Films
Personal Appearance was adapted for the screen by Mae West: It became Go West, Young Man, which was directed by Henry Hathaway. The film stars West in a rare instance of a role not originally conceived for her. The supporting cast includes Randolph Scott. The film was released in 1936 by Paramount and following its success, Riley was launched on a second career as a screenwriter--a somewhat ironical development in view of Riley's satire of Hollywood in Personal Appearance.
Riley's obituary in The New York Times, mentions the 1937 version of Kid Galahad (directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bette Davis and Edward G. Robinson) among his screenplays, although his contribution to that script is not officially credited.
However, Riley is duly credited in the other film of Curtiz (co-directed by its producer, Herbert B. Leonard) released that same year: The Perfect Specimen. On that screenplay, Riley collaborated with Albert Beich, Fritz Falkenstein, N. Brewster Morse and Norman Reilly Raine. This Warner Bros. comedy is based on a story by Samuel Hopkins Adams. In this film, Errol Flynn plays a reclusive millionaire who gets to see how less-fortunate people live thanks to the efforts of an enterprising journalist played by Joan Blondell.
Ever Since Eve is another 1937 Warner Bros. comedy on which Riley worked. It was directed by Lloyd Bacon and derived from a short story by Gene Baker and Margaret Lee. Riley shared screenwriting credits with Earl W. Baldwin and Lillie Hayward (the dialogue by Brown Holmes was uncredited). The plot concerns an attractive office girl, played by Marion Davies, who masks her sex-appeal by wearing horn-rimmed glasses and dressing conservatively in order to discourage men's attentions. Her ploy fails when her boss, played by Robert Montgomery, catches her in her casual attire.
In 1939, Warner Bros. released On Your Toes, a musical directed by Ray Enright. The stage production of the same name had been a smash on Broadway, with the book by George Abbott, Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers; the music by Rodgers and the lyrics by Hart. Riley, Richard Macaulay, Jerry Wald and Sig Herzig wrote its screen adaptation. Choreographed by Balanchine, On your Toes tells the story of a vaudeville composer, played by Eddie Albert, with lofty aspirations, which he hopes to fulfill through his girlfriend, played by Vera Zorina, who is a member of a Russian dance troupe.
Four years later, Riley collaborated with Ben Barzman and Louis Lantz on the script of another musical, Universal's You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith (1943). It was directed by Felix E. Feist and is based on a story by Oscar Brodney. In it, a matchmaker, played by Patsy O'Connor, intervenes in a planned wedding by trying to substitute her brother, played by Allan Jones, for the intended groom.
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