Wallace Ford Movies

For at least 63 of its 68 minutes, Republic's The Woman Who Came Back is an exciting and compelling journey into the realm of the supernatural. Returning to her ancestral New England village, Lorna Webster (Nancy Kelly) slowly but surely becomes convinced that she's the reincarnation of a centuries-old witch. A chance encounter on a bus with a weird old woman, combined with a series of bizarre "coincidences", further confirms Lorna's suspicions. Set upon and stoned by the terrified villagers, Lorna is rescued by her physician fiance Matt Adams (John Loder) and local minister Stevens (Otto Kruger), who attempt to separate fact from fancy. The disappointingly "logical" explanation to the events in The Woman Who Came Back doesn't quite gloss over such phenomena as a bouquet of flowers wilting at Lorna's touch! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his first film in two years, James Cagney stars as Nick Condon, the American editor of a pre-WW2 Tokyo newspaper. When two of his best friends are horribly murdered, Condon suspects that the "peaceful" Japanese military government is up to no good. He dedicates himself to getting his hands on the "Tanka Plan," a Japanese blueprint for conquering the world, and bringing this document to the attention of the Free World. As a result, he is targeted for persecution by the corrupt Tokyo police and betrayed by a traitorous fellow journalist. On a pleasanter note, Condon makes the acquaintance of half-Chinese Iris Hilliard (Sylvia Sidney), who agrees to help him foil the Japanese High Command. As was customary in wartime films, virtually all the Japanese characters in Blood on the Sun are played by Chinese, Korean, and Caucasian actors; for example, Robert Armstrong is cast as Colonel Tojo, while Premiere Tenaka is enacted by John Emery. Having lapsed into the public domain, Blood on the Sun is available from several distributors and also exists in a computer-colorized version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Secret Command features Pat O'Brien as a onetime foreign correspondent in the wartime employ of the FBI. Under an assumed name, O'Brien goes to work at a shipyard, intending to keep both eyes open for potential saboteurs. To maintain the cover, O'Brien is given a "wife" (Carole Landis) and two children. When O'Brien's brother Chester Morris shows up, he can't comprehend the charade and nearly spills the beans to the Nazi spies O'Brien hopes to trap. Based on the short story The Saboteurs by John and Ward Hawkins, Secret Command offers a graying but still feisty Pat O'Brien doing what he does best. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

PRC's Machine Gun Mama is the sort of comedy that tries to get laughs by invoking the name of Brooklyn. Wallace Ford and El Brendel play a couple of American dimwits who find themselves travelling through Latin America with an elephant. Why an elephant? So Wally and El can sell the pachyderm to a broken-down carnival, thereby making the acquaintance of Armida, who is the prettier half of a trick-shooting act. What we have here is essentially a two-reel comedy, inflated to 61 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location in Florida (you can even see the mosquitoes!), The Marines Come Through stars Wallace Ford and Grant Withers as a pair of overaged leathernecks. Ostensibly stationed in the South Seas, Ford and Withers battle over the affections of the fetching Toby Wing. They also foil the plans hatched by espionage agents to steal a revolutionary new bombsight. The direction is in the hands of Louis Gasnier, the man responsible for the immortal Reefer Madness. Throughout its 61 minutes, The Marines Come Through has a mildewed quality, looking as though it was filmed several years before its 1943 release date...which indeed it was. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Whatever poor Bela Lugosi may have done in a past life, the man did not deserve The Ape Man, arguably the worst of his Monogram horror clunkers. Viewed today, it seems that screenwriter Barney Sarecky and infamous director William Beaudine (whose nickname "One Shot" was earned helming movies like this) were out to humiliate the proud Hungarian actor at every opportunity. They had the man, who once turned down the Frankenstein monster because he found the role demeaning, walk about the entire film in a manner that was supposed to appear simian but ended up looking merely foolish. They gave him an Anglo-Saxon name, Dr. James Brewster, without bothering to explain that familiar Middle European accent. And they provided him with a spiritualist sister (Minerva Urecal), whose character name, Agatha, Lugosi of course was incapable of pronouncing. To compound matters, they wrote in a mysterious character named Zippo (Ralph Littlefield), who, in a silly porkpie hat, drifted in and out of the narrative being annoyingly mysterious, only to reveal himself in the end as "the author of the story." "Screwy idea, wasn't it?" he says blithely putting the final nail in Lugosi's coffin.

Lugosi's Dr. Brewster had experimented with a spinal serum derived from the fluids of a gorilla. The dedicated medico naturally tested the serum on himself and now appears incapable of walking upright, in dire need of a shave. Needless to say, the only antidote is human spinal fluid (which Lugosi pronounces "fluit"). Accompanied by screaming headlines such as "Ape man killer still on the loose!" Dr. Brewster and his gorilla henchman (Emil VanHorn, whose simian suit paid his rent for years) stalk the dark streets for human prey. A couple of wisecracking reporters (Wallace Ford and Louise Currie, both surprisingly tolerable) briefly wander into harm's way, knocking each other over the head with prop vases. Happily, for unexplained reasons, the gorilla suddenly turns on his master and breaks his neck, ending the nightmare for all concerned, including, one would imagine, Lugosi himself. Typical for cheap Monogram, Lugosi stayed in his ape-like makeup throughout, the expected transformation scene never materializing. The critics were understandably severe -- "Monogram's writer didn't have to wipe the dust from Bela Lugosi's Ape Man, he had to take the mold off," chuckled the Daily News -- but as horror-film historian Tom Weaver so succinctly put it: "Despite their ruinous effects on Lugosi's career, had these Monogram pictures been made without him, they would not merit discussion today." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

X Marks the Spot was the first of eight brisk wartime-oriented melodramas, each running slightly under an hour, produced and directed in rapid succession by George Sherman. Private detective Eddie Delaney (Damian O'Flynn) swings into action when his father (Robert E. Homans), a police sergeant, is gunned down by rubber racketeers (please recall that rubber was a valuable commodity during WW2). With the help of heroine Linda Ward (Helen Parrish) and police lieutenant Decker (Dick Purcell), Delaney chases after the villains, experiencing all sorts of serial-like dangers along the way. Numbered among the bad guys are the typecast Jack LaRue and the cast-against-type Neil Hamilton (later Batman's Commissioner Gordon). Though the script covers familiar ground, X Marks the Spot is exhilarating entertainment in the true Republic Pictures tradition. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title neatly gives away the ending in RKO Radio's Scattergood Survives a Murder. Guy Kibbee once again stars as storekeeper Scattergood Baines, the sage of the small town of Coldriver. The story gets under way when two reclusive spinsters die under mysterious circumstances. Inasmuch the as the eccentric old ladies have left their fortune to their pet cats, Scattergood suspects that foul play was involved, with the victims' sinister housekeeper (Eily Malyon) high on the suspect list. Aiding and abetting our hero in his easygoing investigation are local newspaper editor John Archer and hotshot gal reporter Margaret Hayes (Archer, incidentally, was the father of present-day leading lady Anne Archer). Scattergood Survives a Murder was the latest in a series of B-pictures inspired by the long-running radio saga Scattergood Baines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The big-band mystique of the 1940s was explored by Blues in the Night. Future directors Richard Whorf and Elia Kazan star as, respectively, a neurotic band-leader and a carefree clarinettist. Their jazz band travels from one small-time gig to another, always hoping for their big break but always denied fame thanks to their own personal demons. Priscilla Lane and Betty Field portray (again respectively) the good and bad girls in the musicians' lives. While we're never treated to a full rendition of the title song, Blues in the Night scores with its melodramatic set pieces, including a gutsy climactic murder/suicide sequence involving Betty Field and escaped convict Lloyd Nolan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stars-on-the-downslide Wallace Ford and Marian Marsh briefly rallied in the above-average Monogram melodrama Murder by Invitation. Ford is cast as usual as a wisecracking reporter, this time christened Bob White. Our hero is one of several acquaintances and relatives invited to an old dark house to attend the reading of a will. At the stroke of midnight, one of the guests is murdered?and then another. The most obvious suspect is Aunt Cassie (Sarah Padden), the slightly daft owner of the mansion, but Bob suspects that she's being framed, and with the help of heroine Nora O'Brien (Marsh) he sets about to prove it. Some of the film's best moments are suppled by beetle-browed Herb Vigran, a busy supporting actor whose best professional days were still to come.Murder by Invitation closes with one of those "It's only a movie, folks" gags indigenous to the Monogram product of the 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bucolic lawyer John Wayne takes on big-city corruption in A Man Betrayed. He sets out to prove that an above-suspicion politician (Edward Ellis) is actually a crook. The price of integrity is sweet in this instance, since Wayne happens to be in love with the politician's daughter (Frances Dee). Man Betrayed can be viewed from the vantage point of the 1990s as an attempt by Republic Pictures to broaden the range of its biggest star, John Wayne. That it doesn't quite work is forgotten as the audience luxuriates in the sheer professionalism of the whole endeavor--and besides, the Duke does get to put up his dukes on more than one occasion. Man Betrayed has been released under two alternate titles: Wheel of Fortune for American television, and Citadel of Crime (coincidentally the title of a like-vintage Republic "B" picture) for British audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This "Little Tough Guys" series entry finds the kids gainfully employed building airplane engines. Hoping to get into the air themselves, the boys take jobs with a crooked crop-dusting concern. Carter (Victor Jory), the head of the company, refuses to buy new planes, despite the dangers faced by his pilots. When young Rap (Bobby Jordan) is killed in a subtandard plane, his pal Tommy (Billy Halop) swears revenge. The plot is resolved in a wild car chase which segues into an aerial dogfight between Tommy and the fleeing Carter. Much-needed comedy relief is provided by series regular Huntz Hall and by the inimitable Shemp Howard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a despondent fellow contemplates suicide after he is abandoned by his last girlfriend. To ensure that his poor sister will receive maximum benefits from his life insurance policy, he hires a hitman to assassinate him. Unfortunately, he meets a new girl and changes his mind. Unfortunately, the killer, whom the hero has never met, doesn't know this. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide