It’s kind of fun, isn’t it, to imagine a time when Jimmy Stewart was known primarily as a Broadway actor and his successful transition to the silver screen was not at all a certainty.

Here’s what Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times wrote on January 31, 1936, of Stewart’s performance in one of his very first movie roles, in Next Time We Love:

James Stewart, known to playgoers for his work in “Yellow Jack,” “Divided by Three” and “Page Miss Glory,” promises in this his first picture to reach New York to be a welcome addition to the roster of Hollywood’s leading men.