Linda Hayes Movies

Roy Rogers takes on crooked wartime profiteeers in the musical western Ridin' Down the Canyon. Posing as solid citizens, the crooks spend their evening hours stealing horses from local ranchers, then selling the steeds to the government at exorbitant prices. The head of the bad guys runs a dude ranch where Rogers and his pals (The Sons of the Pioneers) are employed. When Rogers figures out what's what, he sets about to bring the rustlers to justice. There's some piquancy in the fact that the character played by juvenile actor Buzzy Henry is named Bobby Blake; within a few years, the real Bobby Blake (who later grew up to become Robert Blake) would be appearing as Little Beaver in Republic's "Red Ryder" western series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a young heiress finds trouble when she naively assumes control over some valuable timberlands. The trouble begins when a ornery lumberman endeavors to take advantage of her innocence by stealing all her trees. Fortunately, his plans are foiled by two of her workers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ralph Bellamy makes the third of four appearances as "master detective" Ellery Queen in Columbia's Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime. The principal villain is crooked stockbroker John Mathews (Douglass Dumbrille), whose Wall Street manipulations render Ray Jarden (H. B. Warner) penniless. Mathews' chicanery seems particularly coldblooded, inasmuch as his daughter Marian (Linda Hayes) is engaged to Jarden's son Walter (John Beal). When the latter disappears, Mathews asks Ellery Queen to locate the young man. Shortly thereafter, one of the principal characters is murdered, forcing Ellery to get his deductive skills into high gear-no small task, since he's depicted in this film as a complete dunderhead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in the burning Arabian desert, this action-adventure centers on the attempts of a well-meaning and wealthy fellow to turn a village into a democracy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This romance chronicles the relationship between a stuntman and his movie star wife. When a colleague of his is killed on a movie set, his wife becomes afraid for her husband. This creates marital tension and the two separate. Eventually his buddies conspire to reunite them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The title of Millionaires in Prison (which begs for the rejoinder "about time!") pertains to four individuals. Two of the incarcerated millionaires, Bruce Vander (Raymond Walburn) and Harold Kellogg (Thurston Hall) have become the fall guys in a corporate swindle; the other two are brokers James Brent (Morgan Conway) and Sidney Keats (Chester Clute), who scheme to arrange an illicit stock deal in the joint. Prisoner Nick Burton (Lee Tracy) - the unofficial leader of the convicts - runs the prison like a resort, and treats the other inmates like kings. In the central story, Dr. William Collins (Truman Bradley) - a physician locked up for driving recklessly - discovers the cure for Malta fever and uses four infected prisoners as test subjects. Director Ray McCarey obviously didn't put a high priority on credibility when making Millionaires in Prison; of this, Variety wrote, "Some situations are implausible, but good for laughs." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

RKO's Conspiracy attempts to be an up-to-date (for 1939) espionage drama without using such problematic words as "Nazi" or "Fascist". The film solves this problem by taking place in a mythical Central American country, though the key figure of a despotic dictator is clearly meant to be an Hispanic Hitler. Allan Lane stars as an adventurer who joins forces with Linda Hayes, who plays a revolutionary dedicated to toppling the dictator's regime. If the average filmgoer of 1939 detected parallels to the recent Spanish Civil War, then screenwriter Jerome Chodhorov had succeeded. Conspiracy bears no relation to a 1930 RKO feature of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a shyster lawyer makes his living earning acquittals for his guilty clients. Most recently he freed a powerful crime lord. He comes to regret this when his daughter falls in love with the gangster. Despite his efforts to dissuade the criminal from pursuing the relationship, the gangster does. The desperate lawyer then kills the gangster and soon finds himself on trial for murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This murder mystery is set behind-the-scenes of a radio station. the trouble begins when a hated cad of a sponsor is found murdered during the climax of a live radio show. The sponsor had a reputation for using women. A clever radio engineer solves the mystery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide