James Tinling Movies

Though filmed through the facilities of Hal Roach Studios and produced by Hal Roach Jr., Tales of Robin Hood was released by Lippert Pictures. Robert Clarke stars as the young Earl of Huntington, who after losing his property and title to the invading Normans heads to Sherwood Forest. Here he gains notoriety and adulation as beneficent outlaw Robin Hood. Mary Hatcher co-stars as Maid Marian, while Sir Guy of Gisborne and the Sheriff of Nottingham are played respectively by Paul Cavanaugh and Tiny Stowe. Robin's Merry Men are portrayed by Wade Crosby (Little John), Ben Welden (Friar Tuck), Robert Bice (Will Scarlet) and Bruce Lester (Alan A-Dale). Reportedly, Tales of Robin Hood was intended as the pilot film for a TV series; indeed, its structure resembles two half-hour TV episodes cobbled together. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This preposterous post-WWII drama stars Flame the dog as a retired military pooch who lost his beloved master to the murderous hands of a trench-coat wearing Nazi. After the war, Flame was sent to retire in a peaceful hunting lodge. One day, three visitors come to the cabin. One of the suspicious fellows wears a trenchcoat identical to the one the killer war. Overcome by memories, Flame attacks the trio. Later his instincts are proven true when the three are proven to be German spies come to steal information about a nearby nuclear project. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime melodrama, two would-be jewel thieves conspire to pull a heist, but are frustrated because the police are able to successfully anticipate their every move and stop them. Later the thieves fall in love and it is then that the female thief admits that she is a detective who was hired by an insurance company to stop him. She then pleads with him to give up crime, but he doesn't, so she rats on him and justice is served. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a millionaire shipping tycoon commands that eight of his relatives come to his Chinese mountain retreat upon his death. There each will be entitled to an equal share of his fortune. He dies, and the eight go to China. Trouble ensues in the remote cabin when two relatives are murdered. More murder attempts soon follow before the survivors learn the surprising truth. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two secret agents must somehow prevent a group of post WW II Nazis hiding in the Hartz mountains from successfully making an atomic bomb as they plan to use the weapon on large Allied cities to help the Germans again rise to power. The two good agents find themselves entangled with beautiful German spies, but this does not keep them from fulfilling their mission just before the evil Germans are to bomb Paris. Interestingly, the Federation of American Scientists did not approve of the movie's use of the bomb. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Sundown Jim was the second of two 20th Century-Fox westerns starring football champ John Kimbrough. The story takes place in mountain country, providing a wintry backdrop for the standard western plot devices. Kimbrough is cast as US marshal Sundown Jim Majors, whose main purpose in life is to bring a deadly frontier feud to a peaceful end. This requires him to clean out the local criminal element, which he does with grim-visaged determination. Clocking in at a mere 53 minutes, Sundown Jim is as professionally assembled as its predecessor, Lone Star Ranger, but Fox's effort to make a film star out of John Kimbrough was foredoomed by his utter lack of acting ability. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed three times, the evergreen Zane Grey yarn Riders of the Purple Sage was given a fourth go-round by 20th Century-Fox in 1941. George Montgomery stars as Jim Lassiter, who learns early on that his niece Fay (Patty Patterson) has been cheated out of her inheritance by crooked Judge Dyer (Robert Barrat). What Lassiter doesn't know-at least at first-is that Dyer is the head of a vigilante group, ostensibly organized to protect the local settlers but actually intent upon driving everyone out of the territory. Several acts of skullduggery and one kidnapping later, Lassiter is finally able to thwart the villains and settle down in a hidden valley with his sweetheart Jane Witherspoon (Mary Howard). Breezing along at 58 minutes, Riders of the Purple Sage by necessity eliminates several of Zane Grey's underlying themes (the villain is no longer a Mormon, for example), but works quite well as straightforward entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There was no getting around the fact that child star Jane Withers was growing up in a hurry by the time she made The Boy Friend. To its credit, Withers' home studio 20th Century-Fox took into consideration the star's blossoming womanhood by allowing her to have her first on-screen romance. The plot concerns the efforts of police officer Jimmy Murphy (Richard Bond) to get the goods on gangster Ed Boyd (Douglas Fowley). To do this, Jimmy pretends to join Boyd's gang, a subterfuge that causes a great deal of grief for his hero-worshipping kid sister Sally (Withers). With the help of her military-school cadet boyfriend Bill Bradley (George Ernest) and dimwitted patrolman Greenberg (Warren Hymer), Sally tries to save Jimmy from disgracing himself by trapping Boyd and his minions in their lair-and, of course, nearly gets herself killed in the process. The fact that the villains use a nightclub for their hideout is excuse enough for Jane Withers to belt out a few forgettable songs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For reason unknown, the otherwise thorough 1980 volume The Films of Twentieth Century-Fox utterly ignores the zany 1938 Fox release Passport Husband. Stuart Erwin plays Henry Cabot, overaged busboy at the Club Habana. Whenever the nightclub's singer Conchita Montez (Joan Woodbury) is accosted by a masher, the usually mild-mannered Henry flattens the bounder, which gets in a whole heap of trouble. There's even more trouble in store for our hero when he marries Conchita to keep her from being deported, enraging the girl's gangster boyfriends Tiger Martin (Douglas Fowley) and Blackie Bennett (Harold Huber). And when Henry suddenly inherits $1,000,000 from an eccentric uncle, everybody closes in on him, including cigarette girl Mary Jane Clayton (Pauline Moore). The film takes yet another unexpected turn when it develops that Mary Jane is actually the heroine of the piece! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this mystery programmer, a prizefighter dies in the midst of a match, but evidence suggests that it was a dose of poison that killed him rather than the violence of the bout. Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre), a detective who also teaches sleuthing to others, is called in to find out who killed the boxer and why. Assisting Mr. Moto is Lee Chan (Keye Luke), the "number one son" from the Charlie Chan series. Mr. Moto's Gamble began as Charlie Chan at Ringside, but after Warner Oland became seriously ill during filming, it was rewritten for the screen's other well-known Asian detective in order to make use of the footage that had already been shot. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Lively June (Jane Withers), teen-aged daughter of mystery writer Waldo Everett (Jon Qualen), who calls her "Angel," becomes involved in intrigue centering on movie star Pauline Kaye (Sally Blane) and her companion Stivers (Joan Davis). Reporter Nick Moore (Robert Kent), once sweet on Pauline, is convinced that her sudden disappearance is a publicity stunt, which is true -- until gangster Bat Regan (Harold Huber) decides to get involved. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

Is it any surprise that hoydenish child star Jane Withers plays the title role in The Holy Terror? This time she plays Corky Wallace the irrepressible daughter of Naval Air Service Lt. Commander Wallace (John Eldredge), spending her spare time staging all-aviator musical shows. One of these entertainments takes place in a café which, unbeknownst to our heroine, serves as a rendezvous for a gang of foreign spies. The villains provoke a brawl with the servicemen, in hopes of getting the café closed down so that they can conduct their sinister activities in secret. But Withers gets wise to their scheme, and with the help of her aviator pals she literally smashes the spy ring once and for all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jane Withers plays "little Miss Fixit" in Pepper with a minimum of sentimental goo and a maximum of laughs. Though she's been warned not to do so, Pepper Jolly (Withers) intrudes upon the solitude of grouchy old millionaire John Wilkes (Irvin S. Cobb). Her unbridled good spirits virtually strong-arm the old fellow into cracking a smile for the first time in his life -- and of course has a reciprocal positive effect on everyone whom Wilkes himself has previously made miserable. The plot winds to a close as Pepper and Wilkes join forces to prevent his daughter Helen's (Muriel Roberts) marriage to an oily gigolo (who else but Ivan Lebedeff?) The scene in which Pepper coerces Wilkes into taking all of her friends to an amusement park is a riot, especially when Wilkes himself endures the happy agony of a roller-coaster ride. Recalling her co-star Irvin S. Cobb in 1975, Jane Withers told film historian Don Stanke, "He was a wonderful gentlemen. He thought I was going to be what I was like in Bright Eyes (in which she played a hateful brat), and he got the surprise of his life when I wasn't. We got along marvelously." Indeed, the warm rapport between the two stars shines through every frame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide