Charles Hutchinson Movies

In this animal adventure, Silver Wolf, a police dog is considered a killer after he is falsely blamed for killing someone. He gets a chance to redeem himself when a small child is grabbed by an eagle and taken to his nest. The dog manages to save the kid, the real killer is revealed, his name is cleared, and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This Frankie Darro-Kane Richmond vehicle benefits from the brisk direction of onetime serial star Charles Hutchison. Richmond plays Bomber Brown, a pugilist forced to go on the lam after he punches out crooked gambler Smoothy (Jack LaRue). Travelling incognito bomber befriends aspiring boxer Baby Face (Darro) and trains the boy for the Championship. Smoothy tries to sabotage Baby Face's career, but Bomber cleans the villain's clock once and for all. Produced independently by the parsimonious Maurice Conn, Born to Fight is at its best in the boxing scenes, photographed with all the slick efficiency of an "A" production. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In his fourth and final Western for Poverty Row company Beaumont Pictures, veteran leading man Conway Tearle played Kirk Allenby, a lawman hired by the Cattlemen's Association to bring in his look-alike, Bob Enright (also Tearle), a renegade rancher. Badly injuring Enright in a gunfight, Allenby promises the wounded man that he will save his sister Roberta (Margaret Morris) from marrying villainous Jeff Bagley (William Gould). Impersonating Enright, Allenby arrives in time to stop the ceremony, and, with the recovered Enright's help, manages to bring Bagley and his gang to justice. In one of the kinkier denouements in B-Western history, Roberta then agrees to marry her brother's savior and look-alike. A Western star at the age of 58, Conway Tearle was a holdover from the early silent era. Despite his advancing years, Tearle did his own stunts and his four Westerns for Beaumont Pictures proved better than expected. The august star retired with the demise of Beaumont Pictures and suffered a fatal heart attack a little over a year later. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Silent screen juvenile Lloyd Hughes, who once starred opposite Mary Pickford, found himself headlining this ultra-low-budget melodrama, the final release from Poverty Row company Peerless Pictures Corp. Searching for his long-lost love, Bruce Donaldson (Hughes) makes the acquaintance of Shark Moran (Walter Miller), a Singapore planter who eventually makes him his partner. Unbeknownst to Bruce, his missing fiancée, Claire Martineau (Jacqueline Wells), is working as a dancer in a Singapore dive under the name of Marty. Shark, who is bankrolling the dive, asks Marty to marry him but she is still pining for the man who once left her because his wealthy family took a dim view of showgirls. When Marty presents him with a photograph of Bruce, Shark flies into a rage and is stabbed by the girl's faithful servant (Jimmy Aubrey). While trying to flee, Marty runs into Bruce who brings her to the plantation. There, Tiana (Carlotta Monti), Shark's servant who has been trying to seduce Bruce, accuses Marty of murdering her employer. In the end, however, a witness acknowledges that Shark was killed in self-defense by Marty's servant and the lovers are reunited. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

In his second of four low-budget Westerns for Poverty Row company Beaumont Pictures, veteran silent screen star Conway Tearle played Steve Harper, a crusading newspaperman who not only battles the rough elements of a Western town but manages to catch the villains who killed his uncle. At age 57, Tearle was an odd choice for B-Western stardom but the veteran actor nevertheless performed most of his own stunts and was only defeated by subpar production values. Favoring action over character development and plot, The Judgment Book was directed by silent era serial star Charles Hutchison. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

This melodramatic cheapie stars former silent-screen leading lady Barbara Bedford as a woman who loses her beloved son in a divorce. Determined that her ex-husband (Robert Frazer) will not retain custody, the desperate woman kidnaps the boy and whisks him off to the Mexican jungle. Here the kid (Maurice Murphy) grows up, while his mother finds a further measure of happiness with the faithful family butler (Edwin Cross). Upon being discovered by hunters, mother and son are brought back to civilization and a reconciliation with the young man's father. To pump up the running time to 65 minutes, director Charles Hutchinson (at one time one of the foremost purveyors of silent serials) includes huge chunks of stock footage from previous jungle documentaries. Found Alive made the usual States' Rights rounds, lapsed into obscurity, then found a whole new audience in the early days of TV. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The first of four low-grade thrillers produced by Sam Efrus and filmed on mostly rented sets around Hollywood, House of Danger emerged as an ordinary if well-photographed (by J. Henry Kruse) Poverty Row melodrama. Former Universal lead Onslow Stevens starred as Don Phillips whose friend, Ralph Nelson (James Bush), is gravely injured in a shipwreck. Ralph sends Don to impersonate him at the family estate at San Rafael, CA, where strange things are going on. Unable to fool the family lawyer, Don is unable to fool Uncle Weatherby (John Andrews), the family solicitor, and the two conspire with Ralph's fiancée (Janet Chandler) against cousin Martin (Desmond Roberts), whom they suspect killed Ralph's father. Ralph himself returns during the celebration of his birthday, just in time to prevent Martin and his co-conspirator, Gordon (Howard Lang), from murdering Don. House of Danger was directed by silent serial star Charles Hutchison, whose straightforward handling of the story was partially undermined by too obvious stock shots of the shipwreck and a car smash-up. Typically for this sort of thing, the name of producer Efrus was misspelled "Ferus" on the onscreen credits. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

In this sea-going thriller, an unsavory seaman, working on a cargo ship bound for Singapore, enlists the aid of another and plots a mutiny; he also poisons the ship's captain. The conspiracy is overheard by the second mate. Meanwhile, the captain's naive daughter finds herself falling for the villain. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Silent screen serial star Charles Hutchison produced and directed this low-budget marital drama, which benefitted from one of those icy performances by the platinum blond Natalie Moorhead. Slinking her way through scores of early talkies, Moorhead -- sexy slouch and all -- created havoc whenever she arrived on the screen to drop a haughty remark or two. Here, she leads naive Sally Blane into almost having an affair with her husband's boss (Crauford Kent). Almost, but the pert Blane manages to resist the elderly man's dubious charms. Blane's equally naive hubby, Randolph Scott, at first believes that it is the brash Moorhead who's having the affair, but a valuable bracelet on his wife's arm convinces him otherwise. There is a confrontation and the proverbial shot in the dark. Both Blane and Scott assume the other shot the amourous Kent, but the shooter proves to be Moorhead's hot-headed husband Kenneth Harlan. She's having a tryst all right, but with someone named Perky, not Kent. The latter, who apparently wasn't having an affair with anybody, recovers from his gunshot wound and everyone lives happily ever after -- with their original spouses. Perhaps screenwriter John Francis Natteford could follow the needlessly complicated plot of this cheap potboiler, but nobody else could. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Taking time off from his busy directorial career, venerable action star Charles Hutchinson topped the cast of the comedy-melodrama Hidden Aces. When a Russian princess pays a visit to New York, her every move is monitored by a handsome crook (Hutchinson), who covets the lady's jewels. To realize his goal, the crook strikes a deal with the princess' far-from-honest major domo. The rest of the picture finds the two thieves double-crossing each other, with the "hero" eventually reforming for the sake of his sweetheart, lady-thief Alice Calhoun -- who happens to be the princess' lady-in-waiting! Didn't Robert Wagner and Susan St. James used to do this sort of stuff on It Takes a Thief? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

William Fairbanks couldn't hope to convince audiences that he was in the same league as his namesame Douglas Fairbanks. Even so, Fairbanks had his public, who remained loyal even as their favorite with farther and farther down the movie-studio chain. The appropriately titled Down Grade was one of several quickie Fairbanks vehicles directed by Charles Hutchinson for bargain-basement Gotham Studios. In this one, Our Hero hopes to thwart the plans by the villains to destroy his dad's railroad line. The film is tolerable only during the action sequences, involving such props as souped-up cars, motorcycles and airplanes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The silent Catch as Catch Can starts out as a baseball picture before wildly riding off in all directions at once. William Fairbanks (definitely no relation to Douglas) plays the manager of a small-town ballclub. When team member Larry Shannon is coerced into throwing a game by political boss Walter Shumway, Fairbanks, who is in love with Shannon's sister Rose Blossom allows himself to be accused of cheating. Thrown out of baseball, Fairbanks gets a job at a newspaper for the express purpose of exposing Shumway and his plugugly henchman George Kotsonaros. He not only accomplishes this, but saves the reputation of mayor Jack Blossom--who happens to be the father of his girl friend Rose. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Movie-serial maven Charles Hutchison handled the directorial responsibilities of the thrill-a-minute Flying High. While taking a joyride with his sweetie Alice Calhoun, daredevil pilot William Fairbanks witnesses the aerial hijacking of a mail plane. He gives chase after the bandits and recovers the stolen money sacks. But that's only the beginning: soon Fairbanks is mixed up with a Mata Hari type (Cecile Callahan) who is in turn involved with a gang of society thieves. The climax finds Fairbanks hopping from one plane to another in mid-air to rescue the heroine from the crooks. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi