James Flavin Movies

This Abbott & Costello vehicle was originally planned as a Bob Hope comedy titled Easy Does It. The Hope role is fairly evenly divided between Bud Abbott, as hotel house detective Casey Edwards, and Lou Costello, as bumbling bellhop Lou Costello. When a much-hated criminal attorney (Nicholas Joy) is murdered at a resort hotel, there's no shortage of suspects: in fact, practically every guest had an excellent motive for killing the victim. The suspects conspire to pin the killing on poor Freddie, but when he comes in possession of a valuable piece of evidence, he is slated for extermination himself. The more Freddie and his pal Casey try to stay out of trouble, the more trouble comes their way--especially when two more murders occur. The climax takes place in an underground cavern, where Freddie is nearly drowned by the hooded mystery killer. The film's title is one of the most misleading in movie history. Cast as a red-herring swami, Boris Karloff is not the killer (whose true identity is obvious from the outset, especially to veteran moviegoers). Though his footage is extremely limited, Karloff shares the film's funniest scene, in which he tries to hypnotize Costello into committing suicide ("You'll kill yourself if it's the last thing you do!). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Allan Dwan directed this light-hearted service comedy starring William Bendix (best known from the television series The Life of Riley) and Dennis O'Keefe as a pair of Marines stationed in Australia. As might be expected, the two soldiers fall for the same woman, a pretty Australian named Joyce Stuart (Helen Walker), and comic misadventures ensue. John Loder, James Flavin and Arthur Hunnicutt are among the familiar faces in the cast. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Action in the North Atlantic is solid wartime propaganda with a rather endearing inner lining of left-wing politics, courtesy (no doubt) of scenarist John Howard Lawson, who based his screenplay on a novel by maritime specialist Guy Gilpatric. While running war goods to America's Russian allies, a merchant marine ship captained by Raymond Massey is torpedoed. The courage of Massey and his first mate Humphrey Bogart serves as an inspiration to the survivors, who manage to navigate their tiny lifeboat to America, where they are lauded as heroes. After only the briefest of compassionate leaves (Massey is reunited with wife Ruth Gordon, while Bogart strikes up a relationship with Julie Bishop), the crew is assigned a new Liberty Ship. Despite fears of being torpedoed again, Massey, Bogart, and the other men successfully bring their cargo to Russia, shooting down several German planes in the process. As the Americans are cheered on by the smiling, well-fed Russian seamen and peasants, Action in the North Atlantic fades out, with the voice of Franklin D. Roosevelt (actually radio announcer Art Gilmore) heard on the soundtrack encouraging a "United Nations" allegiance against the axis. The supporting cast of Action in the North Atlantic includes a young newcomer by the name of Bernard Zanville, whose billing was changed to "Dane Clark" upon the film's release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On December 6, 1941, a squadron of nine B-17 bombers takes off for Hickam Field, HI. The crew of the Mary Ann, including two new men, assistant radio man Private Chester (Ray Montgomery) and gunner Sergeant Joe Winocki (John Garfield), assembles for the flight, and in the first 20 minutes, the movie reveals certain things about the crew: the shadowy past of one, the mother of another, and the wife of a third; two of them are good friends with the sister of McMartin (Arthur Kennedy), the bombardier, who lives in Honolulu; the son of the senior member of the crew, Sgt. White (Harry Carey Sr.), is a pilot stationed at Clark Field in the Philippines. Then more characters make entrances: the aircraft commander Quincannon (John Ridgely); Weinberg (George Tobias), a Jewish mechanic from New York; and a man from a farm in the upper Midwest -- they all represent a broad cross-section of America as it saw itself, and the "regular guys" in the Army Air Force as it existed in 1941. The flight proceeds without incident. Winocki, an embittered, washed-out flight school candidate who accidentally killed another pilot, is about to leave the service when the weather report from Hickam Field is interrupted, and the radio man begins picking up transmissions in Japanese. The Mary Ann and the rest of the squadron fly right into the middle of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor unarmed and out of gas, and nearly crack up landing on an emergency field; no sooner do they make repairs than the crew comes under attack, and the plane takes off and makes for Hickam Field, which they find a flaming shambles. They fly on to the Philippines, stopping at Wake Island just long enough to meet a few members of the doomed Marine garrison, taking their company mascot, a dog, with them. At Clark Field, the Mary Ann and her crew finally go into action against the enemy, flying in alone against a Japanese invasion force; Quincannon is mortally wounded in the brief action, which leaves the plane damaged seemingly beyond repair. The remaining crew won't give up the plane, however, even when ordered to abandon and destroy her; they get the bomber off just ahead of the advancing Japanese, and survive to help bring retribution to the invading fleet and the Japanese empire. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Saddled with paying huge alimony checks to his high-maintenance former wife, Edward Gibson (Robert Webber) seeks a legal method to rid himself of this burden. Enter Edward's pal Carl Seabrook (Jeremy Slate), who magnanimously offers to marry the ex-Mrs. Gibson himself -- for a 5,000-dollar fee. Little does Edward realize that he has been a "free man" for several hours...but, of course, Carl has known all along. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lumber tycoon Bill Fleming (Paul Douglas) knows that his wife, Laura (Dody Heath), is unfaithful, but he draws the line at killing Laura's love, Philip Baxter (Hugh Marlowe). However, Fleming changes his mind when a young acquaintance named Sandy (Robert Morse) cites an archaic but still viable law, which declares that Fleming cannot be prosecuted if he kills his rival in a duel. What Sandy doesn't tell Fleming is that this law has its own peculiar conditions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, Paul Muni plays a recently murdered gangster who finds himself roasting in Hell. Muni can't believe that he's in for All Eternity and keeps trying to "bust out," which brings him to the attention of the Head Man (Claude Rains), who calls himself Nick. Nick strikes a bargain with Muni: There's a troublesome honest judge on Earth who's been shipping too many souls to Hell; if Muni will take over the judge's body and begin performing bad deeds, Nick will set him free. Muni readily agrees, eager to settle the score with the ex-partner (Hardie Albright) who bumped him off. Once he "becomes" the judge, however, Muni discovers that he is utterly incapable of performing any misdeeds--and when he falls in love with the judge's fiancee (Anne Baxter), Muni becomes determined to wriggle out of his agreement. Angel on My Shoulder is based on a story by Harry Segall, whose previous play Heaven Can Wait was filmed as Here Comes Mr. Jordan, also with Claude Rains. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Longtime B-western favorites Tex Ritter and Ray "Crash" Corrigan are among the supporting players of the Columbia oater Apache Ambush. Star of the proceedings is Bill Williams, cast as Indian scout James Kingston. In the last days of the Civil War, President Lincoln (James Griffith) selects Kingston and two other men -- cattle driver O'Roarke (Ray Teal) and "reconstructed" Confederate major McGuire (Don C. Harvey) -- to help speed along a major cattle shipment from Texas to the Northern states. One of the obstacles facing the three men is Mexican fanatic Joaquin Jironza (Alex Montoya), who wants to get his hands on the Henry Repeating Rifles which Kingston and his confreres carry with them. Undermining the good guys is embittered ex-rebel Lee Parker (Richard Jaeckel), who is in cahoots with Jironza. So much happens in the first five reels that the titular Indian ambush is almost anticlimactic (a warning to more sensitive viewers: neither the Apaches nor the Mexicans are shown in a particularly sympathetic light). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Shirley Temple's first starring vehicle casts her as the button-cute daughter of ex-convict Eddie Ellison (James Dunn) and his wife Kay (Claire Trevor). Ellison and his old cellmate Larry Scott (Ray Walker) manage to land jobs as chauffeurs for a wealthy family. When a valuable string of pearls disappears, both men are fired and Eddie is accused of the crime. Incredibly, it is little Temple who manages to locate the pearls and clear her father's name. Rather slow going for the most part, Baby Take a Bow comes to life in the final reel, as genuine thief Trigger Stone (Ralf Harolde) grabs Temple and uses her as a human shield during his desperate rooftop escape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

20th Century-Fox mixed together elements of its own Jesse James and Selznick's Gone with the Wind, and the resultant brew was Belle Starr. Looking precisely nothing like the real Belle, Gene Tierney plays the title role, whom the screenplay suggests was the daughter of a Southern aristocrat. When those Damn Yankees march in and appropriate Belle's land, she heads to Missouri and joins forces with a Confederate guerilla fighter (Randolph Scott). Belle marries the man, and together they become outlaws, hoping to avenge the fallen South. For reasons best known to the studio, Belle Starr is overloaded with offensive African American stereotypes, including the faithful old ex-slave (George Reed) who narrates the story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "Blondie" series reaches Number 25 with Blondie Hits the Jackpot. Fired for messing up an important contract, Dagwood (Arthur Lake) takes a job as a manual laborer for a construction firm. He is rescued from penury when Blondie (Penny Singleton) wins a radio contest. Of slender interest is the fact that Larry Simms, playing Blondie and Dagwood's son Alexander, is now shaving and going out with girls--a far cry from his "Baby Dumpling" days in the series' earliest entries. Otherwise, Blondie Hits the Jackpot fails to live up to its title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An above-average cast makes up for the lack of production values in this, the second of 32 Bob Steele Westerns produced by A.W. Hackel for the States' Rights market. Steele is Rod Kent, a rancher falling in love with his neighbor, Margie Orkin (Lucile Browne), whom he rescues from an irate bull. Margie, however, is soon in a different kind of danger altogether when her father's evil half-brother, Bill (George Hayes), suddenly appears on the property with blackmail on his mind. When Rod intervenes, his father (Charles K. French) is shot by one of Bill's nasty sons, Holt (James Flavin). Bill's attempt to pin the blame on his half-brother, Joe (William Farnum), fails. Assisted by Margie's kid brother, Budd (Mickey Rentschler), and his faithful pooch, Pardner, Rod rounds up the villains, who are hog-tied and delivered to the Sheriff (Jack Rockwell). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide