Sol Wurtzel Movies
A true "company man," American production executive Sol M. Wurtzel spent his entire professional career at one single studio. In 1914, Wurtzel joined the new Fox Film Company as private secretary to mogul William Fox, eventually surviving Fox's ouster from the company in 1930. Wurtzel's long-standing loyalty was rewarded when, in 1933, he was promoted to producer, turning out several of Fox's best Will Rogers and Spencer Tracy vehicles. When Fox merged with Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century company in 1935, several of the old guard were put out to pasture; Wurtzel was one of the survivors, but he was demoted from A-pictures to executive in charge of Fox's B-unit, where he remained until his retirement in 1949. Under his aegis, 20th Century Fox turned out several profitable series, among them the Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, and Michael Shayne detective pictures, the Jones Family domestic comedies, and the Jane Withers musicals. Wurtzel developed several cast-in-stone theories during the late '30s, among them the notion that no film is successful without a villain: He would often interrupt a story conference by shouting to the writers, "Where's the menace? Where's the menace?" He also was convinced that his B-films would post a profit no matter how much time or money was spent on them, so why endeavor to make his films any better? This theory resulted in four of the weakest Laurel and Hardy comedies ever produced -- all of which were box-office successes. Comedian and Fox contractee Harry Ritz summed up the artistic quality of Sol M. Wurtzel's output by commenting, "Things have gone from bad to Wurtzel." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1949
The "B"-picture unit at 20th Century-Fox was slowly being phased out when Miss Mink of 1949 was produced. Lois Collier heads the cast as Alice Forrester, an office clerk who wins a $10,000 mink coat in a radio contest. This windfall proves disastrous to Lois' husband Joe (Jimmy Lydon), who goes deeply into debt so that his wife can live in the style in which she has suddenly become accustomed. Horror of horrors, the mink is stolen, the first of several setbacks for poor Alice and Joe. The mess is straightened out--sort of--in a wild courtroom finale. Veteran supporting players Richard Lane, Dorothy Granger, Paul Guilfoyle and Iris Adrian add a little salt and pepper to the more sugary passages. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Lydon, Lois Collier, (more)
- 1949
Former "Henry Aldrich" Jimmy Lydon had matured into a capable leading man by the time Tucson went before the cameras. Lydon plays Andy Bryant, a University of Arizona student whose grades suffer because of his preoccupation with an upcoming intercollegiate rodeo. Andy's father (Joe Sawyer) is more interested in embarrassing a rival at the rodeo than he is with his son's academic progress. When his lack of focus nearly causes a tragic accident in the university chemistry lab, Andy decides to hunker down and study. Western leading lady Penny Edwards has a thankless role as Lydon's campus sweetheart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Lydon, Penny Edwards, (more)
- 1949
The 20th Century-Fox "B" unit under Sol M. Wurtzel was still alive and kicking as late as 1949. Wurtzel's Trouble Preferred stars Peggy Knudsen and Lynne Roberts as policewomen-in-training Dale Kent and Madge Walker. In Charlie's Angels fashion, the ladies are bored by the humdrum assignments they're given. Soon however, they get thrills and spills in spades when they come to the rescue of a would-be suicide. Equal portions of drama and comedy keep the film simmering for a full 63 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peggy Knudsen, Lynne Roberts, (more)
- 1948
In this mystery, a detective encounters a woman in a nightclub. He finds that she is being blackmailed by a dancer who is murdered that very night. Of course, the woman becomes the main suspect. She and the gumshoe team up and begin searching for the real killer. The police are in hot pursuit. It does not take them long to find the culprit. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kent Taylor, Peggy Knudsen, (more)
- 1948
In this crime drama, a convict is freed after he agrees to join the military during WW II. After he is discharged he gets a job at a factory. The criminal is almost completely reformed when he is visited by an old partner in crime. The shady pal's dog steals the factory owner's bracelet and the ex-con is blamed. Later the mix-up is revealed and the ex-con remains reformed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Langton, Jean Rogers, (more)
- 1948
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
- Starring:
- Charles Russell, Virginia Christine, (more)
- 1948
Pity poor James Clark (Richard Crane). Wed to the lovely Margaret (Lois Collier), Arthur is forced to keep the marriage a secret from Margaret's social-climbing mother (Barbara Brown)-which, of course, results in separate sleeping quarters. Coming to the rescue is Margaret's kid brother Arthur (Skip Homeier), who tries to throw his mom off the track by pretending to be engaged himself. Alas, Arthur's noble gesture only makes a bad situation worse, at least until Mother finally figures things out for herself. So lightweight that it's hardly there, ArthurTakes Over was produced by Sol Wurtzel and directed by Malcolm St. Clair, the same team responsible for 20th Century-Fox's much-maligned Laurel & Hardy comedies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lois Collier, Richard Crane, (more)
- 1947
One of the last efforts from Sol M. Wurtzel's "B" unit at 20th Century-Fox, The Invisible Wall details the trials and tribulations of gambler Harry Lane (Don Castle). Told in flashback, the film recounts how Lane managed to lose nearly $10,000 entrusted to him by bookmaker Marty Floyd (Edward Keane). Hoping to recoup his losses by investing in a "sure thing," poor Lane ended up accused of murder. He is cleared when it is revealed that the victim was no victim after all. The picaresque plotline takes the hero from Los Angeles to Vegas to Denver to St. Louis, courtesy of the 20th Century-Fox back lot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Castle, Virginia Christine, (more)
- 1947
In this suspense film, a detective must find the murderer of a rich and jealous wife and her husband, a doctor with a tendency to work late into the night. After many missteps and false leads, he finally finds himself confronted with a sexy former patient of the deceased doc. Is she the guilty party, or does the determined detective find another guilty party? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kent Taylor, Doris Dowling, (more)
- 1947
Second-echelon leading man Don Castle (later a TV producer) stars in yet another Sol M. Wurtzel production, Roses Are Red. Kidnapped by political boss Locke (Edward Keane), honest district attorney Throne (Castle) is replaced by his less-than-honest look-alike. Even the DA's intimates are fooled by the substitution, which is only one of the many hard-to-believe contrivances of Irving Elman's screenplay. Before the film's 65 minutes have expended themselves, the real DA escapes -- then pretends to be his look-alike so that he can catch Locke at his own game. Incredibly, the film's two leading ladies -- Peggy Knudsen and Patricia Knight -- more closely resemble one another than the two Don Castles! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Castle, Peggy Knudsen, (more)
- 1947
In this melodrama, a young juvenile delinquent convinces other teens to join his gang. The gang raids a warehouse and there he ends up killing the school's most beloved teacher. The boy is tried. In court the D.A.'s adopted daughter stands up for the boy. Years before, when they were both orphans, he had done the same for her. The D.A. is unmoved an tries to prosecute to the full extent of the law. The defense, says the real blame should be upon the boy's parents. The boy is given a life sentence. Unbeknownst to the self-righteous D.A., the boy is his long-lost son. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Halop, Ann E. Todd, (more)
- 1947
Though 20th Century-Fox was phasing out its B-picture unit in the late 1940s, a few inexpensive films, some made in England to utilize the studio's wartime "frozen funds", still managed to trickle into theaters. The Jewels of Brandenburg stars Richard Travis as Johnny Vickers, a US government agent operating in London. Vickers puts a tail on a double agent named Marcel Grandet (Leonard Strong), with whom he'd worked during the war. Grandet has stolen a fortune in jewels with which he intends to finance a neo-Nazi movement. Posing as a fellow fascist, Travis is able to infiltrate the villains-but will he be able to return the gems and save his own skin? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Travis, Micheline Cheirel, (more)
- 1947
This minor 20th Century-Fox B picture received a great deal of TV play in the late 1950s. In a series of flashbacks, the audience learns that attorney John Morland (John Eldredge) has given a lift to a hitchhiker (Douglas Fowley) who turns out to be a murderer. As a result, Morland himself is implicated in a killing. A pair of detectives (Larry Blake and Richard Travis) discover that Morland has been having business problems and no end of difficulties with his wife Catherine (Jean Rogers). The trail of clues leads to a surprising revelation-especially surprising for those filmgoers conditioned to believe that the most obvious suspect is never guilty. Backlash is also available in a computer-colored version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Rogers, Larry Blake, (more)
- 1946
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
- 1946
In this crime drama, two crooks dupe their friend, a professional gambler, into nipping some important government documents. The crooks then hope to sell the documents to a foreign country. The gambler gets the papers, but then realizes that he has been tricked. He enlists the aid of a detective and they thwart the criminals' plot. A snoopy journalist presents an obstacle. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Blair, Larry Blake, (more)
- 1946
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
- Starring:
- Kent Taylor, Dona Drake, (more)
- 1946
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
- Starring:
- William Gargan, Pat O'Moore, (more)
- 1944
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play janitors for a detective agency who pose as super-sleuths when they're hired to protect inventor Alva P. Hartley (Arthur Space). Moving bag and baggage into Hartley's gadget-laden house, Stan and Ollie must first contend with the inventor's bratty son Egbert (Bobby Blake, aka Robert Blake) and much-married Aunt Sophie (Esther Howard). More problems ensue when Hartley's next door neighbors Charlton (Frank Fenton), Hartman (James Bush), Dutchy (Phil Van Zandt) and Mayme (Veda Ann Borg) reveal themselves as the crooks they really are. Entrusted with Hartley's latest invention, super-bomb called "The Big Noise", Stan and Ollie skeedaddle to Washington, just one step ahead of the criminals. Escaping the villains, the boys take flight in a balky airplane, only to find that they're the targets for Army gunnery practice. Our heroes save themselves-and the day-when they use the bomb to destroy a Japanese submarine. Long regarded as the worst of Laurel & Hardy's feature films, The Big Noise has in recent years been championed by several of the team's fans, not least because the admittedly patchy storyline incorporates several of their classic routines from such earlier 2-reelers as Habeas Corpus, Wrong Again and Berth Marks. Arguably the film's best scene finds Stan and Ollie trying to gorge themselves on a "banquet" consisting of dehydrated food capsules. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oliver Hardy, Doris Merrick, (more)
- 1943
An American pilot swears to get revenge on the German ace who shot his brother in this war movie set in war-torn Europe. Montgomery is the pilot. After he sees his brother die while trying to parachute to safety, Montgomery's plane is shot down over Germany. He is placed in a POW camp. There he meets a Russian medic and a Czech. Together the trio escapes. Along the way it is discovered that the Czech is a Nazi spy. The medic, Annabella, makes it to England through the underground. Montgomery, discovers a local airport, impersonates a German pilot, steals a plane and flies home. He also manages to kill the flying ace who shot his brother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Montgomery, Annabella, (more)
- 1943
If Jitterbugs is, as has often been claimed, the best of Laurel & Hardy's 20th Century-Fox films (an otherwise fair-to-mediocre lot), it is because the studio was using the picture as a showcase for their newest singing discovery Vivian Blaine. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play a couple of travelling "zoot suit" musicians who innocently team up with likable con man Chester Wright (Bob Bailey). In the course of their travels, Chester and the boys meet small-town girl Susan Cowan (Blaine), whose mother has been victimized by real-estate swindlers Corcoran (Robert Emmett Keane) and Bennett (Douglas Fowley). Reasoning that it takes a crook to catch a crook, Chester masterminds a complicated "sting" to recover Mrs. Cowan's money. Chester's scheme requires Hardy to disguise himself as amorous Southern colonel Wattison Bixby, and obliges Laurel to don women's clothing as Susan's Aunt Emily. Alas, the boys aren't quite up to the rigors of the confidence racket, and as result they end up the prisoners of Bennett's partner, gangster Tony Queen (Noel Madison). In escaping their captors, Laurel and Hardy utilize Chester's phony "gas pills", which when swallowed cause the bad guys to float to the ceiling! The film concludes with a wild runaway-showboat sequence, consisting largely of stock footage from the 1938 Fox musical Sally, Irene and Mary. A reworking of Arizona to Broadway (1933), Jitterbugs is hardly a classic, but Laurel & Hardy-and Vivian Blaine-are in fine form. Worth the admission price in itself is the romantic rendezvous between Oliver Hardy and phony Southern belle Lee Patrick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivian Blaine, Bob Bailey, (more)
- 1943
In this comedy, a milque-toast bookkeeper buckles under his overbearing girl friend's constant nagging and begins investing his money so he won't have to wait for a raise from his boss. His girl friend pushes him, because she wants to marry him and he refuses to until he has enough money. Luckily he invests wisely and suddenly finds himself with enough cast to buy the company from stingy boss. As soon as he does, the former clerk fires his employer. He eventually decides to hire his employer back, but only if he adheres to one condition. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Erwin, Evelyn Venable, (more)
- 1943
Subtitled The Fighting Guerillas, Chetniks tells the story of Yugoslavian guerilla fighter General Draja Mihailovitch. Based on the General's own memoirs, the film depicts Mihailovitch (played here by Philip Dorn) as a selfless idealist, leading his resistance troops, known as the Chetniks, on one raid after another against the Germans during WW II. The best scenes involve the deadly clashes between Chetniks and Germans in the treacherous mountain regions of Yugoslavia. Anna Sten, Sam Goldwyn's 1930s "answer" to Greta Garbo, co-stars as Mihailovitch's self-sacrificing spouse. Initially, some dismissed this movie because of the mistaken belief that the Chetniks collaborated with the Nazis during WWII, but as Michael Lees unequivocally proves in his book The Rape of Serbia, this was actually a myth fed to Churchill by the Communist partisans of Josip Broz Tito, to convince the British prime minister to shift Allied aid away from the Chetniks. The events in this film are thus factual. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Dorn, Anna Sten, (more)
- 1942
The Milton Berle starrer Whispering Ghosts was clearly inspired by the Red Skelton comedy-mystery Whistling in the Dark (itself inspired by Bob Hope's The Ghost Breakers). Uncle Miltie is cast as H. H. Van Buren, a radio sleuth who delights in solving real-life mysteries ahead of the official constabulary. At the behest of his sponsor, Van Buren tackles an unsolved case from ten years earlier: the death of an old sea captain. To this end, he visits the ship where the dirty deed took place, accompanied by his nervous valet Euclid (Willie Best, who played much the same role in Ghost Breakers). At first convinced that the ship is haunted, our hero deduces that the "ghosts" are actually a gang of crooks, in search of the treasure left behind by the murdered skipper. The arrival of Elizabeth Woods (Brenda Joyce), the lawful heir to the missing treasure, convinces Van Buren to stick around for a while to solve the decade-old murder and locate the captain's legacy. Why is it that none of Milton Berle's vehicles for 20th Century-Fox--Whispering Ghosts, Over My Dead Body, Margin for Error--have shown up on TV since the 1970s? Now there's a mystery worth solving! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Milton Berle, Brenda Joyce, (more)
- 1942
Like most of 20th Century-Fox's "Michael Shayne"detective series, Time to Kill was based on a source other than Brett Halliday's Shayne stories. In this case, the inspiration was The High Window, a "Philip Marlowe" mystery novel by Raymond Chandler. Substituting for Marlowe, of course, is flippant private eye Mike Shayne, again played by Lloyd Nolan. Hired by wealthy Mrs. Murdock (Ethel Gryffies) to retrieve a stolen rare coin, Shayne runs up against a clever gang of counterfeiters. The film's highlight (and ultimate plot resolution) is a murder in a high-rise building, covertly captured on movie film with a telephoto lens. The final entry in Fox's "Shayne" series, Time to Kill was remade in 1947 as The Brasher Doubloon, with George Montgomery as Philip Marlowe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Nolan, Heather Angel, (more)
- 1942
A remake of the 1927 horror melodrama The Wizard (which, alas, no longer exists), 20th Century-Fox's Dr. Renault's Secrets packs a real wallop in its brisk 58-minute running time. The scene is a remote French village, where the murder of drunken tourist Austin (Jack Norton) coincides with the arrival of young doctor Larry Forbes (John Sheppard, aka Sheppard Strudwick). It develops that Sheppard is the house guest of the outwardly benign Dr. Renault (George Zucco), who lives with his pretty niece Madeline (Lynne Roberts) and his bizarre manservant Noel (J. Carroll Naish), who possesses more than a few apelike tendencies. Several more murders occur, and the clues point in a number of directions. Upon learning Dr. Renault's secret -- which is something straight out of H. G. Well's The Island of Dr. Moreau -- the audience is able to discern the killer's identity. Alas, it may be too late for heroine Madeline, at present being kidnapped by a local hooligan (Mike Mazurki) and thus apparently at the mercy of the rampaging murderer. Dr. Renault's Secret was frequently shipped out on a double bill with Fox's other 1942 horror piece, The Undying Monster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- J. Carrol Naish, John Shepperd, (more)
