Harry Harvey Movies
Actor Harry Harvey Sr. started out in minstrel shows and burlesque. His prolific work in Midwestern stock companies led to film assignments, beginning at RKO in 1934. Harvey's avuncular appearance (he looked like every stage doorman named Pop who ever existed) won him featured roles in mainstream films and comic-relief and sheriff parts in B-westerns. His best known "prestige" film assignment was the role of New York Yankees manager Joe McCarthy in the 1942 Lou Gehrig biopic Pride of the Yankees. Remaining active into the TV era, Harry Harvey Sr. had continuing roles on two series, The Roy Rogers Show and It's a Man's World, and showed up with regularity on such video sagebrushers as Cheyenne and Bonanza. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideA group of people are held up in the desert, and the only survivors are Fred Fowler (Robyn Adair), his daughter Teresa (Lucy Payton) and Harry Hart (Bruce Smith). Fred carries Teresa to a cabin where he finds a pile of gold nuggets and a note which says the map to a mine can be found in a yellow bullet. He finds the bullet and buries it, but Hart desperately wants to get his hands on this information. When Fowler won't give it out, Hart handcuffs him and leaves him in the cabin to torture him into telling. But the old man manages to struggle to the place he buried the bullet, and loads it into his gun. When Hart comes back to torment him again, Fowler shoots him dead. He is saved from slow death by his daughter and her lover, a surgeon with the border guard (Neil Hardin), who had put together a rescue party. This short (four reel) feature was cheaply made, badly directed, and had little to recommend it. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Scotland Yard detective Brandsby Morant (Barney Fury) is unable to save his nephew from his involvement with a gang of crooks. The nephew is sent to prison, but he escapes. Mordant travels to America with a companion, Marie Marat (Leona Lorraine), to seek vengeance on the men who ruined his nephew's life. His actions result in the death of one of the men, Adolph Gassner (Frank Erlanger), and mental torture for two others, Phineas Glenister (Charles Elder) and Jefferson Armstrong (Harl McInroy). Glenister and Armstrong have been trying to lead respectable lives, but Mordant kidnaps Glenister's daughter, Dorothy (Margaret Landis), and he reveals her father's nefarious past. But it turns out that Dorothy is actually his nephew's daughter, and Glenister had adopted her in an attempt to put things right. The law is on Mordant's trail, and it is only through Marie's help that he is able to escape to a better life. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Two good friends, Dr. Royal Sheldon (William Conklin) and Jason Davies (Edward J. Brady), go on vacation to Mandalay, where they just miss being buried in a landslide at the ruby mines. They find a large jewel in the hand of a dead miner, and their friendship ends over who gets it. Ultimately, Sheldon threatens to throw Davies off a cliff, so Davies gives him the jewel -- and his undying hatred. Years later, he steals Sheldon's wife away, and the wife just happens to have possession of the ruby. But this isn't revenge enough; when the doctor's daughter, Doris (Ruth Roland), reaches maturity, Davies also tempts her with jewels. But he's discovered before he can carry out his wicked scheme and is pursued to a cliff, where he jumps off. The evil ruby is thrown in after him. This is another poorly-made effort by the low budget Balboa film company ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Alethea Brand (Julia Beaubian) is in love with Spencer Rutherford (R. Henry Grey), a cashier at the bank her father (Daniel Gilfether) owns. But Roger Brand insists that Rutherford must have a fortune equal to Alethea's before they can marry. Baron Norvinsk (Melvin Mayo) comes to town with his sister, Paula (Kathleen Kirkham) and they open an account at Brand's bank. The baron claims to represent Russian royalty and Brand is impressed enough to give him a half million dollar loan (worth many times that in those days!). But Alethea's French maid (Gloria Payton) reveals that the Baron and his sister are impostors. It's too late to stop him from getting the loan, but Alethea manages to entice the baron into the safety deposit vault of the bank. Rutherford, who is helping her, is called away and a detective closes the vault, locking Alethea and the Baron together. Rutherford, however, returns with Brand in time to save Alethea from any harm. Because he has saved Brand a half million dollars, Rutherford asserts that he has earned the amount of Alethea's fortune, and Brand agrees. To save the Baron from a life in Siberia, Paula kills him. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
One More Spring is a laundered version of Robert Nathan's whimsical Depression-era novel. Left destitute by the Wall Street crash are an odd assortment of lost souls: Former antique dealer Otkar (Warner Baxter), concert violinist Rosenberg (Walter Woolf King) and unemployed actress Elizabeth (Janet Gaynor). Kindly Central Park street cleaner Sweeney (Roger Imhof) allows the threesome -- later a foursome when they're joined by suicidal banker Sheridan (Grant Mitchell) -- to live in an abandoned tool shed. Chastely, the three men and the girl survive a tough winter, remaining hopeful that things will be better in the Spring (as indeed they are!) At one point, Elizabeth manages to raise enough money for a week's worth of food, leading the men to conclude that she's taken to streetwalking. But, no, our heroine remains chaste and pure to the very end (in the novel, Elizabeth was a streetwalker, but that's another story). The most indelible image in One More Spring is the sight of Otkar and Rosenberg blithely roasting a tiny pigeon over an open fire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janet Gaynor, Warner Baxter, (more)
Paul Muni is a prominent physician who is kidnapped by gangsters and forced to tend the needs of head crook Barton MacLaine. MacLaine takes a liking to the intellectual doctor and allows him to go home after his job is done. Muni finds himself the reluctant "staff physician" for the gangster, thus is periodically spirited away from his practice to look after the criminal. He has given his word not to "rat" on the crooks, but he can't sit idly by while the gangsters loot the city. Muni foils the crooks by injecting them with a drug which induces temporary blindness. Dr. Socrates was remade in 1939 as King of the Underworld, with Humphrey Bogart as the gangster boss and actress Kay Francis in Paul Muni's role (with surprisingly few dialogue alterations to accommodate the gender switch!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, (more)
Virtually all of the Chesterfield Pictures efforts of the 1930s served as starring vehicles for Hollywood's best character actors. It was Henrietta Crossman who headed the cast of the 1936 Chesterfield production Hitch Hike to Heaven, sharing star billing with former silent-movie matinee idol Herbert Rawlinson. Crossman plays Deborah Delaney, manager of a small but intrepid band of touring repertory actors, while Rawlinson is cast as Deborah's son Melville De la Ney, a famous movie actor (which puts him on the outs with his mom, who despises movies). One of the members of Delaney's company is Melville's son Daniel (Russell Gleason), who is in love with the troupe's ingenue Jerry Daley (Polly Ann Young). Through a series of misunderstandings, Jerry winds up as a correspondent in the divorce action between Melville and his wife Nadia (Lela Bliss). The ensuing scandal finishes Melville in Hollywood, but by film's end, his reputation has been restored while Jerry also becomes a prominent film star -- not to mention the bride of Daniel Delaney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henrietta Crosman, Herbert Rawlinson, (more)
The Lone Wolf Returns stars Melvyn Douglas as Louis Joseph Vance's reformed criminal Michael Lanyard, a.k.a. The Lone Wolf. Lanyard lapses back into his old ways when he attempts to steal an emerald pendant belonging to Gail Patrick, but he falls in love with the girl and remains on the straight and narrow. A pair of less sentimental crooks frame Lanyard and force him to participate in a high-stakes heist. The Lone Wolf turns the tables on the crooks and wins his lady love. Previously filmed in 1926, The Lone Wolf Returns was the first of Columbia's "B" series featuring the gentleman thief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvyn Douglas, Gail Patrick, (more)
Ghost Town Gold was the second entry in Republic's long-running "Three Mesquiteers" western series. Ray "Crash" Corrigan and Robert Livingston return as Tucson Smith and Stony Brooke, while Max Terhune replaces Sid Saylor as Lullaby Joslin. Almost immediately, comic ventriloquist Terhune established a rapport with his two co-stars, though audiences could have done with a lot less of his garrulous dummy Elmer. As for the plot, our three heroes try to retrieve some stolen money before an innocent banker is blamed for the theft. Adding spice to the quest is the fact that the banker has a pretty daughter (Kay Hughes). Other highlights include a typical Republic saloon-brawl scene, in which Tucson cleans the clock of head-villain Frank S. Hagney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Max "Alibi" Terhune, (more)
Margaret Lindsay stars in the title role, playing a young woman imprisoned for a crime which she didn't commit. The real culprit is her jailbird husband (Cesar Romero), a smooth jewel thief with a jealous streak. Margaret hopes to put her past behind her by taking up with a society man (Dick Foran), keeping the affair secret lest her fugitive husband kill her lover. Released in England as G-Man's Wife (Lindsay ends up with government agent Pat O'Brien), Public Enemy's Wife was based on a story co-written by none other than David O. Selznick. The film was remade as a 50-minute "B," Bullets for O'Hara (41), with a young Anthony Quinn as the criminal and Joan Perry (later the wife of Columbia chieftain Harry Cohn) as his wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, (more)
The zany vaudeville comedy team of Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson was still one year away from their smash Broadway hit Hellzapoppin' when they starred in Republic's Country Gentlemen. The daffy duo plays a couple of gold-stock swindlers who try to fleece the citizenry of a small town. They end up purchasing a vacant lot for $4000, which they try to pass off as an oil field. A group of local WWI veterans invest heavily in Olsen and Johnson's latest venture, meaning that the boys will be in for quite a lot of lumps if the expected "gusher" doesn't come in. Thanks to good influence of heroine Lila Lee, our heroes change their crooked ways -- but not quite in the nick of time! Critics weren't keen on the notion of middle-aged Ole Olsen being cast as a romantic lead, but everyone was satisfied with the supporting performance of perennial "dumb blonde" Joyce Compton as the team's Girl Friday. Originally released at 66 minutes, Country Gentlemen is presently available in its 53-minute TV reissue form. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, (more)
Though released by Republic, The Oregon Trail was actually filmed by the Lone Star unit at Monogram. John Wayne stars in a bargain-basement rehash of his earlier The Big Trail. Battling his way through reams of stock footage, the Duke leads a wagon train through the rugged frontier. He also keeps both eyes peeled for the man who murdered his father. 18-year-old Ann Rutherford is the feminine interest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this comedy, an amnesiac takes off with a young woman. This causes the woman's father to hire a detective to find them. Real mayhem ensues when a nightclub owner/gangster gets involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Pryor, Wendy Barrie, (more)
Otto Preminger was able to make his directorial debut on Under Your Spell solely because Darryl Zanuck couldn't care less about the film's quality; it was a contractual obligation film for Lawrence Tibbett, who was proving a washout as a film star. In Spell, Tibbett plays Anthony Allen, a world famous singer who has grown tired of the trials that come with celebrity. Seeking to avoid the spotlight, ceaseless publicity and determined fans, Allen enlists the aid of his butler in secretly escaping to a ranch in Mexico. Allen's manager (Gregory Ratoff) is understandably upset with his client's behavior and so sets in motion a scheme of his own. He contacts celebrity-hunting heiress Cynthia Drexel (Wendy Barrie) and lets her know where to find the reluctant star. Drexel quickly hunts down her prey and sticks to him like glue. Although Allen initially is exasperated with her, he soon finds himself attracted to her. In addition to arias from The Marriage of Figaro and Faust, Tibbert performs Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz's "Amigo," "My Little Mule Wagon" and the title song. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lawrence Tibbett, Wendy Barrie, (more)
A New York novelist (Henry Fonda) meets up with an actress (Margaret Sullavan), and the two date and later marry, though neither knows of the other's fame. The real adventure begins on the honeymoon, when this screwball comedy really heats up with insults and arguments. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Sullavan, Henry Fonda, (more)
An obscure backstage drama from Poverty Row company Puritan Pictures, The Reckless Way stars Marion Nixon as Helen Rogers, a hotel stenographer hoping to break into the movie business. Although her ad agency boyfriend, Don (Malcolm MacGregor), disapproves, Helen accepts the opportunity to make a screen test for imperious director Von Berg (John Peters). The test proves a flop, but hotel clerk and budding screenwriter Jim Morgan (Kane Richmond) pens a story based on Helen's own life that succeeds. Prompted by Jim, Von Berg admits to Helen that it was Don who sabotaged the first test and the discouraged girl returns to the Knickerbocker Hotel. Jim, meanwhile, has earned a five-year contract from Apex Studios and Helen gladly accepts his proposal of marriage. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Real-life flying ace Frank Hawks stars in the 15-chapter Columbia serial The Mysterious Pilot. Running the gamut of emotions from A to B, Hawks is cast as Jim Dorn, mapmaker for the Royal Canadian Air Force. With his sidekicks, a mountie named Kansas (Rex Lease) and an Indian named Luke (Yakima Canuttt), Jim shields Jean McNain (Dorothy Sebastian) from the villainous machinations of her former fiance Carter Snowden (Kenneth Harlan). It is difficult to determine Snowden's motives, though it can't be denied that he's one of the most resourceful villains in serial history. Mysterious Pilot is capped by an offbeat climax wherein the hero is rescued by the heroine! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Hawks, Dorothy Sebastian, (more)
The popular B-flick team of Frankie Darro and Kane Richmond star in the slick quickie Headline Crasher. Little Frankie and Big Kane play a pair of roving journalists who investigate a politician (Richard Tucker) up for re-election. When it seems as though the politico is being set up for a fall by yellow journalists, Darro and Richmond try to get to the truth of the matter. The original story for Headline Crasher is credited to Peter B. Kyne, creator of the "Broncho Billy" western stories. The film has all the pace of a cowboy opus, which is helpful in patching up the plot holes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frankie Darro, Kane Richmond, (more)
Flash Casey (Eric Linden), per his nickname, is an ace photojournalist--at least, he will be once he gets out of high school. After winning a prize in a photography contest, Flash vows that within two years of his graduation, he'll own his own newsphoto agency. To attain his goal, Flash goes after a big scoop, and nearly breaks his neck in the process. Co-starring as Eric's faithful girl is Boots Mallory, at one time the sister-in-law of James Cagney. Here's Flash Casey is an agreeable piece of non-think entertainment from the Grand National quickie mills. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Linden, Boots Mallory, (more)
The cattle rustlers in Border Cafe, a modern-day western from the RKO B-unit, are Eastern gangsters headed by none other than that old reprobate J. Carrol Naish. After having landed in jail for drunken driving for the umpteenth time, young Bostonian Keith Whitney (John Beal callously leaves his fiancé (Marjorie Lord) behind and takes off on a whim for Verde, Texas, where he inhales huge amounts of scotch and plays the honky tonk. In the mistaken belief that his son is operating a cattle ranch, Senator Whitney (George Irving) announces his arrival in Verde but Keith is rescued in the nick of time by Tex Stevens (Harry Carey), a leathery cattle baron who has taken a liking to the youngster. Things get dicey when New York gangster Rocky Alton (Naish) arrives to extract protection fees but Keith, who has taken to the wide open spaces like the proverbial fish to water, saves the day for all and sundry. Dumped on the B-Movie market with little fanfare in June of 1937, Border Café marked the screen debut of Marjorie Lord, mother of screen actress Anne Archer. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Carey, John Beal, (more)
Filmed on a budget of about 78 cents, High Hat was a foredoomed attempt to turn radio singer Frank Luther into a movie star. Luther struggles manfully in the role of Suwanee Collier, the boyfriend and mentor of aspiring vocalist Elanda Lee (Dorothy Dare). A classical singer, Elanda refuses to lower herself to perform "swing" music until Collier shows her the way. Such reliable character actors as Franklin Pangborn, Gavin Gordon, Robert Warwick, Esther Muir and Clarence Muse go a long way to relieve the overall tedium. High Hat was distributed on a states-rights basis by Imperial Films, a fly-by-night firm best known for the Bela Lugosi epic Murder by Television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Luther, Dorothy Dare, (more)
The poverty-row origins of Special Agent K-7 are made doubly obvious by its all-bit-player cast. Walter McGrail essays perhaps the largest role in his talkie career as police detective Lanny, who resents the ongoing interference of the local FBI branch. Hoping to show up the feds, Lanny tackles a baffling espionage case all by his lonesome. Things heat up when his gal-reporter sweetheart Ollie (Queenie Smith) is framed for murder by the villains. The actual killer is so obvious to the audience that one contemporary suggested that he shone like a beacon on the screen. Leading lady Queenie Smith, best known for her performance of the soubrette Elly in Show Boat (1936), went on to a long career in character roles, and for a while played the landlady in the "Bowery Boys" series of the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter McGrail, Queenie Smith, (more)
The third of four Fred Scott Westerns produced by C.C. Burr for Spectrum Pictures, Two Gun Troubadour was rather grim for what was ostensibly a true "horse opera," with the stress squarely on "opera. (Scott was a former light opera baritone.) Fred Dean, Sr. (Scott) is murdered and twenty years later his son (also Scott) is still searching for the killer. Returning to the old homestead from the East, Fred, Jr. assumes the identity of Fred Evans, a singing troubadour and would-be cowpuncher. When a young rancher (James "Buddy" Kelly) is found murdered, Fred is accused of being the killer, a mysterious outlaw wearing a disguise. The real culprit, as it turns out, is childhood enemy Bill Barton (John Merton), who is in league with Fred's evil uncle Kirk Dead (Carl Mathews). With the help of old friend Elmer Potts (comedian Harry Harvey) and pretty rancher Helen Bradfield (Claire Rochelle), Fred gets the goods on Barton and Kirk, proving along the way that Kirk was the man who murdered his father. In between all the murders and mayhem, Scott found time to romance Miss Rochelle and sing Cowboy and the Schoolmarm, Ride, Cowboy, Ride and the title song. Little Billy Lenhart (nicknamed "Bull Fiddle") played Scott as a boy and the son of sidekick Harry Harvey, Harry Harvey, Jr., appeared as a young Bill Barton. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Scott, Claire Rochelle, (more)
Cheapie king Sam Katzman was both producer and director of the Tom Tyler western The Lost Ranch. "Our Tom" essays his customary role of Tom Wade, troubleshooter for the Cattlemen's Protective Association. When cattle rancher Carroll (Lafe McKee) is captured by outlaws, Carroll's daugther Rita (Jeanne Martel) inaugurates a search. At first convinced that Wade himself is one of the villains, Rita finally wises up and allows him to join the search-and, of course, to rout the villains in the final footage. Billed third in Lost Ranch is former Mack Sennett leading lady Marjorie Beebe, essaying yet another wisecracking comedy role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Tyler, Jeanne Martel, (more)
Jack Holt stars as Robert Bailey, a Henry Ford-like auto industrialist who decides to give his millions away to various charitable causes. Naturally, this arouses hostility amongst Bailey's friends, relatives and associates, some of whom have murder on their minds. When he elects to give away his company stock to his faithful employees, Bailey's intimates converge upon him, making a last-ditch effort to make him change his mind. When the inevitable murder attempt finally comes to pass, Bailey is shocked to discover that the culprit is his oldest and most trusted friend. Like most Columbia "B"'s of the period, Under Suspicion boasts a top-rank cast, including three former Marx Brothers foils: Margaret Irving, Esther Muir and Purnell Pratt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Katherine de Mille, (more)

















