Donald Gallagher Movies

The first "Road" picture in three years (the last was The Road to Morocco), Road to Utopia is set during the Alaskan gold rush. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby play a pair of third-rate San Francisco entertainers, Chester Hooton and Duke Johnson, who are obliged to skip town in a hurry. They book passage on a ship to Alaska, where they run afoul of escaped murderers Sperry (Robert H. Barrat) and McGurk (Nestor Paiva). Through a fluke, Chester and Duke overpower the killers, then get off the ship in Skagway disguised as Sperry and McGurk so that they themselves can evade the authorities. The boys can't understand why everyone is so afraid of them, nor why saloon owner Ace Larson (Douglas Dumbrille) and Larson's moll Kate (Hillary Brooke) are so chummy. It turns out that Sperry and McGurk had stolen a deed to a valuable gold mine before escaping to Alaska. Sal Van Hoyden (Dorothy Lamour) is the rightful owner of that deed, thus she too shows up in Skagway, hoping to extract the document from Chester and Duke. Whenever the plot threatens to become too difficult to follow, narrator Robert Benchley shows up to explain things -- which of course only adds to the confusion. At any rate, the whole affair ends up with Chester, Duke, and Sal running through the snowy wastes, with the villains in hot pursuit. Duke nobly stays behind to fight off the bad guys himself, handing the deed to Chester and Sal and wishing them Godspeed. Flash-forward to 1945: Chester and Sal, both old and wealthy, are reunited with their equally aged pal Duke, who wasn't killed after all. Sal tells Duke that Chester has been a wonderful husband and father. Yes, father...and wait till you see who plays their child ("We adopted him!"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Overloaded with unreleased films in 1942 and 1943, Paramount Pictures cleaned house by diverting several pictures to United Artists. One such effort was The Crystal Ball, wherein beauty contest loser Toni Gerard (Paulette Goddard) takes a job as a sideshow fortune teller. Subbing for the ailing head (Gladys George) of a fake medium racket, Toni whimsically advises attorney Brad Cavanaugh (Ray Milland) to purchase some property that is coveted by the government. Cavanaugh follows her advice, nearly ruining himself in the process. All turns out okay in the end, but there's a last-minute entanglement when several of Toni's disgruntled clients converge upon her all at once. Strictly second-rate, The Crystal Ball is salvaged by the work of such surehanded supporting players as William Bendix, Cecil Kellaway, Mary Field, Ernest Truex, Iris Adrian, Nestor Paiva and Mabel Paige (in her film debut). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ticket buyers got two Tim McCoys for the price of one with this low-budget Western, one of McCoy's eight Lightning Bill Carson oaters for producer Sam Katzman's Victory Pictures. This time government agent "Lightning Bill" impersonates a look-alike bandit about to be released from jail. But before Carson completely gained the confidence of chief henchman Slim Marsh (Ted Adams) and saloon singer Jessie Treadwell (Joan Barclay), the real outlaw, Trigger Mallory (also McCoy), shows up. With the assistance of his usual sidekick, Magpie McGillicuddy (Ben Corbett), Carson is able to sidestep a well-laid trap and send Mallory straight back to the hoosegow. Rather unusually for a B-Western leading lady, Joan Barclay, who sings "A Rainbow Is Riding the Range" by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter, plays the bandit's girlfriend and remains quite unrepentant until the final reel. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The first of four Fred Scott singing Westerns produced by C.C. Burr, Code of the Fearless was like all thirteen Scott vehicles released by poverty row company Spectrum Pictures. Scott, a former baritone with the San Francisco Opera, played a Texas Ranger infiltrating the feared Skull Mesa Gang by pretending to be an outlaw himself. Unfortunately, the lawman is so convincing that he even seems to have fooled Ranger Captain Walter McGrail, who accuses him of fraternizing with the enemy. Scott's only defender is pretty Jean Morrison (Claire Rochelle) but even she is dumbfounded when he joins the Skull Mesa bandits at their secret hideout. It is all a ruse, of course, and Captain Rawlins and his Rangers arrive just in time to round up the entire gang. The story had been told many times before (and would be many times again); the only difference here is that Scott took time out to warble such ditties as Here's Romance and Gonna Ride, both by Lew Porter and Johnny Lange. Popular sidekick Al St. John, who had supported Scott in seven previous Westerns, was replaced here by former burlesque comic Harry Harvey. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this western, a government agent poses as an Asian so he can investigate a gang of jewel smugglers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy a Broadway playboy inherits an almost bankrupt girls' school from his late aunt. He breathes life into the school by giving song and dance lessons. The financially ailing school is funded by an odd, but rich man who becomes the main backer. Songs include: "I Feel Like a Feather in the Breeze," "You Hit the Spot," "Rhythmatic," "My Grandfather's Clock in the Hallway," "Who Am I?" "Guess Again," "Will I Ever Know?" ""Learn to Be Lovely."" ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Pleasure Crazed was adapted from the less luridly titled stage play The Scent of Sweet Almonds. Nora Westby (Marguerite Churchill) is in love with Captain Anthony Dean (Kenneth MacKenna) but keeps her mouth shut about it out of respect for Dean's marriage to Alma (Dorothy Burgess). Alas, Alma is not so honorable, cheating on her husband at every opportunity. Dean finally awakens to Alma's deceit and Nora's sincerity when he tries to bail Nora out of an unfortunate entanglement in a crooked business transaction. Donald Gallegher, director of the original stage play, was brought to Hollywood by Fox Studios to helm the screen version, while Charles Klein "blocked" the action for the benefit of the multiple cameras, and also directed the auto-chase finale. Oddly enough, Kenneth MacKenna, who reportedly retreated to the production end of the business because of his ineptitude as a talking-picture actor, delivered the film's best performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In her first important screen role, Mae Clarke is cast as Jackie Lee, a saucy vaudeville dancer. Jackie comes between acrobat-partners Bert (Robert Ames) and Johnny (William Harrigan), despite their promises to one another never to let a "dame" break up their act. Much of the dialogue is comprised of show-business slang, which must have been confusing to 1929 filmgoers but provides an endless source of enjoyment to the contemporary movie buff. The musical numbers were imaginatively staged, notably a "post-card" routine in which a photograph suddenly comes to life (and this was 12 years before this bit was "introduced" in Citizen Kane!) Filmed in New York, Nix on Dames features several Broadway performers in the supporting cast, including Gilbert-and-Sullivan specialist George McFarlane and African American actress Louise Beavers, here dropping her usual "maid" characterization to offer a soulful spiritual. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This implausible melodrama finds a respected banker sent to jail after being set up by a dishonest teller. The crook tries to swindle a widow out of her inherited marble quarry. Babs (Baby Margaret Brown) is rescued by Charlie (Donald Gallagher) from drowning and saves the residents of a cabin from a landslide. A mysterious wanderer (Louis Wolhelm) turns out to be an undercover agent for the Justice Department who is investigating the bank scam, and the bank president is cleared and is reunited with the grateful widow. The title is taken from the popular song written by J.L. Molloy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Alla Nazimova's Eye for Eye has been described by Nazimova biographer De Witt Bodeen as "the ultimate in sweet exoticism." Adapted from L'Occident, a play by Henry Kistenmachers, the film casts Nazimova as Hassouna, daughter of an Arab sheik. Falling in love with a French military officer, Hassouna rescues her swain from a death sentence, whereupon she is banished by her tribe and forced to wander the desert. Sold into slavery, she rises to prominence as a dancing girl. She is reunited with her lover, now unhappily married. Informed that the officer has murdered her Arab family, Hassouna exacts revenge by seducing the officer's son. The play's original tragic ending was clumsily altered at the very last minute to correspond to then-prevalent audience tastes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide