Paul Kelly Movies

Produced by M.H. Hoffman's Liberty Pictures, School for Girls is based on Reginald Wright Kauffman's story Our Undisciplined Daughters. It all begins when innocent heroine Annette Eldridge (Sidney Fox) gets mixed up with a slimy jewel thief. Taking the rap for her boyfriend, Annette ends up doing a three-year stretch in a girl's reformatory, where she's subjected to the sadistic excesses of brutal matron Miss Keeble (Lucille La Verne) (the same actress who later provided the voice of the Wicked Queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). Thankfully, young prison-board appointee Gary Waltham (Paul Kelly) dedicates himself to helping Annette -- and by extension, the rest of the unfortunate female inmates. The supporting cast of School for Girls reads like a "B"-picture Who's Who: Lona Andre, Russell Hopton, Kathleen Burke, Fred Kelsey, Edward Le Saint, and former silent-film favorites Anna Q. Nilsson, Charles Ray, Myrtle Stedman and Helene Chadwick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama set in San Francisco, a businesswoman gives a job to an unemployed, homeless sailor. Later she becomes his wife. They are happy for a while, but then one day a woman shows up and claims that the sailor fathered her child. The couple adopts the child, but then the wife's sister tries to steal the sailor, who had been known to wander a bit. But the sailor has found himself in fatherhood and has decided to remain true blue to his wife and son. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One of the most popular baseball films ever made, Slide, Kelly, Slide also solidified the stardom of MGM leading man William Haines. In his usual brash, cocky manner, Haines is cast as Jim Kelly, a self-styled baseball whiz who talks himself into a job with the New York Yankees. Though his boundless braggadocio is backed up by his talent on the baseball field, Kelly soon alienates himself from the rest of his teammates, who can't stand his arrogant behavior. Veteran Yankee catcher Tom Munson (Harry Carey) -- also the father of Kelly's sweetheart Mary (Sally O'Neil) -- tries to set the young upstart straight, but Kelly isn't interested. Upset because he feels the team isn't on his side, Kelly gets drunk on the eve of an important game in Chicago. Mary doesn't want him to get fired, so she hides him in her hotel room. When Tom shows up he tries to talk some sense into Kelly, but the hot-headed young player unleashes his invective on Tom, calling the aging player an old has-been in full earshot of the entire team. This shameful display thoroughly disillusions Yankee batboy Mickey (Junior Coghlan) who, up to that moment, worshipped Kelly.

After quitting the team, Kelly makes himself scarce during the deciding World Series game. When the team runs out of pitchers, little Mickey decides to seek out Kelly and beg him to return -- only to be struck down by a truck. Realizing that Mickey will recover only if he redeems himself, Kelly returns to the Yankee roster and scores the winning run without resorting to his usual show-off tactics. As the recovered Mickey is wheeled into Yankee Stadium, Kelly reverts to his old boastful self, but by now, everyone -- including Mary -- realizes that our hero is truly a reformed man. Filmed on location at the Yankee's spring training camp in Florida and at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field (one of the best minor-league stadiums in America), Slide, Kelly, Slide boasts cameo appearances from such real-life baseball luminaries as Mike Donlin, Irish Meusel, Bob Meusel, Tony "Poosh-em-Up" Lazzeri, and umpire John "Beans" Reardon. As a bonus, football-star-turned-actor Johnny Mack Brown makes his film debut in a one-scene bit part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though the film is called Speed Devils, the only racetrack scenes occur at the very beginning of the picture. After cracking up during a race, the driver of the car (Paul Kelly) is advised to get into another line of work. Picking up on this, he and his buddy (Russell Hardie) open up a garage, only to be pounced upon by crooked politicians who want a chunk of the profits. The friend agrees to play ball with the crooks, but his partner balks at the idea. The villains then contrive to frame the reluctant man for a crime he didn't commit, and when this fails they lock our hero and his girlfriend (Marguerite Churchill) in a burning building. His pal comes to the rescue, and the two then team up to smash the corrupt politicos once and for all. Speed Devils was directed by former D. W. Griffith protégé Joseph Henaberry, who spent much of his talkie career on Poverty Row. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "spoilers" in this Republic programmer are headed by unscrupulous salmon fisherman Matt Garraway (Paul Kelly). Treating women and competitors with equal contempt, Garraway charms and abandons such lovelies as Laura Reed (Evelyn Ankers) and Jane Koster (Adrian Booth). Having persuaded Laura to put up money for his fish cannery, Garraway drops her like a bad habit and begins pursuing Jane, so that she'll recruit her Native American friends to do some off-season salmon fishing. Jane's brother Pete (Francis McDonald) figures out long before anyone else does that Garraway is a no-good, and he sets the wheels in motion for the villain's ultimate downfall. Even if the opening credits had been removed, audiences would have known that Spoilers of the North was a Republic picture when Roy Barcroft showed up as Greenaway's chief henchman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This barely-disguised but effective riff on The Thin Man (1934) stars that film's lead, William Powell, opposite Ginger Rogers instead of Myrna Loy. Clay Dalzell (Powell) is a suave attorney fonder of solving crimes than trying cases. His elegant girlfriend, Donna (Rogers) hopes that Clay will settle down and marry her. A friend, Tim Winthrop (Leslie Fenton), approaches Clay with a mystery that the amateur sleuth can't resist. Tim's girlfriend Alice disappeared a year ago. During the performance of a Broadway play, Tim spots Alice onstage, but she disappears again. Clay takes the case and sets up a meeting with a gossip columnist who seems to have the answers, but the reporter is murdered and Clay is suspected of the crime. As Clay puts together the pieces, he comes up with several suspects, including the play's producer, a couple seeking to prove a friend's innocence in a capital crime, and the gangster Jim Kinland (Paul Kelly). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this low-budget adventure, a gangster and his spouse are stranded on a lonely tropical island. They soon discover that a band of castaway Nazis also inhabit the place. Trouble erupts when uranium is discovered. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though it bears the same title as an earlier Gene Autry western, Roy Rogers' The 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, All Movie Guide

Advertised as a typical Universal horror film, The Cat Creeps is more of a crime melodrama, and not a particularly distinguished one at that. Fifth-billed Fred Brady essays the leading role as a reporter named Terry Nichols, who endeavors to prove that a girl's suicide was actually murder. Though dead for nearly 15 years, the girl's soul has apparently manifested itself in a black cat, which functions as an avenging angel throughout the film. Several more murders occur before the villain and his mercenary motivations are revealed. Though blessed with an unusually strong supporting cast, The Cat Creeps is strictly B material, far below Universal's already unexacting standards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This melodrama chronicles the enduring friendship between four boys in New York's Hell's Kitchen. As boys, the made a pact that they would meet annually to renew their friendship. Trouble ensues when one of the boys accidently sets fire to a building. Another boy took the blame. He went to reform school. Years pass before he is reunited with his pals. Now the man is a professional gambler and nightclub owner. He sees two of his friends, who have become cops, when they come into his club to investigate a murder. As they look into the death, one of the cops is killed. The fourth friend, now a priest, makes sure that justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

It matters not at all that the famed "wrong way" flight of aviator Douglas Corrigan, who in 1938 tried to fly from New York to California by way of Ireland, was probably a carefully calculated publicity stunt. The end result was that Corrigan became a household name, and as such was an ideal candidate for film stardom. RKO Radio shelled out a considerable amount of money to purchase "Wrong Way" Corrigan's life story, enhancing the publicity value of the resultant The Flying Irishman by casting Corrigan himself in the leading role. It's too bad that the same amount of effort wasn't lavished on the film itself, which is a ponderous, perfunctory tale of a barnstorming flyer who, unable to get a legitmate pilot's job because he never went to college, resorts to a variety of colorful methods to make a living. Like many other non-showbiz celebrities, Corrigan was constitutionally unable to play himself convincingly, so it's up to such supporting actors as Eddie Quillan, Paul Kelly, Robert Armstrong, Donald MacBride and Joyce Compton to take up the slack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Frame-Up is a timely and typically tacky crime meller from the Columbia film factory. There's dirty work at the racetrack, with an honest fellow being framed for the misbehavior of crooked gambler Larry Mann (Robert Emmet O'Connor). Detective Mark MacArthur (Paul Kelly) would like to snap the cuffs on Mann and his minions but is prevented from doing so when the bad guys kidnap Mark's girlfriend Betty (Jacqueline Wells). Forced to cooperate with the crooks, Mark finally figures out a way to save Betty and serve justice in one fell swoop. Some of the racing scenes in Frame-Up would continue to resurface in Columbia's serials and 2-reel comedies for years to come. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide