Dick Curtis Movies

The locale may be South of Arizona, but the on-screen personnel in this Charles Starrett western is virtually the same as in all previous Starrett vehicles. The star plays rancher Clay Travers, who lives and works in an area plagued by perpetual dust storms. Because the local populace is forced to walk around with handkerchieves covering their faces, a gang of murderous outlaws is able to pull off their skullduggery in broad daylight. Travers vows to round up the bad guys, especially after they bump of the brother of his sweetheart Ann Madison (Iris Meredith). The supporting cast of South of Arizona includes the usual lineup of Starrett regulars, including heroine Meredith, singing sidekick Bob Nolan, villains Dick Curtis and Richard Fiske, and townsmen Edmund Cobb and Art Mix. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The locale is slightly different in the Charles Starrett western Call of the Rockies, but the familiar Starrett formula remains the same. Starrett plays Clint Buckley, who defends female rancher Ann Bradford (Iris Meredith) against mortgage-holding villain Matt Stark (Dick Curtis). The bad guy retaliates by framing Clint for murder, but our hero sets things right in a bone-shattering fistic battle royal. Donald "Slim" Grayson and the Sons of the Pioneers wander in and out of the action to render a trio of pleasant sagebrush ballads. In addition to Iris Meredith and Dick Curtis, Call of the Rockies features such Starrett-series perennials as Edward LeSaint, Edmund Cobb, and George Cheseboro. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When an innocent man (Kermit Maynard) is suspected of stealing cattle, he must struggle to clear his name. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Rising star Rita Hayworth puts in a little box-office duty in the Columbia "B" Juvenile Court. The star of the proceedings is Paul Kelly as crusading public defender Gary Franklin, who hopes to establish a Police Athletic League to give street kids a new chance in life. His toughest charge is Stubby (Frankie Darro), a born leader with potential for either the White House or the Electric Chair. Once he's won over Stubby, Franklin is able to get the rest of the neighborhood kids to attend his new athletic outfit. The far- reaching influence of Franklin's pet project is proven when a group of young punks change their minds about committing a robbery. As Franklin's girl friend Marcia Kelly, Rita Hayworth has virtually nothing to do but stand around and look pretty. ~ 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

This poverty-row quickie stars Ray Walker, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, and James Bush as troubleshooting telephone linemen Torchy, Slim and Eddie. When their supervisor is killed, the boys offer to adopt the dead man's "little" daughter Ann (Sally Blane), actually a curvaceous young lady for whom both men harbor romantic inclinations. Things get serious again when Eddie dies while stringing wire during severely inclement weather. This leaves Torchy and Slim to battle over Ann's affections-and neither one is much of a prize. With an unprepossessing cast and only fair production values, Crashin' Thru Danger could only hope to make back its cost, which wasn't much to begin with. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With Wild Horse Round-Up, cowboy star Kermit Maynard put his "Canadian Mountie" film series behind him to concentrate on orthodox western action. Maynard plays Jack Benson, who gallops to the aid of heroine Ruth Williams (Betty Lloyd). She cold-shoulders him, assuming that he's but one of the many villains who's been trying to force her off her property. But Jack proves his noble intent by rounding up the bad guys just in time for the railroad to make a generous offer for Ruth's spread. Wild Horse Round-Up affords Kermit Maynard ample opportunity for the spectacular riding stunts which made him famous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Truly made to order, The Singing Buckaroo starred former San Francisco Opera baritone Fred Scott in his second of thirteen singing Westerns for poverty row company Spectrum. In between warbling Johnny Lange and Fred Stryker's Cobweb 'Round My Saddle, Frankly Speaking and I'm a Wild Westerner, ranch owner Scott saves pretty Victoria Winton from a couple of pursuers attempting to steal the $25,000 she carries in her purse. Sam Gifford (Roger Williams, the owner of a corporation, turns up and claims Miss Winton stole the money from him. In reality, the girl and her father (William Faversham where attempting to hide the money from the unscrupulous Gifford, intending to hand it over to the company's stockholders. With the assistance of an Indian friend (Augie Gomez), Scott not only delivers the stolen money to the rightful owners but saves Miss Winton's father from a gang of kidnappers along the way. As in the previous Scott-Spectrum Western, the comedy relief was provided by double-talk expert Cliff Nazarro. Nazarro left the series after The Singing Buckaroo, to be replaced with Al St. John (for seven entries and Harry Harvey. A rare visitor to B-Westerns, supporting actor William Faversham had been a major star of the Victorian stage, ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Boothill Brigade stars Johnny Mack Brown as frontier do-gooder Lon Cardigan. Villainous land-grabber John Porter (Edward Cassidy) spends most of the early reels divesting homesteaders of the hard-earned property. All of this comes to an end when Cardigan looms into view, fists at the ready. Seldom resorting to gunplay, our hero manages to send Porter's minions scurrying, then concentrates on cleaning the main bad guy's clock. Produced by A.W. Hackel for Republic release, Boothill Brigade boasts considerably better cinematography than the usual Hackel product. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marked Woman was the most famous of the late-1930s films based on New York DA Thomas Dewey's attack on vice lord Lucky Luciano; Paid to Dance was among the least famous. All-purpose Columbia leading lady Jacqueline Wells plays Joan Bradley, a long-suffering hoofer in the seedy dime-a-dance joint controlled by racketeer Jack Miranda (Arthur Loft). Like her fellow "hostesses," Joan is expected to clip the customers for their bankrolls -- and, it is implied, offer their bodies as well as their terpsichorean skills (though we're assured that Joan is still pure of heart and every other portion of her anatomy). Crusading detective William Dennis (Don Terry) vows to save Joan and her ilk from Miranda's clutches, but it takes plenty of brains and muscle to topple the villain's criminal empire. Billed last, Ralph "Dick Tracy" Byrd has a marvelous moment when he takes on two hoodlums at once -- and wins! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Fred Scott musical westerns were high in audience appeal, but invariably handicapped with syrupy titles like Moonlight on the Range. On this occasion, our hero is suspected of being an outlaw, but the real culprit is his look-alike half-brother (Scott plays both roles). At first hoping to wreak vengeance on his crooked sibling. Scott relents at the end, bringing brother dear in unharmed in hopes of reforming the boy. The film's highlight is a fierce gun battle between hero and villain, with director Sam Newfield doing an excellent job differentiating the two brothers. In the course of events, Fred Scott sings four songs, several of them for the benefit of leading lady Lois January. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No relation to the radio program of the same name, The Shadow is a lightning-paced murder mystery with a Big Top background. Rita Hayworth plays Mary Gillespie, the young owner of a travelling circus in danger of losing financial control of her show to hissable bareback rider Peter Martinet (Donald Kirke). Since Martinet has made it known that he intends to fire everybody in the troupe, he has no shortage of dangerous enemies -- few more dangerous than knife-thrower Carlos (Dick Curtis) or hunchbacked horse-wrangler Vindecco (Dwight Frye). On cue, Martinet is murdered during a performance in front of hundreds of witnesses -- but how, and by whom? Road manager Jim Quinn (Charles Quigley) hopes to find out before the cops close the show down or lovely Mary is herself murdered, or both. The ending is a beaut, even if it does fly in the face of logic. Fans of Columbia's "Three Stooges" two-reelers will enjoy seeing such Stooge supporting players as Dick Curtis, Vernon Dent, John Tyrrell and Bess Flowers in important roles, while devotees of Universal's "Ma and Pa Kettle" features will get a kick out of Marjorie Main's interpretation of "the world's only female ringmaster." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide