Ernie S. Adams Movies

In this costume drama, a woman travels from New England to California's Barbary coast to avenge her brother's death. There she becomes a saloon singer in a sleazy bar, the bar frequented by the killer. The bar's owner, and the local crime lord begin fighting over control of coastal operations. The woman falls for the bar owner until she learns that he may have been involved in her brother's demise. Happiness ensues when it is discovered that the brother is not dead at all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, a nurse begins having strange premonitions about an impending murder. So strong is her intuition that she soon begins searching for the intended victim to try and save him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One of the screen's favorite tough blondes, the delightful Veda Ann Borg, stole the show in this low-budget serial produced by Sam Katzman for Columbia Pictures. Although star-billed (with leading man Kane Richmond and comic relief Eddie Quillan), Veda was the serial's villainess, making life difficult for placid little Janet Shaw, the nominal heroine. The sarcastic Borg played the alluring accomplice of nasty Jake Regan (Western bad man Charles King), a typical serial rotter who will leave no stone unturned in his search for a priceless African treasure. Having kidnapped Dr. Reed (Budd Buster), the villains have to deal with the man's daughter (Shaw) and her gallant boyfriend, Bob Moore (Richmond). Things get complicated when Zara (Carol Hughes), the beautiful High Priestess, sides with Regan, but, as always, justice prevails in the 15th, and final, chapter, "The Jewels of Arzac." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Gary Cooper added "producer" alongside "star" on his resume with this light-hearted Western about a mild-mannered cowboy (Cooper) who drifts into a small town with his sidekick (William Demarest). Naturally, he's mistaken for a notorious highway robber (Dan Duryea), although he can barely handle a gun. His impersonation of the menacing gunman falls apart when his skills are put to the test, and he faces certain doom when challenged by the returning gunman himself. In the end, however, our hero defeats the villain and even ends up with his girl (Loretta Young). A send-up of both Western clichés and Cooper's own heroic persona, Along Came Jones is brisk, amusing entertainment. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Supernatural events on the range prompt an investigation by cowboy Brown in this western. ~ All Movie Guide

Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton return to the screen as saddle pals Nevada and Sandy in Monogram's Pals of the Border. In this one, our heroes are US marshals, hot on the trail of cattle rustlers. To rout out the thieves, Nevada poses as a crook, while Sandy pretends to be hard of hearing. The criminals, it seems, have more than cattle on their minds: they've been trading their stolen goods for priceless jewels. As was customary, Johnny Mack Brown avoided any and all romantic entanglements in Raiders of the Border, allowing supporting actors Craig Woods and Ellen Hall to handle the smooching and hand-holding. The film was adapted from a short story by Johnston McCulley, of "Zorro" fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

U.S. marshal Ritter arrives in town to round up bandits who are attempting to fix the local elections. ~ All Movie Guide

Two years before attaining superstardom in The Jolson Story, Larry Parks essayed the leading role the Columbia wartime meller The Black Parachute. Parks is cast as American paratrooper Michael Lindley, who drops behind enemy lines under cover of night to rescue the deposed king (Jonathan Hale) of a mythical Balkan nation. Disguising himself as a slain Naxi colonel, Lindley shows up at the German occupational headquarters, where he manages to fool the Heydrich-like General Von Rodenbach (John Carradine). The women in the case are German spy Marya Orloff (Osa Massen) and beautiful resistance fighter Olga (Jeanne Bates). Black Parachute was unconvincing even in 1944, but director Lew Landers kept things moving so quickly that no one had time to dwell upon the film's logic gaps. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

But for the presence of the Columbia "torch lady" in the opening credits, it would be easy to mistake Judy Canova's Louisiana Hayride for one of her concurrently-produced Republic musicals. The rambunctious Canova is cast as backwoods heiress Judy Crocker, who comes to Hollywood in hopes of crashing the movies. Con artists J. Huntington McMasters (Richard Lane) and Canada Brown (George McKay) try to use Judy's presumed gullibility to their advantage, but she proves a little shrewder than she looks. Several of Canova's cornpone tunes were co-written by Saul Chaplin, later a top Hollywood musical director. And that's not all: the star's two handsome leading men are none other than Lloyd Bridges and future producer-director Ross Hunter! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One-time movie crooner Dick Powell literally turned his career around in the 1944 film noir Murder My Sweet. Powell stars as Phillip Marlowe, the hard-boiled private detective antihero created by novelist Raymond Chandler. Hired by hulking, psychotic Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) to locate Moose's old girl friend, Marlowe is pitched headlong into a morass of intrigue and deception. The participants include duplicitous glamour-girl Claire Trevor, sodden slattern Esther Howard, suave blackmailer Otto Kruger and dyspeptic doctor Ralf Harolde. At one point, Marlowe is railroaded into a lunatic asylum, where under the influence of drugs he experiences a surrealistic nightmare the like of which would not be seen on screen again until Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). So fascinating are the "bad" characters in Murder My Sweet that the two 100% "good" characters, heroine Anne Shirley and detective Don Douglas, seem wishy-washy wimps by comparison. After years of insipid golly-gee roles, Dick Powell startled his fans with his cynical, world-weary portrayal of Philip Marlowe. The part put him back on top of the box-office tallies and enabled him to extend his acting career into the 1950s, which led to an even more lucrative "third life" as a powerful TV-studio executive. Murder My Sweet was based on Chandler's Farewell My Lovely, previously filmed in 1942 as The Falcon Takes Over; a remake, Farewell, My Lovely, was produced in 1975, with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wally Brown and Alan Carney, RKO's own Abbott and Costello ripoffs, star in the comedy western The Girl Rush. As usual, Brown is cast as fast-talking Jerry Miles and Carney plays slow-witted Mike Strager. This time, Jerry and Mike are travelling showmen, stranded in San Francisco when the 1849 gold strike at Sutter's Mill commandeers all available transportation. Making the best of things, our heroes decide to stage a girl-filled musical revue for the entertainment-hungry miners. They also promise that the girls will prove to be excellent wives for the prospectors. Only one problem: where are the girls? This slapped-together effort would be utterly unmemorable were it not for the presence of Robert Mitchum, cast as a clever outlaw who at one point in the film disguises himself as a mail-order bride! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young buckaroo gallops off after the conniving crooks who framed his bank president daddy for embezzlement. Plenty of western action ensues until justice prevails and the ornery varmints are jailed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide