Patricia Caron Movies

In this western, Gene Autry plays a cowboy with a heart as big as Texas who heads for the city to try to raise money so that a crippled little girl can get the operation she needs to walk again. First he talks a coffee company into being his sponsor. They opt to broadcast their performance on television, which had only recently been invented. Just as the performance is aired, there is trouble back at the ranch and the little girl finds herself trapped in a runaway wagon. Fortunately, the ranch hands rally to her rescue. Back in the city, the performance is a success and the girl is healed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Carnival barker Spencer Tracy befriends elderly concessionaire Henry B. Walthall, who owns a picturesque but stodgy display depicting Dante's Inferno. Walthall is more interested in the spiritual aspects of Man's fascination with Hell, but Tracy uses hoopla and exaggeration to get the suckers into the Inferno. His interest isn't altruistic; Tracy is enamored of Walthall's niece, Claire Trevor. Through his publicity savvy, Tracy builds the Inferno into a major attraction, complete with full orchestra and scantily clad "devil girls". He also buys up the rest of the carnival, using cold-blooded tactics that result in the suicide of a fellow concessionaire. Within five years, Tracy is a millionaire tycoon of the Entertainment industry. While loved by his wife (Trevor) and son (Scotty Beckett), Tracy conducts his business ruthlessly, bribing a city official to look the other way regarding structural defects in his Inferno display. When this duplicity results in a disastrous accident at the exhibit, the bribed official kills himself. Tracy is exonerated thanks to legal chicanery, but his wife is fed up; she walks out on him, taking their son along. Injured in the accident, Inferno creator H. B. Walthall warns Tracy of the pitfalls of success, using an illustrated edition of Dante to make his point. For nearly ten minutes, the movie audience is treated to a lavish depiction of Hell, magnificently photographed by Rudolph Mate. When the plot resumes, Tracy is on hand for his latest venture, a sumptuous gambling ship. Thanks to the drunken negligence of the crew, the ship catches fire, and it is only upon learning that his son has sneaked aboard that Tracy realizes the consequences of his greed. Tracy labors heroically to rescue the passengers--and, incidentally, to atone for his past sins. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

New York-born Tom Tyler, one of the late silent era's more realistic screen cowboys., exposes a counterfeit ring run by his ranch foreman (Albert J. Smith) in this average oater that also includes a thrilling transfer from horse to automobile. Tyler was good-looking and stalwart, and although his western stardom never reached the heights of, say, a John Wayne or even a Gene Autry (Tyler was certainly more acceptable than Autry!), Tom Tyler continued to star in above-average oaters in the sound era until a crippling bone disease forced his retirement.
. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Shoe clerk Andy Whittaker (George Lewis) decides to quit his job when a bank unexpectedly extends him $10,000 in credit. This windfall was arranged by Andy's uncle, who wants to see how the boy will behave with his newly-found riches. Alas, our hero inadvertently manages to offend the uncle several times, whereupon the latter tries to withdraw the boy's credit. By this time, however, Andy has invested his money in a shoe store, thus Uncle is legally prevented from doing anything for three months. The rest of the film details Andy's efforts to turn his store into a success before his uncle is able to call in his loan -- and, of course, occasionally pauses for a romantic interlude between Andy and heroine June Allen (Marion Nixon). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi