Pauline Moore Movies

Every time Republic Pictures head honcho Herbert J. Yates starred his minimally talented wife Vera Ralston in a film, the studio's stockholders began trembling in their boots. Like most of its predecessors, the 1957 Ralston vehicle Spoilers of the Forest just barely made back its cost. Vera plays Joan Milna, who shares several thousand acres of valuable Montana timberland with her stepfather (John Alderson). Coveting Joan's property, lumber baron Eric Warren (Ray Collins) sends out his foreman Boyd Caldwell (Rod Cameron) to persuade her to sell. Instead, Caldwell falls in love with the girl, vowing to protect her trees from the eco-unfriendly Warren. Republic's wide-screen Naturama process is shown to good advantage throughout Spoilers of the Forest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The down-home Weaver family stars in this countrified drama set in Peaceful Valley where if things went any slower they'd be going backwards. Things pick up a bit when someone steals $50 from a widow. The townsfolk are outraged and Judge Weaver finds himself accusing the widow's cleaning lady of the crime. Unfortunately, the judge is very wrong. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An above-average entry in Republic Pictures' long-running "Three Mesqueteers" series, The Trail Blazers is something as unusual as a Christmas western that includes comic sidekick Rufe Davis' rendition of "Jingle Bells". The Mesqueteers -- who in addition to Davis' Lullaby Joslin also numbered Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke and Bob Steele as "Tucson" Smith -- come to the aid of Jim Chapman (Carroll Nye), an engineer assigned to build a telegraph for the army. But a group of powerful local businessmen, headed by crooked newspaper publisher Jeff Bradley (Weldon Heyburn), do their utmost to sabotage the project. Yet despite the inevitable setbacks, the Mesqueteers, aided by Army Major Kelton (Tom Chatterton) and his daughter Marcia (Pauline Moore), make sure that the life-saving telegraph is erected on time. In an effort to duplicate the success of the "Three Mesqueteers" films, small-scale Monogram begun their own trio series in 1943, confusingly entitled "The Trail Blazers," a moniker the studio most likely "stole" from this western. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Brothers end up on opposite sides of the law in this Western set during the Civil War. Posing as a Union officer, Don Mason, aka Don Burke (Milburn Stone), attempts to divert the Union troops from the struggle with the Confederacy by arming the Colorado Indian tribes. Unbeknownst to Don, however, his younger brother Jerry (Roy Rogers) is assigned by President Lincoln to investigate the uprisings in the territory and the youngster arrives just as Don is preparing to marry Lylah Sanford (Pauline Moore). With the aid of grizzled sidekick Gabby (George "Gabby" Hayes), Roy manages to disarm the crooked Indian commissioner (Arthur Loft) but Don slips away with Lylah as his hostage. Roy is wounded in the ensuing shootout and is nursed back to health by Lylah, with whom he has fallen in love. There is the inevitable showdown between the brothers but rather than face the hangman, Don makes a daring escape and is shot and killed by Sheriff Harkins (Fred Burns). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Allan Dwan's comedic musical adaptation of the classic Dumas story sticks close to the original tale, yet it augments it with healthy doses of humor and songs. Don Ameche stars as D'Artagnan and the Ritz Brothers play his two other musketeers. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Movie buffs are nearly unanimous in agreement: Charlie Chan at Treasure Island is the best of the Sidney Toler "Charlie Chan" entries. The film wastes no time getting started, with Chan (Toler) and his son Jimmy (Sen Yung) on hand when Charlie's writer friend Paul Essex (Louis Jean Heydt) dies on the Honolulu Clipper while en route to San Francisco. The police rule Essex' death a suicide, but Chan believes differently. He follows the trail of clues to the mysterious Zodiac, a crooked spiritualist. The oriental detective is aided in his investigation by Rhadini (Cesar Romero), a charming stage magician who hopes to expose Zodiac as a phony and blackmailer. After several plot twists and a couple of additional murders, all the likely suspects are gathered together during one of Rhadini's performances at Treasure Island, the San Francisco branch of the 1939 World's Fair. In a truly eerie climax, mystic Eve (Pauline Moore) who really does have psychic powers, prepares to name the killer. The revelation of the culprit is a genuine surprise, staged with topnotch showmanship by director Norman Foster, whose wife Sally Blane (Loretta Young's sister) appears in a small role as Essex's widow. Many of the magicians' props utilized in Charlie Chan at Treasure Island would do service again in 1942 in the Laurel & Hardy vehicle A-Haunting We Will Go. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Ford's fine direction distinguishes this highly fictionalized account of the early life of Abraham Lincoln. The film shows Lincoln (Henry Fonda) as he rises from a country boy born in a log cabin to a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois defending two young men unjustly accused of murder. The film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Original Screenplay" for its screenwriter Lamar Trotti. Henry Fonda perhaps the most American of actors, is at his best playing Lincoln as the quintessential, compassionate American hero. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

For reason unknown, the otherwise thorough 1980 volume The Films of Twentieth Century-Fox utterly ignores the zany 1938 Fox release Passport Husband. Stuart Erwin plays Henry Cabot, overaged busboy at the Club Habana. Whenever the nightclub's singer Conchita Montez (Joan Woodbury) is accosted by a masher, the usually mild-mannered Henry flattens the bounder, which gets in a whole heap of trouble. There's even more trouble in store for our hero when he marries Conchita to keep her from being deported, enraging the girl's gangster boyfriends Tiger Martin (Douglas Fowley) and Blackie Bennett (Harold Huber). And when Henry suddenly inherits $1,000,000 from an eccentric uncle, everybody closes in on him, including cigarette girl Mary Jane Clayton (Pauline Moore). The film takes yet another unexpected turn when it develops that Mary Jane is actually the heroine of the piece! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Whenever things got slow at 20th Century-Fox, the studio revved up its old reliable "three girls looking for millionaires" plotline. Three Kansas sisters (Loretta Young, Marjorie Weaver and Pauline Moore) use a small inheritance to set themselves up in a Manhattan penthouse. Figuring that Young has the best chance of snaring a rich husband, she is allowed to pose as a wealthy heiress, while Weaver and Moore pose as her servants. Young wins Joel McCrea, who isn't as rich as everyone thinks. Weaver ends up with a rancher (David Niven) who likewise is cash poor. But Moore hits the jackpot with a slow-witted working stiff (Stu Erwin) who turns out to be the only millionaire in the bunch. Three Blind Mice was remade (with much of the dialogue intact) as the 1941 musical Moon Over Miami, then re-remade in period costume as Three Little Girls in Blue (47). In 1953, elements of Three Blind Mice were combined with the basic plotline of the 1932 comedy The Greeks Had a Word for Them--and the result was How to Marry a Millionaire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actual footage of the 1936 Berlin Olympics is rabbeted into the action of this superior Charlie Chan entry. Assigned by the U.S. Navy to track down a gang of international spies, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) heads to Berlin, where as luck would have it his son Lee (Keye Luke) is representing the United States as a member of the Olympic swimming team. Among Lee's teammates is Richard Masters (Allan Lane), who has unfortunately fallen under the spell of the alluring Yvonne Roland (Katherine De Mille), much to the dismay of his sweetheart Betty Adams (Pauline Moore). What no one knows (but Chan suspects) is that Yvonne is one of the spies, in league with the mysterious Arthur Hughes (C. Henry Gordon). Yvonne hides a stolen secret weapon in Betty's luggage, leading to a not-so-merry chase through Berlin, and the ultimate kidnapping of Lee Chan by the villains. Plus, there's a murder to be solved, and Berlin police chief Strasset (Fredrick Vogeding) isn't about to let Charlie Chan get the credit. Ironically, Charlie travels from New York to Berlin via the dirigible Hindenburg -- which crashed into flames the same week that Charlie Chan at the Olympics was released (PS: The Nazi swastika on the tail of the airship was matted out by the special-effects crew). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this actioner, an auto racer becomes a cab driver for a company that is being strong-armed by avaricious gangsters trying to gain control of all of the city's taxi companies. Anyone opposing them is framed, but the brave racer isn't so easily intimidated and he decides to take on the crooks himself. He is assisted by the head gangster's moll. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Adapted from a Zane Grey story, Wagon Wheels is a remake of the 1931 Gary Cooper starrer Fighting Caravans. Randolph Scott assumes Cooper's role, playing a trail guide named Clint Belmet. The plot follows the progress of a typical wagon train journey from Missouri to Oregon, with the usual quote of Indian attacks and outlaw treachery. Murdock (Monte Blue), the main villain, foments trouble between the whites and Indians on behalf of a carter of foreign fur traders, adding a bit of international intrigue to the proceeding. Gail Patrick, still in her "ingenue" period, portrays the heroine along more intelligent and self-reliant lines than usual. Generous amounts of stock footage from Fighting Caravans were liberally sprinkled throughout the 57-minute time span of Wagon Wheels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide