George Guhl Movies

Veteran film actor Tully Marshall makes his final appearance in PRC's Behind Prison Walls. A reworking of a familiar theme, the story finds scheming steel tycoon James J. MacGlennon (Marshall) and his high-minded lawyer son Jonathan (Alan Baxter) simultaneously ending up behind bars. While incarcerated, Jonathan tries to mend his larcenous father's ways, thereby drawing closer to his not-so-bad dad. Together, father and son scheme to legally outwit the elder MacGlennon's unscrupulous business partners. Meanwhile, Jonathan's sweetheart Elinor Cantwell (Gertrude Michael) waits patiently on the "outside". One of the better PRC efforts of its time, Behind Prison Walls is a gentle comedy with pointed sociological undertones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title neatly gives away the ending in RKO Radio's Scattergood Survives a Murder. Guy Kibbee once again stars as storekeeper Scattergood Baines, the sage of the small town of Coldriver. The story gets under way when two reclusive spinsters die under mysterious circumstances. Inasmuch the as the eccentric old ladies have left their fortune to their pet cats, Scattergood suspects that foul play was involved, with the victims' sinister housekeeper (Eily Malyon) high on the suspect list. Aiding and abetting our hero in his easygoing investigation are local newspaper editor John Archer and hotshot gal reporter Margaret Hayes (Archer, incidentally, was the father of present-day leading lady Anne Archer). Scattergood Survives a Murder was the latest in a series of B-pictures inspired by the long-running radio saga Scattergood Baines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fresh from his Broadway triumph as "The Stage Manager" in Our Town, veteran actor-playwright Frank Craven heads the cast of Columbia's The Richest Man in Town. Craven is cast as wealthy banker Abb Crothers, who has carried on a lifelong feud with newpaper publisher Pete Martin (Edgar Buchanan). After a particularly vitriolic exchange of words, Martin gets even by publishing Crothers' obituary somewhat ahead of schedule. The repercussions of this capricious act eventually cause the miserly Crothers to reassess his priorities in life. A romantic subplot concerns Martin's daughter Mary (Eileen O'Hearn) and glib touring-show promoter Tom Manning (Roger Pryor). Though Frank Craven is officially the star, Richest Man in Town was intended in part as a showcase for Edgar Buchanan, who'd skyrocketed to prominence on the strength of his villainy in Columbia's Arizona. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eve Arden played her first bonafide film-starring role in the 1941 Warner Bros. "B"-picture She Couldn't Say No. A brilliant lawyer, Alice Hinsdale (Arden) is obliged to act as secretary to her legal-eagle fiancé Wallace Turnbull (Roger Pryor) because he can't abide the notion that his wife might be smarter than he. Taking on a breach-of-promise suit, Turnbull represents the defendant, only to discover that the attorney for the plaintiff is none other than newly-liberated Alice. Once before a judge and jury, Alice and her female client resort to "women's tricks" to win the case -- proof positive that She Couldn't Say No is a product of its times. The film's basic premise was used to better effect in the 1949 Tracy-Hepburn starrer Adam's Rib. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stars-on-the-downslide Wallace Ford and Marian Marsh briefly rallied in the above-average Monogram melodrama Murder by Invitation. Ford is cast as usual as a wisecracking reporter, this time christened Bob White. Our hero is one of several acquaintances and relatives invited to an old dark house to attend the reading of a will. At the stroke of midnight, one of the guests is murdered?and then another. The most obvious suspect is Aunt Cassie (Sarah Padden), the slightly daft owner of the mansion, but Bob suspects that she's being framed, and with the help of heroine Nora O'Brien (Marsh) he sets about to prove it. Some of the film's best moments are suppled by beetle-browed Herb Vigran, a busy supporting actor whose best professional days were still to come.Murder by Invitation closes with one of those "It's only a movie, folks" gags indigenous to the Monogram product of the 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This touching romance is based on a play by Rachel Crothers. An aging sea captain squanders his fortune on a bad business deal. Now he faces having to put his beloved wife in a poor house. He himself also has no place to live. Desperate for cash, he sells interest in a ship he has nothing to do with. This money gets her in a decent home for old ladies. To be with her, he dresses as an old woman and goes to live in the home with her. Eventually the administrators allow him to stay and the other residents begin calling him "Old Lady 31." The fortunes of the couple changes after the brave old salt saves a shipwrecked schooner. The salvage rights restore his fortune and all is well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

To fully appreciate Buck Benny Rides Again, one must have some familiarity with Jack Benny's radio programs of the 1939-40 season. During this period, Jack's broadcast costars included bandleader Phil Harris, announcer Don Wilson, singer Dennis Day and comedians Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Andy Devine. All five supporting players appear in this film, all playing "themselves" just as Benny does. Falling in love with aspiring singer Joan Cameron (Ellen Drew), Jack vows to go out of his way to impress her. When he learns that Joan is headed for a western dude ranch, he poses as "Buck" Benny, a rootin'-tootin'-shootin' 100% genuine cowboy. In truth, both Jack and his valet Rochester are terrified at the Wide Open Spaces, certain that they'll be scalped by Indians at the first opportunity, but through a series of silly coincidences Benny manages to convince Joan that he's an honest-to-goodness frontiersman. The plot thickens when a pair of modern-day desperadoes (Ward Bond and Morris Ankrum) plot to rob the dude ranch's safe, but our hero saves both the day and his girlfriend, with the unsolicited but very welcome assistance of his pet polar bear Carmichael (the same bruin who allegedly ate the gas man on Jack's radio show). Benny fans will get an extra kick out of seeing his legendary Maxwell in all its sputtering, backfiring glory, while old-time radio aficionados will enjoy hearing the voices of Mary Livingstone (Mrs. Benny) and Jack's "friendly enemy" Fred Allen. Frank Loesser's musical score includes such hit-parade favorites as "Say It (Over and Over Again)" and "My! My!", the latter sung by Rochester to his sweetie Josephine (Theresa Harris). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A romantic comedy drama directed by former art director Mitchell Leisen and based on a skillful Preston Sturges screenplay. Barbara Stanwyck stars as Lee Leander, a New York City shoplifter who is arrested just before Christmas after trying to filch an expensive piece of jewelry. Her trial delayed until after the holiday, Lee comes to the attention of an assistant district attorney, John Sargent (Fred MacMurray). Although he will be expected to prosecute Lee in a few days, John takes pity on the prisoner, who is from his home state of Indiana. He arranges for her to be released for the holidays and escorts her home, but her mother (Georgia Caine) is not interested in a reunion. So John takes Lee to his own festivities, where Lee is bowled over by the love and affection of the Sargent family, particularly John's mother (Beulah Bondi), who is so unlike her own. Lee and John fall in love, but their return to the Big Apple and Lee's trial loom large over their romance. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Torchy Runs for Mayor stars Glenda Farrell as fast-lipped newspaper reporter Torchy Blaine. In possession of a crooked political boss' "little red book" of crimes and misdemeanors, Torchy can't convince any of the newspapers in her city to print the contents. She has to rely on a small-town weekly, The South End Blotter, to convey the evidence against the ward heeler. The revelations result in a recall election for mayor. Torchy's city editor (Barton MacLaine), angered at her defection to the Blotter, jokingly enters Torchy's name as a mayoral candidate. She wins, but not before the small-town editor is murdered and the political boss is blown up in one of his own booby traps. Torchy Runs for Mayor is the eighth in Warner Bros' series of B-films based on characters created by Frederick Nebel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Star Maker is the story (with variations) of vaudeville enterpreneur Gus Edwards, here played by Bing Crosby. Determining that he can attain the uppermost showbiz rungs by spotlighting new, untried talents, Edwards rises to fame by hiring preteen boys and girls for his touring acts, the most famous of which is his "schoolroom" routine. Among Edwards' more prominent discoveries were Eddie Cantor, Georgie Jessel, Bert Wheeler, Walter Winchell and Mae Murray, none of whom are depicting in the film (though composer Walter Damrosch is portrayed "By Himself"). Paramount intended The Star Maker as a showcase for a whole new crop of "stars in the making", though the studio's own discoveries were destined for obscurity--with the exception of Janet Waldo, who in 1997 was still providing the voice of Judy Jetson for a series of TV commercials. Louise Campbell provides the nominal romantic interest as Edwards' super-supportive wife, while a welcome note of cynicism is introduced by the ineffable Ned Sparks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

I Am Not Afraid was the preview title for the 60-minute Warner Bros. crime melodrama The Man Who Dared. A remake of 1931's Star Witness, the film concerns the efforts made by gangster to intimidate murder witness Matthew Carter (Henry O'Neill) into silence. When all else fails, the villains kindap Carter's young son Ralph (Dickie Moore) threatening in no uncertain terms to kill the boy if Carter testifies in court. Coming to the rescue is Ralph's grandpa Ulysses Porterfield (Charley Grapewin), a pugnacious Civil War veteran who deploys military strategy to rescue the kid from the gangster's clutches. Like many other Warner Bros. films of the period, I Am Not Afraid takes a firm and decisive stand against the political hooligans then in charge of Europe: at one point, Porterfield shames Carter into cooperating with the authorities by observing that American gangsters were no better than "Hitler, Mussolini or Stalin" (This at a time went most Hollywood studios were treading very lightly in the field of current affairs, terrified of losing the valuable European market) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Spunky Joan Blondell is practically the whole show in the diverting comedy Good Girls Go to Paris. Blondell is cast as ambitious college-campus waitress Jenny Swanson, who yearns to see the sights in Gay Paree. She gets her chance by latching onto British exchange professor Ronald Brooke (Melvyn Douglas), who is en route to the City of Light. Once she sets foot on French soil, Jenny proves the veracity of the film's title by straightening out the wayward family of dyspeptic millionaire Olaf Brand (Walter Connolly)-though for a while it looks as though she's a "bad girl", merely out to take the Brands for every penny they've got. In later years, Joan Blondell ruefully recalled that the film's original title was Good Girls Go to Paris Too, but the Hays Office nixed that harmlessly suggestive monicker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide