Dick ForanFilmography

Adam-12: Log 122

Synopsis: It's Christmastime, and Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) enter into the spirit of things by playing Santa for the impoverished Ward family--with the curmudgeonly Malloy agreeing to put up half the money for a toy dump truck. But it's back to business as usual when Read More

Bonanza: Mark of Guilt

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, David Canary, Victor Sen Yung

Synopsis: This episode of Bonanza is a showcase for Victor Sen Yung as Hop Sing, the Cartwrights' loyal Chinese manservant. When Hop Sing's pigtail is cut off by town bully Emo Younger (Sam Greene), Joe Cartwright vows to avenge this act of public humiliation-and is subsequently arrested for murder when Read More

Brighty of the Grand Canyon

Actors: Joseph Cotten

Synopsis: A meandering mule and an old prospector find gold and adventure in the Grand Canyon in this family programmer. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Taggart

Actors: Tony Young, Dan Duryea, Dick Foran, Elsa Cardenas

Synopsis: In this western, the trouble begins when a rancher's mother and father are killed by a young outlaw and his family who want his land. The son returns the favor and slaughters them. As the father lies dying, he manages to hire three gunslingers to track the boy down. The boy is a good shot though Read More

Donovan's Reef

Actors: John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Jack Warden, Elizabeth Allen, Dick Foran, Cesar Romero

Synopsis: John Ford's last film to deal with World War II, Donovan's Reef is an alternately comical and sentimental look back on the fighting Navy men from that war, and how and where -- in Ford's eyes, and Frank Nugent and James Edward Grant's script -- they should have ended up. Michael "Guns" Donovan Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Renegade Refugee

Synopsis: Journalist Lawrence Vander (Paul Lambert) is murdered during a weekend retreat for the employees of Space Associates Ltd, a major defense contractor. It turns out that Vander was trying to track down ex-Nazi Max Keinermann, who may be working for Space Associates under an alias.. Accused of the Read More

The Big Night

Actors: Dick Contino, Venetia Stevenson, Randy Sparks

Synopsis: For those of you who might have wondered whether accordion virtuoso Dick Contino ever made a film, we refer you to The Big Night. Fourth-billed Contino weaves in and out of a plotline involving stolen money, an innocent married couple, and not-so-innocent gangsters. Newlyweds Randy Sparks and Venetia Stevenson Read More

The Swamp Fox: Tory Vengeance

Synopsis: In the third episode of Walt Disney's eight-part miniseries The Swamp Fox, Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion (Leslie Nielsen) must pretend to despise his sweetheart, Mary Videaux (Barbara Eiler), lest anyone suspects Mary is one of Francis' most valuable allies against the Redcoats. Despite Read More

The Untouchables: The Frank Nitti Story

Synopsis: Although his bootlegging operation has been smashed up and his boss Al Capone is in Federal Prison, Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon) still has plenty of crooked irons in the fire. One his most lucrative enterprises is a Hollywood-based extortion racket, designed to control exhibition prices for theater Read More

Studs Lonigan

Actors: Christopher Knight, Frank Gorshin, Helen Westcott, Carolyn Craig, Dick Foran, Venetia Stevenson, Jack Nicholson

Synopsis: Based on author James T. Farrell's trilogy written between 1932 and 1935 and later combined into a one-volume Studs Lonigan book, this less than two-hour film does not quite do justice to the literary whole. Studs (Christopher Knight) is raised on Chicago's infamous South Side, an Irish kid when Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Garrulous Gambler

Synopsis: Perennial loser Larry Benton (Wynn Pearce) is convinced that he has killed a guy named Mike during a poker-game argument. Actually, Larry is the victim of a blackmail scam, perpetrated by a shady customer named Johnny Clay. After Larry forges his brother Steve's name on a check to Johnny, the Read More

The Atomic Submarine

Actors: Arthur Franz, Dick Foran, Brett Halsey, Tom Conway, Paul Dubov

Synopsis: Seasoned serial director Spencer Gordon Bennett helmed this story of a one-eyed, octopoidal space alien, wreaking havoc upon atomic subs at the North Pole. The monster is determined to take over the world, though it seems ill equipped for that purpose. Heroes Arthur Franz, Dick Foran, and Brett Halsey Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Bedeviled Doctor

Synopsis: Someone has stolen the confidential tapes of conversations between psychiatrist David Craig (Dick Foran) and his patients, and is using those tapes for blackmail. It so happens that Dr. Craig is in love with his nurse Edith (Marianne Stewart), whose brother Mark (Barry McGuire) who is in big Read More

The Swamp Fox: Brother Against Brother

Synopsis: In the second episode of Walt Disney's eight-part miniseries The Swamp Fox, the Redcoats have retaliated against the raids of Colonel Francis Marion's guerillas by burning down their homes. While Francis (Leslie Nielsen) advises his men to wait before striking back, his own brother Gabriel (Dick Foran Read More

The Swamp Fox: The Birth of the Swamp Fox

Synopsis: One of producer Walt Disney's more blatant efforts to duplicate the success of his early TV miniseries Davy Crockett, the eight-part Swamp Fox featured another flamboyant frontiersman hero who wore coonskin-style headgear and whose adventures were introduced with a catchy, memorable theme song. Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: Young Gun

Synopsis: Gunfighter-turned-rancher Roy Calvert (Robert F. Simon) has a deep-seated hatred for the citizens of the town of Benedict, whom he holds responsible for the death of his wife. Seeking vengeance, Calvert denies the neighboring cattlemen access to the water on his property. Hired to talk sense to Read More

Violent Road

Actors: Brian Keith, Dick Foran, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Merry Anders, Sean Garrison

Synopsis: In this drama, six daring truckers must transport unstable, highly explosive rocket fuel through a dangerously bumpy, rugged country. The film centers on their individual reasons for making the trip. These are presented via flashback. Though most of them need the money, one of the truck drivers is Read More

Maverick: The Third Rider

Synopsis: Good samaritan Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) offers assistance to two tired travellers with only one horse. They repay his generosity by stealing his horse--and then framing him for bank robbery and murder. When one of the thieves is killed, the other escapes with a posse hot on heels. . .while Bart Read More

The Fearmakers

Actors: Dana Andrews, Dick Foran, Mel Tormé, Marilee Earle, Veda Ann Borg

Synopsis: In this drama, a Korean war veteran, a victim of brainwashing while he was a POW, finally goes back to his home in Washington, DC, where he resumes his job at a public relations-opinion research firm. He soon discovers that his company is being run by communists after his partner mysteriously Read More

Thundering Jets

Actors: Rex Reason, Dick Foran, Audrey Dalton, Robert Dix, Lee Farr

Synopsis: In this drama, a former Air Force hero becomes frustrated when he is pulled from active duty and is forced to train recruits at Edwards Air Force Base. He finds instructing the young fighter pilots terribly tedious. His frustration is compounded by his fear that one of his handsome bucks will Read More

Chicago Confidential

Actors: Brian Keith, Beverly Garland, Dick Foran, Beverly Tyler, Elisha Cook, Jr., Paul Langton, Douglas Kennedy, Jack Lambert, Phyllis Coates

Synopsis: Chicago Confidential may not have been the best of the late-1950s "expose" films, but it certainly boasted one of the most impressive casts. Based on the factual best-seller by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer, the film stars Brian Keith as a State Attorney who vows to bring corrupt Chicago union Read More

Sierra Stranger

Actors: Howard Duff, Gloria McGhee, Dick Foran, John Hoyt, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: Shortly before committing himself to the TV sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve, Howard Duff starred in the dust-caked western Sierra Stranger. After rescuing Sonny Grover (Ed Kemmer) from a brutal beating, well-meaning Jess Collins (Duff) discovers that Sonny is the town no-good. The far-from-grateful Read More

Please Murder Me

Synopsis: In this thriller, an amorous attorney is appalled to realize that the lovely client (with whom he was smitten) he acquitted is indeed guilty of killing her husband. Now he too feels guilty for being so gullible and so arranges for the woman to murder him so she will get caught. The woman, now Read More

Night of Execution

Treasure of Ruby Hills

Actors: Zachary Scott, Carole Mathews, Barton MacLane, Dick Foran, Lola Albright

Synopsis: Zachary Scott heads the cast of the heavily plotted western Treasure of Ruby Hills. The son of a notorious outlaw, Haney (Scott) intends to settle down peacefully in Soledad, Arizona. This proves difficult when Haney finds himself in the middle of a violent feud over water rights. The heavy of the Read More

The Hour of Stars: Miracle on 34th Street

Actors: Thomas Mitchell, Teresa Wright, Sandy Descher

Synopsis: The 20th Century-Fox Hour (later syndicated as The Hour of Stars) ran on CBS just shy of two years, from October 1955 through September 1957. An anthology program, the series typically featured readaptations of 20th Century-Fox feature films for a sixty-minute TV airslot. The 1955 production of Read More

Al Jennings of Oklahoma

Actors: Dan Duryea, Gale Storm, Dick Foran, Gloria Henry

Synopsis: The real Al Jennings was a wizened little man who, after a largely unsuccessful career as a western outlaw, reformed to the extent of hitting the lecture circuit and even producing his own films. Jennings was still alive when Columbia's Al Jennings of Oklahoma was produced in 1951, so one can Read More

Shoot 'Em Up

Synopsis: See the segments which make movies action classics in this compilation ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Deputy Marshal

Actors: Jon Hall, Frances Langford, Dick Foran, Julie Bishop, Joe Sawyer

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Charles Huckelmann, Deputy Marshal was a "special" by the standards of cost-conscious Screen Guild productions. The film stars Jon Hall and Frances Langford, who were Mr. and Mrs. at the time. Hall plays the title character, aka Ed Garry, while Langford essays the role of Janet Read More

El Paso

Actors: John Payne, Gail Russell, Sterling Hayden, George "Gabby" Hayes, Dick Foran

Synopsis: Produced in garish Cinecolor, this aspiring "A" Western features John Payne as Clay Fletcher, an Eastern lawyer assigned to track down a judge whose signature is needed for some estate papers. Clay traces the judge, Henry Jeffers (Henry Hull), to El Paso, a lawless town ruthlessly run by saloon Read More

Fort Apache

Actors: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Ward Bond, Shirley Temple, John Agar, Pedro Armendáriz, Dick Foran

Synopsis: The first of John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy", Fort Apache stars John Wayne as captain Kirby York and Henry Fonda as Custer clone Lt. Col. Owen Thursday. Resentful of his loss in rank and transfer to the West after serving gallantly in the Civil War, the vainglorious Thursday insists upon imposing Read More

Easy Come, Easy Go

Actors: Barry Fitzgerald, Diana Lynn, Sonny Tufts, Dick Foran, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: Barry Fitzgerald's distinctive brand of Irish blarney, which was wonderful in small doses, leaned towards the precious and boring when he was given a leading role. In Easy Come, Easy Go, Fitzgerald portrays an inveterate horse player who refuses to allow his grown daughter (Diana Lynn) to get Read More

Guest Wife

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, Charles Dingle

Synopsis: This screwball comedy stars Claudette Colbert as Mary, the wife of bumbling but likeable banker Chris (Dick Foran). Foreign correspondent Joe (Don Ameche) Chris' best friend, is in danger of losing his job because he's not married (his boss insists that all his employees be married-and remember Read More

He Is My Guy

He's My Guy

Actors: Dick Foran, Irene Hervey, Joan Davis, Fuzzy Knight

Synopsis: Dick Foran is back for another seven-reel melange of music and comedy in Universal's He's My Guy. Foran is cast as defense-plant worker Van Moore, who is casting about for ways of boosting morale amongst his fellow workers. Coming to the rescue are a group of veteran vaudevillians, who stage a Read More

Hi, Buddy

Actors: Dick Foran, Robert Paige, Marjorie Lord, Bobs Watson

Synopsis: Dick Foran and Harriet Hilliard (aka Harriet Nelson) top the cast of the Universal musical quickie Hi, Buddy. Foran plays GI Dave O'Connor, who comes to the rescue when a boy's club is threatened with foreclosure. Upon learning that the money targetted for the club has been appropriated by a Read More

Butch Minds the Baby

Actors: Virginia Bruce, Broderick Crawford, Dick Foran, Porter Hall, Richard Lane

Synopsis: Damon Runyon's short story Butch Minds the Baby is about a certain Broadway citizen by the name of Butch, who is known far and wide to be involved more than somewhat in business of a dishonest nature. Butch is the lookout for a gang of safecrackers, one of whom is forced to bring his squalling Read More

Private Buckaroo

Actors: The Andrews Sisters, Dick Foran, Joe E. Lewis, Jennifer Holt, Shemp Howard

Synopsis: This upbeat WW II-era musical features performances by the Andrews Sisters and Harry James as it tells the story of a rebellious young inductee who has trouble toeing the line until he meets a retired officer's lovely daughter. James and his band are also drafted and decide to perk up their camp Read More

Ride 'Em Cowboy

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Dick Foran, Anne Gwynne, Johnny Mack Brown

Synopsis: Bud Abbott & Lou Costello invade the wild west in Ride 'Em Cowboy. The boys play Duke and Willoughby, a couple of rodeo peanut vendors who get mixed up in the travails of western novelist Bob Mitchell (Dick Foran). Ostensibly a true Son of the Frontier, Bob has actually never been west of Brooklyn Read More

Behind the Eight Ball

Actors: The Ritz Brothers [Al, Jimmy, Harry], Carol Bruce, Dick Foran, Grace McDonald, Johnny Downs

Synopsis: To say that Behind the Eight Ball is the best of the Ritz Brothers' quartet of Universal vehicles is faint praise indeed, but it's fact that the Ritzes pack an awful lot of laughs in the film's 60-minute running time. The story takes place at a summer theater in the Berkshire Mountains, where Read More

The Mummy's Tomb

Actors: Lon Chaney, Jr., Dick Foran, Elyse Knox, Turhan Bey, John Hubbard, Mary Gordon

Synopsis: You cannot keep a good mummy down forever and Kharis is back in this sequel to The Mummy's Hand, which itself was something of a remake of the classic Boris Karloff thriller of 1935, The Mummy. Although assumed to have been killed by Stephen Banning (Dick Foran) in the previous film, Andoheb Read More

In the Navy

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Dick Powell, Claire Dodd, The Andrews Sisters

Synopsis: The third of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's starring films, In the Navy was released second; Universal had just made a bundle off Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates, and the studio wanted another "service" comedy put into circulation in a hurry. Abbott and Costello share over-the-title billing Read More

Mob Town

Actors: Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsly, Dick Foran

Synopsis: This wildly uneven "Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys" entry focuses on young Tom Barker (Billy Halop), whose older brother Eddie ended up in the electric chair. Idolizing Eddie's memory, Tom and his buddies are also fascinated with Eddie's former partner, gangster Monk Bangor (Paul Fix). Police Read More

Four Mothers

Actors: Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, Gale Page, Claude Rains

Synopsis: Four Mothers was the last of three films inspired by Fannie Hurst's sentimental novel Sister Act. As in the earlier Four Daughters and Four Wives, the quartet of heroines-Ann, Kay, Thea and Emma Lemp-are enacted by real-life siblings Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola Lane, and by Gale Page as the Read More

Horror Island

Actors: Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo, Peggy Moran, Fuzzy Knight, John Eldredge

Synopsis: It has been alleged that Horror Island was the least expensive of Universal's 1940s horror films. While it certainly looks that way, it remains an enjoyable outing from fade-in to fade-out. In the tradition of "Ten Little Indians", a group of disparate types are lured to a supposedly haunted Read More

Keep 'em Flying

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Martha Raye, Carol Bruce, Dick Foran, William Gargan

Synopsis: Having joined the army in Buck Privates and the navy in In the Navy, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello signed up with Air Force in Keep 'Em Flying. Abbott and Costello play Blackie and Heathcliff, carnival workers who are fired from their jobs along with their pal, reckless stunt pilot Jinx Roberts (Dick Foran Read More

Road Agent

Actors: Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo, Andy Devine, Anne Gwynne, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Not quite a B western but certainly no "A", Road Agent is kept alive by the boisterous byplay of stars Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo and Andy Devine. Summarily accused of murder, drifters Duke (Foran), Pancho (Carrillo) and Andy (Devine) are tossed into the hoosegow, only to be released when their Read More

Riders of Death Valley [Serial]

Actors: Jean Brooks

Synopsis: The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick Foran and Buck Jones. The latter contributed deadpan humor to the proceedings, making Jones perhaps the highest paid B-western comedy relief in history. Read More

Unfinished Business

Actors: Irene Dunne, Robert Montgomery, Preston S. Foster, Eugene Pallette, Dick Foran

Synopsis: The Hollywood "establishment" had been waiting a long time for maverick director Gregory La Cava to fall from grace, and when his Unfinished Business failed to live up to its expectations, La Cava's enemies swooped down like vultures. Seen today, the film is hardly one of the director's best Read More

The Kid from Kansas

Actors: Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo, Andy Devine, Ann Doran, Francis McDonald

Synopsis: In this drama, a South American planter and his neighbors find themselves plagued by vandals who have been destroying their equipment thereby forcing them to sell their fruit at below cost. Meanwhile, the orchardist's foreman hires a vagabond, an escaped convict framed for murder. It is he who Read More

The Mummy's Hand

Actors: Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, George Zucco, Cecil Kellaway, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: Egyptian mystic Andoheb (George Zucco) is ordered by his High Priest (Eduardo Ciannelli) to stand guard over the sacred mummy of Kharis (Tom Tyler), who thousands of years earlier was entombed alive for falling in love with Egyptian Princess Ananka. Kharis can be revived or neutralized at will Read More

My Little Chickadee

Actors: Mae West, W.C. Fields, Joseph Calleia, Dick Foran, Ruth Donnelly

Synopsis: The once-in-a-lifetime teaming of Mae West and W.C. Fields in My Little Chickadee had the potential for comic greatness: what emerged, though generally entertaining, was, in the words of critic Andrew Sarris, "more funny strange than funny ha-ha." Mae West dominates the film's first reel as Read More

The House of the Seven Gables

Actors: George Sanders, Margaret Lindsay, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, Dick Foran

Synopsis: This fine adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic tale about a cursed family opens with a title card that reveals how the Pyncheon family stole, cheated, lied, and murdered their way to wealth. But within the hearts of the family's bloodline lay fear of the curse of Matthew Maule, a man they Read More

Rangers of Fortune

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Albert Dekker, Gilbert Roland, Patricia Morison

Synopsis: Fred MacMurray stars as a US Army misfit who, with pals Albert Dekker and Gilbert Roland, roam the west in search of adventure. Arriving in a small town, they befriend the elderly newspaper editor (Arthur Allen) and his young granddaughter (Betty Brewer). The trio learns that the community is Read More

The Fighting 69th

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, George Brent, Jeffrey Lynn, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Officially, America had no intention of entering the Second World War in 1940: Why, then, were there so many "preparedness" pictures like The Fighting 69th? This film, based on the experiences of military priest Father Duffy (Pat O'Brien), is set during World War I. The US 69th division was a Read More

Winners of the West [Serial]

Synopsis: The assistant to a railroad president battles an evil empire builder in this 13 chapter adventure serial produced by Henry MacRae for Universal. The Hartford Transcontinental Railroad is advancing the line through Hell's Gate Pass when the project is stalled by an attack of marauding Indians. The Read More

Private Detective

Actors: Jane Wyman, Dick Foran, Gloria Dickson, "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom, John Ridgely

Synopsis: Probably as a reward for her energetic performance in Torchy Plays with Dynamite, pert Jane Wyman was given another Glenda Farrell-like leading role in Private Detective. Wyman plays gorgeous P.I. Myrna Winslow, the principal rival of male gumshoe Jim Rickey (Dick Foran). The case at hand concerns Read More

Inside Information

Actors: Dick Foran, Harry Carey, Mary Carlisle, Addison Richards

Synopsis: Pity poor police captain Dugan (Harry Carey). As if he hasn't got enough trouble with the green recruits that Headquarters continues saddling him with, he also has to solve a series of high-profile jewel robberies. Enter brash rookie cop Danny Blake (Dick Foran), whose know-it-all attitude drives Read More

Daughters Courageous

Actors: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Fay Bainter, Donald Crisp, May Robson

Synopsis: This family drama features the same cast and crew from the highly successful Four Daughters, but it isn't actually a sequel. Whereas the first film was a chronicle of the Lemp family, this one centers on the Masters family. This film is also characterized by a much happier ending than its Read More

Hero for a Day

Actors: Anita Louise, Dick Foran, Charles Grapewin, Berton Churchill, Emma Dunn

Synopsis: The Hero for a Day is elderly night watchman Frank Higgins (Charley Grapewin), still basking in the memories of his long-age college football triumphs. To stir up publicity for a crucial post-season game, his alma mater plucks Higgins out of obscurity and once more showers him in glory. The old Read More

Four Wives

Actors: Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, John Garfield, Frank McHugh, May Robson, Eddie Albert, Priscilla Lane

Synopsis: In this drama, the sequel to Four Daughters, the daughters are now adults. Three of the sisters rally together to find a new love for the fourth sister whose husband recently committed suicide. The widowed woman then discovers that she is pregnant with her deceased husband's child and this causes Read More

I Stole a Million

Actors: George Raft, Claire Trevor, Dick Foran, Henry Armetta, Victor Jory

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a grizzled cabbie is scammed out of his life savings by a fake finance company. He tries to no avail to get police assistance. Finally he becomes a wanted criminal and escapes to California where he meets the girl who will become his wife. She helps him go straight by helping Read More

Over the Wall

Actors: Dick Foran, June Travis, Dick Purcell, Veda Ann Borg

Synopsis: In this drama, an innocent man is framed for murder and sent to Sing Sing where he meets a kindly prison chaplain who helps him prove that he was wronged. He also learns to sing, and decided that he will become a professional after he is released. He is good, and is soon allowed to travel with the Read More

Heart of the North

Actors: Dick Foran, Gloria Dickson, Gale Page, Allen Jenkins, Patric Knowles

Synopsis: In this North Woods adventure a courageous Canadian Mounted Policeman takes on the outlaws who robbed a freighter heading for Edmonton. After the heist, the crooks got away with furs and gold leaving an innocent trapper to take the blame. Just as the hapless trapper is to be lynched the Mountie Read More

Secrets of a Nurse

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Helen Mack, Dick Foran, Samuel S. Hinds, Paul Hurst

Synopsis: The slick Universal programmer Secrets of a Nurse was based on a Collier's Magazine story by distinguished journalist Quentin Reynolds. This story in turn was based on a true incident, in which a gangster "returned from the dead" to save an innocent young man from the electric chair. The nurse of Read More

The Cowboy from Brooklyn

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, Priscilla Lane, Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan

Synopsis: Dick Powell stars as a Brooklynite who becomes a cowboy in spite of himself. Drifting into a small western town, Powell takes the only job available as a ranch hand. He likes to sing in his spare time, which attracts the attention of talent scout Pat O'Brien. Before you can say Gene Autry, Powell Read More

Boy Meets Girl

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Marie Wilson, Ralph Bellamy, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: Once a staple of summer stock and community theatres, Bella and Samuel Spewack's Broadway farce Boy Meets Girl dates rather badly when seen today. The 1938 movie version is also a bit mildewed, though it is saved by the dynamo-like energy of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The stars are cast as Read More

Four Daughters

Actors: Claude Rains, May Robson, Priscilla Lane, Lola Lane, Rosemary Lane

Synopsis: Fannie Hurst's Sister Act was the source for this money-making Warners weeper. The four daughters of the title are played by the Lane Sisters--Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola--and by Gale Page. All are musical prodigies, and all are daughters of master-musician Claude Rains. To help make ends meet, Rains Read More

Love, Honor and Behave

Actors: Wayne Morris, John Litel, Dick Foran, Mona Barrie, Donald Briggs

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, a Yale tennis star endeavors to be a good sport at every turn. He finds a girl and together they elope. One day, while he is off on a business trip, she resumes a old fling. When he finds out, the tennis player discovers he is a sore loser, but not nearly as sore as the Read More

The Sisters

Actors: Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Anita Louise, Ian Hunter, Donald Crisp

Synopsis: The 1938 filmization of Myron Brinig's novel The Sisters stars Bette Davis, Jane Bryan and Anita Louise as Louise, Grace and Helen Elliot. The daughters of turn-of-the-century druggist Henry Travers and his wife Beulah Bondi, the Elliot girls all meet their future husbands at a 1904 ball in honor Read More

The California Mail

Actors: Dick Foran, Linda Perry, Milt Kibbee, Tom Brower

Synopsis: A stagecoach race, murder and a singing cowboy are the main ingredients in this pleasant western from Warner Bros. The singing cowboy is Bill Harkins (Dick Foran) who, after losing a Pony Express contract, bids against the Banton brothers for a lucrative stage line deal. But Roy Banton (Edmund Read More

Empty Holsters

Actors: Dick Foran, Emmett Vogan, Anderson Lawler, Glenn Strange

Synopsis: The Warner Bros. custom of casting their Dick Foran singing Westerns with whomever was available from the studio's large roster of supporting players often made for an interesting change of B-Western pace. In Empty Holsters, a typical entry in the popular series, one of Boss Villain Emmett Vogan's Read More

Guns of the Pecos

Actors: Dick Foran, Anne Nagel, Gordon Hart, Joseph Crehan, Eddie Acuff

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' resident singing cowboy, the amiable Dick Foran, warbles "The Prairie Is My Home" and "When the Cowboy Takes a Wife" (by M.K. Jerome and Jack Scholl) in between battling a corrupt judge in this pleasant B-Western produced by the studio's busy Bryan Foy unit. Foran is Steve Ainslee, a Read More

Blazing Sixes

Actors: Dick Foran, Helen Valkis, Mira McKinney, John Merton, Glenn Strange

Synopsis: Another good entry in Warner Bros' Dick Foran western series, Blazing Sixes casts Foran as Red, an undercover federal agent. Sent Westward to break up a gang of stage robbers, Red poses as a bandit himself, whereupon he robs the robbers! Impressed by his nerve, outlaw chief Jim Hess (John Merton) Read More

The Cherokee Strip

Actors: Robert Paige, Dick Foran, Jane Bryan, David Carlyle, Helen Valkis

Synopsis: The most enjoyable of the Warner Bros.-Dick Foran singing Westerns, this film pitches lawyer Foran against unscrupulous land swindler Edmund Cobb. A "sooner" who cheated the starting gun in the Oklahoma Land Rush (shown via stock footage from William S. Hart's Tumbleweeds), Cobb becomes the de Read More

Black Legion

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Ann Sheridan, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: This hard-hitting, socially conscious drama, the sort of story that Warner Bros. made their hallmark in the 1930s, concerns a factory worker named Frank Taylor (Humphrey Bogart), who is convinced that a big promotion is right around the corner for him. However, the promotion goes to a Read More

The Perfect Specimen

Actors: Errol Flynn, Joan Blondell, Hugh Herbert, Edward Everett Horton, Dick Foran

Synopsis: Based on a popular novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams, this screwball comedy stars Errol Flynn in the title-role, the heir to an industrial fortune kept hidden from the world by his imperious grandmother (May Robson). Intrigued by the secrecy, peppy Joan Blondell literally crashes the estate to Read More

Land Beyond the Law

Actors: Dick Foran, Linda Perry, Wayne Morris, Irene Franklin, Joseph King

Synopsis: In response to Republic's Gene Autry westerns of the late 1930s, Warner Bros. created its own singing cowboy, Dick Foran, for a brief series of second features. Land Beyond the Law wisely puts the priority on action rather than singing. Foran rides into a lawless territory, champions the cause of Read More

The Devil's Saddle Legion

Actors: Dick Foran, Anne Nagel, Willard Parker, Granville Owen, Carlyle Moore, Jr.

Synopsis: Returning to his home spread in the Red River border area between Texas and Oklahoma, Tal Holladay (Dick Foran) is falsely accused of murdering a young family friend (Carlyle Moore, Jr.) in this frequently entertaining Western directed, incongruously, by dance director Bobby Connolly. Imprisoned Read More

Prairie Thunder

Actors: Dick Foran, Ellen Clancy, Frank Orth, Wilfred Lucas, Albert J. Smith

Synopsis: Despite the claim of "an original screenplay by Edward Earl Repp," this entry in Warner Bros.' Dick Foran "singing cowboy" series was a virtual remake of the studio's earlier The Telegraph Trail, whose 1932 screenplay was credited to Kurt Kempler. Prairie Thunder in fact opens with the same Read More

She Loved a Fireman

Actors: Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan, Robert Armstrong, Eddie Acuff, Veda Ann Borg

Synopsis: In this lively adventure aimed at youthful audiences, a wiseacre fireman soon finds himself in trouble with his fire captain after the smarty pants begins dating the captain's sister. Mayhem ensues, culminating in a fist fight. In the end, the young fireman saves the captain from certain death in Read More

The Petrified Forest

Actors: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Genevieve Tobin

Synopsis: Burned-out British intellectual Alan Squier (Leslie Howard) wanders into the desert service station/restaurant owned by Jason Maple (Porter Hall). Alan finds himself an object of fascination for Jason's starry-eyed daughter, Gabrielle Bette Davis, who dreams of moving to France and establishing Read More

Earthworm Tractors

Actors: Joe E. Brown, June Travis, Guy Kibbee, Dick Foran, Carolyn Hughes

Synopsis: Joe E. Brown was an ideal choice for the character of Alexander Botts, the brash, arrogant "natural born salesman" created for The Saturday Evening Post by William Hazlett Upton. As a representative for the Earthworm Tractor company, Botts tries to convince old-fashioned lumberman Guy Kibbee to Read More

The Big Noise

Actors: Guy Kibbee, Warren Hull, Alma Lloyd, Dick Foran, Marie Wilson

Synopsis: The Big Noise is retired textile manufacturer Julius Trent (Guy Kibbee). Seeking a new outlet for his entrepreneurial energies, Trent buys a half interest in a thriving dry-cleaning establishment. This gets him mixed up with a gang of protection racketeers, who promise dire consequences if Trent Read More

Moonlight on the Prairie

Actors: Dick Foran, George E. Stone, Joe Sawyer

Synopsis: Dusting off a couple of old Ken Maynard Western plots -- already recycled once with John Wayne in the early 1930s -- Warner Bros. jumped on the singing cowboy band wagon with a series starring baritone Dick Foran (formerly Nick Foran. The opener, Moonlight on the Prairie was filmed on glorious Read More

Song of the Saddle

Actors: Dick Foran, Alma Lloyd, Charles B. Middleton, Addison Richards, Eddie Shubert

Synopsis: The second of singing cowboy Dick Foran's Warner Bros. westerns, Song of the Saddle was a decided improvement on the first (Moonlight on the Prairie). Foran is cast as Frank Wilson Jr., who heads Westward to avenge the long-ago murder of his father (Addison Richards). Frank had witnessed the Read More

Trailin' West

Actors: Dick Foran, Paula Stone, Addison Richards, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: This Dick Foran "singing western" makes extensive use of stock footage from First National's Ken Maynard series of the silent era. Foran is cast as Northern officer Rod Colton, who goes undercover during the Civil War to flush out a gang of Confederate spies. It develops that the mercenary Read More

Treachery Rides the Range

Actors: Dick Foran, Paula Stone, Craig Reynolds, Monte Blue, Carlyle Moore, Jr.

Synopsis: This western tells the story of a brave Army captain assigned to escort an important official's daughter through Indian country. Unfortunately, a pair of wicked buffalo hunters have been trying to upset the Cheyenne by breaking the treaty the woman's father created; they are hunting the massive Read More

The Golden Arrow

Actors: Bette Davis, George Brent, Eugene Pallette, Dick Foran, Carolyn Hughes

Synopsis: Bette Davis plays a facial cream heiress in this middling comedy, which Warner Bros. filmed partially in Florida. Mistaking George Brent for a fellow socialite, Bette quickly marries him only to discover that he is a penniless reporter searching for peace and quiet to finish the great American Read More

Public Enemy's Wife

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, Robert Armstrong, Cesar Romero, Dick Foran

Synopsis: Margaret Lindsay stars in the title role, playing a young woman imprisoned for a crime which she didn't commit. The real culprit is her jailbird husband (Cesar Romero), a smooth jewel thief with a jealous streak. Margaret hopes to put her past behind her by taking up with a society man (Dick Read More

Dangerous

Actors: Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Margaret Lindsay, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge

Synopsis: Not even considered a good film back in 1935, Dangerous is held together by the mesmerizing performance of Bette Davis. The star is cast as alcoholic, self-destructive stage actress Joyce Heath, a character obviously based on Jeanne Eagels. Wealthy architect Don Bellows (Franchot Tone) becomes Read More

It's a Small World

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Wendy Barrie, Raymond Walburn, Virginia Sale, Astrid Allwyn

Synopsis: It's a Small World was the latest in a long line of It Happened One Night clones, this time starring Spencer Tracy and Wendy Barrie as rough approximations of Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. It all begins when spoiled socialite Jane Dale (Barrie) and abrasive lawyer Bill Shevlin (Tracy) "meet Read More

Ladies Love Danger

Actors: Mona Barrie, Gilbert Roland, Donald Cook, Adrienne Ames, Hardie Albright

Synopsis: Hoping to finish his latest play in peace, writer Ricardo Souchet (Gilbert Roland) loses his train of thought when dizzy blonde reporter Rita (Mona Barrie) invades his apartment. Before long, Rita has gotten Ricardo involved in a series of murders amongst the theater folk. When the police prove Read More

Accent on Youth

Actors: Sylvia Sidney, Herbert Marshall, Phillip Reed, Holmes Herbert, Catherine Doucet

Synopsis: Based on Samson Raphaelson's stage play, Accent on Youth focuses on a May-December romance. Herbert Marshall (46 years old at the time) is a successful middle-aged playwright; Constance Cummings is his young secretary, who prefers the company of mature men. She sets her cap on marrying the Read More

Lottery Lover

Actors: Lew Ayres, Pat Paterson, Peggy Fears, Sterling Holloway, Walter Woolf King

Synopsis: In their never-ending efforts to transform contract actress Pat Paterson a major star, Fox Studios cast the lovely lady opposite such established favorites as Lew Ayres in such frothy musicals as Lottery Lover. Ayres plays American naval cadet Frank Harrington, on vacation in Paris with several Read More

One More Spring

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Warner Baxter, Walter Woolf King, Jane Darwell, Roger Imhof

Synopsis: One More Spring is a laundered version of Robert Nathan's whimsical Depression-era novel. Left destitute by the Wall Street crash are an odd assortment of lost souls: Former antique dealer Otkar (Warner Baxter), concert violinist Rosenberg (Walter Woolf King) and unemployed actress Elizabeth (Janet Gaynor Read More

Shipmates Forever

Actors: Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Ross Alexander, Eddie Acuff

Synopsis: This musical drama stars Dick Powell as the son of an admiral (Lewis Stone), who'd rather sing than go to sea. Through the genteel pressures of Powell's girlfriend and nightclub partner Ruby Keeler, Powell dons Navy garb and becomes a hero. Busby Berkeley had nothing to do with this one; the Read More

The Farmer Takes a Wife

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Henry Fonda, Charles Bickford, George "Slim" Summerville, Andy Devine

Synopsis: Henry Fonda made his screen debut in this filmization of his Broadway success The Farmer Takes a Wife. The story is set along the Erie Canal in the 1850s. Fonda plays a farmer who takes a river job to make ends meet. He falls in love with Janet Gaynor, daughter of a canal-boat cook, who thinks Read More

Gentlemen Are Born

Actors: Franchot Tone, Jean Muir, Margaret Lindsay, Ann Dvorak, Ross Alexander

Synopsis: Film historian William K. Everson once referred to Warner Bros.' Gentleman are Born as an all-male precursor to Mary McCarthy's The Group. The story focuses on a tight-knit quartet of friends, all of whom graduate from college on the same day. Determined to "change the world" while keeping their Read More

Change of Heart

Actors: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, James Dunn, Ginger Rogers, Beryl Mercer

Synopsis: Four courageous college graduates become heroes when they successfully complete a 15-hour coast-to-coast plane flight. Alas, things don't go so well for the foursome when they return to earth to seek out employment. Chris Thring (Charles Farrell) has a particularly rough time of it, but his Read More

Stand up and Cheer

Actors: Warner Baxter, Madge Evans, James Dunn, John Boles

Synopsis: Based on an idea by Will Rogers, the story concerns the efforts by the President of the United States to get the public's mind off the Depression. To this end, he appoints Broadway impresario Lawrence Cromwell (Warner Baxter) to the new cabinet position of "Secretary of Amusement." Wasting no Read More