Claudia Drake Movies
Dark-eyed American leading lady Claudia Drake made her first film appearance in the Hopalong Cassidy western False Colors. Drake went on to a variety of assignments at such second-rung studios as Republic, Monogram and PRC. Her most famous role was the other female lead in the cult classic Detour (1946); as Tom Neal's nightclub-singer girlfriend, Drake was permitted to warble "I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me" before relinquishing Neal to top-billed Anne Savage. Claudia Drake's last film characterizations were Indian "squaws," a demeaning term even back in 1949: she played Turquoise in Indian Agent and Lucky Broken Arm in Cowboys and the Indians. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1957
One of the more diverting byproducts of the short-lived Calypso craze was this quickie Allied Artists musical. What plot their is concerns a lover's quarrel between TV personality Ed Kemmer and stewardess Angie Dickinson. When Dickinson runs off to South America, Kemmer follows. As they try to patch up their differences, the viewer is regaled by a vast array of topnotch musical performers. Among the special guest stars spotlighted herein are Herb Jeffries (who in the 1930s was Hollywood's only black singing cowboy), the Easy Riders, Duke of Iron, Lord Flea and his Calypsonians and the Lester Horden Dancers. Conspicuous by his absence is the real Calypso Joe, a Hawaii-based entertainer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herb Jeffries, Angie Dickinson, (more)
- 1953
Northern Patrol was the last entry in Monogram/Allied Artists' off-and-on "Northwest Mountie" series. Taking time off from his Sky King shooting schedule, Kirby Grant stars as mounted policeman Rod Webb, while second billing is bestowed upon Webb's faithful dog Chinook. In this one, Webb tries to prove that the suicide of a young trapper was actually murder. The film offers a dash of novelty value in having the principal baddie turn out to be a beautiful woman (Marion Carr). Scripted by actor Warren Douglas, Northern Patrol was directed by Rex Bailey, the former assistant to the series' original helmsman, Frank McDonald. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirby Grant, Marian Carr, (more)
- 1952
The title refers to the euphoric pleasures of motorcycle racing, a sport that is exploited to the breaking point in this film. Reckless racer Bill Williams and his cycle-designer buddy Steve Flagg come to blows over the lovely Carla Balenda (a blonde in this picture, a brunette in other films). This tenuous plot device is used as a framework for an endless flow of film clips shot at real-life racing events--crashes, hairbreadth rescues and all. Since this was made before The Wild One, the correlation between motorcycles and leather-jacketed hoodlums is not touched upon. The Pace That Thrills is recommended primarily for motorcycle buffs; other viewers will be less than thrilled. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Williams, Carla Balenda, (more)
- 1949
In this western, a cowboy comes to the aid of the Indians. The story begins as hero, Gene Autry, begins an investigation of a series of Indian raids. They had been stealing food from homesteads located around the reservation. Autry is appalled to discover that they have been taking the food because a sleazy Indian agent has been cheating them out of their food allotments and they are starving to death. Autry saves the Indians and sees that the dishonest agent is punished. He then watches the romance between his female assistant and the Indian chief. Songs include: "One Little Indian Boy," "America," "Silent Night," and "Here Comes Santa Claus." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Sheila Ryan, (more)
- 1948
The direction of Lady at Midnight is credited to Sherman Scott, who was really our old friend Sam Newfield, aka Peter Stewart, possibly the most prolific director in "B"-picture history. Radio newscaster Peter Wiggins (Richard Denning) and his wife Ellen Wiggins (Frances Rafferty) hope to adopt little Tina (Lora Lee Michel), the foster child who's lived with them for seven years. The Wiggins' efforts are blocked by a mysterious party who claims to be the child's parent. What starts as a standard legal maneuver quickly degenerates into murder, as private eye Al Garrity (Ralph Dunn) tries to discern the motives behind the unknown killer's behavior. Though no cliché is left unturned, Lady at Midnight is acceptable non-think entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Denning, Frances Rafferty, (more)
- 1948
In the early 1930s, Tom Keene was RKO's resident western star. By 1948, Keene had changed his name to Richard Powers, and had slipped unobtrusively into supporting roles. Back at RKO for Indian Agent, Keene/Powers plays a crooked government man who has been rerouting the Indian's food supplies to fatten his own bank account. Racing to the rescue is Tim Holt, who forestalls an Indian uprising in order to bring the duplicitous agent to justice. Indian Agent also features a character performance by Noah Beery Jr. (usually cast as the bucolic best friend of the hero) as a proud Native American chief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Holt, Noah Beery, Jr., (more)
Actually it's Rin Tin Tin III, grandson of the legendary silent-movie canine star. Filmed in less than glorious Vitacolor, Return of Rin Tin Tin stars Donald Woods as an American priest assigned to a postwar European mission. Bobby Blake (later Baretta star Robert Blake) is a young war orphan whose harrowing experiences have soured him on mankind. Father Woods brings the boy to America, but the lad is still unapproachable until he befriends Rin Tin Tin. The dog restores the boy's zest for living and faith in humanity. A villain threatens to take the dog away, but all ends happily (and tearfully). While not on a par with MGM's Lassie pictures, PRC Pictures' Return of Rin Tin Tin has its heart in the right place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Woods, Claudia Drake, (more)
- 1946
In his penultimate musical Western for Columbia, Ken Curtis played Curt Norton, a returning G.I. planning to convert his family's Western radio station into television. Unfortunately, Curt's father Amos (Guy Kibbee) has not been taking proper care of the station. Not only that, but a rival station owned by Eddie Jackson (Robert Stevens) has gained the upper hand in the market, and Eddie himself is dating Curt's former girlfriend Jean (Joan Barton). To recoup his losses and regain his share of the market, Curt arranges a giant auction-cum-hoedown. Eddie answers by hiring an actress, Mimi (Claudia Drake), to impersonate Curt's non-existent French war-bride. Despite the scandal, Curt goes ahead with his plans. Mimi, meanwhile, regrets her actions and confesses all, causing Eddie to receive the beating of his life. The auction is successful and Curt gets his television license. This very minor horse opera flirted dangerously with what would eventually kill the genre, television. Broadcasting, however, was still in its infancy and movie producers were not overly alarmed, yet! Curtis didn't make it as a singing cowboy, but he went on to enjoy a lengthy career as a supporting actor, notably as "Festus" on the long-running television series Gunsmoke. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1946
In one of his better Monogram Westerns, Johnny Mack Brown goes up against a crooked saloon owner with more than one murder on his conscience. Steve Corbin (Tristram Coffin) and his gang of cutthroats are terrorizing the townspeople of Rimrock, who in self-defense hire Johnny Macklin (Mack Brown) as new town marshal. Corbin, meanwhile, kills a miner for his claim and threatens the local newspaper editor, Diane Foster (Reno Browne), who happens to be the daughter of Macklin's deputy, Idaho Jim Foster (Raymond Hatton). When a compromised jury returns a not guilty verdict, Macklin has Corbin transferred to the county seat but the villain manages to escape after killing a couple of witnesses. Naturally, the hero quickly hunts him down, restoring peace and tranquility to Rimrock. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour begins when hitchhiker Al Roberts (Tom Neal) accepts a ride from affable gambler Charles Haskell Jr. (Edmund MacDonald). When Haskell suffers a fatal heart attack, Roberts, afraid that he'll be accused of murder, disposes of the body, takes the man's clothes and wallet, and begins driving the car himself. He picks up beautiful but sullen Vera (Ann Savage), who suddenly breaks the silence by asking, "What did you do with the body?" It turns out that Vera had earlier accepted a ride from Haskell and has immediately spotted Roberts as a ringer. Holding the threat of summoning the police over his head, Vera forces Roberts to continue his pose so that he can collect a legacy from Haskell's millionaire father, who hasn't seen his son in years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Neal, Ann Savage, (more)
- 1946
This initial entry in Monogram's Bowery Boys series is also the second remake of the 1933 film He Couldn't Take It (the original script was by no less than Dore Schary, billed for reasons best known to himself as Jeb Schary). Leo Gorcey stars as Slip Mahoney, a pugnacious type whose volatile temper loses him one job after another. Slip's sister Mary (Pamela Blake), secretary to construction executive Sayers (John Eldredge), persuades her boss to use his influence to get Slip a job as a process server. After successfully repossessing a car belonging to nightclub thrush Jeannette (Claudia Drake), Slip and his fellow "skip tracer" Sach Jones (Huntz Hall) endeavor to serve a subpoena to homicidal gangster Patsy Clark (Mike Mazurki). Though the boys get quite a going over from the "playful" Patsy, they not only successfully complete their mission, but also prove that the supposedly respectable Sayers is a criminal mastermind. Essentially a vehicle for Leo Gorcey, Live Wires pushes the rest of the Bowery Boys (Bobby Jordan, Billy Benedict et. al.) into the background; it wasn't until the second series entry In Fast Company that the former "East Side Kids" truly became a team again. Bernard Gorcey, who later played sweet-shop owner Louie Dumbrowski, is seen herein as a small-time gambler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, (more)
- 1946
Director William "One Take" Beaudine handles Face of Marble with his usual hasty professionalism. John Carradine stars as Professor Randolph, a brilliant brain surgeon. At the moment, Randolph and his assistant David Cochran (Robert Shayne) are experimenting with restoring the dead to life. But there's an unfortunate side-effect: the deceased sailor upon whom Randolph conducts his first human experiment promptly turns to marble when he's revived from the dead. All of this is eventually tied in with the clandestine romance between Cochran and Randolph's faithless wife Elaine (Claudia Drake), and with the sinister incantations of voodoo practitioner Marika (Rosa Rey). John Carradine is quite good, considering the circumstances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Carradine, Claudia Drake, (more)
- 1946
When a local banker is killed in the West, G-man Kirby Grant and partner Fuzzy Knight investigate and uncover an insurance scam. ~ All Movie Guide
Alan Curtis plays a hired Union agent who's been dispatched to capture a Confederate gal who's the leader of some ravaging rebels. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1945
An offbeat Universal murder mystery, Crimson Canary is set in the very special world of jazz musicians. A duplicitous songstress is murdered, and the prime suspects are members of a nightclub jazz combo. John Litel, the detective assigned to the case, is himself a jazz fan and thus takes proprietary interest in the band. As suspicion shifts from one musician to another, those involved with the case (notably Lois Collier, the girlfriend of one of the musicians) dig deeper into the clues, discovering at last that the culprit is someone with no music in his soul at all. Though the plot is nothing special, the wall-to-wall music and "hip" ambience of Crimson Canary result in a better than average Universal "B". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noah Beery, Jr., Lois Collier, (more)
The title The Lady Confesses is slightly misleading, since it's the hero of the film is accused of murder. On the eve of his marriage to Vicki McGuire (Mary Beth Hughes), Larry Craig (Hugh Beaumont) discovers that his first wife Norma (Barbara Slater), long missing and presumed dead, is very much alive. Shortly thereafter, Norma is killed, and Larry is the number one suspect. To save her sweetie, Vicki becomes an amateur detective, hoping to expose the genuine murderer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Beth Hughes, Hugh Beaumont, (more)
Her Favorite Patient is the TV title for Bedside Manner, an improbable comedy directed by future master of "realism" Andrew L. Stone. Ruth Hussey plays a big-city doctor who travels to a small town to assist her surgeon uncle (Charlie Ruggles). The townsfolk resist the notion of a female physician, but she wins them over by proving to be an expert on all things medical. Test pilot John Carroll, love-struck by Ms. Hussey, fakes a head injury so that he can remain at her side. Despite her high I.Q., Hussey can't see through Carroll's ruse...or perhaps she prefers not to. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Carroll, Ruth Hussey, (more)
- 1945
In this crime drama a young woman leaves her unhappy life at home to become a sophisticated night club singer. Her first job is nearly fatal when she entangles herself with the mobsters who own the joint and learns too much about their operation. Her boss decides to kill her and make it look like suicide. An intrepid reporter disbelieves the report and exposes the truth to the public. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sheldon Leonard, Pamela Blake, (more)
Though the filmmakers claimed they were writing a biography of Nazi minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, this film is actually highly fictionalized and filled with patriotic propaganda. The story attempts to explain Goebbels' madness, blaming it on a love affair gone awry when he was a young aspiring playwright. The love in question was a young actress who spurns him. Goebbels cannot bear the rejection and swears that he will spend his life getting revenge upon her and those around her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudia Drake, Paul Andor, (more)
- 1943
A young Bar 20 cowboy is killed in this fine Hopalong Cassidy Western directed by the efficient George Archainbaud. Having signed an agreement making Hoppy (William Boyd), California Carlson (Andy Clyde), and Jimmy Rogers part owners of his ranch, young Bud Lawton (Tom Seidel) is promptly killed by a couple of strangers, Sonora (Glenn Strange) and Lefty (Pierce Lyden). The killers, it turns out, are working for crooked banker Mark Foster (Douglass Dumbrille), who has a look-a-like, Kit Moyer (also Seidel), waiting in the wings. To the consternation of Bud's sister, Faith (Claudia Drake), the imposter immediately plans to sell their valuable property to Foster, whose men are scaring the help away. When Hoppy attempts to halt the sale, the entire Bar 20 crew lands in jail, accused of being imposters themselves. To get rid of the opposition without appearing to be doing so, Foster plans to have the crooked sheriff (Roy Barcroft) release the men to the enraged townspeople, but Hoppy manages to force a confession from Kit and the villain is defeated in a final struggle. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Hopalong" Boyd, Andy Clyde, (more)
- 1943
Though released after Hoppy Serves a Writ, the 1943 Hopalong Cassidy entry Border Patrol was filmed first, to capitalize on America's new "Good Neighbor Policy" with Mexico. Hoppy (William Boyd) and his pals California (Andy Clyde) and Johnny (Jay Kirby), investigate a group of crooks who've been smuggling alien laborers across the border. The villains treat their Mexican help as virtual slaves, killing off anyone who complains. When Hoppy and company invade the illegal work camp, they're subject to a kangaroo court and sentenced to be hanged. But with the help of the Mexican prisoners, our heroes not only escape, but bring the bad guys to justice. Border Patrol features Robert Mitchum in an unbilled bit, but it's difficult to determine whether or not this was his first movie appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Hopalong" Boyd, Andy Clyde, (more)
- 1943
"It'll make you yell SOLID!" boasted the ads for the Monogram musical Campus Rhythm. Johnny Downs stars as Scoop, a rather long-in-tooth college newspaper correspondent who suspects something when a vaguely familiar-looking young lady enrolls in school. The girl is Joan (Gale Storm), a popular radio singer, who has walked out on her sponsor and returned to college under a pseudonym. Joan becomes the campus pariah when she is forced to drop out of a fund-raising college variety show because of her radio contract. But all is forgiven by the final reel, wherein Joan and the entire ensemble participate in a huge, cathartic production number. The film's biggest laughs are engendered by Candy Candido, he of the astonishigly versatile trick voice ("Ah'm feeelin'?mighty?.lowwwww"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Downs, Gale Storm, (more)
Better known as Reunion in France, this women's-magazine-style romantic melodrama was the first major production for director Jules Dassin -- who was promptly demoted back to the MGM "B" department when the picture tanked at the box office. Joan Crawford stars as Frenchwoman Michele de la Becque, who comes to believe that her fiancé, wealthy munitions manufacturer Robert Cortot (Philip Dorn) is a Nazi collaborator. When her suspicions are apparently corroborated, Michelle falls in love with Pat Talbot (John Wayne), a downed American aviator stranded in occupied Paris. Only then does Michelle discover that she's been all wrong about Cortot -- but what to do about Talbot, who has been marked for death by the Gestapo? Ava Gardner has a tiny role as a Parisian shopgirl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Crawford, John Wayne, (more)
