene notes the unrealistic aspects of the plot, he praises the "cunning direction" and expresses enjoyment of the tension-imbuing "sense of doom" present in many scenes. Greene also praised the acting of both Taylor and McLaglen. [1]
William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely dominant in the industrial states and nationwide for decades. He presided over victory in the Spanish–American War of 1898; gained control of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; restored prosperity after a deep depression; rejected the inflationary monetary policy of free silver, keeping the nation on the gold standard; and raised protective tariffs.
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 6, 1900. Incumbent Republican President William McKinley defeated his Democratic challenger, William Jennings Bryan. McKinley's victory made him the eighth president to win consecutive re-election and first since Ulysses S. Grant accomplished the same feat in 1872. Until 1956, this would be the last time in which an incumbent Republican president would win re-election after serving a full term in office. This election saw the fifth rematch in presidential history but the first to produce the same winner both times; neither would occur again until 1956.
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic screen presence and versatility. She was a favorite of directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra, and made 85 films in 38 years before turning to television.
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William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, was shot on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, six months into his second term. He was shaking hands with the public when an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, shot him twice in the abdomen. McKinley died on September 14 of gangrene caused by the wounds. He was the third American president to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881.
Wee Willie Winkie is a 1937 American adventure drama film directed by John Ford and starring Shirley Temple, Victor McLaglen, and Cesar Romero. The screenplay by Julien Josephson and Ernest Pascal was based on a story by Rudyard Kipling. The film's story concerns the British presence in 19th-century India. The production was filmed largely at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, where a number of elaborate sets were built for the film. This film was the first of three in which Shirley Temple and Cesar Romero appeared together: the second was Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937), and finally The Little Princess (1939).
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