Michael Heppell Movies

Hoping to build up contract players Charles Quigley and Rita Hayworth into a viable screen team, Columbia Pictures rushed the actors from one "B" production to another. Convicted tells the story of a diligent detective named Burns (Quigley) who is forced to arrest Chick Wheeler (Edgar Edwards), brother of Burns' sweetheart Jerry Wheeler (Hayworth), for murder. The more he thinks about it, the more Burns is convinced that Chick is innocent. With Jerry's help, Burns tracks down the genuine miscreant in the nightclub where the heroine works. Supporting player Edgar Edwards also adapted the screenplay of Convicted from a story by suspense master Cornell Woolrich. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Stampede was the first of western star Charles Starrett's "northerns," filmed through the facilities of Columbia's Canadian studios in Victoria B.C. Based on a story by Peter B. Kyne, the film cast Starrett as Larry, a cattle buyer who crosses the Canadian border to purchase new stock. He quickly runs afoul of a gang of rustlers, who cap their many misdeeds by murdering Larry's brother. Suddenly, our hero becomes a one-man police force, refusing to rest until every last one of the villains has been brought to justice. Stampede was written and directed by Ford Beebe -- evidently not to the satisfaction of Columbia's executives, who replaced Beebe with David Selman for Starrett's next Canadian production Secret Patrol. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi