Lionel Atwill Filmography

The Hollywood Collection: The Horror of it All

Synopsis: Directed by Philip Martell, music director of such horror films as Snake Woman (1961) and Die, Monster, Die! (1964), this documentary recounts the history of horror movies, with footage and scenes from major horror films such as Nosferatu and The Horror of Dracula. Highlights include footage of Read More

Genius at Work

Actors: Wally Brown, Alan Carney, Anne Jeffreys, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi

Synopsis: RKO's prefabricated comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney came to an abrupt end with Genius at Work. A slapsticky remake of 1937's Super Sleuth, the film casts the stars as Jerry and Mike, the stars of a weekly radio "unsolved mysteries" series. Ellen (Anne Jeffreys), the show's head writer Read More

Lost City of the Jungle

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

House of Dracula

Actors: Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, Martha O'Driscoll, Lionel Atwill, Glenn Strange, Jane Adams

Synopsis: This Universal "monster rally", an immediate sequel to House of Frankenstein, would seem to have been deliberately designed as the final entry in the studio's B-horror cycle. Onslow Stevens plays psychiatrist Dr. Edelman, who suddenly has a thriving business when two of Universal's "fright" Read More

Fog Island

Actors: George Zucco, Lionel Atwill, Jerome Cowan, Sharon Douglas, Veda Ann Borg

Synopsis: An early low-budget spin on Ten Little Indians, this cheap but entertaining PRC production features a wonderful cast of familiar B-movie faces, particularly George Zucco and Lionel Atwill. Zucco plays a man wrongfully imprisoned after being framed for his wife's murder by one of his colleagues. Read More

Crime, Inc.

Actors: Leo Carrillo, Tom Neal, Martha Tilton, Lionel Atwill, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: More expensive-looking than most PRC productions, Crime Inc. is based on a story by former crime reporter Martin Mooney. Drawing from his own experiences, Mooney has concocted a tale of a newspaper journalist who faces a prison term because he refuses to reveal his sources. Tom Neal plays the Read More

House of Frankenstein

Actors: Boris Karloff, J. Carrol Naish, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, Anne Gwynne, Lionel Atwill

Synopsis: In many ways the most endearing of Universal's B-grade "monster rallies" of the 1940s, House of Frankenstein manages within its 70-minute time span to make room for Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange), Dracula (John Carradine) the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.), and a couple of new recruits, mad Read More

Raiders of Ghost City [Serial]

Synopsis: Directed by Lewis Collins and Ray Taylor, Raiders of Ghost City is a 13-chapter serial account revolving around the highly dangerous trade of gold shipping during the civil war. The frequent thievery and corruption from within led these gold shipments to be a controversial occupation, particularly Read More

Matinee Double Feature, Part 5

Synopsis: Two monster movies from the '40s, Fog Island and Return of the Ape Man, appear on this single video release. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Lady in the Death House

Actors: Jean Parker, Lionel Atwill, Douglas Fowley, Marcia Mae Jones, Robert Middlemass

Synopsis: Like many PRC films, Lady in the Death House was run incessantly in the early days of television, then disappeared into the void of Public Domain once better-quality films were made available to TV. Actually, this women-in-prison low-budget attempt at film noir is pretty good as far as PRC Read More

Secrets of Scotland Yard

Actors: C. Aubrey Smith, Edgar Barrier, Stephanie Bachelor, Lionel Atwill, Henry Stephenson

Synopsis: Secrets of Scotland Yard is Republic's spin on a plotline first elucidated in the old E. Phillips Oppenheim novel The Great Impersonation. After losing WW I, the German high command, with remarkable foresight, prepares for the next war by planting a spy in the British Admiralty. Edgar Barrier Read More

Captain America [Serial]

Synopsis: Based on the comic book by the same name, the hero takes on a crazed scientist who creates deadly machines for his own villainous schemes. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

The Strange Case of Dr. Rx

Actors: Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill, Anne Gwynne, Samuel S. Hinds, Edmund MacDonald

Synopsis: Hot on the heels of his starring turn in The Mad Doctor of Market Street, Lionel Atwill was top-billed in another chiller-diller, The Strange Case of Dr. Rx. Somebody has been going around murdering known criminals who've escaped prosecution thanks to crooked lawyer Dudley Crispin (Samuel S. Read More

Night Monster

Actors: Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Irene Hervey, Ralph Morgan

Synopsis: More than one aficionado of Universal's horror films has cited Night Monster as the weakest of the batch. Part of the complaint lies in the fact that, despite their first and second billing, Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill are utterly wasted, with Atwill getting bumped off in the first reel! The Read More

Pardon My Sarong

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Robert Paige

Synopsis: One of the most often revived of Abbott & Costello's early-1940s films, Pardon My Sarong casts Bud and Lou as Chicago bus drivers Algy Shaw and Wellington Pflug. At the behest of millionaire playboy Tommy Layton (Robert Paige), Algy and Wellington hijack their own bus and speed off to California Read More

To Be or Not to Be

Actors: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill

Synopsis: Ernst Lubitsch directs the 1942 political satire classic To Be or Not to Be, which marked the final screen appearance of comedienne Carole Lombard. In Warsaw at the beginning of WWII, Maria Tura (Lombard) and husband Joseph (Jack Benny) perform anti-Nazi plays with their theater troupe until they Read More

Cairo

Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Robert Young, Reginald Owen, Grant Mitchell

Synopsis: Written by real-life intelligence agent Ladislas Fodor, Cairo is both a spoof of espionage thrillers and a good-natured refutation of Jeanette MacDonald's established screen image (it was her last film on her MGM contract). MacDonald plays wisecracking movie star Marcia Warren, who while "between Read More

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Kaaren Verne, Lionel Atwill, William Post, Jr.

Synopsis: The second of Universal's "modernized" Sherlock Holmes films pits the Great Detective (Basil Rathbone, of course) against that "Napoleon of Crime," Professor Moriarty (Lionel Atwill). Surpassing his previous skullduggery, Moriarty has now aligned himself with the Nazis and has dedicated himself to Read More

Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman

Actors: Lon Chaney, Jr., Ilona Massey, Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi

Synopsis: The fifth film in Universal's "Frankenstein" series goes for the box-office gold by combining two--count 'em, two!--of the studio's star monsters. We all thought that Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.), alias The Wolf Man, had been shot dead in his own starring film in 1941, but the opening scenes of Read More

The Ghost of Frankenstein

Actors: Lon Chaney, Jr., Cedric Hardwicke, Ralph Bellamy, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi

Synopsis: Universal's "Frankenstein" series descended from the "A" to the "B" category with The Ghost of Frankenstein, though production values were still well above average and the cast is first-rate. The story picks up where Son of Frankenstein (1939) left off, with both the Monster (Lon Chaney Jr.) and Read More

Junior G-Men of the Air [Serial]

Actors: Billy Halop, Gene Reynolds, Lionel Atwill, Frank Albertson, Kathryn Adams

Synopsis: The Dead End Kids take on a sinister gang of Japanese terrorists in this 12-chapter followup to the 1940 Universal serial Junior G-Men. When Eddie Holden (Gene Reynolds), the inventor brother of street-gang leader Billy Holden (Billy Halop), is kidnapped by minions of the Black Dragon society Read More

The Mad Doctor of Market Street

Actors: Una Merkel, Lionel Atwill, Nat Pendleton, Claire Dodd, Richard Davies

Synopsis: Considering the fact that it was the only Universal horror film directed by cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis, it's a shame that Mad Doctor of Market Street isn't better than it is. Lionel Atwill dominates the proceedings as Dr. Benson, an addlepated medico obsessed with the notion of restoring the Read More

Man Made Monster

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Lon Chaney, Jr., Anne Nagel, Frank Albertson, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Originally slated as a Boris Karloff-Bela Lugosi vehicle, Man Made Monster emerged on screen as a tour de force for Lon Chaney Jr. (in his first horror-film starring role) and Lionel Atwill. Chaney plays Dynamo Dan the Electric Man, a sideshow performer whose talent for absorbing mass quantities Read More

Gangs, Inc.

Actors: Joan Woodbury, Jack LaRue, Linda Ware, John Archer, Vince Barnett

Synopsis: Paper Bullets (aka Crime Inc.) was the first production by former slot-machine entrepreneurs Maurice and Frank Kozinski, later and better known as the King Brothers. Written by former crime reporter Martin Mooney, the story focuses on the efforts by an undercover agent Bob Elliot (John Archer) to Read More

The Great Profile

Actors: John Barrymore, Mary Beth Hughes, Gregory Ratoff, John Payne, Anne Baxter

Synopsis: John Barrymore provides an embarrassing spectacle in the semi-autobiographical role of a ham actor. Constantly in debt and always half-loaded, Barrymore accepts a role in an important play, which he nearly ruins by his intemperate antics. Anne Baxter plays a sincere young woman who tries to pull Read More

The Mad Empress

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Conrad Nagel, Guy Bates Post, Evelyn Brent

Synopsis: In this melodramatic historical drama, the lives of Mexico's Maximilian and Carlotta are chronicled. The story follows their brief reign as figureheads for Napoleon III. The two doomed rulers were terribly naive and had no idea that they were universally despised by the native population. Upon her Read More

Girl in 313

Actors: Florence Rice, Kent Taylor, Lionel Atwill, Kay Aldridge, Mary Treen

Synopsis: The Girl in 313 is undercover police detective Joan Matthews (Florence Rice), who infiltrates a gang of jewel thieves. It is Joan's goal to unmask the leader of the gang, who is presently hiding behind a veneer of respectability. Piecing the clues together, she discovers that the crooks are in Read More

Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise

Actors: Sidney Toler, Marjorie Weaver, Lionel Atwill, Robert Lowery

Synopsis: Though the 1931 Fox release Charlie Chan Carries On apparently no longer exists, modern viewers can get a general idea of the film's quality by taking a look at its 1940 remake, Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise. On the verge of revealing the identity of an international murderer, a Scotland Yard man Read More

Charlie Chan in Panama

Actors: Sidney Toler, Jean Rogers, Lionel Atwill, Mary Nash

Synopsis: Charlie Chan in Panama was the first entry in the "Chan" series to capitalize on WW2. Sidney Toler stars as the wily oriental sleuth, who on this occasion must weed out an elusive enemy saboteur named Ryner, who plans to destroy the Panama Canal. Any one of the supporting characters might be the Read More

Johnny Apollo

Actors: Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour, Lloyd Nolan, Edward Arnold, Charles Grapewin

Synopsis: Tyrone Power plays the college-grad son of jailed-embezzler Edward Arnold. Power tries to find work, only to be turned away because of his father's reputation. When he decides to use a phony name, he is still fired, because his ex-convict boss feels that Power is being unfair to his Read More

Boom Town

Actors: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr, Frank Morgan

Synopsis: Clark Gable is "Big John" and Spencer Tracy is "Square John"; both "Johns" seek their fortunes in the Texas oil fields. They simultaneously fall in love with Claudette Colbert, but it's "Big John" who wins out. When both Johns grow rich on oil, "Big John" lets money go to his head, and he begins Read More

Son of Frankenstein

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Josephine Hutchinson

Synopsis: The most elaborate--and longest--of Universal's Frankenstein series, Son of Frankenstein represents Boris Karloff's last appearance in the role of the Monster. The title character is played by Basil Rathbone, who with wife Josephine Hutchinson and son Donnie Donegan returns to the Old Country to Read More

The Secret of Dr. Kildare

Actors: Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Lionel Atwill, Helen Gilbert, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: In this third installment of MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series, Dr. James Kildare (Lew Ayres) comes to the rescue when his supervisor/mentor Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) nearly collapses from overwork. Gillespie is seeking a permanent cure for pneumonia, and must ask Kildare for assistance when the Read More

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Actors: Richard Greene, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Lionel Atwill, John Carradine, Wendy Barrie

Synopsis: Though it takes a few liberties with the Arthur Conan Doyle original -- not the least of which is turning Sherlock Holmes into the second lead -- The Hound of the Baskervilles ranks as one of the best screen versions of this oft-told tale. After learning the history of the Baskerville curse from Read More

The Gorilla

Actors: Jimmy Ritz, Harry Ritz, Anita Louise, Al Ritz, Patsy Kelly

Synopsis: When Fox bought the rights to Ralph Spence's warhorse stage mystery-comedy The Gorilla for the Ritz Brothers, they walked out en masse, refusing to work on the picture until their contracts were renegotiated and the script heavily rewritten. The finished product features an escaped circus gorilla Read More

The Sun Never Sets

Actors: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Basil Rathbone, Barbara O'Neil, Lionel Atwill, Virginia Field

Synopsis: In this patriotic British adventure, two courageous brothers try to keep war from erupting in Africa and stop a megalomaniacal arms baron from ruling the world. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Balalaika

Actors: Nelson Eddy, Ilona Massey, Charlie Ruggles, Frank Morgan, Lionel Atwill

Synopsis: In this romantic musical, a Russian prince sees a lovely singer in a town cafe and falls head-over-heels. Realizing that he cannot be seen with her in royal garb, he masquerades as a worker. Later he secretly arranges for her to sing at the Imperial Opera. Unfortunately, his father the emperor is Read More

The Three Musketeers

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

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

The Great Waltz

Actors: Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravey, Milza Korjus, Hugh Herbert, Lionel Atwill, Curt Bois

Synopsis: The Great Waltz was the first of two films bearing the same title which told the life story of Austrian "Waltz King" Johann Strauss. European singing sensation Fernard Gravet stars as Strauss, while MGM's two-time Oscar winner Luise Rainer is top-billed as Poldi Vogelhuber. Poldi is the wife of Read More

Three Comrades

Actors: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, Robert Young, Guy Kibbee, Lionel Atwill

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Three Comrades represented one of the few successful screenwriting efforts of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in Germany in the years just following World War I, the film stars Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone and Robert Young as three battle-weary, thoroughly Read More

Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation

Actors: Peter Lorre, Joseph Schildkraut, Lionel Atwill, Virginia Field, John King

Synopsis: This eighth (and final) entry in 20th Century-Fox's "Mr. Moto" series once again stars Peter Lorre as J. P. Marquand's resourceful and unfailingly polite Japanese detective. When American archeologist Howard Stevens (John King) recovers the ancient crown of the Queen of Sheba, the priceless Read More

The Road Back

Actors: Richard Cromwell, George "Slim" Summerville, Andy Devine, Barbara Read

Synopsis: A handful of German soldiers readjust to civilian life in the bitter wake of World War I in this follow-up to the classic All Quiet On The Western Front, which like the first film was based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque. After the signing of the armistice, Capt. Von Hagen (John Emery) Read More

Lancer Spy

Actors: Dolores Del Rio, George Sanders, Peter Lorre, Joseph Schildkraut, Virginia Field

Synopsis: Set during World War I, Lancer Spy stars a young George Sanders as Michael Bruce, an officer in the British Navy who bears an uncanny resemblance to the recently-captured Baron Kurt von Rohbach (also Sanders). Rohbach is highly connected in the German aristocracy, and his capture has been kept Read More

The High Command

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Lucie Mannheim, Steven Geray, James Mason

Synopsis: With a plot that twists like a plumber's snake, this is more a story of family secrets than anything else, in which the British commander of a West African garrison has to prevent the exposure of an ugly scandal involving his daughter. The story was based on a novel by Lewis Robinson entitled The Read More

The Last Train from Madrid

Actors: Dorothy Lamour, Lew Ayres, Gilbert Roland, Karen Morley, Lionel Atwill

Synopsis: Set during the terrible Spanish Civil War, this film avoids political commentary in favor of objectively centering on the plight and personal lives of refugees preparing to board a train that will take them far away from the bloody horrors of war-besieged Loyalist-controlled Madrid. Once safely on Read More

The Great Garrick

Actors: Brian Aherne, Olivia de Havilland, Edward Everett Horton, Melville Cooper, Lionel Atwill, Lana Turner

Synopsis: Director James Whale, well known for his witty horror films, tackled comedy head-on in this period piece, set in the 18th Century. David Garrick (Brian Aherne) is a gifted but supremely arrogant British actor whose fame is exceeded only by his ego. After finishing a starring run at London's Drury 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

Till We Meet Again

Actors: Herbert Marshall, Gertrude Michael, Lionel Atwill, Rod La Rocque, Guy Bates Post

Synopsis: In this taut WW I espionage thriller set in 1914, an English actor falls in love with a German actress. When the war erupts, the two are torn apart and begin working as spies for their countries. They encounter each other, but now they are enemies. Fortunately their love is too deep and is soon Read More

Absolute Quiet

Actors: Lionel Atwill, Irene Hervey, Raymond Walburn, Stuart Erwin, Ann Loring

Synopsis: Despite its title, things get pretty noisy in MGM's Absolute Quiet. Lionel Atwill heads the cast as reclusive financier G. A. Axton, who squirrels himself away at a remote ranch to recuperate from an illness. The only other person at the ranch is Axton's secretary Laura Tait (Irene Hervey), but Read More

Lady of Secrets

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, Otto Kruger, Lionel Atwill, Marian Marsh, Lloyd Nolan

Synopsis: In this tragic drama, a pregnant daughter prepares to marry a man she doesn't love when her 'sister' tells her a story. It seems that when the older woman was a girl she too got pregnant by her lover. When her father found out, he had the impregnator sent to war where he was killed. Meanwhile he Read More

Rendezvous

Actors: William Powell, Rosalind Russell, Binnie Barnes, Lionel Atwill, Cesar Romero

Synopsis: This espionage thriller with romantic comedy touches was loosely based on the book American Black Chamber by the real-life head of the U.S. Secret Service during World War I, Herbert O. Yardley. Bill Gordon (William Powell) is a newspaper puzzle editor who becomes a lieutenant in 1917 when he Read More

Captain Blood

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Lionel Atwill, Ross Alexander

Synopsis: When British actor Robert Donat dropped out of Warner Bros. Captain Blood, the studio took a chance on its new contractee, Tasmania-born Errol Flynn. Adapted from the novel by Rafael Sabatini, the film is set during the oppressive reign of King James II. Irish physician Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) Read More

Mark of the Vampire

Actors: Lionel Barrymore, Bela Lugosi, Elizabeth Allan, Lionel Atwill, Carroll Borland, Jean Hersholt

Synopsis: Mark of the Vampire is Tod Browning's remake of his own 1927 thriller London After Midnight, which unfortunately no longer exists. The sudden appearance of ghostly vampires in a remote mittel-European community is seemingly tied in with an old, unsolved murder case. Police inspector Neumann (Lionel Atwill Read More

The Murder Man

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Harvey Stephens, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy plays a hard-driving newsman with a special instinct for solving sensational murders before the police can. This earns him the grudging respect of his peers, but his editor always puts him in his place. Tracy spends most of his time solving cases and almost never sleeps at home. This Read More

The Man Who Reclaimed His Head

Actors: Claude Rains, Joan Bennett, Lionel Atwill, Henry O'Neill

Synopsis: This truly offbeat filmization of Jean Bart's stage drama The Man Who Reclaimed His Head has been misleadingly released to TV as part of the "Shock Theater" package, even though the film is more melancholy than horrific. At the height of WW I, the trembling, near-lunatic Paul Verin (Claude Rains) Read More

The Devil Is a Woman

Actors: Marlene Dietrich, Cesar Romero, Lionel Atwill, Edward Everett Horton, Alison Skipworth

Synopsis: Director Josef Von Sternberg and his greatest discovery, Marlene Dietrich, worked together for the last time on this historical melodrama, which was a notorious and controversial box-office flop in its day. Antonio Galvan (Cesar Romero), a young military officer, meets a mysterious and alluring Read More

Stamboul Quest

Actors: Myrna Loy, George Brent, Lionel Atwill

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