Richard Cromwell Movies

In this detective drama, a gumshoe must find a priceless hunk of jade. His several leads evaporate when the police succeed in killing all of the suspects. Angered, the dick relaxes in a motel room and ponders the remaining clues, not realizing until it is almost too late that the biggest clue is right under his nose. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This homey little comedy is predicated on the notion that bucolic country boy Morgan (Richard Cromwell) is the son of a notorious Roaring-Twenties racketeer. Morgan Senior's former gang, pining for their glory days, appoint "Baby Face" Morgan as their leader and resume their criminal activities. Their strategy is sublime: with the FBI busily beating the bushes for Nazi spies, who's going to pay attention to a bunch of middle-aged Prohibition gangsters? Unaware that he's being used as a figurehead, Morgan gets mixed up in a crooked insurance scheme, but by film's end he's figured out a way to clear himself and the mob, with everyone learning a lesson in the process. Reviewers in 1942 were amused by Baby Face Morgan but deplored its threadbare production values, noting that at one point the klieg lights could be seen reflecting on the bald dome of supporting player Vince Barnett! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Like Prohibition, Franklin-Blank Productions' The Villain Still Pursued Her is best regarded as a "noble experiment". Using the hoary old stage melodrama The Drunkard: or, the Fallen Saved as its inspiration, the film is a contemptous send-up of all such Victorian mellers, its "serious" moments deliberately and broadly played for laughs. The tone is set at the beginning of the film, with master of ceremonies Billy Gilbert exhorting the audience to "applaud the noble characters and hiss the villain" (at some showings, it was the other way around). Richard Cromwell plays Edward, a stalwart young man who succumbs to the temptations of Demon Rum through the evil machinations of top-hatted villain Squire Cribbs (Alan Mowbray). It is Cribbs' desire to have heroine Mary (Anita Louise), Edward's long-suffering spouse, in his clutches, but the villain is (curses!) foiled by "philanthropist-reformer" Healy (Hugh Herbert). No opportunity to wring laughs from the audience is overlooked; there's even a pie-throwing sequence, which figured not at all into the original play. The result is more silly than funny, with everyone trying way too hard. Still, there are some prize moments, many of them provided by Buster Keaton in the sizeable role of the hero's best friend; whenever Keaton pauses to deliver an aside to the audience, he must first wait patiently while several disinterested passers-by parade before the camera. Best bit: the "love at first sight" meeting between hero Cromwell and heroine Louise, beginning with intercut long shots of the couple and ending with tight, bloodshot closeups of the actors' eyes! A flop when first released, The Villain Still Pursued Her has since found its audience on the public domain video circuit. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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 crucial moment and justice is served. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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 film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Original Screenplay" for its screenwriter Lamar Trotti. Henry Fonda perhaps the most American of actors, is at his best playing Lincoln as the quintessential, compassionate American hero. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

In this drama, a young man must choose between a military career or a career in professional football. The story opens as the young man has just graduated from Annapolis. There he had been a football star and a second lieutenant. His father the colonel wants him to stay in the Marines, but he has also been offered a contract with a pro-football team. He finally makes his decision after he exposes a ring of gun runners. It is then that he decides that serving his country is most important. He joins Leathernecks. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this crime drama, a young couple decides to rob the bank where the woman works as a teller. They get 100,000 dollars and hide it in a music box. Unfortunately, they are caught and sentenced to prison. Upon their release, the two hope that the money will still be in the little box, which they left with an antique dealer. Unfortunately, the dealer died and they must frantically scramble to find the missing fortune. In the end, they do find it, but decide to turn it in to the authorities and go straight. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A handful of German soldiers readjust to civilian life in the bitter wake of World War I in this follow-up to the classic All Quiet On The Western Front, which like the first film was based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque. After the signing of the armistice, Capt. Von Hagen (John Emery) dismisses what is left of his troops, who march home to an uncertain future. Tjaden (Slim Summerville) finds himself helping to fend off rioters demanding food from a shop owned by the town's mayor (Etienne Girardot); the grateful mayor in turn offers Tjaden his daughter's hand in marriage. Weil (Larry Blake) becomes a political activist and finds himself acting as a spokesman for another group of citizens demanding precious food; this time, Weil is shot by troops led by his former commander, Capt. Von Hagen. Willy (Andy Devine) visits his former schoolteacher, who presents him with an ironic gift -- a toy gun he took away from Willy when he was a boy. And Albert (Maurice Murphy) comes home to discover his fiancée has wed another man, a man who avoided the war but found ways to profit from it at home. In a fit of rage, Albert kills the man, and finds himself on trial for his life. Combining a strong anti-war message with prescient warnings about the dangers of the rising Nazi regime, The Road Back was intended to be a powerful and controversial picture, and Universal entrusted it to their finest director, James Whale. However, by the time shooting was completed, new management had taken over the studio, and Nazi officials began applying pressure to Universal (as well as members of the film's cast) to delete the material critical of the Nazis, threatening to scuttle European distribution of future Universal product if their demands were not met. Universal bowed to their wishes, and the film was partially reshot with another director, and the remainder extensively re-edited, leaving the final product a pale shadow of what Whale had originally intended. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Based on a barnstorming stage play by Gus Hill, McFadden's Flat seemed charmingly anachronistic in the mid-1935s. Walter C. Kelly, the "Virginia Judge" of vaudeville fame, adopts a molasses-thick Irish brogue as Dan McFadden, philosophical small-town bricklayer. McFadden spends most of his time quarrelling with his friendly enemy, Scottish barber Jock McTavish (Andy Clyde), but that doesn't stop Dan's daughter Molly (Betty Furness) and Jock's son Sandy (Richard Cromwell) from falling in love. The story goes off on several tangents, both touching (the tight-fisted Jock secretly helps Dan out of his financial woes) and dramatic (Molly grows ashamed of her parents after attending a hoity-toity finishing school). Hardly a memorable film, McFadden's Flats affords modern viewers a rare opportunity of seeing one of vaudeville's greatest monologists in action. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Richard Cromwell stars in Columbia's Men of the Hour as dedicated newsreel cameraman Dave Durkin. When Dave and his shutterbug pal Andy Blane (Wallace Ford) have a falling out over gorgeous Ann Jordan (Billie Seward), Andy retaliates by arranging a frame that will get Dave fired. Disgraced and blacklisted, Dave gets back into the good graces of the newsreel company when he films the assassination of a foreign potentate. The story is for all intents and purposes over at this point, but Columbia decided to "hypo" the last reel by throwing a chase between Dave and the assassins. Appropriately, most of the action highlights in Men of the Hour were culled from stock newsreel footage. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Unknown Woman is Helen Griffith (Marian Marsh), who unbeknownst to everyone but the audience is a Federal agent. Young attorney Larry Condon (Richard Cromwell) falls for Helen, but keeps his distance because he thinks she's in allegiance with a gang of bond thieves. When Larry and Helen fall into the clutches of the villains, salvation comes from an unexpected source: fish peddler Joe Scalise (Henry Armetta), who up to this point has been the film's comedy relief. Douglass Dumbrille is so obviously the villain of the piece that one wonders why he isn't wearing a handlebar mustache and top hat. Unknown Woman was written by W. Scott Darling, whose apparent fascination with gangsters would later permit his Laurel & Hardy screenplays at 20th Century-Fox. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on a story by Zona Gale, When Strangers Meet concentrates on a small, interrelated community separated down the middle by a narrow path. The bungalow-dwelling residents on one side of the path consider their neighbors to be "beneath" them, and vice versa. Tensions come to a boil when a double murder is committed, with accusations flying back and forth. The solution to the crime comes about when a much-abused housewife (Sarah Padden) finally rebels against her tyrannical husband (played by the ever-hissable Charles Middleton). A good cast, headed by Richard Cromwell and Arline Judge, helps lift this independently-produced drama well above the "B"-picture norm. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Few studios ground out as many aviation melodramas as Columbia. In Above the Clouds, Robert Armstrong stars as Scoop Adams, an ace newsreel cameraman whose love affair with the bottle all but destroys him professionally. Scoop manages to get his photographer pal Dick (Richard Cromwell) fired as well, but he promises to restore Dick's reputation, some way or another. He gets his chance while covering a dirigible wreck (some three years before the Hindenburg), saving the day for both Dick and himself. The outcome of the plot hinges on a telephoto lens, a relatively new device in 1934. Dorothy Wilson hangs around in the obligatory but hardly necessary role of the love interest. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi