Douglas DumbrilleFilmography

Perry Mason: The Case of the Duplicate Case

Synopsis: Luckless salesman Herbie Cornwall (Martin West) is envious of his wife Millie's success as a corporate secretary. Truth to tell, Millie (Susan Bay) is successful mainly because she is fooling around with several of the male executives. When Herbie finds out about his wife's peccadilloes, he has a Read More

Shock Treatment

Actors: Stuart Whitman, Carol Lynley, Lauren Bacall, Roddy McDowall, Olive Deering

Synopsis: In this offbeat melodrama, a crazed gardener is relegated to a mental hospital after he goes berserk and beheads his wealthy boss. The scuttlebutt in the courtroom is that the killer has stolen over a million dollars from his former employer and has hidden it on the estate. A professional actor Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Latent Lover

Synopsis: Investment broker Eric Pollard (Lloyd Bochner) seems to have gone off his trolley when he begins suffering from dizzy spells; to begin with, he publicly charges his wife Sybil (Marian Moses) with every crime under the sun--and as a capper, he hires a taxi to rob a bank! Though he is thrown in Read More

The Twilight Zone: The Self-Improvement of Salvatore Ross

Actors: Don Gordon, Gail Kobe, Vaughan Taylor, J. Pat O'Malley, Douglas Lambert

Synopsis: Don Gordon stars as Salvatore Ross, a repulsively arrogant young man who thinks that the world owes him a living. When he is rejected by virtuous social worker Leah Maitland (Gail Kobe), Ross vows to improve himself, and to do that he harnesses his newly-found ability to acquire the physical and Read More

Petticoat Junction: Is There a Doctor in the Roundhouse?

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story, railroad president Norman Curtis (Roy Roberts) has decided--for now--not to scrap the Hooterville Cannonball. This would be good news but for the fact that, in his eagerness to run the engine himself, Curtis accidentally breaks the throttle. With the Read More

Johnny Cool

Actors: Henry Silva, Elizabeth Montgomery, Marc Lawrence, Richard Anderson, Telly Savalas, Jim Backus, Joey Bishop

Synopsis: In this offbeat crime drama, Mafia boss Johnny Colini (Marc Lawrence) has run afoul of the law and is being deported back to his native Sicily. Colini is not at all happy about this, and after he saves the life of a young thug, Johnny Giordano (Henry Silva), he knows the perfect way for Giordano Read More

Air Patrol

Synopsis: Air Patrol is a 62-minute Cinemascope programmer, specifically designed for lower berths in 20th Century-Fox double-feature programs. Willard Parker and Robert Dix play a pair of airborne detectives, in search of a couple of art thieves. The criminals have made a clean getaway, courtesy of a Read More

The Untouchables: Syndicate Sanctuary

Synopsis: Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) dispatches his team to Calum City, a mob-controlled town 30 miles south of Chicago (and obviously based on the real-life Calumet City), when honest mayoral candidate Leon Zabo (Raymond Greenleaf) dies in a suspicious accident. Zabo's demise was actually ordered by Guido Read More

High Time

Actors: Bing Crosby, Fabian, Tuesday Weld, Nicole Maurey, Richard Beymer, Patrick Adiarte

Synopsis: Bing Crosby plays a widowed millionaire who decides that it's "high time" he got himself a college education. Enrolling as a freshman, Crosby is forced to endure the anachronistic initiation stunts dreamed up by his fraternity buddies, and at one point is required to dress up as Scarlett O'Hara Read More

The Buccaneer

Actors: Yul Brynner, Charlton Heston, Claire Bloom, Charles Boyer, Inger Stevens

Synopsis: When Cecil B. DeMille was set to direct a re-make of his 1938 swashbuckler The Buccaneer and suddenly became ill, his son-in-law, Anthony Quinn, jumped into DeMille's jodhpurs. In this version, Yul Brynner plays the starring role of debonair pirate Jean Lafitte, who is contacted by General Andrew Read More

Shake, Rattle and Rock

Actors: Fats Domino, Lisa Gaye, Sterling Holloway

Synopsis: The endearingly awful Shake, Rattle and Rock! serves as a showcase for four top rock-and-roll talents of the 1950s. Fats Domino heads the cast as "himself", performing "I'm in Love Again", "Ain't it a Shame" and "Honey Chile". Likewise, Joe Turner offers renditions of "Feelin' Happy" and Read More

Davy Crockett and the River Pirates

Actors: Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen, Jeff York, Kenneth Tobey, Clem Bevans

Synopsis: Like its predecessor Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, Walt Disney's Davy Crockett and the River Pirates was cobbled together from two episodes of the weekly TV anthology Disneyland. Though it wasn't so labelled at the time, River Pirates is actually a "prequel" to the earlier film Read More

Mobs Inc

Synopsis: This socially conscious drama is comprised of three cautionary tales designed to alert viewers to popular con-artist scams. The first shows how easily a hood with a female companion and a camera can gain permission to case a wealthy home. In the second vignette, a woman demonstrates profitable Read More

The Ten Commandments

Actors: James Coburn, Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo

Synopsis: Based on the Holy Scriptures, with additional dialogue by several other hands, The Ten Commandments was the last film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The story relates the life of Moses, from the time he was discovered in the bullrushes as an infant by the pharoah's daughter, to his long, hard Read More

Jupiter's Darling

Actors: Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, George Sanders

Synopsis: Esther Williams' long association with MGM came to an abrupt end with Jupiter's Darling, which even she will admit was her silliest film. Based on Robert Sherwood's satirical play The Road to Rome, the film cast as Williams as Amytis, fiancee of vacillating Roman statesman Fabius Maximus (George Sanders Read More

Disneyland: Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race

Synopsis: Wisely cashing in on the enormous (and largely unexpected) success of his 1954 Davy Crockett TV miniseries, Walt Disney whipped up a spinoff for the 1955-56 season of his weekly Disneyland anthology. Since frontiersman Davy Crockett (Fess Parker) and his pal George Russel (Buddy Ebsen) were killed Read More

China Smith: Season 02

Actors: Dan Duryea, Douglas Dumbrille, Myrna Dell

Key Man

Synopsis: In this romantic drama, a secret love affair becomes the cause of a series of mysterious mishaps involving a philandering wife's hapless husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Lawless Rider

Actors: John Carpenter, Frankie Darro, Douglas Dumbrille, Noel Neill, Kenne Duncan, Bud Osborne

Synopsis: The redoubtable Johnny Carpenter is producer, author and star of the low-budget western Lawless Rider. Exploiting his slight resemblance to Montgomery Clift to the hilt, Carpenter plays a taciturn sheriff who disguises himself as a notorious gunslinger. His mission: to stem a series of violent Read More

World for Ransom

Actors: Dan Duryea, Gene Lockhart, Patric Knowles, Reginald Denny, Nigel Bruce

Synopsis: World for Ransom is an unofficial extension of the popular 1950s TV series China Smith. Most of the Smith personnel, including star Dan Duryea, director Robert Aldrich and cinematographer Joseph Biroc, are on hand for this inexpensive but well-mounted melodrama. Duryea plays a mercenary adventurer Read More

Captain John Smith and Pocahontas

Actors: Anthony Dexter, Jody Lawrance, Robert Clarke, Stuart Randall

Synopsis: Whether true or not (evidence indicates "not"), the legend of Captain John Smith and Pochahontas is one of history's great romantic stories. This 1953 filmization of the story was made on a near-nonexistent budget. Anthony Dexter, who two seasons earlier had starred in the unsuccessful biopic Valentino Read More

Plunder of the Sun

Actors: Glenn Ford, Diana Lynn, Patricia Medina, Francis L. Sullivan, Sean McClory

Synopsis: Adapted from a novel by David Dodge, Plunder of the Sun is basically Treasure of the Sierra Madre in Aztec country. Several interested parties converge upon the Mexican Aztec ruins in search of a long-buried treasure. Insurance investigator Glenn Ford is ostensibly the hero, but he doesn't seem Read More

Julius Caesar

Actors: Marlon Brando, James Mason, John Gielgud, Louis Calhern, Greer Garson, Edmond O'Brien, Deborah Kerr

Synopsis: Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed this exquisite version of William Shakespeare's play. Louis Calhern is Julius Caesar, whose conquests have enabled him to rise to the status of Roman dictator. But his ascent to almost God-like status has given pause to influential members of the Roman Senate. Chief Read More

Son of Paleface

Actors: Bob Hope, Jane Russell, Roy Rogers, Bill Williams, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: A sequel to Bob Hope's 1948 box-office success The Paleface, 1952's Son of Paleface is a superior product in every way, thanks largely to the spirited, creative direction of Frank Tashlin. Hope is cast as Junior Potter, a Harvard-educated dude who heads West to claim the inheritance left him by Read More

Scaramouche

Actors: Stewart Granger, Eleanor Parker, Janet Leigh, Mel Ferrer, Henry Wilcoxon

Synopsis: This delightful adaptation of Rafael Sabatini's swashbuckling novel stars Stewart Granger as Andre Moreau, an 18th-century French nobleman who is publicly humiliated by the Marquis de Maynes (Mel Ferrer). Challenged to a sword duel by the Marquis, Andre, who knows nothing about fencing, runs away Read More

Apache War Smoke

Actors: Gilbert Roland, Glenda Farrell, Robert Horton, Barbara Ruick, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: Apache War Smoke was a remake of Apache Trail (42); both films were based on a story by Ernest Haycox. Haycox had previously written Stage to Lordsburg, a western yarn filmed by John Ford as Stagecoach (39). Apache War Smoke adheres to the Stagecoach formula by trapping several strangers in a Read More

Sky Full of Moon

Actors: Carleton Carpenter, Jan Sterling, Keenan Wynn, Robert Burton, Elaine Stewart

Synopsis: Sky Full of Moon gets under way when Vegas gambling-joint owner Al (Keenan Wynn) rescues rodeo rider Harley Williams (Carleton Carpenter) from drowning. Harley is then "adopted" as a good-luck charm by Al's change girl Dixie Delmar (Jan Sterling). When their lucky gambling streak comes to an end Read More

China Smith: Season 01

Actors: Dan Duryea, Douglas Dumbrille, Myrna Dell

A Millionaire for Christy

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Eleanor Parker, Richard Carlson, Una Merkel, Kay Buckley

Synopsis: In this old-fashioned screwball comedy, Christy Sloane (Eleanor Parker) is a secretary with a large legal firm who is sent to California to inform Peter Lockwood (Fred MacMurray), an overly sentimental radio host, that he's just inherited $2 million. Christy is looking to raise her standard of Read More

Abbott & Costello in the Foreign Legion

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Patricia Medina, Walter Slezak, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello play wrestling promoters whose star attraction, Wee Willie Davis, skips town to return to his home in Arabia. While scouring the desert in search of Davis, Bud and Lou inadvertently purchase slave girl Patricia Medina, and with equal inadvertence join the Foreign Read More

Buccaneer's Girl

Actors: Yvonne De Carlo, Phillip Friend, Robert Douglas, Elsa Lanchester, Andrea King

Synopsis: The Buccaneer's Girl of the title, played by Yvonne de Carlo, is Deborah McCoy, an entertainer who's been around a bit. While visiting New Orleans, Deborah falls in love with aristocratic Frederick Baptiste (Philip Friend), who turns out to be a pirate. Baptiste is basically a decent fellow: his Read More

The Kangaroo Kid

Actors: Veda Ann Borg, Martha Hyer, Alec Kellaway

Synopsis: American actor/stuntman Jock O'Mahoney (aka Jock Mahoney) stars in the Australian The Kangaroo Kid. The star plays a 19th-century San Francisco detective named Tex Kinnane, who is sent "Down Under" to nab shyster lawyer Vincent Moller (Douglass Dumbrille). Several comparisons are made between the Read More

The Savage Horde

Actors: Adrian Booth, Grant Withers, Barbara Fuller, Noah Beery, Jr.

Synopsis: William Elliot is the multitextured hero of the deluxe Republic western Savage Horde. Elliot plays a gunslinger named Ringo, who, though no paragon of virtue, is not a murderer. After killing a man in self-defense, Ringo takes it on the lam from the law. Hiding out in a remote frontier town, Ringo Read More

Riding High

Actors: Bing Crosby, Coleen Gray, Charles Bickford, Frances Gifford, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: Anxious to remain active in the 1950s, director Frank Capra wanted to prove to Paramount Pictures that he could deliver an "A" picture on a modest budget. To that end, Capra bought the rights of his 1934 film Broadway Bill from Columbia, and remade it under the title Riding High. He then hired Read More

Alimony

Actors: Martha Vickers, John Beal, Hillary Brooke, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: One thing you can say about Alimony: It tackled a subject that virtually everyone in Hollywood was intimately familiar with. Martha Vickers plays a ruthless young woman who has hit upon a clever (if not original) method of fattening her bank account. She seeks out relationships with wealthy Read More

Joe Palooka in the Counterpunch

Actors: Leon Errol, Joe Kirkwood, Jr., Elyse Knox, Marcel Journet, Sheila Ryan

Synopsis: Joe Palooka, comic strip artist Ham Fisher's golden-hearted pugilist, heads South of the Border in The Counterpunch. Actually, Joe (Joe Kirkwood Jr.) goes no further than Monogram's cramped "ocean liner" standing set, but the audience doesn't really mind. The plot concerns a gang of Read More

Rapture

Actors: Glenn Langan, Lorraine Miller, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Shot on location in and around Rome, this drama chronicles the tragic love affair between a frustrated artist and the troubled American woman who provides him with much-needed inspiration. The artist, who leaves the ancient city because he is overwhelmed by the abundance of great art, first sees Read More

The Lone Wolf and His Lady

Actors: Ron Randell, June Vincent, Alan Mowbray, William Frawley, Collette Lyons

Synopsis: When a priceless diamond is stolen from a museum exhibition all suspicion falls upon the notorious Lone Wolf, a former jewel thief who became a reporter. It doesn't help that he was in the museum to write a story on the gem at the time of its theft. Now he and his gal pal must play amateur Read More

Dynamite

Actors: William Gargan, Virginia Welles, Richard Crane, Irving Bacon, Mary Newton

Synopsis: Dynamite is a 1949 effort from the Pine-Thomas production mill. William Gargan and Richard Crane star as Gunner and Johnny, troubleshooters for dynamite contractor Hard Rock Mason Frank Ferguson. Though forced to work as a team on the job, Gunner and Johnny fall out when romance enters the picture Read More

Tell It to the Judge

Actors: Rosalind Russell, Robert Cummings, Gig Young, Marie McDonald, Harry Davenport

Synopsis: Though divorced from attorney Robert Cummings, Rosalind Russell continues hoping that she can arrange a reconciliation. This proves difficult due to Cummings' fascination with curvaceous Marie McDonald. Contriving to arouse Cumming's jealousy, Russell pretends to be married to feckless Gig Young. Read More

Last of the Wild Horses

Actors: James Ellison, Mary Beth Hughes, Jane Frazee, Douglas Dumbrille, James Millican

Synopsis: By the none-too-exacting standards of Screen Guild Productions, Last of the Wild Horses is practically an "A" picture. James Ellison plays Duke Barnum, an innocent soul who is set up as the fall guy for duplicitious horse-ranch foreman Riley (Reed Hadley). When ranch owner Charlie Cooper (Douglass Dumbrille Read More

Riders of the Whistling Pines

Actors: Gene Autry, Patricia White, Jimmy Lloyd, Douglas Dumbrille, Damian O'Flynn

Synopsis: Gene Autry's second 1949 release for Columbia was Riders of the Whistling Pines. As was customary for Autry, the title refers to one of the songs heard in the film, rather than the plotline at hand. The villains busy themselves destroying all the timber in a government forest preserve. When Autry Read More

It's a Joke, Son!

Actors: Kenny Delmar, Una Merkel, June Lockhart, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Radio actor Kenny Delmar created the character of bombastic Southern Senator Claghorn for a 1945 installment of The Fred Allen Show. The character immediately caught on with the public, spawning an overabundance of merchandising and thousands of ersatz Claghorn imitators (foremost among these was Read More

Dragnet

Synopsis: In this suspenseful, convoluted low-budget mystery, a Scotland Yard inspector travels to the Big Apple to investigate the activities of international jewel thieves. The investigation begins after the corpse of a diplomatic courier, who has upon him a number of smuggled jewels, is found on the Read More

Christmas Eve

Actors: George Raft, George Brent, Randolph Scott, Joan Blondell, Virginia Field

Synopsis: This episodic holiday film centers around a rich spinster aunt whose greedy nephew is attempting legal action to take her estate. Before he makes a final decision, a caring judge tells the spinster that she can rally together the three foster children she raised to help her keep the estate, he Read More

Dishonored Lady

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O'Keefe, John Loder, Morris Carnovsky, William Lundigan

Synopsis: In this drama, Madeleine Damien (Hedy Lamarr) is a successful magazine editor with a free-spirited private life, but a number of failed relationships and years of burning the candle at both ends have taken their toll and Madeleine is suicidal and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her Read More

The Fabulous Texan

Actors: Roy Barcroft, Robert H. Barrat, George Beban, Jr., James Brown, John Carroll

Synopsis: Fans of William "Wild Bill" Elliot vastly prefer his B westerns to his big-budget Republic "specials", though the latter films have their adherents. In The Fabulous Texan, Elliot emulates his idol William S. Hart in the role of ex-Confederate officer Jim McWade. Returning to Texas to find his home Read More

Blonde Savage

Actors: Leif Erickson, Gale Sherwood, Douglas Dumbrille, Frank Jenks, Matt Willis

Synopsis: Blonde Savage was directed by one "S. K. Seeley"-who at closer examination turns out to be Steve Sekely hiding behind an alias. The story is the old saw about a blonde white woman who is raised from infancy by a savage jungle tribe. This time, it's a girl named Meelah (Gale Sherwood) who resides Read More

Addio Mimi!

Actors: Marta Eggerth, Jan Kiepura, Janis Carter, Douglas Dumbrille, Marc Platt

Synopsis: The Italian-American Her Wonderful Lie is based on the novel Latin Quarter by Murger. This literary work is better known as the source for the Puccini opera La Boheme, and indeed, Her Wonderful Life is a modernized adaptation of the Puccini classic, with a few songs from other operas thrown in for Read More

Monsieur Beaucaire

Actors: Bob Hope, Joan Caulfield, Patric Knowles, Marjorie Reynolds, Cecil Kellaway

Synopsis: Monsieur Beaucaire, Booth Tarkington's novel about an 18th-century French barber who poses as a swashbuckling aristocrat, was the surprising source for this Grade-A Bob Hope comedy. While in the original novel the tonsorial hero pretended to be someone he wasn't by choice, in this 1946 film Hope Read More

A Night in Paradise

Actors: Merle Oberon, Turhan Bey, Thomas Gomez, Gale Sondergaard, Ray Collins

Synopsis: If Grecian storyteller Aesop really did exist, he was most likely a black slave. He wasn't an Austrian actor with an Egyptian name, but that's who played him in A Night in Paradise. Turhan Bey portrays the fable-spouting Aesop, who tries to escape his bondage by disguising himself as an old man. Read More

The Cat Creeps

Actors: Noah Beery, Jr., Lois Collier, Paul Kelly, Douglas Dumbrille, Fred Brady

Synopsis: Advertised as a typical Universal horror film, The Cat Creeps is more of a crime melodrama, and not a particularly distinguished one at that. Fifth-billed Fred Brady essays the leading role as a reporter named Terry Nichols, who endeavors to prove that a girl's suicide was actually murder. Though Read More

The Catman of Paris

Actors: Carl Esmond, Lenore Aubert, Adele Mara, Douglas Dumbrille, Gerald Mohr

Synopsis: Horror films were not Republic Pictures' forte, as one can see while watching the stylish but pedestrian Catman of Paris. Carl Esmond stars as Charles Reigner, an amnesia victim who may or may not be fiendish "Catman" who has been cutting a homicial swath throughout Gay Paree. Essentially a Read More

Road to Utopia

Actors: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Robert Benchley, Hillary Brooke, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: The first "Road" picture in three years (the last was The Road to Morocco), Road to Utopia is set during the Alaskan gold rush. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby play a pair of third-rate San Francisco entertainers, Chester Hooton and Duke Johnson, who are obliged to skip town in a hurry. They book passage Read More

Spook Busters

Actors: Richard Alexander, Billy Benedict, Tanis Chandler, Chester Clute, Gabriel Dell

Synopsis: The first of the Bowery Boys' "haunted house" comedies, Spook Busters casts the boys as recent graduates of Exterminators' School. Setting up headquarters in Louie's Sweet Shop, Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall) and their pals are hired by Mr. Brown (Chester Clute) to rid a forbidden old Read More

Under Nevada Skies

Actors: Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Republic's Under Nevada Skies blends equal parts music and action, resulting in a treat for fans of both. Roy Rogers stars as a wandering cavalier in search of valuable pitchblende deposits. Assisting Roy in his quest is "Queen of the West" Dale Evans and grizzled, dentally challenged Gabby Hayes. Read More

A Medal for Benny

Actors: Dorothy Lamour, Arturo de Cordova, J. Carrol Naish, Mikhail Rasumny, Fernando Alvarado

Synopsis: John Steinbeck cowrote this sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart-wrenching study of small-town hypocrisy. Shiftless Benny (who is never seen) has been tossed out of his Southern California town by the "proper" citizens. Drafted into the army, Benny is killed in action--and now that he's a hero Read More

The Daltons Ride Again

Actors: Alan Curtis, Kent Taylor, Lon Chaney, Jr., Noah Beery, Jr., Martha O'Driscoll

Synopsis: In this action western, the notorious Dalton Boys have decided to go straight and move to Argentina. Just before they leave, they learn of a friend whose land is about to be seized by a greedy land company. Before they can help, the man is killed by a company assassin. The brothers do manage to Read More

The Frozen Ghost

Actors: Lon Chaney, Jr., Evelyn Ankers, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: An installment from Universal's "Inner Sanctum" series (whose trademark featured an introduction narrated by a spooky disembodied head), this low-budget thriller stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as luckless stage hypnotist "Gregor the Great" who, after seemingly causing the death of one of his audience Read More

Flame of the West

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Raymond Hatton, Joan Woodbury, Douglas Dumbrille, Lynne Carver

Synopsis: Flame of the West has always attracted more attention than most of Johnny Mack Brown's Monogram westerns, if for no other reason than the offbeat casting of Douglass Dumbrille. Usually seen in villainous roles, Dumbrille herein offers a sincere, effective performance as a scrupulously honest US Read More

Jungle Queen [Serial]

Synopsis: Veteran action specialists Ray Taylor and Lewis D. Collins co-directed this below-average Universal serial featuring brunette starlet Lois Collier as a young woman swept up in international intrigue in Darkest Africa. Although the serial's nominal (and much imperiled) heroine, Collier did not play Read More

Pardon My Past

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Marguerite Chapman, Akim Tamiroff, William Demarest, Rita Johnson

Synopsis: A case of mistaken identity leads to hilarity in this comedy. Eddie (Fred MacMurray) and Chuck (William Demarest) are a pair of GIs who've just been sprung from the service and plan to open a mink ranch in Wisconsin. No sooner do they arrive in the Cheese State than one Jim Arnold (Akim Tamiroff) Read More

Uncertain Glory

Actors: Errol Flynn, Paul Lukas, Jean Sullivan, Lucile Watson, Faye Emerson

Synopsis: Uncertain Glory finds Errol Flynn atypically cast as French criminal Jean Picard, a craven coward whose many misdeeds have earned him a date with the guillotine. Detective Marcel Bonet (Paul Lukas) intends to see that Picard keeps his appointment with the executioner, despite the fact that there's Read More

Lost in a Harem

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marilyn Maxwell, John Conte, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Lost in a Harem is arguably the best of Abbott & Costello's trio of MGM films; it's certainly the silliest, with any number of nonsensical plot twists and sidesplitting gags. This time, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello play Pete and Harvey, two American magicians stranded in a mythical Arabian Nights Read More

Gypsy Wildcat

Actors: Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Gale Sondergaard, Leo Carrillo, Peter Coe, Nigel Bruce

Synopsis: In this swashbuckler, a princess is raised by gypsies and becomes their queen. The trouble really begins when a count is murdered and the evil, ambitious baron who really did it blames the crime on the gypsies. The baron's messenger knows the truth and tries to prove it. When he notices that the Read More

Jungle Woman

Actors: Evelyn Ankers, J. Carrol Naish, Samuel S. Hinds, Lois Collier, Milburn Stone, Acquanetta

Synopsis: A strong contender for the title of Universal's worst horror film of the 1940s, Jungle Woman continued the melodramatic exploits of "Ape-Woman" Paula Dupree (Acquanetta from Captive Wild Woman) including seemingly endless "flashback" footage. (Captive, of course, had itself "benefitted" from Read More

Forty Thieves

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Andy Clyde, Jimmy Rogers, Douglas Dumbrille, Louise Currie

Synopsis: In this entry in the long-running western series, Hoppy is running for sheriff and is beaten by the yellow-belly who had garnered the support of the local outlaws. Hoppy stands by for a while and watches as the once law-abiding town becomes a veritable den of inequity. Finally, unable to stand it Read More

Lumberjack

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Andy Clyde, Jimmy Rogers, Herbert Rawlinson, Ellen Hall

Synopsis: Though it's not readily obvious from the title, Lumberjack is the 52nd entry in the long-running "Hopalong Cassidy" series. In this one, Hoppy (William Boyd) and his pals California (Andy Clyde) and Jimmy (Jimmy Rogers) come to the rescue of recently widowed Julie (Ellen Hall). It so happens that Read More

False Colors

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Andy Clyde, Jimmy Rogers, Tom Seidel, Claudia Drake, Robert Mitchum

Synopsis: A young Bar 20 cowboy is killed in this fine Hopalong Cassidy Western directed by the efficient George Archainbaud. Having signed an agreement making Hoppy (William Boyd), California Carlson (Andy Clyde), and Jimmy Rogers part owners of his ranch, young Bud Lawton (Tom Seidel) is promptly killed Read More

Du Barry Was a Lady

Actors: Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly, Virginia O'Brien, Zero Mostel, Rags Ragland

Synopsis: The racy, ribald Cole Porter musical Du Barry Was a Lady is here given a thorough dry-cleaning by prudish MGM. Richard "Red" Skelton takes over the role of Louis Blore (played on Broadway by Bert Lahr), while Lucille Ball steps into the shoes of the original play's Ethel Merman. The story proposes Read More

A Gentleman After Dark

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Miriam Hopkins, Preston S. Foster, Harold Huber, Phillip Reed

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a remake of Forgotten Faces (1936), a convict busts out of prison to protect his daughter from her conniving mother so that the girl will be able to marry a decent guy in the future. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Stand by for Action

Actors: Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy, Marilyn Maxwell

Synopsis: Rear Admiral Stephen Thomas' (Charles Laughton) spoken tribute to "the finest Naval officer I knew" provides the framework for the wartime flag-waver Stand By For Action. Robert Taylor stars as Gregg Masterman, a flippant socialite who comes to realize his obligation to his country when he is Read More

King of the Mounties

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

Castle in the Desert

Actors: Sidney Toler, Arleen Whelan, Richard Derr, Douglas Dumbrille, Henry Daniell

Synopsis: This final entry in 20th Century-Fox's "Charlie Chan" series is set in a huge mansion, smack-dab in the middle of the Mojave desert. When snoopy weekend guest Professor Gleason (Lucien Littlefield) is murdered, every member of the household falls under suspicion-none more so than Mr. Manderly (Douglass Dumbrille Read More

Ten Gentlemen from West Point

Actors: George Montgomery, Maureen O'Hara, John Sutton, Laird Cregar, Victor Francen

Synopsis: This historical drama tells the story of the first class to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In the early 19th Century, Congress appropriated the money to build the school, but opponents who believed it to be an illegitimate expansion of the powers of the federal government Read More

I Married an Angel

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Edward Everett Horton, Binnie Barnes, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: The final pairing of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, an adaptation of a Rodgers & Hart musical, stars Eddy as a playboy who fantasizes that he is romancing an angel (MacDonald). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Road to Zanzibar

Actors: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Una Merkel, Joan Marsh

Synopsis: The second Bing Crosby/Bob Hope "Road" picture casts Crosby as a penny-ante sideshow promoter and Hope as Crosby's only client, "Fearless Frazier." Under Crosby's tutelage, Hope has been shot from a cannon, zapped in an electric chair and nearly strangled by an octopus. Now they're practically Read More

Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Margaret Lindsay, Charles Grapewin, Spring Byington, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: Ralph Bellamy makes the third of four appearances as "master detective" Ellery Queen in Columbia's Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime. The principal villain is crooked stockbroker John Mathews (Douglass Dumbrille), whose Wall Street manipulations render Ray Jarden (H. B. Warner) penniless. Read More

Murder among Friends

Actors: Marjorie Weaver, John Hubbard, Cobina Wright, Jr., Mona Barrie, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Marjorie Weaver, frequently cast as the "Girl Friday" in 20th Century-Fox's Michael Shayne pictures, is permitted to solve a mystery on her own in Murder Among Friends. Weaver plays Mary Lou, an insurance agent who smells a rat when several elderly men, all beneficiaries to a "Tontine" insurance Read More

The Roundup

Actors: Richard Dix, Patricia Morison, Preston S. Foster, Don Wilson, Ruth Donnelly

Synopsis: Originally written as a stage vehicle for corpulent character actor Macklyn Arbuckle, Ernest Day's The Roundup was first filmed in 1920 with Fatty Arbuckle (no relation) in the lead. By the time the film was remade in 1941, Arbuckle's character, a roly-poly frontier sheriff named Slim (!), was Read More

Washington Melodrama

Actors: Frank Morgan, Ann Rutherford, Kent Taylor, Dan Dailey, Lee Bowman

Synopsis: With a little extra effort, Washington Melodrama might have passed muster as an A picture. Frank Morgan stars as millionaire philanthropist Calvin Claymore, who comes to Washington in hopes of promoting a Senate bill on behalf of European war relief. Away from his wife (Fay Holden) and daughter Read More

The Big Store

Actors: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Tony Martin, Virginia Grey

Synopsis: In the last of the Marx Brothers' MGM films, The Big Store, Groucho Marx plays two-bit detective Wolf J. Flywheel, hired by department-store owner Martha Phelps (Margaret Dumont) to act as bodyguard for Martha's nephew and sole heir, Tommy Rogers (Tony Martin). Crooked store manager Grover (Douglas Dumbrille Read More

Slightly Honorable

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Edward Arnold, Broderick Crawford, Ruth Terry, Claire Dodd

Synopsis: The successful producer-director combination of Walter Wanger and Tay Garnett served up another winner with Slightly Honorable. Adapted from F. G. Presnell's novel Send Another Coffin, the story concerns the efforts made by corrupt politician Cushing (Edward Arnold) to frame honest attorney John Read More

Virginia City

Actors: Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scott, Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: Promoted as a follow-up to the popular 1939 western Dodge City (which, indeed, was left wide open for a sequel in its closing scenes), Virginia City bears only surface resemblance to the earlier film. Indeed, the only discerning links between the two pictures are the western setting and the Read More

South of Pago Pago

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Jon Hall, Frances Farmer, Olympe Bradna, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: Beefcake star Jon Hall shows off his sleek physique in the exotic melodrama South of Pago Pago. The son of an island chieftan, young Kehane (Hall) defiantly opposes the efforts by crooked pearl hunter Bucko Larson (Victor McLaglen) to invade his domain. Larson and his minions hope to dissuade our Read More

Michael Shayne, Private Detective

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver, Joan Valerie, Walter Abel, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: Brett Halliday's flippant Irish-American private eye Michael Shayne was first brought to the screen by 20th Century-Fox in 1940, with Lloyd Nolan cast to perfection as Shayne. In dire financial straits as usual, Mike allows himself to be hired by his millionaire pal Brighton (Clarence Kolb) to Read More

The Three Musketeers

Actors: Don Ameche, The Ritz Brothers [Al, Jimmy, Harry], Binnie Barnes, Lionel Atwill, Pauline Moore, Gloria Stuart

Synopsis: Allan Dwan's comedic musical adaptation of the classic Dumas story sticks close to the original tale, yet it augments it with healthy doses of humor and songs. Don Ameche stars as D'Artagnan and the Ritz Brothers play his two other musketeers. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Tell No Tales

Actors: Melvyn Douglas, Louise Platt, Gene Lockhart, Douglas Dumbrille, Florence George

Synopsis: A model of precision and economy, the MGM "B" thriller Tell No Tales represented the feature-film directorial debut of former actor Leslie Fenton. Reportedly an expansion of a "Crime Does Not Pay" 2-reeler, the story follows editor Michael Cassidy (Melvyn Douglas) as he tries to save his newspaper Read More

Charlie Chan in City of Darkness

Actors: Sidney Toler, Richard Clarke, Harold Huber, Pedro de Cordoba

Synopsis: This timely entry in Fox's Charlie Chan series is set in Paris during the Munich Crisis of 1938. Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) arrives in the City of Light for a reunion with his war buddies, only to find those lights dimmed by a city-wide blackout. The murder victim this time out is munitions Read More

Charlie Chan in the City of Darkness

Synopsis: In this episode of the popular detective series, Chan attends a WW I reunion in Paris. While catching up with his buddies, he gets entangled in the investigation of the murder of a munitions maker who sent arms to the other side. The film was created in response to the Munich crisis of 1938. At Read More

Charlie Chan at Treasure Island

Actors: Sidney Toler, Cesar Romero, Pauline Moore, Victor Sen Yung, Douglas Fowley

Synopsis: Movie buffs are nearly unanimous in agreement: Charlie Chan at Treasure Island is the best of the Sidney Toler "Charlie Chan" entries. The film wastes no time getting started, with Chan (Toler) and his son Jimmy (Sen Yung) on hand when Charlie's writer friend Paul Essex (Louis Jean Heydt) dies on Read More

Rovin' Tumbleweeds

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Mary Carlisle, Douglas Dumbrille, William Farnum

Synopsis: While James Stewart was filibustering from his senator's pulpit in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Gene Autry battled congressional bureaucracy in Rovin' Tumbleweeds, which barely could call itself a Western. Gene runs for a congressional seat in order to pass a flood control bill that would Read More

Mr. Moto in Danger Island

Actors: Peter Lorre, Jean Hersholt, Amanda Duff, Warren Hymer, Richard Lane

Synopsis: Peter Lorre stars as the famous Asian detective Mr. Moto in this remake of Murder in Trinidad, in which Moto is asked to help the United States government crack a smuggling ring bringing in stolen diamonds from Puerto Rico. Moto's deductive powers quickly prove impressive as he matches wits with Read More

Captain Fury

Actors: Brian Aherne, Victor McLaglen, Paul Lukas, June Lang, John Carradine

Synopsis: This exciting adventure is set in the rugged Australian outback back when the continent was used as a giant penal colony for criminals of the British empire, and tells the story of a fugitive leader and his band who like Robin of old try to prevent a greedy governor from stealing rancher's land. 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

The Mysterious Rider

Actors: Douglas Dumbrille, Sidney Toler, Russell Hayden, Charlotte Field, Stanley Andrews

Synopsis: The oft-filmed Zane Grey story The Mysterious Rider was given another go-round by Paramount Pictures in 1938. Produced by Harry Sherman of "Hopalong Cassidy" fame, the film bestows top billing upon stalwart supporting actor Douglass Dumbrille. Usually cast as a villain, Dumbrille is here seen in a Read More

Fast Company

Actors: Melvyn Douglas, Florence Rice, Claire Dodd, Shepperd Strudwick, Louis Calhern

Synopsis: Fast Company was another attempt by MGM to match the success of its "Thin Man" films. Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice star as Joel and Garda Sloane, the funloving rare-book dealers created by Harry Kurnitz. Try as they might, the Sloanes can't help getting involved in crime and murder. This time Read More

Stolen Heaven

Actors: Gene Raymond, Olympe Bradna, Glenda Farrell, Porter Hall

Synopsis: Before he became the high priest of realism, producer/director Andrew L. Stone was fascinated with classical music (he'd return to this fascination in his last production years with the disastrous Song of Norway and The Great Waltz). Two attractive jewel thieves, one female (Olympe Bradna), one Read More

Kentucky

Actors: Loretta Young, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan, Douglas Dumbrille, Karen Morley

Synopsis: The blue grass of Kentucky was seen in three-strip Technicolor for the first time in this rambling racetrack drama. Sally Goodwin (Loretta Young) falls in love with Jack Dillon (Richard Greene), but the arrangement is complicated by a decades-old feud. Sally's uncle Peter (Walter Brennan, who won Read More

The Buccaneer

Actors: Fredric March, Franziska Gaal, Akim Tamiroff, Margot Grahame, Walter Brennan

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer stars Fredric March, complete with curly hair, pencil moustache and florid "Sacre Bleu!" French accent, as 18th century pirate Jean Lafitte. Operating out of a "buccaneer's haven" of the coast of New Orleans, Lafitte plunders all passing ships for their wealth, but Read More

Sharp Shooters

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Lynn Bari, Wally Vernon, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Sharpshooters was the initial entry in what was to have been a series of six "Camera Daredevils" adventures. Brian Donlevy and Wally Vernon star as Steve and Waldo, intrepid newsreel cameraman on assignment in the mythical kingdom of Mitovania. It isn't long before our heroes discover that Michael Read More

Storm over Bengal

Actors: Patric Knowles, Richard Cromwell, Rochelle Hudson, Douglas Dumbrille, Colin Tapley

Synopsis: This being a Republic picture, it should come as no surprise that Storm Over Bengal was filmed in its entirety in the San Fernando Valley. Within its concise 65 minutes, the film manages to accommodate a Bengal Lancers main plot, a romantic subplot, the obligatory coward who makes good, intrigue Read More

Crime Takes a Holiday

Actors: Jack Holt, Marcia Ralston, Russell Hopton, Douglas Dumbrille, Arthur Hohl

Synopsis: When this politically charged crime drama came out in 1938, many viewers saw that the themes therein echoed those of the ongoing New York gubernatorial race between Dewey and Lehman. The plot centers on a tough, driven district attorney with an excellent track record who is thrust into politics by Read More

Ali Baba Goes to Town

Actors: Eddie Cantor, Tony Martin, Roland Young, June Lang, Louise Hovick

Synopsis: Autograph hound Al Babson (Eddie Cantor) accidentally disrupts the filming of a movie about Ali Baba, and is injured in the process. The filmmakers try to buy him off, but nurse Dinah (Virginia Field) suggests he be hired as an extra. He takes an overdose of painkillers, and his Arabian Nights Read More

Woman in Distress

Actors: May Robson, Irene Hervey, Dean Jagger, Douglas Dumbrille, George McKay

Synopsis: In this romantic crime drama, a newspaper reporter and his female rival learn that a priceless Rembrandt, believed to have been destroyed years before, is still around. The mayhem begins as they compete to retrieve it from the thieves who swiped it from the elderly spinster who owns it. Read More

Counterfeit Lady

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Joan Perry, George McKay, Gene Morgan

Synopsis: Joan Perry plays the title role in Columbia's Counterfeit Lady. She is cast as Phyllis, a country lass with a rare talent for larceny. Managing to steal a $37,000 diamond from a swank New York jewelry shop, Phyllis is pursued by private detective Johnny (Ralph Bellamy), and by a gang of Read More

The Firefly

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones, Warren William, Billy Gilbert, Henry Daniell

Synopsis: In this adaptation of the operetta by Rudolf Friml, secret agent Nina Maria Azara (Jeannette MacDonald) is working undercover for the King of Spain as a singer known as the "Mosca del Fuego" or "Firefly." Her mission is to uncover Napoleon's plot to invade Spain before it is too late. This film Read More

A Day at the Races

Actors: Groucho Marx, Marx Brothers, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Allan Jones, Maureen O'Sullivan, Leonard Ceeley, Margaret Dumont

Synopsis: A Day at the Races was the Marx Brothers' follow-up to their incomparable A Night at the Opera. Groucho Marx is cast as Hugo Z. Hackenbush, a veterinarian who passes himself off as a human doctor when summoned by wealthy hypochondriac Emily Upjohn (Margaret Dumont) to take over the financially Read More

The Emperor's Candlesticks

Actors: William Powell, Luise Rainer, Robert Young, Maureen O'Sullivan, Frank Morgan

Synopsis: Baroness Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, came up with the story upon which The Emperor's Candlesticks was based. As in Pimpernel, the theme is international intrigue, but this time the setting is pre-World War One Europe and Russia rather than Revolutionary France. William Powell and Luise Rainer Read More

The Calling of Dan Matthews

Actors: Richard Arlen, Charlotte Wynters, Douglas Dumbrille, Mary Kornman, Donald Cook

Synopsis: The Calling of Dan Matthews is a modernized and sanitized version of Harold Bell Wright's muckraking novel. Minister Dan Matthews (Richard Arlen) wants to rid his community of its seamy "Old Town" district, a breeding ground for prostitution and other crimes. Most of the property in question is Read More

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Actors: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander, Douglas Dumbrille, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: When a car crash ends the life of a fabulously wealthy patron of the arts, the decedent's $20,000,000 fortune is inherited by one Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) of Mandrake Falls, Vermont. Already a reasonably successful local businessman, Deeds doesn't really feel the need for anything extra in Read More

The Lone Wolf Returns

Actors: Melvyn Douglas, Gail Patrick, Tala Birell, Thurston Hall

Synopsis: The Lone Wolf Returns stars Melvyn Douglas as Louis Joseph Vance's reformed criminal Michael Lanyard, a.k.a. The Lone Wolf. Lanyard lapses back into his old ways when he attempts to steal an emerald pendant belonging to Gail Patrick, but he falls in love with the girl and remains on the straight Read More

You May Be Next

Actors: Ann Sothern, Lloyd Nolan, Douglas Dumbrille, John Arledge, Berton Churchill

Synopsis: Gangster boss Beau Gardner (Douglass Dumbrille) isn't happy about the things being said about him on the radio station owned by J. J. Held (Berton Churchill). Using his influence, Gardner is able to shut down Held's operation, but he can't wipe out an entire radio network. Thus, he uses hot-shot Read More

End of the Trail

Actors: Jack Holt, Louise Henry, Douglas Dumbrille, George McKay

Synopsis: In this western, a Spanish-American war veteran cannot find gainful employment. In desperation, he becomes a cattle rustler until he can get back on his feet. Just as he is ready to go straight, his girlfriend's younger brother is shot. The veteran kills the murderer, but is then arrested by the Read More

M'Liss

Actors: Anne Shirley, John Beal, Guy Kibbee, Douglas Dumbrille, Moroni Olsen

Synopsis: Loosely based on a story by frontier writer Bret Harte, this romantic western drama tells the story of an innocent, carefree mountain-raised girl who causes quite a stir every time she comes to town to bring her boozy father home from the bar. One day, the flirtatious gal is kissed by the town Read More

The Music Goes 'round

Actors: Harry Richman, Rochelle Hudson, Walter Connolly, Douglas Dumbrille, Lionel Stander

Synopsis: Harry Richman was a major stage and radio star of the 1930s, but his overbearing personality never clicked in films. After bombing out in 1930's Puttin' on the Ritz, he tried again six years later in The Music Goes 'Round, with marginally better results. Richman plays Harry Wallace, headliner of a Read More

The Princess Comes Across

Actors: Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, Douglas Dumbrille, Alison Skipworth, William Frawley

Synopsis: The 1936 comedy-mystery The Princess Comes Across might well have been inspired by a real-life incident during the silent-movie era, in which a crafty San Francisco stenographer hoodwinked the Hollywood elite into believing that she was a Spanish princess. Carole Lombard stars as an alluring Read More

The Witness Chair

Actors: Ann Harding, Walter Abel, Douglas Dumbrille, Frances Sage, Moroni Olsen

Synopsis: With her RKO Radio contract nearing an end, Ann Harding had little choice but accept such trifles as The Witness Chair. Engaged to widower Trent (Walter Abel), Paula (Harding) discovers to her horror that Trent's daughter Connie (Frances Sage) intends to elope with no-good embezzler Whittaker (Douglass Dumbrille Read More

Crime and Punishment

Actors: Edward Arnold, Peter Lorre, Marian Marsh, Tala Birell, Elizabeth Risdon

Synopsis: The story goes that Peter Lorre wanted to star in a film version of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, but was certain that Columbia Pictures chieftain Harry Cohn would turn the project down flat. So Lorre hired a secretary to type up a synopsis of the story in words of one syllable then Read More

Air Hawks

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Wiley Post, Tala Birell, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Generous stock footage from such previous Columbia aviation epics as Flight and Dirigible helped to make Air Hawks (working title: Air Fury) seem more costly than it really was. Real-life pilot Wiley Post, who'd recently grabbed the headlines with his daring around-the-world flight, plays himself Read More

Unknown Woman

Actors: Richard Cromwell, Marian Marsh, Douglas Dumbrille, Henry Armetta, Arthur Hohl

Synopsis: The Unknown Woman is Helen Griffith (Marian Marsh), who unbeknownst to everyone but the audience is a Federal agent. Young attorney Larry Condon (Richard Cromwell) falls for Helen, but keeps his distance because he thinks she's in allegiance with a gang of bond thieves. When Larry and Helen fall Read More

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer

Actors: Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, Guy Standing, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Gary Cooper stars in this rousing adventure saga of three British officers of the 41st Regiment of Bengal Lancers of India. The story begins as Lt. McGregor (Gary Cooper) accepts two new officers to his company -- the brash Lt. Fortesque (Franchot Tone) and Lt. Stone (Richard Cromwell), the son of Read More

Public Menace

Actors: Jean Arthur, George Murphy, Douglas Dumbrille, George McKay

Synopsis: In this lively comedy, a cocky reporter follows a gangster aboard an ocean liner. While on board, the overconfident fellow mentions his purpose to a ship's manicurist with whom he's fallen in love. Later they get married and the reporter loses his job causing a fight between the newlyweds. He then Read More

Love Me Forever

Actors: Grace Moore, Leo Carrillo, Michael Bartlett, Spring Byington

Synopsis: Grace Moore and Victor Schertzinger, the star-director combination responsible for the marvelous One Night of Love (1934), came up with another tune-filled winner in Love Me Forever. Once again voluntarily shedding her "diva" image, Moore plays Margaret Howard, a once-glamorous socialite who's hit Read More

Naughty Marietta

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan, Elsa Lanchester, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: The first of MGM's phenomenally profitable Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy musicals, Naughty Marietta takes several beneficial liberties with the libretto of the original Victor Herbert operetta. MacDonald plays an 18th-century French princess who escapes an arranged marriage by posing as a "cake Read More

Cardinal Richelieu

Actors: George Arliss, Halliwell Hobbes, Edward Arnold, Katherine Alexander

Synopsis: Released generally as Cardinal Richelieu, this George Arliss vehicle was based on the popular 19th-century blank-verse play by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Downplaying the more villainous aspects of the character, Arliss portrays Richelieu as a dry-witted foxy-grandpa type, manipulating the Read More

Peter Ibbetson

Actors: Gary Cooper, Ann Harding, John Halliday, Ida Lupino, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: "I'll See You in My Dreams" could well have been the theme music of Peter Ibbetson, the second film version of George du Maurier's 1891 novel. Peter Ibbetson (Gary Cooper) is an architect who, while working on a restoration job for the British Duke of Towers (John Halliday), discovers that The Read More

The Secret Bride

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Warren William, Glenda Farrell, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: The Secret Bride is Ruth Vincent (Barbara Stanwyck), the daughter of Governor Vincent (Arthur Byron). Attorney general Robert Sheldon (Warren William) falls in love with Ruth and they marry, but Sheldon insists that their marriage be kept secret. It seems that the Governor has been accused of Read More

Massacre

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Ann Dvorak, Dudley Digges, Claire Dodd, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: One of the first major Hollywood films to seriously address America's ongoing mistreatment of its Indian population, Massacre is more admirable for its intentions than its execution. The film was inspired by the activities of John Collier, commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs during Read More

Fog over Frisco

Actors: Bette Davis, Donald Woods, Margaret Lindsay, Lyle Talbot, Hugh Herbert

Synopsis: Cited by film historian William K. Everson as one of the fastest-moving crime melodramas of the 1930s (if not the fastest) Fog Over Frisco still manages to leave viewers breathless. Top-billed Bette Davis plays giddy heiress Arlene Bradford, whose perverse fascination with gangsters gets her mixed Read More

Broadway Bill

Actors: Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Walter Connolly, Helen Vinson, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Just after completing It Happened One Night, director Frank Capra churned out a bread-and-butter picture titled Broadway Bill. Warner Baxter plays the carefree scion of a wealthy, highly-respected family. Baxter's cold but socially correct wife Helen Vinson forces her husband into the family Read More

Operator 13

Actors: Gary Cooper, Marion Davies, Jean Parker, Katherine Alexander, Ted Healy

Synopsis: If you can accept blonde, blue-eyed Marion Davies disguising herself in blackface, chances are you'll swallow the rest of Operator 13. Davies plays a Belle Boyd-like actress who agrees to become a Northern spy during the Civil War. She assumes the identity of an octoroon servant and heads into Read More

Treasure Island

Actors: Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Lionel Barrymore, Otto Kruger, Lewis Stone

Synopsis: This fifth film version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island boasts an all-star MGM cast, headed by Wallace Beery as Long John Silver and Jackie Cooper as Jim Hawkins. The screenplay, by John Lee Mahin, John Howard Lawson and Leonard Praskins, remains faithful to the Stevenson original...up Read More

Hide-Out

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Maureen O'Sullivan, Edward Arnold, Elizabeth Patterson, Whitford Kane, Mickey Rooney

Synopsis: Wounded criminal Lucky Wilson (Robert Montgomery) takes refuge in a small Connecticut farm. He falls in love with Maureen O'Sullivan, who at first is unaware of his criminal record. Lucky is fully prepared to shoot his way out when the cops come calling, but he is softened by O'Sullivan's Read More

Hi, Nellie!

Actors: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Douglas Dumbrille, Robert H. Barrat, Ned Sparks

Synopsis: Nathaniel West's novel Miss Lonelyhearts inspired two films of the early 1930s: Advice to the Lovelorn (33) and Hi, Nellie! Paul Muni stars in the latter film as a big-city newspaper editor who gets in trouble for printing unsubstantiated information about a murder case. Muni is demoted and forced Read More

Harold Teen

Actors: Hal Le Roy, Rochelle Hudson, Patricia Ellis, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert

Synopsis: First adapted for the screen in 1928, Carl Ed's popular comic strip Harold Teen was cinematized a second time in 1934. This time it's musical-comedy star Hal LeRoy as the titular high-schooler, with Rochelle Hudson as his sweetheart Lillums Lovell and Hobart Cavanaugh as sweet-shop owner Pop Read More

Journal of a Crime

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, Adolphe Menjou, Claire Dodd, George Barbier, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: A Hollywood version of Jacques Deval's 1933 French drama Un Vie Perdue, Journal of a Crime stars Ruth Chatterton as Françoise Moliet, a proud Parisian who refuses to divorce her playwright husband Paul (Adolphe Menjou), even though he is rather publicly dallying with the star of his latest Read More

Stamboul Quest

Actors: Myrna Loy, George Brent, Lionel Atwill

Synopsis: The real-life career of the notorious female spy known as "Fraulein Doktor" inspired several films of the 1930s. Stamboul Quest stars Myrna Loy as a seductive espionage agent, working on behalf of the Kaiser in 1915 Istanbul. American medical student George Brent crosses Loy's path, and the two Read More

Voltaire

Actors: George Arliss, Doris Kenyon, Margaret Lindsay, Theodore Newton, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: The life and times of one of France's most influential authors and philosophers receives the romantic treatment from director John G. Adolphi. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Baby Face

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook, Arthur Hohl, John Wayne

Synopsis: Baby Face is a good example of the kind of spitfire lead female characters that appeared in the cinema of pre-code Hollywood. Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck) works as a barmaid in her father's factory-town saloon where she learns to deal with the unwanted advances of male customers. When her father Read More

Rustlers' Roundup

Synopsis: Rustler's Roundup was western star Tom Mix's final feature film; only the 1935 serial Mystery Rider remained before Mix bid adios to the movies. Our Tom comes to the aid of heroine Diane Sinclair, who is being victimized by swarthy Noah Beery Jr. Sinclair's dad has been murdered, and Beery Jr. Read More

Heroes for Sale

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Loretta Young, Aline MacMahon, Gordon Westcott, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: What isn't Heroes for Sale about? Within its 71-minute time frame, this film (co-written by "professional cynic" Wilson Mizner) tackles such issues as disenfranchised war veterans, misguided hero worship, drug addiction, the Depression, capitalism, labor relations and communism. Richard Barthelmess Read More

Lady Killer

Actors: James Cagney, Mae Clarke, Leslie Fenton, Margaret Lindsay, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: We first lay eyes on Jimmy Cagney in Lady Killer while he's working as a movie theater usher. This job lasts just long enough for Jimmy to be swindled in a "badger game" orchestrated by hard-boiled Mae Clarke and a gang of crooks headed by Douglass Dumbrille. Knowing a good thing when he sees it, Cagney Read More

Hard to Handle

Actors: James Cagney, Mary Brian, Ruth Donnelly, Allen Jenkins, Claire Dodd

Synopsis: Hard to Handle stars James Cagney as a fast-talking promoter who pounces upon every current fad and foible to make a quick buck. He promotes marathon dances (where spectators feel cheated because no one drops dead), crash diets, reducing creams and treasure contests, finagling his way into the Read More

The Working Man

Actors: George Arliss, Bette Davis, Hardie Albright, John Farrell MacDonald, Theodore Newton

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, a wealthy shoe magnate is bored with his life. The trouble really begins when his chief rival dies. His company was on the brink of financial ruin and now the bored shoemaker finds himself without even the joy of competition to motivate him. The fellow decides to take a Read More

The Silk Express

Actors: Neil Hamilton, Sheila Terry, Guy Kibbee, Dudley Digges

Synopsis: This drama is set aboard a cross-country train bound for New York. Aboard this train is a silk manufacturer from Seattle who is going to the Big Apple to deliver a valuable shipment. Unfortunately, an avaricious rival is also on board. Fortunately, a railroad detective is also aboard the train as Read More

Smoke Lightning

The Man Who Dared

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Zita Johann, Joan Marsh

Synopsis: The Man Who Dared was inspired by the career of Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, here called "Jan Novak" and played by Preston S. Foster. The first portion of the film dwells upon Novak's early years in Chicago's Bohemian community, then follows him on the political trail. In the face of governmental Read More

The Big Brain

Actors: George E. Stone, Phillips Holmes, Fay Wray, Minna Gombell, Lillian Bond

Synopsis: Perennial sidekick George E. Stone is given the leading role in The Big Brain. Stone plays a small-town barber, short of stature but a giant in the world of stock promotion. As his bank account grows, Stone's ethics diminish, and soon he's playing fast and loose with other people's money. Read More

The Way to Love

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Ann Dvorak, Arthur Pierson, Minna Gombell

Synopsis: In this romantic musical, a carnival knife thrower's assistant falls for a Parisian tour guide who earns money wearing a sandwich board that says "Is Your Heart Happy? No? Consult Professor Bibi, 17 Rue Canton." After a few romantic mishaps, true love eventually ensues. Songs include: "Lover of Read More

The World Changes

Actors: Paul Muni, Mary Astor, Aline MacMahon, Donald Cook, Alan Dinehart

Synopsis: This well-wrought drama chronicles the rise and fall of a midwestern family dynasty from the mid 1800s through the Great Depression. Most of the tale centers on a young Dakota farm boy whose grand schemes and ambition lead him on a cattle drive to Texas. From there he hooks up with the owner of a Read More

Female

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, Philip Faversham, Ruth Donnelly, Johnny Mack Brown

Synopsis: Ruth Chatterton tears up the screen in this fast-paced, lusty comedy. Alison Drake is an automobile magnate, a hard-nosed, hardboiled business woman making dozens of important decisions a day. In her private life, however, she is passionate and bold in her pursuit of male companionship, which she Read More

Laughter in Hell

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Tommy Conlon, Merna Kennedy, Gloria Stuart

King of the Jungle

Actors: Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Frances Dee, Douglas Dumbrille, Robert A'Dair, Florence Britton

Synopsis: In this campy adventure, a man raised in the mysterious African jungles by a pride of lions is captured by circus people and taken to New York along with his feline pals. Just before the boat is to dock, the lion-boy jumps ship and swims to shore. Dressed only in a loin cloth, he begins stalking Read More

Elmer the Great

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Patricia Ellis, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd, Preston S. Foster

Synopsis: Joe E. Brown plays Elmer Kane, a rookie ballplayer with the Chicago Cubs whose ego is matched only by his appetite. Because he is not only vain but naive, Elmer's teammates take great delight in pulling practical jokes on him. Still, he is so valuable a player that the Cubs management hides the Read More

The Wiser Sex

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Melvyn Douglas, Lilyan Tashman, William "Hopalong" Boyd, Ross Alexander

Synopsis: Margaret Hughes (Claudette Colbert) returns from a trip abroad to discover that her sweetheart, crusading attorney David Rolfe (Melvyn Douglas), has been framed for murder. To save Rolfe from the chair, Margaret poses as a trollop and insinuates herself into the confidence of the criminal Read More

That's My Boy

Actors: Richard Cromwell, Dorothy Jordan, Arthur Stone, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: A young football hero learns valuable life lessons on the way to becoming a pro in this sports drama. Tommy is a promising player who is working his way through college. He quickly becomes a star on the campus grid-iron, but when he gets entangled in a stock swindle, he nearly destroys his budding Read More

I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang

Actors: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Noel Francis, Preston S. Foster, Edward McNamara

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' hard-hitting chain-gang movie was a faithful adaptation of the similarly titled autobiography of Robert Elliot Burns. Paul Muni plays World War I veteran James Allen, whose plans of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Flat broke, Allen is Read More

Blondie of the Follies

Actors: Marion Davies, Robert Montgomery, Billie Dove, Jimmy Durante, James Gleason

Synopsis: Marion Davies and Billie Dove, both veterans of the real-life Ziegfeld Follies, star in the entertaining comedy-drama Blondie of the Follies. Having both grown up in the New York tenement district, Blondie (Davies) and Lurleen (Dove) hope to escape their shabby surroundings in favor of the Read More

His Woman

Actors: Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert

Synopsis: In this drama, a remake of Sal of Singapore(1929), the captain of a freighter becomes an instant father when his crew rescues a drifting Navy boat that contains a baby. The captain decides that he will keep the baby and take it back to the U.S. instead of turning it in to the authorities. He Read More