Kenneth J. Bishop Movies

Versatile character actor (and offscreen golf pro) John Gallaudet is afforded a leading role in the 1939 cheapie Murder is News. When business magnate Edgar Drake (William McIntyre) decides to get even with his cheating wife Pauline (Doris Lloyd) and her attorney lover David Corning (John Hamilton), it's dollars to doughnuts that someone's going to wind up dead. Problem is, the victim is Drake himself. So who "done it": The wife, the lover, or Drake's own son, a popular orchestra leader? With the help of his "leg man" Brains McGillicudy (George McKay), Winchellesque radio commentator Jerry Tracy (Gallaudet) hopes to crack the case. The presence of Columbia contractees Gallaudet, McKay and Iris Meredith suggests that Murder is News was originally a Columbia picture, sold to fly-by-night Warwick Films for a quick turnover. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though it sure looks like a Columbia Production, Special Inspector was distributed by a States' Rights firm called Syndicate Films. Charles Quigley and Rita Hayworth, the William Powell and Myrna Loy of Columbia's B unit, star respectively as government treasury agent Tom Evans and his sweetheart Patricia Lane. When Patricia's brother is murderd by a gang of fur hijackers, she offers her services to the feds as an undercover operative. In other words, it is Paula, and not Tom, who is the "Special Inspector" of the title. The most surprising aspect of the film is that it contains practically no action at all, not even a climactic fistfight. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Hoping to build up contract players Charles Quigley and Rita Hayworth into a viable screen team, Columbia Pictures rushed the actors from one "B" production to another. Convicted tells the story of a diligent detective named Burns (Quigley) who is forced to arrest Chick Wheeler (Edgar Edwards), brother of Burns' sweetheart Jerry Wheeler (Hayworth), for murder. The more he thinks about it, the more Burns is convinced that Chick is innocent. With Jerry's help, Burns tracks down the genuine miscreant in the nightclub where the heroine works. Supporting player Edgar Edwards also adapted the screenplay of Convicted from a story by suspense master Cornell Woolrich. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this romance, a new man comes to a logging camp and learns of a conspiracy with a competitor. Unbeknownst to the other lumber jacks, the new hand is actually the owner's son in disguise. He soon falls in love with the camp's lovely manager, his father's business partner. It is not an easy love affair as the couple must deal with plenty of misunderstandings and engage in may adventures. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Devil worshipping and Chinese tongs were the selling points of this ultra low-budget thriller produced at Willow Park, B.C., Canada. Assigned to quell a Chinatown crime wave, private detective Donegal Dawn (Raymond Lawrence) discovers that his best friend, Robert Rand (Nick Stuart), has become infatuated with Zenobia, a beautiful but strange white girl clerking in Chan Tow Ling's curiosity shop. The girl, however, is frightened of something and warns Robert that they can never be together. That night, the lovesick youngster steals into the basement of the shop where he observes Zenobia officiating a weird ceremony. When the worshippers, known as the Order of the Black Robe, discover Robert's snooping, Zenobia either cannot or will not help him and he is led away. Dawn, meanwhile, tracks the cult to a hideout in the mountain. After a furious donnybrook at the top of a cliff, the detective is able to save both Robert and the entranced Zenobia. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi