Shirley Grey Movies

Preston S. Foster is the "hero" of The People's Enemy only in the sense that his is the largest male role. Foster plays a detestable gangster who works his way up to millionaire status. To gain a veneer of respectability, he marries lovely Lila Lee. But when the going gets rough, he deserts both his wife and his young daughter (Sybil Elaine). Upon Foster's arrest, noble and upright Melvyn Douglas is on hand to comfort Lee and her child. The People's Enemy was independently financed by Select Productions and released through RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This chiller speculates upon a haunting real-life mystery that occurred off the English coast on December 5, 1872 where the American ship Marie Celeste was found drifting with her sails set at half-mast with absolutely no one on board. According to the film, the crewmen were murdered by captain Anton Lorenzen, whose lust for vengeance against a mutinous first mate six years before drives him insane. The film is also titled Mystery of the Marie Celeste. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this romance, a social worker employed by Traveler's Aid finally is able to show her love to a construction foreman responsible for building the Golden Gate Bridge. She has loved him for nine years and is delighted that they can finally be together. Unfortunately, both of them are so busy that it is difficult to be together. Fortunately, they do eventually connect. The film contains actual footage of the construction of the great San Francisco Bridge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A couple of idealistic reporters attempt to unmask an unfair system in this topical melodrama from poverty row company Chesterfield. Witnessing a man convicted of murder purely on circumstantial evidence, reporters Jim Baldwin (Chick Chandler and Spike Horton (Lee Moran) decide to demonstrate how uncivilized the system is by faking a murder of their own. But when the "victim," fellow newspaperman Fred Stevens (Arthur Vinton), turns up very much the worse for wear -- dead in fact -- Jim is found guilty on circumstantial evidence and condemned to death. He manages to escape and hunt down the real killer who, it turns out, had good reason for murder. Circumstantial Evidence, which was produced in the wake of the conviction of accused Lindbergh baby-killer Bruno Hauptmann, was based on a story by silent screen director Tom Terriss. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Wednesday's Child, the song goes, is "full of woe." This is indeed the case for Bobby (Frankie Thomas), who is bundled off to military school when his father (Edward Arnold) and mother (Karen Morley) divorce. That Bobby was forced to testify during the divorce action was traumatic enough; now he must face the grim reality that neither of his parents really want him around. Eventually, Bobby's dad relents and brings the boy home -- not the painfully realistic original ending of the Leopold Atlas play upon which this film was based. When RKO Radio refilmed Wednesday's Child as Child of Divorce in 1946 (with Sharyn Moffett playing a distaff version of the Frankie Thomas role), Atlas' doleful ending was left intact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Universal's Bombay Mail adheres to the pattern established by Paramount's Shanghai Express, with a group of Calcutta-bound train passengers thrust into a life-or-death situation. In the course of the 36-hour journey, a high-ranking British official (Ferdinand Gottschalk) and an equally prominent Maharajah (Douglas Gerrard) are both murdered. Police inspector Dyke (Edmund Lowe) would like to make an arrest, but is stymied by a lack of evidence -- or even a murder weapon. Complicating matters is a scheme hatched by a couple of other passengers to steal a valuable ruby. It turns out that a poisonous cobra is the instrument of death, and that the murderer is...well, no fair giving it away here. Future gossip queen Hedda Hopper appears as one of the most suspicious-looking suspects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Sisters Under the Skin in this Columbia "continental" romantic seriocomedy are middle-aged Elinor Yates (Doris Lloyd) and vixenish actress Blossom Bailey (Elissa Landi). Fancying himself to be in his second childhood, Elinor's husband John Hunter Yates (Frank Morgan) seeks out a younger companion in the form of Blossom. But Yates is doomed to disappointment when flamboyant composer Zukowski (Joseph Schildkraut) steals Blossom away from him. He returns to the ever-patient Elinor, who probably never doubted that he'd eventually get over his "seven year itch." Released in Great Britain as This Romantic Age, Sisters Under the Skin was scripted by longtime Frank Capra associate Jo Swerling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The basic difference between the Chesterfield and Invincible productions of the 1930s is that most of the Chesterfields were directed by Richard Thorpe, while the Invincibles were helmed by Frank Strayer (in truth, both studios were one in the same!) It was Strayer at the controls for Twin Husbands, a sharply-turned comedy melodrama dominated by star John Miljan. He plays Jerry Van Trevor, a gentleman crook who is blackmailed into participating in a confidence scam masterminded by comparative amateurs. In order to get their hands on some valuable bonds, Chloe Werrendon (Shirley Grey) and Colton Drain (Monroe Owsley) force Jerry to pose as Chloe's missing husband. Jerry goes along with the scheme, biding his time until he can outwit his cohorts. Among the minor pleasures of Twin Husbands are the appearances of Wilson Benge and Robert Elliot, usually typecast respectively as a butler and detective, but herein cast as a phony butler and phony detective! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fourth and last of Columbia's "Inspector Trent" mysteries, Girl in Danger once more stars Ralph Bellamy as the super-methodical Trent. The endangered girl is socialite Gloria Gale (Shirley Grey), who on a caprice steals a valuable emerald. Pursued by Inspector Trent, the playful Gloria leads the detective on a merry chase, apparently never realizing that Trent is merely trying to protect her from a murderous gang of jewel thieves. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Trent is murdered, leaving Gloria to her fate. Or is this what really happens? Nothing is quite what it seems to be in Girl in Danger, keeping the audience on guard throughout the picture -- and, incidentally, obscuring the film's many plot holes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This third entry in Columbia's "Inspector Trent" series is cleverly (and economically) set in a movie studio. A malevolent leading lady (Gail Patrick) is murdered while filming a scene, whereupon the nervous studio head calls in Inspector Trent (Ralph Bellamy). Since everybody on the lot despised the victim, there's a surplus of suspects -- among them nominal romantic leads Shirley Grey and Kane Richmond and future director Vincent Sherman. The key to the solution is a booby-trapped camera, a gimmick that strains the audience's credulity but which works well within the film's framework. Among the film's highlights is a nightclub scene in which a bit player, who later became famous as mentalist Norvelle, predicts Trent's future (and he's right!) Crime of Helen Stanley was remade four years later as Who Killed Gail Preston, with Rita Hayworth as the unfortunate title character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two popular film genres were combined by low-budget Chestefield Films in 1934, and the result was Murder on the Campus. Hotshot reporter Bill Bartlett (Charles Starrett) wants to get to the bottom of things when three murders are committed at a co-educational college. In the nastiest of the killings, a female victim is hung from the clapper of the campus' tower bell. Since Bartett's own sweetheart (Shirley Grey) is implicated, he works twice as hard as usual to solve the mystery. It wouldn't be fair to reveal the ending, though it's worth noting that such highly suspicious characters as Edward Van Sloan (as the college president) and Dewey Robinson are lurking about during most of the picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this unusual Western, Buck Jones is not only branded for being a "squaw stealer" (i.e. rapist) but his prey is a woman vigilante attempting to establish a republic in Kansas. The woman, Joan Randall (Shirley Grey), is determined to reclaim land she believes was stolen by the U.S. government. Unbeknownst to Joan, however, her second-in-command, one Colonel Jedcott (Robert Ellis), is an unscrupulous charlatan merely out to enrich himself. When a town is ruthlessly pillaged by a gang of the colonel's henchmen, U.S. Army commander Frank Hawthorne (Charles Hill Mailes) assigns the case to his best operative, Jeff Connors (Jones). When Jeff discovers that outlaw Chet Dawson (Frank Lackteen) is scheduled to meet with Joan, our hero arranges to appear in his stead, and although he doesn't agree with the girl's position, he develops a fondness for her that ultimately turns to love. Dawson unhappily turns up at the absolute worst moment and Jeff and Joan are forced to flee. She is eventually put on trial and sentenced to hang but Jeff manages to obtain a last minute pardon from the governor. But will he arrive in time to save the woman he loves? ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A large urban hospital provides the setting for this drama. The staff there has seen it all and this is reflected in their hard-bitten demeanor, their cynicism, and the cruel jokes they play. One of them, an excellent surgeon gains a new outlook on life after he gets involved with investigating the death of a mobster, fatally shot in his hotel suite during a card game. The police call him to the scene to look at the corpse. There he discovers a lipstick-stained cigarette butt. He begins to search for the woman who smoked it. Later that day, the woman, severely beaten, shows up in the hospital emergency room. The surgeon miraculously saves her, and then falls for her. As she lays healing, she is seen by a mobster who had come to pay his respects to the cop who killed two members of his rival gang. The mobster later sends one of his thugs to make sure that the woman stays eternally quiet. The thug's attempt to kill her is thwarted by a young intern who is wounded in the ensuing scuffle. The gangster then gets himself admitted into the hospital where he plans to kill the woman himself. This proves to be a fatal mistake as the vengeful intern "accidently" injects the gangster with a deadly poison and then claims that the mobster was D.O.A. The woman is now safe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide