Joseph CrehanFilmography

Judgment at Nuremberg

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Werner Klemperer

Synopsis: After the end of World War II, the world gradually became aware of the full extent of the war crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich. In 1948, a series of trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany, by an international tribunal, headed by American legal and military officials, with the intent of Read More

Leave It to Beaver: Train Trip

Actors: Karl Swenson, Madge Kennedy, Ken Osmond, Joseph Crehan, Alan Reynolds

Synopsis: After visiting their Aunt Martha (Madge Kennedy), Beaver (Jerry Mathers) and Wally (Tony Dow) were supposed to use the money given them by their dad to purchase two train tickets home. Alas, their train is delayed, and in the interim the boys spend all their cash on hot dogs and ice cream. How are Read More

I Love Lucy: The Great Train Robbery

Actors: Kathryn Card, Frank Nelson, Harry Bartell, Lou Krugman, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: No sooner have the Ricardos and the Mertzes boarded the Union Pacific Domeliner train for New York than Lucy (Lucille Ball) has accidentally pulled the emergency brake -- and rest assured, it isn't for the last time in this episode. As for the plot, Lucy becomes convinced that a traveling jewelry Read More

Highway Dragnet

Actors: Richard Conte, Joan Bennett, Wanda Hendrix, Reed Hadley, Mary Beth Hughes

Synopsis: Highway Dragnet is best known to modern movie buffs as the first film to carry Roger Corman's name in the credits. Corman was one of six screenwriters contributing to this location-filmed suspense melodrama, which stars Richard Conte as an ex-Marine on the lam from a murder charge. Conte hitches a Read More

Crazylegs, All American

Actors: Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, Lloyd Nolan, Joan Vohs, James Millican, Bob Waterfield

Synopsis: All-American football star Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch plays himself in this rousing filmed biography. Beginning with his years in a mid-Wisconsin high school, the film traces Hirsch's multi-lettered career at the University of Wisconsin. After military service, Hirsch turns pro, eventually joining Read More

Deadline U.S.A.

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore, Kim Hunter, Ed Begley, Sr., Warren Stevens

Synopsis: An abundance of subplots are expertly woven together by screenwriter/director Richard Brooks in Deadline - USA. Humphrey Bogart stars as crusading editor Ed Hutcheson, whose newspaper is on the verge of closing thanks to the machinations of the mercenary daughter (Audrey Christie) of Mrs. Garrison Read More

Roadblock

Actors: Charles McGraw, Joan Dixon, Lowell Gilmore, Louis Jean Heydt, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: An insurance investigator, a dame with a yen for the finer things in life and a mail robbery gone horribly wrong are the ingredients in this low-budget but highly engrossing film noir. Charles McGraw and Louis Jean Heydt are tough insurance agents but their partnership comes in for some rough Read More

Pride of Maryland

Actors: Stanley Clements, Peggy Stewart, Frankie Darro, Joe Sawyer, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: Stanley Clements stars in Republic's Pride of Maryland as an ambitious jockey named Frankie (an inside joke: most movie jockeys were played by Frankie Darro -- who plays a supporting role in this film!). After discovering a sure-fire method of winning all his races, Frankie is barred from Read More

Red Desert

Actors: Tom Neal, Jack Holt, Margia Dean, Byron Foulger

Synopsis: Don Barry stars as the Pecos Kid in Red Desert. The Kid is a federal agent, assigned by President Ulysses S. Grant to locate an outlaw wanted by the government. The outlaw is something of a frontier fuehrer, hoping to use his ill-gotten gains to set up a nation of his own. The Kid thinks Read More

The Fuller Brush Girl

Actors: Lucille Ball, Eddie Albert, Carl Benton Reid, Gale Robbins, Jeff Donnell

Synopsis: Hot on the heels of such Red Skelton slapstick comedies as The Fuller Brush Man and The Yellow Cab Man came The Fuller Brush Girl, starring Lucille Ball in a fascinating dry run for her wacky "Lucy Ricardo" TV character. Unable to hold a job because of her tendency to get into trouble, Sally Read More

Square Dance Katy

Synopsis: In this musical, an ambitious young singer and her band leave their small hometown to head for the Big Apple in hopes of finding fame and fortune. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Triple Trouble

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Richard Benedict

Synopsis: No good deed goes unpunished in the "Bowery Boys" entry Triple Trouble. When Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall) and the rest of the Bowery Boys attempt to stop a robbery, it is they who wind up in prison. Once behind bars, the boys learn of an escape plan, but when they try to relay this Read More

The Tougher They Come

Actors: Wayne Morris, Preston S. Foster, Kay Buckley, William Bishop, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: Set in a rugged Northwest logging camp, this drama follows the exploits of the lumberjack who inherits the camp. For a long time, he has been courting a pretty young thing, and now that she believes him wealthy, she decides to finally accept his proposal. When she finds out that the company has Read More

Duke of Chicago

Actors: Tom Brown, Audrey Long, Grant Withers, Paul Harvey

Synopsis: In this boxing drama, Jimmy Brody, a retired middle-weight champion turned publisher, must return to the ring when his company encounters financial difficulties. He is set up by some bad-news bookies who try to convince Brody to take a dive. The ex-champ refuses and triumphs even though his hand Read More

Malaya

Actors: Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Valentina Cortese, Sydney Greenstreet, John Hodiak

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy and James Stewart team up for this World War II adventure, based on an supposedly true incident from World War II. Stewart plays John Royer, an ex-newspaper reporter with a backhand knowledge of Malaya, and Tracy plays a criminal named Carnaghan, doing time in Alcatraz for smuggling. Read More

The Last Bandit

Actors: Adrian Booth, Forrest Tucker, Andy Devine, Jack Holt

Synopsis: Republic's program westerns of the 1940s fell into two categories: the Saturday-matinee fare of Roy Rogers, Allan "Rocky" Lane et. al., and the more adult-oriented William Elliot vehicles. In The Last Bandit, Elliot and Forest Tucker play a couple of James-like bandit brothers, Frank and James Read More

Ringside

Actors: Tom Brown, Sheila Ryan, Margia Dean

Synopsis: Just before its matriculation into Lippert Pictures, Screen Guild produced the fast-based boxing drama Ringside. Bantam-weight Don Barry stars as Mike, who forsakes a musical career for the boxing ring when his pugilist brother (Tom Brown) is blinded in a bout. Mike intends to confront the fighter Read More

Dancing in the Dark

Actors: William Powell, Mark Stevens, Betsy Drake, Adolphe Menjou, Randy Stuart

Synopsis: This musical comedy stars William Powell as Emery Slade, who was once a major film star but lately isn't getting much work. Arrogantly determined to climb back to the top, Slade convinces studio chief Melville Crossman (Adolphe Menjou) to give him the male lead in the film version of a Broadway Read More

Alias the Champ

Actors: Robert Rockwell, Barbara Fuller, Audrey Long, Jim Nolan, John Harmon

Synopsis: Robert Rockwell, Republic Pictures' resident all-purpose hero, stars in Alias the Champ. This time, Rockwell plays Lt. Ron Peterson, who doubles as a homicide detective and local administrator of the professional wrestling code. When real-life rassler Gorgeous George (that's how he billed himself) Read More

State Department File 649

Actors: Virginia Bruce, William Lundigan, Jonathan Hale, Frank Ferguson, Richard Loo

Synopsis: Those scurrilous Chinese communists are up to their old tricks in the 1949 flagwaver State Department - File 649. William Lundigan plays Ken, an operative of the U.S. Foreign Service stationed in North China. Ken is one of several people trapped in a remote village by evil warlord Yun Usu (Richard Loo Read More

Tulsa

Actors: Susan Hayward, Robert Preston, Pedro Armendáriz, Lloyd Gough, Chill Wills

Synopsis: Tulsa was, in 1949, the most elaborate production released to date by the Eagle-Lion corporation-though all evidence, especially the technical credits, suggests that the film was put together at Universal-International, then merely distriibuted by Eagle-Lion (who made a fortune at the box office). Read More

Amazon Quest

Actors: Tom Neal, Carole Donne, Joseph Crehan, Ralph Graves

Synopsis: Yards and yards of stock footage from the old German jungle actioner Green Hell were used to pad out the 1949 programmer Amazon Quest. Tom Neal stars as a Dutchman who journeys into the wilds of Brazil to find his father. Neal hopes to clear the name of his dad, who has been accused of deserting Read More

Prejudice

Actors: David Bruce, Mary Marshall, Tommy Ivo, Bruce Edwards, Barbara Billingsley

Synopsis: This cautionary fable was produced by the Protestant Film Commission. The main character is plant-manager Joe Hanson (David Bruce), who manages himself to be free of all forms of racial prejudice. Yet when he feels that his job is being threatened by Jewish co-worker Al Green (Bruce Edwards), Joe Read More

The Arizona Cowboy

Actors: Rex Allen, Teala Loring, Gordon Jones, Minerva Urecal, James B. Cardwell

Synopsis: Marking the screen debut of Rex Allen, the last of the Singing Cowboys, The Arizona Cowboy featured a mildly entertaining though hardly innovative story of a rodeo cowboy who learns that his father (John Elliott) is falsely accused of stealing 50,000 dollars from his employer, the Dusty Acres Read More

The Gallant Legion

Actors: Adrian Booth, James Brown, Bruce Cabot, Andy Devine, Steve Drake

Synopsis: When Republic moved its popular star William Elliot from "B" series westerns to "A" frontier specials, a lot of the fun and excitement was lost in the process. Additionally, Republic seemed reluctant to admit the new Elliot films were westerns, as witness the title Gallant Legion, which could have Read More

The Enchanted Valley

Actors: Alan Curtis, Anne Gwynne, Donn Gift, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: The peaceful, solitary existence of a crippled lad and his grandfather living in a remote wooded valley is disturbed when two armed robbers accompanied by moll visit. On the lam from the law, the crooks are desperate and dangerous. But as time passes and they get to know the strange and gentle Read More

Night Time in Nevada

Actors: Roy Rogers, Adele Mara, Andy Devine, Grant Withers, Marie Harmon

Synopsis: Roy Rogers plays Roy Rogers, as ever, in Night Time in Nevada. This time Roy is a cattle owner whose stock is stolen by Grant Withers. It is Withers' hope to sell the livestock, thereby covering funds that he's been appropriating from leading lady Adele Mara's trust fund. Roy is able to vanquish Read More

The Countess of Monte Cristo

Actors: Sonja Henie, Olga San Juan, Arthur Treacher, Hugh French

Synopsis: This musical tells the tales of two movie extras who abscond to an expensive resort with their costumes and pretend to be aristocrats. Included in the film are ice skating numbers and songs. Songs include: "The Friendly Polka," "Count Your Blessings," and "Who Believes in Santa Claus." ~ Sandra Read More

Silver River

Actors: Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Thomas Mitchell, Bruce Bennett, Tom D'Andrea

Synopsis: Love leads a man to his most evil deeds and forces him to change his ways in this Western. After being handed a dishonorable discharge during the Civil War, Mike McComb (Errol Flynn) becomes a professional gambler and follows a path of ruthless action to get what he wants. After moving out West Read More

A Song Is Born

Actors: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Benny Goodman, Hugh Herbert, Steve Cochran

Synopsis: A Song is Born is a musical remake of the 1941 comedy Ball of Fire, with the same producer (Sam Goldwyn) and director (Howard Hawks) at the helm. It will be recalled that the original film, co-scripted by Billy Wilder, was an amusing spin on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," wherein seven Read More

April Showers

Actors: Jack Carson, Ann Sothern, Robert Alda, S.Z. Sakall, Robert Ellis

Synopsis: April Showers stars Jack Carson and Ann Sothern as a pair of small-time vaudevillians whose act gets nowhere until their young son (Robert Ellis) joins them. The threesome form a knockabout acrobatic turn which propels them into the big time. Jealous of his son's success, Carson takes to the Read More

Because of Eve

Actors: Joseph Crehan, Wanda McKay, John Parker

Synopsis: One of the more notorious "sex hygiene" exploitation melodramas of the 1940s, Because of Eve began its long life in 1948 as The Story of Life. Bob (John Parker) and Sally (Wanda McKay) are expecting their first child when Sally learns that Bob had once suffered from venereal disease. Although Read More

Blondie's Secret

Actors: Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Marjorie Kent, Jerome Cowan

Synopsis: This 23rd entry in the "Blondie" film series stars, as ever, Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake as Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead respectively. It all begins as Dagwood prepares for a long-delayed vacation with the family. His boss Mr. Radcliffe (Jerome Cowan) has promised the Bumsteads that there'll Read More

The Hunted

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Belita, Pierre Watkin, Edna Holland, Russell Hicks

Synopsis: In this detective story, a private eye must send his fiancee to prison as he truly believes that she was involved in a bank robbery. Unfortunately, she is innocent. Still she serves her time. Upon her release someone frames her for murder. The detective is in quite a quandary until the real Read More

Homecoming

Actors: Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Anne Baxter, John Hodiak, Ray Collins

Synopsis: When Homecoming was first released in 1948, some observers felt that Clark Gable's unusually sensitive performance was based on his own memories of losing his wife Carole Lombard in a 1942 plane crash. Intriguingly, Gable's Homecoming co-star is Lana Turner, with whom it was rumored that he was Read More

Good Sam

Actors: Gary Cooper, Ann Sheridan, Ray Collins, Edmund Lowe, Joan Lorring

Synopsis: Small-town department store manager Sam Clayton (Gary Cooper) is a born "Good Samaritan", which in his case translates as "sucker." Much to the dismay of his wife Lu (Anne Sheridan), who'd like to save up enough cash for a new house, Sam habitually gives his money away to one "deserving" soul or Read More

Triple Threat

Actors: Richard Crane, Gloria Henry, Mary Stuart, John Litel, Pat Phelan

Synopsis: Two future TV favorites--Rocky Jones' Richard Crane and Dennis the Menace's Gloria Henry-head the cast of Columbia's Triple Threat. Crane plays Don Whitney, an egocentric college football hero who receives a good strong dose of reality when he joins a professional team. Whitney's game really Read More

Homicide for Three

Actors: Audrey Long, Warren Douglas, Grant Withers, Lloyd Corrigan, Stephanie Bachelor

Synopsis: In this thriller, a young couple gets married while the groom is on a weekend furlough with the Navy. The newlyweds have only thirty-six hours to honeymoon and they have no place to stay. A mysterious stranger on her way to elope, offers them her apartment. Unfortunately, the suite had been let by Read More

Sundown in Santa Fe

Synopsis: This western deals with an actual historical event. The story follows the endeavors of a heroic fellow who captures the mastermind behind a plot to assassinate President Lincoln. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Street Corner

Actors: Joseph Crehan, Marcia Mae Jones, John Treul, Johnny Duncan

Synopsis: This earnest drama warns teenagers of the dangers of having premarital sex by telling the story of a teenage girl who goes "all the way" after her graduation celebration and ends up pregnant. She is terrified to tell her mother. Her boyfriend wants to do the right thing and marry her, but he is Read More

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome

Actors: Ralph Byrd, Boris Karloff, Anne Gwynne, Lyle Latell, June Clayworth, Skelton Knaggs

Synopsis: Befitting his status as a genre star, Boris Karloff earns top billing over leading man Ralph Byrd in RKO's final Dick Tracy caper. The former Frankenstein monster plays an escaped convict masterminding a daring bank robbery. To get in and out of the bank without being noticed, the gang uses an Read More

Philo Vance's Gamble

Actors: Alan Curtis, Terry Austin, Frank Jenks, Tala Birell, Gavin Gordon

Synopsis: The second of PRC's trio of "Philo Vance" mysteries, Philo Vance's Gamble stars Alan Curtis as S. S. Van Dine's erudite amateur sleuth. The plot is set in motion when a valuable emerald is smuggled into the U.S. The gem promptly disappears, resulting in two murders. Following the trail of clues Read More

The Trespasser

Actors: Betty Alexander, William Bakewell, Joy Barlowe, Vince Barnett, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: Though already established as Roy Rogers' favorite leading lady (offscreen and on), Dale Evans was permitted a rare non-western appearance minus Rogers in the 1947 Republic mystery thriller The Trespasser. Evans is cast as nightclub singer Linda Coleman, the sister of newspaper-book reviewer Bruce Read More

Monsieur Verdoux

Actors: Charles Chaplin, Ada-May, Marjorie Bennett, Isobel Elsom, Audrey Betz, Marilyn Nash, Virginia Brissac

Synopsis: "Von Clausewitz said that war is the logical extension of diplomacy; Monsieur Verdoux feels that murder is the logical extension of business." With his controversial "comedy of murders" Monsieur Verdoux, Charles Chaplin makes his final, definitive break with the Little Tramp character that had Read More

The Trouble with Women

Actors: Ray Milland, Teresa Wright, Rose Hobart, Charles Smith

Synopsis: In this comedy, a scatter-brained professor nearly starts a riot when he writes a book claiming that women like to be treated roughly. A paper publishes snippets from the book and later the professor, feeling he was misquoted, begins suing for libel. The paper then sends out a female reporter to Read More

The Foxes of Harrow

Actors: Renee Beard, Rex Harrison, Maureen O'Hara, Richard Haydn, Vanessa Brown, Victor McLaglen, Patricia Medina, Hugo Haas

Synopsis: Frank Yerby's Foxes of Harrow was one of those long historical novels so popular in the 1940s. 20th Century-Fox boiled the novel down into 118 minutes' worth of essentials for this film version. In antebellum New Orleans, roguish Irish gambler Rex Harrison buys his way into society--something he Read More

The Sea of Grass

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Walker, Melvyn Douglas, Phyllis Thaxter

Synopsis: Usually associated with erudite, urbane comedies, the legendary screen team of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy goes intensely dramatic in the expensive western Sea of Grass. Tracy plays cattle baron Colonel James Brewton, who staunchly opposes opening the western frontier to homesteaders. Read More

Louisiana

Actors: Dottye Brown, Tristram Coffin, Joseph Crehan, Jimmie Davis

Synopsis: A sharecropper's son grows up to be the governor of Louisiana in this rags-to-riches bio-pic that tells the story of Jimmie Davis who was determined to get a good education and make something of himself. Not only did he become known as the singing governor, Davis was also a professor in a women's Read More

Dead Reckoning

Actors: James Bell, Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, Morris Carnovsky, William Prince, George Chandler, Charles Cane, Wallace Ford, Marvin Miller

Synopsis: In Dead Reckoning, Rip Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) recites the film's plotline to a priest in the confessional. Murdock and Johnny Drake (William Prince) are Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, en route to Washington by train. Drake hops off and disappears, leading Murdock on a hectic manhunt. Read More

The Shadow Returns

Actors: Kane Richmond, Tom Dugan, Joseph Crehan, Pierre Watkin

Synopsis: The Shadow Returns was the first of three above-average Monogram features based on the popular radio melodrama The Shadow. Kane Richmond stars as wealthy man-about-town Lamont Cranston, who years ago in the Orient had learned the hypnotic power to "cloud men's minds," thereby transforming himself Read More

The Mysterious Mr. M [Serial]

Night Train to Memphis

Actors: Allan Lane, Roy Acuff, Adele Mara, Irving Bacon, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: Country-western star Roy Acuff heads the cast of the modest Republic musical Night Train to Memphis. Taking time off from his musical duties, Acuff tries to patch up a feud between a family of hillbillies and a railroad company. Complicating matters is the fact that Roy's brother Don (Allan Lane) Read More

Dangerous Money

Synopsis: In this episode of the popular detective series, Chan, along with Number Two Son, are aboard a ship bound for Pago Pago. On route a federal agent is murdered. The two sleuths investigate. The film is also titled "Charlie Chan in Dangerous Money." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Magnificent Doll

Actors: Erville Alderson, Ginger Rogers, Robert H. Barrat, David Niven, George Barrows, Burgess Meredith, Joe Forte, Horace McNally, Henri Letondal, Peggy Wood

Synopsis: Director Frank Borzage and star Ginger Rogers both came acropper in the lavish but dull historical biopic Magnificent Doll. The usually ebullient Rogers seems encased in wax as Dolly Madison, first lady of the United States in the early 19th century. The story begins as young Washington socialite Read More

Girl on the Spot

Synopsis: A would-be nightclub entertainer finds her life jeopardized after she inadvertently witnesses a gangland murder while heading for an audition. Fortunately, a brave photographer is there to save her and this crime drama ends on a happy note. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

A Guy Could Change

Actors: Jane Frazee, Twinkle Watts, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: In this drama, a husband becomes a single parent after his wife dies in childbirth. He is so engrossed in his newspaper career that he pays little attention to his daughter. He then meets and falls for a woman who chastises him for ignoring the child. He has just begun reestablishing his Read More

O.S.S.

Actors: Alan Ladd, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, Richard Benedict, Richard Webb

Synopsis: Set during WWII, this taut and suspenseful espionage outing chronicles the courage of a brand-new cadre of specially trained American O.S.S. agents who parachute into France to destroy the vital Corbett Mallon tunnel to stop the German invaders from shipping supplies to their troops. One of the Read More

Behind the Mask

Actors: Kane Richmond, George Chandler, Pierre Watkin, Dorothea Kent

Synopsis: Crooked newspaper columnist Jeff Mann (James Cardwell), who apparently was blackmailing half the criminal gangs in the city, is murdered in his own office, and a police officer is killed the same night in the alley outside the newspaper's building -- and the prime suspect is the Shadow, the Read More

Bad Bascomb

Actors: Wallace Beery, Margaret O'Brien, Marjorie Main, J. Carrol Naish, Frances Rafferty

Synopsis: Bad Bascomb is an expensive MGM western, tailor-made for the blubbery talents of Wallace Beery. Beery plays the badman of the title, whose heart is softened by a sweet little child (Margaret O'Brien at her most cloying). Just about to make a clean getaway, Beery realizes that the child is in Read More

The Phantom Thief

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

The Plainsman and the Lady

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Andy Clyde, William B. Davidson, Byron Foulger

Synopsis: The 87-minute running time of Plainsman and the Lady was evidence aplenty that this was no mere Republic B western. William Elliot (formerly and latterly "Wild Bill" Elliot) stars as cattleman Sam Cotten, who offers his services-and his six-guns-to the newly formed Pony Express. Erudite villain Read More

Dick Tracy vs. Cueball

Actors: Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Lyle Latell, Rita Corday, Ian Keith

Synopsis: Morgan Conway made his final screen appearance as Chester Gould's granite-jawed detective Dick Tracy in this RKO Radio programmer. This time around, Tracy's nemesis is baldheaded jewel thief Cueball, played with blunt menace by Dick Wessel. Double-crossed by his gang, Cueball methodically bumps Read More

Ziegfeld Follies

Actors: Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: The presence of William Powell as legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld at the beginning of Ziegfeld Follies might lead an impressionable viewer from thinking that this 1946 film is a Technicolor sequel to the 1936 Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld. Not so: this is more in the line of an all-star revue Read More

The Big Sleep

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Charles D. Brown

Synopsis: The definitive Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall vehicle, The Big Sleep casts Bogart as Raymond Chandler's cynical private eye Philip Marlowe. Summoned to the home of the fabulously wealthy General Sternwood (Charles Waldron), Marlowe is hired to deal with a blackmailer shaking down the General's Read More

Deadline at Dawn

Actors: Susan Hayward, Paul Lukas, Bill Williams, Joseph Calleia, Osa Massen

Synopsis: Deadline at Dawn represented not only the sole film directorial effort of Broadway's Harold Clurman, but also the only cinematic collaboration between Clurman and his former Group Theatre associate, screenwriter Clifford Odets. While on shore leave in New York, sailor Alex (Bill Williams) is Read More

The Falcon's Adventure

Actors: Tony Barrett, Steve Brodie, Edward S. Brophy, Tom Conway, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: When a scientist discovers a way to create synthetic diamonds, a group of criminals kidnap his daughter Meredith (Louisa Braganza) in an attempt to ransom her for the valuable formula. Rescuing Meredith from her kidnappers, the Falcon (Tom Conway) becomes the prime suspect in a string of Read More

Dick Tracy, Detective

Actors: Morgan Conway, Anne Jeffreys, Mike Mazurki, Jane Greer, Mickey Kuhn, Lyle Latell

Synopsis: Dick Tracy, Detective (originally just Dick Tracy) was the first of four RKO Radio B-pictures based on Chester Gould's classic comic strip. Though Ralph Byrd is most closely associated with the role of Tracy, the title character is played herein by Morgan Conway (Byrd would be seen as Tracy in the Read More

Brewster's Millions

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Helen Walker, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, June Havoc, Gail Patrick

Synopsis: The 1945 version of the Winchell Smith/Byron Ongley theatrical war-horse Brewster's Millions stars Dennis O'Keefe as the lucky recipient of an $8,000,000 inheritance. But there's a catch; O'Keefe will receive his legacy only if he spends $1,000,000 in two months. Prohibited from giving the money Read More

Captain Tugboat Annie

Actors: Jane Darwell, Edgar Kennedy, Charles Gordon, Mantan Moreland, Pamela Blake

Synopsis: This tale of two tugboats focuses upon the rivalries between two operators competing to win a major shipping contract. Meanwhile a tugboat office secretary and an ex-con who wants to go straight, fall in love. Tugboat Annie is put in charge of a child violinist. When a waterfront fire breaks out Read More

Man Alive

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Adolphe Menjou, Ellen Drew, Rudy Vallee

Synopsis: Man Alive is an inventive and consistently amusing farce dominated by stars Pat O'Brien and Adolphe Menjou. The former plays Speed, a moderately successful garage owner. Wrongly convinced that his wife Connie (Ellen Drew) has fallen in love with his old friend Gordon (Rudy Vallee), Speed goes off Read More

The Chicago Kid

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Otto Kruger, Tom Powers, Lynne Roberts

Synopsis: Bantam-sized Don "Red" Barry, Republic's answer to Jimmy Cagney, essays another Cagneyesque role in The Chicago Kid. The star plays Joe Ferrill, whose efforts to raise enough money so that his imprisoned father can live comfortably upon release come to naught when the elder Ferrill dies behind Read More

I Love a Mystery

Actors: Nina Foch, Jim Bannon, George Macready, Barton Yarborough, Carole Mathews

Synopsis: Based on Phillips Lord's popular radio serial, I Love a Mystery centers around the exploits of two pugnacious private eyes (marked down from the radio version's three heroes). The adventuresome Jack Packard (Jack Bannon) and Doc Long (Barton Yarborough) are hired by a nervous socialite (George Macready Read More

Lady on a Train

Actors: Deanna Durbin, Ralph Bellamy, Edward Everett Horton, Dan Duryea, George Coulouris, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: Deanna Durbin offered her fans a change of pace in this mystery story seasoned with elements of comedy and music. Nikki Collins (Durbin) is a small-town girl visiting New York City to meet with Mr. Haskell (Edward Everett Horton), her family's attorney. As her train pulls into the station, she Read More

The Royal Mounted Rides Again

Synopsis: In time-honored fashion, a couple of supporting players -- George Dolenz and Bill Kennedy -- found themselves elevated to starring roles in this minor Universal serial. They played Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers investigating the murder of a miner. The story, of course, was less important Read More

Youth on Trial

Actors: Cora Sue Collins, Eric Sinclair

Synopsis: In this drama, a hard-boiled juvenile court judge orders that a popular road house be raided because she knows it is a popular hangout for young punks. She is appalled when the cops bring her own daughter in with the rest of the rabble. The judge's daughter and her creepy boy friend manage to Read More

Adventure

Actors: Clark Gable, Greer Garson, Joan Blondell, Thomas Mitchell, Tom Tully

Synopsis: A middle-aged Clark Gable returned from active duty in World War II to star in this MGM release that was heavily advertised as his big comeback. Gable is Harry Patterson, the bosun mate on a merchant marine vessel, a tough sailor and fighter with the proverbial girl in every port. But while in a Read More

Black Magic

Synopsis: Meeting at Midnight is the reissue title of Black Magic, a Charlie Chan "B" effort from Monogram Studios. A murder occurs during a seance conducted by a fraudulent medium. Scared chauffeur Mantan Moreland, who happens to be on the premises when the killing occurs, summons Chan (Sidney Toler). He Read More

The Great Alaskan Mystery

Synopsis: A new invention, known as the Paratron and vitally important for America's war effort, becomes the focal point in yet another war-time serial from the Universal B-movie factory. An important missing ingredient is discovered in Alaska, leading the inventor of Paratron, Dr. Miller (Ralph Morgan) Read More

The Adventures of Mark Twain

Actors: Fredric March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, C. Aubrey Smith

Synopsis: Dismissed by critics as corny and obvious in 1944, this overlong but sincere biopic looks pretty good when seen today, cliches notwithstanding. Fredric March, 47 at the time, convincingly plays American author Sam Clemens, aka Mark Twain, from his early 20s to his death at 75. In typical Read More

The Navy Way

Actors: Robert Lowery, Jean Parker, Bill Henry, Roscoe Karns, Sharon Douglas

Synopsis: Johnny Jersey (Robert Lowery) learns The Navy Way in this typical Pine-Thomas actioner. A product of the streets, Johnny has no time for authority and protocol, thus has a lot of difficulty adjusting to the regimen at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station (where much of the film was shot). Read More

Roger Touhy, Gangster!

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Victor McLaglen, Lois Andrews, Kent Taylor, Anthony Quinn

Synopsis: Melodramatic gangster action characterizes this tough and freely fictionalized biography of notorious, murderous Chicago mobster Roger Touhy. Set during Prohibition, it centers on Touhy's rise from small time thug to the city's most powerful bootlegger whose empire is rivaled only by that of Al Read More

Shine On, Harvest Moon

Actors: Ann Sheridan, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Irene Manning, S.Z. Sakall

Synopsis: Complete with a final production number filmed in Technicolor, this tuneful musical depicts the highly fictive ups and downs of fabled vaudeville headliners Jack Norworth (1879-1959) and Nora Bayes (1880-1928). After rejecting a partnership with songstress Blanche Mallory (Irene Manning), Norworth Read More

When the Lights Go on Again

Actors: Jimmy Lydon, Grant Mitchell, Dorothy Peterson, Regis Toomey

Synopsis: In this drama, a young couple ignores the advice of their elders and get married. Soon afterward, the young groom is inducted into the war. Overseas, he suffers from shell shock and must return home. Much of the drama centers upon his reminiscences as he rides the train homeward. Later the people Read More

The Missing Juror

Actors: Jim Bannon, Janis Carter, George Macready, Jean Stevens, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: Jim Bannon, fresh from his radio success on I Love a Mystery, stars in this taut suspenser. The jurors of a celebrated murder case are being bumped off one by one. Now only six jurors are left, and one of them has disappeared, whereabouts unknown. Bannon must find the missing juror before the Read More

One Mysterious Night

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

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

Phantom Lady

Actors: Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Elisha Cook, Jr., Thomas Gomez

Synopsis: Engineer Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis) is at a seedy midtown Manhattan bar early one evening, drowning his sorrows over a failed marriage, when he strikes up a conversation with a woman (Fay Helm). She's well dressed, with a very ornate hat topping off her ensemble, and also seems even sadder and Read More

The Woman of the Town

Synopsis: Originally, producer Harry Sherman's Woman of the Town was slated for Paramount release, but that studio was overloaded with product, so the film was deferred to United Artists. Nonetheless, the finished product has the "look" of a Paramount, right down to the presence of character actor Albert Read More

Junior Army

Actors: Freddie Bartholomew, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Boyd Davis

Synopsis: Several veterans of the "Dead End Kids" series are prominently featured in the Columbia programmer Junior Army. Grown-up child star Freddie Bartholomew acquits himself nicely as Freddy Hewlitt, newly arrived at a strict military academy. Freddy tries to set a good example for hell-raising cadet Read More

Hit the Ice

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Ginny Simms, Patric Knowles, Elyse Knox

Synopsis: The Abbott & Costello vehicle Hit the Ice started life as satire of health clinics, with Lou Costello cast as a hypochondriac who used a streetcar conductor's change-purse to dispense pills to himself. By the time the film hit the screens, it was a standard A&C melange of comedy, music and Read More

Mission to Moscow

Actors: Walter Huston, Ann Harding, Oscar Homolka, Gene Lockhart, George Tobias, Eleanor Parker

Synopsis: More so than most wartime films, Mission to Moscow must be viewed within the context of its times. Requested by President Roosevelt to make a film supportive of America's Russian allies, Warner Bros. turned to the memoirs of Ambassador Joseph H. Davies, who spent several years prior to WWII in the Read More

Hands Across the Border

Actors: Roy Rogers, Ruth Terry, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Synopsis: There's practically no western action in Hands Across the Border, but there's music aplenty. Roy Rogers stars as a wandering cavalier (named "Roy Rogers", naturally), who comes to the aid of entertainer Kim Adams (Ruth Terry). The daughter of a rancher, Kim does her patriotic bit by raising prize Read More

Keep 'em Slugging

Actors: Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Norman Abbott, Evelyn Ankers

Synopsis: Keep 'Em Slugging was the last of Universal's "Little Tough Guys" series-which, like Monogram's "East Side Kids", was an offshoot of Warner Bros.' "Dead End Kids" films. This time around, the kids decide to mend their troublemaking ways and get real jobs. Tommy (Bobby Jordan) is hired by the Read More

Johnny Come Lately

Actors: James Cagney, Grace George, Marjorie Main, Hattie McDaniel, Marjorie Lord, Edward McNamara

Synopsis: For his first independently-produced starring effort, James Cagney chose the sentimental drama Johnny Come Lately. Cagney plays itinerant newspaperman Tom Richards, who wanders into a small corruption-ridden town. Striking up a friendship with elderly Vinnie McLeod (Grace George in her only movie Read More

False Faces

Actors: Stanley Ridges, Rex Williams, Veda Ann Borg, Janet Shaw

Synopsis: Republic's False Faces is a choice example of wartime "victory casting", with all the male cast members drawn from the ranks of the undraftable. Rex Williams plays morose saloon patron Craig Harding, who is on hand during a barroom brawl which leads to the death of songstress Joyce Ford (Veda Ann Read More

Mr. Lucky

Actors: Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney

Synopsis: One of Cary Grant's most financially successful 1940s vehicles, Mr. Lucky finds Grant atypically cast as a shifty, out-for-number-one gambler. Having dodged the draft by adopting the identity of a dead man, Grant sets his sights on purchasing a fancy gambling ship. To raise the necessary funds, he Read More

Honeymoon Lodge

Actors: David Bruce, June Vincent, Rod Cameron, Franklin Pangborn

Synopsis: Honeymoon Lodge is a musical variation on the old Awful Truth plotline. Divorce-bound Bob and Carol Sterling (David Bruce, June Vincent) make a last-ditch attempt to avoid their legal breakup by restaging their mountain-resort honeymoon. Things get complicated when a rancher named Big Boy (Rod 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

City without Men

Synopsis: In this melodrama, a group of women live in a boardinghouse near a prison to await the release of their men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Flesh and Fantasy

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Field, Robert Cummings

Synopsis: In the tradition of his earlier Carnival in Flanders and Tales of Manhattan, director Julien Duvivier's Flesh and Fantasy is a "pormanteau" film, consisting of several short stories. Linking the three tales unfolded herein are clubmen Doakes (Robert Benchley) and Davis (David Hoffman), who carry Read More

She Has What It Takes

Actors: Jinx Falkenburg, Tom Neal, Constance Worth, Douglas Leavitt

Synopsis: In this musical, a lovely and ambitious young woman masquerades as the daughter of a formerly beloved stage actress to help launch her Broadway career. She chooses one entertainment columnist in particular. But the starlet's carefully-made plans begin to unravel when a rival columnist learns of Read More

Mystery Broadcast

Actors: Ruth Terry, Frank Albertson, Nils Asther, Wynne Gibson, Paul Harvey

Synopsis: The wartime leading-man shortage obliged Republic Pictures to star draft-proof supporting player Frank Albertson in Mystery Broadcast. Albertson plays detective-fiction writer Michael Jerome, who carries on a friendly rivalry with radio scrivener Jan Cornell (Ruth Terry). Jan works for an Read More

Old Acquaintance

Actors: Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, Gig Young, John Loder, Dolores Moran

Synopsis: After the box office success of The Old Maid, Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins were reunited for this catty drama. Kitty Marlowe (Davis) is a well-respected author who returns to the small town of her birth, where she becomes reacquainted with her childhood friend Millie Drake (Hopkins). While Read More

You Can't Escape Forever

Actors: George Brent, Brenda Marshall, Gene Lockhart, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a news editor writes a scandalous expose about a notorious gangster. The gangster then has the gall to sue him for libel and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Girl Trouble

Actors: Don Ameche, Joan Bennett, Billie Burke, Frank Craven, Alan Dinehart

Synopsis: In this comedy, set in WW II, a Venezuelan rubber planter's son must travel to New York to try and secure a loan for the expansion of the family business. There he encounters an impoverished American girl whose fortune lies frozen in England until the war ends. To make ends meet, she rents her Read More

Gang Busters [Serial]

Synopsis: Based on a popular radio series, this Universal serial, produced in 13 chapters, starred two of the studio's better B-movie leads, Kent Taylor and Irene Hervey. Despite their fine work, the serial's preposterous plot -- a mad scientist assembling a League of Murdered Men to wreak havoc on the city Read More

The Gay Sisters

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp, Nancy Coleman

Synopsis: In this grim melodrama, Barbara Stanwyck plays the eldest of three wealthy sisters who become orphans when their father dies in France. Threatened with the danger of losing the opulent family home, Big Sister makes a grand sacrifice and secretly marries a real estate developer so she can inherit Read More

Murder in the Big House

Actors: Faye Emerson, Van Johnson, George Meeker, Frank Wilcox

Synopsis: Murder in the Big House was a remake of the 1936 Warner Bros. programmer Jailbreak. In his first starring role, Van Johnson plays reporter Bert Bell, who wonders how it came to be that death-row inmate Dapper Dan Mallory (Michael Ames) was "accidentally" killed just before his appointment with the Read More

Larceny, Inc.

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford, Jack Carson, Anthony Quinn

Synopsis: This parody of gangster flicks centers on an incarcerated gangster who decides to reform after he is released from Sing Sing. He and his cell mate have earned a small fortune in investments and are planning to buy a dog track. Unfortunately, another prisoner eavesdrops and attempts to force the Read More

Men of Texas

Actors: Robert Stack, Broderick Crawford, Jackie Cooper, Anne Gwynne, Ralph Bellamy

Synopsis: Surprisingly little known, Universal's Men of Texas boasts an impressive cast and a fairly exciting and complex storyline. Set just after the Civil War, the film stars Robert Stack as Chicago war correspondent Barry Conovan, who is sent by his newspaper to Texas to get the low-down on the martial Read More

To the Shores of Tripoli

Actors: John Payne, Maureen O'Hara, Randolph Scott, Nancy Kelly, William Tracy

Synopsis: One of the first big-studio productions to acknowledge America's entry into WW2, 20th Century-Fox's To the Shores of Tripoli was filmed with full the cooperation of the US Marine Corps. John Payne plays Chris Winters, a wealthy, wise-lipped young Marine recruit who learns the true meaning of Read More

Hello Annapolis

Synopsis: Tom Brown, an actor who "borrowed" his professional name from 1932's Tom Brown of Culver, finds himself back in the collegiate pool in 1942's Hello Annapolis. Brown and up-and-coming Larry Parks sign up at the titular Naval academy, battling both in and out of uniform over the affections of Jean Parker 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

Cadets on Parade

Synopsis: In this drama a military cadet must demonstrate his courage to quell accusations of cowardice. His friend assists him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Eyes of the Underworld

Actors: Richard Dix, Wendy Barrie, Lon Chaney, Jr., Lloyd Corrigan, Don Porter, Billy Lee

Synopsis: Some unexpected casting choices distinguish this so-so Universal actioner. Richard Dix stars as police chief Richard Barry, whose present respectable veneer obscures the fact that he once served a prison sentence. When Barry is threatened with exposure by silky-smooth gangster functionary Thomas Read More

Here Comes Happiness

Actors: Mildred Coles, Edward Norris, Richard Ainley, Russell Hicks, Marjorie Gateson

Synopsis: The brazen audaciousness with which Bryan Foy's B-picture unit at Warner Bros. remade the studio's old properties was seldom more pronounced than in 1941's Here Comes Happiness, a thinly disguised reworking of 1934's Happiness Ahead! The original starred Dick Powell and Josephine Hutchinson; the Read More

The Case of the Black Parrot

Actors: William Lundigan, Maris Wrixon, Eddie Foy, Jr., Paul Cavanagh, Luli Deste

Synopsis: This thriller, set aboard a transatlantic ship heading for America during WW II, chronicles the endeavors of a cagey reporter looking for the notorious international criminal, the Black Parrot. The reporter begins his search after a major theft occurs during a bogus submarine alert. Before the Read More

Manpower

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, George Raft, Alan Hale, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: Manpower was Warner Bros' latest reworking of 1932's Tiger Shark, with power-company linemen substituting for tuna fisherman. While repair some downed lines in a heavy thunderstorm, Hank McHenry (Edward G. Robinson) saves the life of his best pal Johnny Marshall (George Raft). While Johnny emerges Read More

Nine Lives Are Not Enough

Actors: Ronald Reagan, Joan Perry, James Gleason, Howard Da Silva, Faye Emerson

Synopsis: Perhaps nine lives weren't enough, but 63 minutes was plenty of time to relate the plot of this Ronald Reagan vehicle. Reagan plays a newspaper reporter who has a story "that'll break this town wide open!" The story involves a mysterious, unsolved boarding house murder. The suspects include the Read More

Washington Melodrama

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

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

They Died With Their Boots On

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Arthur Kennedy, Charles Grapewin, Regis Toomey, Gene Lockhart, Stanley Ridges

Synopsis: Though history is distorted almost beyond recognition in Warner Bros.' They Died With Their Boots On, audiences in 1941 ate it up like cotton candy. In the gospel according to Warners, General George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) is neither an arrogant fool nor a rabid Indian hater. Instead, he Read More

Texas

Actors: William Holden, Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor, George Bancroft, Edgar Buchanan

Synopsis: Texas was Columbia Pictures' lighthearted (and frankly more enjoyable) follow-up to its 1940 big-budget western Arizona. William Holden and Glenn Ford, looking collectively 28 years old, play a couple of ex-Confederate soldiers who get into all sorts of trouble in a wide-open Texas town. The two Read More

Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains, Rita Johnson, Edward Everett Horton

Synopsis: Robert Montgomery plays saxophone-playing boxer Joe Pendleton, who insists upon piloting his own plane, much to the consternation of his manager Max Corkle (James Gleason). Just before a championship bout, Joe's plane crashes. When he revives, he finds he has been whisked away to Heaven by the Read More

Scattergood Baines

Actors: Guy Kibbee, Carolyn Hughes, John Archer, Emma Dunn

Synopsis: Inspired by the long-running (1937-1949) radio series of the same name, Scattergood Baines came to the screen in 1941, with Guy Kibbee replacing the radio version's Jess Pugh in the title role. In his first movie outing, storekeeper Scattergood Baines, resident philosopher of the town of Read More

Sealed Lips

Actors: William Gargan, June Clyde, John Litel, Anne Nagel, Mary Gordon

Synopsis: There's something very odd about Romano (John Litel), a notorious gangster serving time in the federal pen. For one thing, Romano doesn't sound much like himself. For another, he always seems to be hiding something. Detective Lee (William Gargan) suspects that something's amiss, and he's right Read More

Doctors Don't Tell

Synopsis: In this medical melodrama, a young MD finds himself in love with a woman who doesn't love him. She is interested in an older, more sophisticated doctor. After she discovers that the older medic has a sleazy side, she decides to go for the younger doctor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Andy Hardy's Private Secretary

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Fay Holden, Ann Rutherford, Sara Haden, Kathryn Grayson

Synopsis: Andy is ready to graduate from high school, and, trying to be a big man, he hires a pretty woman to be his social secretary. When he fails his finals, he gets help from a kindly faculty member. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Wild Bill Hickok Rides

Actors: Constance Bennett, Bruce Cabot, Warren William, Betty Brewer, Walter Catlett

Synopsis: It's hard to believe that Wild Bill Hickok Rides is a Warner Bros. picture-and harder still to believe that Constance Bennett deigned to star in the film. Wavering uncomfortably between comedy and drama, this patchwork western features Bruce Cabot as Wild Bill Hickok, who on this occasion goes on Read More

Love Crazy

Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick, Jack Carson, Florence Bates

Synopsis: William Powell and Myrna Loy re-team for this (literally) crazy screwball comedy about a happily married couple who, thanks to a visit from mother, find their marriage on the rocks and the husband committed to a mental institution. Poised to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary, Steven (William Powell Read More

Nevada City

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Sally Payne, George Cleveland, Billy Lee

Synopsis: Nevada City finds Roy Rogers and his perennial sidekick Gabby Hayes cast as stagecoach drivers. Their boss is Joseph Crehan, an ornery crust who can't abide the notion of the railroad cutting into his business. Roy and Gabby try to establish a détente between Crehan and railroad man George Read More

Life Begins for Andy Hardy

Actors: Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Fay Holden, Ann Rutherford

Synopsis: Number ten in MGM's heart-warming (and immensely profitable) "Andy Hardy" series was the 1941 entry Life Begins for Andy Hardy. Upon his graduation from high school, Andy (Mickey Rooney) decides to seek his fortune in New York City without benefit of a college education, much to the consternation Read More

The Green Hornet [Serial]

Actors: Gordon Jones

Synopsis: The 13-episode Universal serial The Green Hornet is based on the radio series of the same name. Gordon Jones stars as Britt Reid, crusading young publisher of the Daily Sentinel, who matches wits with the underworld by disguising himself as the Green Hornet. So far as police are concerned, the Read More

The House Across the Bay

Actors: George Raft, Joan Bennett, Lloyd Nolan, Gladys George, Walter Pidgeon

Synopsis: Producer Walter Wanger's House Across the Bay serves as an excellent showcase for Wanger's then-wife Joan Bennett. She is cast as nightclub singer Brenda Bentley, the wife of high-rolling gambler Steve Lawrett (George Raft). When Steve is railroaded into Alcatraz by duplicitous attorney Slant Read More

Brother Orchid

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Donald Crisp, Ralph Bellamy

Synopsis: Edward G. Robinson plays orchid-loving gangster Little John Sarto, who aspires to "real class." During a power struggle with usurping mobster Jack Buck (Humphrey Bogart), Sarto is taken for a one-way ride, but he escapes his would-be assassins and hides out in a monastery overseen by Brother Read More

City for Conquest

Actors: James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Frank Craven, Donald Crisp, Arthur Kennedy

Synopsis: There are three key characters in Anatole Litvak's filmization of Aben Kandel's novel City for Conquest, as opposed to the six or more in the book -- but the real star, to a large extent, is New York City and its entire population. For purposes of the movie, however, the dramatic arc is linked to James Cagney Read More

Gaucho Serenade

Actors: Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, June Storey, Duncan Renaldo

Synopsis: Gene Autry rescues a young boy from a gang of kidnappers in this delightful musical-Western from Republic Pictures. Having lost their jobs with the rodeo, Gene and sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) are heading west when they discover a young British stowaway, Ronnie Willoughby (Clifford Severn Jr. Read More

Music in My Heart

Actors: Tony Martin, Rita Hayworth, Edith Fellows, Alan Mowbray, Eric Blore

Synopsis: Boasting Tony Martin and Rita Hayworth and bandleader Andre Kostelanitz as its leading players, it's surprising that Music in My Heart isn't better than it is. Martin plays European-born actor Robert Gregory, who while rehearsing for a Broadway musical falls in love with chorine Patricia O'Malley Read More

Invisible Stripes

Actors: George Raft, Jane Bryan, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart, Flora Robson

Synopsis: Invisible Stripes is a cookie-cutter Warners prison drama which rounds up the usual suspects. George Raft and Humphrey Bogart are top-billed, and as is often the case in such a circumstance, it is Raft who is given the larger (albeit less interesting) role. Raft plays Cliff Taylor, an ex-convict Read More

The Secret Seven

Actors: Florence Rice, Barton MacLane, Bruce Bennett, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: In this crime drama, an ex-crook uses his skills as a forensic scientist to solve crimes. He forms a secret society of forensic scientists. Their main mission is convince skeptical police departments that modern science has a lot to offer them. To prove their point, the scientists randomly choose 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

The Fighting 69th

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

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

Santa Fe Trail

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Santa Fe Trail, Errol Flynn's third western, has precisely nothing to do with the titular trail. Instead, the film is a simplistic retelling of the John Brown legend, with Raymond Massey playing the famed abolitionist. The events leading up to the bloody confrontation between Brown and the US Read More

Public Deb No. 1

Actors: George Murphy, Brenda Joyce, Elsa Maxwell, Mischa Auer, Charlie Ruggles

Synopsis: Communism-the American variety-is given a hilarious going-over in 20th Century-Fox's Public Deb No. 1. Spoiled society girl Penny Cooper (Brenda Joyce) impulsively lends her voice to a Communist rally, which earns her a public spanking by 100% All-American waiter Alan Blake (George Murphy). Read More

Broadway Melody of 1940

Actors: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Morgan, Ian Hunter

Synopsis: MGM's third follow-up to its landmark Broadway Melody is short on story, but that's okay, since the plot is merely a clothesline upon which to hang sleek and opulent musical production numbers by Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell -- particularly a breathless and eye-popping gloriously 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

The Roaring Twenties

Actors: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane, Jeffrey Lynn, Gladys George

Synopsis: Based upon an idea by Broadway columnist Mark Hellinger, The Roaring Twenties opens during World War I as doughboys Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney), Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn), and George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) discuss what they will do when the war is over. Bartlett wants to go back to repairing Read More

Pride of the Navy

Actors: James Dunn, Rochelle Hudson, Gordon Oliver, Gordon Jones

Synopsis: A disruptive Annapolis naval cadet refuses to tow the line and so gets booted out of the prestigious academy. Later, he takes to designing speedboats. They are innovative and soon the Navy comes a-knocking in hopes that he will design a fast and easily maneuverable boat to carry torpedos. ~ Sandra Read More

The Star Maker

Actors: Dorothy Babbs, Bing Crosby, Louise Campbell, Linda Ware, Ned Sparks, Laura Hope Crewes

Synopsis: The Star Maker is the story (with variations) of vaudeville enterpreneur Gus Edwards, here played by Bing Crosby. Determining that he can attain the uppermost showbiz rungs by spotlighting new, untried talents, Edwards rises to fame by hiring preteen boys and girls for his touring acts, the most Read More

Blackmail

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Hussey, Gene Lockhart, Bobs Watson, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Synopsis: Through a miscarriage of justice, John Ingram (Edward G. Robinson) is convicted of a crime he did not commit and sentenced to a long stretch on a chain gang in the deep South. In time, Ingram flees to Oklahoma, where he makes a living fighting oil fires under an assumed name. Several years later Read More

Newsboy's Home

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Edmund Lowe, Wendy Barrie, Edward Norris, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: The "Little Tough Guys" get involved in a circulation war between a paper with underhanded tactics and a paper being mismanaged by the woman who inherited it. The Tough Guys' leader is partial to the latter, since it took him in when his sheriff father was murdered. He helps draw readers away from Read More

Dodge City

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: This landmark western -- which, along with Stagecoach, has often been credited with revitalizing what had become a stagnant genre -- stars Errol Flynn as Wade Hatton, a cattle man who arrives in the frontier community of Dodge City, which is overrun by footloose cowboys and outlaws. When Hatton Read More

Maisie

Actors: Robert Young, Ann Sothern, Ruth Hussey, Ian Hunter, Cliff Edwards

Synopsis: Maisie stars Ann Sothern as a worldly showgirl stranded in Wyoming when her show fails. She accepts a job at a carnival shooting gallery, where she meets the handsome foreman (Robert Young) of a lavish ranch -- and is promptly accused of picking the man's pocket. Despite this rocky beginning Read More

Navy Secrets

Actors: Fay Wray, Grant Withers, Dewey Robinson, William Von Brincken, Craig Reynolds

Synopsis: A federal agent and a petty Naval officer are both investigating the theft of top-secret defense plans. Since neither one is aware that the other is working on the case, each considers the other to be the prime suspect. They end up getting romantic and catching the real spies. ~ Steve Huey, All Read More

Star Reporter

Actors: Warren Hull, Marsha Hunt, Morgan Wallace, Clay Clement, Wallis Clark

Synopsis: In this newspaper drama, a young man's father, a prominent newspaper publisher is violently murdered by famous gangsters. The young man uses the power of his newly inherited press to get revenge upon the killers by exposing them. Unfortunately, the young man's schemes go awry when he learns the Read More

Behind Prison Gates

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Jacqueline Wells, Joseph Crehan, Paul Fix, George Lloyd

Synopsis: Brian Donlevy was well enough established as a film personality in 1939 that he didn't have to accept the leading role in the Columbia "B" Behind Prison Gates. But like many other actors, Donlevy realized that Columbia treated character actors like stars-and boy, did he ever want to be a star. In Read More

Private Detective

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

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

Wings of the Navy

Actors: George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, John Payne, Frank McHugh, John Litel

Synopsis: Filmed on-location at the Naval Air Training Stations in San Diego, CA, and Pensacola, FL, this black-and-white Warner Bros. drama was dedicated to the U.S. Naval Aviation Service and probably served as propaganda when it was released in 1939, right before the U.S. involvement in WWII. Submarine Read More

Whispering Enemies

Actors: Jack Holt, Dolores Costello, Addison Richards, Joseph Crehan, Donald Briggs

Synopsis: Silent-screen leading lady Dolores Costello adds a touch of class to the threadbare Jack Holt vehicle Whispering Enemies. Reportedly inspired by recent headlines, the story deals with corporate intrigue in the cosmetic business, with Stephen Brewster (Holt) and Laura Crandall (Costello) Read More

We Are Not Alone

Actors: Paul Muni, Jane Bryan, Flora Robson, Raymond Severn, Una O'Connor

Synopsis: A violin-playing British doctor's life changes forever after he takes in a distraught Austrian ballerina who tries to kill herself after breaking her wrist. He hires the sad girl as a nanny for his bright son, whom he wants to keep away from his neurotic, overbearing wife. The trouble starts when 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

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

You Can't Get Away with Murder

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Billy Halop, John Litel, Henry Travers

Synopsis: A young punk hooks up with a mobster and helps him rob a gas station in this crime drama. From there the crimes become more serious and the boy is very happy until something goes wrong and the gangster shoots someone using the stolen gun of the boy's sister's lover. The innocent lover is given the Read More

St. Louis Blues

Actors: Dorothy Lamour, Lloyd Nolan, Tito Guizar, Jerome Cowan, Jessie Ralph

Synopsis: Dorothy Lamour had been playing "sarong girls" long enough to parody her screen character in 1939's Best of the Blues. Tired of portraying jungle princesses, a temperamental Broadway star (Lamour) runs out on her manager (Jerome Cowan) and joins a Mississippi showboat under a phony name. Read More

The Return of Doctor X

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane, Dennis Morgan, John Litel, Huntz Hall, Wayne Morris

Synopsis: Humphrey Bogart makes his first and last appearance in a horror movie in this film. Though the title implies that it is a sequel to the classic 1932 chiller Dr. X it is not. The terror begins when an eager-beaver reporter stumbles across the corpse of a popular actress who turns up, after much Read More

Stanley and Livingstone

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Nancy Kelly, Cedric Hardwicke, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan, Charles Coburn

Synopsis: Twentieth Century-Fox borrowed Spencer Tracy, from MGM for the sprawling (yet economically produced) historical drama Stanley and Livingstone. Tracy plays 19th-century American journalist Henry M. Stanley, an adventure-prone sort who is assigned by his editor (Henry Hull) to locate lost Scottish Read More

Tell No Tales

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

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

Union Pacific

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff, Robert Preston, Lynne Overman, Brian Donlevy

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille takes us back to the 1860s, then rebuilds the first intercontinental railroad in Union Pacific. The real-life spectacle is occasionally interrupted by the fictional adventures of railroad overseer Joel McCrea, postmistress Barbara Stanwyck (with an incredible Irish brogue), and Read More

Babes in Arms

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser

Synopsis: This fun-filled spin-off of the Rodgers & Hart Broadway musical by the same name, features Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney as two young children of vaudevillian parents who aren't included in their parents travels, so they set out to produce a show of their own. Rooney's the driver here and he's up Read More

Alexander's Ragtime Band

Actors: Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, Jack Haley

Synopsis: His Aunt Sophie (Helen Westley) and his teacher Professor Heinrich (Jean Hersholt) are sure that Roger Grant (Tyrone Power) will be a famous classical violinist, but Roger's more interested in popular music. He and his friend, pianist Charlie (Don Ameche), audition at a saloon in San Francisco's Read More

Billy the Kid Returns

Actors: Smiley Burnette, Lynne Roberts, Morgan Wallace, Fred Kohler

Synopsis: Roy Rogers fans were in for a shock in the opening scenes of Billy the Kid Returns--for there was Rogers, playing the title character, being gunned down in the dark by sheriff Pat Garrett! Within a few minutes, however, things were explained satisfactorally when Rogers showed up again as a young Read More

Woman Against Woman

Actors: Herbert Marshall, Virginia Bruce, Mary Astor, Janet Beecher, Marjorie Rambeau

Synopsis: Herbert Marshall finds himself torn between two women: ex-wife Mary Astor and bride-to-be Virginia Bruce. After a while, Marshall's own opinions in the matter mean nothing. The ladies are so involved in their personal battle that they've lost sight of their common goal. Only when Marshall tells Read More

Almost a Gentleman

Actors: James Ellison, Helen Wood, Robert Kent, Leonard Penn, John Wray

Synopsis: Ace the Wonder Dog, RKO's Rin Tin Tin-wannabe, plays Picardy Max, a mongrel dog adopted by Dan Preston (James Ellison) when both are thrown in jail for vagrancy. Dan's legal problems are quickly done away with but his pretty boarder, Shirley Haddon (Helen Wood), is increasingly troubled by Dan's 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

Crime Takes a Holiday

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

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

Illegal Traffic

Actors: J. Carrol Naish, Mary Carlisle, Robert Preston, Judith Barrett, Pierre Watkin

Synopsis: J. Carroll Naish positively oozes immigrant gangster charm in this fairly entertaining thriller from Paramount. He plays Louis Zonta, an immigrant gangster running a racket that transports wanted criminals. At their wits end, the authorities send in undercover agent Bent Martin (Robert Preston) to Read More

The Goldwyn Follies

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, The Ritz Brothers [Al, Jimmy, Harry], Vera Zorina, Kenny Baker, Andrea Leeds

Synopsis: A longtime admirer of Broadway impresario Flo Ziegfeld, Hollywood producer Sam Goldwyn hoped to emulate the success of The Ziegfeld Follies by producing an annual movie-musical revue. Goldwyn's dream began and ended with 1938's Goldwyn Follies, a film centering on Goldwyn-like movie producer Read More

Mama Runs Wild

Actors: Mary Boland, Ernest Truex, William Henry, Lynne Roberts, Max "Alibi" Terhune

Synopsis: Veteran character actors Mary Boland and Ernest Truex are aces as the stars of Republic's Mama Runs Wild. "Mama" is social-climbing Alice Summers (Boland), the wife of milquetoast Calvin Summers (Truex). When Alice accidentally causes the arrest of a bank robber, she becomes a local heroine and Read More

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, Edward Everett Horton, David Niven, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: The great Ernst Lubitsch directed this farce (written by Charles M. Brackett and Billy Wilder) about a free-wheeling millionaire, Michael Brandon (Gary Cooper), who enjoys getting married but has a hard time staying married: he's had seven wives and is looking for number eight. He thinks he may Read More

Four's a Crowd

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell, Patric Knowles, Walter Connolly

Synopsis: A standard-issue "screwball comedy" of the 1930s, Four's a Crowd starred a quartet of Warner Bros' biggest stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, Rosalind Russell and Patric Knowles. Flynn plays a publicity agent hired to stir up "good press" for a nasty millionaire (Walter Connolly). Errol Read More

Girls on Probation

Actors: Jane Bryan, Ronald Reagan, Anthony Averill, Sheila Bromley, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' Girls on Probation was, and is, a potboiler, redeemed slightly by its cast. The fascinating, underused Jane Bryan stars as innocent young Connie Heath, who is falsely accused of theft by witchy Gloria Adams (Susan Hayward). Though Gloria withdraws her charge, the insurance company Read More

Happy Landing

Actors: Sonja Henie, Don Ameche, Jean Hersholt, Ethel Merman, Cesar Romero

Synopsis: Happy Landing was another Sonja Henie moneyspinner from the 20th Century-Fox film factory. The story gets under way when skirt-chasing bandleader Duke Sargent (Cesar Romero) pitches woo to Trudy Ericksen (Sonja Henie) while on a tour of Norway. To Duke, it's just another harmless flirtation, but Read More

Midnight Intruder

Actors: Louis Hayward, Eric Linden, J.C. Nugent, Barbara Read, Irving Bacon

Synopsis: In this comedy, two racetrack gamblers lose all their dough by betting on a long shot. Now they must hitchhike to the next racetrack. En route they take cover in an apparently abandoned mansion. There they find some clothing, which they put on. Unfortunately, in that garb, they are mistaken by the Read More

Guns of the Pecos

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

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

This is My Affair

Actors: Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, Victor McLaglen, Brian Donlevy, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: Based on fact, this turn-of-the-century crime drama stars Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck (husband and wife at the time). Taylor plays a seemingly disreputable young man who joins a gang of murderous bank robbers, headed by Victor McLaglen. Stanwyck is a beer-hall entertainer, who disapproves Read More

The Kid Comes Back

Actors: Wayne Morris, Barton MacLane, June Travis, Dick Jones, "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom

Synopsis: In this boxing drama, a prizefighter spies a young man during a street fight. Deciding that the lad shows promise, he begins training him for the ring. The young man's sister gets romantically involved with the trainer and this creates problems. More trouble ensues when the young man is slated to Read More

Draegerman Courage

Actors: Jean Muir, Henry O'Neill, Robert H. Barrat, Addison Richards

Synopsis: Draegermen are the brave people who rescue victims of mining disasters. This film tells the story of a Nova Scotia mining disaster that left three men, a doctor, the mine owner, and a foreman, stranded during a cave-in. The head draegerman is in love with the doctor's daughter. He leads the crew Read More

God's Country and the Woman

Actors: George Brent, Beverly Roberts, Barton MacLane, Robert H. Barrat, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Rivalry, romance, and brotherly love in logging camps are chronicled in this drama. The trouble begins when the brother of a lumber company owner arrives from Paris to work for him. Upon seeing the beautiful owner of the rival logging camp, the newly arrived brother immediately defects to begin Read More

There Goes My Girl

Actors: Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern, Gordon Jones, Richard Lane, Frank Jenks

Synopsis: In this comedy, the shady editor of a newspaper does all he can to keep his best reporter from marrying a journalist from a rival paper. In spite of the editor, the wedding day finally comes. The happy couple is at the alter when suddenly the woman gets news of a big scoop. Without a backward Read More

The Case of the Stuttering Bishop

Actors: Donald Woods, Ann Dvorak, Anne Nagel, Linda Perry, Craig Reynolds

Synopsis: Now decidedly a product of Warner Bros.' grade-B unit, The Case of the Stuttering Bishop brought the Perry Mason series to a close. Donald Woods starred as Mason, with Ann Dvorak as his loyal secretary Della Street (who is constantly promised a raise that never seems to materialize) and Edward Read More

The Cherokee Strip

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

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

Midnight Madonna

Actors: Warren William, Mady Correll, Kitty Clancy, Edward Ellis, Robert Baldwin

Synopsis: A custody battle provides the basis for this melodramatic domestic drama. The case centers around a young girl who has recently inherited a fortune from her deceased grandfather. She had been living with her mother, but now her avaricious father wants the child back. The mother is a performer; the Read More

The Duke Comes Back

Actors: Heather Angel, Genevieve Tobin, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: In this melodrama a championship boxer retires and marries a rich, aristocratic woman. The woman's father is furious, but comes to accept the situation. When the father gets in trouble for making a major business mistake, the dutiful boxer returns to the ring and wins the money his father-in-law Read More

Her Husband's Secretary

Actors: Jean Muir, Beverly Roberts, Warren Hull, Joseph Crehan, Clara Blandick

Synopsis: A young wife butts head with her beautiful best friend after her husband hires the latter to be his personal secretary and then begins spending too much time at the office. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Here's Flash Casey

Actors: Eric Linden, Boots Mallory, Cully Richards, Holmes Herbert, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: Flash Casey (Eric Linden), per his nickname, is an ace photojournalist--at least, he will be once he gets out of high school. After winning a prize in a photography contest, Flash vows that within two years of his graduation, he'll own his own newsphoto agency. To attain his goal, Flash goes after Read More

Outlaws of the Orient

Actors: Jack Holt, Mae Clarke, Harold Huber, Ray Walker, James Bush

Synopsis: Jack Holt is so tight-jawed in Outlaws in the Orient that one wonders how his bridgework will hold up. Holt plays Chet Eaton, a troubleshooting mail-plane pilot dispatched to the oil fields of the Gobi desert. Here he runs afoul of local bandit Ho-Fang (Harold Huber), who threatens dire Read More

Girls Can Play

Actors: Charles Quigley, Rita Hayworth, John Gallaudet, George McKay

Synopsis: In this crime drama, an evil ex-con makes his living selling cheap booze masked under expensive labels. He runs a drugstore as a front and also sponsors a girl's baseball team. The story is split between the gangster's illegal activities and the action on the baseball field where the lovely Read More

Once a Doctor

Actors: Jean Muir, Donald Woods, Gordon Oliver, Joseph King, Henry Kolker

Synopsis: A cast of Warner Bros. B-movie players struggles valiantly with a leaden script in this medical drama about foster brothers Steven (Donald Woods) and Jerry Brace (Gordon Oliver) following in their physician father's footsteps. But when Jerry, the natural son, loses two patients on account of Read More

Kid Galahad

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Wayne Morris, Jane Bryan

Synopsis: Fight manager Nick Donati (Edward G. Robinson) has just lost his best fighter to crooked promoter Turkey Morgan (Humphrey Bogart). During a party at Donati's apartment, a bellhop (Wayne Morris) kayos Morgan's boxer, who has insulted the honor of Donati's girlfriend, Louise "Fluff" Phillips (Bette Davis Read More

A Man Betrayed

Actors: Eddie Nugent, Kay Hughes, Lloyd Hughes, John Wray

Synopsis: The Man Betrayed in this Republic actioner is hero Eddie Nugent, though this doesn't occur until the film is half over. Framed for a murder he didn't commit, Nugent finds support from an unlikely corner: a group of crooks, led by John Wray, set about to prove the boy's innocence. All of this meets Read More

Midnight Court

Actors: Ann Dvorak, John Litel, Carlyle Moore, Jr., Joseph Crehan, Walter Miller

Synopsis: District attorney Victor Shanley (John Litel) is forced out of his job through the machinations of gang boss Al Kruger (William B. Davidson). Thirsting for revenge against the legal system that apparently failed to back him up, Shanley goes to the "other side," becoming a defense lawyer on Read More

Talent Scout

Actors: Donald Woods, Jeanne Madden, Fred Lawrence, Rosalind Marquis, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: This low-budget musical offers a peek behind the scenes in Hollywood. It centers on a recently unemployed talent scout who begins looking for a real talent to help him reestablish his career. He finds a talented actress and manages to convince his old boss to give her a screen test. Unfortunately Read More

The Go-Getter

Actors: George Brent, Charles Winninger, Anita Louise, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: An intrepid amputee must pass a test to prove his devotion to his sweetie in this romantic drama. The hero lost his leg during the crash of a navy dirigible. Later he gets a job with a lumber company. He soon falls for the boss's daughter. Unfortunately, the general manager is also interested in Read More

Married Before Breakfast

Actors: Robert Young, Florence Rice, June Clayworth, Barnett Parker, Warren Hymer

Synopsis: Directed by Edwin L. Marin, Married Before Breakfast follows the hectic life of young inventor Tom Wakefield (Robert Young). After a leading razor company pays Wakefield (Young) $250,000 in order for him not to publicize his latest invention, a hair-removing shaving cream that rendors razors Read More

The Wrong Road

Actors: Richard Cromwell, Helen Mack, Lionel Atwill, Russell Powell

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a young couple decides to rob the bank where the woman works as a teller. They get 100,000 dollars and hide it in a music box. Unfortunately, they are caught and sentenced to prison. Upon their release, the two hope that the money will still be in the little box, which they Read More

Born Reckless

Actors: Rochelle Hudson, Brian Donlevy, Barton MacLane, Robert Kent, Harry Carey

Synopsis: In this actioner, an auto racer becomes a cab driver for a company that is being strong-armed by avaricious gangsters trying to gain control of all of the city's taxi companies. Anyone opposing them is framed, but the brave racer isn't so easily intimidated and he decides to take on the crooks Read More

Bullets or Ballots

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Barton MacLane, Frank McHugh, Joseph King, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Blondell

Synopsis: Two-fisted New York police detective Edward G. Robinson is so volatile that he manages to get himself thrown off the force in disgrace. The local gangsters are delighted, in that Robinson had been breathing down their necks. When Robinson goes to crime boss Barton MacLaine insisting that he's Read More

Down the Stretch

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Patricia Ellis, Dennis Moore, Willie Best, Gordon Hart

Synopsis: In this drama, a teen is adopted from a reform school by a wealthy couple. They own horses and the boy becomes a jockey. His father was also a rider, but he got involved with crime. The young rider soon finds himself being framed by gamblers who are using his father's reputation against him. Read More

The Murder of Dr. Harrigan

Actors: Kay Linaker, Ricardo Cortez, Mary Astor, John Eldredge, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: The Murder of Dr. Harrigan is based on a "Nurse Sarah Keats" mystery novel by Mignon Eberhardt. The middle-aged protagonist of the novel has been transformed into pretty, young nurse Sally Keating (Kay Linaker), in love with handsome doctor George Lambert (Ricardo Cortez). The founder of the Read More

Cain and Mabel

Actors: Robert Paige, Marion Davies, Clark Gable, Allen Jenkins, Guy Kibbee, Roscoe Karns, Walter Catlett

Synopsis: Previously (and uncomfortably) co-starred in Polly at the Circus, Marion Davies and Clark Gable were reteamed in Cain and Mabel, reportedly on the demand of Davies' "sponsor" William Randolph Hearst. The story concerns a hash slinger-turned-Broadway-star named Mabel O'Dare (Davies, endearingly Read More

Murder by an Aristocrat

Actors: Lyle Talbot, Marguerite Churchill, Claire Dodd, Virginia Brissac

Synopsis: Nurse Sarah Keate, the middle-aged crime-solver created by mystery novelist Mignon Eberhardt, was reshaped as a much younger and prettier woman in Murder by an Aristocrat. Marguerite Churchill is the white-clad heroine, here rechristened Sarah Keating, while Lyle Talbot is her doctor boyfriend Read More

Anthony Adverse

Actors: Fredric March, Olivia de Havilland, Edmund Gwenn, Claude Rains, Anita Louise

Synopsis: When David O. Selznick produced the film version of the 1000-plus page novel Gone with the Wind, he declared he could not make a film running any less than 222 minutes. When Warner Bros. adapted the even longer Hervey Allen best-seller Anthony Adverse, the studio managed to pack everything--except Read More

Here Comes Carter

Actors: Ross Alexander, Glenda Farrell, Anne Nagel, Craig Reynolds, George E. Stone

Synopsis: In this drama, a press agent loses his job and becomes a Hollywood radio columnist. He is angry about having to change careers and ends up launching a smear campaign upon the actor who got him fired. He begins by announcing that the star's brother is a gangster. This causes the star to be Read More

Trailin' West

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

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

Gold Diggers of 1937

Actors: Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Victor Moore, Glenda Farrell, Lee Dixon

Synopsis: Those beautiful Busby Berkeley babes are back at work, seeking financial backing for a Broadway show. Salvation comes from a meek hypochondriac (Victor Moore) who'd rather the girls get his insurance money than his murderous business partners. Dick Powell isn't the male star of the show, but does Read More

Bengal Tiger

Actors: Barton MacLane, June Travis, Warren Hull, Paul Graetz

Synopsis: Never mind the title Bengal Tiger; Warner Bros. wasn't about to make a full-fledged jungle epic on a B-picture budget, so most of the action takes place in a stateside circus. At base, the film is Warners' 1936 edition of its 1932 hit Tiger Shark, resurrecting the "old guy and young guy battling Read More

The Singing Kid

Actors: Al Jolson, Allen Jenkins, Lyle Talbot, Frank Mitchell

Synopsis: Strictly for Al Jolson's most fervent fans, The Singing Kid casts Jolie as neurotic Broadway star Al Jackson. Facing professional ruin when he loses his voice, Al heads to the country to regain his vocal timbre and to get his head back together. While recuperating, he falls in love with farm girl Read More

Smart Blonde

Actors: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Winifred Shaw, Craig Reynolds, Addison Richards

Synopsis: As originally conceived by detective novelist Frederick Nebel, hotshot girl reporter Torchy Blaine was a male news-hound named Kennedy. For the purpose of Warner Bros.' Smart Blonde, the character's name and gender was changed -- thereby inaugurating one of the most popular and enjoyable movie Read More

The Law in Her Hands

Actors: Margaret Lindsay, Glenda Farrell, Warren Hull, Lyle Talbot, Eddie Acuff

Synopsis: According to encyclopedic film historian Roger Dooley, The Law in Her Hands is the only film of the 1930s to concern itself with a pair of female legal partners. The firm of Mary Wentworth (Margaret Lindsay) and Dorothy Davis (Glenda Farrell) specializes in defending criminals -- and ethics are Read More

Jailbreak

Actors: June Travis, Craig Reynolds, Barton MacLane, Dick Purcell, Addison Richards

Synopsis: Jailbreak is a formula Warners "B" with all the attendant stereotypes. Dick Purcell plays a convict accused of murdering a fellow prisoner. Craig Reynolds, a temporarily incarcerated reporter, sets about to prove Purcell's innocence. June Travis is the "girl on the outside," awaiting the release Read More

Boulder Dam

Actors: Ross Alexander, Patricia Ellis, Lyle Talbot, Eddie Acuff, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: In this romantic crime drama a young Detroit criminal flees into the West after killing his boss. It was accidental, but he fears retaliation. He finds work in Colorado building the great dam, proves to be a hard-working honest young man and is promoted to foreman. When not working, he woos a Read More

Road Gang

Actors: Donald Woods, Carlyle Moore, Jr., Kay Linaker, Harry Cording, Eddy Chandler

Synopsis: Warner Bros' Road Gang is a retread of themes first explored (and stock footage first seen) in the studio's earlier I Am Fugitive From a Chain Gang. The story takes place in an unnamed Southern state, where prisoners are forced to work on chain gangs under appallingly brutal conditions. The local Read More

China Clipper

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Beverly Roberts, Ross Alexander, Humphrey Bogart, Marie Wilson

Synopsis: Based on the true story of Pan American Airlines, China Clipper was released only a year after the first transpacific flight in history. Pat O'Brien stars as Dave Logan, a man completely obsessed with starting the first commerical airline across the Pacific ocean. Engineer Dad Brunn (Henry B. Read More

King of Hockey

Actors: Dick Purcell, Anne Nagel, Marie Wilson, Wayne Morris, George E. Stone

Synopsis: King of Hockey was one of three low-budget hockey films released during the 1936-37 season, each one produced by a different studio. Dick Purcell stars as swell-headed hockey champ Gabby Dugan, whose career is abruptly terminated when he's accused of shaving points during a crucial game. Even Read More

Earthworm Tractors

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

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

We're in the Money

Actors: Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, Hugh Herbert, Ross Alexander, Hobart Cavanaugh

Synopsis: Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell, the female Laurel and Hardy of Warner Bros., share top billing in We're in the Money. This time Blondell and Farrell are cast respectively as Ginger and Dixie, intrepid process-servers for goofy lawyer Homer Bronson (Hugh Herbert). Things go from the ridiculous to Read More

Alibi Ike

Actors: William Frawley

Synopsis: In this rollicking adaptation of Ring Lardner's short story, Joe E. Brown plays an ace baseball player whose insistence upon making up excuses earns him the nickname "Alibi Ike." In the course of his first season with the Chicago Cubs, Brown also falls in love with Olivia De Havilland Read More

Bright Lights

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Ann Dvorak, Patricia Ellis, William Gargan, Joseph Cawthorn

Synopsis: Joe E. Brown's extensive circus and burlesque training serve him well in this familiar but likeable yarn. Brown and Ann Dvorak stars as small-time vaudevillians Joe and Fay Wilson, presently employed by a seedy burlesque troupe. Also on tour with the Wilsons is society girl Peggy (Patricia Ellis) Read More

Front Page Woman

Actors: Bette Davis, George Brent, Roscoe Karns, June Martel, Dorothy Dare, Joseph Crehan, Walter Walker, Winifred Shaw

Synopsis: Front Page Woman was one of those bread-and-butter vehicles that forced Bette Davis to go on strike against Warner Bros., demanding more worthwhile scripts. On its own terms, the film is a briskly entertaining newspaper yarn about two warring reporters (Davis and George Brent). In their efforts to Read More

Oil for the Lamps of China

Actors: Pat O'Brien, Josephine Hutchinson, Jean Muir, Lyle Talbot, John Eldredge

Synopsis: This drama about corporate treachery was based on the best-selling novel by Alice Tisdale Hobart. Stephen Chase (Pat O'Brien) is a salesman and inventor with an American oil company who is sent to China to reach that nation's untapped market. While Stephen is often told that his company looks Read More

Page Miss Glory

Actors: Marion Davies, Pat O'Brien, Dick Powell, Mary Astor, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions moved from MGM to Warners with Page Miss Glory--along with Cosmopolitan's biggest commodity, actress Marion Davies. The plotline has something to do with a composite photo prepared for a magazine contest: The combined facial attributes of Garbo, Dietrich Read More

Man of Iron

Actors: Barton MacLane, Mary Astor, John Eldredge, Dorothy Peterson, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: Though usually a supporting player in Warner Bros' A pictures, Barton MacLane was permitted an occasional leading role in the studio's B-picture product. Man of Iron casts MacLane as a blue-collar factory worker who, through hard work and initiative, is promoted to vice president. Unfortunately Read More

Frisco Kid

Actors: James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ricardo Cortez, Lili Damita, Donald Woods

Synopsis: Clearly inspired by the success of Goldwyn's Barbary Coast, Warner Bros.' The Frisco Kid stars James Cagney as turn-of-the-century opportunist Bat Morgan. Heading to the gold fields of California, Bat is almost shanghaied in San Francisco but manages not only to escape his would-be captors but Read More

The Pay-Off

Actors: James Dunn, Claire Dodd, Patricia Ellis, Alan Dinehart, Joseph Crehan

Synopsis: The hero of The Pay-Off is somewhat denser than usual, making his ultimate victory all the more amazing. James Dunn plays newspaper columnist Joe McCoy, who is inveigled by his no-good wife Maxine (Claire Dodd) to become the dupe of crooked sports promoter Marty Bleuler (Alan Dinehart). So devoted Read More

Devil Dogs of the Air

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, Frank McHugh, Helen Lowell

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' Devil Dogs of the Air is very much a "formula" picture -- but what a wonderful formula it is! James Cagney plays reckless stunt flyer Tommy O'Toole, who is encouraged to join the Marine Flying Corps by his old Brooklyn buddy Lt. William Brannigan (Pat O'Brien). An undeniably talented Read More

Stranded

Actors: Kay Francis, George Brent, Patricia Ellis, Donald Woods, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: In this romance, a social worker employed by Traveler's Aid finally is able to show her love to a construction foreman responsible for building the Golden Gate Bridge. She has loved him for nine years and is delighted that they can finally be together. Unfortunately, both of them are so busy that Read More

Go into Your Dance

Actors: Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Helen Morgan, Patsy Kelly

Synopsis: Broadway legend Al Jolson and his second wife Ruby Keeler costarred in this thin backstage musical. In keeping with Jolson's earlier starring films, the plotline is melodramatic to the point of risibility. Jolson plays an irresponsible performer whose unprofessional antics incur the wrath of Read More

Shipmates Forever

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

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

The Traveling Saleslady

Actors: Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, William Gargan, Hugh Herbert, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: In this comedy, a toothpaste magnate's mischievous daughter, tired of her father's traditional ways of conducting business, joins forces with her father's rival and a crazy inventor. Together they create "Cocktail Toothpaste." The new concoction tastes like whiskey in the morning, a martini at Read More

Black Fury

Actors: Paul Muni, Karen Morley, William Gargan, Barton MacLane, John Qualen

Synopsis: Like many 1930s Warner Bros. films, Black Fury drew its inspiration from the headlines. The story is adapted from a true-life incident from 1929, wherein a striking Pennsylvania coal miner was beaten to death by three company detectives; this served as the focus for Henry R. Irving's stage play Read More

Special Agent

Actors: Bette Davis, George Brent, Ricardo Cortez, Jack LaRue, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: The agent of the title is George Brent, a journalist sent by the Government to get the goods on a crime syndicate. Brent befriends Bette Davis, bookkeeper for suspected crime boss Ricardo Cortez. Bette's cooperation nearly costs her life, but both she and Brent manage a tricky escape during a Read More

Strange Wives

Actors: Roger Pryor, June Clayworth, Esther Ralston, Hugh O'Connell, Ralph Forbes

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a man marries his Russian lover and discovers that she has a large extended family. He is utterly overwhelmed and decides that the only way he will be able to free himself of their burden will be to make them famous. Along the way, he keeps running into the bold lover of Read More

Don't Bet on Blondes

Actors: Warren William, Claire Dodd, Guy Kibbee, William Gargan, Vince Barnett

Synopsis: High-rolling gambler "Odds" Owen (Warren William) establishes an American insurance agency created along the lines of Lloyd's of London. Owen insures Kentucky colonel Jefferson Davis Youngblood (Guy Kibbee) against the possibility that Youngblood's actress daughter Marilyn (Claire Dodd) might get Read More

The Case of the Lucky Legs

Actors: Warren William, Genevieve Tobin, Patricia Ellis, Lyle Talbot, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: The legs in question in this the second of Warner Bros. Perry Mason whodunits belong to Margy Clune (Patricia Ellis), the first-prize winner in a Lucky Legs contest and the fiancée of Dr. Bob Doray (Lyle Talbot). But when Margy goes to collect her winnings, she finds that the contest's promoter Read More

Dinky

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Mary Astor, Roger Pryor, Henry Armetta

Synopsis: Cast in the title role Dinky is Jackie Cooper, who wasn't all that dinky by 1935. Mary Astor co-stars as Mrs. Daniels, Dinky's mother, who has been framed on a fraud charge and sent to prison. By bundling her son off to military school, Mrs. Daniels is able to keep her shame a secret from Dinky. Read More

The Secret Bride

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

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

It Happened One Night

Actors: Claire McDowell, Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas

Synopsis: Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling today. Claudette Colbert plays Ellie Andrews, a spoiled heiress who has married fortune-hunting aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas), despite her father (Walter Connolly)'s Read More

Voice in the Night

Actors: Tim McCoy, Billie Seward, Joseph Crehan, Ward Bond, Kane Richmond

Synopsis: Another of western star Tim McCoy's non-westerns for Columbia, Voice in the Night casts McCoy as telephone-company owner Tim Dale. The hero's operation is a small one, but it offers formidable competition for the rival firm owned by Tim's distant relative Robinson (Joseph Crehan). The plot Read More

The Man with Two Faces

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, Ricardo Cortez, Louis Calhern

Synopsis: The Man with Two Faces is based on The Dark Tower, a stage comedy-mystery by Alexander Woollcott and George S. Kaufman. Edward G. Robinson is at his hammy best as flamboyant, temperamental, but withal endearing theatrical actor-manager Dawson Wells. Mary Astor co-stars as Damon's beloved actress Read More

The Hell Cat

Actors: Robert Armstrong, Ann Sothern, Ben Baker, Minna Gombell, Purnell Pratt

Synopsis: Scrappy society belle Geraldine (Ann Sothern) is The Hell Cat in this peppy Columbia potboiler. Fed up with the intrusions of brash newspaper reporter Dan Collins (Robert Armstrong), Geraldine punches him in the nose -- whereupon he promptly punches her back. Feeling humiliated, Geraldine plots a Read More

Against the Law

Actors: Johnny Mack Brown, Sally Blane, Arthur Hohl, George Meeker

Synopsis: After briefly enjoying an "A" budget as Mae West's vis-a-vis in Belle of the Nineties, Johnny Mack Brown returned to the "B"-picture mills with Columbia's Against the Law. Brown plays ambulance driver Steve Wayne, whose devotion to his interne pal Bert Andrews (George Meeker) supersedes all else Read More

Before Midnight

Actors: Ralph Bellamy, June Collyer, Claude Gillingwater, Bradley Page, Betty Blythe

Synopsis: In the first of Columbia Pictures' "Inspector Trent" whodunits, the inspector (Ralph Bellamy) is called in to investigate the death of Edward Arnold (William Jeffrey). Although the young doctor in charge, David Marsh (Arthur Pierson), maintains that Arnold died of natural causes, a family curse 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

Here Comes the Navy

Actors: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Gloria Stuart, Frank McHugh, Dorothy Tree

Synopsis: Actually this film should have been titled "Here Comes Jimmy Cagney Again, so Duck!". James Cagney is a bantam-cock sailor who runs up against chief petty officer Pat O'Brien. Seems that Cagney and O'Brien had come to blows early in the film when O'Brien stole Cagney's date at a dance hall. Read More

A Lost Lady

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Morgan, Ricardo Cortez, Lyle Talbot, Phillip Reed

Synopsis: This is the second movie version of Willa Cather's Pulitzer Prize winning novel that tells the story of a bride-to-be whose fiance is near-fatally injured by the jealous husband of a woman he had an affair with. The poor young woman is so upset by the situation that she swears she will never love Read More

Jimmy the Gent

Actors: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Alice White, Allen Jenkins, Alan Dinehart, Arthur Hohl

Synopsis: James Cagney runs a shady missing-heir tracing service, occasionally providing phony heirs in order to collect his fee. He suffers a tinge of jealousy when he takes a gander at the offices of a legitimate tracing firm, where his former girlfriend (Bette Davis) has taken a job. Jimmy soon learns Read More

Hold the Press

Actors: Tim McCoy, Shirley Grey, Henry Wadsworth, Oscar Apfel, Wheeler Oakman

Synopsis: Hopscotching between westerns and modern-dress actioners in 1933, Tim McCoy once more finds himself at large in the Big City in Hold The Press. The bane of the police department, crime reporter McCoy insists upon conducting his own investigation when a baffling murder occurs. At one point, he is Read More

Stolen Heaven

Actors: Nancy Carroll, Phillips Holmes, Louis Calhern, Edward Keane

Synopsis: Nancy Carroll's popularity enabled her to survive the melodramatic excesses of Stolen Heaven with little if any damage to her career. Carroll plays Mary, the streetwalker sweetheart of born-loser Joe (Phillips Holmes). Engineering a $20,000 robbery, Mary and Joe draw up a pact to spend all the Read More

Secrets of a Secretary

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, George Metaxa, Betty Lawford, Mary Boland

Synopsis: In this drawing room drama, an impetuous heiress goes on a cruise and ends up marrying a Latin gigolo on a whim. Her father then dies, and as soon as her devoted husband discovers that the old man died destitute, he takes off. Now the girl must work; she gets a job as her father's best friend's Read More

Under Two Flags

Synopsis: Desperately tired of playing man-eating "vamps," Theda Bara begged to play Ouida's 1901 Foreign Legion heroine, "Cigarette," in the fourth screen version of this enduring drama. The Legion's mascot, Cigarette falls for an Englishman, Bertie Cecil (Herbert Heyes), and when he is sentenced to a Read More