LDC Stills, Part 3: More Faces of 1930s Hollywood

Posted on July 21, 2026 by Don Taylor

By Don Taylor

This week I continue working through the box of 1930s movie stills from the Linwood Dyer Collection. All five of today’s photographs carry printed studio captions identifying the film and its stars, which makes tracking down the cast and their life stories a bit easier than usual. four are Paramount Pictures releases, one is a Trafalgar Films production released through United Artists, and all appear to be original vintage press photos rather than later reproductions.

Movie: Love from a Stranger (1937)

[Photo — left to right: a man, and three women, dressed for the outdoors, gathered in an elegant drawing room]
Still from “Love from a Stranger,” featuring (left to right) Basil Rathbone, Jean Cadell or Binnie Hale, Binnie Hale or Jean Cadell, and Ann Harding

This photo carries the printed credit “Trafalgar Films present ANN HARDING with Basil Rathbone in ‘Love from a Stranger,’ A Max Schach Production, Released Thru United Artists.” The 1937 British thriller, based on an Agatha Christie short story by way of a Frank Vosper stage play, follows Carol Howard (Ann Harding), a working girl who wins a lottery and marries a charming stranger, Gerald Lovell (Basil Rathbone), who turns out to be a serial killer targeting wealthy wives. Four figures appear in this still: Rathbone as Gerald on the left, two women to the left, most likely Carol’s Aunt Lou (Jean Cadell) and her friend Kate (Binnie Hale), though which is which isn’t certain from this angle; Ann Harding as Carol on the right, styled in a satin dress holding a small clutch.

Basil Rathbone (1892–1967)

  • Born Philip St. John Basil Rathbone on June 13, 1892, in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in Derbyshire, England.
  • Called up into the British Army in 1915 as a private with the London Scottish Regiment; commissioned as a lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish (2/10th Battalion, King’s Liverpool Regiment), where he served as an intelligence officer and rose to captain. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery in World War I.
  • Married actress Ethel Marion Foreman in 1914; divorced in 1926. Married writer Ouida Bergère later that same year.
  • Best remembered for playing Sherlock Holmes in fourteen films between 1939 and 1946.
  • Died July 21, 1967.

Ann Harding (1902–1981)

  • Born Dorothy Walton Gatley on August 7, 1902, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.
  • Married actor Harry Bannister on October 22, 1926; divorced in 1932.
  • Married symphony conductor Werner Janssen on January 13, 1937; divorced in 1962.
  • Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Holiday (1930).
  • Died September 1, 1981, in Sherman Oaks, California, at age 79.

Binnie Hale (1899–1984)

  • Born Beatrice Mary Hale-Monro on May 22, 1899, in Liverpool, England.
  • One of the most successful London musical theatre stars of the 1920s and 1930s, best remembered for No, No, Nanette (1925) and Mr. Cinders (1929).
  • Married actor Jack Raine in 1924; the couple had a daughter, Patricia, in 1930; they divorced in 1935.
  • Died January 10, 1984.

Jean Cadell (1884–1967)

  • Born Jean Dunlop Cadell on September 13, 1884, in Edinburgh, Scotland.
  • A prolific Scottish character actress on stage and screen for over five decades.
  • Died September 29, 1967.

Movie: My American Wife (1936)

Photo — a weathered older man in a plaid shirt greeting two women outdoors among desert cacti
Still from “My American Wife,” featuring Fred Stone, Ann Sothern, and Billie Burke

The printed caption reads “Francis Lederer and Ann Sothern in ‘My American Wife’ with Fred Stone, Billie Burke, Ernest Cossart, Grant Mitchell. A Paramount Picture.” Released August 7, 1936, the comedy follows Count Ferdinand von und zu Reidenach, who arrives in the fictional Smelter City, Arizona, with his new American bride, Mary Cantillon. This still captures Mary’s grandfather Lafe Cantillon (Fred Stone), the grizzled Arizona rancher who founded the town and disapproves of the match, greeting Mary (Ann Sothern) and her socially ambitious mother (Billie Burke), who is thrilled her daughter is now a countess.

Fred Stone (1873–1959)

  • Born August 19, 1873, in Valmont, Colorado.
  • Began performing in circuses and minstrel shows before becoming a vaudeville and Broadway star, notably as the Scarecrow opposite David C. Montgomery in The Wizard of Oz stage musical, a partnership that lasted 22 years until Montgomery’s death in 1917.
  • Married Allene Crater, whom he met while she was in the Oz cast; their daughters Dorothy, Paula, and Carol also appeared on stage and screen.
  • Died March 6, 1959.

Ann Sothern (1909–2001)

  • Born Harriette Arlene Lake on January 22, 1909, in Valley City, North Dakota.
  • Married actor and bandleader Roger Pryor in September 1936; the divorce was finalized in May 1943.
  • Married actor Robert Sterling less than a week later; the couple had a daughter, Patricia “Tisha” Sterling, before divorcing in 1949.
  • Died March 15, 2001, of heart failure at her home in Ketchum, Idaho.

Billie Burke (1884–1970)

  • Born Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke on August 7, 1884.
  • Married Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. in 1914; the couple had a daughter, Patricia, in 1916. The marriage lasted until Ziegfeld’s death on July 22, 1932.
  • Best remembered today as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz (1939); nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Merrily We Live (1938).
  • Died May 14, 1970.

Movie: Swing High, Swing Low (1937)

Photo — a woman in a polka-dot dress and sailor cap in conversation with a man, in an office setting with birdcages
Still from “Swing High, Swing Low,” featuring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray

The printed caption reads “Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray in ‘Swing High, Swing Low’ with Charles Butterworth, Jean Dixon, Dorothy Lamour and Harvey Stephens. A Paramount Picture.” Released in 1937 and directed by Mitchell Leisen, the romantic drama is the second of three film versions of the Broadway play Burlesque, following Maggie King (Lombard), a manicurist who falls for trumpet-playing soldier Skid Johnson (MacMurray) and follows him into a turbulent show-business romance.

Carole Lombard (1908–1942)

  • Born Jane Alice Peters on October 6, 1908, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
  • Married actor William Powell in 1931; divorced in 1933.
  • Married actor Clark Gable in 1939, after meeting him in 1932 on the set of No Man of Her Own.
  • Died January 16, 1942, at age 33, in the crash of TWA Flight 3 on Mount Potosi, Nevada, while returning home from a World War II war bond tour.

Fred MacMurray (1908–1991)

  • Born August 30, 1908, in Kankakee, Illinois.
  • Married Lillian “Lily” Lamont on June 20, 1936; the couple adopted two children. Following her death, he married actress June Haver.
  • Attempted to enlist during World War II but was rejected on medical grounds; instead sold war bonds and served as an air-raid warden in his Brentwood neighborhood.
  • Died November 5, 1991, of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California.

Movie: Blonde Trouble (1937)

Photo — a young woman in a plaid dress and bow-trimmed hat greeted by an ol
Still from “Blonde Trouble,” featuring Eleanore Whitney and Barlowe Borland

The printed caption reads “‘Blonde Trouble’ with Eleanore Whitney, Johnny Downs, Lynne Overman, Terry Walker, Benny Baker, William Demarest, John Patterson, El Brendel, Barlowe Borland. A Paramount Picture.” The 1937 musical comedy, based on the 1929 stage musical June Moon, follows aspiring songwriter Fred Stevens as he travels to New York and falls for dentist’s-office employee Edna Baker, only to be led astray by a gold-digging social climber. The bald character actor greeting a traveling Edna in this still appears to be Barlowe Borland, who played the supporting role of Goebel.

Eleanore Whitney (1917–1983)

  • Born April 12, 1917, in Cleveland, Ohio.
  • A tap dancer discovered by Bill Robinson, she toured vaudeville with Rae Samuels before working alongside Rudy Vallée and Jack Benny.
  • Married attorney Frederick Backer in 1939, after which she left acting and moved with him to New York; he later became a New York Supreme Court judge.
  • Died November 1, 1983.

Barlowe Borland (1877–1948)

  • Born Frank Barlowe Borland on August 6, 1877, in Greenock, Scotland.
  • A character actor best known for playing waiters, butlers, judges, and other supporting roles, including in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and A Tale of Two Cities (1935).
  • Married actress Francesca Redding.
  • Died August 31, 1948, in Woodland Hills, California, following complications from ulcer surgery.

Movie: Valiant Is the Word for Carrie (1936)

[]

Photo — five figures gathered in an elegantly furnished parlor: a standing couple at left and three seated figures to the right
Still from “Valiant Is the Word for Carrie,” featuring (left to right) John Howard, Arline Judge, Gladys George, Dudley Digges, and Isabel Jewell

The printed caption reads “‘Valiant Is the Word for Carrie’ with Gladys George, Arline Judge, John Howard, Dudley Digges, Harry Carey and Isabel Jewell. A Paramount Picture.” Released in 1936 and based on Barry Benefield’s novel, the drama follows Carrie Snyder (Gladys George), a prostitute driven from a small Southern town after befriending the young son of a dying woman. The role earned George her only Academy Award nomination. Although the studio caption lists all six of the film’s principal players, only five appear in this particular still: John Howard and Arline Judge stand at left as the grown Paul and Lady; Gladys George, in the jeweled velvet gown, is seated at center as Carrie; Dudley Digges, the publisher, sits beside her; and Isabel Jewell, as Lili, is seated at far right in a fur-trimmed coat. Harry Carey, who plays Carrie’s lawyer friend, does not appear in this shot.

Gladys George (1904–1954)

  • Born September 13, 1904, in Patten, Maine, to British parents.
  • Married four times: actor Ben Erway (1922–1930); paper manufacturer Edward Fowler; actor Leonard Penn (married 1935); and Kenneth Bradley, a hotel bellboy twenty years her junior.
  • Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Valiant Is the Word for Carrie (1936).
  • Died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1954 in Los Angeles, at age 50.

Arline Judge (1912–1974)

  • Born February 21, 1912.
  • Married seven times, including to director Wesley Ruggles (1931–1937) and to Dan Topping (married within hours of divorcing Ruggles), with whom she had a son, Dan Topping Jr. Topping later co-owned the New York Yankees.
  • Died February 7, 1974, in her West Hollywood apartment, at age 61.

John Howard (1913–1995)

  • Born John Richard Cox Jr. on April 14, 1913, in Cleveland, Ohio; a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of what is now Case Western Reserve University.
  • Best remembered for playing Bulldog Drummond in seven Paramount films and for roles in Lost Horizon (1937) and The Philadelphia Story (1940).
  • Served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War II.
  • Married actress Eva Ralf in 1954, a union that lasted until his death and produced four children.
  • Died February 19, 1995.

Dudley Digges (1879–1947)

  • Born John Dudley Digges on June 9, 1879, in Ranelagh, Dublin, Ireland.
  • Trained and began his acting career in Ireland before spending the bulk of his 43-year career on the American stage and in over 50 films.
  • Married Irish actress Maire Quinn on August 27, 1907; they remained married until her death in August 1947.
  • Died of a stroke just two months later, on October 24, 1947, in his Manhattan apartment.

Harry Carey (1878–1947)

  • Born Henry DeWitt Carey II on January 16, 1878, in the Bronx, New York.
  • Married actress Olive Fuller Golden in 1920; they remained together until his death and had two children, Harry Carey Jr. and Ella “Cappy” Carey.
  • Died September 21, 1947.

Isabel Jewell (1907–1972)

  • Born July 19, 1907, in Shoshoni, Wyoming.
  • Married Lovell “Cowboy” Underwood at age nineteen; later married radio personality Owen “Walter” Crump in 1936; married actor Paul Marion (then a private in the U.S. Army) in 1941, separating in 1943 and divorcing in 1944.
  • Known for roles in A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizon (1937), and Gone with the Wind (1939).
  • Died April 5, 1972.

Conclusion

From a British murder-mystery drawing room to an Arizona ranch, a Panama waterfront office, a bustling train station, and a genteel Southern parlor, these five stills capture the range of Paramount’s and Trafalgar’s output in the mid-1930s — and the tangled, often turbulent lives of the performers who filled the frame. The original vintage prints featured above are available for purchase — $25 each, or all five for $100. If you’re interested in adding a piece of Hollywood history to your own collection, feel free to reach out. Stay tuned for Part 3 as I continue working through more stills from the period. Stay tuned for Part 4 as I continue working through the rest of the box.

Sources

Disclosure: This post was written and researched by the author, with research assistance from Claude.ai.

This entry was posted in Linwood Dyer Collection, Photo Collections, Uncategorized, Vintage Photos and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.