Frank M. ThomasFilmography

The Sleeping City

Actors: Richard Conte, Coleen Gray, Richard Taber, John Alexander, Peggy Dow, Alex Nicol

Synopsis: One of the finest and most troubling films to come out of Universal-International, The Sleeping City tried to emulate some of the cinéma vérité elements of The Naked City (which had been produced at Universal's facilities). The producers got the permission of the city of New York to shoot Read More

Hello, Frisco, Hello

Actors: Alice Faye, John Payne, Jack Oakie, Lynn Bari, Laird Cregar

Synopsis: Though a lesser 20th Century-Fox musical, Hello, Frisco, Hello was one of the studio's most successful wartime efforts. John Payne plays Johnny Cornell, a sharp wheeler-dealer operating on the Barbary Coast at the turn of the century. With the help of his songstress girlfriend Trudy Evans (Alice Read More

No Place for a Lady

Actors: William Gargan, Margaret Lindsay, Phyllis Brooks, Dick Purcell, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: William Gargan and Margaret Lindsay, stars of Columbia's "Ellery Queen" series, were reunited for the like-minded comedy/mystery No Place for a Lady. Gargan plays private eye Jess Arno, while Lindsay is Jess' ever-faithful, long-suffering fiancee June Terry. The plot gets under way when a valuable Read More

The Talk of the Town

Actors: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman, Edgar Buchanan, Glenda Farrell, Charles Dingle

Synopsis: George Stevens' Talk of the Town is a quick-witted comedy driven by wonderful performances by Cary Grant, Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur. Michael Lightcap (Colman) is a stuffy law professor in line to a Supreme Court appointment, who is spending the summer at the house of schoolteacher Nora Read More

Sunset on the Desert

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Lynne Carver, Frank M. Thomas, Beryl Wallace

Synopsis: In this western, Roy plays both the villain and the hero. As the bad-guy, he heads a ring of rustlers. The trouble begins when the gang runs across good-Roy and mistake him for their wicked leader. Good-Roy plays along so he can bring the gang to justice. Unfortunately, bad-Roy shows up and mayhem Read More

Sunset Serenade

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Helen Parrish, Onslow Stevens

Synopsis: Roy Rogers champions the cause of Easterner Sylvia Clark (Helen Parrish), who is in danger of losing her father's ranch to crooked land speculators. Roy tries to deal with the villains through legal channel, but they spoil things by resorting to strong-arm tactics. Making our hero's task all the Read More

Dangerously They Live

Actors: John Garfield, Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey, Lee Patrick, Esther Dale, Moroni Olsen

Synopsis: In this wartime drama, a doctor discovers that one of his patients isn't as crazy as he thought, with dangerous consequences for the whole world. Dr. Michael Lewis (John Garfield) is an intern at a hospital where a woman named Jane (Nancy Coleman) is admitted. Jane was injured in a car wreck, and Read More

The Great Man's Lady

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Brian Donlevy, Thurston Hall, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: This rambling historical drama covers 109 years in the life of one woman. Encased in convincing old-age makeup, Barbara Stanwyck reminisces on her experiences in the American West. As a young woman, she is squired by gambler Brian Donlevy, but her heart belongs to dreamer Joel McCrea. She chooses Read More

Apache Trail

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Donna Reed, William Lundigan, Ann Ayars, Connie Gilchrist

Synopsis:
When MGM made a program western, it generally looked more expensive than an entire years' sagebrusher output at Monogram or PRC. MGM's Apache Trail stars Lloyd Nolan and William Lundigan as two brothers; Nolan is a bellicose highwayman, Lundigan a genial chap assigned guard duties. The main Read More

Mountain Rhythm

Synopsis: In this cornball comedy, the Weavers start a Victory garden to help out with the war. The encounter resistance from the local upper-class school. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Postman Didn't Ring

Actors: Richard Travis, Brenda Joyce, Spencer Charters, Stanley Andrews, William Bakewell

Synopsis: Stolen way back in 1880, a sack of United States mail is discovered in an old attic in 1942. The letters are finally delivered, profoundly affecting the lives of the recipients. The most affected is young farmer Dan Carter (Richard Travis), who falls heir to huge sum of money intended for his Read More

Reap the Wild Wind

Actors: Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Raymond Massey, Robert Preston

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's Technicolor historical spectacle Reap the Wild Wind was to have starred Gary Cooper, but Cooper's prior commitment to Goldwyn's Pride of the Yankees compelled DeMille to recast the leading role with John Wayne. The film, set in the mid-19th century, centers around Key West Read More

Wyoming Wildcat

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Julie Duncan

Synopsis: Don "Red" Barry's first western of 1941, Wyoming Wildcat told the careworn but still potent story of a war veteran returning home to find that his father is now a wanted outlaw. But as Frank Gannon (Frank M. Thomas explains, circumstances -- in this case severe economic conditions forced upon the Read More

Sierra Sue

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, Fay McKenzie, Robert E. Homans

Synopsis: In this Gene Autry Western, the valley is threatened by a weed capable of poisoning the cattle. When burning the range proves ineffectual, the local banker, Stacy Bromfield (Frank M. Thomas), sends for a government inspector in desperation. The inspector, played by Autry, quickly suggests spraying Read More

A Shot in the Dark

Actors: William Lundigan, Nan Wynn, Regis Toomey, Ricardo Cortez, Maris Wrixon

Synopsis: The oft-used title A Shot in the Dark was affixed in 1941 to this Warner Bros. B-picture. Much of the film takes place in the big-city nightclub owned by shady Phil Richards (Ricardo Cortez). When the prospective buyer of Richards' establishment is murdered, there's no shortage of suspects, but Read More

Obliging Young Lady

Actors: Joan Carroll, Edmond O'Brien, Ruth Warrick, Robert Smith, Eve Arden

Synopsis: The studio concocted the film as a showcase for its 9-year-old discovery Joan Carroll, here cast as precocious Bridget Potter. Little Bridget has been willingly "kidnapped" by secretary Linda Norton (Ruth Warrick), who hopes that the girl's disappearance will precipitate a reunion between Read More

Three Sons O'Guns

Actors: Wayne Morris, Marjorie Rambeau, Irene Rich, Tom Brown, William Orr

Synopsis: This Buck Privates knockoff concerns the misadventures of the three Patterson brothers: Charley (Wayne Morris), Eddie (Tom Brown) and Kenneth (William T. Orr). Pampered by their pacifistic mother Margaret (Irene Rich), the Patterson boys do everything they can to avoid being drafted into the Army. Read More

Life with Henry

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Leila Ernst, Eddie Bracken, Hedda Hopper

Synopsis: The box-office success of Paramount's What a Life (1939), coupled with the popularity of the spinoff Henry Aldrich radio series, inspired the studio to launch an "Aldrich" series of its own. The inagural entry was Life with Henry, with Jackie Cooper repeating his role as befuddled teenager Henry Read More

The Monster and the Girl

Actors: Ellen Drew, Robert Paige, Paul Lukas, Joseph Calleia, Onslow Stevens

Synopsis: One of the most schizophrenic films ever to come out of the Paramount "B" mill, The Monster and the Girl starts out as a white-slavery melodrama and ends up as a horror picture! Emerging from the fog, heroine Susan Webster (Ellen Drew) tells her woeful tale to the audience. A young innocent from Read More

Arkansas Judge

Actors: Leon Weaver, Frank Weaver, June Weaver, Roy Rogers, Spring Byington

Synopsis: The down-home Weaver family stars in this countrified drama set in Peaceful Valley where if things went any slower they'd be going backwards. Things pick up a bit when someone steals $50 from a widow. The townsfolk are outraged and Judge Weaver finds himself accusing the widow's cleaning lady of Read More

Among the Living

Actors: Albert Dekker, Susan Hayward, Harry Carey, Frances Farmer, Gordon Jones

Synopsis: One of the eerier chillers of its period -- and one of the best ever to come out of Paramount -- Stuart Heisler's Among the Living is a strange and compelling mix of social drama, horror film, and suspense thriller. The story opens with the funeral of Maxim Raden, the patriarch who was pretty much Read More

Shooting High

Actors: Jane Withers, Gene Autry, Marjorie Weaver, Robert Lowery, Kay Aldridge

Synopsis: Singing cowboy Gene Autry makes a rare appearance outside his usual Republic Pictures stamping grounds in 20th Century-Fox's Shooting High. Instead of playing "himself" as he usually does, Autry is cast as Will Carson, whose family is engaged in a decades-long feud with the Pritchard clan. The Read More

Chad Hanna

Actors: Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Linda Darnell, Guy Kibbee, Jane Darwell

Synopsis: Henry Fonda plays Chad Hanna, a New York country bumpkin of the mid-nineteenth century who joins a travelling circus. He falls in love with beauteous bareback rider Dorothy Lamour, but she spurns him. Chad Hanna then finds himself attracted to another runaway, country girl Linda Darnell. Though Read More

Scandal Sheet

Actors: Otto Kruger, Ona Munson, Edward Norris, John Dilson, Don Beddoe

Synopsis: The publisher of a popular gossip magazine causes a scandal of his own when he hires his bastard son as a reporter. The cub journalist does not realize that his new boss is his father. After only a week, the impetuous youth quits and starts working for his father's rival. Ironically, it is he who Read More

Maryland

Actors: Walter Brennan, Fay Bainter, Brenda Joyce, John Payne, Charlie Ruggles

Synopsis: The success of 1938's Kentucky prompted 20th Century-Fox to come up with the similar (though not entirely identical) horse-racing opus Maryland. After her husband (Russell Hicks) is killed during a fox hunt, Maryland matriarch Charlotte Danfield (Fay Bainter) forbids her son Lee (John Payne) from Read More

Queen of the Mob

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, Blanche Yurka, J. Carrol Naish, William Henry

Synopsis: Though the title character is loosely based on that of the notorious killer/robber Ma Barker, she has been sanitized and prettified to meet the perceived conservative values of Hollywood movie audiences. Unlike Barker, who was bad to the bone, Ma Webster is simply a matriarch who would do anything Read More

Brigham Young

Actors: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Dean Jagger, Brian Donlevy, Jane Darwell

Synopsis: Inspired by the true story of the leader of the Mormon Church, this film features Dean Jagger in the title role. The members of the Church of Latter Day Saints are subjected to religious persecution by the people of Nauvoo, Illinois, where they've settled; so under the leadership of Brigham Young Read More

Geronimo

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Ellen Drew, Andy Devine, Gene Lockhart, William Henry

Synopsis: The late cinema historian William K. Everson once wrote an article titled "Movies Out of Thin Air", referring to films that were comprised almost exclusively of stock footage from earlier productions. A prime example of this sort of patchwork entertainment is the 1939 Paramount production Read More

Secret Service of the Air

Actors: John Litel, Ila Rhodes, James Stephenson, Eddie Foy, Jr.

Synopsis: In this, the premiere entry in the "Brass" Bancroft series (starring the man who would-be President, Ronald Reagan), Brass is seen as an ex-Army pilot who works as a commercial airline pilot. One day he quits his well-paying, safe job to become an agent for the Secret Service. His first assignment Read More

The Mysterious Miss X

Actors: Michael Whalen, Chick Chandler, Mabel Todd, Frank M. Thomas

Synopsis: The Mysterious Miss X would have the audience believe that the very American Michael Whalen and Chick Chandler are a pair of stranded British vaudevillians named Neville and Casey. Further straining the film's credibility is the notion of our heroes being mistaken for Scotland Yard detectives. Read More

Grand Jury Secrets

Actors: John Howard, Gail Patrick, William Frawley, Harvey Stephens, Jane Darwell

Synopsis: In this drama, an ingenious journalist finds himself at odds with his brother the district attorney over his unconventional methods of investigating a story; especially when they interfere with the judicial process as they did when he began eavesdropping upon a grand jury. One of the reporter's Read More

The Rookie Cop

Actors: Tim Holt, Virginia Weidler, Janet Shaw, Frank M. Thomas, Robert Emmett Keane

Synopsis: Filmed on a budget of $77,000, Rookie Cop was another attempt by RKO Radio to transform canine star Ace the Wonder Dog into the new Rin-Tin-Tin. The title character is young Clem (Tim Holt), who tries to convince his superiors to utilize police dogs as a crime-solving device. Thrown off the force Read More

Saga of Death Valley

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Don "Red" Barry, Doris Day, Frank M. Thomas

Synopsis: Roy Rogers is forced to chase down his own kid brother in this exemplary Republic Pictures oater produced and directed by Joseph Kane. Roy Rogers Sr. (Lane Chandler) is brutally murdered by nasty Ed Tasker (Frank M. Thomas), who takes off with the only witness to the killing, Rogers' youngest son Read More

Disbarred

Actors: Gail Patrick, Robert Preston, Otto Kruger, Sidney Toler, Helen MacKellar

Synopsis: Gail Patrick plays a brilliant but naive country lawyer brought to the city to defend gangster Sidney Toler. She is subsidized by pillar of society Otto Kruger, who is actually the "big boy" behind the city's rackets. Ms. Patrick must prove that Toler didn't own a weapon that he is accused of Read More

Burn 'em up O'Conner

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Cecilia Parker, Nat Pendleton, Harry Carey, Addison Richards

Synopsis: The zippy world of auto-racing provided the basis of this off-beat actioner that centers on an auto magnate who is relentlessly driven to break every speed record with his cars. Unfortunately, his drivers keep dying on the track. This doesn't stop the obsessed manufacturer from continuing his Read More

They Made Her a Spy

Actors: Sally Eilers, Fritz Leiber, Frank M. Thomas, Theodore Von Eltz

Synopsis: In this espionage drama, a young woman enrolls in the US Army Intelligence Corps so she can avenge her brother's death. She is assisted by a rookie reporter who helps her investigate a spy ring. They think they know the leader, but things are not as they seem. The film's climax involves an Read More

$1,000 a Touchdown

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Martha Raye, Eric Blore, Susan Hayward, John Hartley

Synopsis: This film should have been a press agent's dream: Hollywood's two greatest "big mouths," Joe E. Brown and Martha Raye, together in the same picture. Brown and Raye play a show business couple who inherit a near-bankrupt college. They decide to build up the school's scraggly football team in hopes Read More

Bachelor Mother

Actors: Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn, Frank Albertson, E.E. Clive

Synopsis: Ginger Rogers slipped off her dancing shoes to play one of her best comic roles as Polly Parish, a salesgirl at a large department store. Single and with no steady beau, Polly leads a quiet life until she discovers a baby left at her doorstep. While puzzled by this development, Polly feels for the Read More

Society Lawyer

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Virginia Bruce, Leo Carrillo, Eduardo Ciannelli, Lee Bowman

Synopsis: This remake of Penthouse (33) stars Walter Pidgeon as a smooth attorney with a few embarrassing friends. One of these is a gangster (Leo Carrillo) whom Pidgeon has successfully defended. When Pidgeon must go after his "pal" for murder, he is forced to go into hiding. He is also compelled to set up Read More

They All Come Out

Actors: Rita Johnson, Tom Neal, Bernard Nedell, Edward Gargan, John Gallaudet

Synopsis: Famous filmmaker Jacques Tourneur (known for his compelling film noir and scary horror movies) makes his directorial debut in this crime drama that centers on a gang's getaway driver who is captured and imprisoned. There he undergoes rehabilitation and decides to go straight. The head gangster's Read More

Death of a Champion

Actors: Lynne Overman, Virginia Dale, Joseph Allen, Jr., Donald O'Connor, Susan Paley

Synopsis: A champion Great Dane is the murder victim in this mystery. Investigating the case is the youthful assistant of a travelling salesman and telepathist. Unfortunately, the young man's attempts to find the show dog's killer fail. He winds up getting both himself and his boss in trouble. Now it is up Read More

Idiot's Delight

Actors: Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, Edward Arnold, Charles Coburn, Joseph Schildkraut, Burgess Meredith

Synopsis: Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Idiot's Delight starred Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne on Broadway. Set in a lavish alpine hotel bordering an Italian air base, the story throws together several disparate people, each in his or her own way affected by the World War that threatens to Read More

Law of the Underworld

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

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

Joy of Living

Actors: Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee, Jean Dixon

Synopsis: Given the talent involved, The Joy of Living should have been far better than it is. Irene Dunne plays Maggie, a popular musical-comedy star saddled with a possessive, spendthrift family. Maggie would like to leave the house once in a while and experience "real life," but her parents (Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee Read More

Night Spot

Actors: Parkyakarkus [Harry Einstein], Gordon Jones, Joan Woodbury, Lee Patrick

Synopsis: Better known today as the father of actors Bob Einstein and Albert Brooks, comedian Harry Einstein achieved radio fame in the 1930s as a tongue-tied Greek named Parkyakarkus. In Night Spot, Einstein/Parkyakarkus is given top billing as a gourmet gangster named Gasshouse, but the plotline is Read More

The Maid's Night Out

Actors: Allan Lane, Joan Fontaine, Hedda Hopper, George Irving, William Brisbane

Synopsis: Joan Fontaine was still two years away from full stardom when she appeared in the B-plus comedy Maid's Night Out. Future cowboy star Allan Lane plays Bill, a millionaire's son who, to win a bet with his father (George Irving), sets out to prove that he can succeed without his family's money. While Read More

Smashing the Rackets

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

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

This Marriage Business

Actors: Victor Moore, Vicki Lester, Cecil Kellaway, Jack Carson

Synopsis: In this comedy, a marriage-license clerk is proud of the fact that during his 20-year career not one of the couples he has licensed have gotten divorced. A reporter learns of his record and writes an article resulting in the small town office being flooded with engaged couples. The reporter then Read More

Strange Faces

Actors: Frank Jenks, Dorothea Kent, Andy Devine, Leon Ames, Mary Treen

Synopsis: After several years' faithful service in supporting parts, Frank Jenks and Dorothea Kent were promoted to leading roles in Universal's Strange Faces. Even so, it is fourth-billed Leon Ames who dominates the film, in the dual role of a notorious gangster and a respectable small-town citizen. Taking Read More

Bringing Up Baby

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charlie Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, May Robson

Synopsis: Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant star in this inspired comedy about a madcap heiress with a pet leopard who meets an absent-minded paleontologist and unwittingly makes a fiasco of both their lives. David Huxley (Grant) is the stuffy paleontologist who needs to finish an exhibit on dinosaurs and Read More

Quick Money

Actors: Fred Stone, Gordon Jones, Dorothy Moore, Berton Churchill, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: Fred Stone stars as the mayor of a small town, threatened by "progressive" politicians who plan to radically change the administration after the next election. Stone is vaguely aware that his opponents are crooks, and that they hope to loot the city treasury. To avoid this contingency, Stone bends Read More

The Renegade Ranger

Actors: George O'Brien, Ray Whitley, Rita Hayworth, Tim Holt, Lucio Villegas

Synopsis: The old west collides with the new in this fine remake of RKO's 1932 Come On, Danger!. Or, rather, veteran RKO star George O'Brien is at odds with his eventual successor at the studio, Tim Holt -- at least part of the way. They play Texas Rangers assigned to bring in suspected murderess Judith Read More

A Man to Remember

Actors: Anne Shirley, Edward Ellis, Lee Bowman, William Henry, John Wray, Granville Bates

Synopsis: A remake of 1933's One Man's Journey, A Man to Remember was the auspicious film directorial debut of Garson Kanin. Told in flashback from the vantage point of a funeral, the film details the life of small-town general practioner Doctor Abbott (Edward Ellis). Arriving in the town of Westport during Read More

Everybody's Doing It

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Sally Eilers, Cecil Kellaway, Lorraine Krueger, William Brisbane

Synopsis: In this comedy, designed to exploit the then current national craze for picture puzzles, an alcoholic advertising exec becomes addicted to inventing puzzles. Trouble ensues when he goes off on a major drunk and forgets to leave the answers to a national breakfast cereal contest. His colleague is Read More

Vivacious Lady

Actors: Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, James Ellison, Beulah Bondi, Charles Coburn

Synopsis: James Stewart and Ginger Rogers were "an item" when Vivacious Lady was filmed, and their obvious real-life affection for one another pours over onto the screen. Stewart plays Peter Morgan, a young botany professor who while on a visit to New York impulsively marries free-spirited nightclub singer Read More

Go Chase Yourself

Actors: Joe Penner, Lucille Ball, Jack Carson, June Travis, Richard Lane, Fritz Feld

Synopsis: When mild-mannered bank clerk Wilbur Meely (Joe Penner) finds himself stuck in a speeding trailer after a bank robbery gone wrong, he doesn't think the situation could get much worse than it already is. Unbeknownst to him, however, both the police department and his domineering wife Carol (Lucille Read More

Blind Alibi

Actors: Richard Dix, Whitney Bourne, Eduardo Ciannelli, Frances Mercer, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: A French sculptor travels to LA and, with the help of Ace the Wonder Dog, pretends to be blind so he can sneak into a museum and reclaim some missing love letters. The amorous missives were written by his sister and could destroy her reputation. Someone has been using them to blackmail her, so her Read More

The Saint in New York

Actors: Louis Hayward, Kay Sutton, Sig Rumann, Jonathan Hale, Jack Carson

Synopsis: The Saint, Leslie Charteris' charming but deadly criminal-turned-sleuth, made his first film appearance in RKO Radio's The Saint of New York. Faithful to Charteris' original concept, this first movie Saint is a cold-blooded murderer, redeemed by the fact that all of his victims are notorious Read More

Mr. Doodle Kicks Off

Actors: Joe Penner, June Travis, Richard Lane, Ben Alexander

Synopsis: Another of RKO's movie vehicles for radio comic Joe Penner ("You na-a-a-asty man!"), Mr. Doodle Kicks Off stars Penner as the son of a wealthy and influential businessman. Penner's dad is disappointed at how sonny has turned out (we can't blame him), but is bound and determined to enroll Joe in Read More

Crime Ring

Actors: Allan Lane, Frances Mercer, Clara Blandick, Inez Courtney, Bradley Page

Synopsis: RKO Radio's ace short-subjects director Leslie Goodwins graduated to features with the economically produced Crime Ring. Allan Lane plays a hotshot newspaperman who takes on a phony spiritualist ring. The crooked soothsayers are in league with a band of stock swindlers, coercing the gullible into Read More

Criminal Lawyer

Actors: Lee Tracy, Margot Grahame, Eduardo Ciannelli, Erik Rhodes, Betty Lawford

Synopsis: Attorney Lee Tracy gains renown for his flamboyant courtroom tactics, which nearly always result in acquittal for his clients. Though none too honest, Tracy rises to the position of district attorney. Unbeknownst to the public, the D.A. is in the pocket of local gangster interests, who hope that Read More

Crashing Hollywood

Actors: Lee Tracy, Joan Woodbury, Paul Guilfoyle, Lee Patrick, Richard Lane, Jack Carson

Synopsis: This back-stage crime comedy, a remake of Lights Out (1923), takes a healthy satirical stab at the powerful studio system of the times. The trouble begins when an ex-convict and a screenwriter together write a screenplay based on the bank robbery that got the criminal in trouble with the law. Read More

They Wanted to Marry

Actors: Betty Furness, Gordon Jones, E.E. Clive, Patsy Lee Parsons, Henry Kolker

Synopsis: The "they" who want to marry in this RKO Radio programmer are news photographer Jim Tyler (Gordon Jones) and cute society deb Sheila Hunter (Betty Furness). The heroine's father (Henry Kolker) disapproves of the union, requiring Gordon to take a "respectable" job in daddy's advertising agency. Our Read More

We Who Are About to Die

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Ann Dvorak, John Beal, Ray Mayer, Gordon Jones

Synopsis: Its title notwithstanding, We Who Are About to Die has nothing to do with Roman Gladiators. Rather, the film is based on the true story of San Quentin inmate David Lamson, who spent 13 agonizing months on Death Row before the Supreme Court reversed his conviction. Renamed John (and played by John Beal Read More

We're on the Jury

Actors: Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Philip Huston, Louise Latimer, Vinton Haworth

Synopsis: In this comedy drama (a remake of 1932's Ladies of the Jury), an apparently bubble-headed but mule-stubborn jurist is convinced of the defendant's innocence and refuses to change her verdict. Unlike the others, she listens to her own common sense and looks carefully at the facts and decides that Read More

Breakfast for Two

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Herbert Marshall, Glenda Farrell, Eric Blore, Frank M. Thomas

Synopsis: In this screwball comedy, Valentine Ransome (Barbara Stanwyck) is an heiress who falls for Jonathan Blair (Herbert Marshall), a carefree playboy who owns part of a large steamship line. However, Valentine doesn't especially like Jonathan's brassy fiancé, Carol Wallace (Glenda Farrell), and thinks Read More

China Passage

Actors: Constance Worth, Vinton Haworth, Leslie Fenton, Gordon Jones, Alec Craig

Synopsis: A couple of American soldiers of fortune are hired by the wife of a Chinese general to deliver a priceless diamond to a shopkeeper in Shanghai in this low-budget whodunit from the RKO "B"-unit. Just as the gem reaches its destination all hell breaks lose. When the dust settles, the diamond is gone Read More

You Can't Buy Luck

Actors: Onslow Stevens, Helen Mack, Vinton Haworth, Maxine Jennings, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a highly superstitious racehorse owner spends his time off the track helping the less fortunate in any way he can so that he will always have good luck. His ploy works until he is accused of murdering his ex-lover. Fortunately, the real culprit is discovered before he has to Read More

You Can't Beat Love

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Joan Fontaine, Herbert Mundin, William Brisbane, Alan Bruce

Synopsis: Hotshot attorney Jimmy Hughes (Preston S. Foster) prides himself on never backing down from a dare. Thus, when he is goaded into running for mayor on the Reform ticket, Jimmy mounts an aggressive campaign. Only one problem: the incumbent mayor (Frank M. Thomas) is the father of Jimmy's sweetheart Read More

Danger Patrol

Actors: Sally Eilers, John Beal, Harry Carey, Frank M. Thomas, Crawford Weaver

Synopsis: Set amidst the tense and suspenseful world of men who transport large amounts of nitroglycerin, used to put out fires in oil fields, this drama centers on the conflict between a young med student, who has become a nitro handler to help pay his way through school, and the old trucker who hauls the Read More

Meet the Missus

Actors: Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Anne Shirley, Alan Bruce, Edward H. Robins

Synopsis: Meet the Missus poked fun at the contest crazes of the 1930s. Helen Broderick stars as a woman who spends every spare moment entering contests, much to the discomfort of her browbeaten hubby Victor Moore, who is left with all the housework. She finally makes the finals in the "Happy Noodles Read More

The Man Who Found Himself

Actors: John Beal, Joan Fontaine, Philip Huston, Jane Walsh, George Irving

Synopsis: A doctor (John Beal) who loses faith in his skills renounces his profession and hides himself in a variety of jobs. He takes a minor job at an airfield, where he meets nurse Joan Fontaine, who works on a "flying hospital". On board the aircraft, Beal finds he is the only person who can perform a Read More

The Toast of New York

Actors: Edward Arnold, Cary Grant, Frances Farmer, Jack Oakie, Donald Meek

Synopsis: Allegedly based on two factual works, Bouck White's The Book of Daniel Drew and Matthew Josephson's The Robber Barons, RKO's The Toast of New York is a largely fanciful account of the career of 1870s financier "Jubilee Jim" Fisk. As played by Edward Arnold in his usual "tycoon" mode, Fisk was a Read More

The Outcasts of Poker Flat

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Jean Muir, Van Heflin, Virginia Weidler, Margaret Irving

Synopsis: Outcasts of Poker Flat is an adaptation of Bret Harte's western story of the same name, with elements of Harte's The Luck of Roaring Camp thrown in for good measure. Set during the California gold rush, the story traces the destinies of several divergent individuals. Preston S. Foster is gambler Read More

Racing Lady

Actors: Ann Dvorak, Smith Ballew, Harry Carey, Berton Churchill, Frank M. Thomas

Synopsis: Professional horsewoman Ann Dvorak is the Racing Lady in this hit-and-miss romantic comedy. The story begins breaking into a trot when millionaire auto tycoon Steven Wendel (Smith Ballew) (later a movie "singing cowboy") purchases a thoroughbred horse and engages the services of Ruth Martin (Dvorak Read More

Behind the Headlines

Actors: Lee Tracy, Diana Gibson, Donald Meek, Paul Guilfoyle, Philip Huston

Synopsis: A newspaper reporter vies with his arch rival, who is also his girl friend, for the scoop on a recent bank robbery. The race nearly destroys their relationship until he saves her from the evil crooks. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Forty Naughty Girls

Actors: James Gleason, ZaSu Pitts, Marjorie Lord, George Shelley, Joan Woodbury

Synopsis: RKO Radio's "Hildegarde Withers" series, based on the mystery stories by Stuart Palmer, ground to a half with 40 Naughty Girls. ZaSu Pitts is once more miscast as crime-solving schoolmarm Hildegarde Withers, while James Gleason is rather better served as Inspector Oscar Piper. The title refers to Read More

The Big Shot

Actors: Guy Kibbee, Cora Witherspoon, Dorothy Moore, Gordon Jones, Russell Hicks

Synopsis: A veterinarian and his wife leave their small burg and move to the Big Apple after he inherits a million dollars. His social climbing wife insists on the move because she wants her daughter to make a formal debut. Unfortunately for the family, the fortune was earned by a brutal mob boss, the Read More

The Big Game

Actors: Philip Huston, James Gleason, June Travis, Bruce Cabot, Andy Devine

Synopsis: Future best-selling novelist Irwin Shaw made his screenwriting bow with the modest RKO Radio sports drama The Big Game. The story revolves around the efforts by a group of crooked gamblers to fix the outcomes of college football games. When star quarterback Clark (Philip Huston) refuses to be 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

Without Orders

Actors: Sally Eilers, Robert Armstrong, Frances Sage, Charles Grapewin, Vinton Haworth

Synopsis: In this drama, a flamboyant womanizing airline pilot competes with another, rather dull, pilot for the love of a fetching flight attendant. At first she ignores her sister's advice and has a fling with the charming cad, who gets back at the meddlesome sister by hitting her on the head. The two Read More

The Last Outlaw

Actors: Harry Carey, Hoot Gibson, Henry B. Walthall, Margaret Callahan, Frank M. Thomas

Synopsis: After 25 years, notorious western outlaw Harry Carey is released from prison. He returns to his frontier home town, only to discover that the place has been streamlined and modernized beyond all recognition. Even worse, virtually everyone in town has forgotten Carey; most of the younger folk Read More

Grand Jury

Actors: Fred Stone, Louise Latimer, Owen Davis, Jr., Moroni Olsen, Frank M. Thomas

Synopsis: The Commodore (Fred Stone), an average man in an average small town, is incensed that killers and thieves are able to use legal loopholes to escape punishment. He mounts a civic crusade to bring a local gang of racketeers to justice and is aided in this endeavor by idealistic young reporter Steve Read More

Mummy's Boys

Actors: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Barbara Pepper, Moroni Olsen, Frank M. Thomas

Synopsis: Were it not for the deplorable Silly Billies, Mummy's Boys might well have been the weakest of the Bert Wheeler-Robert Woolsey comedies. The boys are cast as ditch diggers Stanley Wright and Aloysius Whittaker, who sign on as "excavators" for an archaeological expedition into Egypt. What our Read More

Don't Turn'em Loose

Actors: James Gleason, Bruce Cabot, Louise Latimer, Betty Grable

Synopsis: In this crime drama a high-school principal's principles are put to the test when he, also a member of a parole board, is given the ultimate power to decide whether his son, a brutal criminal is to be paroled. The others do not know about the inmate's relationship to their colleague and the son Read More

Wanted: Jane Turner

Actors: Lee Tracy, Gloria Stuart, Judith Blake, John McGuire, Frank M. Thomas

Synopsis: Wanted: Jane Turner was inspired by an actual robbery-murder case of 1926. A gang of thieves use the Post Office's general-delivery service to pick up and send out their ill-gotten gains. To throw the cops off the scent, the crooks have established a P.O. box under the fictional name of "Jane Read More

The Ex-Mrs. Bradford

Actors: William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Gleason, Eric Blore, Robert Armstrong

Synopsis: The "ex" of the title is daffy mystery-writer Jean Arthur, former wife of urbane doctor William Powell. When Powell becomes the prime suspect in a murder case, Arthur endeavors to solve the case herself -- and to reclaim her ex-hubby in the process. After a well-directed semiclimax at a race Read More

Wednesday's Child

Actors: Edward Arnold, Karen Morley, Shirley Grey, Robert Shayne

Synopsis: Wednesday's Child, the song goes, is "full of woe." This is indeed the case for Bobby (Frankie Thomas), who is bundled off to military school when his father (Edward Arnold) and mother (Karen Morley) divorce. That Bobby was forced to testify during the divorce action was traumatic enough; now he Read More