Tully Marshall Movies
Cadaverous character actor Tully Marshall attended the University of Santa Clara in the 1880s. Drifting into acting, Marshall first appeared onstage at the age of 26, turning professional shortly thereafter. He had nearly a quarter century of theatrical experience behind him when he made his first film in 1914. Like his fellow actors Charles Coburn and Donald Crisp, Marshall was one of those performers who seemed to have been born at the age of 60. Throughout the silent era, he played a vast array of drunken trail scouts, lovable grandpas, unforgiving fathers, sinister attorneys and lecherous aristocrats. In films until his death at the age of 78, one of the best of Tully Marshall's last performances was as the wheelchair-bound criminal mastermind in This Gun For Hire (1942). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideHitler's Madman is based on an all-too-real wartime atrocity. John Carradine portrays Heydrich, the vicious SS officer put in charge of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Heydrich is killed by the Czech underground, prompting the Nazis to plan a horrible retaliation. The Gestapo selects the Czech village of Lidice for annihilation: They kill all the male villagers, throw the women and children into concentration camps, and torch Lidice into nonexistence. The victims of Nazi tyranny become martyrs to the underground cause, ending the film on a note of triumph. Based on a narrative poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Hitler's Madman was produced by the "poverty row" PRC studio, but was sold to MGM and given a class-A presentation at choice theatres throughout the U.S. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Morison, John Carradine, (more)
Veteran film actor Tully Marshall makes his final appearance in PRC's Behind Prison Walls. A reworking of a familiar theme, the story finds scheming steel tycoon James J. MacGlennon (Marshall) and his high-minded lawyer son Jonathan (Alan Baxter) simultaneously ending up behind bars. While incarcerated, Jonathan tries to mend his larcenous father's ways, thereby drawing closer to his not-so-bad dad. Together, father and son scheme to legally outwit the elder MacGlennon's unscrupulous business partners. Meanwhile, Jonathan's sweetheart Elinor Cantwell (Gertrude Michael) waits patiently on the "outside". One of the better PRC efforts of its time, Behind Prison Walls is a gentle comedy with pointed sociological undertones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Baxter, Gertrude Michael, (more)
Though billed fourth in This Gun For Hire, Alan Ladd was catapulted to stardom in the role of Phillip Raven, a ruthless professional killer with a long-suppressed streak of decency. After successfully pulling off his latest murder, Raven reports to his boss, effeminate fifth columnist Willard Gates (Laird Cregar). He collects his $1000 fee, only to discover later that Gates has double-crossed him with marked bills. This was done at the behest of Gates' boss, crooked business executive Alvin Bewster (Tully Marshall), who wants no loose ends left around to connect him with a plot to sell poison gas to the Axis. As Raven ducks and dodges the police, detective Michael Crane (Robert Preston) is hot on the trail of Bewster and Gates. Crane talks his girlfriend, nightclub singer-musician Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake), into taking a job at Gates' nightclub. While on the train to the club, Ellen makes the acquaintance of the escaping Raven. Gates boards the train, spots Ellen innocently sitting next to Raven, and assumes that the two are in cahoots. Later, Gates kidnaps Ellen and spirits her away to his mansion, intending to do away with her the first chance he gets. Instead, Raven, still seeking revenge for being set up, bursts into the mansion in search of Gates. Having previously been impressed by Ellen's kindness, he rescues her, though he intends using her as hostage should the police catch up with him. As they hide out together in the rail yards, Ellen and Raven get to know each other. Learning of Raven's miserable, abusive childhood, Ellen tries to chip away his murderous veneer, hoping to reform him. But when the cops arrive, Raven reverts to his instincts, shooting his way out of his hiding place. As Crane escorts Ellen out of harm's way, Raven rushes towards a bloody showdown with Bewster and Gates. Based on Graham Greene's A Gun For Sale, This Gun For Hire was remade in 1958 as Short Cut to Hell, then again under the original title as a 1990 made-for-TV film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, (more)
Forced to flee Paris during the Occupation, the great French leading man Jean Gabin starred in a brace of Hollywood films, the best of which was the first, 20th Century-Fox's Moontide. Cast to type, Gabin plays Bobo, a brooding itinerant dock-worker who gets mixed up in a drunken brawl. Upon awakening, Bobo is convinced that he has killed a man by his mercenary "pal" Tiny (Thomas Mitchell). Despairing at the thought of having committed murder, not to mentioned being blackmailed for the rest of his life by the treacherous Tiny, Bobo is able to find a few fleeting moments of happiness with Anna (Ida Lupino), a suicidal young girl whom he has saved from a watery grave (The intensity of the love scenes may well be due to the allegedly real-life romance between Jean Gabin and Ida Lupino). Novelist John O'Hara adapted the screenplay from a book by actor Willard Robertson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, (more)
This historical drama tells the story of the first class to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In the early 19th Century, Congress appropriated the money to build the school, but opponents who believed it to be an illegitimate expansion of the powers of the federal government decided to sabotage the school. They put the hard-as-nails Major Sam Carter (Laird Cregar) in charge of the academy, and he ruthlessly put the recruits through grueling training -- until only ten prospective soldiers remained. They include Dawson (George Montgomery), a patriotic farm boy and Howard Shelton (John Sutton), a selfish playboy who has come to West Point only because of its prestige. The two vie for Carolyn Bainbridge (Maureen O'Hara), while they, along with the other eight, try convince Carter that the school is worth keeping. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Montgomery, Maureen O'Hara, (more)
Ball of Fire is a delightful retelling (by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett) of the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" legend -- though strictly for grownups. Gary Cooper is the youngest of eight bookish professors authoring an encyclopedia. They find a perfect "research associate" in the curvaceous form of stripteaser Barbara Stanwyck, who (chastely) hides on the professors' domicile to escape her gangster boyfriend (Dana Andrews). As Stanwyck interprets various slang expression, she and the professors grow quite fond of one another; she brings out their sentimental sides, while they revive her essential decency. Naturally, Cooper is the one most smitten, though he hides his true feelings until the inevitable clinch. When gangster Andrews and his torpedo Dan Duryea show up to claim Stanwyck (Andrews wants to marry her so she can't testify against him), the professors save the day and it is Cooper who ends up with the beautiful Stanwyck. For the record, two of the "ancient" professors are Richard Haydn and O.Z. Whitehead, still in their mid-thirties (the others are S.Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Oscar Homolka, Leonid Kinskey and Aubrey Mather). Producer Sam Goldwyn later remade Ball of Fire as a Danny Kaye musical, A Song is Born (1948). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, (more)
When World War I hero Alvin York agreed to sell the movie rights to his life story to Warner Bros., it was on three conditions: (1) That the film contains no phony heroics, (2) that Mrs.York not be played by a Hollywood "glamour girl" and (3) That Gary Cooper portray York on screen. All three conditions were met, and the result is one of the finest and most inspirational biographies ever committed to celluloid. When the audience first meets young farmer Alvin York (Cooper), he's the cussin'est, hell-raisin'est critter in the entire Tennessee Valley. All of this changes when York is struck by lighting during a late-night rainstorm. Chalking up the bolt from the blue as a message from God, York does a complete about-face and finds Religion, much to the delight of local preacher Rosier Pile (Walter Brennan). Despite plenty of provocation, York vows never to get angry at anyone ever again, determining to be a good husband and provider for his sweetheart Gracie Williams (Joan Leslie). When America goes to war in 1917, York elects not to answer the call when drafted, declaring himself a conscientious objector. Forced to go to boot camp, he proves himself a born leader, yet still he balks at the thought of killing anyone. York's understanding commanding officer Major Buxton (Stanley Ridges) slowly convinces the young pacifist that violence is sometimes the only way to defend Democracy. Later on, while serving with the AEF in the Argonne Forest, Sergeant York sees several of his buddies, including his Bronxite best pal Pusher Ross (George Tobias), killed in an enemy ambush. His anger aroused, York personally kills 25 German soldiers, then single-handedly captures 132 prisoners. As a result, York becomes the most decorated hero of WW1, celebrated by no less than General John J. Pershing as "the greatest civilian soldier" of the war. The film won Gary Cooper his first Academy Award, and also picked up an Oscar for Best Film Editing. Not surprisingly, it ended up as the highest-grossing film of 1941. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, (more)
A Clarence Buddington Kelland story was the source for the mildly farcical For Beauty's Sake. If he wants to inherit a fortune, bookish astronomy professor B. E. Dillsome (Ted North) must operate his aunt's beauty parlor for a two-year period. Business is very, very slow, prompting Dillsome's girlfriend Dime Pringle (Marjorie Weaver) to bring in a hot-shot press agent Jonathan B. Sweet (Ned Sparks) to publicize the establishment. Before long, our benighted hero finds himself mixed up in a murder plot and a blackmail scheme. The raucous comedy relief of Joan Davis and the patented deadpan asides of Ned Sparks more than make up for the film's plot deficiencies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ned Sparks, Marjorie Weaver, (more)
Invisible Stripes is a cookie-cutter Warners prison drama which rounds up the usual suspects. George Raft and Humphrey Bogart are top-billed, and as is often the case in such a circumstance, it is Raft who is given the larger (albeit less interesting) role. Raft plays Cliff Taylor, an ex-convict who finds that his "invisible stripes" prevent him from getting a decent job. Cliff's younger brother (William Holden) shows unfortunate signs of following his older sibling's footsteps when he is pressured into crime to support himself and his girl friend (Jane Bryan). To save his brother, Cliff joins Humphrey Bogart's gang and earns enough dishonest money to set his brother up in business. But movie censorship prevails, and all of the miscreants in Invisible Stripes--even those motivated by good intentions--must pay the penalty. Side note: The prankish Humphrey Bogart spent so much time needling newcomer William Holden that Holden nearly came to blows with the older actor; the animosity persisted into the Bogart-Holden costarring feature Sabrina, made fourteen years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Jane Bryan, (more)
The Marx Bros.' Go West was on the drawing boards as early as 1936, when MGM executive Irving Thalberg commissioned Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby to come up with a script in which the Marx boys get involved with a rodeo. The project was shelved in favor of A Day at the Races, then revived in late 1939, two years after Laurel and Hardy's Way Out West proved the commercial viability of comedy-Westerns. By this time, Kalmar and Ruby were no longer involved, and the script became virtually the sole responsibility of Irving Brecher, who'd previously penned the disappointing Marx vehicle At the Circus. If Go West is an improvement over Circus, it is probably because the Marxes were permitted to try out their material on tour before a variety of live audiences. Set in 1870, the story begins as S. Quentin Quayle (Groucho Marx) tries to raise enough money for a train ticket to the West. He spots a couple of likely pigeons, prospectors Rusty (Harpo Marx) and Joe (Chico Marx), and attempts to sucker them out of the required 500 dollars. In what turns out to be the film's funniest scene, Rusty and Joe turn the tables on Quayle, divesting him of everything he owns -- including his trousers. The plot then rears its ugly head as villains Beecher (Walter Woolf King) and Baxter (Robert H. Barrat) scheme to wrest a lucrative railroad contract from hero Terry Turner (John Carroll). Rusty and Joe make things easy for the bad guys by stupidly signing over a valuable gold mine deed which they were supposed to deliver to heroine Eve Wilson (Diana Lewis). With the help of Quayle, Rusty and Joe try to recover the deed, only to be sidetracked by a bevy of dance-hall girls. After several middling complications, the film boils down to a race between heroes and villains to register their bids and win the railroad contract. This requires Quayle, Rusty, and Joe to keep a locomotive in commission by chopping up the passenger cars for fuel, one of several Keatonesque sight gags packed into the film's hilarious finale. The opening and closing scenes of Go West are so good that one is willing to forgive and forget the dull romantic subplot and the misfire gags in the midsection. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, (more)
Inspired by the true story of the leader of the Mormon Church, this film features Dean Jagger in the title role. The members of the Church of Latter Day Saints are subjected to religious persecution by the people of Nauvoo, Illinois, where they've settled; so under the leadership of Brigham Young, the Mormons head west, facing tremendous adversity along the way. However, a gravely ill Young has a prophetic dream in which he sees what he believes is his people's promised land, where they will be allowed to live and worship as they see fit. Soon they discover the land Young saw in his dream -- Salt Lake City, Utah. Young and his followers settle there, but their hardship does not end soon. The first winter in Utah is cruel, and while the spring brings the promises of a bountiful planting season, soon a plague of locusts appears, threatening to devour the crops the settlers have just planted. A huge flock of seagulls arrives to save the day by consuming the insects. Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell play a pair of settlers who fall in love in the course of the journey. Brigham Young downplays the more controversial aspects of the Mormon church (particularly polygamy) in favor of portraying Young as a trail-blazing man of the land; in some markets, the film was shown as Brigham Young, Frontiersman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, (more)
Henry Fonda plays Chad Hanna, a New York country bumpkin of the mid-nineteenth century who joins a travelling circus. He falls in love with beauteous bareback rider Dorothy Lamour, but she spurns him. Chad Hanna then finds himself attracted to another runaway, country girl Linda Darnell. Though everybody assumes that the boy is slow on the uptake, Chad Hanna manages to save the circus from financial ruin. He also secures the services of a trained elephant; when asked how he acquired such a prize, Chad laconically responds "I gave him half interest in the circus." A lightweight period piece, Chad Hanna is visually impressive, and best viewed in its original pristine Technicolor state. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
In this musical comedy, a young woman is sent to a National Youth Administration camp after her father is arrested for making moonshine. While there, a local developer endeavors to buy up the camp. To save it, the young woman stages an elaborate camp show. The developer is enchanted and changes his mind. More trouble ensues when the developer's payroll is purloined. Fortunately, the girl's father escapes from prison and brings the crooks to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Withers, Jane Darwell, (more)
In this offbeat western, a cowboy heads into the genteel East to fulfill his dream of becoming a polo player. While there, he begins managing a posh Long Island estate. The trouble begins when he falls in love with a beautiful heiress who also loves the game. Unfortunately, the cowboy's debut day is a bust and he is so humiliated that he joins a traveling Wild West show. There he indulges his obsession with polo by getting the cowboys and Indians to stage matches. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis O'Keefe, Florence Rice, (more)
Too many of Gene Autry's Republic western sacrificed action in favor of music. A notable exception to this syndrome is Blue Montana Skies, directed by a fast-action maestro B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason. The up-to-date plotline finds Autry battling a gang of fur smugglers operating on the Montana-Canada border. When his business partner Steve (Tully Marshall) is murdered by the crooks, cattleman Autry follows the clues to a ranch owned by Dorothy (June Storey). Unbeknownst to the heroine, the murderers, led by Hendricks (Harry Woods), are working as her ranchhands. By the time she finds this out, it looks like she's next in line for extinction-but not if our hero has anything to say about it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, (more)
Most reviewers in the late 1930s considered Columbia's Jack Holt vehicles to be a waste of time, but Holt still had a fairly large and loyal fan following. Accordingly, Making the Headlines posted a profit despite its many production shortcomings. The jut-jawed Holt plays racket-busting detective Nagel, who works hand-in-glove with police reporter Withers (Craig Reynolds). Whenever Nagel collars a crook, Withers prints up the story with banner headlines, which displeases Nagel's bosses. For "the good of the department," Nagel is transferred to a quieter beat, where it is hoped he'll stay out of the limelight. Fat chance! Within what seems like three minutes, our hero gets mixed up with a double-murder case and an imperiled heiress (Beverly Roberts). Throughout the film, Jack Holt is handily out-acted by the supporting cast, especially such sly scene-stealers as Tom Kennedy and John Wray; also on hand is perennial Columbia 2-reel comedy heroine Dorothy Appleby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Beverly Roberts, (more)
It's hard to go wrong with such stars as Bob Hope, Burns & Allen, Martha Raye and Edward Everett Horton, and College Swing doesn't-go wrong, that is. The film begins in 1738, when a pact is drawn up between the Alden family and a highly respected Colonial college: If any female member of the family can pass her college exams within a 200-year period, ownership of the institution will be turned over to her. Comes 1938, and the last of the Alden girls, giddy Gracie Alden (Gracie Allen, of course) hires glib-tongued tutor Bud Brady (Bob Hope) to help her pass her exams. She also tries to win over no-nonsense professor Hubert Dash (Edward Everett Horton), who has no intention of handing his college over to a blithering idiot like Gracie. Once she has inherited the place, however, Gracie turns it into a jumpin'-jivin' joint, complete with jitterbugging students, swing bands and remote radio broadcasts. Though George Burns' role is nearly nonexistent, he does get to indulge in his patented cross-talk with Allen. Others contributing to the fun are Ben Blue, Jerry Colonna, Betty Grable, and Grable's then-husband Jackie Coogan. Highlights include Allen's spirited Irish jig and her endearing song duet with Edward Everett Horton. College Swing is the sort of high-powered, all-star entertainment that is virtually impossible to reproduce today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Burns, Gracie Allen, (more)
In this comedy, a dull statistician changes his life after winning a pile of money after successfully determining the number of beans in a barrel. He decides to do something novel with the prize and ends up buying a barrel factory. He encounters trouble when the nearby pickle factory is threatened by a shyster attempting to close it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Erwin, Helen Chandler, (more)
This follow-up to MGM's 1932 John Barrymore vehicle Arsene Lupin stars the ineluctable Melvyn Douglas. Reported to be dead, suave gentleman jewel thief Arsene Lupin (Douglas) resurfaces under the assumed name of Rene Farrand. Intending to follow the straight and narrow path, Lupin/Farrand reverts to his old larcenous ways when the opportunity to pilfer $250,000 in gems presents itself. Slowing down our hero somewhat is the presence of hotshot American private eye Steve Emerson (Warren William) and glamorous adventuress Lorraine de Grissac (Virginia Bruce). Ironically, both Melvyn Douglas and Warren William also played thief-turned-sleuth Michael Lanyard, aka "The Lone Wolf", over at Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvyn Douglas, Virginia Bruce, (more)
A Yank at Oxford was filmed in England at MGM's "sister studio", Elstree. Robert Taylor plays Lee Sheridan, an arrogant young American scholar/athlete who intends to show the "Brits" a thing or two while attending Oxford University. His abrasive attitude grates against the Oxonian students, who retaliate by subjecting Sheridan to a rather humiliating hazing. Romance enters the picture in the form of Molly Beaumont (Maureen O'Sullivan), the sister of Sheridan's chief academic rival Paul Beaumont (Griffith Jones). When Paul faces disgrace over a breach of student ethics, Sheridan nobly shoulders the blame, simultaneously endangering his own future at Oxford and proving that he's really a "right guy" underneath. All is forgiven during the annual rowing competition against Cambridge, with Sheridan coming through in jolly good fashion. Cast as campus vamp Elsa Craddock is the stunningly beautiful Vivien Leigh, still two years away from Gone With the Wind. A Yank at Oxford was remade in 1984 as Oxford Blues, and mercilessly lampooned by Laurel & Hardy in 1940's A Chump at Oxford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, (more)
In this sports drama, framed by the annual Army-Navy football game, a freshman footballer at the Naval Academy falls in love with a pretty girl who is already going with one of his upper-class team cohorts. Their rivalry creates problems until the day of the Big Game when they unite on the last crucial play. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lew Ayres, Mary Carlisle, (more)
Bookish bank employee Atterbury Dodd (Leslie Howard) is ordered to investigate the near-bankrupt Colossal Studios in Hollywood, to see if the firm is any sort of good risk. Dodd's first brush with Tinseltown's cuckoo atmosphere occurs when he takes a room in a boarding house for extras, where all manner of eccentrics wander about as they wait for the phone to ring (Charles Middleton comports himself in an Abe Lincoln costume, on the off-chance that Hollywood will go back to making Civil War pictures soon). He befriends Lester Plum (Joan Blondell), a former child star now working as a stand-in for haughty movie queen Thelma Cheri (Marla Shelton), and perpetually soused producer Douglas Quintain (Humphrey Bogart). Aware that the latest epic of autocratic director Koslofski (Alan Mowbray) will ruin the studio, Howard investigates further, discovering that a rival company has bribed Koslofski to pad the budget and thus bring about the foreclosure of Colossal. While his business sense tells him that this is the next logical move, Dodd has fallen in love with Plum; thus, he gives Quintain 48 hours to re-edit Koslofski's fiasco into something workable, and himself staves off the studio's shutdown by rallying all the Colossal employees to stand firm against being removed from the premises. Based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Clarence Buddington Kelland, this is a light-hearted satire of the movie industry, the sort of amiable farce in which everyone--even the most contentious of characters--is shown to be basically decent underneath. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Howard, Joan Blondell, (more)
This "Thin Man" derivation stars William Gargan and Orien Heyward as Dwight and Penelope Stanford. A mystery writer, Dwight enjoys impersonating his fictional hero and solving mysteries on his own. Much to the discomfort of the cops, Dwight insists upon tackling the baffling murder of old man Stettin (Tully Marshall). Then, much to the discomfort of Dwight, Penelope demands to tag along and offer her own theories. Thus when Penelope finds herself in dire peril, the film's title can be offered as explanation. It's odd that the police are baffled in She Asked for It; anyone in the audience could have told them whodunit from the third reel onward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Gargan, Orien Heyward, (more)
Paramount's answer to Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) also involved mutiny and romance on the high seas. Gary Cooper stars as Nuggin Taylor, first mate on a slave ship in 1842. Ironically, Nuggin is an abolitionist. When a mutiny overthrows the ship's skipper and leaves him in charge, he frees his cargo. Back in England, charges against Nuggin and his fellow shipmate Powdah (George Raft) are dropped. Nuggin is approached by British intelligence agents and asked to embark on a secret information-gathering mission that could end the slave trade. Nuggin agrees and Powdah accompanies him on a ship bound for America, where both men fall in love, Nuggin with Margaret (Frances Dee) and Powdah with Babsie (Olympa Bradna). However, their adventures are far from over. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, George Raft, (more)
This action drama features John Wayne in an early, non western role. He plays a trucker who owns half of a small but increasingly successful trucking firm. When Duke's company begins stealing business away from LeRoy Mason's firm, Mason retaliates by engineering the violent death of Wayne's partner, Emerson Treacy. He falls in love with the head of the railroad shipping department. Unfortunately, the evil competitor murders the Duke's partner in a mysterious explosion. The Big Guy then joins forces with an even larger company and destroys Mason's business causing Mason to team up with a train magnate and plot his revenge. The film's highlight, is a cross country race between Duke's trucks and Mason's trains. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Louise Latimer, (more)

















