Milburn StoneFilmography

Gunsmoke: Season 19

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis, Buck Taylor

Synopsis: That Gunsmoke was the longest-running dramatic series in TV history was common knowledge by the time the program entered its nineteenth season in the fall of 1973. What few could have predicted that year was Gunsmoke's unassailable popularity despite its age, as proven by the fact that it would Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 18

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis, Buck Taylor

Synopsis: With the cancellation of Bonanza in December of 1972, Gunsmoke remained standing as the last of the "golden age" TV westerns as it entered its record-breaking eighteenth season on the air. Heading the cast just as they had way back when the show got under way in 1955 are James Arness as Marshal Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 17

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis, Buck Taylor

Synopsis: Seventeen seasons and 540 episodes since it burst on the TV scene as the first truly "adult" western back in 1955, Gunsmoke returned with 24 all-new episodes in the fall of 1971. Amazingly, two of the original regulars are still on tap: James Arness as US Marshal Matt Dillon of Dodge City, and Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 16

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis, Buck Taylor

Synopsis: Having twice "cheated the hangman" by eluding CBS' efforts to cancel the series, the venerable western Gunsmoke was still safely imbedded in its by-now-familiar Monday evening slot for a sixteenth season--the longest-running dramatic series in TV history, with no end in sight! Still in harness Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 15

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis, Buck Taylor

Synopsis: Rescued from cancellation when it was moved from Saturdays to Mondays during its thirteen season, the venerable TV western Gunsmoke continued to steadily climb in the ratings throughout the next two years, and by the time Season Fifteen rolled around the series was the second most popular TV Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 14

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis

Synopsis: Despite stiff competition from NBC's top-rated Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, the venerable CBS western Gunsmoke continued to flourish in its (relatively) new Monday-night timeslot during its 14th season on the air, finishing the year as America's sixth most popular TV program, with a 24.9 ratings Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 13

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis

Synopsis: Rescued from cancellation by an eleventh-hour decision from CBS president William Paley, Gunsmoke entered its 13th season in a brand-new timeslot: Monday evenings at 7:30 PM, rather than Saturdays at 10. It was felt that an earlier slot would attract younger fans and stronger sponsors; and Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 12

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis

Synopsis: Beginning with its 12th season, Gunsmoke switched from black-and-white to color, one of the last major network series to do so. This necessitated the reshooting of the series' familiar opening sequence, in which Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) outdraws an unidentified desperado on the deserted Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 11

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis

Synopsis: By the time Gunsmoke entered its record-breaking eleventh season in the fall of 1965, the series had past beyond the realm of ordinary western and into the lofty heights of American institution. Unfortunately, its ratings were not quite so lofty: The series had long ago relinquished the Number One Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 10

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: The fact that Gunsmoke is able to enter its 10th season despite ever-descending ratings is a tribute not only to the series' solid story and production values but also its most fervent fans. Had it been any other series, Gunsmoke would have ground to a halt as the result of its many artistic Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 09

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: Entering its ninth season on CBS, Gunsmoke has already made history as the first TV western series to surpass 300 episodes, and one of the few programs of any kind to rate as America's Number One series for four consecutive years. However, since expanding from 30 to 60 minutes two seasons back Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 08

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Dennis Weaver

Synopsis: The decision to expand Gunsmoke from 30 to 60 minutes during its seventh season may have made sense insofar as offering more in-depth storytelling and providing a larger forum for potential sponsors, but it didn't do much for the series' ratings. After riding high as America's top-rated series for Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 07

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Dennis Weaver

Synopsis: 1961 was a year of transition for Gunsmoke. The radio version of the popular series, which had been running since 1952, was cancelled; the Prime Time TV version, which had adhered to the 30-minute format since its inception in 1955, expanded to a full hour; and Dennis Weaver, cast as Matt Dillon's Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 06

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Dennis Weaver

Synopsis: Having ridden high in the saddle as America's top-rated TV series for the past three years Gunsmoke managed to retain this lofty status as the series entered its Sixth season on the air--which was also its final season in the half-hour format. Thanks to the series' popularity, a major influx of Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 05

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Dennis Weaver

Synopsis: Gunsmoke's fifth season on CBS marked the third consecutive year that the series ranked as America's top-rated television program. In fact, it was good year all around for TV westerns: Four of the "top ten" shows were shoot-em-ups, with seven additional westerns ranking in the overall Top Twenty. Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 04

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Dennis Weaver

Synopsis: Having ended its third season as America's top-rated TV series, Gunsmoke managed to retain that title throughout Season Four, not only because of its own innate excellence but also because of its unusually strong lead-in show on CBS' Saturday-night schedule, Have Gun: Will Travel. Even though the Read More

Drango

Actors: Jeff Chandler, John Lupton, Joanne Dru, Morris Ankrum, Ronald Howard

Synopsis: Union army major Drango (Jeff Chandler) is assigned to rebuild a ruined Georgian town in the aftermath of the Civil War. Despite his best intentions, Drango has trouble combatting the hatred and resentment of the townsfolk. In particular, Clay Allen (Ronald Howard), the hotheaded son of Judge Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 03

Actors: James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Dennis Weaver

Synopsis: After a shaky start opposite NBC's George Gobel Show during its first season, TV's foremost "adult" western Gunsmoke steadily accrued new viewers throughout Season Two, ending the year as America's 8th most popular program. And by the end of Season Three, Gunsmoke was TV's top-rated series--a fact Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 02

Actors: Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Dennis Weaver

Synopsis: Season Two of Gunsmoke introduces the series' now-legendary opening sequence, as Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) shoots it out on the deserted main street of Dodge City with an anonymous opponent (Matt, of course, outdraws the man. He always does). Over the years, this opener would be Read More

White Feather

Actors: Robert Wagner, John Lund, Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter, Eduard Franz

Synopsis: Unusual for its time, this 1955 film is a sympathetic treatment of the U.S. Army's resettlement of Native Americans in the Old West. The Cheyenne tribe agrees to leave its hunting grounds in Wyoming so that white settlers looking for gold can move in. Colonel Lindsay (John Lund) is in charge of Read More

Smoke Signal

Actors: Dana Andrews, Piper Laurie, Rex Reason, William Talman, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: Dana Andrews plays Cavalry deserter Brett Halliday in the compact Universal western Smoke Signal. Cavalry captain Harper (William Talman) is determined to bring Halliday to justice, but first he must lead his men and a handful of Indian-massacre survivors to safety through hostile, uncharted Read More

Gunsmoke: Season 01

Actors: James Arness, Milburn Stone, Amanda Blake, Dennis Weaver

Synopsis: The original radio version of Gunsmoke was in its third year on the air when the TV version made its CBS network bow on September 10, 1955. Replacing radio's William Conrad as Matt Dillon was tall-in-the-saddle James Arness, whose chief claim to fame at that time was his portrayal of the title Read More

The Long Gray Line

Actors: Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, Robert Francis, Ward Bond, Donald Crisp

Synopsis: The life story of West Point athletic director Marty Maher was the inspiration for John Ford's The Long Gray Line. Told in flashback, the film recalls the first days at the Point for Irish immigrant Maher (Tyrone Power), a pugnacious boy who can't seem to fit in with the institution's regimen of Read More

The Private War of Major Benson

Actors: Charlton Heston, Julie Adams, Tim Hovey, William Demarest, Nana Bryant, Tim Considine

Synopsis: A too-tough Army major gets himself sent to run an ROTC program at a Santa Barbara military school after he calls unwanted attention to the military by mouthing off to a prominent news magazine. When he arrives to his new post, the major is shocked to find it run by nuns and that his new troops Read More

The Siege at Red River

Actors: Van Johnson, Joanne Dru, Richard Boone, Milburn Stone, Jeff Morrow

Synopsis: Siege of Red River stars Van Johnson as a Confederate officer, who "appropriates" a shipment of gatling guns from the Northern troops in the waning days of the Civil War. Posing as a medicine show entrepreneur, Johnson smuggles the guns through enemy lines in his wagon. Renegade rebel Richard Boone Read More

Black Tuesday

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Peter Graves, Jean Parker, Milburn Stone, Warren Stevens

Synopsis: On the eve of his execution, killer Edward G. Robinson busts out of prison with the help of his girlfriend (Jean Parker) and a crook posing as a reporter (Warren Stevens). Robinson takes along five hostages, including the daughter of the murdered head guard (Sylvia Findley), a real reporter (Jack Kelly Read More

Invaders From Mars

Actors: Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke

Synopsis: Originating during the science-fiction/Red-Scare boom of the '50s, Invaders From Mars is an entertaining little picture that holds up reasonably well. David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) is a 12-year-old astronomy buff who is stunned to see a flying saucer landing in the sand pit beyond his backyard. His Read More

Arrowhead

Actors: Charlton Heston, Jack Palance, Katy Jurado, Brian Keith, Mary Sinclair

Synopsis: Adapted from a novel by W.R. Burnett (which hadn't yet been published when the film was released), Arrowhead is a tough, uncompromising western dealing with the delicate issue of White-Indian relations. Charlton Heston is at his most truculent as Indian agent Ed Bannon, who though raised by Read More

The Sun Shines Bright

Actors: Charles Winninger, Arleen Whelan, John Russell, Stepin Fetchit, Russell Simpson

Synopsis: Director John Ford, notoriously difficult to please, regarded The Sun Shines Bright as his favorite film. Laurence Stalllings' screenplay is based on several short stories by Kentucky humorist Irvin S. Cobb, some of which had previously been cinematized in Ford's 1934 Will Rogers vehicle Judge Priest Read More

Second Chance

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Linda Darnell, Jack Palance, Sandro Giglio

Synopsis: Even without its 3D/stereophonic sound gimmickry, Second Chance is a crackling good suspenser. Robert Mitchum plays Russ Lambert, a prizefighter who heads to South America to forget a recent tragedy in the ring. Here he meets Clare Shepard (Linda Darnell), who is likewise running away -- not from Read More

Pickup on South Street

Actors: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter, Murvyn Vye, Richard Kiley

Synopsis: Samuel Fuller scarcely used Dwight Taylor's source material, a languid courtroom romance, in crafting this pugnacious potboiler. Pickup on South Street is strictly Fuller film noir -- lean and wicked straight to its core. Barely out of prison, loner and pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) Read More

The Savage

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

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

Dragnet: .22 Rifle for Christmas

Synopsis: In the most controversial Dragnet episode to date, Sgt. Friday (Jack Webb) must put off his Christmas vacation to investigate the disappearance of a boy named Stevie Martin. The missing youngster's best friend Stanley Johnstone (Sammy Ogg) tearfully comes forward, confessing that he has killed his Read More

Dragnet: The Big Jump

Synopsis: Season Two of the original TV version of Dragnet begins with an episode adapted from a Dragnet radio program first heard on January 11, 1951. Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) is dispatched to a high-rise LA office building, where psychiatric patient Walter Harrison (Paul Richards) is threatening to Read More

The Atomic City

Actors: Gene Barry, Lydia Clarke, Michael Moore, Nancy Gates, Lee Aaker

Synopsis: The city of the title is Los Alamos, where nuclear physicist Gene Barry lives and works. Terrorists kidnap Barry's son and demand that the physicist turn over the H-bomb formula. It's cat-and-mouse for a while, but when the FBI gets on the case, the criminals haven't got a chance. Outdated almost Read More

Operation Pacific

Actors: John Wayne, Patricia Neal, Ward Bond, Scott Forbes, Philip Carey

Synopsis: If one is a subscriber to cable TV's American Movie Classics, it is virtually impossible to avoid seeing the John Wayne starrer Operation Pacific; judging by the frequency of its showings, the film must be someone's very special favorite down at AMC. Set during WW II, the film casts Wayne as Duke Read More

The Racket

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Ryan, William Talman, Ray Collins

Synopsis: The Racket was based on a play by Bartlett Cormack, first filmed as a silent in 1928. The storyline was updated to include references to Estes Kefauver's Senate Crime Investigating Committee: otherwise, the plot (and much of the dialogue) was lifted bodily from the Cormack play. Racketeer Robert Ryan Read More

Flying Leathernecks

Actors: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Don Taylor, Janis Carter, Jay C. Flippen

Synopsis: The Technicolor adventure epic Flying Leathernecks offers two things that film cultists can never get enough of: star John Wayne and director Nicholas Ray. Filmed at the behest of RKO chieftain Howard R. Hughes, Leathernecks is a paean to the Marine Flying Corps of World War II. Wayne plays Major 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

Snow Dog

Actors: Kirby Grant, Elena Verdugo, Rick Vallin

Synopsis: The third installment in low-budget producer Lindsley Parson's "Chinook" series, Snow Dog was ostensibly based on pulp writer James Oliver Curwood's 1915 short-story "The Tentacles of the North," which was also the working title. Kirby Grant again played Rod McDonald of the Canadian Royal Mounted Read More

No Man of Her Own

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund, Phyllis Thaxter, Lyle Bettger, Jane Cowl

Synopsis: A woman is torn between a comfortable lie and the painful truth in this drama. After she is abandoned by her unfaithful boyfriend Stephen Morely (Lyle Bettger), Helen Ferguson (Barbara Stanwyck) discovers that she's pregnant, and she has no choice but to go home to her family. Shortly after Read More

Branded

Actors: Alan Ladd, Mona Freeman, Charles Bickford, Robert Keith, Joseph Calleia

Synopsis: Rancher Charles Bickford comes to believe that drifter Alan Ladd is his long-lost son. In truth, Ladd is a crook, in league with Brian Keith to con Bickford out of his fortune. Intending to go through with the scheme, Ladd has second thoughts when Bickford and his "mother" Selena Royle shower him Read More

The Fireball

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Pat O'Brien, Beverly Tyler, James Brown, Marilyn Monroe

Synopsis: Mickey Rooney is The Fireball in this independently produced sports film. The sport in this case is roller-skating, which was enjoying a resurgence of popularity in 1950 thanks to the various "Roller Derby" telecasts. Rooney plays Johnny Cesar, an orphan kid who rises to fame and fortune on the Read More

The Sky Dragon

Actors: Roland Winters, Keye Luke, Mantan Moreland, Tim Ryan, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: Film historian Leonard Maltin has labelled this final entry in Monogram's "Charlie Chan" series as "embarrassing," but it's not quite as bad as its reputation would indicate. True, star Roland Winters steadfastly refuses to take his characterization of Charlie Chan seriously, but that's part of Read More

Calamity Jane and Sam Bass

Actors: Yvonne De Carlo, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart, Willard Parker, Norman Lloyd

Synopsis: For various reasons, the 1949 western Calamity Jane and Sam Bass has a rather poor reputation amongst film buffs. Many observers feel that stars Yvonne de Carlo and Howard Duff merely go through the motions, while others complain that the usually dependable Universal-International production Read More

The Judge

Actors: Milburn Stone, Katherine de Mille, Paul Guilfoyle, Stanley Waxman, Norman Budd

Synopsis: The terrible consequences of perverting the legal system are spelled out in The Judge. In one of his rare starring roles, Milburn Stone plays criminal lawyer Martin Strang. Suspecting his wife Lucille (Katherine de Mille) of infidelity, Strang schemes to have her put out of the way. He wangles a Read More

The Green Promise

Actors: Marguerite Chapman, Walter Brennan, Robert Paige, Natalie Wood, Ted Donaldson

Synopsis: A mule-stubborn farmer is determined to avoid modern technology and nearly destroys what is left of his family in this moving drama. The farmer is saddled with raising his four kids alone and insists on being ruler of the roost in every way. He steadfastly refuses any talk of modern technology Read More

Train to Alcatraz

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Janet Martin, William Phipps, Roy Barcroft, June Storey

Synopsis: This prison drama is told via flashback and follows a group of prisoners bound for Alcatraz. En route, the group plans their escape. One of the convicts is innocent and ends up falling in love with a pretty passenger. Later romance really blooms after his name is cleared, but the other would-be Read More

Buck Privates Come Home

Actors: Bud Abbott, George Beban, Jr., Lou Costello, Nat Pendleton, Don Beddoe, Lennie Bremen, Tom Brown, Joan Fulton

Synopsis: After serving with a notable lack of distinction in WW2, Corporal Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott) and Private Herbie Brown (Lou Costello) return to the US. Unbeknownst to their sourpussed sergeant Collins (Nat Pendleton), Slicker and Herbie have smuggled cute little war orphan Evie (Beverly Simmons) Read More

Cass Timberlane

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner, Zachary Scott, Tom Drake, Mary Astor

Synopsis: A visibly uneasy Spencer Tracy plays the title role in this lavish MGM screen version of Sinclair Lewis' 1945 magazine serial. A small-town bachelor judge, Cass Timberlane, takes a personal interest in beautiful stenographer Jinny Marshland (Lana Turner), who appears one day as a witness in his Read More

The Michigan Kid

Actors: Jon Hall, Victor McLaglen, Rita Johnson, Andy Devine, Byron Foulger

Synopsis: Jon Hall, Universal's beefcake kid, usually comported himself in South Seas or Arabian nights outfits. In Michigan Kid (based on a novel by Rex Beach), he's decked out in ten-gallon hat, levis and six-guns. Hall and his cohort Andy Devine are among the many characters searching for a treasure Read More

Killer Dill

Actors: Frank Albertson, Stanley Andrews, Stuart Erwin, Dorothy Granger, Anne Gwynne

Synopsis: Screen Guild's Killer Dill trods a comedy path previously taken by such films as Mr. Lemon of Orange and The Whole Town's Talking. Stuart Erwin stars as Johnny Dill, milquetoast door-to-door salesman who happens to be the exact double of a notorious Prohibition gangster. When the bad guy murders a Read More

Heading for Heaven

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Glenda Farrell, Russ Vincent, Irene Ryan, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: In this comedy, a realtor at the end of his rope is grossly misdiagnosed as having three months to live. The already hyper-nervous man is therefore convinced that he will die. Later some of his clothing is recovered from a local creek and his family and friends assume that the poor man took his Read More

Her Adventurous Night

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Helen Walker, Tom Powers, Fuzzy Knight, Charles Judels

Synopsis: Teenaged Junior (Scotty Beckett) gets into trouble when he tries to bring a gun to school. To explain why he's packing a rod, Beckett fabricates a story involving his parents Bill (Dennis O'Keefe) and Constance (Helen Walker). To hear Junior tell it, once upon a time Bill was a telephone lineman Read More

Danger Woman

Actors: Don Porter, Brenda Joyce, Patricia Morison, Milburn Stone, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Stalwart Universal contractees Don Porter and Brenda Joyce are afforded rare starring roles in Danger Woman. Porter plays scientist Claude Ruppert, who hopes to harness atomic energy for commercial purposes. Ruppert is in love with secretary June (Brenda Joyce), but is forced to end the Read More

Smooth As Silk

Actors: Kent Taylor, Virginia Grey, Jane Adams, Milburn Stone, John Litel

Synopsis: Charles Barton took a break from his Abbott and Costello assignments at Universal to direct the second-feature thriller Smooth as Silk. Kent Taylor plays a slick criminal lawyer adept at all sorts of sneaky legalistic tricks. Taylor's girl friend Virginia Grey jilts him for the more honest Milburn Stone Read More

Inside Job

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Alan Curtis, Ann Rutherford, Joe Sawyer

Synopsis: In this crime drama, two ex-hoods find their attempts to straighten up and fly right are foiled by a blackmailing gangster who threatens to expose their past who forces them to rob the department store they work at. Outwardly, the crooks go along with the scam, but they have also devised a scam of Read More

The Spider Woman Strikes Back

Actors: Brenda Joyce, Gale Sondergaard, Kirby Grant, Rondo Hatton, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: Gale Sondergaard more or less recreates her role as the homicidal "Spider Woman" that she first essayed in the 1943 Sherlock Holmes film of the same name. This time Ms. Sondergaard plays a wealthy rancher who advertises for a young woman to serve as her secretary/companion. Several girls have gone Read More

Strange Conquest

Actors: Jane Wyatt, Lowell Gilmore, Peter Cookson, Julie Bishop, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: This drama is set within a steamy tropical jungle and chronicles the rivalry between two doctors looking for the cure to a deadly fever. One of the doctors gets frustrated by his repeated failure and so allows the other to try his latest cure out on him. Unfortunately, the "cure" kills the doctor. Read More

The Beautiful Cheat

Actors: Bonita Granville, Margaret Irving, Sarah Selby, Irene Ryan, Tommy Bond

Synopsis: The Beautiful Cheat was one of the last B pictures produced by Universal studios before its merger with International Productions. The title character, played by Bonita Granville, is the secretary at a boys' reformatory. Sociology professor Noah Beery Jr. shows up to study the juvenile-delinquent Read More

Little Miss Big

Actors: Beverly Simmons, Fay Holden, Frank McHugh, Dorothy Morris

Synopsis: In this comedy, a spoiled, temperamental and filthy rich aunt is committed to an asylum by her nephew after he learns that she has willed her fortune to her dog. Fortunately, the aunt escapes and is sheltered by the family of a poor barber. It is the barber's daughter that soothes the savage Read More

The Frozen Ghost

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

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

Swing Out, Sister

Actors: Rod Cameron, Billie Burke, Arthur Treacher, Jacqueline De Wit

Synopsis: Though on its last legs, Universal's "B"-musical unit continued grinding out tune-filled quickies like Swing Out, Sister well into 1946. Universal cowboy star Rod Cameron plays Geoffrey, conductor of a high-toned symphony orchestra. Secretly harboring the desire to become a swingin' jazz Read More

On Stage Everybody

Actors: Peggy Ryan, Jack Oakie, Julie London

Synopsis: Jack Oakie and Peggy Ryan head the cast of the Universal "B plus" musical On Stage Everybody. As indicated by the title, this is a "Let's put on a big show" affair, set this time at a radio station. Veteran vaudevillian Michael Sullivan (Jack Oakie) refuses to admit that his brand of entertainment Read More

I'll Remember April

Actors: Gloria Jean, Kirby Grant, Milburn Stone, Edward S. Brophy, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: In this drama, a goodie-two-shoes singer tries to save her bankrupt family by getting a radio job. She is soon entangled in a fight between rival radio commentators that culminates in a mysterious murder that she soon solves. Songs include: "Hittin' The Beach Tonite", and "I'll Remember April". Read More

She Gets Her Man

Synopsis: Joan Davis, the daughter of a famed woman detective, has inherited none of her mother's deductive prowess. Nonetheless, Joan teams with patrolman Leon Errol to solve a series of blowgun murders. The two erstwhile Sherlocks track down the alleged murder weapon to a theatre, where it is being used 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

Strange Confession

Actors: Lon Chaney, Jr., Brenda Joyce, J. Carrol Naish, Milburn Stone, Lloyd Bridges

Synopsis: In this suspense story (released as part of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" series, named for the popular radio series of the day), Jeff Carter is a scientist who is working on a medicine which would cure the flu. Carter's duplicitous boss Roger Graham (J. Carrol Naish) sends him on a business trip to Read More

The Daltons Ride Again

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

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

The Impostor

Actors: Jean Gabin, Richard Whorf, Ellen Drew, Peter Van Eyck

Synopsis: The Impostor is one of French film favorite Jean Gabin's two wartime Hollywood vehicles. Adapted by Stephen Longstreet and Marc Connelly from a screenplay by director Julien Duvivier, the story concerns a condemned murderer named Clement (Jean Gabin), who is "liberated" when the Nazis bomb the Read More

The Master Key

Synopsis: A machine able to extract gold from the ocean floor is desired by both Axis powers and the FBI in this 13 chapter Universal serial directed by the team of Ray Taylor and Lewis D. Collins. Milburn Stone -- later "Doc Adams" on television's Gunsmoke -- starred as G-Man Tom Brant, with blond Jan Wiley Read More

Moon Over Las Vegas

Actors: Anne Gwynne, David Bruce, Vera Vague, Vivian Austin, Alan Dinehart

Synopsis: In this musical romance, a young couple is still in love, but find themselves facing insurmountable turmoil in their relationship. They separate and head for Vegas for a quickie divorce. The wife is counseled by another that to save the union, she must make her husband jealous. She does, romantic 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

Twilight on the Prairie

Synopsis: In this musical western, a cowboy band is offered the chance to appear in a Hollywood movie and begins the journey to the West Coast. Unfortunately, the band ends up stranded in Texas and must take a job running a ranch. Musical mayhem ensues: Songs include: "Let's Love Again," "Where the Prairie Read More

Strange Confession

Actors: Richard Whorf, Allyn Joslyn, Ellen Drew, Peter Van Eyck

Synopsis: Strange Confession was the fourth in Universal's "Inner Sanctum" B-picture series, all of which starred Lon Chaney Jr. Chaney plays an idealistic writer who allows himself to be used by a politically ambitious publishing mogul (J. Carroll Naish). Not only does the publisher distort the Read More

Hi, Good-Lookin'

Actors: Eddie Quillan, Kirby Grant, Betty Kean, Roscoe Karns

Synopsis: At least 30 percent of Universal's "vest-pocket" musicals of the 1940s included the word "Hi" in the title. Such was the case of 1944's Hi, Good-Lookin', an agreeable vehicle for songstress Harriet Hilliard and her bandleader husband Ozzie Nelson. The barely existant plot finds aspiring singer Read More

Hat Check Honey

Actors: Grace McDonald, Richard Davies, Leon Errol, Walter Catlett, Ramsay Ames

Synopsis: In this musical comedy, a vaudevillian father, wanting a better life for his son, fires the youth from their act. The deeply angry young man's devoted and creative gal, a hat-check girl, helps him land a job with a big band. But despite his resulting success, he remains estranged from his 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

Jungle Woman

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

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

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Milburn Stone, Arthur Margetson

Synopsis: There are those who consider Sherlock Holmes Faces Death to be the best of Universal's Holmes series, though others hold out for 1944's The Scarlet Claw. Based loosely on Conan Doyle's The Musgrave Ritual, the plot finds Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) being summoned to the Read More

Gung Ho!

Actors: Randolph Scott, Grace McDonald, Noah Beery, Jr., Alan Curtis, J. Carrol Naish, Robert Mitchum

Synopsis: Accepted in 1943 as standard wartime propaganda, Gung Ho can be seen today as an outrageous exercise in raging machismo. Randolph Scott plays Thorwald, a marine colonel assigned to assemble a crack squadron of fearless jungle fighters for the all-important raid on Japanese-held Makim Island (which Read More

Captive Wild Woman

Actors: Evelyn Ankers, Acquanetta, John Carradine, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: A mad scientist turns a gorilla into a beautiful young woman in this well-made Universal potboiler, the first of three films featuring Paula Dupree, the Ape Woman. John Carradine stars as Dr. Sigmund Walters, whose Crestview Sanitarium witnesses strange and unsettling experiments. The doctor's Read More

Corvette K-225

Actors: Randolph Scott, James Brown, Ella Raines, Barry Fitzgerald, Andy Devine

Synopsis: Randolph Scott was the star of Corvette K-225, a tribute to the World War II corvette escorts which guided Allied convoys through treacherous Atlantic waters. Scott plays the officer in charge of a Royal Canadian corvette cruiser, dedicated to keeping the troops safe from enemy submarine attack. Read More

You Can't Beat the Law

Silent Witness

Get Going

Actors: Robert Paige, Grace McDonald, Walter Catlett, Lois Collier

Synopsis: Get Going is typical of the 60-minute musical comdies being churned out by Universal in the 1940s. A topical twist is added by predicating many of the laughs on the wartime housing shortage in Washington DC, with heroine Judy King (Grace McDonald) and her pal Doris (Lois Collier) sharing a cramped Read More

Sherlock Holmes in Washington

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Marjorie Lord, Henry Daniell, George Zucco

Synopsis: One of the silliest and most unbelievable of the Universal Sherlock Holmes series, Sherlock Holmes in Washington is also undeniably one of the most enjoyable. The story gets under way when an Allied spy (an unbilled Gerald Hamer, one of this series' "regulars") smuggles a valuable piece of Read More

The Mad Ghoul

Actors: David Bruce, Evelyn Ankers, George Zucco, Robert Armstrong, Turhan Bey

Synopsis: The Mad Ghoul may well be the definitive George Zucco horror melodrama. The star plays Dr. Alfred Morris, a distinguished scientist who obsession with an ancient Egyptian life-preserving process has tipped him over into madness. In love with young concert singer Isabel Lewis (Evelyn Ankers) 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

Rubber Racketeers

Actors: Ricardo Cortez, Rochelle Hudson, Barbara Read, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: The fourth production from the enterprising King Brothers, Rubber Racketeers drew its inspiration from late-breaking headlines. When wartime rationing kicks in, rubber suddenly is at a premium, resulting in a brisk black market in bootlegged rubber tires. Patriotic defense plant worker Bill Barry (Bill Henry Read More

Reap the Wild Wind

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

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

Invisible Agent

Actors: Ilona Massey, Jon Hall, Peter Lorre, Cedric Hardwicke, J. Edward Bromberg

Synopsis: Universal's "Invisible Man" series does its bit for the war effort in this slyly tongue-in-cheek action melodrama. Jon Hall stars as Frank Raymond, grandson of the man who invented the invisibility formula several pictures back. When Nazi agents try to coerce the secret formula out of Raymond, he Read More

Eyes in the Night

Actors: Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, Katherine Emery, Horace McNally, Allen Jenkins

Synopsis: Edward Arnold made the first of his two screen appearances as Bayard Kendrick's blind detective Captain Duncan McLain in MGM's Eyes in the Night. The plot is set in motion by Norma Lawry (Ann Harding), whose stepdaughter Barbara (Donna Reed) has been keeping company with washed-up actor Paul Read More

Frisco Lil

Actors: Irene Hervey, Kent Taylor, Minor Watson, Jerome Cowan, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Universal contractee Irene Hervey, generally required to stand by the sidelines while the leading men did all the acting, was given a vehicle of her very own with Frisco Lil. Irene plays a law student whose father is framed for a crime he didn't commit. Going undercover as a gambling-joint Read More

Police Bullets

Synopsis: In this crime drama, the police endeavor to destroy the oppressive protection racket that has been plaguing their city. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Pacific Rendezvous

Actors: Lee Bowman, Jean Rogers, Carl Esmond, Paul Cavanagh, Blanche Yurka

Synopsis: Pacific Rendezvous is a B-picture remake of the 1935 MGM A-picture Rendezvous, updated to accommodate WW2. Lee Bowman plays the old William Powell role as a American naval intelligence operative (this time named Lt. Bill Gordon) assigned to decipher enemy code. His mission is compromised by his Read More

Death Valley Outlaws

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Lynn Merrick, Milburn Stone, Karl Hackett

Synopsis: Produced and directed by George Sherman, Death Valley Outlaws starred James Cagney-lookalike Donald Barry as Johnny Edwards, a cowboy saving lovely Carolyn Johnson (Lynn Merrick) from a gang of vigilante raiders. When his friend, Bill Weston (Michael Owen), becomes the next target of the vigilante Read More

The Great Train Robbery

Actors: Bob Steele, Claire Carleton, Milburn Stone, Helen MacKellar, Si Jenks

Synopsis: The Great Train Robbery is not a remake of the 1903 landmark film of the same name; if it had been, it wouldn't have run any longer than eight minutes. This 1941 production isn't even a western, but instead a modern-day melodrama starring Bob Steele as a railroad detective. Steele takes it upon Read More

The Phantom Cowboy

Actors: Don "Red" Barry, Virginia Carroll, Milburn Stone, Neyle Marx, Rex Lease

Synopsis: There's a surprising lack of phyisical action in Phantom Cowboy, requiring star Don "Red" Barry to carry the picture through sheer force of personality. Barry plays a ranch hand named Lawrence, one of several heirs to the estate of a wealthy landowner. Resenting the presence of the other heirs Read More

Colorado

Actors: Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Pauline Moore, Milburn Stone, Maude Eburne

Synopsis: Brothers end up on opposite sides of the law in this Western set during the Civil War. Posing as a Union officer, Don Mason, aka Don Burke (Milburn Stone), attempts to divert the Union troops from the struggle with the Confederacy by arming the Colorado Indian tribes. Unbeknownst to Don, however 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

Framed

Actors: Frank Albertson, Constance Moore, Jerome Cowan, Robert Armstrong, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: Reporter Albertson works to solve a murder case in order to clear his name and get a great story for his paper. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Chasing Trouble

Synopsis: Diminutive Frankie Darro was always a lot of fun to watch when given his head in a leading role. In Monogram's Chasing Trouble, Darro plays a fella named Cupid, who fancies himself a handwriting analyst. He tries out his dilettante talent when a gang of spies begins covert activities in his Read More

The Great Plane Robbery

Actors: Jack Holt, Stanley Fields, Vicki Lester, Noel Madison, Granville Owen

Synopsis: It's ironic that leading man Jack Holt, who in real life was deathly afraid of flying, should appear in so many aviation-oriented pictures. In The Great Plane Robbery, racketeer Joe Colson (Noel Madison) is released from jail three months before the expiration of his $500,000 life insurance Read More

Give Us Wings

Actors: Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsly, Bobby Jordan

Synopsis: This "Little Tough Guys" series entry finds the kids gainfully employed building airplane engines. Hoping to get into the air themselves, the boys take jobs with a crooked crop-dusting concern. Carter (Victor Jory), the head of the company, refuses to buy new planes, despite the dangers faced by Read More

Lillian Russell

Actors: Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Henry Fonda, Edward Arnold, Warren William

Synopsis: Lillian Russell is the sanitized musical biopic of the legendary (and much-married) 19th century musical comedy star. Discovered in 1880 by bandleader Tony Pastor (Leo Carrillo), Lillian Russell (Alice Faye) wastes no time rising to fame and fortune on the Broadway stage. Along the way, she Read More

An Angel from Texas

Actors: Eddie Albert, Rosemary Lane, Wayne Morris, Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan

Synopsis: An Angel from Texas was the fourth of five film versions of the venerable George S. Kaufman stage farce The Butter and Egg Man. The plot remains basically the same, with a wealthy but incredibly naïve young sprout coming to the rescue of a near-bankrupt Broadway musical. This time around, Eddie Albert Read More

Enemy Agent

Actors: Richard Cromwell, Helen Vinson, Robert Armstrong, Marjorie Reynolds, Jack Arnold

Synopsis: In this espionage adventure, a courageous millworker must prove himself innocent of treason charges after the title spies purloin valuable blueprints from his plant. He also tries to bring the spies to justice, but soon finds himself in deep trouble. Fortunately, the good-guy spies show up at the Read More

Sky Patrol

Actors: John Trent, Marjorie Reynolds, Milburn Stone, Jackie Coogan, Jason Robards, Sr.

Synopsis: Tailspin Tommy (played by John Trent) flies again in Monogram's Sky Patrol. The plot is motivated by an airborne smuggling operation, masterminded by gunrunner Mitch (Leroy Mason). Assigned to thwart the villains is young Carter (Jackie Coogan), the son of Tailspin Tommy's flight commander (Boyd Read More

King of the Turf

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Roger Daniel, Dolores Costello, Walter Abel, William Demarest, Alan Dinehart

Synopsis: A remake of Racetrack, King of the Turf stars Adolphe Menjou as a seedy, alcoholic bookie with a long-dormant streak of decency. Roger Daniel is a young stable boy whom Menjou befriends and offers advice. The bookie and the stable boy purchase a racehorse, with Daniel training to be a top jockey Read More

Danger Flight

Actors: John Trent, Marjorie Reynolds, Milburn Stone, Jason Robards, Sr., Tommy Baker

Synopsis: A fearless young pilot helps turn around the lives of some young punks in this exciting episode of the "Tailspin Tommy" trio of films. Tommy helps them get off the street and into building working model airplanes. He and the kids then figure out how to use the models to do some skywriting, a trick Read More

Young Mr. Lincoln

Actors: Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver, Arleen Whelan, Pauline Moore, Richard Cromwell

Synopsis: John Ford's fine direction distinguishes this highly fictionalized account of the early life of Abraham Lincoln. The film shows Lincoln (Henry Fonda) as he rises from a country boy born in a log cabin to a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois defending two young men unjustly accused of murder. The Read More

Crashing Thru

Actors: James Newill, Warren Hull, Jean Carmen, Milburn Stone, Walter Byron

Synopsis: This adventure is the last entry in the "Renfrew of the Mounties" series. This time the tuneful Mountie travels to the north woods where he must thwart an American mobster's plot to swipe a large gold shipment. Interspersed amongst the action are two songs: "You're Easy on the Eyes," and "Crimson Read More

Blackwell's Island

Actors: John Garfield, Rosemary Lane, Dick Purcell, Victor Jory, Stanley Fields

Synopsis: This gangster film is based upon fact as it tells the tale of a determined reporter who has decided to make sure a certain notorious gangster gets his just desserts. It takes a long time, but eventually the reporter succeeds and the gangster is sent up river. Unfortunately, once there, he becomes Read More

The Big Guy

Actors: Victor McLaglen, Jackie Cooper, Edward S. Brophy, Peggy Moran, Ona Munson

Synopsis: In this melodrama, the acting warden at a correctional facility must make a difficult choice when he comes across some ill-gotten loot after averting a prison break. At first he keeps it for himself, but then one of the recently recaptured inmates gets blamed for the crime. During the attempted Read More

Fighting Mad

Actors: James Newill, Sally Blane, Benny Rubin, Dave "Tex" O'Brien, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: Fighting Mad was the second of producer Phil Krasne's "Renfrew of the Royal Mounted" films to be released by Monogram (taking over from the defunct Grand National Pictures). In this endeavor, Renfrew (James Newill) and his young pal Kelly (Dave O'Brien) take on American gangster Cardigan (Milburn Stone Read More

Mystery Plane

Actors: John Trent, Milburn Stone, Marjorie Reynolds, Jason Robards, Sr., Peter George Lynn

Synopsis: Mystery Plane is one of the better-known entries in Monogram's "Tailspin Tommy" series, if only because of its frequent TV showings. In this one, aviation ace Tommy (John Trent) and his pal Skeeter (Milburn Stone) develop a revolutionary new bombsight which they hope to turn over to the Army Air Read More

Made for Each Other

Actors: Carole Lombard, James Stewart, Charles Coburn, Lucile Watson, Eddie Quillan

Synopsis: James Stewart and Carole Lombard star in this comedy-drama about the struggles of a young married couple directed by John Cromwell. Stewart and Lombard play a recently married couple, Jane and John Mason. John works as an attorney for the law firm of skinflint Judge Doolittle (Charles Coburn). Read More

Blind Alley

Actors: Chester Morris, Ralph Bellamy, Ann Dvorak, Joan Perry, Melville Cooper

Synopsis: Blind Alley, directed by Charles Vidor is a chilling psychological drama in the film-noir tradition reminiscent of the fine melodrama The Desperate Hours. Hal Wilson (Chester Morris) is an escaped killer who hides out in the home of noted psychologist Dr. Shelby (Ralph Bellamy). While Wilson's Read More

The Spirit of Culver

Actors: Jackie Cooper, Freddie Bartholomew, Tim Holt, Andy Devine, Henry Hull

Synopsis: In this campus drama, an orphan wins a cadet scholarship to the Culver military academy. He is a cocky fellow, and is very proud that his late father was a decorated war hero who died in battle. His arrogance and unwillingness to comply with the academy's strict rules soon gets him into hot water. Read More

Nick Carter, Master Detective

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Rita Johnson, Henry Hull, Stanley Ridges, Donald Meek

Synopsis: Pulp-novel detective Nick Carter was created in the 1880s, but most film versions of the character have been updated to modern times. Such was the case with MGM's three-episode "Nick Carter" series, which got off to a good start with Nick Carter, Master Detective. Walter Pidgeon plays the title Read More

Society Smugglers

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Irene Hervey, Walter Woolf King, Frank Jenks, Fred Keating

Synopsis: When German director Joe May was working on such silent classics as The Indian Tomb and Asphalt, he probably never imagine that he'd one day wind up at Universal turning out something called Society Smugglers. Preston Foster stars as Treasury agent Sully, at present trying to break up a vicious Read More

When Tomorrow Comes

Actors: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Barbara O'Neil, Onslow Stevens, Nydia Westman

Synopsis: Following up their successful film Love Affair, Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne team up again for the romantic melodrama When Tomorrow Comes, based on a story by James M. Cain. Philip (Boyer) is a concert pianist who stops into a restaurant for lunch and meets waitress Helen Lawrence (Dunne). He Read More

Tropic Fury

Actors: Richard Arlen, Andy Devine, Beverly Roberts, Lupita Tovar

Synopsis: Tropic Fury is one of several Universal programmers built around the box-office appeal of handsome Richard Arlen and ratchet-voiced Andy Devine. Arlen plays private detective Dan Burton, assigned to prevent enemy agents from taking over an old rubber plantation. Aided and abetted by his tubby Read More

Stunt Pilot

Actors: John Trent, Marjorie Reynolds, Milburn Stone, Jason Robards, Sr.

Synopsis: Stunt Pilot is a typically lively entry in Monogram's "Tailspin Tommy" series. Hired to work on an aviation picture, ace pilot Tailspin Tommy (John Trent) immediately runs afoul of obnoxious, grandstanding stunt flyer Martin (George Meeker). Obliged by the script to shoot down Martin in one scene Read More

Crime School

Actors: Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Bernard Punsly

Synopsis: This entry in the Dead End Kids series of adventures makes critical comments about the failings of reform schools. The story begins as the boys are sent to the Gatesville Reformatory, a cruel institution where the discipline is often violent. They boys do their best, but it is difficult to cope. Read More

Wives under Suspicion

Actors: Warren William, Gail Patrick, William Lundigan, Constance Moore, Ralph Morgan

Synopsis: James Whale's Wives Under Suspicion is remake of Whale's own 1933 production A Kiss Before the Mirror, with a few noticeable concessions for the more militant censors of 1938. District attorney Jim Stowell (Warren William) is convinced that every murder should be sentenced to the electric chair Read More

Mr. Boggs Steps Out

Actors: Stuart Erwin, Helen Chandler, Toby Wing, Tully Marshall, Spencer Charters

Synopsis: In this comedy, a dull statistician changes his life after winning a pile of money after successfully determining the number of beans in a barrel. He decides to do something novel with the prize and ends up buying a barrel factory. He encounters trouble when the nearby pickle factory is threatened Read More

Paroled from the Big House

Actors: Jean Carmen, Richard Adams, George Eldredge, Gwen Lee, Milburn Stone

Synopsis: Elmer Clifton, whose career reached back to the D.W. Griffith days, warmed the directors' chair for the States'-Rights quickie Paroled from the Big House. When her storekeeper dad is murdered by protection racketeers, feisty Pat Mallory (Jean Carmen) vows to bring the killers to justice. She is Read More

California Frontier

Actors: Buck Jones, Carmen Bailey, Milburn Stone, José Perez, Soledad Jiminez

Synopsis: Set on the eve of California's entry into the Union, this fact-based Western features Buck Jones as an undercover agent out to bring justice to American bandits swiping land from Mexicans. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Storm

Actors: Charles Bickford, Barton MacLane, Preston S. Foster, Tom Brown

Synopsis: The Storm is standard hard-guy stuff starring three of Hollywood's hardest: Charles Bickford, Barton MacLaine and Preston S. Foster. The film is set aboard a ship, where hostilities run high between two radio operators who happen to be brothers. During the climactic storm at sea, however, everyone Read More

Port of Missing Girls

Actors: Judith Allen, Milburn Stone, Harry Carey, Betty Compson, Matty Fain

Synopsis: Less lurid than its title, Port of Missing Grils was one of several directorial efforts by screenwriter/cinematographer Karl Brown. After being framed for murder, heroine Della (Judith Allen) eludes both the police and the reel killer by stowing away on the freighter skippered by tough-but-kindly Read More

Sinners in Paradise

Actors: Madge Evans, John Boles, Bruce Cabot, Marion Martin, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: At one time Universal's "prestige" director, James Whale had slipped off the A-list by the end of the 1930s; even so, his films remained both intriguing and entertaining. In Whale's Sinners in Paradise, an airplane cracks up during a storm and crash-lands on an uncharted South Sea island. All nine Read More

Atlantic Flight

Actors: Dick Merrill, Paula Stone, Weldon Heyburn, Ivan Lebedeff

Synopsis: Atlantic Flight was designed as a vehicle for Dick Merrill, a real-life pilot then very much in the news because of his record-breaking flights. Merrill is cast as flyboy Dick Bennett, the best friend of aspiring aircraft designer Bill (Weldon Heyburn). Entering a national air meet, Dick is Read More

The Thirteenth Man

Actors: Weldon Heyburn, Inez Courtney, Selmar Jackson, Milburn Stone, Matty Fain

Synopsis: Weldon Heyburn, poverty row's answer to Clark Gable, stars in this whodunit, in which the victim, a crusading district attorney (William Gould), is murdered by a dart laced with curare while attending a prizefight. The D.A., Sutherland, was about to arrest yet another gangland boss in a crackdown Read More

Blazing Barriers

Actors: Frank Coghlan, Jr., Florine McKinney, Edward Arnold, Jr., Irene Franklin, Guy Bates Post

Synopsis: This upbeat, socially-conscious drama offered viewers a look into the benefits of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program begun by Roosevelt during the Depression. It tells the tale of two potential juvenile delinquents from the city who end up in a CCC camp. There they are forced to live in Read More

Youth on Parole

Actors: Marian Marsh, Gordon Oliver, Margaret Dumont, Peggy Shannon, Miles Mander

Synopsis: Sentenced to prison for a crime they did not commit, a desperate pair of young lovers attempts to capture the culprits responsible for framing them and destroying their lives. Philip and Bonnie were two strangers with little in common, that is until they were framed for a daring daytime jewelry Read More

Wings over Honolulu

Actors: Wendy Barrie, Ray Milland, William Gargan, Kent Taylor

Synopsis: In this wartime drama, a young woman nearly comes unhinged when her husband, a Navy pilot, is transferred to Pearl Harbor on their wedding day. She goes with him. Once in Hawaii she is surprised to see her ex-boyfriend sailing about in an expensive yacht. Her husband becomes totally engrossed in Read More

Music for Madame

Actors: Nino Martini, Joan Fontaine, Alan Mowbray, Billy Gilbert, Alan Hale

Synopsis: The "suspense" in the RKO Radio musical comedy Music for Madame lies in whether or not golden-voiced Operatic tenor Nino Martini will be permitted to sing. En route to Hollywood, Tonio (Martini) is hoodwinked into serenading a wedding party while a gang of jewel thieves clean out the place. The Read More

The Man in Blue

Actors: Robert Wilcox, Edward Ellis, Nan Grey, Richard Carle, Ralph Morgan

Synopsis: Robert Wilcox stars in Man in Blue as Frankie, a gangster's son. Frankie has been raised since childhood by Officer Martin Dunne (Edward Ellis), the cop who killed his father. About to join the force himself, Frankie is enticed into a life of crime by his con-artist uncle Willie Loomis (Richard Carle Read More

Swing It, Professor

Actors: Pinky Tomlin, Paula Stone, Mary Kornman, Milburn Stone, Pat Gleason

Synopsis: Swing It, Professor stars Pinky Tomlin, the bespectacled crooner who parlayed the song "The Object of My Affections" into a sizeable career. Tomlin plays a professor of music who is dead-set against the jazz and big-band craze of the late 1930s. After several career reverses, Pinky comes to terms Read More

Federal Bullets

Actors: Milburn Stone, Zeffie Tilbury, Terry Walker, William Harrigan

Synopsis: Federal Bullets is a leisurely paced Monogram crime melodrama with not a few clever plot twists. The FBI, represented by Milburn Stone and William Harrigan, investigates a seemingly respectable charitable organization. In fact, the enterprise is a front for a crime ring, headed by Ma Barker clone Zeffie Tilbury Read More

You Can't Beat Love

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

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

A Doctor's Diary

Actors: George Bancroft, Helen Burgess, John Trent, Ruth Coleman

Synopsis: A Doctor's Diary is told through the eyes of Dr. Dan Norris (John Trent), resident physician in a private hospital. In his search for a cure for spinal meningitis, Norris recklessly runs roughshod over the feelings of his colleagues. The doctor's older, wiser supervisor, Dr. Clem Driscoll (George Bancroft Read More

Rose Bowl

Actors: Eleanore Whitney, Tom Brown, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, William Frawley, Ben Baker

Synopsis: Actual footage of the 1936 Rose Bowl game is cleverly (if not seamlessly) integrated into the action of this sports-oriented comedy. Longtime chums Paddy O'Reilly (Tom Brown) and Dutch Schultz (Benny Baker) may be heroes of the high-school gridiron, but they're persona non grata with the girls Read More

The Three Mesquiteers

Actors: Robert Livingston, Sid Saylor, Kay Hughes

Synopsis: After a couple of false starts, William Colt MacDonald's "Three Mesquiteers" stories were converted into a western film series by Republic Studios. The Mesquiteers, a trio of wandering do-gooders, are muscular Tucson Smith, played by Ray "Crash" Corrigan; hotheaded Stony Brooke, played by Robert Livingston Read More

Murder With Pictures

Actors: Lew Ayres, Gail Patrick, Joyce Compton, Paul Kelly, Onslow Stevens

Synopsis: Gail Patrick plays a young woman framed for murder. Luckily the newsman on the courtroom beat is ace photographer Lew Ayres. He senses Patrick is innocent (the fact that she's a knockout has something to do with this) and vows to track down the guilty party. The Least Likely Suspect spills the 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

The Milky Way

Actors: Harold Lloyd, Adolphe Menjou, Veree Teasdale, Helen Mack, William Gargan

Synopsis: One of the funniest, most sharply paced comedies of the 1930s, and perhaps the best of all of Harold Lloyd's talkies, The Milky Way was based on the Broadway play by Lynn Root and Harry Clork. Lloyd plays Burleigh Sullivan, a mild-mannered milkman who intercedes one night when his sister Mae (Helen Mack Read More

Two in a Crowd

Actors: Joan Bennett, Joel McCrea, Elisha Cook, Jr., Alison Skipworth, Reginald Denny

Synopsis: On New Year's Eve, aspiring actress Julia Wayne (Joan Bennett) and chronic gambler Larry Stevens (Joel McCrea), both flat broke, each find one-half of a $1000 banknote. They decide to invest their windfall in a race horse and jockey, in hopes of financing a theatrical career for Julia and a new Read More

Banjo on My Knee

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Walter Brennan, Buddy Ebsen, Helen Westley

Synopsis: This lively riverboat musical shows off the vocal and terpsichorean talents of former Ziegfeld Follies star Barbara Stanwyck as it tells the tale of two newlyweds who must postpone their honeymoon when the groom gets in a fight with a villain, decks him and, believing he has killed him, flees upon Read More

The Princess Comes Across

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

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

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

Burn 'em up Barnes [Serial]

Actors: Frankie Darro, Jack Mulhall, Lola Lane, Jason Robards, Sr.

Synopsis: A serialized remake of a popular 1919 film, the 12-chapter Burn 'Em Up Barnes was simultaneously released as a 74-minute feature version. Jack Mulhall plays stalwart racing-car champion Burn 'Em Up Barnes, while top-billed Frankie Darro portrays his adopted son Bobbie. The two heroes take on Read More