Eddy Chandler Movies

Burt Lancaster had one of his first starring roles in this hard-hitting prison drama. Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is a cruel, corrupt prison guard who has his own less-than-ethical ways of dealing with inmates, enough so that Joe Collins (Lancaster) -- the toughest inmate in the cell block -- has decided to break out. Collins tries to persuade Gallagher (Charles Bickford), the unofficial leader of the inmates and editor of the prison newspaper, to join him, but Gallagher thinks Collins' plan won't work. However, Collins does have the support of his cellmates, most of whom, like himself, wandered into a life of crime thanks to love and good intentions. Tom Lister (Whit Bissell) was an accountant who altered the books so he could buy his wife a mink coat. Soldier (Howard Duff) fell in love with an Italian girl during World War II and took the rap for her when she murdered her father. Collins pulled a bank job to raise money to pay for an operation that could possibly get his girl out of a wheelchair. And Spencer (John Hoyt) made the mistake of getting involved with a female con artist. After Munsey drives Tom to suicide and prevents Gallagher from obtaining parole, Gallagher joins up with Collins and his men in the escape attempt. Director Jules Dassin would next direct the influential noir drama The Naked City; six years later, he would move to Europe after political blacklisting prevented him from continuing to work in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Deadline at Dawn represented not only the sole film directorial effort of Broadway's Harold Clurman, but also the only cinematic collaboration between Clurman and his former Group Theatre associate, screenwriter Clifford Odets. While on shore leave in New York, sailor Alex (Bill Williams) is slipped a doped-up drink by B-girl Edna (Lola Lane). When he awakens, Alex discovers that she has been murdered. Though he believes that he's the killer, our hero is talked into locating the actual miscreant by philosophical cab driver gus (Paul Lukas) and nightclub dancer June (Susan Hayward). Adapted from a novel by Cornell Woolrich, Deadline at Dawn leans towards pretentiousness at times, but is redeemed by the no-nonsense performance by Susan Hayward. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Beautiful Cheat was one of the last B pictures produced by Universal studios before its merger with International Productions. The title character, played by Bonita Granville, is the secretary at a boys' reformatory. Sociology professor Noah Beery Jr. shows up to study the juvenile-delinquent mindset. Not surprisingly, he ends up taking a post-grad course in amour from the winsome Ms. Granville. The supporting cast includes such reliables as Irene Ryan, Milburn Stone, and Tommy Bond (the immortal "Butch" from the Little Rascals flicks). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Steinbeck cowrote this sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart-wrenching study of small-town hypocrisy. Shiftless Benny (who is never seen) has been tossed out of his Southern California town by the "proper" citizens. Drafted into the army, Benny is killed in action--and now that he's a hero, his old home town gears up for a Congressional Medal of Honor ceremony. Suddenly the same upright townsfolk who'd previously scorned Benny and his impoverished father (J. Carroll Naish) bend over backward to prove how much they "loved" the boy. Only Dorothy Lamour, playing Benny's former sweetheart, sees through the sham, though she's honor bound to celebrate Benny's heroism. A Medal for Benny bestows top billing upon Lamour, but the film's true star is J. Carroll Naish as Benny's volatile Italian papa--a performance which won Naish an Academy Award nomination. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Campy Bela Lugosi plays a deranged scientist in this Monogram -produced horror movie. This time, Lugosi and his partner John Carradine accidentally discover a Neanderthal frozen in ice. Elated, they haul the iceman back to their lab and prepare to free him. Sure enough the beetle-browed fellow is alive, but he isn't very bright, so Lugosi decides to give him a brain transplant. Carradine is appalled and unfortunately ends up as the donor. After the operation, Lugosi attempts to civilize the missing link. Unfortunately, he cannot and the early hominid ends up on a murderous rampage and must finally be destroyed. This was the last film Lugosi made for the low-budget movie studio. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Having ended its 11-year run at 20th Century-Fox, the "Charlie Chan" series set up shop at Monogram with the singularly uninspiring Charlie Chan in the Secret Service. Sidney Toler returns as the famed oriental detective, who, per the title, is now a government agent. His first assignment is to solve the murder of an inventor and recover the victim's secret plans. Two reels into the picture, all action grinds to a halt as Chan wearily interrogates the suspects. The identity of the murderer might have caught some filmgoers by surprise in 1944, but seasoned mystery fans will beon to the game the minute the culprit is introduced. The one saving grace of Charlie Chan in the Secret Service is the stereotypical but undeniably funny comedy relief of Mantan Moreland, making his first appearance as pop-eyed chauffeur Birmingham Brown. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Burlesque queen Ann Corio took time out of her runway activities in the 1940s to star in three Monogram features, of which Call of the Jungle was the last. Unlike the earlier Corio vehicles, Jungle is not an escapist musical but a somber drama-or at least, that was the intention. Wrapped in a fetching sarong, the star plays Tana, a South Sea damsel who doubles as an amateur detective. Unfortunately, Tana does not inform the authorities that she's taken it upon herself to track down a pair of jewel thieves, and as a result she is suspected of being a crook herself. With all the other leading man serving in WW2, Tana's romantic interest is played by James Bush, a capable if colorless character actor. Billed forth in Call of the Jungle is Claudia Dell, who once played Spanky's mom in the "Our Gang" series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this musical comedy, a plucky young woman launches a successful campaign and becomes mayor of her tiny hometown. Now she must also rid her town of rampant corruption and get it back on track. Songs include: "If You Are There," "You're the Fondest Thing I Am Of," "I'm Not Myself Anymore" (Ned Washington, Phil Ohman), "Sleepy Lagoon" (Jack Lawrence, Eric Coates), "I'm On My Way," "I Do" (Buddy Pepper, Inez James), "Take It And Git" (James T. Marshall, Johnny Green). ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Comedian Morey Amsterdam and cartoonist Milt Gross were responsible for the script of the low-budget comedy The Ghost and the Guest. James Dunn and Florence Rice play newlyweds Webster and Jackie Frye, who spend their honeymoon in a sinister old country house. Before long, the Fryes are besieged by a gang of crooks, searching for a fortune in diamonds. With the nervous help of black chauffeur Harmony Jones (Sam McDaniel), the honeymooners attempt to outfox the villains. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this wartime espionage drama, Nazis open up a covert operation in the US. Outwardly it is a high-class dress shop, but inside it is really a counterfeiting operation in which the leader and his henchman make fake savings stamps in the hope of busting the morale of the good clients who spend their precious money to get the bonus stamps and suddenly discover they are worthless. Eventually some of the Nazi's customers begin to get suspicious. As a result they are murdered and used as mannequins in the store's window displays. Fortunately a sharp eyed reporter and a clever district attorney are able to find enough evidence to expose the evil-doers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

True to Life stars Dick Powell as a radio writer in search of saleable material. He comes up with a weekly sitcom about a typical American family. To soak up inspiration, he hangs around the household of waitress Mary Martin and her parents (Ernest Truex, Mabel Paige), transcribing their conversations for use on the air. When Mary listens to the radio and discovers that Powell's attentions towards her are strictly professional, she runs to the arms of Franchot Tone. But Powell convinces her that his ardor is genuine--while musical fans are disappointed that only one song has been sung in the whole of True to Life. Devotees of two-reel comedies will note the presence of veteran second bananas Billy Bletcher and Bud Jamison as two of the "family members" in Dick Powell's radio series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

As she burns at the stake, a 17th century witch, Jennifer (Veronica Lake), places a curse on her accuser (Fredric March), so that from this day forward, all of his descendants (each played by him) will be unhappy in marriage. After several hilarious through-the-years examples (the Civil War-era Fredric March runs off to battle rather than endure his wife's nagging), we are brought up to 1942. Wallace Wooley (March) is a gubernatorial candidate, preparing to wed snooty socialite Estelle Masterson (Susan Hayward) -- the well-to-do daughter of a publisher who is backing him. A bolt of lightning strikes the tree where Jennifer had been executed three centuries earlier, thereby freeing the spirits of Jennifer and her warlock father, Daniel (Cecil Kellaway). Wallace meets Jennifer when she materializes in a burning building, obliging him to save her life. The revivified sorceress does everything in her power to induce Wallace to fall in love with her -- even destroying the ceremony in which the wedding is supposed to take place. The attempts succeed, and the two marry, but on their wedding night, Wallace refuses to believe Jennifer's claims that she is a witch. Frustrated, she attempts to convince him by doctoring the gubernatorial election -- in his favor. Based on the Thorne Smith novel The Passionate Witch, the rollicking I Married a Witch can be considered the forerunner of the TV series Bewitched, but only on a surface level. The film had been scheduled to be directed by Preston Sturges and to be released by its producing studio, Paramount; the end result was helmed by René Clair (his second Hollywood film), and was distributed by United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi