Jean Rogers Movies

In the vein of Spellbound and Rebecca comes this 1951 film noir from director James V. Kern. Robert Young stars as Jeff Cohalan, a successful architect who is tormented by the fact that his fiancée was killed in a mysterious car accident on the night before their wedding. Blaming himself for her death, Colahan spends his time alone, lamenting in the cliff-top home he'd designed for his bride-to-be. To make matters worse, ever since the accident, Colahan seems to be followed by bad luck. His horse and dog turn up dead without explanation, leading him to wonder if he has been cursed. Enter Ellen Foster (Betsy Drake), an independent and intelligent insurance investigator who just might be able to help Colahan figure out who or what's behind all of his misfortune. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

In this crime drama, a convict is freed after he agrees to join the military during WW II. After he is discharged he gets a job at a factory. The criminal is almost completely reformed when he is visited by an old partner in crime. The shady pal's dog steals the factory owner's bracelet and the ex-con is blamed. Later the mix-up is revealed and the ex-con remains reformed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The biggest surprise in Republic's Gay Blades is that the studio's resident skating star Vera Hruba Ralston doesn't appear. Allan Lane plays hockey star Andy Buell, whose prowess on the rink brings him to the attention of Hollywood leading lady Nancy Davis (played not by the real Nancy Davis, worse luck, but by Jean Rogers). Casting about for a leading man for her upcoming production The Behemoth, Nancy decides that Andy fills the bill. For a while, Andy "goes Hollywood", but in the end it is Nancy who gives up her career in favor of romance. The film's best performance is delivered by Paul Harvey, who as studio executive J. M. Snively offers a cute takeoff of Republic head man Herbert J. Yates. At the bottom of the cast list is Nedrick Young, later a top Hollywood screenwriter. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama two wandering WW II vets visit the family of a former buddy who had been killed in action. Finding the family nearly destitute and their trucking business on the brink of ruin, the friends decide to stay and help them fight the rival companies behind the mayhem. Unfortunately, the rivals play hard ball and kill the youngest son in the family causing the two vets to combine their know how and fight back in earnest. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

With Universal nearly out of the "B"-grade horror film business by 1945, it was up to Monogram to take up the slack with projects like The Strange Mr. Gregory. The title character, played by Edmund Lowe, is a famous magician who fakes his own death -- then reappears as his nonexistent twin brother. It's all part of Gregory's master scheme to pin his "murder" on innocent John Randall (Don Douglas), the husband of Ellen (Jean Rogers), the woman Gregory loves. Only the magician's faithful assistant Riker (Frank Reicher) knows the whole story, meaning that his days are numbered. By the time Ellen herself figures out what Gregory is up to, it may be??gasp?..tooo late!!! As Monogram films go, The Strange Mr. Gregory isn't bad; it might have been even better with just a bit more adrenalin in Phil Rosen's direction. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In her seventh outing as irrepressible vaudeville entertainer Maisie Revere, Ann Sothern aided the war effort by working the swing shift in an airplane factory. Taking in a seemingly suicidal co-worker, Iris (Jean Rogers), Maisie can only watch as the girl steals her beau, handsome pilot James McLaughlin (James Craig). Promising to be faithful to James, who is going away on a training course, Iris promptly flirts with everyone in pants, much to chaperone Maisie's chagrin. When Maisie catches the selfish Iris in the middle of staging yet another "suicide," the vaudeville trouper turned everyone's favorite riveter threatens to spill the beans to Lieutenant James. In retaliation, Iris accuses Maisie of spying for the Nazis but everything is cleared up before the fadeout. MGM had at first assigned the male lead to newcomer Jim Davis, but he proved too inexperienced and the role eventually went to Craig, the studio's all-purpose Clark Gable lookalike. (As a consolation, Davis played a G.I. instead.) Starlet Jean Rogers, formerly Dale Arden in Flash Gordon (1936), does surprisingly well in her unsympathetic part and, doubled only partially by Jacqueline Wiere, performs a funny acrobatic number with the Wiere Brothers. Sothern leads a rousing chorus of the morale-boosting "There's a Girl Behind the Boy Behind the Gun" and remains her usual delightful self throughout what is one of MGM's better wartime potboilers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Another graduate of MGM's short-subject department, director David Miller proved he had what it took to helm a feature film for the studio in Sunday Punch. The harmless but diverting story concerns the rivalry, in and out of the ring, between prizefighters Ken Burke (William Lundigan) and Olaf Jensen (Dan Dailey Jr.). Both boxers are sweet on showgirl Judy Galestrum (Jean Rogers), and in fact it was for the love of Judy that shy, oafish Olaf quite his janitorial job to become a pugilist. When Olaf realizes that it's Ken whom Judy truly loves, he does the "right thing" by sending Ken off to dreamland during an important match, thereby encouraging the latter to give up boxing and return to his medical studies. The best aspect of Sunday Punch is the performance of Dan Dailey Jr., whose portrayal of a simpleminded Swede is convincing without ever lapsing into stereotype or condescention. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this WW II propaganda piece a wealthy American society matron refuses to sacrifice her material comforts to aid the war effort until she realizes that her selfishness is cheating the boys overseas who are fighting for her freedom. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Three different Universal pictures made between 1922 and 1941 bore the catchall title Don't Get Personal. The 1941 film stars Hugh Herbert as a ditzy pickle manufacturer whose favorite radio program stars Jane Frazee and Robert Paige. The couple plays a bickering husband and wife on the air, and Herbert mistakes their scripted bouts for the real thing. He heads to the radio station to patch up their differences, but succeeds in embroiling the actors in a real battle. Don't Get Personal seems to have been made at the same time as Universal Hellzapoppin' (41), with at least four actors (Hugh Herbert, Robert Paige, Jane Frazee and Mischa Auer) appearing in both films. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Charlie Chan in Panama was the first entry in the "Chan" series to capitalize on WW2. Sidney Toler stars as the wily oriental sleuth, who on this occasion must weed out an elusive enemy saboteur named Ryner, who plans to destroy the Panama Canal. Any one of the supporting characters might be the never-seen Ryner: Could it be illegal alien Kathi Lenesch (Jean Rogers), overly effusive Englishman Cliveden Compton (Lionel Atwill), straight-arrow Richard Cabot (Kane Richmond), slimy nightclub owner Montero (Jack LaRue), moonfaced middle-easterner Achmed (Frank Puglia), timid schoolmarm Jennie Finch (Mary Nash), or none of the above? Also on hand is Victor Sen Yung as Charlie's Number 2 son Jimmy, who is somewhat stupider than usual (if such a thing is possible). In an early scene, Charlie Chan neatly sums up his relationship with the bumbling Jimmy: "Man without relatives is man without problems." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though he lacked the casual charisma of his brother Bing, bandleader Bob Crosby starred in a series of reasonably successful films of his own. In Let's Make Music, Crosby and his "Bobcats" turn a dreadful football-victory song penned by elderly schoolmistress Malvina Adams (Elisabeth Risdon) into a hit by treating it as a novelty tune. When Malvina is brought to New York to capitalize on her unexpected success, she is accompanied by her pretty niece Abby (Jean Rogers), who is determined that her aunt won't be exploited or humilated. Sure enough, Abby and Crosby fall in love during Malvina's fifteen minutes of fame. Comedy relief is supplied by Yiddish Art Theater veteran Joseph Buloff, soon to gain Broadway immortality as Ali Hakim in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma. The songs in Let's Make Music include the enduring Crosby classic "Big Noise From Winnetka". ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

While Cesar Romero could usually be relied upon to ladle out the charm in his film roles, Romero's handful of appearances as O. Henry's "Cisco Kid" were disturbingly cold and distant. In Viva Cisco Kid, the "Robin Hood of the Old West" and his sidekick Pancho (Chris-Pin Martin) save a stagecoach from being held up. Cisco falls in love with pretty passenger Jean Rogers, little knowing that the girl's father (Minor Watson) is one of the masterminds behind the robbery. Actually papa is under the evil influence of bigwig Stanley Fields, who intends to kill everyone associated with him and escape with the booty. Cisco prevents Fields from further indiscretions and wins the girl in the bargain. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi