Richard Arlen Movies

The Black Diamonds of the title are diamonds, and diamonds are a boy's best friend in this Richard Arlen-Andy Devine actioner. Arlen plays newspaperman Walter Norton, who attempts to investigate a mine explosion in which his father was injured. Norton's "inside man" helper is jovial miner Barney Tolliver (Andy Devine), who is in love with Norton's sister Nina (Mary Treen). Utilizing spool upon spool of stock footage from earlier Universal films, Black Diamonds builds steadily to an exciting cave-in finale. Reviewers in 1940 were kindly disposed to the film but didn't like the title, suggesting that it wasn't condusive to good business (Silly boys: the Arlen-Devine vehicles always made money). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this boxing drama, the trouble begins when a fight breaks out at a local gym. When a boxing promoter sees that Dick, who is training Andy Grogan to wrestle, really packs a wallop, he suggests that Dick try boxing. Slick, the promoter then fixes Dick's fights to ensure that he wins. When Pat, a female sportswriter who uses a man's name in her columns, suspects that something is up, Slick sticks her with Dick's contract which she 'wins' in a raffle. When Dick begins winning fights for real, he and Pat are laughing all the way to the bank. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One part high-seas adventure and one part western, Mutiny on the Blackhawk opens as a pair of heroes take a stand against mutineers and a ship load of freed slaves. Eventually the ship docks off the California coast and the twosome disembark. While traveling the land, they end up trying to prevent Mexican soldiers from destroying a village. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Legion of Lost Flyers is a typically action-packed entry in Universal's Richard Arlen-Andy Devine series (if one can call a group of thematically unconnected B-pictures a "series"). This time, heroes Loop Gillian (Arlen) and Beff Brumley (Devine) are, respectively, a pilot and mechanic for an Alaskan air freight service. The main plotline concerns Loop's efforts to absolve himself of blame for a recent plane crash in which several civilians were killed. He also finds time to romance heroine Paula (Anne Nagel), whose purpose in the picture is never clearly defined: like Mount Everest, she's simply "there." A pre-stardom Jack Carson plays the obligatory "lucky" pilot whose luck runs out, while Carson's vaudeville partner Dave Willock also plays a supporting role. Comedy-relief eskimo Edith Mills may seem offensive to today's ethnically sensitive viewers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A female reporter is faced with a tough decision in this romantic comedy. She is engaged to another reporter. Though they want to marry soon, they are constantly kept apart by widely differing assignments. At last they settle on a wedding date, but then the woman finds a missing person that her lover has been seeking for ages. Now she must decide whether to tell him, or get the big scoop for herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Released in Great Britain as Gangster's Valley, Secret Valley is a modern western (that is, it takes place in 1937). Richard Arlen plays a Nevada rancher who is compelled to extend his hospitality to headstrong Virginia Grey. She has arrived to establish residency in Nevada, the better to secure a divorce from her husband Jack Mulhall, a notorious gangster. When Mulhall shows up with guns at the ready, he finds out that his city methods are no match for the Cowboy Way. Secret Valley was produced independently by Sol Lesser, and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The building of the great Canadian-Pacific Railroad that stretched from Montreal to Vancouver is chronicled in this realistic drama. Amidst the country's wild grandeur, two gambling vagabonds find themselves in a railroad boomtown where they hope to win a lot of the workers' money. While there, one of the gamblers falls in love with the daughter of the construction leader. He decides to abandon gambling in favor of good old- fashioned hard labor on the line. Meanwhile, the other gambler is robbed by a greedy bar maid and ends up giving up his life so that the railroad can continue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1924 by producer Sol Lesser, Harold Bell Wright's popular suspense novel The Mine with the Iron Door was again adapted to the screen by Lesser in 1936. Suckered into buying some evidently worthless property in Arizona, Bob Harvey (Richard Arlen) discovers that he may actually have come into possession of the Mine with the Iron Door, a legendary cache of Spanish gold. Teaming up with detective Dempsey (Stanley Fields) and Marta Hill (Cecilia Parker), a young woman whose family lives on Bob's property, our hero goes a-prospecting, with eccentric archaeologist Professor Burton (Henry B. Walthall) leading the way. In love with Marta himself, the jealous Burton does his best to kill Bob during the expedition, but virtue ultimately triumphs and everyone but the villain strikes it rich. Some of the background music in Mine with the Iron Door had originally been composed for 1915's The Birth of a Nation -- which ironically starred Henry B. Walthall as the hero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an impoverished dreamer saves a group of people during a terrible storm by leading them to shelter in a ghost town containing but one ancient resident. The stranded travelers are surprised by the high-style in which the codger lives. Soon they learn that the man and the drifter's grandfather co-owned a gold-mine. Unfortunately, the old resident cannot find it. The young dreamer finds it for him, and then marries an heiress who was among the travelers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Produced independently by Edward Small, this surprisingly realistic gangster yarn stars stalwart Richard Arlen as Mal Stevens, an attorney recruited by the newly organized Federal Bureau of Investigation. After Mal and a couple of fellow recruits, Van Rensseler (Harvey Stephens) and Tex Logan (Gordon Jones), foil a plot by Joe Keefer (Bruce Cabot) to kidnap Eleanor Spencer (Virginia Bruce), the trusting debutante foolishly secures Joe's parole. From the outside, Keefer then masterminds a prison break for some of his pals and together they begin a reign of terror. Eleanor's brother Buddy (Eric Linden) goes undercover on behalf of Stevens and is killed by Keefer, but Eleanor, still denying that Keefer, her former chauffeur, is a gangster, blames Stevens. To avoid detection, Keefer kidnaps Dr. Hoffman (George Pauncefort), a noted plastic surgeon, who goes to work altering his appearance. His usefulness over, the good doctor is summarily executed but Hoffman manages to avenge himself from beyond the grave: when the bandages are removed, Keefer's features have been mutilated and his initials carved into the scarred face. Led to the hideout by Keefer's jilted moll Lola (Dorothy Appleby), Stevens confronts the disfigured gangster and there is a final struggle. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Philip Wylie, a writer best known for his "anti-Momism" work A Generation of Vipers, was responsible for the Paramount "leg show" Come on Marines. Lucky (Richard Arlen) and Spud (Roscoe Karns) are among the Marine troops dispatched from San Diego to the Philippines to rescue a group of "shipwrecked children." Upon their arrival, the leathernecks are both amazed and delighted to discover that the "children" are a bevy of gorgeous 18-year-old debutantes, among them such promising starlets as Ida Lupino, Toby Wing and Clara Lou (later Anne) Sheridan. The sort of silly escapist film that regularly confounds the "auteur" devotees of director Henry Hathaway, Come On, Marines was obviously made for the sole purpose of showing off its pulchritudinous female cast members in various states of undress. The film's giddy high point is leather-clad Grace Bradley's hotcha dance solo, performed before a collection of floor-length mirrors! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A play by Nina Wilcox Putnam was the source for the empire-building drama Golden Harvest. Chester Morris stars as ambitious grain trader Chris Martin, who through fair and foul means corners the wheat market and becomes a millionaire. Outgrowing his humble farm beginnings, Chris makes a bid for respectability by marrying Chicago socialite Cynthia Flint (Genevieve Tobin). Meanwhile, Chris's ex-sweetheart Ellen (Julie Haydon) marries his down-to-earth brother Walt (Richard Arlen), who has chosen to remain on the family farm. Inevitably, the two brothers find themselves on opposite sides when Chris's greed overtakes his common sense. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This star-laden version of Lewis Carroll's novel combines elements of both the title novel and Carroll's sequel, Through the Looking Glass. In England of the 19th century, young Alice finds that the mirror over the library fireplace opens into a strange world. She has odd adventures and changes size several times both before and after she follows a time-obsessed White Rabbit (Skeets Gallagher). Soaked after nearly drowning in a pool of tears, Alice is helped to dry off by a Dodo (Polly Moran), and encounters a caterpillar (Ned Sparks), whose mushroom also changes Alice's size. In a noisy home where the Cook (Lillian Harmer) and the Duchess (Alison Skipworth) are always fighting, Alice takes care of the Duchess' baby, but it turns into a pig and runs away. Asking directions of the Cheshire Cat (Richard Arlen) is no help, and a tea party with the Mad Hatter (Edward Everett Horton), the March Hare (Charlie Ruggles) and the Dormouse (Jackie Searl) is confusing and annoying.

Alice meets the Queen of Hearts (May Robson), and encounters the Duchess again; while strolling with her, Alice meets the Gryphon (William Austin) and the Mock Turtle (Cary Grant). The twins Tweedledum (Jack Oakie) and Tweedledee (Roscoe Karns) recite a poem about a Walrus and a Carpenter (seen as an animated cartoon), but when they decide to go to battle, they're chased off by a crow. Humpty Dumpty (W.C. Fields) relates the poem "Jabberwocky" to Alice, then falls off a wall and breaks. The mournful White Knight (Gary Cooper), unable to put Humpty Dumpty together again, escorts Alice for a while, but she tumbles down a hill and finds she's become a queen. At a party in Alice's honor, the Red Queen (Edna Mae Oliver) becomes furious at Alice, who then wakes up to find herself in the library, with her kitten Dinah in her lap. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide