Dick Curtis Movies

Regarded as the best of Columbia's "Lone Wolf" B-picture series, The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt stars Warren William as Michael Lanyard, a onetime criminal known as the Lone Wolf. He is determined to remain reformed for the sake of his daughter (Virginia Weidler), but a gang of foreign spies abducts Lanyard and force him to steal the blueprints for a secret anti-aircraft gun. Ever the ladies' man, Lanyard has two lovelies to contend with here: dizzy heiress Ida Lupino and seductive spy Rita Hayworth (just prior to her superstardom). Lone Wolf Spy Hunt is a remake of 1929's The Lone Wolf's Daughter, and like the earlier film is based on the character created by Louis Joseph Vance. Incidentally, the character of the daughter would never be seen or heard from after this 1939 film, though Warren William would make seven more appearances as the Lone Wolf. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a the journalist and editor of a prison newspaper is good enough, that he even contributes to outside publications, but still encounters difficulty after he is released. With the help of a prison loan, he buys his own little printing press and begins attacking the crooked politicians who have been dictating what the major dailies can and cannot print. His heated essays result in the firing of the prison warden. Fortunately, the ex-con successfully helps the ousted warden become the next state governor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Seldom was the identity of a "mystery" villain so obvious than in the 15-chapter Columbia serial Overland With Kit Carson. Bill Elliot plays the title character, who teams with cavalry lieutenant Brent (Richard Fiske) to rid the West of the mysterious megalomaniac known only as "Pegleg." While on the job, Carson falls in love with Spanish aristocrat Carmelita (Iris Meredith), who like the rest of the cast is heading Westward by wagon train. As the expedition moves ever forward, the elusive Pegleg does his best to sabotage the wagons and kill off anyone who tumbles to his true identity. He needn't have gone to all that trouble: it won't be hard for the viewer to guess who the villain really is once the cast list of Overland with Kit Carson is flashed upon the screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A scientist's greatest invention proves to be his darkest curse in this thriller that was part of Columbia and star Boris Karloff's "mad doctor" series. Karloff stars as Dr. Henryk Savaard, a brilliant heart expert who has created a pump that will allow him to place a patient in a state of death so that vital organs can be replaced with few problems. His first experiment on a human quickly goes awry when his nurse Betty (Ann Doran) sends for the police. The experiment is interrupted leaving the young man dead and Savaard in jail. He is sentenced to hang, but unleashes a bitter diatribe against his executioners promising to avenge his death. After his hanging, Savaard's assistant, Stoddard (Joseph DeStefani), hooks up the corpse to the heart pump and resurrects his boss. Several months pass and a local reporter (Robert Wilcox) discovers that six of the jurors in the case have mysteriously committed suicide -- all by hanging. The newsman's investigation leads him to follow the judge, the prosecutor, nurse Betty, and the surviving jurors to a specially arranged meeting at Savaard's former home. There, they are stunned to discover that Savaard is not only alive, but planning to execute them one by one every 15 minutes. As the bodies quickly begin to pile up, it is through the one person close to Savaard's heart that they can hope to make it out alive. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide

Former outlaw Charles Starrett goes straight and becomes a sheriff. In this capacity, he tries to bring his old partners in crime to justice. They don't cotton to this, and thereby hang the conflict. Everything is solved in a climactic fistfight with all-around villain Dick Curtis. Iris Meredith is the heroine, Hank Bell is the comedy relief, Edward LeSaint is the local authority figure, Bob Nolan provides the musical interludes, and Sam Nelson directs. In other words, Thundering West is virtually indistinguishable from the previous entries in Columbia's Charles Starrett western series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The only new things in Riders of Black River are the character names; otherwise, it's a by-the-numbers Charles Starrett western, right down to the usual Starrett supporting cast: Iris Meredith, Dick Curtis, Bob Nolan, Edmund Cobb et. al. Former Texas Ranger Wade Patterson (Starrett) returns to his home town, only to find that the territory is in the grip of cattle rustlers. For a while, it looks as though heroine Linda Holden (Meredith) is in cahoots with the bad guys, but Patterson quickly clears her name and takes on the crooks himself. The climax is a no-rules fistfight between Patterson and chief heavy Blaize Carewe (Dick Curtis). So often did Charles Starrett and Dick Curtis duke it out on screen that a feature film could have been made up of their battles alone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Three Stooges found themselves in Egypt in this typical two-reel farce, the team's second release of 1939. Hired by the respected Museum of Ancient History to return a kidnapped archaeologist (Bud Jamison), private eyes Moe, Larry, and Curly travel to the Pyramids and the Tomb of Rutentuten. In order to fool the kidnappers, Curly is wrapped in bandages like a mummy, the absolute highlight in an otherwise below-average Stooges short. We Want Our Mummy marked the return to the series of Eddie Laughton, a veteran stock company member who had been absent for the previous 13 entries. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Curly), are tramps in this two-reel comedy directed by Jules White. The boys come to the assistance of the Widow Jenkins (Eva McKenzie), who has just been cheated out of her land by a couple of swindlers (Dick Curtis and Richard Fiske). Attempting to fix the woman's well, the Stooges instead unleash an oil geyser. They manage to retrieve the deed to the land and are allowed to marry the now wealthy Widow Jenkins' daughters, April (Linda Winters), May (Lorna Gray), and June (Dorothy Moore). Starlets Winters and Gray later gained some notoriety under different names. Miss Winters became Dorothy Comingore and played Susan Alexander, the tragically untalented singer in Citizen Kane (1941). Miss Gray later signed with Republic Pictures and played Western heroines as Adrian Booth. Footage from Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise ended up in the similar Oil's Well that Ends Well (1958). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

There's That Woman Again was the second and last entry in Columbia's own spin on MGM's "Thin Man" series. Virginia Bruce and Melvyn Douglas star as Sally and Bill Reardon, husband-and-wife private eyes (Bruce took over from Joan Blondell, who costarred with Douglas in 1938's There's Always a Woman). This time around, the Reardons investigate a series of jewel robberies which lead to a brace of murders. At times the comedy threatens to overwhelm the mystery angle, but rest assured that Bill Reardon will have collared the guilty party (or, in this case, guilty parties) a few minutes before closing. In emulation of MGM's "Thin Man" art direction, the leading characters in There's That Woman Again live in a lavishly furnished apartment roughly the size of Rhode Island. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this prison drama, a female robber is sent to prison. She is the only one in the gang who knows the location of the loot and so the rest of them are anxious to free her. One of the desperate robbers frames the warden's daughter for murder so he can blackmail the prison leader. It doesn't work and the woman remains incarcerated. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Cattle Raiders is a standard-issue Charles Starrett western, right down to the usual supporting players (Iris Meredith, Dick Curtis, Edward LeSaint et. al.) Once again, Starrett (this time going by the name of Tom Reynolds) is forced to clear himself of a murder charge. This he does in record time, with barely a scratch on his face or a wrinkle in his clothes. It is giving away absolutely nothing to reveal that the genuine killer is played by Dick Curtis, who spent most of the 1930s and 1940s duking it out with Starrett in one western after another. Between action highlights, Donald "Slim" Grayson and the Sons of the Pioneers offer several westernized tunes, including the amusingly wry "This Ain't the Same Old Range." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Singing cowboy Smith Ballew is the nominal star of Rawhide, but the audience only had eyes for Ballew's co-star: baseball-great Lou Gehrig, in his one-and-only screen appearance. Gehrig plays "himself"-that is, he's a rancher named Lou Gehrig. Pressured by crooks to give up his spread, Gehrig, his sister (Evelyn Knapp) and cowboy-lawyer Ballew inspire the neighboring ranchers to form a united front. During a climactic fist-fight in a pool hall, Gehrig utilizes his pitching skills to subdue the villains. A fan of B westerns in real life, Gehrig does his best to fit into the proceedings of Rawhide; his acting is strictly from hunger, but he does possess an imposing physique and an eagerness to the please the filmgoers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide