Ruth Terry Movies

His Aunt Sophie (Helen Westley) and his teacher Professor Heinrich (Jean Hersholt) are sure that Roger Grant (Tyrone Power) will be a famous classical violinist, but Roger's more interested in popular music. He and his friend, pianist Charlie (Don Ameche), audition at a saloon in San Francisco's Barbary Coast, using sheet music left by singer Stella Kirby (Alice Faye), which had been sent to her by a friend in New York, Irving Berlin. The number, "Alexander's Ragtime Band," proves to be a sensation, and Stella goes along with Charlie's plea to sing with the band, which soon becomes famous for its ragtime numbers. Charlie has fallen in love with Stella by the time they open at the Cliff House, but he soon realizes that she and Roger are in love. Stella is invited to New York by a famous producer, but Roger's against this, and angrily fires her, so Charlie quits, too. When Roger returns from World War I, he meets Stella, only to learn she and Charlie have been married for a year. Another year passes, and Charlie and Davey have formed a new band with Jerry Allen (Ethel Merman) as their lead singer. Charlie knows Stella still loves Roger, so he divorces her, but Roger sails for Europe with the new band. Back in New York, Roger is set for a major concert in swing at Carnegie Hall. Charlie tells Roger about the divorce, and that Stella still loves him. Unable to get a ticket, Stella listens to the concert in a cab. Explaining that he is playing it for one particular person, Roger and his band perform "Alexander's Ragtime Band" as their encore, bringing Stella into the theater, where she's reconciled with Roger. He brings her onstage to perform the number with his band. ~ Bill Warren, Rovi

In this adventure, set in Shanghai, a gunrunner gets entangled with a conspiracy to deliver customs certificates. Unfortunately, his contact has died and the money has disappeared. He being pursued by other smugglers when Japanese bombs are dropped. He is saved from the firestorm by a French singer. Together they flee the city and board a refugee ship. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this romance, a young woman journeys from Syracuse to New York to see her sweetheart, a prominent architect. She is bitterly disappointed to discover that he has lost interest in her. The residents of the women's hotel at which she stays offer the heartbroken lass words of encouragement. They tell her to take a stand and to show him what he is missing. She takes their advice and becomes a renowned fashion model. Naturally this piques the designer's interest and he wishes to court her anew. Of course, she by then has many suitors, so he must really work to win her back. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

An Angel from Texas was the fourth of five film versions of the venerable George S. Kaufman stage farce The Butter and Egg Man. The plot remains basically the same, with a wealthy but incredibly naïve young sprout coming to the rescue of a near-bankrupt Broadway musical. This time around, Eddie Albert stars as bumptuous Texan Mr. Colman, who uses his mother's life savings to finance the New York stage debut of his hometown sweetheart Lydia (Rosemary Lane). Fast-talking producers McClure (Wayne Morris) and Allen (Ronald Reagan) persuade Colman to invest his money in their upcoming production, a turgid drama that has all the earmarks of a quick failure. But through a series of wacky complications, many of them engineered by Allen's level-headed wife Marge (played by Reagan's real-life spouse Jane Wyman) the show is transformed into a Hellzapoppin-style surprise hit. Amusingly, reviewers in 1940 referred to Ronald Reagan's comedy style as "conservative"! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

What's a modern guy to do when his wife's ideas about marriage are a bit too modern for his taste? Andre Casall (Charles Boyer) is a successful, free-thinking playwright who becomes infatuated with a progressive female doctor, Jane Alexander (Margaret Sullavan). They marry impulsively, and Andre soon learns that Jane's ideas about marriage are a bit different from his own -- she demands that they keep separate apartments, and they are to meet only once a day, at 7 a.m. This isn't quite the way that Andre had imagined wedded bliss, and he is soon scheming to make her jealous, in hopes that she'll demand a more traditional living arrangement. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Hoping to cash in on the success of Universal's Buck Privates, Republic Pictures hastily commissioned an imitation, Rookies on Parade. Instead of Abbott and Costello, Republic settled for bandleader Bob Crosby and comedian Eddie Foy Jr., a not-so-unfair exchange at that. The story details the misadventures of two itinerant songwriters named Duke (Crosby) and Cliff (Foy) as they try to survive Army boot camp. Intending to boost the morale of their fellow draftees, our heroes stage a big musical show, which they eventually hope will graduate to Broadway. The talent roster includes nightclub thrush Gertrude Niesen, double-talk expert Cliff Nazarro and dancer Louis Da Pron. And of course there's the inevitable tough drill sergeant, played with both barrels by William Demarest. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A remake of Return of Jimmy Valentine (1936), Republic Pictures' Affairs of Jimmy Valentine is a sequel of sorts to the oft-filmed O. Henry story Alias Jimmy Valentine. In the original tale, an incognito safecracker blew his cover by rescuing a little girl from a safe, prompting a detective who'd planned to arrest the criminal to let him off scot free. Affairs of Jimmy Valentine is set some twenty years later: A radio station decides to improve ratings by launching a nationwide search for reformed cracksman Jimmy Valentine. The search leads to a small town--and a mysterious murder. Roman Bohnen plays the kindly old editor of the small town's newspaper, who may or may not be Guess Who. Acted and directed with a slick professionalism that belies its small budget, Affairs of Jimmy Valentine has been released to TV in an abridged version titled Unforgotten Crime. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cattleman Gene Autry is put out-to say the least-when he finds out that he's been slickered by crooked purchasing agent Thomas McCoy (Edmund MacDonald). It turns out that McCoy is in debt to bookies, and has been skimming his customers to pay off his gambling losses. Autry hopes to put a stop to all this by going directly to McCoy's boss, Grantley B. Johnson (Thurston Hall), but the Big Guy's office is crammed full of radio agents who hope to persuade Johnson to sponsor their programs. One of these agents is a young lady named Kit Carson (Ruth Terry), whose sample record disc is accidentally broken in the crush. Thus is the main plot briefly put on the back burner as Kit persuades Gene and his ranch-hand pals (the Sons of the Pioneers) to pose as radio crooners to impress Mr. Johnson. Eventually, Call of the Canyon gets back on track with an exciting runaway-buggy climax, but for the most part the film is more musical than western. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The wartime leading-man shortage obliged Republic Pictures to star draft-proof supporting player Frank Albertson in Mystery Broadcast. Albertson plays detective-fiction writer Michael Jerome, who carries on a friendly rivalry with radio scrivener Jan Cornell (Ruth Terry). Jan works for an "unsolved mysteries" series which is in the ratings doldrums. To boost listenership, she begins offering solutions to the unsolved crimes on the air, and this leads to the reopening of a long-dormant murder case-and also to a rash of new murders. Pooling their talents, Michael and Jan try to solve the case at hand, with startling results. Among the suspects in Mystery Broadcast are two former film luminaries, Nils Asther and Wynne Gibson, both on the comeback trail. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though it bears the same title as an earlier Gene Autry western, Roy Rogers' Man From Music Mountain isn't a remake. Rogers is appropriately cast as a cowboy who's hit it big as a radio singing star. Returning to his hometown for a special remote broadcast, Roy finds himself in the middle of a deadly feud. Nothing will be settled so long as cattleman Victor Marsh (Paul Kelly) resorts to villainy to achieve his goals. Fortunately, the newly deputized Roy figures out a way to straighten out the mess without undue bloodshed. Rogers' leading lady this time out is the multitalented Ruth Terry, who was in just about every other Republic B-picture of the mid-1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this romance, a GI falls in love with his pen-pal. Believing her to be a wealthy, beautiful girl, he goes to see her after the war. Unbeknownst to him, the girl is actually impoverished and wheelchair bound. Her two sisters work as char women and barely make enough to live on. When the soldier shows up, the girls trade identities and pretend to be wealthy. Even though he doesn't know about the ruse, he still ends up falling for the girl in the chair and after learning the truth stands steadfastly behind her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Backwoods music abounds in this musical that centers on the travails of Freddie Fisher and his Schnickelfritz Band, a country music group struggling along the rocky road to success. Their troubles begin when their manager, unable to convince anyone to hire the high-spirited hillbillies, gets angry with them and takes off to the big city. There he discovers that the band's rivals Ernest Tubb and His Texas Troubadors are about to receive a hefty radio sponsorship on a popular show. Hearing opportunity's knock, he thunders back home to get Fisher and the Schnickelfritzes to the station first to steal the spot from the Troubadours. Unfortunately, when not performing, the band works on a woman's farm. When she learns they are about to leave her stuck, she begs them to reconsider and then demands that they stay. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi