Julie Warren Movies

RKO Radio's Powder Town has the makings of an A picture, but the budget and approach is strictly "B" grade. Adapted by Vicki Baum from a novl by Max Brand, the story is largely set in a wartime munitions plant. Targetted for abduction or murder by Nazi agents, eccentric scientist Pennant (Edmond O'Brien) is assigned a bodyguard, Jeema O'Shea (Victor McLaglen). Despite Jeema's best efforts, Pennant falls into the villain's clutches, all because of a super-explosive which the scientist has developed. Before Jeema can effect a rescue, he is obliged to expose the head of the spies, who turns out to be a member of the plant's executive board. Veteran vaudevillians June Havoc and Eddie Foy Jr. provide a few brief respites from the ongoing intrigue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Devil and Miss Jones is a social comedy with left-wing undertones. John P. Merrick (Charles Coburn), the world's richest man, gets word that someone is trying to unionize a department store that he owns. To thwart this blatant act of democracy, Merrick changes his name and takes a menial job at the store, the better to catch the union activists without detection. Once he himself is subjected to the humiliating treatment afforded his employees, Merrick starts to wise up -- and soften up. As things develop, it is Merrick himself who spearheads the union movement after discovering how duplicitous his hand-picked executives can be. The film also introduces Jean Arthur and Robert Cummings as fellow employees who fall in love before fadeout time. Keeping with the film's insistence upon equal treatment for everyone, Merrick himself is permitted a romance in the person of Elizabeth Ellis (Spring Byington). The Devil and Miss Jones was written by Norman Krasna and directed by Sam Wood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide