Warner Baxter Movies

Warner Baxter made his final screen appearance in Columbia's State Penitentiary. Baxter plays airplane engineer Roger Manners, falsely accused of embezzling nearly half a million dollars from his company. Sent to prison, Manners escapes, hoping to track down the real culprit, his ex-partner Stanley Brown (Robert Shayne). Meanwhile, Manners' wife Shirley (Karin Booth) makes a play for Brown, hoping to help her husband trap the scoundrel. Onslow Stevens co-stars as government agent Jim Evans, who has a gut feeling that Manners is innocent, but must attempt to recapture him all the same. Though looking old and tired, Warner Baxter rises to the occasion, delivering an assured, convincing performance. Baxter died May 7, 1951, 11 months after the release of State Penitentiary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though Columbia's Crime Doctor series officially ended with Crime Doctor's Secret, the studio trotted out the property one last time with the misleadingly titled Devil's Henchman. Instead of his usual "Crime Doctor" character Dr. Robert Ordway, (Warner Baxter) travels under the name of Jess Arno. It's all a ruse, of course; Ordway is working incognito, the better to track down a gang of smugglers. Forever hanging around the waterfront, gumming up the works for Ordway, is the pea-brained Captain (Harry Shannon), who's a lot smarter than he lets on. "B"-picture favorite Mary Beth Hughes is a delight as always as a stylish gangster's moll. Equally well-cast in surprising characterizations are Regis Toomey and Mike Mazurki. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The sure-handed starring performance of Warner Baxter and the inventive direction of William Castle help lift The Gentleman From Nowhere out of the ordinary. When Earl Donovan (Baxter) is picked up on a robbery charge, insurance investigator Barton (Luis Van Rooten) can't help but notice that Donovan resembles a criminal who was supposedly killed several years later in a chemical-plant hold-up. Hoping to solve the earlier case, Barton talks Donovan into impersonating the dead criminal. What the investigator doesn't know is that Donovan is the criminal, who's returned to his hometown for a second chance in life -- and hopefully, a reconciliation with his wife Catherine (Fay Baker). It's a surefire premise, and neither Baxter nor Castle let that premise down. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, the Crime Doctor, an amnesiac ex-crook, takes on yet another intriguing psychological murder case. This time he is on vacation, but the kindly fellow cannot help but look into a murder to help a troubled soul. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the Crime Doctor series, amateur sleuth Dr. Ordway is duped into giving one of his patients a fatal shot. Now he must find the real killers before he is arrested and put away for life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this episode of the "Crime Doctor" series, Dr. Orday, the sleuthing shrink, cares for a patient who suffers from blackouts. The patient, an artist from New York's Latin Quarter, cannot remember a thing from these episodes. What is most disturbing is that several models have been recently murdered as has the artist's girlfriend. Dr. Orday solves the case. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Shadows in the Night was the third entry in Columbia's Crime Doctor series, starring Warner Baxter as crook-turned-criminologist Dr. Robert Ordway. Nina Foch delivers a superb performance as Lois Garland, a beautiful young heiress being driven to insanity and possible suicide. Poor Lois resides in a house seemingly festooned with malevolent ghosts; Ordway suspects that her tormentors are of the human variety. With George Zucco on hand as the sinister Frank Swift, can there be any doubt as to the identity of the perpetrator? Well, actually, there can, but it's best to see the film to find out for sure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This second entry in Columbia's "Crime Doctor" series once again stars Warner Baxter as Dr. Ordway, a former criminal turned criminologist. In this outing, Ordway is called in to analyze the dreams of elderly Patricia Cornwall (Virginia Brissac). It is hoped that this will provide a clue to the long-ago disappearance of Patricia's husband-not to mention $30,000. Naturally, there's at least one person who doesn't want the secret revealed, and that's the person who murdered Cornwall and hid his body in the basement of a popular café. Could the guilty party be Diana Burns (Rose Hobart), widow of Cornwall's former partner, who has just become a murder victim himself? Billed ninth in the cast of Crime Doctor's Strangest Case is young Columbia contractee Lloyd Bridges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Future blacklistee John Howard Lawson co-wrote this remake of Samuel Goldwyn's 1920 drama Earthbound, presented here as a rather more straightforward morality tale/fantasy. Warner Baxter and Andrea Leeds star as Nick and Ellen Desbrough, a seemingly happily-married couple celebrating their fifth anniversary at the outset of the movie. But Nick hasn't been nearly as faithful as Ellen believes, and his one-time romance with Linda Reynolds (Lynn Bari) has come back to haunt him. He believed the relationship was safely ended long ago, and Linda to be in love with his longtime friend Jeffrey Reynolds (Henry Wilcoxon) -- but she still wants Nick, and when he rejects her, she shoots him in a fit of jealous rage. Jeff takes the blame for the murder and is put on trial, while Nick -- now a wraith-like figure caught between heaven and earth -- tries desperately to communicate with Ellen or anyone else, to no avail, to tell them of Jeff's innocence. The only person with whom he can communicate is a mysterious man (Charles Grapewin) who seems to know a great deal about where Nick has been and also where he might -- or might not -- end up. Confronted in death by all of the unhappiness that his faithless life has caused, Nick vows to try and repair some of the damage, but it may take a miracle for that to happen. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The gathering war clouds in the late 1930s prompted a number of Hollywood films about recent political upheavals, one of which was 20th Century-Fox's Barricade. While fleeing war-torn China by train, two Americans-singer Emmy Jordan (Alice Faye) and journalist Hank Topping (Warner Baxter)-are attacked by Mongol bandits. United in danger, Faye and Baxter fall in love as they attempt to escape the American embassy where they're holed up. More than one reviewer noted that Barricade resembled a modern-dress western, with the Mongol hordes substituting for American Indians. Also noted was the fact that the film had been completed as a nine-reel "A" picture in 1938, undergoing drastic cutting and script revisions before it finally emerged in its present truncated 71-minute form. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Mexican version of the popular southwestern series, Cisco barely escapes the deadly bullets of a firing squad. He later meets a lovely señorita and falls in love, but before he can dally romantically, he must first help her and her papa get back the money they were bilked out of. More trouble ensues when the woman's old lover reappears and she would rather be with him. to take care of that, Cisco sends the man on a suicidal assignment. Fortunately, he changes his mind, captures the crooks himself, saves the man, and rides away. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this upbeat drama, a disillusioned millionaire, sick to death of the attempts of greedy friends and relatives to sponge off of him, becomes a bum to search for a decent human being. The tale begins as the wealthy man is about to commit suicide by leaping off of his yacht into the sea. He is just about to go when he spies a bum attempting suicide himself. The rich man saves the bum. He takes the bedraggled hobo and tells him his frustration. He then claims that he will give a million francs to the first person to treat him kindly without thinking about his wealth. The next day, the tramp awakens to find his raggedy old clothes have been replaced by the finest togs. Beside them is a large role of francs. The bum then begins circulating the millionaire's words around the town. As a result, people all over the country begin treating the homeless with kindness and respect. Eventually the disguised millionaire marries a circus performer and donates his million francs to the whole community. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An early Technicolor musical that concentrates on the fashions of the late 1930s, this film was reissued under the title All This and Glamour Too. The top models of the era, including several who are advertising household products, are in the cast. The plot centers around a chic boutique, whose owner, George Curson (Warner Baxter), tries hard to please his customers while keeping peace with his unhappy wife. A wealthy young woman, Wendy Van Klettering (Joan Bennett), decides to take a job as a model at the fashion house, just to amuse herself, but her presence annoys Curson, who must put together the best possible show to compete with rival fashion houses at the Seven Arts Ball. The film includes several hit songs, including the Oscar-nominated "That Old Feeling" by Sammy Fain and Lew Brown. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide