Steven Geray Movies

Movie star-turned-bandleader Buddy Rogers heads the cast of the British tunefest Dance Band. The star is appropriately cast as singing orchestra leader Buddy Morgan, whose great rival is female bandmaster -- or bandmistress -- Pat Shelley (June Clyde). That hero and heroine will forget their differences and fall in love is a "given," but there's many a complication along the way thanks in great part to crooked business-manager Lewes (Fred Duprez). The plot is merely a peg upon which to hang a variety of toe-tapping musical numbers, delivered with gusto by a gaggle of talented specialty artists. In addition to its entertainment obligations, Dance Band helped to introduce Austrian actor Steve Geray to English-speaking audiences; within the next few years, Geray would develop into one of Hollywood's most dependable character players. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a talented singer is hired to dub the voice of a star who has lost his own. During the film's premiere, news that he sang the songs slips out and suddenly he finds that he himself has become a star. Unfortunately he soon encounters unanticipated problems. He is especially concerned about his girl friend who dumped him in favor of the voiceless star. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

With a plot that twists like a plumber's snake, this is more a story of family secrets than anything else, in which the British commander of a West African garrison has to prevent the exposure of an ugly scandal involving his daughter. The story was based on a novel by Lewis Robinson entitled The General Goes Too Far. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

This breezy British action comedy stars Gordon Harker as Albert Rughouse, cockney conductor of a passenger bus running the Victoria Station-Epping Forest route. In his spare time, Albert indulges in magic tricks, become rather proficient at sleight-of-hand. This talent serves him well when his bus is commandeerd by foreign spies bent on stealing valuable government aviation plans. Proving that the hand is quicker than the eye, Albert flummoxes the villains and makes the world safe for Democracy once more. No mere programmer, The Lightning Conductor is exceptionally well cast, with such reliables as John Lodge, Sally Gray, Ernst Thesiger and Steven Geray going through their usual expert paces. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inspector Hornleigh was the first of three lively British crime films inspired by the popular BBC radio serial "Monday Night at Eight". Hornleigh is played by Gordon Harker, while Alastair Sim assumes the comic-relief responsibilities inherent in the character of Sergeant Bingham. The "maguffin" in this film is a set of bags stolen from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which Hornleigh and Bingham set about to retrieve. The principal suspect is an unscrupulous millionaire who hopes to corner the British stock market. Based on characters created by Hans Wolgang Priwin, Inspector Hornleigh inspired two cinematic sequels, both filmed in 1939. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This lightweight but elaborately produced musical melodrama was originally released in Great Britain as Premiere. While watching the opening night of a Parisian stage extravanganza, the show's principal backer is murdered. Inspector Bonnard (John Lodge) deduces that the fatal shot was fired from the stage-meaning that everyone involved in the production is a suspect. Bonnard demands that the cast and crew restage the play so that he can witness the proceedings and ascertain the killer's identity. One thing is certain: heroine Carmen (Judy Kelly) is not the guilty party, though she should have shot whoever designed her unflattering costumes and makeup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fresh from his contract-player duties at Warner Bros., future TV "Superman" George Reeves heads the cast of 20th Century-Fox's Man at Large. Reeves is cast as FBI agent Bob Grayson, working in collaboration with Max (Richard Derr), a British agent posing as a fugitive German aviator. Meanwhile, fearless girl reporter Dallas Dayle (Marjorie Weaver) is assigned by her editor to track down the enemy aviator and get an exclusive story. When she catches up with Grayson and Max, Dallas is under the impression that Grayson is a rival reporter and Max is the genuine fugitive, leading to the usual complications. All three protagonists ultimately pool their resources to expose a German spy ring operating in the United States. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This final entry in 20th Century-Fox's "Charlie Chan" series is set in a huge mansion, smack-dab in the middle of the Mojave desert. When snoopy weekend guest Professor Gleason (Lucien Littlefield) is murdered, every member of the household falls under suspicion-none more so than Mr. Manderly (Douglass Dumbrille), the surly and highly secretive master of the household. Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) and number two son Jimmy (Sen Yung) stumble into this nest of vipers and quickly get to work trying to unravel the mystery, which involves a collection of priceless artifacts and an old-fashioned torture chamber. An excellent series entry, Castle in the Desert would have been a worthy screen finale for the inscrutable Mr. Chan; alas, the character would be revived two years later in a much inferior series at Monogram. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An adequate wartime filler, Night Plane from Chungking features Robert Preston as the captain of the titular aircraft. En route from Chungking to India, the plane crashes, leaving captain and passengers stranded in a jungle surrounded by Japanese troops. It has been learned that one of the passengers is a Nazi spy; Preston hopes it isn't the lovely Ellen Drew. Night Plane from Chungking was a remake of the earlier, and more expensive, Paramount adventure Shanghai Express, substituting planes for trains. When movie villains shifted from Nazis to Communists in the 1950s, the story was filmed once more as Peking Express (53). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Edward Arnold made the first of his two screen appearances as Bayard Kendrick's blind detective Captain Duncan McLain in MGM's Eyes in the Night. The plot is set in motion by Norma Lawry (Ann Harding), whose stepdaughter Barbara (Donna Reed) has been keeping company with washed-up actor Paul Gerente (John Emery). Norma feels that Gerente, an ex-lover of hers, is a bad influence for Barbara, but the girl merely assumes that Norma wants Gerente all to herself. When the ageing actor is murdered, Barbara assumes that Norma committed the crime. Rather than go to the police, Norma heads to her old friend Duncan McLain, but when the detective arrives at the scene of the murder, the body has disappeared. Detecting the odor of violets in the room, McLain uses this tiny clue to build a case against a gang of Nazi spies, headed by the Lawry's butler Hansen (Stanley Ridges), with whom the late Mr. Gerente had been collaborating. Just knowing who did it isn't enough in this case, however: getting the drop on McLain and his associates, the villains hold the detective and Lawry prisoner until they are able to get their hands on a secret formula developed by Barbara's father (Reginald Denny). In true movie-serial fashion, it is McLain's faithful seeing-eye dog Friday (played by "himself") who saves the day. A "B" picture with "A" entertainment value, Eyes in the Night proved successful enough to warrant a sequel, 1945's The Hidden Eye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This wartime melodrama stars George Sanders as Keith Wilson, a disillusioned Britisher who becomes a "Lord Haw Haw"type at a Nazi radio station. All the time he's dispensing anti-British propaganda over the airwaves, however, Wilson is actually a secret agent in the employ of the His Majesty's government. It is Wilson's intention to use his intimate relationship with the Germans to expose a worldwide Nazi spy ring. Romance enter the picture in the form of Ilse Preissing (Marguerite Chapman), the sister of a Nazi agent whose decision to join Wilson's side results in her death. Veteran movie villainess Gale Sondergaard also appears in the film, cast against type as a courageous British intelligence agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Technicolor retelling of the Gaston Leroux "grand guignol" classic The Phantom of the Opera has a little more opera than phantom, but that's because the stars are soprano Susannah Foster and tenor Nelson Eddy. Claude Rains carries the acting honors on his shoulders, playing a pathetic orchestra violinist who worships aspiring opera-singer Foster from afar. The girl is unaware that Rains has secretly been financing her music lessons with instructor Leo Carrillo. When he runs out of money, Rains attempts to sell the concerto that he's been working on all his life. Mistakenly believing that his precious concerto has been stolen from him, Rains attacks and kills the music publisher he holds responsible. Terrified, the publisher's mistress throws a pan full of acid into Rains' face. Rains runs screaming into the night, and is not heard from for the next reel or so. Soon afterward, the Paris Opera house is plagued by a series of mysterious accidents. The managers are informed via letter that the "accidents" will continue if Foster is not immediately promoted to leading roles. Only after reigning diva Jane Farrar is drugged into incapacitation is Foster given her big break. Farrar accuses Foster's boyfriend, police inspector Nelson Eddy, of doping her in order to advance Foster's career. Farrar is later strangled, and Eddy is accused of the crime. The culprit is, of course, Rains, who now poses as the masked-and-caped "phantom". Maniacally determined that no one will impede Foster's success, Rains causes a huge chandelier to crash down on the opera audience when Foster fails to appear onstage (she'd been kept from performing by police-chief Edgar Barrier, who hoped in this manner to flush The Phantom out of hiding). A chase through the catacombs below the opera house ensues, with Rains holding Foster prisoner. When Rains briefly lets down his guard, the tremulous Foster removes his mask. It's "yecccch," all right, but nowhere near as frightening as the unmasking scene in the silent Lon Chaney version of Phantom of the Opera. The same can be said for the rest of this 1943 remake, though in fairness it appears as though the film wasn't really designed to scare anyone, but instead to serve as a suspense yarn with musical interludes. Hume Cronyn makes his second film appearance in Phantom in a microscopic role. The huge sets designed for this picture were hastily reused for the 1944 Universal melodrama The Climax, starring Boris Karloff and (again) Susannah Foster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If you believe all-American Fred MacMurray as an Oxford don, you'll probably swallow the rest of Above Suspicion. Newly married to Joan Crawford, MacMurray goes on a honeymoon in prewar Germany. Actually it's more business than pleasure: they are secret agents for the British, attempting to smuggle back information about a new superweapon being developed by the Nazis. Evil, mean, cruel and also wicked German officer Basil Rathbone imprisons and tortures Crawford (though she still looks like a million bucks), but McMurray comes to the rescue, paving the way for a suspenseful race-to-the-border climax. The tenor of Above Suspicion can be summed up in a scene in which, after being confronted by a monolingual stormtrooper, Fred MacMurray says in English "Nuts to you, dope!," whereupon the Nazi scratches his head and wonders aloud, "Vass iss das 'dope'?" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide