Lester Dorr Movies

Judging by such films as Shadows of Suspicion, it's too bad that leading man Peter Cookson eventually elected to leave the movies in favor of the Broadway stage. Cookson is cast as Jimmy, an enterprising private detective who hits upon a most unusual method of solving a jewel robbery. With the help of his partner Northrup (Tim Ryan), Jimmy frames himself as the primary suspect, so that he can operate undetected to expose the genuine thief. Needless to say, the plan backfires by mid-film. But with pretty Marjorie Weaver as the unwitting courier of the stolen jewels, it's a safe bet that the truth will out before the film's 68 minutes have expended themselves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An engagingly silly Charlie Chan whodunit from Poverty Row company Monogram, The Jade Mask mixed science fiction with Old House melodramatics and a generous dose of comedy. The venerable Chinese detective (Sidney Toler) is this time assigned by the government to establish the whereabouts of Harper (Frank Reicher), a scientist experimenting with a formula that may turn wood into solid steel. Harper, of course, turns up very much murdered and his strange house is virtually teeming with suspects. There is the dead man's Mrs. Danvers-like sister (Edith Evanson), a vaudeville strongwoman (short subject regular Dorothy Granger), the ubiquitous British-accented butler (Cyril Delevanti), and a mute garage mechanic (Lester Dorr). Several additional murders occur right under Chan's nose -- which nobody seems to particularly mind, least of all hayseed sheriff Al Bridge -- and corpses appear to be walking up and down staircases. Despite interference from manservant Birmingham Brown (the always welcome Mantan Moreland) and the inevitably dense Number Four Son (Edwin Luke), good old Charlie manages to catch the killer -- or killers -- within the allotted 66 minutes. Moreland and Luke, the real-life brother of Number One Son Keye Luke, perform their usual comedic asides, but the best lines are awarded to Preston Sturges stock-company regular Al Bridge as the plainspoken, homily spouting sheriff. Incidentally, although masks are indeed featured in The Jade Mask, none of them is made of jade. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Bob Kane's 1939 Detective Comics superhero The Batman came to the screens in serial form courtesy of Columbia Pictures and producer Rudolph C. Flothow. In time-honored serial fashion, Flothow chose Lewis Wilson for the title role, a relative newcomer, but one with an amazing facial resemblance to the cartoon character. Wilson's athletic ability, however, left a lot to be desired and Douglas Croft, cast as young sidekick Robin, the Boy Wonder, looked too old for his role, especially when doubled by a hairy-legged stunt man. For censorship purposes, the serial Bruce Wayne was not a lone Gotham millionaire crusader but gainfully employed by the Unites States government. Said government is terrorized by evil Dr. Daka (J. Carroll Naish), an emissary from Emperor Hirohito complete with atom-smasher ray guns and a device that turns its wearers into zombies. (The device, placed on the skull of its victim, resembles something from a child's Erector set.) Batman and Robin are aided by lovely Linda Page (Shirley Patterson), whose uncle (Gus Glassmire) becomes one of Dr. Daka's first victims. From the Bat Cave, the three crusaders and Wayne's butler, Alfred (William Austin), venture forth to battle the forces of evil in general and a scenery-chewing Naish in particular -- travelling in a convertible and not the later so familiar batmobile. It takes them 15 chapters and a race through an amusement park to finally destroy the evil Daka and the title of the concluding chapter, "Doom of the Rising Sun," must have brought a ray of hope to a war-weary populace. The Batman was directed by Lambert Hillyer, a veteran who knew something about bats from having previously helmed Dracula's Daughter. The serial was popular enough to merit a sequel, although it would take six more years until Columbia debuted The New Adventures of Batman and Robin (1949). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this flag-waving adventure, the Masked Marvel helps keep the world safe for capitalism by taking on the evil Japanese agent Sakima who is trying to take over the World-Wide Insurance Company. The film was originally a 12-part serial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Released in late August of 1942, Sabotage Squad was the last of Columbia's B-budget wartime melodramas of the 1941-42 season. Edward Norris stars as Eddie Miller, a brash Broadway bookie who stumbles upon a nest of Nazi saboteurs. Technically not the hero-Bruce Bennett and Kay Harris are top-billed-Norris domaniates the plotline, going through much the same "good bad guy" paces previously trod by Humphrey Bogart in the strikingly similar All Through the Night. Sidney Blackmer, who managed to show up in a number of low-budget films without ever giving the impression of "slumming," provides smooth and subtle menace as the head Nazi. Also in the cast are Columbia contractees John Tyrrell and Eddie Laughton, taking a break from their accustomed duties in the studio's westerns and "Three Stooges" comedies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Monogram's So's Your Aunt Emma owes whatever success it enjoys to its star, the incomparable ZaSu Pitts. The fluttery ZaSu plays a countrified maiden aunt who comes to the big city when her nephew Roger Pryor gets into trouble with the Law. Seems that Pryor is inextricably involved with gangsters, who fear no one-except a certain notorious murderess. Through complications too humorous to mention, the bad guys become convinced that ZaSu is the killer, allowing her free reign in the underworld until she can clear Pryor's name. So's Your Aunt Emma was released to television as Meet the Mob. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Irene Dunne plays a flibbetygibbet socialite who inherits a farm in Arizona. She can't seem to manage either her money or her private life, thus seeks advice from outside sources. Irene falls in love with fledgling Manhattan psychiatrist Patric Knowles, and marries him in the hope that he'll solve all her problems. Lady in a Jam was advertised as one of the most expensive comedies ever made; the studio was banking on the reputations of star Irene Dunne and director Gregory LaCava to draw crowds. But when the film failed (it shifted emotional gears a bit too often for 1942 film fans), both the lady and the gentleman found their careers in "a jam"--from which Dunne recovered but LaCava didn't. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like Harmon of Michigan and Smith of Minnesota, Columbia's Spirit of Stanford is built around the talents of a real-life college football star, in this instance all-American quarterback Frankie Albert. The story is cut from a familiar cloth, with Albert's arrogance getting him into all sorts of trouble before he gets his head on straight. At first intending to quit school before graduation to go professional, our hero relents at the last moment when his roomate falls ill just before the Big Game. The climax is well worth the wait, with Albert performing admirably and convincingly on the football field against a formidable lineup of genuine college athletes. Columbia contractee Marguerite Chapman is the love interest, while another Stanford gridiron great, Ernie Nevers, shows up in a cameo role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Hollywood "establishment" had been waiting a long time for maverick director Gregory La Cava to fall from grace, and when his Unfinished Business failed to live up to its expectations, La Cava's enemies swooped down like vultures. Seen today, the film is hardly one of the director's best efforts, but neither is it his worst. Irene Dunne stars as aspiring singer Nancy Andrews, who falls desperately in love with playboy Steve Duncan (Preston Foster). When it becomes clear that Steve isn't about to take their casual relationship seriously, Nancy marries his brother Tommy (Robert Montgomery) on the rebound. After a fun-filled honeymoon, the couple can't seem to adjust to the "normalcy" of married life; as a result of this and Nancy's ongoing fascination with older brother Steve, the disillusioned Tommy walks out on her and joins the army. Only when Nancy deals with the "unfinished business" of her unrequited love for Steve can she and Tommy find true happiness. There are many deft LaCava-esque directorial touches in Unfinished Business, but for the most part the film could have been made by any Hollywood director; still, the film does not deserve its current tarnished reputation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Celebrity fan-dancer Sally Rand, the undraped sensation of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, was the star of the 1938 Grand National production The Sunset Murder Case. Borrowing a page from the Bob Steele westerns, La Rand is cast as a nightclub dancer who hopes to avenge her father's murderer. She gets a job in the establishment run by the man she holds responsible for the killing, maintaining a harmless front by performing a nightly exotic dance (which by 1990s standards is about as erotic as a plastic shower curtain). In his first leading role, Reed Hadley plays the hero who rescues Sally in the nick of time, while Henry King's orchestra provides the music. In perpetual reissue well into the 1940s and 1950s (this synopsis is based on its 1941 re-release), Sunset Murder Case was sometimes retitled The Sunset Strip Case on the grind-house circuit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Faith, Hope and Charity motivate the wacky storyline of Columbia's Three Girls About Town--or to be more exact, gorgeous sisters Faith, Hope and Charity Banner, played respectively by Binnie Barnes, Joan Blondell and Janet Blair. Faith and Hope are gainfully employed as New York hotel hostesses, whose job it is to entertain wealthy out-of-town conventioneers (but no hanky panky, if you please!) They've remained in this profession in order to afford the expensive private-school education of their sister Charity, who shows up in the Big Apple in pursuit of her own career, or a wealthy husband, or both. Charity's arrival coincides with several big-time conventions, one of which is being covered by Faith's newspaper-reporter boyfriend Tommy Hopkins (John Howard). Things get dicey when the three girls discover a corpse in one of the hotel rooms. Certain that they'll be blamed for the death (or at the very least fired from their jobs!), the sisters conspire with Tommy to hide the body from the cops. Trouble is, the body just won't stay hidden, not even when our heroines try to dispose of the awkward stiff in one of the coffins brought into the hotel for an undertaker's convention. Blessed with a generous supply of belly-laughs and an unending stream of familiar character actors, Three Girls About Town sustains a proper level of zaniness right up to the cop-out finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though based on a stage play by Laurence Gross and Edward Childs Carpenter (previously filmed as an Ernest Truex vehicle in 1933), MGM's Whistling in the Dark was clearly inspired by the success of Paramount's Bob Hope comedy-mystery The Ghost Breakers. In his first film starring role, Red Skelton plays radio actor Wally Benton, better known to his fans as that intrepid crime-solver "The Fox". On the eve of his wedding to perennial fiancee Carol Lambert (Ann Rutherford), Wally is summoned to the mansion of cult leader Joseph Jones (Conrad Veidt). Though he preaches a message of "radiant contentment" to his followers, Jones is actually a racketeer who hopes to get his hands on a $1,000,000 inheritance. The only person standing in the way of Jones' windfall is the sole heir, mild-mannered Mr. Upshaw (Lloyd Corrigan), who is about to take a business trip by plane. Impressed by "The Fox"'s encyclopedic knowledge of crime, Jones wants Wally to plan a "perfect murder", one which will put Upshaw out of the way without detection. Naturally, Wally balks at this, but he is persuaded to go along with Jones when the latter kidnaps both Carol and Fran Post (Virginia Grey), the daughter of Wally's sponsor (Henry O'Neill). Considerately, Jones gives Wally till 11 o'clock to come up with his plan, leaving our hapless hero in the "care" of hulking henchman Sylvester (Rags Ragland). Fully aware that neither his life nor those of Carol and Fran will be worth five cents once Upshaw is murdered, Wally spends most of the evening trying to concoct a way out of his jam. Full of hilarious one-liners and sidesplitting slapstick, Whistling in the Dark is also quite suspenseful--especially in the final reel, wherein the best line is delivered by the pop-eyed potential murder victim. So well received was Whistling in the Dark that MGM rushed out two sequels, also starring Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford and a "reformed" Rags Ragland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide