Paul Guilfoyle Movies

This second filming of Zane Grey's novel (first brought to the screen by Paramount in 1924 with Bebe Daniels as the female lead) gave Randolph Scott his first starring role. Rancher Adam Naab (J. Farrell MacDonald) owns a spread that includes the only way out of the valley where gang-leader Judson Holderness (David Landau) is hiding a huge herd of stolen cattle, and he won't let Holderness move them across his land. The outlaw leader decides he's going to take the ranch, first by disputing and jumping Naab's water-claim and trying to starve him out. But Naab is one step ahead of him, and hires Jack Hare (Randolph Scott), a surveyor from back east, to remap and confirm the property lines, and Hare survives an attempt by Holderness' henchman Lefty (Guinn Williams) to kill him in the desert. Jack's arrival, however, turns the head of Judy (Sally Blane), Naab's ward (and the daughter of his late business partner), who is supposed to marry Naab's son Snap (Gordon Westcott). Snap already owes Holderness a lot of money from gambling losses at the latter's saloon, and he plays off of Snap's jealousy to get him to betray his own father. Complicating matters still further is the fact that Naab himself has long dreamed of Snap and Judy marrying, and won't let her growing infatuation with Jack get in the way of that plan. Matters all come to a head when all of Holderness' plans seem to unravel and he decides to take the ranch by force. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

One of several Liberty productions picked up for release by Republic, The Crime of Dr. Crespi is a modern-dress adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Premature Burial. Erich Von Stroheim stars as brilliant surgeon Dr. Anton Crespi, who seeks revenge against Ross (John Bohn), the man who stole his sweetheart away. When Ross is brought into the hospital E.R. for a crucial operation, Crespi is handed a golden opportunity to get even. Ross seemingly dies on the operating table, but in fact Crespi has administered a powerful drug that places his old enemy in a deathlike trance. Fully conscious and aware of what is happening, Ross is buried alive, but not before Crespi has some fun taunting his helpless victim. Meanwhile, Crespi's associate Dr. Arnold suspects that something is amiss, and with the help of Dr. Thomas (Dwight "Renfield" Frye in a rare non-lunatic role) he exhumes Ross to perform an autopsy. The "corpse" quickly revives?and then??AAAAAH!!!! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Maxwell Anderson combined the Sacco-Vanzetti story with elements of the still-unsolved disappearance of Judge Crater, and the result was the blank-verse theatrical piece Winterset. Burgess Meredith, Margo and Eduardo Cianelli repeat their Broadway roles, respectively playing the grown son of an executed political radical, the woman who loves and stands by Meredith, and a menacing gangster with plenty to hide. 15 years after the execution, Meredith endeavors to clear his father's name, and to that end seeks out the judge (Edward Ellis) who presided over the trial, now a drunken, guilt-ridden derelict. Screenwriter Anthony Veiller remove most of Anderson's flowery dialogue and substituted a happy ending for the original play's cynically tragic denouement. Neither of these changes hurt the property, and in fact were heartily endorsed by Maxwell Anderson himself. But depression-era audiences, too wrapped in their own current problems to shed tears over the long-dead Sacco and Vanzetti, stayed away from Winterset in droves. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this adventure, a wealthy socialite falls in love and decides to stow away on her would-be lover's airplane as it takes off for China where he has been sent on a mission by his father. Unfortunately, the two are captured by revolutionaries; in order to gain their freedom, the man must promise to fly for the Chinese rebels. He does so--most acrobatically. Later he takes care of them for good. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this crime drama, a highly superstitious racehorse owner spends his time off the track helping the less fortunate in any way he can so that he will always have good luck. His ploy works until he is accused of murdering his ex-lover. Fortunately, the real culprit is discovered before he has to go to jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Super Sleuth stars Jack Oakie as an egotistical movie actor who specializes in detective roles. Despite the gentle remonstrations of his girl friend (Ann Sothern), Oakie fancies himself a genuine master sleuth, and in this capacity offers his services to the law in helping to solve a recent series of "poison pen" murders. In truth, Oakie is so dense that he can't figure out that the seemingly benign criminologist (Eduardo Cianelli), who supplies him technical information on his film roles, is the actual murderer. Edgar Kennedy, the real detective on the case, solves the mystery himself, but not before Oakie is nearly bumped off in the criminologist's "chamber of horrors." Super Sleuth was ineptly remade in 1946 as Genius at Work, a vehicle for RKO's prefabricated comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This musical parody follows the exploits of American performers in Hungary. The story begins as a Yankee wrestling trainer becomes friends with a gringo singer who works in the same Budapest nightclub as a female ventriloquist. When the singer is dumped, the trainer offers to help him with his romantic life. The singer then gets involved with the ventriloquist who is married to a notorious swordsman who has successfully killed 40 men in duels. Trouble ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This back-stage crime comedy, a remake of Lights Out (1923), takes a healthy satirical stab at the powerful studio system of the times. The trouble begins when an ex-convict and a screenwriter together write a screenplay based on the bank robbery that got the criminal in trouble with the law. After the film's release, the police, following the clues set forth on screen, capture the ex-con's former partners who escaped before. When other mobsters see the film and hear the story, they fear that such films will become the rage and they could go to jail, so they launch an all-out assault on a Hollywood studio creating all sorts of behind-the-scenes mayhem. Ironically, soon after Crashing Hollywood was released, a hit man for the Bugsy Siegel-Meyer Lansky Mob in New York spotted an extra who turned out to be former mobster "Big Harry" Greenberg, who snitched on his bosses and then disappeared. The hit man informed his superiors and soon afterward, Greenberg was slain. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Set amidst the tense and suspenseful world of men who transport large amounts of nitroglycerin, used to put out fires in oil fields, this drama centers on the conflict between a young med student, who has become a nitro handler to help pay his way through school, and the old trucker who hauls the deadly chemical on site. The trucker resents the young man's attentions toward his daughter because he feels that there can be no security with a man who could accidentally blow himself up at any moment. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The RKO Radio backlot gets quite a workout in the peppy "B" comedy-mystery Fugitives for a Night. When movie executive Maurice Tenwright (Russell Hicks) is murdered, the prime suspect is would-be actor Matt Ryan (Frank Albertson). As stooge and "gopher" for arrogant rising star Poole (Bradley Page), Matt is a ready-made fall guy, much to the chagrin of the only person who truly cares for him, studio publicist Ann Wray (Eleanor Lynn). With the cops hot on their trail, Matt and Ann run off into the night, spending the rest of the film as the titular fugitives. Only when Ann convinces Matt to stop living in Poole's shadow and to stand on his own two feet does he gather up the gumption to solve the murder. Fugitives for a Night was the first of many RKO Radio assignments for celebrated screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Wealthy socialite Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) is taking her pooches for a walk in the dead of the night when she stumbles upon a dead body and a car fleeing the scene of the crime. She alerts the police but the corpse has disappeared by the time they arrive, and the lieutenant, knowing of her madcap reputation, believes she was playing a practical joke. After newspaper editor Peter Ames (Henry Fonda) takes her to task in print, she sues him for libel and enlists the aid of her society friends in tracking down the body and finding the killer. Eventually, Ames comes around to believing Melsa's story and aids her in her search. It isn't long before the two antagonists find they're attracted to each other -- but they have to catch the murderer before they can settle down and live happily ever after. Fonda and Stanwyck would team up again in You Belong to Me and The Lady Eve. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

This RKO Radio "expose" film is loosely based on the career of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who'd previously gotten the a clef treatment in Capra's The Miracle Woman (1931). Sally Eilers stars as ex-nightclub singer Connie Vinson, an enthusiastic but hypocritical Bible-thumper who turns her ministry into a profit-making business enterprise. Unlike McPherson, who ran her operation with a reasonable degree of honesty, Connie stages a series of phony miracles to separate her wealthier followers from their family jewels. The fact that she has retained a few gangster pals from the old days places Connie under the scrutiny of bunco-squad detective Cramer (Jonathan Hale). Our heroine ultimately mends her ways when she actually heals a crippled client, whereupon she works hand in glove with the cops to get the goods on her crooked cronies. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Radio comedian Joe Penner, of "You Naaassty Man!" fame, was very much an acquired taste in 1938, and even more so when seen today. Nevertheless, such Penner movie vehicles as I'm From the City never failed to make a tidy profit for RKO Radio Pictures. In this one, the star plays a circus bareback rider who happens to be deathly afraid of horses. In order to perform his equestrian act, Penner must be hypnotized, whereupon he turns into a fearless, ridin' fool. This single joke is stretched across 7 reels as Penner finds himself participating in a grueling cowboy race, snapping out of his hypnotic trance at the most inopportune of moments. Former dancer Lorraine Krueger is actually funnier then Penner in the role of the hero's birdbrained girlfriend, as is Paul Guilfoyle as a comic-strip Indian. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi