Morgan Conway Movies
Actor Morgan Conway made his first film appearance in Looking for Trouble (1934). He arrived in Hollywood just in time to get on the ground floor of the industry's burgeoning labor movement; along with such notables as Boris Karloff and Lyle Talbot, Conway was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. While under contract to RKO in 1945, Conway was assigned to star in Dick Tracy, Detective, becoming the second actor to impersonate Chester Gould's jut-jawed comic-strip detective (Ralph Byrd was the first). After his brief spurt of stardom, Morgan Conway went back to secondary roles, leaving movies altogether in 1949. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1939
Sidney Toler made his second appearance as oriental sleuth Charlie Chan in the above-average Charlie Chan in Reno. It all begins when nervous young Mary Whitman (Pauline Moore) shows up in Reno to seek a divorce from husband Curtis Whitman (Kane Richmond). Before long, Jeanne Bentley (Louise Henry), another divorce-seeker, is found slain, and the police are certain that Mary, or her estranged husband, is responsible. It so happens that the Whitmans are from Honolulu, the stamping grounds of Charlie Chan, which is why our wily hero shows up in Nevada with son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) in tow. Every so often, the mystery slows down long enough for an amusing battle of wits between Chan and local sheriff Fletcher (Slim Summerville), who admittedly has only half the necessary ammunition. The billing order of the supporting cast is as usual a giveaway of the true killer's identity, but this doesn't lessen the enjoyment of this well-crafted programmer. Charlie Chan in Reno was based on Death Makes a Decree, a story by Philip Wylie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Toler, Ricardo Cortez, (more)
- 1939
Pat O'Brien is his usual likably obnoxious self in the Warner Bros. newspaper yarn Off the Record. While trying to smash a numbers racket, star reporter Breezy Elliot (O'Brien) takes tough young numbers-runner Mickey Fallon (Bobby Jordan) under his wing. The kid gets a job as a copy boy, earning the enmity of one and all because of his inability to keep his fists to himself. Mickey redeems himself-and, by extension, Breezy-when he engineers the capture of his gangster brother Joe Fallon (Alan Baxter). The romantic angle is handled by Breezy's gal Friday Jane Morgan (Joan Blondell), who eventually agrees to marry the hero only if he adopts the troublesome Mickey as his son (gee, things were so much simpler in the movies!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Joan Blondell, (more)
- 1939
In this crime drama, a shyster lawyer makes his living earning acquittals for his guilty clients. Most recently he freed a powerful crime lord. He comes to regret this when his daughter falls in love with the gangster. Despite his efforts to dissuade the criminal from pursuing the relationship, the gangster does. The desperate lawyer then kills the gangster and soon finds himself on trial for murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Tracy, Barbara Read, (more)
- 1939
Filmed on-location at the Naval Air Training Stations in San Diego, CA, and Pensacola, FL, this black-and-white Warner Bros. drama was dedicated to the U.S. Naval Aviation Service and probably served as propaganda when it was released in 1939, right before the U.S. involvement in WWII. Submarine officer Jerry Harrington (John Payne) goes to Pensacola to train as a flying cadet, just like his father and his brother, longtime airman Cass Harrington (George Brent). Jerry ends up falling for his brother's girlfriend, Irene Dale (Olivia deHavilland), which only increases the competition between the two brothers. After Cass gets injured, Jerry becomes a pilot in San Diego and Irene must choose which man she wants. Also starring Frank McHugh.
~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, (more)
- 1939
Banking on the popularity of the Warner Bros.' boxing saga Kid Galahad (37), the studio rushed into production with another, similarly titled prizefight picture. In Kid from Kokomo, Wayne Morris once more plays a small-town rube who's good with his fists. The "kid" becomes convinced that a drunken harridan (May Robson) is his mother, and invites her to move in with him. Since the old lady is a kleptomaniac, it doesn't take long for the law to breathe down Morris' neck. Pat O'Brien hangs around as Morris' manager, while Joan Blondell and Jane Wyman supply the feminine interest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Wayne Morris, (more)
- 1938
In this crime drama, a woman is told that a cop killed her brother in cold-blood during a shoot-out. The woman believes the crook, but this does not prevent her from falling in love with the injured policeman. When he finds out her relationship to the deceased he begins looking for the real killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Kelly, Larry Blake, (more)
- 1938
J. Carroll Naish positively oozes immigrant gangster charm in this fairly entertaining thriller from Paramount. He plays Louis Zonta, an immigrant gangster running a racket that transports wanted criminals. At their wits end, the authorities send in undercover agent Bent Martin (Robert Preston) to infiltrate the gang and the young G-Man concocts a plan to trap Zonta by using the gangster's mistress, Marie Arden (Judith Barrett). The scheme nearly backfires, but Martin finally manages to gun down the gang leader from his airplane. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- J. Carrol Naish, Mary Carlisle, (more)
At one time Universal's "prestige" director, James Whale had slipped off the A-list by the end of the 1930s; even so, his films remained both intriguing and entertaining. In Whale's Sinners in Paradise, an airplane bound for China cracks up during a storm and crash-lands on an uncharted South Sea island. All of the passengers, including nurse Anne Wesson (Madge Evans), fugitive criminal Robert Malone (Bruce Cabot), blonde strumpet Iris Compton (Marion Martin), crooked former senator Corey (Gene Lockhart), "radical" heiress Thelma Chase (Charlotte Wynters), munitions salesmen Honeyman (Milburn Stone) and Brand (Morgan Conway), and traveler Mrs. Sydney (Nana Bryant), survive unscathed. Forced to fend for themselves, the marooned passengers are helped along by resident beachcomber Jim Taylor (John Boles) and his servant Ping (Willie Fung). Taylor is staying on that island, hundreds of miles from the shipping lanes, for his own reasons, and won't use his boat to return the castaways to civilization -- a decision that doesn't sit well with the most mercenary members of the group, but interests Anne who, in addition to her desire to help in China, is running away from a loveless marriage. Jim is hiding from something a lot less romantic, that could threaten whatever future they might see for themselves. A remake of a silent film of the same name, Sinners in Paradise was extensively re-edited before its general release, just as Whale's previous The Road Back had been. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madge Evans, John Boles, (more)
- 1938
RKO Radio's ace short-subjects director Leslie Goodwins graduated to features with the economically produced Crime Ring. Allan Lane plays a hotshot newspaperman who takes on a phony spiritualist ring. The crooked soothsayers are in league with a band of stock swindlers, coercing the gullible into parting company with their life savings on the advice of the "dear departed." Teaming with unemployed actress Frances Mercer, Lane poses as a potential sucker to draw out the bad guys. Lane and Mercer prove to be too clever for their own good, however, and it's problematic as to whether or not they'll survive until the closing credits. Crime Ring was partially remade in 1950 as Bunco Squad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frances Mercer, Clara Blandick, (more)
- 1934
Unrelated to the same-named 1939 Sonja Henie vehicle, the 1934 Monogram release Happy Landing is an airborne cops-and-robbers affair. Ray Walker stars as brash U.S. border patrolman Nick Terris, on the trail of a gang of international crooks. Anticipating such later films as Assault on a Queen, the villains intend to rob an ocean liner. To keep the authorities at bay, the thieves threaten to drop a bomb on the ship from a stolen seaplane. Hero Terris is thus required to take to the air himself to foil the bad guys. Some nice aerial photography (credited to Archie J. Stout) is the principal redeeming factor of this standard effort. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Walker, William Farnum, (more)
- 1934
Joe Graham (Spencer Tracy), a troubleshooter for the telephone company, suspects that his beloved Ethel (Constance Cummings) is working for a crook. Joe and his partner Casey (Jack Oakie) investigate her boss, Dan Sutter (Morgan Conway), but they're caught by Sutter's goons and left to die in a fire. Joe however is able to set off the alarm, saving their lives. When Sutter turns up dead, Ethel is suspected of his murder, but Joe and Casey are able to track down the real killer: Pearl La Tour (Judith Wood), Sutter's former girlfriend, who gives them a confession that exonerates Ethel. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Constance Cummings, (more)
