Wallis Clark Movies

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

In this crime drama, a grizzled cabbie is scammed out of his life savings by a fake finance company. He tries to no avail to get police assistance. Finally he becomes a wanted criminal and escapes to California where he meets the girl who will become his wife. She helps him go straight by helping him set up a garage. When she gets pregnant, she talks him into to confessing his crimes to the police. He agrees, but before he goes, he decides to commit one last crime to ensure that his wife and child will not starve while he serves his prison sentence. He then steals a million dollars only to learn that the money is worthless. He is subsequently killed in a police shoot-out. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

British leading man Barry McKay made a respectable if unsuccessful bid at Hollywood stardom in Republic's Stolen Cargo. The plot is motivated by an association of crooked fruit growers who spend most of their time finding ways to cheat their workers out of their rightful pay. McKay is cast as Gerry Clayton, the son of one of the duplicitous growers (Ralph Morgan). Appalled by the plight of the migrant workers, many of whom are illegal aliens (hence the barely relevant title), Gerry champions their cause. The plot thickens when the conscience-stricken elder Clayton decides to pull out of the associations, at which point he is framed for murder (this may be one of the few films in existence in which Ralph Morgan doesn't play the guilty party!) Filmed on location in Southern California, Smuggled Cargo has plenty of energy to make up for its lack of credibility. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Films set during America's colonial era seldom did well at the box office, and Allegheny Uprising was no exception. John Wayne and Claire Trevor, stars of the recent western hit Stagecoach, are reteamed herein as 18th
century adventurer James Smith and his spitfire sweetheart Janie. Taking every opportunity to defy the edicts of the King of England, Smith and his ragtag followers, "The Black Boys," undermine the despotic regime of provincial governor Captain Swanson (George Sanders). To quell Smith's uprising, Swanson arrests nearly half the colonists and holds them without trial or recourse (he doesn't sport a black mustache and shout "Seig Heil", but audiences in 1939 knew exactly who Swanson was supposed to be). In depicting the English in an unsympathetic light, RKO Radio Pictures committed a major political blunder, inasmuch as the British were then engaged in their own struggle against Nazi tyranny. Fearful that the film would offend English viewers, RKO president George J. Schaefer consulted British producer Herbert Wilcox, who suggested a number of judicious cuts and line alterations in the film. Even so, Allegheny Uprising (originally The Last Rebel, also the title of the Neil H. Swanson novel on which it was based) failed to make a dent in the box-offices on either side of the Atlantic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With The Higgins Family, Republic Pictures launched its own economical variation on MGM's popular "Andy Hardy" series. The gimmick here was that three of the members of the Higgins clan-dad Joe, mom Lillian, grown son Sidney-were played by real-life husband and wife James and Lucile Gleason and their son Russell (daughter Marian was portrayed by Lynne Roberts, while crusty old Grandpop was essayed by Harry Davenport). In this initial entry, Joe Higgins' future at the advertising agency where he works is jeopardized by the radio popularity of wife Lillian. Pretty soon the Higgins kids are taking to the airwaves, leading inexorably to a serious conflict of interests and a divorce-court showdown. In the course of the hearing, Joe and Lillian tearfully admit that they're still in love with one another, and everybody lives happily ever after-until the next "Higgins Family" entry, that is. The film was produced by Sol C. Siegel, who went on to such loftier projects as The African Queen and Lawrence of Arabia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play You Can't Take It With You was transformed into a paean to populism by director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin. This is the story of the zany Sycamore household, presided over by Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore), a former businessman who has turned his back on commerce to enjoy life. At the Sycamores', everyone does just what he or she pleases. Penny Sycamore (Spring Byington), Grandpa's daughter, has become a novelist because someone delivered a typewriter to her home by mistake. Penny's husband makes firecrackers in his basement with the help of Mr. DePinna (Halliwell Hobbes), an iceman who showed up at the Sycamore doorstep one day and never left. Their daughter, Essie (Ann Miller), imagines that she's a prima ballerina, even though her dour teacher, Boris (Mischa Auer), assesses her work with, "Confidentially, it steenks!" Essie's husband, Ed (Dub Taylor), who'd rather play a xylophone than work, spends his free time selling Essie's candy, wrapping each package in paper from a used printing press that dispenses anarchistic slogans. The one normal member of the household is Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur), in love with wealthy Tony Kirby (James Stewart).

Naturally, when the stuffy, aristocratic Kirbys come to the Sycamores' for dinner, the event is a disaster, capped with the arrest of everyone in the household. Hart and Kaufman's third act found the previously judgmental Kirby softening his attitude toward the freewheeling Sycamore clan, admitting that he's never had so much fun in his life. Screenwriter Riskin altered the focus of the play by throwing out the third act and concentrating upon Tony Kirby's father, Kirby Sr., who as played by Edward Arnold is transformed from a stock stuffed shirt into a ruthless, grasping tycoon, eager to buy up every house on the Sycamores' block to make room for a munitions plant. The film thus became the story of Kirby's regeneration at the hands of the carefree Sycamores. Enough of the play's screwball elements are retained to compensate for Riskin's speechifying and plot distortions (though the softening of one of the play's vital ingredients, Grandpa's refusal to pay his income tax, borders on the sacrilegious). You Can't Take It With You earned several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Capra's third Oscar). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a popular drawing-room drama by Frederick Lonsdale, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney stars Joan Crawford as a jewel thief who poses as an aristocrat. It is Crawford's intention to pilfer a valuable pearl necklace while attending a society party in the company of partner-in-crime William Powell. Here she attracts the attention of Robert Montgomery, a young nobleman who is amused by Crawford's wittiness in the face of the haughty bitchery of Benita Hume. When Montgomery turns out to be a bounder and Powell and Crawford are revealed to be criminals, Crawford does some quick thinking that not only gets her off the hook but puts the two-faced Montgomery in his place as well. Previously filmed in 1929 with Norma Shearer in the lead, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney would itself be remade in 1951 as The Law and the Lady, with Greer Garson as the heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Chester Morris plays a working stiff unable to provide for his family on his meager salary. He arranges a loan with the seemingly benign Leo Carrillo, but soon learns that he can't keep up with the usurious interest payments. Carrillo's loan company is actually a racket in league with the local crime organization; Morris gets in so deep that he can't get out, and before long his wife and daughter are in dire jeopardy. As was customary at Columbia Pictures, the screenwriters were handed the title I Promise to Pay and then told to fashion a story from it. In this instance, inspiration came from a recent government crackdown on loan sharks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not a remake of the classic Laurel and Hardy 2-reel silent of the same name, Big Business was an early entry in 20th Century-Fox's Jones Family series. Mr. Jones (Jed Prouty) invests his life savings in an oil business, at the behest of football star Allan Lane. Neither Jones nor Lane are aware that the oil stock is worthless, and that their money has ended up in the pockets of racketeers. Awareness dawns when the oil wells yield only muddy water. Jones' oldest son (Kenny Howell) comes to the rescue of the hapless investors, while Mrs. Jones (Spring Byington) dispenses the "I told you so"s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A naive gas station attendant's life takes a turn for the better when he is adopted by an eccentric, boozy travelling millionaire who crosses the country in his own train. Accompanied by his beloved pet bunny, the former gas station jockey boards the train. Soon afterward, he is kidnapped by greedy gangsters and that is when the fun begins. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Unguarded Hour opens with prosecutor Sir Alan Deardon (Franchot Tone) in the midst of a murder trial. He gets his conviction, while his wife, Lady Helen (Loretta Young), sits furrow-browed on the sidelines. Helen had witnessed the murder and thus can prove that the condemned man (Dudley Digges) is innocent. But she cannot come forth with this information without revealing a past indiscretion in her husband's life, for which she is being blackmailed. To make a long story short, which MGM didn't, Sir Alan ends the film not as a prosecutor in a murder case, but as the prosecuted. Based on a play by Ladislas Fodor and Bernard Merivale, The Unguarded Hour represented the Hollywood debut of that splendidly satanic villain Henry Daniell, cast to type as the blackmailer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Myrna Loy plays the glamorous member of a trio of jewel thieves. G-Man Spencer Tracy goes undercover to join the gang when it transports its stolen jewels from Paris to New York. Loy falls in love with Tracy, has a change of heart, and quits the gang. But Tracy arrests her all the same when he recovers the jewels. The girl forgives Tracy when the latter is wounded in a climactic gun battle with the rest of the thieves. Why, oh why, is this thing called Whipsaw? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A couple of naïve girls get themselves unwittingly involved in the gambling racket in this Poverty Row production directed by the redoubtable Phil Rosen. Runaway Ann Jason (Ann Doran) finds shelter in big, bad New York City with the Traveler's Aid Society, one of those organizations run by bored socialites. The socialite in question is Dorothy Benson (Muriel Evans), the daughter of a state senator (Wallis Clark) who is advocating a bill that would legalize gambling and make the profits taxable. But the senator is murdered by gangster Ben Davis (Noel Madison), who is confident that the blame will fall on racketeer Dan Collins (Sidney Blackmer), the senator's foe. Investigating newspaper reporter Jimmie Dugan (Roger Pryor), meanwhile, would rather go to prison than divulge his sources but changes his mind when Davis kidnaps Ann and Dorothy. Disguised as a hobo, Jimmie locates both the girls and the gangsters and after the inevitable showdown reveals that he is an undercover G-Man. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide