Duke Green Movies

The fate of wealthy Jamie Dawn (Marilyn Simms) hangs in the balance as she stands trial for murder. Defense attorney Random (Richard Carlson), who also happens to be Jamie's lover, knows that if he can sway three jurors to vote not guilty, he can win the case. Thus, Random endeavors to bribe the three most likely candidates: Czechoslovakian refugee Karek (Eduard Franz), who needs the money to finance his son's escape from Eastern Europe; ex-actress Lorrie (June Havoc), who has for years been trying to bankroll a comeback; and Tom (Ricardo Montalban), whose marriage to Sue (Laraine Day) may disintegrate if he doesn't come up with some money in a hurry. The outcome of the film is something of a letdown, given its engaging premise. Also starring in Three for Jamie Dawn is Regis Toomey, with whom director Thomas Carr would be reunited on the TV series Richard Diamond. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A dude ranch, unemployed cowhands, modern-day bank robbers, and music are the main ingredients in this, Gene Autry's swan song for Republic Pictures, lovingly restored by UCLA and Gene Autry Entertainment in 2001. Swindled out of their savings, Gene and the Cass County Boys mistakenly get mixed up in a bank robbery. The local police chief (James Flavin) let them go, however, hoping the hicks will lead him to the stolen 100,000 dollars. And so they do, right to a dude ranch in the none-too-quiet town of Serenity. With Sterling Holloway supplying the comic relief as a vacationing hypochondriac, Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys perform Autry's own "The Merry-Go-Roundup" and "Good Old-Fashioned Hoedown"; "Goin' Back to Texas" by Carson J. Robison; and "You're the Moment of a Lifetime" by Sergio de Karlo and Kay Charles (in both Spanish and English). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Popular latter-day serial queen Linda Stirling starred in the title role in this well-made 12 chapter serial produced by genre specialist Republic Pictures. Stirling plays Barbara Mededith, a pretty girl who takes over her murdered brother's crusading newspaper. She also assumes the dead sibling's identity as "The Black Whip," righting the wrongs of Crescent City very much in the manner of her famous ancestor, Zorro. Off course, "being a mere woman," Barbara needs the assistance of a stalwart young man, in this case Vic Gordon (George J. Lewis), a government secret agent. Arguably the most popular serial heroine since the days of Pearl White, Linda Stirling's other top-billed serial role was as The Tiger Woman (1944). The choice of Lewis as Stirling's male lead was surprising; the Mexican-born Lewis, although handsome enough and a veteran of Universal's popular "Collegians" 2-reelers, had recently played mostly villains. Produced by Ronald Davidson, Zorro's Black Whip benefitted from second unit direction by stunt-man extraordinaire Yakima Canutt and special effects by the famed Theodore Lydecker. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The most obvious discrepancies concerning this otherwise well-remembered cliffhanger from genre specialist Republic Pictures are the quite demure-looking leopard outfit worn by the serial's heroine, Linda Stirling, and that Darkest Africa looks suspiciously like the hills of suburban Chatsworth. Apparently, producer William J. O'Connell acquired the leopard costume on the cheap but too late for the title to be changed, and the location never really mattered to Republic's mostly juvenile target audience. Making her serial debut, Stirling's innate athleticism came in handy playing Kay Arnold, an heiress turned Jungle Goddess who helps oil company representative Allan Lane fight off a villainous competitor headed by unscrupulous attorney Fletcher Walton (LeRoy Mason) and his henchman, general store proprietor Tom Daggett (Crane Whitley). The remaining 11 chapters had either Stirling rescuing Lane from one peril after another, or vice versa. Although not quite as independently heroic as serial queens such as Pearl White and Ruth Roland, Linda Stirling came as close as anybody, which of course was Republic's goal all along. Her sex appeal, despite the demure costume, was obvious and although this was not why she had chosen the acting profession, Linda tore into her serial assignments with legendary gusto. Ironically, the native of Long Beach, CA, had begun her career studying with Ben Bard, the widower of Ruth Roland. The serial was re-edited and released in a feature version re-titled Jungle Gold. In 1951, Republic resurrected the entire chapterplay under the title Perils of the Darkest Jungle. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Director William Witney puts his distinctive stamp on the Don "Red" Barry western Outlaws of Pine Ridge by opening the picture with a body sailing through the plate-glass window of a frontier saloon. Barry stars as gun-slingin' Chips Barrett, who makes it his mission in life to prevent the inaccurately nicknamed Honest John Hollister (Noah Beery Sr.) from becoming territorial governor. Complicating things is the fact that Chips is in love with Honest John's daughter Ann (Lynn Merrick, perennial heroine in the Republic "Red" Barry vehicles). In between a multitude of barroom brawls and shootouts, Emmett Lynn provides genuinely funny comedy relief as a desert rat named Jackpot McGraw. Outlaws of Pine Ridge got the 1942-43 season of Barry westerns off to a rousing start. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This second of three movie versions of P.C. Wren's adventure novel Beau Geste is a virtual scene-for-scene remake of the 1927 silent version. We open on the now-famous scenes of a remote, burning desert fort, manned by the dead Foreign Legionnaires, then flash back to the early lives of the Geste brothers. As children, the Gestes swear eternal loyalty to one another and to their family. One of the boys, young Beau (played as a youth by Donald O'Connor), witnesses his beloved aunt (Heather Thatcher) apparently stealing a valuable family jewel in order to finance the Geste home; Beau chooses to remain silent rather than disgrace his aunt. Years later, the grown Beau (Gary Cooper) again protects his aunt by confessing to the theft and running off to join the Foreign Legion. He is joined in uniform by faithful brothers John (Ray Milland) and Digby (Robert Preston), who in turn are pursued by a slimy thief (J. Carroll Naish). The crook is in cahoots with sadistic Legion Sgt. Markov (Brian Donlevy, in one of the most hateful portrayals ever captured on celluloid), who is later put in charge of Fort Zinderneuf, where Beau and John are stationed. When the Arabs attack, Markov proves himself a valiant soldier; it is he who hits upon the idea of convincing the Arabs that the fort is still fully manned by propping up the corpses of the casualties at the guard posts. Beau is seriously wounded, and while the greedy Markov searches for the jewel supposedly hidden on Beau's person, he is held at bay by loyal John. The suddenly enervated Beau kills Markov, then dies himself--but not before entrusting two notes to John, one of which requests that John give Beau the "Viking funeral" he'd always wanted (this is why the fort is in flames at the beginning of the film). After the battle, Digby Geste, a bugler with the relief troops, comes upon Beau's dead body, and appropriates the notes. As it turns out, John Geste is the only one who survives to return to England. He gives his aunt Beau's letter, which explains why Beau had confessed and run off--"a 'beau geste', indeed" comments his tearful aunt. No one missed nominal leading lady Susan Hayward in this essentially all-male entertainment. For years available only in muddily processed or truncated versions, Beau Geste was restored to its pristine glory by the American Film Institute in the late 1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Battling Hoofer is the reissue title of the 1936 James Cagney vehicle Something to Sing About. Cagney plays Terry Rooney, a New York bandleader who heads to Hollywood when he is offered a movie contract. The down-to-Earth Rooney resists the "star treatment," an attitude misinterpreted by movie executive Bennett O. Regan (Gene Lockhart) as arrogance. When Terry's first film is a hit, Regan orders everyone involved to keep its success a secret from Terry, lest he develop a swelled head! (We don't believe it either.) The best sequence has Rooney chewing out his Asian houseboy, Ito (Philip Ahn), whereupon he drops his "So solly" pidgin English and begins talking like a Harvard professor! Terry gets to romance newcomer Evelyn Daw, as well as veteran vamp Mona Barrie; he also gets to participate in several lively dance numbers. Something to Sing About was the second of Jimmy Cagney's films for Poverty Row studio Grand National: the production values and snappy script work that he might have enjoyed at Warner Bros. are noticeably lacking, but Cagney is always fun to watch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Buck Jones stars as Buck Laramie, an itinerant cowpoke who wanders into a wide-open frontier town. Heroine Ellen Wade (Georgia Hale) has been unsuccessful in driving liquor and gambling out of the community, but with Buck's help she finally manages to make some headway. This does not rest well with the town mayor, who's secretly in cahoots with a bootlegging gang. When the sheriff is "mysteriously" killed, Buck takes the lawman's place, trailing the villains to their hideaway (which turns out to be a mine shaft owned by the unsuspecting Ellen) and beating them to a pulp. Hills of Peril represents one of the few appearances of Georgia Hale after she was discovered by Charlie Chaplin for The Gold Rush (1925). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide