William Gargan Movies

This entry in the detective series follows Queen as he investigates the case of a woman's missing husband, a banker. As he searches, he must cope with several murders and a burlesque queen. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When her tough boyfriend Red Branahan (William Gargan) is sent to jail, Aggie Appleby (Wynne Gibson) meets mild-mannered Adoniram Schlump (Charles Farrell), and decides to turn him into a real man. She teaches him how to talk tough, changes his name to Red Branahan, and gets him a construction job -- unaware that the real Red has been released from prison. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

In this police drama, a busy precinct is thrown into chaos when the murdered corpse of a local detective is found in an abandoned car. Now the press is demanding to learn details. Meanwhile, an ambitious officer finds himself sorely tempted to use dishonest means to advance his political career. Things get even more muddled up when he falls in love with a female murder suspect. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Like many 1930s Warner Bros. films, Black Fury drew its inspiration from the headlines. The story is adapted from a true-life incident from 1929, wherein a striking Pennsylvania coal miner was beaten to death by three company detectives; this served as the focus for Henry R. Irving's stage play Bohunk as well as Judge M. A. Musmanno's story Jan Volkanik, both of which were woven into Black Fury's screenplay. Using a Polish accent so thick one can cut it with scissors, Paul Muni plays an illiterate miner, happy in his job and his company-town surroundings until his girl Karen Morley deserts him for policeman William Gargan. A disconsolate, drunken Muni stumbles into a labor meeting, where his loud, unthinking outbursts win him the leadership of the new miner's union. When the company locks out the strikers and brings in scabs, the angry miners hold the thick-headed Muni responsible. Fellow miner John Qualen, Muni's best friend, is then killed by a gang of rampaging hired goons. Vowing to "feex" the situation, Muni kidnaps head goon Barton MacLaine and takes him into the bowels of the mine with several sticks of dynamite in tow. Muni threatens to blow himself, MacLaine, and the mine to smithereens unless management comes to terms with the union. Thanks to overwhelming public support, the owners capitulate, and Muni is the hero of the hour. Though it seemed uncompromising in 1935, Black Fury obviously pulls its punches when seen today; for example, it is suggested that the mine owners are guiltless regarding violence against the strikers, laying blame on the hired detectives, who are shown to be in the employ of a crook who plays both sides against the other. Even allowing for this, Black Fury is one of the most powerful of Warners' "social conscience" films. Although the Academy gave Muni a Best Supporting Actor nod for this film, the AMPAS database indicates that it wasn't an "official nomination" - he was a write-in candidate, and came in second. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Framed by the fast-paced world of horse racing, this romance centers upon the wealthy young owner of a racing stable who falls in love with a beautiful singer who has just been given Galaxy, a promising young horse, by one of her beaus. Galaxy is accompanied by a trainer, who is also in love with the girl. Later all three get tangled up with crooked bookies and trouble follows. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

British Agent starred the Hungarian/British actor Leslie Howard in the title role, was directed by full-fledged Hungarian Michael Curtiz, and costarred American leading lady Kay Francis as a Russian spy. Based on the memoirs of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, who had been the unofficial British emissary to the Russian Revolutionary government in 1917, British Agent spends more time on its romantic subplot than in recreating the birth of Bolshevism. Leslie Howard's purpose in this film is to dissuade the Bolsheviks from signing a separate treaty with the World War I German regime. It is obvious to modern-day viewers that Howard is merely looking after Britain's interests and has no concern for the Russians; this was par for the course in a 1930s film, but does not play well with less jingoistic audiences of the 1990s. The most interesting aspect of British Agent is the performance of saturnine Irving Pichel as a young Josef Stalin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jeanette MacDonald and Lew Ayres make strange bedfellows in the overproduced MGM musical Broadway Serenade. She plays aspiring singer Mary Hale, and he plays her husband, struggling songwriter James Geoffrey Seymour. The couple's vaudeville act breaks up when Mary is hired for a big-time Broadway revue. As she rises to the top of the show-business heap, Seymour hits the skids, having lost his inspiration. On the verge of divorcing Seymour to marry a wealthy producer, Mary finally realizes that her life will be incomplete without her husband by her side. Saving the film from drowning in a sea of cliches are Jeanette MacDonald's musical renditions, not to mention the comedy relief of Frank Morgan and veteran vaudevillian Al Shean. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No relation to the 1933 film of the same name, the 1942 Universal programmer Destination Unknown stars William Gargan as a pilot for General Chennault's Flying Tigers. As such, Gargan is on hand to witness Japanese skullduggery in China, long before Pearl Harbor. When a cache of jewels, intended to finance Chiang Kai-Shek's fight against the Japanese invaders, disappears, Gargan and adventuress Irene Hervey desperately search for the missing gems. Everyone seems to be awfully mercenary, but patriotism wins out before the end. As was customary in wartime films, the Japanese in Destination Unknown are depicted as offensively as traffic would allow, so it's best to regard this film within the context of its times. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Throughout most of the running time of Universal's Double Alibi, it looks as though ostensible hero Stephen Wayne (Wayne Morris) really is guilty of three murders. Even so, girl reporter Sue Carey (Margaret Lindsay) falls in love with Wayne, despite the fact that she also thinks he's guilty. This causes no end of discomfort for city editor Walter Gifford (William Gargan), who is in love with Sue himself, and police captain Orr (James Burke), who has a vested interest in seeing Wayne delivered to the executioner. By film's end, of course, Sue has helped to prove Wayne's innocence, through the simple expedient of stumbling upon the identity of the real killer. With so much going on, it's surprising that Double Alibi could squeeze in the traditional comedy relief of Roscoe Karns, cast once more as a wisecacking photojournalist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a young surgeon and his driver must combat the racketeers who have taken over the hospital where he works. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Flying Cadets is basically a vehicle for William Gargan and Edmund Lowe, doing a Flagg-and-Quirt act as a pair of eternally bickering ex-WWI pilots. The "official" plot is carried along by Frank Albertson as Bob Ames, a young airplane fancier who hopes to create a school for aspiring aviators. He also wants to land a government contract for the development of a speedy new aircraft that he's designed in his spare time. Both of these goals are intertwined when Ames is able to establish his school, with grouchy-but-loveable Trip (Gargan) as his assistant and Trip's grouchier-but-more loveable brother Rocky (Lowe) as chief flying instructor. Flying Cadets has the "look" of one of Universal's Richard Arlen-Andy Devine adventure quickies, even down to its heavy reliance on stock footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide