John MiljanFilmography

Apache Warrior

Actors: Keith Larsen, Jim Davis, John Miljan, Rodopho (Rudy) Acosta, Eddie Little

Synopsis: Keith Larsen stars as the Apache Kid, an Indian scout. He is willing to cooperate with the US cavalry until his brother is killed by another Native American. The Apache Kid is permitted to seek revenge under tribal law, but white law does not recognize this ruling; as a result the Kid is branded a 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

The Wild Dakotas

Synopsis: The fraternal filmmaking team of produced Sigmund Neufeld and director Sam Newfield once again joined forces on The Wild Dakotas. Made some two years after the "official" demise of the "B" western, the film attempts to revive the genre with a new cowboy star, one Will Williams. In keeping with the Read More

Pirates of Tripoli

Actors: Paul Henreid, Patricia Medina, Paul Newlan, John Miljan, Mark Hanna

Synopsis: Paul Henreid was light-years removed from Now Voyager and Casablanca when he starred in the Columbia costume cheapie Pirates of Tripoli. Henreid is cast as Edri-Al-Gadrian, a bold buccaneer who comes to the rescue of Princess Karjan (Patricia Medina). Much of the action footage is culled from Read More

Run for Cover

Actors: James Cagney, John Derek, Viveca Lindfors, Jean Hersholt, Ernest Borgnine, Grant Withers

Synopsis: In his first western since 1939's The Oklahoma Kid, James Cagney is a pillar of integrity in the Pine-Thomas production Run for Cover. Cagney plays Matt Dow, who at the beginning of the film has been released from prison after serving six years for a crime he didn't commit. Heading westward, Matt Read More

The Savage

Actors: Charlton Heston, Susan Morrow, Peter Hanson, Joan Taylor, Richard Rober

Synopsis: The Paramount publicity department had a field day heralding the news that Charlton Heston portrays a Native American named "Warbonnet" in The Savage. Actually the ad campaign was a bit of a cheat, since Heston turns out to be a white man raised by the Sioux. The crisis comes when hostilities Read More

Bonzo Goes to College

Actors: Maureen O'Sullivan, Charles Drake, Edmund Gwenn, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: Bonzo Goes to College is the one that Ronald Reagan isn't in. The focus, of course, is on brainy chimpanzee Bonzo, who escapes a seedy sideshow and hides out on a college campus. Here he is adopted by Betsy Drew (Gigi Perreau), the daughter of nonplused professor Malcolm Drew (Charles Drake). Read More

M

Actors: David Wayne, Luther Adler, Howard Da Silva, Martin Gabel, Steve Brodie, Raymond Burr

Synopsis: It took nerve for director Joseph Losey to attempt a remake of Fritz Lang's classic chiller M, but by and large Losey was up to the challenge. David Wayne steps into the old Peter Lorre role as the compulsive child-murderer who is tracked down and then placed on trial by the criminal underworld. Read More

Mule Train

Actors: Gene Autry, Pat Buttram, Sheila Ryan, Robert Livingston, Frank Jaquet

Synopsis: Though the hit song "Mule Train" is most closely associated with Frankie Laine, it was Gene Autry who first sang the tune on film, in a picture titled ... what else? .... Mule Train. This time, Autry plays a federal marshal who comes to the aid of a grizzled old prospector who has been framed for Read More

Adventure in Baltimore

Actors: Robert Young, Shirley Temple, John Agar, Albert Sharpe, Josephine Hutchinson

Synopsis: Set in the early 1900s, Adventure in Baltimore is a romantic comedy about the woman's suffrage movement. Shirley Temple plays a student at an exclusive girl's school who "sees the light" and begins campaigning for women's rights. This doesn't sit well with her minister father (Robert Young) nor Read More

Samson and Delilah

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, Victor Mature, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Henry Wilcoxon

Synopsis: Samson and Delilah is Cecil B. DeMille's characteristically expansive retelling of the events found in the Old Testament passages of Judges 13-16. Victor Mature plays Samson, the superstrong young Danite. Samson aspires to marry Philistine noblewoman Semadar (Angela Lansbury), but she is killed Read More

Mrs. Mike

Actors: Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, J.M. Kerrigan, Angela Clarke, John Miljan

Synopsis: Dick Powell stars as Canadian Mountie Sgt. Mike Flannagan. When Boston-bred Kathy O'Fallon (Evelyn Keyes) marries Mike, she is immediately nicknamed "Mrs. Mike" by her new friends and neighbors. Unprepared for the hardships of life in the Great White North, Mrs. Mike nonetheless perseveres through Read More

Stampede

Actors: Rod Cameron, Gale Storm, Johnny Mack Brown, Don Castle, Donald Curtis

Synopsis: Stampede is a choice example of the Lesley Selander B-plus westerns of the late 1940s/early 1950s. Rod Cameron and Don Castle star as feuding brothers who own separate cattle ranches. The siblings find themselves on opposite sides of a water-rights battle, in which settlers are being deprived Read More

Queen of the Amazons

Synopsis: In this adventure, a devoted fiancee journeys to the jungle to take on the terrifying Amazon women who have been holding her lover hostage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Unconquered

Actors: Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, Howard Da Silva, Boris Karloff, Katherine de Mille, Ward Bond

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's first postwar production, the $5 million Technicolor historical spectacular Unconquered lacks only the kitchen sink. The story begins in England in the 1760s, as Abigail Martha Hale (Paulette Goddard), unjustly accused of a crime against the Crown, is sentenced by the Lord Chief Read More

The Flame

Actors: John Carroll, Vera Ralston, Robert Paige, Broderick Crawford, Henry Travers

Synopsis: Carlotta Duval (Vera Ralston) is willing to help her boyfriend George McAllister (John Carroll) get his hands on his ailing brother Barry's (Robert Paige) fortune. She is willing to marry Barry, knowing full well that he has only been given a few months to live. And when she deviates from the Read More

Sinbad the Sailor

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Anthony Quinn, Jane Greer, George Tobias

Synopsis: In the RKO swashbuckler Sinbad the Sailor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. nostalgically emulates his famous father. The first seven voyages of Sinbad have come and gone: now he is on an eighth mission, in search of the island where Alexander the Great allegedly hid his treasure. Participants in the Read More

Perilous Waters

Actors: Don Castle, Audrey Long, Peggy Knudsen, Samuel S. Hinds, Gloria Holden

Synopsis: Future TV writer/producer Don Castle heads the cast of Monogram's Perilous Waters. Most of the action takes place aboard the yacht owned by millionaire newspaper publisher Dana Ferris (Samuel Hinds Jr.) Because of his virulent crusade against gambling, Ferris has been targeted for extermination by Read More

That's My Man

Actors: Don Ameche, Catherine McLeod, Roscoe Karns, John Ridgely

Synopsis: A man's addiction to gambling almost destroys his life in this racetrack adventure. Joe Grange is nearly broke when he buys an ailing colt and brings it back to health. He then turns the horse into a promising champion. During the big race, Joe places a large amount of money upon the horse. It Read More

Lost City of the Jungle

Synopsis: British character actor Lionel Atwill, in his final performance, appeared as a power-mad Englishman attempting to rule the world in this 13 chapter Universal serial. Sir Eric Hazarias (Atwill) is searching the mountains of Himalaya for Metorium 245, the only known antidote to the Bomb. Sir Eric is Read More

White Tie and Tails

Actors: Scotty Beckett, William Bendix, Barbara Brown, Donald Curtis

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, a butler and a crap-shooting chauffeur find themselves having the run of their employer's mansion after he goes on a ten-day vacation. They decide to avail themselves of their master's luxuries. The butler finds his boss's clothing fits him perfectly, and so pretends to be Read More

The Killers

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker, Jeff Corey, Sam Levene, Jack Lambert

Synopsis: The Killers uses Ernest Hemingway's short story as a springboard for a complex film noir. Two mysterious men (William Conrad and Charles McGraw) muscle their way into a small town and kill an aging boxer (Burt Lancaster, making his screen debut), who offers no resistance and seems to be welcoming Read More

The Last Crooked Mile

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Ann Savage, Adele Mara, Tom Powers, Sheldon Leonard

Synopsis: Republic contractee Don Barry plays private eye Tom Dwyer, whose ability to irritate both cops and crooks alike hides his keen deductive skills. Dwyer takes on the case of a missing $300,000, stolen from a bank by three robbers who were subsequently killed in a car accident. Before he can recover Read More

Wildfire

Actors: Bob Steele, Sterling Holloway, William Farnum

Synopsis: Wildfire was the first release from Screen Guild Productions, the adventuresome little independent that would eventually metamorphose into Lippert Pictures Inc. The title character is a magnificent wild horse, slated to be destroyed by a group of ranchers. It seems that Wildfire is being held Read More

It's in the Bag

Actors: Fred Allen, Jack Benny, William Bendix, Binnie Barnes, Robert Benchley

Synopsis: Based on the popular Russian novel The Twelve Chairs, this stars Fred Allen as flea-circus impresario Fred Floogle. Learning that he's inherited $12 million from his uncle, Fred also discovers that the money has been stuffed in one of thirteen chairs that he's sold at auction. The rest of the film Read More

I Accuse My Parents

Actors: Mary Beth Hughes, Robert Lowell, John Miljan, Vivienne Osborne, George Meeker

Synopsis: I Accuse My Parents was one of PRC's entries in the "wartime juvenile delinquent drama" sweepstakes, as exemplified by such earlier films as RKO's Youth Runs Wild and Monogram's Where are Your Children? This time around, it's high schooler James Wilson (Robert Lowell) who suffers from lack of Read More

Back to Bataan

Actors: John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Beulah Bondi, Fely Franquelli, Richard Loo

Synopsis: Edward Dmytryk's Back to Bataan stars John Wayne as Colonel Joe Madden. After General MacArthur decides to follow his order and leave the Philippines, Madden agrees to stay behind and organize an underground resistance movement. Anthony Quinn plays Andres Bonifacio, a captain who falls in love Read More

The Merry Monahans

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan, Jack Oakie, Ann Blyth, Rosemary de Camp

Synopsis: The Merry Monahans is one of the higher-budgeted Universal musicals of the 1940s, even though the storyline is strictly grade-B material. During the first two decades of the 20th century the film concerns a family vaudeville troupe headed by patriarch Pete Monahan (Jack Oakie). Because of his love Read More

Bride by Mistake

Actors: Alan Marshal, Laraine Day, Marsha Hunt, Allyn Joslyn, Edgar Buchanan

Synopsis: Bride by Mistake is a remake of the 1934 Miriam Hopkins vehicle The Richest Girl in the World, with a wartime angle providing topicality. Tired of being romanced by fortune hunters and being rejected by poor-but-proud suitors, fabulously wealthy Norah (Laraine Day) decides to pose as her own Read More

The Iron Major

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Ruth Warrick, Robert Ryan

Synopsis: The Iron Major is the saga of WW1 hero-cum-football coach Frank Cavanaugh, played with his usual no-nonsense professionalism by Pat O'Brien. Leaving home and hearth behind to serve his country in the Great War, Cavanaugh goes on to lead the Dartmouth, Boston College and Fordham football teams to Read More

Submarine Alert

Actors: Richard Arlen, Wendy Barrie, Nils Asther, Roger Pryor, Abner Biberman

Synopsis: The plot of the Pine-Thomas adventure quickie Submarine Alert is more than a little beholden to Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. Richard Arlen plays FBI radio engineer Lee Deerhold, who turns bitter and vindictive when he is abruptly fired. Actually, his termination was engineered by his FBI superiors Read More

The Fallen Sparrow

Actors: John Garfield, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Patricia Morison, Martha O'Driscoll

Synopsis: John Garfield was borrowed from Warner Bros. by RKO Radio for the tense espionage melodrama The Fallen Sparrow. Garfield is cast as Kit, an idealistic Spanish Civil War veteran who survives two torturous years in a fascist prison. Upon returning to New York, Kit is pounced upon by Nazi agents, who Read More

Boss of Big Town

Actors: John Litel, Florence Rice, H.B. Warner, Jean Brooks, John Miljan

Synopsis: Quality was seldom a consideration in the low-budget films of PRC Studios; still, the company was a welcome harbor for character actors who aspired to occasional leading roles. In Boss of Big Town, veteran supporting player John Litel is top-billed as crusading city market official Michael Lynn. Read More

Bombardier

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley, Eddie Albert, Walter Reed

Synopsis: A major moneymaker for RKO Radio, Bombardier stars Pat O'Brien and Randolph Scott as trainers at a school for bomber pilots. O'Brien and Scott argue over teaching methods, while their students vie for the affections of Anne Shirley. O'Brien's methods prove sound during a bombing raid over Tokyo. Scott Read More

The Big Street

Actors: Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Agnes Moorehead, Barton MacLane, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Lucille Ball delivers the finest dramatic performance of her career in this satisfying adaptation of Damon Runyon's The Big Street. Ball is cast as Gloria, aka "Your Highness," the vain and thoroughly selfish star attraction of gangster Case Ables' (Barton MacLaine) New York nightclub. Henry Fonda Read More

Scattergood Survives a Murder

Actors: Guy Kibbee, John Archer, Maggie Hayes, Wallace Ford, Spencer Charters

Synopsis: The title neatly gives away the ending in RKO Radio's Scattergood Survives a Murder. Guy Kibbee once again stars as storekeeper Scattergood Baines, the sage of the small town of Coldriver. The story gets under way when two reclusive spinsters die under mysterious circumstances. Inasmuch the as the Read More

Criminal Investigator

Synopsis: A better-than-average crime thriller from Poverty Row company Monogram, the plainly titled Criminal Investigator (aka Crime Reporter) stars Robert Lowery in the title role, an intrepid sleuth who discovers that the two cases he has been investigating have something in common. A deaf-and-dumb Read More

True to the Army

Actors: Judy Canova, Allan Jones, Ann Miller, Jerry Colonna, William Demarest

Synopsis: In this musical comedy set during WW II, a circus aerialist desires to be closer to her lover, a soldier. When she finds herself chased by gangsters, the woman dresses up as a man and joins the military. Mayhem ensues as she tries to undergo training and keep her sex a secret. The secret is Read More

Double Cross

Actors: Kane Richmond, Pauline Moore, Wynne Gibson, John Miljan, Richard Beach

Synopsis: In this action film, an officer is thrown off the force by his father the chief of police. The bitter ex-cop then joins a racketeering operation. The ring leader assigns him to drive a truck-load of armed hoods to ambush his father. Unbeknownst to the crooks, the ex-cop is still active on the Read More

The Cowboy and the Blonde

Actors: Mary Beth Hughes, George Montgomery, Alan Mowbray, Roberl Conway, John Miljan

Synopsis: This back-stage romantic comedy pokes fun at Hollywood cowboys as it tells the story of a champion rodeo rider who is contracted to work in a series of low-budget westerns. He has rootin' tootin' fun until he meets a spoiled, volatile actress. He decides to personally take responsibility for Read More

The Deadly Game

Synopsis: Charles Farrell, once a heartthrob of the silent screen, is the snow-on-the-roof protagonist in Monogram's The Deadly Game. Farrell rescues the lovely June Lang from a jam, only to get involved with a complex murder case. Evidently, no one can be trusted, so Farrell has his hands full during the Read More

Forced Landing

Synopsis: In this war drama, a commercial pilot joins the air corps of a South Pacific island, and there he finds that he must contend with a dictator. He also falls quietly in love with the leader's girlfriend. Unfortunately, the evil leader is the head of the air corps, and to get rid of the young man who Read More

Riot Squad

Synopsis: This Monogram quickie stars Richard Cromwell as Dr. Tom, an idealistic young tenement-district physician. When his best pal, a police captain, is killed by gangsters, Dr. Tom offers his services to the authorities in hopes of bringing the villains to justice. Working undercover, our hero becomes a 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

New Moon

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Mary Boland, George Zucco, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1930 with Lawrence Tibbett and Grace Moore, the robust Sigmund Romberg operetta New Moon was given another airing in 1940 as Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald vehicle. Set in 18th century Louisiana, the story concerns the relationship between haughty plantation owner Marianne de Read More

Young Bill Hickok

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, John Miljan, Sally Payne

Synopsis: This Roy Rogers vehicle is a followup (though not a sequel) to 1940's Young Buffalo Bill. Definitely a "premature anti-fascist", singing frontiersman Bill Hickok (Roy Rogers) tries to thwart the takeover of West by foreign invaders. John Miljan is frontier fuhrer Nicholas Tower, who hires a gang Read More

Emergency Squad

Actors: William Henry, Louise Campbell, Richard Denning, Robert Paige, John Marston

Synopsis: In this B movie actioner, a plucky female cub reporter is determined to get her boss a front page scoop and so finagles a way to spend a few days with two drivers in the title squad. While with them she finds herself reporting a huge fire at a chemical plant. She gets herself in real danger when Read More

Women Without Names

Actors: Ellen Drew, Robert Paige, Judith Barrett, John Miljan, Fay Helm

Synopsis: Paramount's "B" pictures of the early 1940s were generally more interesting than their star-studded "A"s, as witness Women without Names. Ellen Drew and Robert Paige star as newlyweds Joyce and Fred MacNeil, whose honeymoon comes to an abrupt and unsatisfying halt when Fred is accused of murder. Read More

Texas Rangers Ride Again

Actors: Ellen Drew, John Howard, Akim Tamiroff, May Robson, Broderick Crawford

Synopsis: Filmed on location at Mesa, AZ, this minor Paramount western featured newcomer Ellen Drew as "Slats" Dangerfield, a young girl returning to her grandmother's ranch in Texas. Old Mrs. Dangerfield (May Robson) is experiencing a rash of cattle rustlings and, fed up with her no-good grandson Carter's 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

Land of Liberty

Synopsis: Originally designed for exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair, Land of Liberty is a 137-minute compendium of filmclips from past American historical epics. The project was sponsored by the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc. and supervised by Cecil B. DeMille, who also edited Read More

Pardon Our Nerve

Actors: Lynn Bari, June Gale, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Michael Whalen, Edward S. Brophy

Synopsis: A sequel of sorts to 1938's Meet the Girls, Pardon Our Nerve stars as Lynn Bari and June Gale (replacing June Lang) as intrepid chorus girls Terry Wilson and Judy Davis. Unable to find any showbiz work, our heroines take jobs with a dating service. Before getting fired as usual, Terry and Judy Read More

Fast and Furious

Actors: Franchot Tone, Ann Sothern, Ruth Hussey, Lee Bowman, Allyn Joslyn

Synopsis: Harry Kurnitz' fictional book-dealer/detectives Joel and Garda Sloane appeared in three MGM "B"s of the late 1930s, each with different stars in the leads. Fast and Furious, the last of the mini-series, featured Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern as the Sloanes. The couple attends a seaside beauty Read More

Torchy Runs for Mayor

Actors: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Tom Kennedy, John Miljan, Frank Shannon

Synopsis: Torchy Runs for Mayor stars Glenda Farrell as fast-lipped newspaper reporter Torchy Blaine. In possession of a crooked political boss' "little red book" of crimes and misdemeanors, Torchy can't convince any of the newspapers in her city to print the contents. She has to rely on a small-town Read More

Juarez

Actors: Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Brian Aherne, Claude Rains, John Garfield

Synopsis: Juarez was originally designed to concentrate almost exclusively on the tragedy of Hapsburg Emperor Maximillian, whose attempts to establish a puppet government in Mexico on behalf of Napoleon III ended in disaster and death. But when Paul Muni decided that he wanted to play Read More

The Oklahoma Kid

Actors: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane, Donald Crisp, Harvey Stephens

Synopsis: James Cagney stars in the humorous Western The Oklahoma Kid, set during the land rush of 1893. John Kincaid (Hugh Sothern) and his son, Ned (Harvey Stephens), try to settle on a plot of land, but they are met by the villainous Whip McCord (Humphrey Bogart) and his band of miscreants. McCord runs a Read More

Of Human Hearts

Actors: Walter Huston, James Stewart, Beulah Bondi, Guy Kibbee, Charles Coburn

Synopsis: Clarence Brown directed this heart-tugging piece of Americana, set during the Civil War era. Walter Huston plays a stern family patriarch, a preacher who thrusts his family into poverty in order to set an example for his parishioners. As a result, his son (James Stewart) grows up to resent him. He Read More

Ride a Crooked Mile

Actors: Akim Tamiroff, Frances Farmer, Lynne Overman, John Miljan

Synopsis: A macho Cossack immigrant to the U.S. goes West and joins a ring of rustlers. Later his son follows him to states and he too begins stealing cows. Not knowing his father very well, the youth is anxious to prove himself a manly man and a friendly rivalry develops until the father is captured and Read More

If I Were King

Actors: Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone, Frances Dee, Ellen Drew, C.V. France

Synopsis: If I Were King is a delightful costume adventure tale set in 14th century France, during the reign of Louis XI, and inspired by the legend of the rebel poet François Villon, whose exploits were filmed earlier as The Beloved Rogue (1927) with John Barrymore, and later transformed into the musical Read More

Border G-Man

Actors: George O'Brien, Laraine Johnson, Ray Whitley, John Miljan, Edgar Dearing

Synopsis: Virile George O'Brien straddles the "western" and "crime-flick" genres in RKO Radio's Border G-Men. The plot gets under way when the FBI learns that ammunition and men are being smuggled out of the US and into Mexico in violation of the neutrality act. Federal agent O'Brien is dispatched to Texas Read More

Man-Proof

Actors: Myrna Loy, Franchot Tone, Rosalind Russell, Walter Pidgeon, Rita Johnson

Synopsis: Based upon the book The Four Marys, by Fanny Heaslip Lea, Man-Proof involves members of the smart and sophisticated set of Manhattan, circa 1938. Mimi Swift (Myrna Loy), the daughter of a successful romance novelist, is having no luck in getting the man she loves. Although she has made her Read More

North of Nome

Actors: Jack Holt, Evelyn Venable, John Miljan, Paul Hurst

Synopsis: North of Nome is where the audience is first introduced to jut-jawed seal hunter John Raglan (Jack Holt). When he's not busy clubbing and harpooning his furry little prey, Raglan is kept busy fending off a covetous trading company, and a gang of sealskin hijackers. It helps not at all when his Read More

The Plainsman

Actors: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, James Ellison, Charles Bickford, Helen Burgess

Synopsis: One is immediately aware that The Plainsman is a Cecil B. DeMille production in the opening scene, wherein President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.), on the verge of signing crucial legislation which will determine the future of the American West, is dragged away from his Cabinet by a scolding Read More

The Gentleman from Louisiana

Actors: Eddie Quillan, Charles "Chic" Sale, Charlotte Henry, Marjorie Gateson, John Miljan

Synopsis: In this drama, set at the turn-of-the-century an ingenious young jockey finds his reputation sullied by criminals. He cleverly outsmarts them and his reputation is restored. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Private Number

Actors: Robert Taylor, Loretta Young, Patsy Kelly, Basil Rathbone, Marjorie Gateson

Synopsis: Private Number is the old saw about the wealthy young man who marries his family's serving girl. This time Richard Winfield (Robert Taylor) is the handsome, aristocrat hero, while Ellen Neal (Loretta Young) is the gorgeous, low-born heroine. Though they oppose the match, Richard's parents cope Read More

Arizona Mahoney

Actors: Joe Cook, Robert Cummings, June Martel, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Marjorie Gateson

Synopsis: Fabled Broadway comedian Joe Cook, who hadn't been seen on screen since 1930's Rain or Shine, essayed the title role in 1937's Arizona Mahoney. As in his earlier film, the star plays a travelling circus entrepreneur, said "circus"consisting of an elephant, a goose, and a rusty old cannon. When Read More

Sutter's Gold

Actors: Edward Arnold, Lee Tracy, Binnie Barnes, Katherine Alexander, Addison Richards

Synopsis: Universal plunged into the clutches of its creditors with its expensive fiasco Sutter's Gold. Edward Arnold plays Swiss immigrant Johann Sutter, who seeks his fortune in the California of the 1830s. Against all odds, Sutter builds up a huge land empire, only to watch its explode when gold is Read More

Murder at Glen Athol

Actors: John Miljan, Irene Ware, Noel Madison, Barry Norton, Iris Adrian

Synopsis: The "Crime Club" detective-novel series spawned a film counterpart in 1935, which for the next four years bounced around such studios as Warner Bros., Universal, and Chesterfield. The last-named company's contribution was Murder at Glen Athol, based on a novel by Norman Lippincott. Usually cast as Read More

Three Kids and a Queen

Actors: May Robson, Frankie Darro, Charlotte Henry, William Benedict, Billy Burrud

Synopsis: The indomitable May Robson is firmly in the driver's seat of this Runyonesque comedy-drama. While riding through Central Park, peppery millionairess Mary Jane Baxter (Robson) is thrown from her carriage and rescued by three scruffy orphans (Frankie Darro, Billy Benedict, Billy Burrud). The kids Read More

Tomorrow's Youth

Charlie Chan in Paris

Actors: Warner Oland, Mary Brian, Thomas Beck, Erik Rhodes, John Miljan

Synopsis: The otherwise standard series entry Charlie Chan in Paris is distinguished by the presence of actor Keye Luke, making his first appearance as Charlie Chan's (Warner Oland) "Number One Son" Lee. Summoned to Paris by undercover agent Nardi (Dorothy Appleby), Honolulu detective Chan hopes to get the Read More

Mississippi

Actors: Bing Crosby, W.C. Fields, Joan Bennett, Queenie Smith, Gail Patrick

Synopsis: In this comedy with musical numbers set in the Old South, Bing Crosby plays a singer (talk about a casting stretch!) from Philadelphia named Tom Grayson, who has fallen in love with Southern heiress Elvira Rumford (Gail Patrick). Tom wants to marry Elvira, but a man called Major Patterson (John Miljan Read More

Under the Pampas Moon

Actors: Warner Baxter, Ketti Gallian, Veloz & Yolanda, John Miljan, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: In this western-style musical, a rakish gaucho rides off across the Argentine pampas to Buenos Aires in search of his stolen horse. Once there, he soon engages in hot pursuit of a lovely singing señorita. Soon he discovers that her manager just may be the thief he has been looking for. Keep a Read More

The Poor Rich

Actors: Edward Everett Horton, Edna May Oliver, Thelma Todd, Andy Devine, Leila Hyams

Synopsis: In this comedy, two impoverished cousins inherit a British mansion and decide that one of them should marry a wealthy socialite. To prepare him for her, the female cousin makes it seem as if they are wealthy, but unfortunately, it doesn't work. With the small amount of left over cash, plus the Read More

The Ghost Walks

Actors: John Miljan, June Collyer, Richard Carle, Spencer Charters, Johnny Arthur

Synopsis: In the tradition of the classic scare piece Banquo's Chair, The Ghost Walks features one phony spectre and one supposedly real wraith. An actor is hired for a high-society gathering to pose as a ghost. It's all part of a plan by a struggling playwright to stir up interest in his latest production. Read More

Madame Spy

Actors: Fay Wray, Nils Asther, Edward Arnold, John Miljan, David Torrence

Synopsis: One of several variations of the "Mata Hari" and "Fraulein Doktor" legends, Universal's Madame Spy is set during WW I. Fay Wray stars as Maria, the wife of Austrian diplomat Captain Franck (Nils Asther). What Franck doesn't know is that Maria is a Russian secret agent, assigned to spy on her own Read More

Young and Beautiful

Actors: William Haines, Judith Allen, Joseph Cawthorn, John Miljan

Synopsis: Produced by small-scale Mascot Pictures, this behind-the-scenes look at a now forgotten annual Hollywood event, the WAMPAS Baby Star selection, starred former MGM light leading man William Haines in his penultimate film role. Well cast as Bob Preston, the brash publicity director of Superba Read More

The Lineup

Actors: William Gargan, Marian Nixon, Paul Hurst, John Miljan, Harold Huber

Synopsis: William Gargan plays his first movie detective (but definitely not his last) in Columbia's The Lineup. The hero, a gumshoe named Bob (Gargan), is on the trail of a gang of fur smugglers. Deducing that a posh nightclub serves as the front for the villain's activities, he arrests everybody in the Read More

Whirlpool

Actors: Jack Holt, Jean Arthur, Allen Jenkins, Donald Cook, Lila Lee

Synopsis: No relation to the 1949 20th Century-Fox melodrama of the same name, Columbia's 1934 Whirlpool stars Jack Holt as a shifty carnival promoter. He is incarcerated for a major crime just after learning that his wife is pregnant. Released after twenty years behind bars, Holt is anxious to make contact Read More

Twin Husbands

Actors: John Miljan, Shirley Grey, Monroe Owsley, Hale Hamilton, Robert Elliott

Synopsis: The basic difference between the Chesterfield and Invincible productions of the 1930s is that most of the Chesterfields were directed by Richard Thorpe, while the Invincibles were helmed by Frank Strayer (in truth, both studios were one in the same!) It was Strayer at the controls for Twin Read More

The Unholy Quest

Synopsis: In this horror movie, a psycho professor experiments on resuscitating the dead. One night a prowler comes to rob his house. The professor's butler, an ex-con, kills the burglar and brings the corpse to his master. Unfortunately, something goes wrong during the experiment and the professor dies. Read More

Belle of the Nineties

Actors: Mae West, Roger Pryor, Johnny Mack Brown, Katherine de Mille, John Miljan

Synopsis: Originally titled It Ain't No Sin until the censors prevailed, then St. Louis Woman and Belle of New Orleans, until complaints were registered from those two communities, Belle of the Nineties was Mae West's first post-Production Code film. West is cast as cabaret entertainer Ruby Carter, plying Read More

Unknown Blonde

Actors: Helen Jerome Eddy, Edward Arnold, John Miljan, Leila Bennett

Synopsis: This well-mounted Majestic Pictures effort was inspired by Collusion, a novel by Theodore D. Irwin. Edward Arnold is in his element as Frank Rodie, an honest lawyer who turns dishonest to pay off his wife's stock-market losses. Still desperate for money, Rodie offers to serve as a co-respondent in Read More

What! No Beer?

Actors: Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, Roscoe Ates, Phyllis Barry, John Miljan

Synopsis: In this comedy, Jimmy Potts (Jimmy Durante) and Elmer J. Butts (Buster Keaton, Jr.) come up with a scheme to start up a beer brewery with the hope that Prohibition will soon be over. However, things don't work out exactly as they planned, and they end up in a mess of trouble. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All 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

Made on Broadway

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Sally Eilers, Madge Evans, Eugene Pallette, C. Henry Gordon

Synopsis: Heroine Mona (Sally Eilers) is "made" in more ways than one in this free-wheeling spoof of the press-agent business. A would-be suicide, Mona is rescued by public-relations whiz Jeff (Robert Montgomery), who decides to turn the girl into a celebrity -- and line his own pockets in the process. But Read More

The Nuisance

Actors: Lee Tracy, Madge Evans, Frank Morgan, Charles Butterworth, John Miljan

Synopsis: In this comedy, an oily tongued sleazy lawyer, who specializes in injuries, makes sure all of clients, regardless of the size of their injuries, make it big in court. He is assisted by a thoroughly convincing doctor who can make the smallest bruise look like life-threatening internal bleeding. The Read More

Whistling in the Dark

Actors: Ernest Truex, Una Merkel, Edward Arnold, John Miljan

Synopsis: In this crime-comedy, an aspiring pulp writer elopes with a young woman and ends up in a boot-legger's lair. There he decides to impress his bride and the crooks with a story about the perfect murder. The crime boss likes the idea and uses it to plot the demise of his arch rival. When the would-be Read More

King for a Night

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

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

Blind Adventure

Actors: Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack, Roland Young, Ralph Bellamy, John Miljan

Synopsis: After saving RKO Radio from receivership with King Kong, producer-director Ernest B.. Schoedsack relaxed a bit with the comparatively sedate crime caper Blind Adventure. King Kong co-star Robert Armstrong plays Richard Bruce, an American in London who stumbles into the lair of a kidnap-blackmail Read More

The Mad Game

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Claire Trevor, Ralph Morgan, J. Carrol Naish, John Miljan

Synopsis: A man on the wrong side of the law has a chance to turn over a new leaf in this crime drama. Edward Carson (Spencer Tracy) is a gangster who made a fortune in bootlegging; however, his lawyer turned on him and set him up on a tax evasion charge that earned him a long stay in prison. While Carson Read More

Sin of Nora Moran

Actors: Zita Johann, Alan Dinehart, Paul Cavanagh, John Miljan, Claire Du Brey

Synopsis: Having confessed to murder, Nora Moran (Zita Johann) sits sadly on death row, waiting her date with the electric chair. In flashback, the audience is apprised of the events leading up to this present sorry state. It turns out that Nora is innocent; she has taken the blame to shield her lover Read More

Arsene Lupin

Actors: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Karen Morley, John Miljan, Tully Marshall

Synopsis: John Barrymore plays a burglar and his brother Lionel Barrymore is the detective trying to catch him in this cleverly cast drama. An upscale thief who works under the name of Arsene Lupin is making the rounds of the homes of the wealthy and privileged, and Detective Guerchard (Lionel Barrymore) is Read More

The Beast of the City

Actors: Walter Huston, Jean Harlow, Wallace Ford, Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Peterson

Synopsis: A reluctantly appointed police chief in a crime-riddled city takes his job seriously and works hard to clean the streets of gangsters and to shape up his own corrupt department in this brutal, gritty film noir. Jean Harlow plays a luminescent but ill-fated gun moll. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

Prosperity

Actors: Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Anita Page, Norman Foster, Jacquie Lyn

Synopsis: A family full of financiers is saved from fiscal ruin by their resourceful matriarch. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Rich Are Always with Us

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, Adrienne Dore, Bette Davis, John Miljan

Synopsis: A talented cast does its best with a nonsensical script in The Rich are Always With Us. Ruth Chatterton stars as a witty socialite saddled with caddish husband John Miljan. Upon learning that Miljan has been fooling around with Adrienne Dore, Chatterton divorces him, whereupon his brokerage firm Read More

Hell Divers

Actors: Clark Gable, Wallace Beery, Conrad Nagel, Dorothy Jordan, Marjorie Rambeau

Synopsis: Clark Gable was officially elevated to stardom with this airborne MGM action-adventure, but good old Wallace Beery (whom Gable disliked in real life) ended up with more screen time. They played Naval officers training in the newfangled art of dive bombing while spending a great deal of time Read More

Unashamed

Actors: Helen Twelvetrees, Robert Young, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan

Synopsis: Directed by Harry Beaumont, the courtroom drama Unashamed stars Robert Young as Dick Ogden, who will do anything to protect his sister Jean (Helen Twelvetrees). Unfortunately, Jean is in love with the sleazy Harry Swift (Monroe Owsley), who is only interested in her fortune. After Harry (Owsley) Read More

The Wet Parade

Actors: Dorothy Jordan, Neil Hamilton, Emma Dunn, Robert Young

Synopsis: Directed by Victor Fleming, Wet Parade chronicles the effects of alcoholism and the Prohibition on the lives of two families from very different backgrounds. The Tarletons reside in New York City, where the family patriarch (Walter Huston) repeatedly drowns himself in liquor and local bars. The Read More

Emma

Actors: Marie Dressler, Richard Cromwell, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy, John Miljan

Synopsis: Emma is a turn-of-the-century domestic drama completely dominated by star Marie Dressler. She plays the maid of an upper middle class family, keeping her wits about her as her employers suffer crisis after crisis. When the master of the house (Jean Hersholt), a prominent inventor, is widowed, he Read More

Flesh

Actors: Wallace Beery, Karen Morley, Ricardo Cortez, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan

Synopsis: Flesh was one of the few big-studio films to deal with the subject of professional wrestling--at least until Hulk Hogan came along in the 1980s. Wallace Beery stars as a thickheaded waiter in a German beer garden who uses his muscles to clear out rowdy patrons. Beery channels his strength into a Read More

Night Court

Actors: Phillips Holmes, Walter Huston, Anita Page, Mary Carlisle

Synopsis: Night Court is one of those pictures that "hooks" the viewer with one audacious plot twist after another. Walter Huston is eminently hissable as Judge Moffett, a corrupt jurist who has managed to buy off practically everyone in town, all the while maintaining a facade of respectability. When Read More

Are You Listening?

Actors: William Haines, Madge Evans, Anita Page, Karen Morley, Neil Hamilton

Synopsis: "Are you listening?" was the catchphrase of early-1930s radio personality Tony Wons. Though Wons does not appear in the 1932 MGM programmer Are You Listening?, the film is concerned with the burgeoning broadcast industry. William Haines plays a wise-cracking radio writer who is tricked into Read More

The Kid from Spain

Actors: Jane Wyman, Eddie Cantor, Lyda Roberti, Robert Young, Ruth Hall, John Miljan

Synopsis: In director Leo McCarey's film The Kid From Spain, actor Eddie Cantor plays mischievious college boy Eddie Williams, who, with his buddy Ricardo (Robert Young), is kicked out of college for sneaking into the women's dormitory. Ricardo (Young), on his way back to Mexico, suggests Eddie (Cantor) Read More

Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise

Actors: Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Hersholt, John Miljan, Alan Hale

Synopsis: It was once theorized by critic Andrew Sarris that this 1931 Greta Garbo vehicle was subtitled "Her Fall & Rise" rather than the expected "Rise & Fall," because Hollywood--and by extension, the public--could not tolerate a failure. Whatever the case, modern audiences will latch onto Susan Lennox Read More

The Possessed

Actors: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Wallace Ford, Frank Conroy

Synopsis: Joan Crawford is her usual upwardly mobile self in this melodrama co-starring Clark Gable. She plays Marian Martin, a cynical small-town girl determining to give up the idea of marriage. Kept by wealthy attorney Mark Whitney (Gable), Marian assumes a new identity as a divorced woman of the world Read More

Son of India

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Conrad Nagel, Marjorie Rambeau, Madge Evans, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: An young boy is en route to Bombay with his wealthy father when they are ambushed by highwaymen and his father is mortally wounded. Just before he dies, he hands his son a large diamond. The boy then continues on to the city. By the time he gets there he is ragged and dirty. A crooked merchant Read More

The Secret Six

Actors: Wallace Beery, Johnny Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Marjorie Rambeau

Synopsis: Bootleggers Louis Scorpio (Wallace Beery) and Johnny Franks (Ralph Bellamy), with the advice of their alcoholic lawyer Richard Newton (Lewis Stone), try to muscle in on the territory of gangster "Smiling Joe" Colimo (John Miljan). Franks kills Colimo's brother and tries to frame Scorpio, but Read More

Politics

Actors: Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Roscoe Ates, Karen Morley, William Bakewell

Synopsis: In this comedy, a female mayoral candidate promises to rid the town of gangsters. She joined the race in the first place when her daughter got involved with a young mobster who has been framed for a murder. With her manager's assistance, the candidate rallies all the women in town and gets them to Read More

The Iron Man

Actors: Lew Ayres, Robert Armstrong, Jean Harlow, John Miljan

Synopsis: In this boxing drama, a prizefighter is left by his money-grubbing showgirl wife who aspires to be a movie star. The fighter's manager is tickled by the turn of events and immediately snaps the boxer out of his love-struck funk and sets him a challenging training program. Sure enough the fighter Read More

The Great Meadow

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Eleanor Boardman, Lucille La Verne, Anita Louise, Gavin Gordon

Synopsis: In this historical drama, set in 1775, the hardships faced by a courageous band of settlers traveling from Virginia to Kentucky are chronicled. To get there they must fight the angry natives, open up the forests, and forage for food. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Gentleman's Fate

Actors: John Gilbert, Louis Wolheim, Leila Hyams, Anita Page, Marie Prevost

Synopsis: Silent screen star John Gilbert had a tough time adapting to the talkies--not due to his voice, as is commonly believed, but because his type of florid romantic fare was no longer popular. Gentleman's Fate attempted to alter Gilbert's image by casting him as a bootlegger...albeit a reluctant one. Read More

Inspiration

Actors: Greta Garbo, Robert Montgomery, Marjorie Rambeau, Judith Vosselli

Synopsis: Not every Greta Garbo film is an imperishable classic; this was seldom truer than in the case of her repetitious 1931 vehicle Inspiration. A modernized adaptation of Alphonse Daudet's Sappho, the film casts Garbo as Yvonne, a Parisian belle with "a history." When her past returns to haunt her, she Read More

The Sea Bat

Actors: Charles Bickford, Raquel Torres, Nils Asther, George F. Marion, John Miljan

Synopsis: "Sea Bat" is another name for the poisonous sting rays that trouble swimmers in warmer ocean climes. The story is set upon a tropical island and centers on the sister of a reef diver who was attacked under water by another diver and left to be eaten by an enormous sea bat (in reality the rays eat Read More

The Unholy Three

Actors: Lila Lee, Elliott Nugent, Harry Earles, John Miljan

Synopsis: A remake of the 1925 Lon Chaney melodrama of the same name, 1930's The Unholy Three makes several concessions to the newly strengthened Hollywood censors, but is still quite entertaining in a macabre sort of way. Chaney reprises his role as Professor Echo, a sideshow ventriloquist who moonlights Read More

Show Girl in Hollywood

Actors: Alice White, Jack Mulhall, Blanche Sweet, Ford Sterling, John Miljan

Synopsis: This wonderful Warner Bros. epic was one of the earliest talkie musicals with a Hollywood background -- and the last of its kind until 1933's Sitting Pretty. Alice White stars as pert chorine Dixie Dugan, a character she'd played in 1928's Show Girl (and one which would spin off into a Read More

The Woman Racket

Actors: Tom Moore, Blanche Sweet

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a policeman marries a nightclub hostess. Together, they move into a cramped, ramshackle apartment. There the woman begins feeling suffocated and decides to return to her old life. She also takes up with a gangster. Soon she is entangled in a murder and this forces her lover to Read More

Our Blushing Brides

Actors: Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Anita Page

Synopsis: Having starred in Our Dancing Daughters (28) and Our Modern Maidens (30), the next logical step for Joan Crawford was Our Blushing Brides (30). Crawford is featured with her Dancing Daughters costars Dorothy Sebastian and Anita Page in this tale of three roommates trying to make good in the Big Read More

Remote Control

Actors: William Haines, Mary Doran, John Miljan, Polly Moran

Synopsis: In this comedy, a radio announcer works at the same station as a bogus psychic who while ostensibly answering fan letters on the air, is actually sending encoded messages to his gang concerning upcoming bank robberies. The clairvoyant is a real slick fellow and wins the love of the girl, the Read More

Paid

Actors: Joan Crawford, Robert Armstrong, Marie Prevost, Kent Douglass, John Miljan

Synopsis: Paid was the third film version of the Bayard Veiller stage play Within the Law. Joan Crawford is cast as a shopgirl falsely arrested for stealing and sent to jail for three years. She swears vengeance on the store owner (Purnell Pratt), and to that end sets up a shady but legal racket wherein she Read More

The Unholy Night

Actors: Ernest Torrence, Roland Young, Dorothy Sebastian, Natalie Moorhead, Sidney Jarvis

Synopsis: A group of Londoners gather at the home of their host in order to solve the murders of two company officers. Once assembled the host announces that half of one of the deceased's fortune will go to the guests and if anyone should die, that person's share would go to the others. Before any money is Read More

Times Square

Synopsis: An early independently produced "part-talkie," this Tin Pan Alley melodrama starred future director Arthur Lubin as Benjamin Lederwitski, a serious Jewish composer turned Tin Pan Alley song-plugger under the more palatable name of "Russ Glover." An underhanded rival, Lon Roberts (played by Read More

Innocents of Paris

Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Russell Simpson, George Fawcett

Synopsis: In this drama, a junkman, Maurice Chevalier in his American film debut, rescues a drowning boy from the Seine. The boy's mother had been attempting to kill herself and her son as well. The junkman cannot save the mother. He takes the boy to his grandfather. There he encounters the boy's aunt with Read More

Speedway

Actors: William Haines, Anita Page, Karl Dane, Ernest Torrence, John Miljan

Synopsis: This cookie-cutter William Haines vehicle was filmed in part at the Indianapolis Speedway. As usual, Haines plays a fresh young braggart, in this instance a cocky racecar driver. Somewhere along the line, he falls in love with Anita Page, the daughter of an airplane manufacturer. After a dash in Read More

Stark Mad

Actors: H.B. Warner, Louise Fazenda, Jacqueline Logan, Henry B. Walthall

Synopsis: In this adventure set in South America, the captain of a yacht moored there is really a fugitive criminal. The passengers are too busy trying to find the missing son of the boat's owner to pay the captain much mind. Later the hapless passengers find themselves having to deal with angry natives and Read More

Hardboiled Rose

Synopsis: In this essentially silent drama, a cultured Southern belle must work in a gambling house after her deeply indebted father kills himself. She does so in order to pay her father's debts. In this humble place, the woman meets a handsome, charming man who sweeps her off her feet and takes her away Read More

Devil May Care

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Dorothy Jordan, Marion Harris, John Miljan, William Humphrey

Synopsis: This romantic adventure chronicles the escapades of one of Napoleon's followers. After his leader's exile, the follower is arrested and slated for execution. He is before the firing squad, but manages to escape. To hide, he dashes into the bedroom of a bedazzling Royalist. He falls in love, but Read More

Untamed

Actors: Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Ernest Torrence, Holmes Herbert, John Miljan

Synopsis: Untamed was touted by MGM as Joan Crawford's talking-picture debut, even though she'd already been heard as well as seen in Hollywood Revue of 1929. Best described as Somerset Maugham on toast, the film casts Crawford as Bingo, an oil heiress who has been raised in the tropics. When her Read More

Queen of the Nightclubs

Actors: Texas Guinan, Eddie Foy, Jr., Lila Lee, Jack Norworth, John Davidson

Synopsis: To sophisticated filmgoers of 1929, the designation "queen of the nightclubs" could mean only one person: Colorful Manhattan speakeasy proprietress Texas Guinan, of "Hello, Sucker!" fame. More or less playing herself, the brash, blowsy Guinan is cast as Tex Malone, a New York nightery owner who Read More

The Eternal Woman

Actors: Olive Borden, Ralph Graves, John Miljan

Synopsis: Most of the films of silent screen starlet Olive Borden have apparently been lost to the ages, and Columbia's The Eternal Woman is no exception. The story begins with a shipwreck, as Argentine stowaway Anita (Borden) rescues handsome American passenger Hartley Forbes (Ralph Graves). She comes to Read More

Fashions in Love

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Fay Compton, John Miljan, Robert Wayne, Joan Standing

Synopsis: This romantic drama marks the first talking movie done by popular silent film star Adolph Menjou who plays a philandering concert pianist. After one concert, he meets a pretty lady and begins planning a weekend rendezvous in a mountain cottage. When his wife learns about it, she too, along with Read More

The Desert Song

Actors: John Boles, Louise Fazenda, Johnny Arthur, Edward Martindel

Synopsis: After literally inventing the movie musical with The Jazz Singer, Warner Bros. purchased the motion picture rights to the evergreen Sigmund Romberg/Oscar Hammerstein II 2nd operetta The Desert Song. Although the results looked like a photographed stage play (a common failing of early-talkie Read More

Voice of the City

Actors: Robert Ames, Willard Mack, Sylvia Field, James Farley, John Miljan

Synopsis: Writer/director/actor Willard Mack took one look at the blockbuster stage play Broadway and said to himself "I can do that, and at half the price." The result was Voice of the City, in which Mack does what amounts to a carbon copy of Thomas Jackson's performance as the detective protagonist of Read More

Glorious Betsy

Actors: Dolores Costello, Conrad Nagel, John Miljan, Betty Blythe

Synopsis: The romance between Jerome Bonaparte and Baltimore debutante Elizabeth Patterson was given the full treatment by Warner Bros., who starred their leading purveyors of cinematic passion, Conrad Nagel and Dolores Costello, both fresh from Tenderloin (1927). Like that crook melodrama, Glorious Betsy Read More

The Terror

Actors: May McAvoy, Louise Fazenda, Edward Everett Horton, Alec B. Francis, Matthew Betz

Land of the Silver Fox

Actors: Leila Hyams, John Miljan, Carroll Nye, Tom Santschi

Synopsis: Land of the Silver Fox was one of the last silent starring vehicles for celebrated canine star Rin Tin Tin. In this one, Rinty heads to the Canadian Northwest, where he befriends likeable fox trapper Carroll Nye. The "human" hero is in love with Leila Hyams, the ward of duplicitous trading-camp Read More

Women They Talk About

Actors: Irene Rich, Audrey Ferris, William Collier, Jr.

Synopsis: Advertised as a talking picture, the 6-reel Women They Talk About contains only 2 reels of sound. Widowed Irene Mervin Hughes (Irene Rich) has a daughter named Audrey (Audrey Ferris), of marriageable age. The same is true of widower John Harrison (Anders Randolph), whose son Steve (William Read More

The Home Towners

Actors: Richard Bennett, Doris Kenyon, Robert McWade, Robert Edeson, Gladys Brockwell

Synopsis: A wealthy man hits the half-century mark and promptly suffers a mid-life crisis in this silent romantic comedy. Like countless fellows before and after him, he ends up falling for a beautiful young woman. Trouble comes when the besotted gent's best friend begins suspecting that the girl only wants Read More

Lady Be Good

Actors: Jack Mulhall, Dorothy Mackaill, John Miljan, Dot Farley

Synopsis: Unable to utilize the original George Gershwin score, this silent version of the Broadway musical Lady Be Good concentrates on the "book" by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, which in itself was pretty good. Vaudeville magicians Jack (Jack Mulhall) and Mary (Dorothy Mackaill) split up, whereupon Mary Read More

Tenderloin

Actors: Dolores Costello, Conrad Nagel, Mitchell Lewis, Dan Wolheim

Little Snob

Actors: Robert W. Fraser, Alec B. Francis, John Miljan, Virginia Lee Corbin, Frances Lee

Synopsis: May McAvoy plays the nose-in-the-air title character in Warner Bros' The Little Snob. The daughter of Coney Island concessionaire Alec B. Francis, McAvoy is shipped off to a posh finishing school. Upon her return, she turns her back on her blue-collar family and begins hobnobbing with the New York Read More

The Crimson City

Actors: Myrna Loy, Leila Hyams, John Miljan, Richard Tucker

Synopsis: Onoto (Myrna Loy) is slated to be sold to a wealthy Mandarin, but is rescued from the auction block by white fugitive from justice Gregory Kent (John Miljan). Onoto falls in love with Kent, and he with her, but this is 1928, and marriage between races is still taboo. Gallantly, Onoto forsakes Kent Read More

Satin Woman

Actors: Dorothy Reid, Jane Reid, Rockliffe Fellowes, Alice White, John Miljan, Laska Winter

Synopsis: Dorothy Reid -- who before her marriage to ill-fated screen idol Wallace Reid was better known as Dorothy Davenport -- was both producer and star of Satin Woman. After the death of her husband from drug abuse in 1923, Davenport dedicated herself to helping others avoid the pitfalls of modern life Read More

Rough House Rosie

Actors: Clara Bow, Reed Howes, Arthur Houseman, Doris Hill, Douglas Gilmore

Synopsis: "Rough House Rosie" Reilly (Clara Bow) just can't seem to stay out of trouble. Hoping to become a Broadway actress, Rosie gets mixed up with rowdies and ends up in jail. Much the same thing happens when she tries to crash High Society. Eventually, Rosie finds her true niche in life when she falls Read More

The Yankee Clipper

Actors: William "Hopalong" Boyd, Elinor Fair, John Miljan, Walter Long

Synopsis: One of the most readily available features of the silent era, The Yankee Clipper is happily also one of the best. A pre-Hopalong Cassidy William Boyd plays Hal Winslow, the scion of a prominent Boston shipbuilding family. Manning the helm of the Yankee Clipper, Winslow prepares to race The Lord of Read More

The Final Extra

Synopsis: A rare surviving melodrama from small-scale Gotham Productions, The Final Extra features Grant Withersas Pat Riley, a newspaper reporter enviously watching as a colleague, Tom Collins (Frank Beal), is awarded the choice assignment of covering a breaking bootlegging story. Pat, meanwhile, is given Read More

Framed

Actors: Milton Sills, Natalie Kingston, Charles Gerrard, Edward Peil Sr., John Miljan

Synopsis: Based on the George W. Sutton Jr. story Dawn of My Tomorrow, Framed turned out to be another winner for box-office "reliable" Milton Sills. The story begins with the court-martial of military officer Raoul Hilaire (Sills); thanks to a series of explanatory subtitles, we know that Hilaire is Read More

Sailor Izzy Murphy

Actors: George Jessel, Warner Oland, Clara Horton, Otto Lederer, Audrey Ferris

Synopsis: This sequel to the 1927 George Jessel vehicle Private Izzy Murphy finds Jessel reprising the role of Lower East Side entrepreneur Izzy Goldberg. That's right, "Goldberg" -- Izzy doesn't adopt the name of "Murphy" until he abandons the perfume business to pose as an underworld thug. It's all for Read More

Desired Woman

Actors: Irene Rich, William Russell, William Collier, Jr., John Miljan, Richard Tucker

Synopsis: Even in the early stages of his Warner Bros. career, director Michael Curtiz was eager and willing to tackle any sort of story tossed his way. Based on an original by Mark Canfield (a pseudonym for Darryl F. Zanuck), The Desired Woman is a standard stiff-upper-lip military drama set at a remote Read More

What Happened to Father

Actors: Warner Oland, Flobelle Fairbanks, William Demarest, Vera Lewis, John Miljan

Synopsis: Long before he was established as screendom's Charlie Chan, Warner Oland was Warner Bros.' "all-purpose" character actor, playing everything from kindly rabbis to evil Chinese warlords. In What Happened to Father, Oland was afforded the opportunity to display his comedy prowess as henpecked Read More

A Sailor's Sweetheart

Actors: Louise Fazenda, Clyde Cook, Myrna Loy, William Demarest, John Miljan

Synopsis: It would seem that Warner Bros. was trying to develop hoydenish Louise Fazenda and diminutive Clyde Cook into a screen team, which would explain the existence of such trifles as A Sailor's Sweetheart. Upon inheriting a fortune, old-maid schoolmarm Cynthia Botts (Fazenda) takes a trip to Hawaii in Read More

Wolf's Clothing

Actors: Monte Blue, Patsy Ruth Miller, John Miljan, Douglas Gerrard

Synopsis: New York subway guard Barry Baline (Monte Blue) is struck down by a speeding car on New Years' Eve. The driver, a mentally unhinged millionaire named Johnson Craigle (John Miljan), exchanges clothing with the unconscious Barry. When he awakens, Barry is assumed to be Craigle, leading to a series Read More

Lovers?

Actors: Ramon Novarro, Alice Terry, Edward Martindel, Edward Connelly, George K. Arthur

Synopsis: The venerable stage drama The World and His Wife formed the basis for the MGM production Lovers?. Ramon Novarro and Alice Terry, who previously co-starred in Scaramouche, The Prisoner of Zenda and The Arab, are herein reteamed as Ernesto and Teodora, respectively. Teodora is the new young wife of Read More

Quarantined Rivals

Actors: Robert Agnew, Kathleen Collins, John Miljan

Synopsis: Quarantined Rivals was based on the stage farce by George Randolph Chester. Per the title, a pair of young lovers, played by Kathleen Collins and Robert Agnew, are quarantined during an epidemic with Collins' harridan of a mother and an amorous plumber played by John Miljan. Also forced in close Read More

Paying the Price

Actors: John Miljan, George Hackathorne, Eddie Phillips, George Fawcett, Marjorie Bonner

Synopsis: This minor Columbia effort is a cautionary fable against alcohol abuse. Despite the efforts of a pious minister, two pretty sisters -- played by real-life siblings Marjorie and Priscilla Bonne -- are led astray by city slicker John Miljan. Hoping to have his way with the girls, the villain invites Read More

Stranded

Actors: William Collier, Jr., Shirley Mason, John Miljan, Gale Henry, Florence Turner

Synopsis: One would never guess that the idea for this maudlin exercise sprang from the mind of the usually reliable Anita Loos. Shirley Mason plays Sally Simpson, a small-town girl who heads to Hollywood in hopes of becoming a movie star. Failing in this enterprise, Sally finds herself alone and broke in Read More

Slaver

Actors: Pat O'Malley, Carmelita Geraghty, John Miljan, J.P. McGowan

Synopsis: The Slaver is ostensibly based on a story by James Oliver Curwood. The hero, Pat O'Malley, is a deckhand on the slave ship captained by e-vil John Miljan. O'Malley becomes an abolitionist in a hurry when he falls in love with heroine Carmelita Geraghty. Alas, Miljan intends to "sell" the girl to Read More

The Silver Slave

Actors: Irene Rich, Audrey Ferris, Holmes Herbert, John Miljan, Carroll Nye

Synopsis: The Silver Slave is Bernice Randall (Irene Rich), who marries for money rather than love. This she has done for the sake of her daughter Janet (Audrey Ferris), who nonetheless grows up despising her mother. As an act of defiance, Janet becomes engaged to Philip Caldwell (John Miljan), a no-good Read More

Old San Francisco

Actors: Dolores Costello, Warner Oland, Charles Emmett Mack, Josef Swickard, John Miljan

Synopsis: It's hard to believe that Darryl F. Zanuck, producer of such anti-prejudice films of the 1940s as Gentleman's Agreement and Pinky, wrote the incredibly racist screenplay of Old San Francisco. After a lengthy prologue detailing the establishment and settlement of San Francisco by the Spanish Read More

Husbands for Rent

Actors: John Miljan, Katherine Perry, Arthur Hoyt

Synopsis: Personable Owen Moore starred in this romantic comedy from Warner Bros. featuring Dolores Costello. About to marry his uncle's pretty ward, Herbert Willis (Moore) finds his bride-to-be, Doris (Kathryn Perry), completely taken in by dashing newcomer Hugh Fraser (John Miljan). Herbert, meanwhile Read More

The Clown

Actors: Johnny Walker, Dorothy Revier, William V. Mong, John Miljan, Barbara Tennant

Synopsis: In this silent crime drama, a clown comes home and finds his wife in bed with his colleague. He naturally flies into a jealous rage and tries to kill his rival. A storm erupts and destroys their house. The woman dies and the lover accuses the husband of killing her. The husband goes to prison for Read More

Devil's Circus

Actors: Norma Shearer, Charles Emmett Mack, Carmel Myers, John Miljan, Claire McDowell

Synopsis: Celebrated Danish director Benjamin Christensen made his American movie debut with the 1925-26 Norma Shearer vehicle The Devil's Circus. Shearer plays Mary, a circus trapeze artist who is inexorably sucked into the marital travails of lion-tamer Hugo (John Miljan) and his violently jealous wife Read More

Almost a Lady

Actors: Marie Prevost, Harrison Ford, George K. Arthur, Trixie Friganza, John Miljan

Synopsis: Mack Sennett veterans Marie Prevost and Trixie Friganza enliven the proceedings of Almost a Lady. Prevost plays a model who uses the fancy clothes that she's paid to wear to crash into society. She very nearly crashes out when her ruse is exposed, but love, in the form of handsome Harrison Ford Read More

Brooding Eyes

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Robert Ellis, Ruth Clifford, Montagu Love, Lucien Littlefield

Synopsis: Lionel Barrymore was at a low career ebb when he agreed to appear in the independently produced Brooding Eyes. Barrymore emulates his brother John in the role of Slim Jim Carey, the "black sheep" of an aristocratic British family. A professional blackmailer, Carey suddenly and mysteriously Read More

The Amateur Gentleman

Actors: Richard Barthelmess, Dorothy Dunbar, Gardner James, Nigel Barrie, Brandon Hurst

Synopsis: The 1926 Amateur Gentleman was the second film version of Jeffrey Farnol's novel of the same name. Richard Barthelmess stars as Barnabas Barty, the rough-hewn son of a prizefighter (Edwards Davis). Barty's dad is accused of a crime he didn't commit; almost simultaneously, Barnabas inherits a Read More

Devil's Island

Actors: Pauline Frederick, Richard Tucker, William Dunn, Leo White, John Miljan

Synopsis: This romance featured respected old-timers (Pauline Frederick in a starring role and Leah Baird as screenwriter) and a fresh up-and-comer (pretty WAMPAS baby star Marion Nixon). Jean Valyon (Richard Tucker) is sent to Devil's Island to serve a life sentence. After several years, he is allowed to Read More

Footloose Widows

Actors: Louise Fazenda, Jacqueline Logan, Jason Robards, Sr., Arthur Hoyt, Neely Edwards

Synopsis: In the tradition of the venerable stage comedy The Gold Diggers, Footloose Widows zeroes in on two girls who hope to land millionaire husbands. Department-store models Flo (Louise Fazenda) and Marian (Jacqueline Logan) set their sights on wealthy young soft-drink magnate J. A. Smith (Jason Read More

The Phantom of the Opera

Actors: Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland

Synopsis: Lon Chaney stars as Erik, the Phantom, in what is probably his most famous and certainly his most horrifying role. Produced by Universal, the film shot in 1923 and shelved for nearly two years, and was subjected to intensive studio tinkering. While many expected a disaster, the film turned out to Read More

Unchastened Woman

Synopsis: Based on a play by Louis Anspacher, The Unchastened Woman starred Elsie Ferguson as the title character, aka Grace Valentine. The already confusing plotline was rendered even more so on screen, but basically the story concerned the drastic measures taken by the heroine to get even with her Read More

Flaming Waters

Actors: Malcolm McGregor, Pauline Garon, Mary Carr, John Miljan, Johnny Gough

Synopsis: After several years' absence, seafaring young boy Dan O'Neil (Malcolm McGregor) returns to his hometown. He quickly discovers that his mother (Mary Carr) has been cheated out of her life savings by slick oil speculator Jasper Thorne (John Miljan) and is now working as a charwoman. Danny boy vows Read More

Sackcloth and Scarlet

Actors: Alice Terry, Orville Caldwell, Dorothy Sebastian, Otto Matiesen, Kathleen Kirkham

Synopsis: Polly Freeman (Dorothy Sebastian, then a fresh newcomer from Ziegfeld's Follies) is a frivolous young girl who goes West and seduces her mountain guide, Stephen Edwards (Orville Caldwell). When she becomes pregnant he offers to marry her, but instead she runs back home and tells her sister, Joan (Alice Terry Read More

Silent Sanderson

Actors: Harry Carey, Trilby Clark, John Miljan, Stanton Heck, Gardner James

Synopsis: Veteran cowboy star Harry Carey starred in the title-role in this fine silent Western produced by Hunt Stromberg for Cecil B. DeMille's Producers Distributing Corp. When Silent Sanderson's brother (Gardner James) kills himself over the rejection of a woman, Silent blames Judith Benson (Trilby Clark Read More

Wreckage

Actors: May Allison, John Miljan, Holmes Herbert, James Morrison, Rosemary Theby

Synopsis: In spite of the warnings of his friend, Stuart Ames (Holmes E. Herbert), Grant Demarest (James Morrison) persists in seeing the selfish Margot (Rosemary Theby). When Demarest is found dead, Ames is accused of murdering him. Although he is acquitted, there's a stigma attached to his name, so he Read More

Morals for Men

Actors: Conway Tearle, Agnes Ayres, Alyce Mills, Otto Matieson, Robert Ober

Synopsis: This drama was based on the novel The Love Serum by Gouverneur Morris. Bootlegging lovers Joe Strickland (Conway Tearle) and Bessie Hayes (Agnes Ayres) have a parting of the ways and both decide to reform. Bessie becomes a manicurist and lands a wealthy husband who turns out to be miserly and Read More

Unnamed Woman

Actors: Leah Baird, Katherine MacDonald, Wanda Hawley, John Miljan, Herbert Rawlinson

Synopsis: The Unnamed Woman stars veteran film player Leah Baird, who also wrote the script. The actress plays the greedy, covetous wife of wealthy businessman Herbert Rawlinson. Unhappy with his mercenary spouse, Rawlinson begins keeping time with Katherine MacDonald. Though the relationship is quite Read More

Romance Ranch

Actors: John Gilbert, Bernard Siegel, Frank Beal, John Miljan

Synopsis: This very average silent western starred John Gilbert right before MGM made him an international superstar as the doughboy in King Vidor's The Big Parade (1925). Gilbert had already come a long way, from travelling stock companies to playing western villains and starring opposite Mary Pickford in Heart o' the Hills Read More

On the Stroke of Three

Actors: Kenneth Harlan, Madge Bellamy, Mary Carr, Edwards Davis

Synopsis: This formulaic drama didn't miss a cliché -- there was the small-town boy with big dreams (Kenneth Harlan), his old mother (Mary Carr), the pretty daughter (Madge Bellamy) of the wicked financier (Edwards Davis), and the villainous attorney who's really causing all the trouble (John Miljan). Put Read More

Empty Hearts

Synopsis: Milt Kimberlin (John Bowers) is a down-on-his luck horse owner, but Rosalie, a cabaret performer (the lively and engaging Clara Bow), doesn't care -- she turns down the fancy jewelry offered by oily Frank Gorman (John Miljan) for a wedding ring from Kimberlin. Even though his finances never Read More