Edward Gargan Movies

The best of Universal-International's followups to Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man casts Bud and Lou as mail-order private eyes. The boys champion the cause of boxer Arthur Franz, who has been framed for murder. Utilizing the formula created by Claude Rains in the original Invisible Man (1933), Franz vanishes before Dr. Gavin Muir's astonished eyes. Cloaked by invisibility, Franz talks Bud and Lou into helping him nab the real murderer, gangster Sheldon Leonard. A string of uproarious gags and comic setpieces is highlighted by a boxing-ring finale, wherein Lou, backed up by the invisible Franz, dukes it out with a behemoth prizefighter. A clever special-effects closing gag caps this delightful A&C vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Forget what you've been led to believe: Bedtime for Bonzo is a most enjoyable film, and Ronald Reagan is not outacted by the chimpanzee. Reagan is cast as psychology professor whose reputation is sullied by the fact that his father was a convict. To prove that environment rather than heredity dictates a man's personality, Reagan uses Bonzo the chimp to test out his theories. The hairy little guy seems to be responding to the kindnesses lavished upon him--and then he is accused of robbery. Reagan nearly goes to jail in Bonzo's stead, but everything turns out all right in the end (we're not giving anything away; after all, everybody knows that there was a Bonzo Goes to College in 1952). While it's an uphill climb, Ronald Reagan and his able costars Diana Lynn and Walter Slezak manage to keep Bonzo from running away with the picture. And yes, director Fred DeCordova is the same guy who produced Johnny Carson's late-night show in the 1980s and 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No good deed goes unpunished in the "Bowery Boys" entry Triple Trouble. When Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall) and the rest of the Bowery Boys attempt to stop a robbery, it is they who wind up in prison. Once behind bars, the boys learn of an escape plan, but when they try to relay this information to the warden, they're threatened with solitary confinement. And when Slip and Sach try to sabotage a short-wave radio that is being used by one of the prisoners to orchestrate burglaries on the outside, our two heroes are thrown into solitary. Even poor sweet-shop owner Louie (Bernard Gorcey) is not spared; running into the street and calling for help after being robbed, Louie is told by the beat cop that he risks arrest for disturbing the peace! Amazingly, the Bowery Boys manage to survive all these knocks and bring the film's genuine bad guys to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical, an ambitious young singer and her band leave their small hometown to head for the Big Apple in hopes of finding fame and fortune. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Infused with religious themes, this crime drama is considered a minor example of film noir. Set in Los Angeles, it tells the grim story of vengeful embezzler Nick Cherney, who plots murderous revenge after he is fired from Johnny Torno's freight company. He gets it by killing Johnny's brother Jess, a chaplain who has just returned from the war. Johnny arrives at the hotel room of his brother Jess and finds him dying. Just before Jess expires he tells Johnny that the identity of his killer can be found in his Bible. Though every hotel room has a Bible, the one belonging in his brother's is missing. Though his girl friend, the priest and the police warn against a private investigation, Johnny ignores their advice and goes looking for that Good Book. His girl friend goes along with him. Before they go, they leave Warni Hazard in charge of the freight company. Nick Cherney shows up and takes off after Hazard who flees until finding safety beneath the tires of an enormous trailer. Nick sees him cowering there and in the film's most shocking sequence, coolly kicks one of the jacks holding up the trailer and while Hazard is crushed, Nick calmly takes a drag on his cigarette. Meanwhile, Johnny and his gal finally find the Bible and see that Jess had underlined a couple of verses that seem to suggest that Johnny leave the matter of revenge in God's hands. Johnny pays no heed to the message until the story's grim climax. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hot on the heels of Columbia's The Fuller Brush Man, MGM released another Red Skelton gagfest, A Southern Yankee. Set during the Civil War, the film casts Skelton as bumbling bellboy Aubrey Filmore. Yearning to help the Northern cause by becoming an undercover spy, Aubrey succeeds beyond his wildest dreams when circumstances force him to pose as notorious Southern secret agent Major Drumman (George Coulouris), aka "The Grey Spider". Infiltrating rebel territory, our hero does his best (which is none too good) to intercept the Grey Spider's messages and smuggle them to the North. Along the way, he falls in love with pert Southern belle Sallyann Weatherby (Arlene Dahl). Many of the side-splitting gag routines were devised by Buster Keaton, notably the now-famous scene in which Aubrey gingerly walks across the battlefield between Northern and Southern lines carrying a two-sided flag -- the Northern Stars and Stripes on one side, the Southern Stars and Bars on the other -- a strategy that works until the wind suddenly changes! Though Edward Sedgwick is credited with the direction, Red Skelton later revealed that A Southern Yankee was actually directed by S. Sylvan Simon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The beauteous blonde Wilde Twins -- Lynn and Lee -- star in the Republic musical programmer Campus Honeymoon. Richard Crane and Hal Hackett co-star as a pair of GIs who offer to pose as the sisters' husbands so as to qualify for a couple of bungalows in a Veterans' housing project. The relationship is supposed to be platonic, of course, but it doesn't remain that way for long. The laughs really begin to roll in when the ersatz honeymooners are obliged to produce their marriage licenses. Republic contractee Adele Mara contributes a zesty performance as a former WAC sergeant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wildcatters in search of a gusher during the late 1920s provide the basis of this comedy-drama that centers on a rambunctious trio of men. When not drinking and fighting, the three are enthusiastically drilling for black gold. The trouble begins when one of the wildcatters grows dissatisfied with their lifestyle and quits so he can be with his new wife. Unfortunately for him, soon after he leaves, the other two find their gusher and become filthy rich. The impoverished quitter, is envious and begins looking for an obscure law that will force his pals to share. His wife is disgusted by his greed and takes off until he settles down. In the end, the fellow does come around and ends up helping another hopeful group of independent drillers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this courtroom drama, two opposing lawyers lead a double life. In the courtroom they are ruthless toward each other, but once the day is over they become passionate lovers. Unfortunately their newest case may well threaten their relationship as the defense attorney is defending a corrupt district attorney who happens to be her ex-husband. The prosecutor knows nothing of their past relationship; all he knows is he wants to nail the crook and his cronies to the wall. Unfortunately, the truth comes out in court and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Daredevils in the Clouds was one of Republic's several attempts to transform former cowboy star Robert Livingston into a non-cowboy leading man. With customers and creditors breathing down his neck, Terry O'Rourke (Livingston), the head of Polar Airways, does his best to bring his planes in on time. Johnny Martin (James Cardwell), top man at Trans-Global Airlines, covets O'Rourke's business, and will do anything-even commit murder-to gobble up Polar's clientele. Mae Clarke, who hadn't had a leading role in years, is quietly effective as Kay Cameron, a grounded aviatrix who carries a torch for her boss O'Rourke. The film is distinguished by the excellent miniature and special-effects work of the Lydecker Brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bearing little relation to the 1946 MGM production Gallant Bess, The Adventures of Gallant Bess is a heartwarming low-budgeter from Eagle-Lion. Cameron Mitchell tops the cast as itinerant rodeo rider Ted Daniels, whose best "friend" is his trained horse Gallant Bess. When Ted falls in love with pretty Peggy Gray (Audrey Long), he is forced to choose between the girl and the horse. This being a formula picture, he manages to end up with both. Fuzzy Knight provides gentle comedy relief, while Gallant Bess herself steals every scene she's in, as animal stars are wont to do. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Saddle Pals hits a new low for Gene Autry's postwar Republic westerns, containing literally no action at all. Autry is drawn into the plot when he's given power of attorney in a property settlement involving his old pal (Sterling Holloway) and a gang of land swindlers. The pal then goes on an extended vacation, leaving Autry to sort things out. Though he doesn't display the business acumen that would eventually transform him into a real-life billionaire, Autry does manage to figure out that the swindlers are up to something dishonest. One of the more curious aspects of the film is the casting of traditional comedy-relief actor Sterling Holloway as the plot catalyst; he looks almost as uncomfortable as Autry. Fortunately, Autry's movie career would take an upswing the following year when he switched his base of operations from Republic to Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It Happened On Fifth Avenue was easily the most ambitious movie made by the then-newly-organized Allied Artists for at least a decade after its release -- actually, as a "Roy Del Ruth Production," it was made through rather than by Allied Artists, which may explain why it stands so far apart from the Bowery Boys movies and other productions normally associated with Allied during this period. And amazingly, it works, mostly thanks to a genial cast and a reasonably light touch by director/producer Roy Del Ruth, and in spite of a script that needed at least one more editorial pass. Victor Moore is the star and dominant personality -- if there is one in what is, basically, an ensemble cast -- as Aloyisius T. McKeever, a genial hobo whose annual routine for finding winter quarters is to wait for multi-millionaire Michael O'Connor (Charlie Ruggles) to lock up his Fifth Avenue mansion and head to Virginia, and move in during the man's absence. He chances to meet Jim Bullock, a homeless WWII veteran (displaced, ironically, by one of O'Connor's development projects), and gives him shelter in the mansion. They become a trio when O'Connor's free-spirited daughter Trudy (Gale Storm) shows up, fleeing her finishing school, and the two men -- thinking she's an impoverished runaway from an abusive father -- take her in. She goes along with the masquerade and gradually falls in love with Jim, who also chances to meet two former army buddies (Alan Hale, Jr., Edward Ryan) who -- you guessed it -- are also desperately trying to find homes, in their cases for their wives and growing families. Now there are nine people living in the shelter of O'Connor's Fifth Avenue mansion, and in between setting up housekeeping, Jim and his two buddies manage to come up with an idea about how to build homes for veterans and their families. Trudy, her identity still a secret to the other, gets her father to meet the "squatters" incognito, in hope that he'll take to Jim, but a series of misunderstandings and his own impatience and lack-of-faith leads him to reject everything decent he sees about Trudy's friends. In desperation, to keep them from being evicted and arrested, she calls in reinforcements in the person of her mother (Ann Harding), long estranged from her father. O'Connor is still not convinced of Jim's worth, and definitely doesn't see him as a potential husband for Trudy -- and, in a comic mix-up, he ends up going head-to-head with Jim for the property where he plans to build those houses for veterans, causing them to lock horns once more. Matters do eventually fall into place, as they usually do in Christmas movies of this sort, which more closely resembles The Bells of St. Mary's or One More Spring -- to name another movie about displaced New Yorkers -- than It's A Wonderful Life (with which it is usually compared). It Happened On Fifth Avenue is usually defined as a Christmas movie, in part because of its plot time-line, but more than that, it's a movie that, like George Seaton's Miracle On 34th Street -- made the same year -- sings of the generosity of the human spirit, and the feeling of renewal that was in the air in the immediate post-World War II era, a funny, gentle, warm look at people making their way in a time when, for the first time since the Great Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War, cautious optimism seemed an appropriate approach to life. And not for nothing was this reportedly lead actor Don Defore's personal favorite of all of his movies. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide