Glenda Farrell, often cast as a wise-cracking gold digger, found a fitting role as clever reporter Torchy Blane in Smart Blonde, the first of a series of nine pictures from Warner Brothers (Farrell played the role in seven of them). In this initial outing, she is right on the scene when a fellow buying a …
The Walking Dead (WB, 1936)
A man (Boris Karloff) is framed for murder by gangsters and then executed, but he is brought back to life through the efforts of a scientist (Edmund Gwenn) who seeks to learn what the man experienced while dead. The revivified fellow confronts those responsible for his demise, with fatal results. Solid performances (including Ricardo Cortez …
Private Detective 62 (WB, 1933)
A former government agent (William Powell), down and out, takes a job with a sleazy detective agency, but he balks when called upon to frame a society woman with a penchant for gambling (Margaret Lindsay). Powell’s suave charm is the principal reason to watch this movie, which is long on drama and romance and rather …
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The Tenderfoot (WB, 1932)
A cowboy comes to the big city to turn his cash into more wealth, and he becomes the target of unscrupulous Broadway producers. Fortunately, he has their secretary looking out for him, but will the two be able to make for a successful show … particularly when the other partners want out and a gang …
Somewhere in Sonora (WB, 1933)
John Bishop (John Wayne), wrongfully accused of cheating in a stagecoach race and causing injury to his rival, is backed by his boss (Henry B. Walthall), whose own son was accused of a crime and ended up in the gang of Monte Black (J. P. McGowan), down in Sonora. John heads across the border to …
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The Smiling Ghost (WB, 1941)
Heiress Elinor Bentley Fairchild (Alexis Smith) has a problem: her fiancés encounter terrible fates, either dying or ending up crippled. Her desperate grandmother (Helen Westley) turns to a newspaper ad in an effort to attract another potential groom to serve as bait to break the apparent curse, and Lucky Downing (Wayne Morris), who doesn’t know …
Girl Missing (WB, 1933)
Kay Curtis (Glenda Farrell) and June Dale (Mary Brian) are two golddiggers left stranded in Florida when their mark (Guy Kibbee) gets wise that he’s not going to get any action. When a former fellow performer marries a millionaire (Ben Lyon) but disappears, perhaps kidnapped, on their wedding night, while a local gambler (Harold Huber) …
The Telegraph Trail (WB, 1933)
A businessman (Albert J. Smith) who controls shipments to an isolated town foments Indian raids to prevent the completion of the telegraph line that will mean the end to his monopoly. John Trent (John Wayne) and his sidekick (Frank McHugh) are sent to investigate after a partial message describing an attack is received. What follows …
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Ride Him, Cowboy (WB, 1932)
A young John Wayne heads the cast in this western as John Drury, a cowboy who seeks to defend a boisterous horse, Duke, against a charge of murder. To clear the horse, Drury goes after the criminal known as the Hawk, who is behind a series of crimes in the area. But when Drury is …
Haunted Gold (WB, 1932)
A young rancher (John Wayne) who has inherited a half-interest in a mine, a girl (Sheila Terry) whose father lost his half-interest to a crook, and a gang led by the man who has that half-interest now all come to a ghost town in response to mysterious letters. Creepy doings follow, including mysterious figures skulking …