Chester MorrisFilmography

The She-Creature

Actors: Chester Morris, Marla English, Tom Conway, Cathy Downs, Lance Fuller

Synopsis: The lovely assistant of an evil hypnotist has no idea that she is the descendant of a horrifying prehistoric sea monster she is mesmerized by her boss. When the monster comes forth, she goes on a killing spree. A promoter learns about the hypnotist's shenanigans and figures a way to cash in on the Read More

Unchained

Actors: Barbara Hale, Chester Morris, Todd Duncan, Johnny Johnston

Synopsis: This fact-based prison drama tells the tale of a band of prisoners living in the innovative 2,600-acre prison at Chino, California. The place takes a humanistic approach to reform and there are no armed guards, no lockups and no uniforms. The underlying philosophy is that if these things are not Read More

Frances Langford, Don Ameche Show

Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture

Actors: Chester Morris, Joan Woodbury, Richard Lane, Don McGuire

Synopsis: In this final episode of the Boston Blackie mystery series, our hero and his side-kick find themselves accused of murder after they are seen exiting a Chinese laundry where the proprietor is soon found murdered. Blackie must find the real killers before he gets in real trouble. Action and mystery Read More

Trapped by Boston Blackie

Actors: Chester Morris, June Vincent, Richard Lane, Patricia White, Edward Norris

Synopsis: Who better to guard a priceless pearl necklace than an ex-thief? That's the logic behind Trapped by Boston Blackie, starring Chester Morris in the title role. Blackie finds himself posing as a guard at a society party, where the hostess (Sarah Selby) intends to display her new necklace. The Read More

Blind Spot

Synopsis: Chester Morris plays a mystery writer who bears a grudge against his publisher. Morris is mad enough to get blind drunk, but is he mad enough to kill? When the publisher is indeed murdered, Morris tops the suspect list. To clear himself, he uses his own skills as a writer of whodunits to ascertain Read More

The Phantom Thief

Synopsis: Boston Blackie is back and in hot pursuit of a jewel thief and killer in this mystery. The reformed thief soon tracks the thief to the domicile of a suspicious spiritualist. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

A Close Call for Boston Blackie

Actors: Chester Morris, Lynn Merrick, Richard Lane, Frank Sully, George E. Stone

Synopsis: In this episode of the popular mystery series, the crook turned sleuth must clear his name after he is accused of murder. To help him, Blackie enlists the aid of his pal. Together they reveal the real murderer before the Inspector can put Blackie back in jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

One Way to Love

Actors: Willard Parker, Marguerite Chapman, Chester Morris, Janis Carter, Hugh Herbert

Synopsis: In this comedy, a Chicago team of radio scriptwriters must split up when he takes a job with his bride-to-be's father, and the other must write commercial jingles. Their agent then appears and tells them they have a $1,000 per week assignment in Tinseltown provided they work together. They accept Read More

Boston Blackie and the Law

Actors: Chester Morris, Trudy Marshall, Constance Dowling, Richard Lane, George E. Stone

Synopsis: This twelfth entry in Columbia's "Boston Blackie" series is essentially a remake of 1942's Alias Boston Blackie. In the original, a falsely accused convict (Larry Parks) escapes while Blackie (Chester Morris) is putting on a magic show for a men's prison, prompting Blackie to stop the escapee Read More

Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion

Synopsis: In this lively entry in the Boston Blackie mysteries, Blackie gets in trouble when he helps a friend auction off a first-edition Charles Dickens book and discovers that it was counterfeit. As a result of his involvement in the con, Blackie must clear himself after being accused of murder. ~ Sandra Read More

Boston Blackie's Rendezvous

Actors: Chester Morris, Nina Foch, Steve Cochran, Richard Lane, George E. Stone

Synopsis: Boston Blackie's Rendezvous quite transcended its B-picture origins, and was easily the best of Columbia's "Boston Blackie" series. In this one, crook-turned-sleuth Blackie (Chester Morris) tries to track down homicidal maniac James Cook (Steve Cochran). This time it's personal: Cook has been Read More

Rough, Tough and Ready

Actors: Chester Morris, Victor McLaglen, Jean Rogers, Amelita Ward

Synopsis: Rough, Tough, and Ready looks a great deal like all those Victor McLaglen - Edmund Lowe "friendly enemy" actionfests of the 1920s and 1930s. Indeed, McLaglen stars in the film as Owen McCarey, though the "Edmund Lowe" part, Brad Crowder, goes to Chester Morris. The story is the old bromide about Read More

Double Exposure

Actors: Chester Morris, Nancy Kelly, Phillip Terry, Jane Farrar, Richard Gaines

Synopsis: This breezy Pine-Thomas actioner is all about a team of ace news photographers. Chester Morris plays Larry Burke, editor for a weekly photo magazine. Impressed by the work of photojournalist Pat Marvin, Burke hires Marvin sight unseen, only to discover that "he" is a "she" (Nancy Kelly). Having Read More

Gambler's Choice

Actors: Chester Morris, Nancy Kelly, Russell Hayden, Sheldon Leonard, Lee Patrick

Synopsis: Paramount's Pine-Thomas production unit continued its unbroken string of box-office successes with Gambler's Choice. Pine-Thomas perennial Chester Morris plays turn-of-the-century gambler Ross Hadley, owner of a posh gaming establishment in the heart of New York. Hadley's chief antagonist is his Read More

Secret Command

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Carole Landis, Chester Morris, Ruth Warrick, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: Secret Command features Pat O'Brien as a onetime foreign correspondent in the wartime employ of the FBI. Under an assumed name, O'Brien goes to work at a shipyard, intending to keep both eyes open for potential saboteurs. To maintain the cover, O'Brien is given a "wife" (Carole Landis) and two Read More

One Mysterious Night

Actors: Chester Morris, Richard Lane, Janis Carter, William Wright, Robert B. Williams

Synopsis: A nebulously sinister title disguises the fact that this is actually a "Boston Blackie" mystery, the seventh in Columbia's series. Reformed criminal Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) is accused of stealing the Niles diamond from a charity function. The police cut a deal with Blackie: If he'll locate Read More

High Explosive

Actors: Chester Morris, Jean Parker, Barry Sullivan, Rand Brooks, Barbara Lynn

Synopsis: High Explosive is a Hollywood "B" precursor to the later, more critically lionized The Wages of Fear. Chester Morris plays a two-fisted trucker who takes on a deadly assignment: Transporting nitroglycerin over bumpy terrain. As half the supporting cast is blown to smithereens, Morris persists in Read More

The Chance of a Lifetime

Actors: Chester Morris, Erik Rolf, Jeanne Bates, Richard Lane, George E. Stone

Synopsis: This lively entry in the "Boston Blackie" series finds Blackie (Chester Morris) acting as spiritual leader of a group of ex-convicts. The plan is for the former inmates to redeem themselves by working in a defense plant. Only problem: some of the cons (Douglas Fowley, Arthur Hunnicutt et. al.) Read More

Tornado

Actors: Chester Morris, Nancy Kelly, Joe Sawyer, Gwen Kenyon

Synopsis: Paramount's Pine-Thomas unit continued humming profitably along with 1943's Tornado. Chester Morris (who eventually appeared in eight Pine-Thomas efforts) stars as coal miner Pete Ramsey, who falls in love with, and secretly marries, scheming showgirl Victory Kane (Nancy Kelly). Anxious to escape Read More

Seven Miles from Alcatraz

Actors: James Craig, Bonita Granville, Frank Jenks, Cliff Edwards, George Cleveland

Synopsis: For his first directorial assignment at RKO Radio, Edward Dmytryk was handed the mile-a-minute topical meller Seven Miles From Alcatraz. James Craig and Frank Jenks star as cynical Alcatraz inmates Champ and Jimbo, who manage to escape from the "rock" and then take refuge in the lighthouse Read More

After Midnight With Boston Blackie

Actors: Chester Morris, Richard Lane, George E. Stone, Cy Kendall, George McKay

Synopsis: In this entry in the "Boston Blackie" series, the reformed crook meets his former lover who tells him that her father has just been freed from prison and that he is heading out to a safe deposit box where he hid a sack of diamonds. The good daughter wants her father to return the rocks and reform Read More

Aerial Gunner

Actors: Chester Morris, Richard Arlen, Lita Ward, Jimmy Lydon, Dick Purcell

Synopsis: A wounded aerial gunner tells his story in this wartime propaganda film. He begins with his recruitment and basic training before the war. There he discovers that his sergeant is one of his foes, and that both of them are fighting for the affection of the lovely sister of a fellow recruit who Read More

Alias Boston Blackie

Synopsis: In this entry in the "Boston Blackie" series, the suave ex-thief returns to prison to see a Christmas show. There he is impressed by the talent of the inmates. One particularly talented fellow uses his magic act to break out of prison. Now Blackie must find him. Meanwhile the fugitive searches for Read More

Canal Zone

Synopsis: Another timely entry from the Columbia assembly line, Canal Zone stars Chester Morris as flight instructor "Hardtack" Hamilton (his nickname sums up his personality with sublime perfection). Our hero's students will eventually help ferry bombing planes across the Atlantic-with the possible Read More

Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood

Synopsis: Reformed criminal Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) and his pal "The Runt" (George E. Stone) obey the film's title and head for Tinseltown. Blackie has been asked by a friend to transport $60,000 to California, but the L.A. cops assume that he's involved in the disappearance of the valuable Monterey Read More

Wrecking Crew

Actors: Richard Arlen, Chester Morris, Jean Parker, Joe Sawyer, Esther Dale

Synopsis: No relation to the much-later "Matt Helm" spy comedy of the same name, Pine-Thomas Productions' The Wrecking Crew serves as a virile vehicle for Richard Arlen and Chester Morris. The stars appear respectively as a demolition-crew boss and his top worker. Morris has earned a reputation as a "jinx" Read More

I Live on Danger

Actors: Chester Morris, Jean Parker, Elizabeth Risdon, Edward Norris, Dick Purcell

Synopsis: I Live on Danger is a fast-moving thriller with strong performances and top-notch direction -- by former screenwriter Sam White -- which overcomes some weaknesses in the plot. Jeff Morrell (Chester Morris) is a newscaster who gets involved in saving wrongly accused Eddie Nelson (Edward Norris) Read More

Confessions of Boston Blackie

Actors: Chester Morris, Richard Lane, George E. Stone, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: Chester Morris makes his second screen appearance as crook-turned-detective Boston Blackie in this superior series entry. This time, Blackie gets into trouble when he attends an art auction with his millionaire pal Arthur Manleder (Lloyd Corrigan). It so happens that the auction gallery is run by Read More

Meet Boston Blackie

Actors: Chester Morris, Rochelle Hudson, Richard Lane, Charles Wagenheim, Constance Worth

Synopsis: Boston Blackie, the suave crook-turned-detective created in 1910 by pulp writer Donald Boyle, had been popping up sporadically in films for nearly two decades by the time Columbia launched its "Boston Blackie" series in 1941. Chester Morris starred as the title character in Meet Boston Blackie Read More

No Hands on the Clock

Actors: Chester Morris, Jean Parker, Rose Hobart, Dick Purcell, Astrid Allwyn

Synopsis: Detective Chester Morris and his nosy wife Jean Parker set up housekeeping in a small Reno hotel room, whence Morris conducts his investigation of a kidnap case. It appears that the abduction has some tenuous connection with a recent bank robbery. As Morris digs deeper, he finds that virtually all Read More

The Marines Fly High

Actors: Richard Dix, Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Steffi Duna, John Eldredge

Synopsis: Set in the Central American jungle, Lucille Ball plays plantation owner Joan Grant in The Marines Fly High. When a platoon of US Marines need a safe place to stay, Joan (Ball) allows them inside of her home, oblivious to the fact that two of the Marines would later compete for her affections. All Read More

Wagons Westward

Actors: Chester Morris, Anita Louise, Buck Jones, Ona Munson, George "Gabby" Hayes

Synopsis: In this western, two disparate twins ride the range. One is a real troublemaker while the other is a government agent. When the bad brother is sent to prison, the good one begins posing as him so he can capture two outlaws. He does so, but then finds himself accosted by an angry dance-hall girl Read More

Girl from God's Country

Actors: Chester Morris, Jane Wyatt, Charles Bickford, Kate Lawson

Synopsis: In this drama, a devoted, caring physician leaves his home and moves to Alaska to escape arrest after he performs euthanasia upon his terminally ill father. In the ever-snowy reaches of northernmost Alaska, the doctor begins administering to the poverty-stricken Inuit. While he has willingly Read More

Pacific Liner

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Chester Morris, Wendy Barrie, Alan Hale, Barry Fitzgerald

Synopsis: An outbreak of cholera threatens a luxury liner in this surprisingly low-budget melodrama from RKO. En route from Shanghai to San Francisco, chief engineer Crusher McKay (Victor McLaglen) and shipboard doctor Tony Craig (Chester Morris) become rivals for the attention of nurse Ann Grayson (Wendy Read More

Blind Alley

Actors: Chester Morris, Ralph Bellamy, Ann Dvorak, Joan Perry, Melville Cooper

Synopsis: Blind Alley, directed by Charles Vidor is a chilling psychological drama in the film-noir tradition reminiscent of the fine melodrama The Desperate Hours. Hal Wilson (Chester Morris) is an escaped killer who hides out in the home of noted psychologist Dr. Shelby (Ralph Bellamy). While Wilson's Read More

Thunder Afloat

Actors: Wallace Beery, Chester Morris, Virginia Grey, Douglas Dumbrille, Carl Esmond

Synopsis: Thunder Afloat is set during the first world war. Wallace Beery plays an veteran tugboat captain who harbors a grudge against younger ex-pal Chester Morris. When Morris joins the navy as an officer, he runs across Beery, who resparks the feud. Both men bury the hatchet and work shoulder to Read More

Five Came Back

Actors: Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie, John Carradine, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: Often cited as a "model" B picture, Five Came Back is set in motion when the twelve-seat passenger plane "Southern Star" crashes into a treacherous South American jungle. With a hostile tribe of headhunters drawing ever closer, pilots Bill (Chester Morris) and Joe (Kent Taylor) race against time Read More

Smashing the Rackets

Actors: Chester Morris, Frances Mercer, Bruce Cabot, Rita Johnson, Donald Douglas

Synopsis: "Ripped from today's headlines", RKO Radio's Smashing the Rackets was inspired by the career of colorful New York district attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Chester Morris plays the Dewey character, here rechristened Jim Conway. Starting out as a G-Man, Conway is appointed special prosecutor of a Read More

Law of the Underworld

Actors: Chester Morris, Anne Shirley, Eduardo Ciannelli, Walter Abel, Richard Bond

Synopsis: When two lovers are framed for a jewelry store robbery in which the clerk was killed, the only person capable of saving them from the death penalty is the gangster who actually committed the crime. A remake of the 1930 thriller The Pay Off, Law of the Underworld tells the tale of Shirley and Bond Read More

Sky Giant

Actors: Richard Dix, Chester Morris, Joan Fontaine, Harry Carey, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: Handsome aerial footage highlights this rousing RKO adventure tale that combines a frozen-North survival drama with a romantic-triangle love story. Hard-bitten Col. Stockton (Harry Carey) trains young pilots for cargo flights, and forces W.R. "Stag" Cahill (Richard Dix) back into service to assist Read More

I Promise to Pay

Actors: Chester Morris, Leo Carrillo, Helen Mack, Thomas Mitchell, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: Chester Morris plays a working stiff unable to provide for his family on his meager salary. He arranges a loan with the seemingly benign Leo Carrillo, but soon learns that he can't keep up with the usurious interest payments. Carrillo's loan company is actually a racket in league with the local Read More

Flight from Glory

Actors: Chester Morris, Whitney Bourne, Onslow Stevens, Richard Lane, Van Heflin

Synopsis: This laudable RKO programmer casts Chester Morris as a fearless pilot whose misdeeds have exiled him to a remote flying field in the Andes mountains. Morris and his fellow pilots are all exiles of sorts, and as such are willing to take on the near-suicidal task of flying supplies to miners in the Read More

Devil's Playground

Actors: Richard Dix, Dolores Del Rio, Chester Morris, George McKay, John Gallaudet

Synopsis: A remake of Frank Capra's Submarine (1928), Devil's Playground is a snappy Columbia "B plus" picture starring Richard Dix and Chester Morris. Submarine officers Dorgan (Dix) and Mason (Morris) battle on land for the affections of dance-hall girl Carmen (Dolores del Rio). She marries Dorgan but Read More

They Met in a Taxi

Actors: Chester Morris, Fay Wray, Lionel Stander, Raymond Walburn, Henry Mollison

Synopsis: In this comedy, a model finds herself inadvertently embroiled in the theft of a society woman's valuable pearl necklace after modeling a wedding dress in the aristocrat's home. The pearls are hooked onto the hem of her voluminous dress. Afterward the model quickly flees the crime scene by diving Read More

Moonlight Murder

Actors: Chester Morris, Leo Carrillo, Frank McHugh, Benita Hume

Synopsis: Moonlight Murder takes place virtually in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl. Despite dire warnings by a sinister mystic (Pedro de Cordoba), opera-star Gino D'Acosta (Leo Carrillo) insists that he will sing in the Bowl's current production of Il Trovatore. He gets no farther than the "Anvil Read More

Miracle in the Sand

Actors: Chester Morris, Walter Brennan, Irene Hervey, Sidney Toler

Synopsis: In this western, three desperadoes rob the New Jerusalem Bank and flee across the desert where they find a seemingly abandoned covered wagon. They look inside and discover a dying woman and her newborn. The outlaws end up risking everything, including their loot, to get the woman and child to Read More

Frankie and Johnnie

Actors: Helen Morgan, Chester Morris, Florence Reed, Walter Kingsford, William Harrigan

Synopsis: This low-budget musical drama is based on the famous song and tells the story of Frankie, a cat-house singer (famed singer Helen Morgan), and the naive country boy Johnny who comes to St. Louis to seek his fortune. They fall in love and marry. Unfortunately, the country boy learns fast and soon Read More

Counterfeit

Actors: Chester Morris, Margot Grahame, Lloyd Nolan, Marian Marsh

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a federal agent goes undercover to join a gang of counterfeiters. He pretends to be a murder. The trouble begins when the gang kidnaps an engraver from Treasury Department. They force him to make a set of plates to print the fake cash. The agent manages to break up the ring. Read More

I've Been Around

Actors: Chester Morris, Rochelle Hudson, Isabel Jewell, Gene Lockhart, Phyllis Brooks

Synopsis: I've Been Around hinges on an unlikely case of mistaken identity. Society girl Drue Waring (Rochelle Hudson) mistakes roughneck engineer Eric Foster (Chester Morris) for the foppish Franklin DeHaven (G. P. Huntley Jr.) The two get married, but Eric walks out on Drue when he finds out that she's Read More

Public Hero No. 1

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Jean Arthur, Chester Morris, Joseph Calleia, Paul Kelly

Synopsis: The stringent censorship imposed upon Hollywood of the mid-1930s dictated that gangsters could no longer be the "heroes" in any crime film. Public Hero No. 1 reflects this restriction. G-Man Chester Morris poses as a crook to infiltrate the notorious Purple Gang, a band of hoodlums which preys Read More

Society Doctor

Actors: Chester Morris, Virginia Bruce, Robert Taylor, Billie Burke, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: A crusading physician supervises his own life-threatening operation in this farfetched potboiler from MGM, which marked Robert Taylor's first co-starring assignment. Taylor plays handsome Dr. Tommy Ellis, whose proposal of marriage is at first turned down by surgical nurse Madge Wilson (Virginia Read More

Pursuit

Actors: Chester Morris, Sally Eilers, Scotty Beckett, Henry Travers

Synopsis: Cruelly separated from his mother (Dorothy Peterson), little Donald McCoy (Scotty Beckett) is being robbed of his childhood by greedy relatives. Taking pity on the boy, pilot Mitchell (Chester Morris) "kidnaps" the kid and sets out to return him to his mom. Detective Maxine (Sally Eilers) Read More

Princess O'Hara

Actors: Jean Parker, Chester Morris, Leon Errol, Vince Barnett, Henry Armetta

Synopsis: This obscure Damon Runyon adaptation stars Jean Parker as Princess O'Hara, the spirited granddaughter of Central Park horse-carriage driver King O'Hara (Ralph M. Remley). When King's beloved horse dies, Princess tries to purchase a new nag, and that's how she inadvertently gets her hands on a Read More

The Gay Bride

Actors: Carole Lombard, Chester Morris, ZaSu Pitts, Leo Carrillo, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: Carole Lombard's only MGM film, The Gay Bride has been cited by some as a precursor to 1988's Married to the Mob -- only without the laughs. Adapted by the usually reliable Samuel and Bella Spewack from Charles Francis Coe's magazine story Repeal, the film charts the misadventures of gold-digging Read More

Embarrassing Moments

Actors: Chester Morris, Marian Nixon, John Wray, Alan Mowbray

Synopsis: Looking for all the world like a 2-reel comedy bloated to 6-reel proportions, Embarrassing Moments was directed by Edward Laemmle, one of the many salaried relatives of avuncular Universal chieftain Carl Laemmle. Chester Morris plays Jerry Randolph, an inveterate and obnoxious practical joker. Read More

Gift of Gab

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Gloria Stuart, Ruth Etting, Phil Baker

Synopsis: In this musical, a radio-announcer is fired after giving a false interview. For consolation he begins to drink heavily. It is his girlfriend who helps him sober up when she provides him with a major scoop--a missing airplane. He enthusiastically sets out after it and eventually finds it. As a Read More

Let's Talk It Over

Actors: Chester Morris, Mae Clarke, Frank Craven, John Warburton, Irene Ware

Synopsis: In this comedy, a wealthy socialite pursues a carefree playboy who isn't at all interested in her. After all her regular attention-getting ploys fail, the woman fakes a drowning accident in the hopes that he will save her. She is instead rescued by a brutish sailor whom she begins introducing to Read More

Infernal Machine

Actors: Chester Morris, Genevieve Tobin, Victor Jory, Elizabeth Patterson, James Bell

Synopsis: The infernal machine in question is a bomb controlled by a wireless operator and set aboard a New York bound ocean liner. No one knows it is there. Meanwhile the passengers go about their business. One of them, a stowaway pretends to be a classy fellow so he can pitch woo to a sophisticated lady. Read More

King for a Night

Actors: Chester Morris, Alice White, Helen Twelvetrees, John Miljan, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: In this boxing drama/murder mystery, an aspiring small-town prizefighter ignores the objections of his pacifistic father, a paraplegic minister, and decides to go for the championship middleweight title in New York city. There the young lad begins experimenting with a variety of vices as he rises Read More

Tomorrow at Seven

Actors: Chester Morris, Vivienne Osborne, Frank McHugh, Allen Jenkins, Henry Stephenson

Synopsis: Tomorrow at Seven is one of those "you will die at the appointed hour" murder mysteries which flooded the market in the early 1930s. An unknown killer considerately informs his victims-to-be of their imminent demises by mailing them the Ace of Spades-hence his nom-de-murder, "Mr. Ace." Novelist Chester Morris Read More

Blondie Johnson

Actors: Joan Blondell, Chester Morris, Allen Jenkins, Claire Dodd, Earl Foxe, Mae Busch

Synopsis: Set during the Depression, this crime drama centers upon a basically honest girl who is forced into prostitution by circumstance. She then becomes a gangster's moll where she learns a bitter lesson about the criminal life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Golden Harvest

Actors: Richard Arlen, Chester Morris, Genevieve Tobin, Roscoe Ates, Julie Haydon

Synopsis: A play by Nina Wilcox Putnam was the source for the empire-building drama Golden Harvest. Chester Morris stars as ambitious grain trader Chris Martin, who through fair and foul means corners the wheat market and becomes a millionaire. Outgrowing his humble farm beginnings, Chris makes a bid for Read More

Sinners in the Sun

Actors: Carole Lombard, Chester Morris, Adrienne Ames, Alison Skipworth, Walter Byron

Synopsis: Paramount Pictures seldom fully utilized the talents of contract player Carole Lombard, as witness such tedious programmers as Sinners in the Sun. Lombard plays Doris Blake, an elegant fashion model who spurns her auto-mechanic suitor Jimmy Martin (Chester Morris) in favor of married millionaire Read More

Breach of Promise

Actors: Chester Morris, Mae Clarke, Mary Doran, Theodore Von Eltz, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: In this drama, a politician must deal with the aftermath of a young girl's damning accusation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Red Headed Woman

Actors: Jean Harlow, Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Leila Hyams, Una Merkel

Synopsis: Jack Conway complained about being assigned to direct this comedy, claiming that a woman like the title character had almost ruined his own marriage. In a way he had a point , but only Jean Harlow could have made gold digger Lil Andrews a sympathetic protagonist. And Katherine Brush's racy novel Read More

The Miracle Man

Actors: Sylvia Sidney, Chester Morris, Irving Pichel, John Wray, Robert Coogan

Synopsis: A San Francisco gangster hot foots it out of town to cool down after his crime boss is suddenly killed. He ends up in a little coastal town where he begins devising one of the nastiest little con games around. It seems there is a faith healer in town with the ability to help the crippled walk Read More

Cock of the Air

Actors: Chester Morris, Billie Dove, Matt Moore, Walter Catlett, Luis Alberni

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy a demanding French actress is upset because she has not recently received the proper adulation from WW I Allies. To calm her down, a meeting is arranged between the actress and a charming Army official in Italy. Initially both of them resist the artificially designed Read More

Corsair

Actors: Chester Morris, William Austin, Frank McHugh, Emmett Corrigan

Synopsis: Of interest mainly because of the talent involved, this film remains a tepid bootleg melodrama about a small-town football hero attempting to prove that he is as ruthless as his rich girlfriend's father. Spoiled Alison Corning (Alison Loyd) persuades her Wall Street banker father (Emmett Corrigan) Read More

The Case of Sergeant Grischa

Actors: Chester Morris, Betty Compson, Alec B. Francis, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: This war drama, set in WW I Germany, is based on a novel by Arnold Zwieg. The story follows the harrowing trials of an escaped Russian POW trying to return to his home country. Along the way the Germans recapture him. Because he wears the dog tag of a late Russian spy, the innocent protagonist is Read More

Second Choice

Actors: Dolores Costello, Chester Morris, Jack Mulhall, Edna Murphy

Synopsis: Vallery Grove (Dolores Costello) may be high up the social ladder, but she hasn't a penny to her name thanks to her family's improvidence. Vallery is in love with Don Warren (Chester Morris), but he rejects her because of her present financial woes. Though she still loves Don, she marries Owen Read More

The Divorcée

Actors: Norma Shearer, Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel, Robert Montgomery, Florence Eldridge

Synopsis: Norma Shearer earned an Academy Award for playing the not so gay divorcée in this pre-Code offering based, loosely, on Ex-Wife, a 1929 Ursula Parrott novel. Shearer is Jerry, a socialite who marries handsome Ted (Chester Morris) after a whirlwind courtship. But Ted is not exactly the faithful type Read More

The Big House

Actors: Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Robert Montgomery, Leila Hyams, Lewis Stone

Synopsis: Not the first of the prison pictures, but the one that truly put the genre on the map. Playboy Kent (Robert Montgomery), driving drunk, kills a couple of pedestrians and is sentenced to a 10-year manslaughter term. His cellmate is forger Morgan (Chester Morris), a tough but essentially decent con; Read More

The Bat Whispers

Actors: Spencer Charters, Chester Morris, Una Merkel, William Bakewell, Chance Ward, Richard Tucker, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Wilson Benge

Synopsis: Magnificently restored by UCLA to its original "Grandeur" wide-screen format The Bat Whispers may not be a cinematic masterpiece but is certainly worth a second look. Opening with a series of flamboyant tracking shots, director Roland West soon enough settles down to the usual "Old House" Read More

She Couldn't Say No

Actors: Winnie Lightner, Chester Morris, Sally Eilers, Tully Marshall, Johnny Arthur

Synopsis: Its breezy, upbeat title notwithstanding, She Couldn't Say No leans heavily toward the melodramatic. Winnie Lightner plays Winnie Harper, a brassy cabaret singer who falls in love with gentleman gangster Jerry Casey (Chester Morris). So smitten is Jerry that he sets up Winnie in her own nightclub Read More

Playing Around

Actors: Alice White, Chester Morris, William Bakewell, Richard Carlyle, Marion Byron

Synopsis: Adapted from Vina Delmar's Sheba, Playing Around stars saucer-eyed blonde Alice White as Bronx stenographer Sheba Miller. Though she's sweet on 30-buck-per-week soda jerk Jack (William Bakewell), Sheba craves excitement and finds it in the arms of two-bit hoodlum Nick Solomon (Chester Morris). Read More

Embarrassing Moments

Actors: Reginald Denny, Merna Kennedy, Otis Harlan, William Austin

Synopsis: Reginald Denny, one of Universal's top stars of the 1920s, tried to transfer his light-comedy formula to talkies with Embarrassing Moments. Hoping to fend off the advances of suitor Jasper Hickson (William Austin), heroine Marion Fuller (Merna Kennedy) claims she already has a husband. When the Read More

Fast Life

Actors: Chester Morris, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Loretta Young, William Holden, Ray Hallor

Synopsis: In this courtroom drama, a man is sentenced to death for jealously murdering the man who flirted with his wife. Unfortunately, the condemned man is innocent. He is saved from the chair by the revelation that the real murderer is the governor's son. The innocent man and his wife are soon reunited. Read More

Woman Trap

Actors: Hal Skelly, Chester Morris, Evelyn Brent, William B. Davidson, Effie Ellsler

Synopsis: Although Broadway star Hal Skelly never quite made it in films, it wasn't for lack of trying. In Woman Trap, Skelly is cast against type as hard-bitten police sergeant Dan Malone, whose mission in life is to rid his community of gangsters. The revelation that Dan's own brother Ray (Chester Morris) Read More

Show of Shows

Synopsis: Basically a filmed vaudeville presentation, The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' entry in the "all star, all talking, all singing and all dancing" sweepstakes of 1929. Though slightly better than MGM's Hollywood Revue of 1929, the Warners entry pales in comparison to Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 Read More

Alibi

Actors: Chester Morris, Harry Stubbs, Mae Busch, Eleanor Griffith, Irma Harrison

Synopsis: Director Roland West was a moody and mysterious Hollywood character, who insisted upon making his pictures in utter secrecy and filming only at night. This may explain the overall foreboding atmosphere of Alibi, West's first talking picture. Chester Morris portrays a ruthless gangster who must Read More

The Road to Yesterday

Actors: Joseph Schildkraut, Jetta Goudal, Vera Reynolds, William "Hopalong" Boyd, Julia Faye, Trixie Friganza

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's century-hopping extravaganza The Road to Yesterday begins in the present (1925, that is). Wealthy Joseph Schildkraut can't understand why his wife Jetta Goudal is so cold to him. Goudal senses that Schildkraut had once done her dirt....in a previous life. Likewise unhappily Read More

Loyal Lives

Actors: Mary Carr, William Collier, Jr.

Synopsis: This drama glorified the lowly postman, which probably warmed the heart of Will H. Hays, the head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association -- he was a former postmaster general. Dan O'Brien (Brandon Tynan) loyally stays at his mailman job, even when his pal Michael O'Hara Read More

Beloved Traitor

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Frank L. Packard, The Beloved Traitor stars Mae Marsh as Mary Garland, a resident of a Maine fishing village. In love with Judd Minot (E.K. Lincoln), a handsome fisherman with a gift for sculpting, Mary is forced to tearfully remain on the sidelines when Judd is discovered by Read More

Amateur Orphan

Synopsis: Girlish Gladys Leslie doesn't exactly imitate Mary Pickford in this Thanhouser film, it's more like she personifies the cliché idea of what Pickford was thought to be: effervescent and overly childish. In reality, Pickford's characterizations were far more varied and interesting than anything Leslie Read More