Paul CavanaghFilmography

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake

Actors: Eduard Franz, Valerie French, Henry Daniell, Grant Richards, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: An angry head-shrinker (not a psychiatrist) puts a curse upon a family of white traders in this well-wrought low-budget horror film. It must have been a doozy for 200 years later it is still going strong. The story opens as the eldest male descendant of the cursed Drake family finds himself on the Read More

The Beat Generation

Actors: Steve Cochran, Mamie van Doren, Ray Danton, Fay Spain, Louis Armstrong

Synopsis: Set within the popular bohemian coffee houses of the late '50s where beatniks gathered to recite poetry and perform, this sensationalistic detective drama centers upon the attempts of an insensitive police detective to catch an arrogant serial rapist, a rich young man who believes himself mentally Read More

In the Money

Synopsis: This is the very last entry in the long-running Bowery Boys saga. This time the gang gets involved with English diamond smugglers after they are hired to safely escort a valuable poodle on a Transatlantic voyage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Man Who Turned to Stone

Actors: Victor Jory, Ann Doran, Charlotte Austin, William Hudson, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: The secret to immortality is thus: to rejuvenate tired bones and muscles and retain that youthful feeling forever, simply place nubile young women in a vat filled with chemicals, attach wires to their heads and suck out their life forces Warning: If after the first dosage subsequent treatments are not promptly administered, irreversible petrification will occur in all cases. Read More

God Is My Partner

Actors: John Hoyt, Marion Ross, Jesse White, Nelson Leigh

Synopsis: Prominent surgeon Walter Brennan comes to the conclusion that his talents are on loan from God. He retires from his lucrative practice and moves to a small town, there to donate his money to charitable religious causes. Brennan's avaricious family maneuvers to have the old doctor declared legally Read More

She Devil

Actors: Albert Dekker, Jack Kelly, Mari Blanchard, John Archer

Synopsis: Hot on the heels of his successful sci-fier Kronos, Kurt Neumann directed the lesser genre entry She Devil. Jack Kelly stars as a doctor who invents a miracle cure for several horrible diseases. Suffering from tuberculosis, Mari Blanchard agrees to test out Kelly's wonder serum. Almost instantly Read More

Francis in the Haunted House

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Virginia Welles, James Flavin, Paul Cavanagh, Richard Deacon

Synopsis: Though both star Donald O'Connor and director Arthur Lubin had said goodbye to the "Francis the Talking Mule" series, Universal-International wasn't about to give up on so valuable a property. Thus, Francis in the Haunted House starred Mickey Rooney, with Charles Barton calling the shots. Likewise Read More

Blonde Bait

Actors: Beverly Michaels, Jim Davis, Joan Rice, Richard Travis, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: Tired of the humdrum routine at a staid British woman's prison, brassy American chorine Angela Booth (Beverly Michaels) busts out. Scotland Yard decides to allow Angela to roam free, hoping that she'll lead them to her partner in crime, who unbeknownst to her is a notorious traitor and killer. Read More

The King's Thief

Actors: Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, David Niven, George Sanders, Roger Moore

Synopsis: Director Robert Z. Leonard brought his 31-year association with MGM to a rousing close with The King's Thief. Set in England during the reign of Charles II (drolly portrayed by George Sanders), the film stars Edmund Purdom as Michael Dermott, who sets about to steal the crown jewels on behalf of Read More

The Prodigal

Actors: Lana Turner, Edmund Purdom, Louis Calhern, Audrey Dalton, James Mitchell, Neville Brand

Synopsis: One critic has noted that The Prodigal was aptly titled, inasmuch as it was all too prodigal with the funds of the then-flagging MGM studios. In its retelling of the 22-verse Biblical story of the Prodigal Son, the film helpfully fills in the story details inconsiderately left out of the Old Read More

The Scarlet Coat

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Michael Wilding, Sr., Anne Francis, George Sanders, Robert Douglas

Synopsis: The infamous Benedict Arnold affair is the basis of the lively MGM costumer The Scarlet Coat. Arnold is played with suitably subtle menace by Robert Douglas, while his principal co-conspirator, Major John Andre, is essayed by Michael Wilding. The largely speculative storyline concerns the efforts Read More

The Purple Mask

Actors: Tony Curtis, Colleen Miller, Gene Barry, Dan O'Herlihy, Angela Lansbury

Synopsis: Tony Curtis was by 1955 an accomplished enough actor to get through the costumed derring-do of The Purple Mask minus the awkwardness he'd displayed in his earlier swashbucklers. Curtis is cast as Rene, a foppish 18th century French nobleman who doubles as the Purple Mask, a Royalist supporter who Read More

Diane

Actors: Lana Turner, Pedro Armendáriz, Roger Moore, Marisa Pavan, Cedric Hardwicke

Synopsis: Lana Turner stars as Diane in this opulent costume drama. Set in 16th century France, the film finds the gorgeous Diane de Pottiers rising to a position of absolute power through her manipulation of the men in her life. Those men include King Francis I (Pedro Armendariz), Prince Henri (Roger Read More

The Iron Glove

Actors: Robert Stack, Ursula Thiess, Richard Stapley, Charles Irwin, Alan Hale, Jr.

Synopsis: Robert Stack stars with Ursula Theiss (the wife of Robert Taylor) in the Columbia costumer The Iron Glove. Stack, an 18th century Scots adventurer, swashes and buckles on behalf of self-styled Prince James (Richard Stapley). Our hero insinuates himself into the court of King George I, the Read More

Magnificent Obsession

Actors: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, Agnes Moorehead, Otto Kruger

Synopsis: This second film version of Lloyd C. Douglas' spiritual novel Magnificent Obsession is in its own way as successful as the first (filmed in 1935) in glossing over the plot holes and logic gaps in the original novel. Rock Hudson plays Bob Merrick, a reckless playboy who is indirectly responsible Read More

Khyber Patrol

Actors: Richard Egan, Dawn Addams, Raymond Burr, Patric Knowles, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: This Kiplingesque adventure yarn stars Richard Egan as a captain in the British lancers. Together with his regiment, Egan is assigned to put down an Arab rebellion in Afghanistan, stirred up by rival tribal leaders Raymond Burr and Donald Randolph. When not defending the British Empire from Read More

The Raid

Actors: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Lee Marvin, Richard Boone, Tommy Rettig

Synopsis: Based on a true story from the Civil War, this drama follows a band of Confederate POWS who escape from a New England prison head for Canada and begin planning to distract Union forces by looting and pillaging a Vermont town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Casanova's Big Night

Actors: Bob Hope, Joan Fontaine, Basil Rathbone, Audrey Dalton, Hugh Marlowe

Synopsis: Bob Hope tries to capture the comic magic of his 1946 costume farce Monsieur Beaucaire with the splashy Technicolor romp Casanova's Big Night (filmed in 1952, released in 1954). Set in 18th century Venice, the film casts Hope as Pippo, the humble tailor of notorious ladies' man Casanova (an Read More

The Law vs. Billy the Kid

Actors: Scott Brady, James Griffith, Alan Hale, Jr., Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: Scott Brady plays a decidedly mature Billy the Kid in this Columbia western programmer. According to this acount, Billy was just a mixed-up kid who was forced against his will to become a gunslinger. Billy's friendship with sheriff Pat Garrett (James Griffith), which has always been a matter of Read More

Flame of Calcutta

Actors: Denise Darcel, Patric Knowles, Paul Cavanagh, George Keymas, Joseph Mell

Synopsis: Sexy Denise Darcel is the Flame of Calcutta in this Columbia programmer. Set in 18th-century India, the film stars Darcel as Suzanne Roget, daughter of a murdered French official. To avenge her father's murder and bring down a usurping Indian prince (George Keymas), Suzanne adopts the guise of a Read More

Port Sinister

Actors: James Warren, Lynne Roberts, Paul Cavanagh, William Schallert, House Peters, Jr.

Synopsis: Port Sinister was produced by the team of Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen, whose chief claim to fame was the 1951 sci-fi "sleeper" The Man From Planet X. Soldier of fortune Tony Ferris (James Warren) leads an expedition to an island threatened with extinction by a volcano. No, Ferris isn't Read More

The All-American

Actors: Tony Curtis, Lori Nelson, Richard Long, Mamie van Doren, Gregg Palmer

Synopsis: A loose remake of the 1931 Richard Barthelmess vehicle of the same name, The All-American stars Tony Curtis as college football star Nick Bonnell. When his parents are killed in a traffic accident while taking a bus trip to see him play, Nick quits football cold. Later on he accepts a scholarship Read More

Charade

Synopsis: The fine line between love and violence is explored in this three-chapter anthology featuring James Mason and his wife Pamela who both wrote, produced, and played the leads in each vignette. In the first story, "Portrait of a Murderer," a cynical young woman unthinkingly sketches the face of a Read More

Blades of the Musketeers

Actors: Robert Clarke, John Hubbard, Mel Archer, Keith Richards, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: The Dumas-inspired Blades of the Musketeers began life as an hour-long TV show, produced by Hal Roach Jr. as a possible series pilot. Robert Clarke, who'd previous headlined a pilot for a never-sold "Robin Hood" series, plays D'Artagnan, while the rest of the Musketeers are portrayed by John Hubbard Read More

The Bandits of Corsica

Actors: Richard Greene, Paula Raymond, Raymond Burr, Dona Drake, Raymond Greenleaf

Synopsis: Bandits of Corsica was also released as The Return of the Corsican Brothers. Bearing only the faintest resemblance to the Alexandre Dumas original, the film stars Richard Greene in the dual role of good brother Mario and his evil twin Lucien. Mario leads his fellow Corsicans in a revolt against Read More

The Mississippi Gambler

Actors: Tyrone Power, Piper Laurie, Julie Adams, John McIntire, William Reynolds, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: 1953's The Mississippi Gambler was the third Universal Studios film to bear this title--though with a different plot each time. Tyrone Power plays an all-around adventurer who cuts quite a swath through antebellum New Orleans. In between scenes of gambling, fist-fighting and swordplay, Power woos Piper Laurie Read More

House of Wax

Actors: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, Paul Picerni

Synopsis: This simplified (but lavish) remake of the 1933 melodrama The Mystery of the Wax Museum was the most financially successful 3-D production of the 1950s. In his first full-fledged "horror" role, Vincent Price plays Prof. Henry Jarrod, the owner of a wax museum, whose partner, Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts Read More

Tales of Robin Hood

Actors: Robert Clarke, Mary Hatcher, Paul Cavanagh, Wade Crosby, Whit Bissell

Synopsis: Though filmed through the facilities of Hal Roach Studios and produced by Hal Roach Jr., Tales of Robin Hood was released by Lippert Pictures. Robert Clarke stars as the young Earl of Huntington, who after losing his property and title to the invading Normans heads to Sherwood Forest. Here he Read More

The Plymouth Adventure

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Gene Tierney, Van Johnson, Lloyd Bridges, Leo Genn

Synopsis: Plymouth Adventure earned a footnote in film history as the last directorial effort by the prolific Clarence Brown. Otherwise, this colorful re-creation of the Pilgrims' journey to America is a workmanlike job, never inspired but always interesting. Spencer Tracy stars as bull-stubborn Captain Read More

The Golden Hawk

Actors: Rhonda Fleming, Sterling Hayden, Helena Carter, John Sutton, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: This Sam Katzman costume quickie stars Sterling Hayden as 17th-century privateer Kit Gerardo, and (inevitably in a buccaneer meller of this sort) Rhonda Fleming as a gorgeous female pirate named Rouge. When Rouge's vessel is besieged by the minions of evil Caribbean governor Luis del Toro (John Sutton Read More

The Son of Dr. Jekyll

Actors: Louis Hayward, Jody Lawrance, Alexander Knox, Lester Matthews, Gavin Muir

Synopsis: The Son of Dr. Jekyll is Edward Jekyll, played by Louis Hayward. The film's events take place long after the unpleasantness involving Dr. J's doppelganger Mr. Hyde. Young Edward hopes to prove that his father was a dedicated scientist, and not merely a mad monster. His nemesis in this endeavor is Read More

The Strange Door

Actors: Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Sally Forrest, Richard Stapley, Michael Pate

Synopsis: Reunited for the first time since 1932's The Old Dark House, Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff star in the second-echelon Universal melodrama The Strange Door. Based on a Robert Louis Stevenson story, the film casts Laughton as unhinged French aristocrat Alan De Maletroit. Angered when his Read More

The Highwayman

Actors: Charles Coburn, Wanda Hendrix, Phillip Friend, Cecil Kellaway, Victor Jory

Synopsis: The Highwayman is based on the famous narrative poem by Alfred Noyes. The title character, played by Philip Friend, is a bold masked bandit of 18th-century England, who robs from the rich and gives (a little) to the poor. He is loved by Bess (Wanda Hendrix), the lovely daughter of an innkeeper. Read More

Hollywood Story

Actors: Richard Conte, Julie Adams, Richard Egan, Henry Hull, Fred Clark

Synopsis: Economically utilizing the Universal Studio itself as a "set," Hollywood Story is a murder mystery centered in the film capital. The story concerns a long-unsolved homicide case involving several silent-film stars (an echo of the William Desmond Taylor scandal of 1922). Producer Richard Conte Read More

The Desert Fox

Actors: James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy, Luther Adler, Everett Sloane

Synopsis: The Desert Fox is a superb filmed biography of German general Erwin Rommel, concentrating on the period between his retreat from North Africa and his government-decreed death. A brilliant tactician, Rommel earns the respect not only of his own men but of the enemy. Unfortunately, Adolph Hitler (Luther Adler Read More

All That I Have

Bride of the Gorilla

Actors: Barbara Payton, Lon Chaney, Jr., Raymond Burr, Tom Conway, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: This silly, stagebound but entertaining little monster-mash from Universal horror writer/director Curt Siodmak stars burly Raymond Burr as a steward on a rubber plantation whose romantic tryst with the boss' wife (Barbara Payton) eventually leads to the employer's murder. When one of the Read More

Rogues of Sherwood Forest

Actors: Alan Hale, John Derek, Diana Lynn, George Macready, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: Decked out with leftover sets and stock footage from 1946's Bandit of Sherwood Forest, Columbia's Rogues of Sherwood Forest stars John Derek as the son of legendary do-gooder Robin Hood. When King John (George Macready) revives his old cycle of taxation and repression, Robin Jr. summons forth his Read More

Hi-Jacked

Actors: Jim Davis, Marsha Jones, Sid Melton, David Bruce, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: Jim Davis, better known to contemporary audiences as Josh Ewing, J.R.'s (Larry Hagman) father on Dallas, is the two-fisted star of 1950's Hi-Jacked. Davis plays truck driver Joe Harper, who after his rig is stolen is accused of masterminding the theft himself. To clear his name, Joe sets out on Read More

Hit Parade of 1951

Actors: John Carroll, Marie McDonald, Estelita Rodriguez, Frank Fontaine

Synopsis: This latest in Republic's semi-annual "Hit Parade" series stars John Carroll, Marie McDonald and Estelita Rodriguez. Carroll plays a dual role, as a high-rolling gambler named Joe Blake and a radio crooner named Eddie Paul. Faced with mounting debts, Joe persuades Eddie to take his place, with the Read More

The Iroquois Trail

Actors: George Montgomery, Brenda Marshall, Glenn Langan, Reginald Denny, Monte Blue

Synopsis: Iroquois Trail (British title: The Tomahawk Trail) could be classified as a western, but for the fact that the story is set in 1775. Based on James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, the film stars George Montgomery as Cooper's stalwart Indian scout Hawkeye. Hoping to avenge his brother's Read More

Madame Bovary

Actors: Jennifer Jones, James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, Christopher [Alf] Kent

Synopsis: MGM circumvented the censorship that would otherwise have prevented a film version of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary by adding a prologue and epilogue that assured any and all bluenoses that the story was strictly a work of fiction. James Mason appears as Flaubert, defending his inflammatory Read More

Secret Beyond the Door

Actors: Joan Bennett, Michael Redgrave, Anne Revere, Barbara O'Neil, Natalie Schafer

Synopsis: Even star Joan Bennett and director Fritz Lang regarded The Secret Beyond the Door as the weakest of their collaborative efforts. Bennett plays spoiled socialite Celia, who falls recklessly in love with the handsome but emotionally complex Mark Lamphere (Michael Redgrave, in his first American Read More

You Gotta Stay Happy

Actors: Joan Fontaine, James Stewart, Eddie Albert, Roland Young, Willard Parker

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a wealthy heiress marries hastily and realizes her mistake on her honeymoon in New York. Though it is her wedding night, she decides not to consummate the union and so ends up hiding in the room of a fellow whose airplane cargo company is facing financial ruin. He assumes Read More

The Babe Ruth Story

Actors: William Bendix, Claire Trevor, Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, William Frawley

Synopsis: The Plan 9 From Outer Space of baseball biopics, The Babe Ruth Story is definitely in the "So Bad It's Good" category. An outrageously miscast William Bendix stars as George Herman "Babe" Ruth, who as depicted herein is a childish, misunderstood oaf who happens to be one of the greatest Read More

The Black Arrow

Actors: Louis Hayward, Janet Blair, George Macready, Edgar Buchanan, Rhys Williams

Synopsis: This commendably short adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow stars Louis Hayward in the title role. Returning from duty in the 15th-century War of the Roses, young Richard Shelton (Hayward) learns that his estate has been claimed by his usurping uncle Sir Daniel Brackley (George Macready Read More

Ivy

Actors: Joan Fontaine, Sara Allgood, Paul Cavanagh, Patric Knowles, Herbert Marshall, Isobel Elsom, Cedric Hardwicke, Lilian Fontaine

Synopsis: In this period drama, Joan Fontaine stars as Ivy Lexton, a woman with an unusual hunger for men. Though she already has a husband, Jervis (Richard Ney), and is having an affair with Roger Gretorex (Patric Knowles), Ivy becomes obsessed with Miles Rushworth (Herbert Marshall), and is determined to Read More

The Unfaithful

Actors: Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden

Synopsis: Though not readily apparent at first, The Unfaithful is a remake of the 1940 Bette Davis vehicle The Letter, which in turn was adapted from the play by W. Somerset Maugham. The locale of the Maugham original has been shifted from the jungles of Malaya to the cozy confines of a middle-sized Read More

Dishonored Lady

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O'Keefe, John Loder, Morris Carnovsky, William Lundigan

Synopsis: In this drama, Madeleine Damien (Hedy Lamarr) is a successful magazine editor with a free-spirited private life, but a number of failed relationships and years of burning the candle at both ends have taken their toll and Madeleine is suicidal and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her Read More

Night and Day

Actors: John Alvin, Cary Grant, Eve Arden, Alexis Smith, Monty Woolley, Herman Bing, Paul Cavanagh, Jane Wyman, Tom D'Andrea, Dorothy Malone

Synopsis: Faced with the challenge of writing a screenplay based on the life of fabulously wealthy, fabulously successful composer Cole Porter, one Hollywood wag came up with a potential story angle: "How does the S.O.B. make his second million dollars?" By the time the Porter biopic Night and Day was Read More

Club Havana

Actors: Tom Neal, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Douglas, Isabelita, Dorothy Morris

Synopsis: Edgar G. Ulmer's Club Havana is Grand Hotel, PRC style. The titular club is a popular nightspot where everyone who is anyone congregates. Six couples, none of whom are acquainted with the others, show up at Club Havana on one fateful evening, and the result is sheer murder-literally. Among the Read More

Wife Wanted

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a fading movie star plays a similar character in her farewell film, a B crime-drama about a lonely-hearts club that masks a racketeering operation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

A Night in Paradise

Actors: Merle Oberon, Turhan Bey, Thomas Gomez, Gale Sondergaard, Ray Collins

Synopsis: If Grecian storyteller Aesop really did exist, he was most likely a black slave. He wasn't an Austrian actor with an Egyptian name, but that's who played him in A Night in Paradise. Turhan Bey portrays the fable-spouting Aesop, who tries to escape his bondage by disguising himself as an old man. Read More

Humoresque

Actors: Joan Crawford, John Abbott, John Garfield, Oscar Levant, Paul Cavanagh, J. Carrol Naish, Joan Chandler, Tommy Cook

Synopsis: Fannie Hurst's novel Humoresque is the lachrymose tale of a famed Jewish-American violinist who forgets all about his friends and family in his rise to fame. Screenwriters Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold refashioned this timeworn material into a first-class, big-budget soap opera, completely Read More

The Verdict

Actors: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring, George Coulouris, Arthur Shields, Rosalind Ivan

Synopsis: The novel The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill had been filmed in 1928 as The Perfect Crime and again in 1934 as The Crime Doctor. This 1946 version was the best and marked the directorial debut of Don Siegel. It also paired the popular duo of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet for the last Read More

This Man's Navy

Actors: Wallace Beery, Tom Drake, James Gleason, Jan Clayton, Selena Royle

Synopsis: Ned Trumpet (Wallace Beery), the chief pilot of a Navy blimp, is given to weaving accounts of the fighting prowess of his non-existent son. His friendship with widow Maude Weaver (Selena Royle) and her son Jess (Tom Drake) in effect sets him up with a real family. Jess enters the service and goes Read More

The House of Fear

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Aubrey Mather, Dennis Hoey, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: This excellent Sherlock Holmes adventure is based on Conan Doyle's The Five Orange Pips. Most of the action takes place in a remote Scottish mansion, home of "The Good Companions," a group of elderly eccentrics. After taking out insurance policies on one another, the club members begin dropping Read More

The Woman in Green

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Henry Daniell, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: Based on Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Empty House, this "Sherlock Holmes" entry finds Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) trying to solve the case of the "Finger Murders". Several beautiful women have been found slain, all with their right forefingers severed from their Read More

The Man in Half-Moon Street

Actors: Nils Asther, Helen Walker, Reinhold Schünzel, Paul Cavanagh, Edmund Breon

Synopsis: A scientist discovers that he can live forever by receiving gland transplants every ten years. Unfortunately, the unwilling donors must be killed for him to survive, something that doesn't bother the scientist until he falls in love. The girl, innocent of his grisly secret, falls for him too. Read More

Marriage Is a Private Affair

Actors: Lana Turner, James Craig, John Hodiak, Frances Gifford, Hugh Marlowe

Synopsis: Robert Z. Leonard, who must have taken room and board at MGM, was the directorial hand behind this slight domestic drama. Lana Turner is the bride, John Hodiak the groom. James Craig is the odd man out, who pursues Turner when Hodiak is off fighting the war. Bored by domesticity, Turner welcomes Read More

Maisie Goes to Reno

Actors: Ann Sothern, John Hodiak, Tom Drake, Marta Linden, Paul Cavanagh, Ava Gardner

Synopsis: In this eighth film in MGM's "Maisie" series, Ann Sothern is back as ever-stranded chorus girl Maisie Revier. As the story opens, Maisie has a steady non-showbiz job as a defense plant riveter (it's wartime, of course); still, she utilizes a two-week vacation to take a singing job in a Reno night Read More

The Scarlet Claw

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gerald Hamer, Paul Cavanagh, Arthur Hohl

Synopsis: Though it is not based on any Conan Doyle story, The Scarlet Claw is regarded by Baker Street aficionados as the best of Universal's Sherlock Holmes series. Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) journey to Canada to investigate a series of mysterious murders. All the victims have been Read More

Adventures in Iraq

Actors: John Loder, Ruth Ford, Warren Douglas, Paul Cavanagh, Barry Bernard

Synopsis: Its wartime setting notwithstanding, the fast-paced Warner Bros. B-picture Adventures in Iraq is a remake of the 1930 George Arliss vehicle The Green Goddess, with much of the original dialogue intact. Forced to making a landing in the Syrian desert, pilot Doug Everett (Warren Douglas) and his Read More

The Gorilla Man

Actors: John Loder, Ruth Ford, Marian Hall, Richard Fraser, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: In this espionage drama, a battle-fatigued British commando is diagnosed as clinically insane by doctors who are in reality, Nazi spies. They do this to keep him from divulging the secret info he has gathered about them. To prove their diagnosis, they murder several woman and blame him for the 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

Captains of the Clouds

Actors: James Cagney, Dennis Morgan, Brenda Marshall, Alan Hale, George Tobias

Synopsis: James Cagney made his first Technicolor appearance in the morale-boosting aviation flick Captains of the Clouds. Cagney plays Brian MacLean, a hotshot Canadian bush pilot who delights in stealing jobs-and women-away from his competitors. Brian is forced to shape up in a hurry when he's assigned to 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

The Hard Way

Actors: Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Jack Carson, Gladys George

Synopsis: In this dark drama an iron-willed older sister forcibly thrusts her only modestly talented younger sister into a Broadway career. She does this to desperately try to keep her little sis from falling into the same small-town trap of marriage to a dull working-stiff and endless hours of taking care Read More

Eagle Squadron

Actors: Robert Stack, Diana Barrymore, John Loder, Eddie Albert, Nigel Bruce

Synopsis: With America's Air Force not completely mobilized in mid-1942, Universal paid tribute to those foresighted Yankee flyboys who joined England's Royal Air Force before America's entry into WW2 in Eagle Squadron. Robert Stack stars as Chuck Brewer, one of several US flyers participating in RAF Read More

Shadows on the Stairs

Actors: Frieda Inescort, Paul Cavanagh, Heather Angel, Miles Mander

Synopsis: Shadows on the Stairs is a slimmed-down adaptation of Frank Vosper's stage play Murder on the 2nd Floor. There's dirty work afoot at the London boarding house managed by Mr. and Mrs. Armitage (Miles Mander, Frieda Inescourt): several mysterious murders have occured, and everyone is under 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

Maisie Was a Lady

Actors: Ann Sothern, Lew Ayres, Maureen O'Sullivan, C. Aubrey Smith, Joan Perry

Synopsis: Out of work as usual, showgirl Maisie Revier (Ann Sothern) takes a job as the maid for a wealthy family. She wins over the young man of the household (Lew Ayres), but the rest of the family is too wrapped up in its own problems to benefit from Maisie's good-natured personality. The daughter (Maureen O'Sullivan Read More

Passage from Hong Kong

Synopsis: In this comedy, a crime novelist spins a yarn to impress the apple of his eye. He tells her that he has been involved in a murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

I Take This Woman

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, Veree Teasdale, Kent Taylor, Laraine Day

Synopsis: This soapy drama stars Hedy Lamarr as a would be model who meets a research doctor en route to the US from Europe. They meet when Dr. Spencer Tracy prevents her from taking a suicidal plunge from the upper decks of the ocean liner. It seems that Lamarr had been involved with married man Kent Read More

The Under-Pup

Actors: Gloria Jean, Robert Cummings, Nan Grey, C. Aubrey Smith, Beulah Bondi

Synopsis: The Under-Pup served to introduce Universal's new preteen songstress--and potential Deanna Durbin replacement--Gloria Jean. Producer Joe Pasternak sagaciously based the leading character on Jean herself: A shy, self-effacing 11 year old girl, thrust into a glamorous lifestyle beyond her ken. She Read More

Reno

Actors: Richard Dix, Gail Patrick, Anita Louise, Paul Cavanagh, Laura Hope Crewes

Synopsis: The rise of the popular Nevada city is chronicled in this epic drama that begins when Reno was a tiny silver-mining town and ends when it becomes a divorce center and garishly lit gambling town. The film also follows the exploits of a young attorney who comes to town to build a thriving divorce Read More

Within the Law

Actors: Ruth Hussey, Tom Neal, Paul Kelly, William Gargan, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a thieving employee sticks her stolen goods into the locker of a co-worker and causes all sorts of trouble. The stolen items are found in the locker of a store clerk who ends up imprisoned. The store owner's son knows that she is innocent, but he says nothing. The enraged Read More

Lost on the Western Front

Actors: Paul Cavanagh, Marcelle Chantal, Garry Marsh, Olga Lindo

Synopsis: Romance in Flanders is the American title of the British Lost on the Western Front. Set during WWI, the first part of the story dwells upon the rivalry between Sergeants John Morley (Paul Cavanaugh) and Rodd Berry (Garry Marsh) over the affections of fetching mademoiselle Yvonne (Marcelle Read More

Cafe Colette

Actors: Paul Cavanagh, Greta Nissen, Sally Gray, Bruce Seton, Paul Blake

Synopsis: Like Rick's Café Americain, the Café Colette is a rendezvous for virtually every spy in Europe. Greta Nissen stars as Russian princess Vanda Muroff, whose seductive powers are so overwhelming that one otherwise intelligent secret agent after another is willing to sacrifice all their top secrets to Read More

Crime Over London

Actors: Joseph Cawthorn, Basil Sydney, Margot Grahame, Paul Cavanagh, Renee Ray

Synopsis: In this British gangster movie, a Chicago gang goes to cool their heels in London. There they try to overtake the town. Meanwhile the mob boss searches for the perfect job. He convinces a millionaire, the owner of a department store, to help his gang rob the store blind. The plot fails and the Read More

Champagne Charlie

Actors: Paul Cavanagh, Helen Wood, Thomas Beck, Minna Gombell, Herbert Mundin

Synopsis: "Champagne" Charlie Courtland (Paul Cavanaugh) is a smooth, sophisticated and highly unethical gambler, plying his trade among the rich and famous. Charlie's backers hope for a huge financial windfall when he begins to court beautiful young heiress Linda Craig (Helen Wood). At the last moment Read More

Thunder in the Night

Actors: Edmund Lowe, Karen Morley, Paul Cavanagh, Una O'Connor, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: Most of the Fox productions of the 1930s had a "continental" flavor, and Thunder in the Night was no exception. Edmund Lowe stars as amorous Budapest police captain Torok, whose best friend Count Alvinczy (Paul Cavanaugh) has just been elected president of the Hungarian cabinet. When Alvinczy's Read More

Splendor

Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Paul Cavanagh, Helen Westley, Billie Burke

Synopsis: This romantic comedy-drama is set -- typical for producer Samuel Goldwyn at the time -- among the upper class. Joel McCrea plays Brighton Lorrimore, son of a well-to-do American family who returns from a trip abroad with a new wife, Phyllis Manning (Miriam Hopkins). Brighton's parents are dismayed Read More

Goin' to Town

Actors: Mae West, Paul Cavanagh, Ivan Lebedeff, Gilbert Emery, Tito Coral, Marjorie Gateson

Synopsis: Mae West is Goin' to Town in this elegant post-Production Code vehicle. West plays Cleo Borden, a nouveau riche cattle rancher who hopes to crash into high society. Though she is willing to subject herself to "refinement" lessons, she still has a high old time puncturing the pretensions of those Read More

One Exciting Adventure

Actors: Binnie Barnes, Neil Hamilton, Paul Cavanagh, Grant Mitchell, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: Binnie Barnes stars as Rina Sorel, a glamorous kleptomaniac who steals for the thrill of it. Specializing in uncut diamonds, Rina amasses quite a collection before detectives Lavassor (Grant Mitchell) and Kleinsibler (Eugene Pallette) catch up with her. Using the scent of Rina's perfume as their Read More

Without Regret

Synopsis: In this melodramatic adventure, a young woman is abducted by Chinese bandits. One of them is a free-lance pilot in need of quick money. He immediately falls for the hostage and jilts his own girl friend. He begins protecting the victim from her lust-filled captors. The two end up married. Years Read More

Menace

Actors: Gertrude Michael, Paul Cavanagh, Henrietta Crosman, John Lodge

Synopsis: Not to be confused with Universal's 1932 The Menace, Paramount's 1934 Menace does however included a "revenge" motif similar to the plotline of the earlier film. A mental patient, who has sworn vengeance on the wealthy British family he holds responsible for his brother's death, escapes on a dark Read More

Tarzan and His Mate

Actors: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Paul Cavanagh, Forrester Harvey

Synopsis: Most Tarzan enthusiasts consider 1934's Tarzan and His Mate to be the best of the Johnny Weissmuller-Maureen O'Sullivan Tarzan efforts. Certainly it is the sexiest, with Weissmuller and especially O'Sullivan wearing next to nothing for most of the film's running time. Picking up where 1932's Tarzan the Ape Man Read More

Uncertain Lady

Actors: Edward Everett Horton, Genevieve Tobin, Renée Gadd, Paul Cavanagh, Mary Nash

Synopsis: Female executive Doris (Genevieve Tobin) is hardly "uncertain" in the business world, but she's not so secure in her home life. In fact, it looks as though Doris will lose her husband Bruce (Paul Cavanaugh) to the scheming Myra. To avoid this, she hires Elliot (Edward Everett Horton) as a Read More

Shoot the Works

Actors: Jack Oakie, Ben Bernie, Dorothy Dell, Arline Judge, Alison Skipworth

Synopsis: The Ben Hecht-Gene Fowler Broadway flop The Great Magoo formed the basis of the 1934 Paramount comedy Shoot the Works. Jack Oakie stars as seedy sideshow barker Nicky, who uses everyone he meets to get ahead. Nicky isn't even above exploiting his singing sweetheart Lily (Dorothy Dell) to suit his Read More

The Notorious Sophie Lang

Actors: Gertrude Michael, Paul Cavanagh, Arthur Byron, Alison Skipworth, Leon Errol

Synopsis: Glamorous American jewel-thief Sophie Lang (Gertrude Michael) not only regularly outwits Scotland Yard, but has great fun doing it. Returning to the U.S., Sophie comes under the scrutiny of New York detective Inspector Parr (Arthur Byron), who surprisingly doesn't try to make an arrest. That's Read More

Curtain at Eight

Actors: Dorothy Mackaill, C. Aubrey Smith, Paul Cavanagh, Sam Hardy, Marion Shilling

Synopsis: Before its absorption into the newly-formed 20th Century-Fox corporation in 1935, feisty little Majestic Pictures turned out quite a few impressive "B-plus" productions. One of the best and best-received was the "locked door" murder mystery, Curtain at Eight. Most of the action takes place at a Read More

Tonight Is Ours

Actors: Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, Alison Skipworth, Paul Cavanagh, Arthur Byron

The Kennel Murder Case

Actors: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette, Ralph Morgan, Helen Vinson

Synopsis: Often (and accurately) described as a model of the whodunit genre, The Kennel Murder Case stars William Powell, making his fourth screen appearance as S. S. Van Dine's dilettante detective Philo Vance. This time the story involves intrigue at the Long Island kennel club. The murder victim is Robert H. Barrat Read More

Sin of Nora Moran

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

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

A Bill of Divorcement

Actors: John Barrymore, Billie Burke, Katharine Hepburn, David Manners, Bramwell Fletcher

Synopsis: Katharine Hepburn made her auspicious film debut in the otherwise undistinguished A Bill of Divorcement. Based on a play by Clemence Dane, the film is set on the day that Hepburn's mother, Billie Burke, is to divorce her insane and long-institutionalized husband John Barrymore. But Barrymore Read More

The Crash

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, Paul Cavanagh, Barbara Leonard, Henry Kolker

Synopsis: In this drama, set in 1929 when the stock market crashed, a selfish, money-grubbing wife ruins her husband, an accountant after she feeds him a fake stock market tip. Prior to that, she had been having an affair with a wealthy fellow. She destroys her husband because she is bored with her lover Read More

Always Goodbye

Actors: Elissa Landi, Paul Cavanagh, John Garrick, Frederick Kerr

Synopsis: Always Goodbye was credited to two directors: Kenneth MacKenna told the actors where to move and when to speak, while William Cameron Menzies concerned himself with the overall production design. Elissa Landi plays Lila, who has been jilted by practically every man she has ever met. Middle-aged Read More

Devil's Lottery

Actors: Elissa Landi, Victor McLaglen, Alexander Kirkland, Paul Cavanagh, Ralph Morgan

Synopsis: The Calcutta Sweepstakes is the unifying factor of The Devil's Lottery. Among the winners of the sweepstakes are Evelyn (Elissa Landi), the mistress of suave cardsharp Major Hugo Beresford (Paul Cavanaugh), and roughneck ex-boxer Lem Meech (Victor McLaglen), whose mother (Beryl Mercer) insists Read More

The Menace

Heartbreak

Actors: Charles Farrell, Madge Evans, Hardie Albright, Paul Cavanagh, John Arledge

Synopsis: This drama, set in Vienna during WW I, a soldier endures ostracism from his commanding officers after he travels over enemy lines to see his girl and tell her that he is deeply sorry to have killed her brother during an aerial dogfight. At first she kicks him out, but then invites him back in. Read More

Born to Love

Actors: Constance Bennett, Joel McCrea, Paul Cavanagh, Frederick Kerr, Anthony Bushell

Synopsis: A WWI American nurse stationed in London (Constance Bennett) meets a handsome flier and finds only sorrow in this three-hanky melodrama. She gets pregnant; then the flier disappears during a mission and she must bear her child alone. Time passes and eventually, she reluctantly agrees to marry a Read More

Transgression

Actors: Kay Francis, Ricardo Cortez, Paul Cavanagh, Nance O'Neil

Synopsis: In this drama, a bored wife amuses herself with a lover from Spain. Later she writes a letter to her spouse explaining her actions. As she posts the letter, she learn that her lover is also involved with a peasant girl. Later the girl's irate father shoots the Spaniard and the wife decides to mend Read More

The Squaw Man

Actors: Paul Cavanagh, Lupe Velez, Eleanor Boardman, Roland Young

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's third remake of his debut film, this was the first sound version of Edwin Milton Royle's stage western melodrama. The story centers on a British captain who heads into the American West after taking the blame for his embezzling, blue-blooded cousin to protect the reputation of Read More

Unfaithful

Actors: Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Paul Cavanagh, Julie Compton, Donald Cook

Synopsis: A socially prominent wife must choose between avoiding scandal and her own happiness in this British drama. According to social convention, the wife is expected to gracefully ignore her husband's constant philandering, and under no circumstances can she get a divorce. But her husband's actions are Read More

Strictly Unconventional

Actors: Catherine Dale Owen, Paul Cavanagh, Tyrell Davis, Ernest Torrence

Synopsis: Strictly Unconventional offers two subplots united by irony. British wife Elizabeth (Catherine Dale Owen), weary of her much older M.P. husband Clive (Lewis Stone), dreams of running off with her handsome Canadian lover Ted (Paul Cavanaugh). Hoping to vicariously experience her fantasy, Elizabeth Read More

Grumpy

Actors: Cyril Maude, Phillips Holmes, Paul Cavanagh, Frances Dade, Halliwell Hobbes

Synopsis: George Cukor received his first film directorial credit for Grumpy, though he was contractually bound to share billing with Broadway director Cyril Gardner. Cyril Maude recreates his stage role as a cranky retired lawyer with the requisite 14-carat heart. The lawyer's daughter (Frances Dade) has a Read More

The Storm

Actors: Lupe Velez, Paul Cavanagh, William "Stage" Boyd, Alphonse Ethier, Ernie S. Adams

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1916 and 1922, Langdon McCormick's theatrical chestnut Men Without Skirts was pulled out of mothballs for a third time in 1930, this time rechristened The Storm. Lupe Velez stars as Nanette, the daughter of French-Canadian smuggler Jacques Farchard (Alphonse Ethier). Concerned Read More

The Devil to Pay

Actors: Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, Florence Britton, Frederick Kerr, David Torrence

Synopsis: Ronald Colman plays the "black sheep" of a wealthy British family, sent to South Africa so that he'll be as far away from home as possible. Broke again, Colman auctions off his belongings and heads for London to the less-than-open arms of his father (Frederick Kerr). He begins to dally with a Read More

The Virtuous Sin

Actors: Walter Huston, Kay Francis, Kenneth MacKenna, Jobyna Howland

Synopsis: The Virtuous Sin was adapted from The General, a novel by Lajos Zilahy. Kay Francis plays Marya, the wife of overly sensitive scientist Sabin (Kenneth MacKenna). Commissioned into the Russian army during WWI, Sabin can't cope with the rigors of military life, and as a result is condemned to death Read More

Runaway Princess

Synopsis: Princess Priscilla has been promised in matrimony to the prince of Savona, but she is not of the mind to go through with a marriage to a man she has never even met. With her professor at her side, she leaves her palace and sneaks away to London. Although relieved to have escaped an unhappy fate Read More

Tesha

Actors: María Corda, Jameson Thomas, Paul Cavanagh

Synopsis: In this drama, a Russian dancer marries a shell-shocked WW I veteran. She has a baby, but it belongs to the fellow's best friend. The story was adapted from a popular 1920s novel by Countess Barcynska. The film was originally made as a silent. Later a soundtrack was added. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Read More