Roland Drew Movies

The 1928 production Ramona was the third film version of the Helen Hunt Jackson novel of the same name, first dramatized (in one reel!) by D. W. Griffith in 1910. Dolores Del Rio plays the title character, the ward of domineering California sheep rancher Senora Moreno (Vera Lewis). Escaping her cruel and judgmental guardian, Ramona sadly resigns herself to the probability that she will never find true happiness because she is -- gasp! -- a half-breed. Though she loves Moreno's grandson Felipe (Roland Drew), Ramona does not want him to bear the stigma of a mixed marriage, so she marries Allesandro (Warner Baxter), an Indian shepherd. Misfortune continues to befall the heroine when her husband is lynched by bigoted white ranchers; shortly thereafter, her baby dies from injuries sustained in a bandit raid because the white doctor refuses to treat an Indian infant. Suffering a total nervous breakdown, Ramona wanders into the woods, having lost all memory of her previous existence. But faithful Felipe rescues the girl, snapping her out of her amnesia by singing her favorite childhood song (courtesy of the Vitaphone soundtrack). Ramona was remade in 1936 with Loretta Young and Don Ameche. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's narrative poem Evangeline briefly abandoned the curriculum of English Literature 101 for the purposes of this part-talkie screen adaptation. Dolores Del Rio stars as the title character, an Acadian lass whose marriage to kinsman Gabriel (Roland Drew) is forestalled by the British invasion of the Grand Pre region. Exiled from the territory along with most of the other Acadians, Gabriel is transported far, far away from Evangeline's arms. Our heroine spends the rest of the film in search of her sweetheart, but the two are reunited only after Gabriel falls mortally ill, and Evangeline has joined an order of nuns. The film was billed as a "talkie" by virtue of its two songs, both performed by Dolores Del Rio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"East is East, West is West, Never the Twain Shall Meet." That's the lesson to be learned in the low-budget exotic romance The Love Trader. Leatrice Joy plays the restless young wife of an elderly ship's captain (Henry B. Walthall). While her husband goes on a pearl-hunting expedition in the South Seas, the woman inaugurates an romance with a handsome native (Roland Drew). There love, however, is never consummated, since both are aware of the social ramifications of miscegenation. Even so, our heroine cannot bear the "shame" of betraying her race, leaving her no alternative but to drown herself. This one is hard to watch today with a straight face. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Some Blondes are Dangerous is a remake of 1931's The Iron Man, using the same W. R. Burnett novel as its source. Noah Beery Jr. stars as Bud "Iron Man" Mason, a talented but rather dimwitted prizefighter. Against the advice of his crusty old manager George Regan (William Gargan), Mason dumps his ever-loving girlfriend Judy Williams (Nan Grey) in favor of sexy blonde chorine Rose Whitney (Dorothea Kent in a rare unsympathetic role). Immediately after his marriage to the selfish Rose, Mason's ring career goes right into the dumpster. Upon finding on that Rose has been "carrying on" behind his back, Mason gives her the ozone, but by now he's so out of shape that his pugilistic career is over. With the help of faithful Judy, Mason finally realizes that there's more to life than boxing and blondes. Some Blondes are Dangerous was refilmed under the property's original title The Iron Man in 1951. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this satire of British-American relations, Edward G. Robinson stars as Dan Armstrong, a hard-sell American saleman whose company sends him to England to learn how to tone down his act. There he meets some distant relatives, the aristocrats Sir Peter and Lady Challoner (Arthur Wontner and Annie Esmond). They invite him to their mansion for the weekend, where among the house guests are the penniless aristocrats the Duke and Duchess of Glenavon (Nigel Bruce and Constance Collier) and their daughter Lady Patricia (Luli Deste), as well as a conniving stockbroker, Henry Graham Manningdale (Ralph Richardson). The Duke and Duchess own only an apparently worthless mine in Rhodesia that supposedly contains a metal called magnelite. Manningdale says that he will develop the mine in exchange for permission to marry Lady Patricia. Armstrong also has designs on Patricia, however, and he engineers a scheme to start a company and sell stock in the mine. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

This "Crime Club" series entry is based on a novel by Jonathan Latimer. Preston Foster and Frank Jenks make return appearances as Latimer's freewheeling private eyes Bill Crane and Doc Williams, here assigned to protect millionaire John Essex (Ray Parker) and John's sister Linda (Frances Robinson) from harm. Someone has been sending Linda threatening notes, eventually carrying out those threats by kidnaping the girl and holding her for ransom. Piecing clues together with the aplomb of two veteran jigsaw-puzzle aficionados, our heroes expose the Least Likely Suspect as the culprit, leading to even more surprises before fadeout time. Perennial dumb blonde Joyce Compton enlivens the proceedings as Doc's addlepated girl friend Dawn Day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A longtime admirer of Broadway impresario Flo Ziegfeld, Hollywood producer Sam Goldwyn hoped to emulate the success of The Ziegfeld Follies by producing an annual movie-musical revue. Goldwyn's dream began and ended with 1938's Goldwyn Follies, a film centering on Goldwyn-like movie producer Oliver Martin (Adolphe Menjou). It seems that Martin's films haven't been turning a profit lately, and he wants to find out why by eliciting the advice of the average filmgoer. He makes the acquaintance of pretty Hazel Dawes (Andrea Leeds), who tells Martin that the movies suffer from unbelievable storylines, cliched dialogue and wooden acting. Impressed, Martin hires Hazel as "Miss Humanity," allowing her to judge the merits of his latest production and even to select the cast members. Among Hazel's discoveries are singing hash-slinger Danny Beecher (Kenny Baker), opera diva Leona Jerome (Helen Jepson), and prima ballerina Olga Samara (Vera Zorina). Also hoping to appear in Martin's upcoming epic are ventriloquist Edgar Bergan and his wisecracking dummy Charlie McCarthy, and a trio of zany animal trainers who look, sound and act like the Ritz Brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A typical, fast-paced Grade-B murder mystery, Mystery of the White Room was based on the then revolutionary medical breakthrough of corneal transplantation. After being rebuked by hospital administrator Dr. Morton (Addison Richards) for failing to follow procedure, Dr. Clayton (Bruce Cabot) and Dr. Thornton (Frank Reicher) become prime suspects when Morton is murdered during a brief blackout in the operating room. Suspicion quickly centers on Dr. Thornton, who fails an ad hoc lie detector test, and the case seems solved when the good doctor is found dead, an apparent suicide. But neither Dr. Clayton nor the investigating police officer, Sgt. Spencer (Thomas Jackson), are convinced and the former makes the daring suggestion of transplanting Dr. Morton's corneas onto the eyes of the only witness, Tony (Frank Puglia), the deaf-and-dumb janitor who has been blinded with acid by the killer. The operation proves successful and the janitor is able to reveal the surprising identity of his attacker. Mystery of the White Room was the second-to-last of Universal's "Crime Club" thrillers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Amid the political chaos sweeping across the world in 1939, a new terror arises -- the Purple Death -- and people around the world succumb at random by the hundreds, then thousands, with the identifying symptom being a purple spot on the victim. The authorities are baffled as to the cause or the treatment, and panic is spreading. Dr. Alexis Zarkov (Frank Shannon) determines that the Purple Death is linked to extraterrestrial events. Along with Flash Gordon (Larry "Buster" Crabbe) and Dale Arden (Carolyn Hughes), Zarkov finds an alien spaceship, which they recognize as being from the planet Mongo, home of their old enemy, Ming the Merciless, spreading some sort of dust in the Earth's upper atmosphere. Flash, Dale, and Zarkov head for Mongo, where they discover that Emperor Ming (Charles B. Middleton), whom they believed had been killed at the end of their battle with him on Mars (told in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars), is still alive. He is threatening not only to conquer all of Mongo, but is attacking Earth again, using a "Death Dust" spread by his spaceships that will eventually destroy everyone on Earth.

Flash, Dale, and Zarkov form an alliance with their old friend, Prince Barin (Roland Drew), the rightful ruler of Mongo, who with his wife, Princess Aura (Shirley Deane) -- Ming's own daughter -- rules the peaceful kingdom of Arboria, resisting Ming's military might with their small fleet of ships, the aid of neighboring free kingdoms, and the help of a tiny handful of officers within Ming's own palace who remain loyal to the prince. Their first task is to secure a neutralizing agent for the Death Dust, which exists in the frozen northern kingdom of Frigia, but before they can do that, they have to free the imprisoned Frigian military leader General Lupi (Ben Taggart), who has been captured by Ming. Flash rescues the general, who is about to be used as the subject of a scientific experiment, and secures the aid and gratitude of the Frigians. This barely slows Ming in his plans for conquest, however, and over the next 11 chapters, Flash Gordon and his friends and allies -- including Ronal (Donald Curtis), Roka (Lee Powell), and Captain Suden (William Royle) -- take their battle for the safety of the Earth and the freedom of Mongo to the far reaches of the planet. Battling Ming and his villainous henchmen -- including Captain Torch (Don Rowan) and Lady Sonja (Anne Gwynne) -- from Mongo's frozen northern wastes to its uncharted deserts, Flash and his allies outmaneuver and generally outfight and outwit Ming's larger, better equipped army and spaceship fleet, but they are nearly undone by the spies that Ming has placed in Barin's own household. The bravery of the Earth hero and his friends, and the patriotism and sacrifices of Mongo's people ultimately prove too much for the evil emperor, who finally faces impending destruction from one of his own fiendish inventions. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide