Gloria Henry Movies

In a seminal version of his Death Wish characterization, Charles Bronson plays Alan Avery, a mild-manned L.A. schoolteacher who elects to stay mum after witnessing a gangland slaying. Forced to testify against the killers by the cops, Avery is turn terrorized by the Mob, who subsequently bring about the death of Avery's pregnant wife Edie (Gloria Henry). Meek and mild no longer, the outraged Avery embarks upon a one-man vendetta against the villains. The climax occurs in the posh mansion of gang boss Maxie Matthews (John Doucette)--who, as it turns out, isn't really worth killing. Based on a novel by Ovid Demaris, Gang War was one of a group of inexpensive second features released by 20th Century-Fox for the drive-in crowd. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A rare foray into straight action-adventure by comedy director Edward Bernds, Hot News stars Stanley Clements as ex-pugilist Mark Miller. Now working as a sports columnist at the newspaper run by Al Bragg (James Flavin), Miller takes it upon himself to expose the fight-fixing racket masterminded by gambler Rizzo (Ted De Corsia). Naturally, this puts Miller at the top of Rizzo's hit list, but one feels that virtue will triumph when the film's 61 minutes have run their course. Myron Healey, usually cast as a villain, essays the relatively sympathetic role of a boxer victimized by the ruthless Rizzo. Stanley Clements' leading lady is Gloria Henry, six years removed from her TV stint as Dennis the Menace's mom. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Wayne Morris was rapidly becoming Monogram's answer to John Wayne when he starred in Yellow Fin. Lensed on location in the Northern Pacific, the story concerns a group of rough-and-ready tuna fishermen. When he isn't fighting the elements, Mike (Wayne Morris) is trying to snap his father (Damian O'Flynn) out of a catatonic state, brought about by an accident on the high seas. A doctor suggests that Mike take his father out on his boat during bad weather, thereby recreating the events leading up to his mental condition as a means to bring him back to normal (does the AMA know about this brand of therapy?) A secondary plot strand involves a romantic triangle consisting of Mike, Jean (Adrian Booth) and Nina (Gloria Henry). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Durango Kid rides again in Lightning Guns. As ever, the masked Durango (alias Steve Brandon) is played by Charles Starrett, who this time around is on the trail of a gang of cold-blooded killers. Rancher Dan Saunders (Edgar Dearing) is held responsible for the killings because of his opposition to a politically expedient dam project. Durango believes that Saunders is innocent, and he intends to prove it. Appearing in a secondary role is Jock O'Mahoney (later known as Jock Mahoney), who also doubles for Charles Starrett during many of the action scenes. Starrett's leading lady is Gloria Henry, whom couch potatoes of the 1950s will remember as Alice Mitchell on TV's Dennis The Menace. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

William Bendix is perfectly cast as a diehard baseball fan who hates umpires with every fibre of his being. Bendix' devotion to baseball has lost him job after job, so his father-in-law (Ray Collins)--who happens to be an umpire--forces Our Hero to enroll in umpire school. Eventually Bendix learns to respect his new job, even gaining a measure of popularity by earning the nickname "Two-Call Johnson" (the result of double vision brought about by an overdose of eye drop medicine). But when Bendix calls a play against a popular pitcher, he is accused of cheating by the angry fans. Forced to disguise himself to get to the Big Game, Bendix arrives at the ball park to a chorus of "boos." Exonerated by the pitcher, who praises the umpire's honesty, Bendix is the hero of the day...until he makes another unpopular call two seconds later. Kill the Umpire is climaxed by a zany chase sequence scripted by former cartoon director Frank Tashlin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Gene Autry enjoyed considerable success with his recording of Stan Jones' haunting "Riders in the Sky". He then parlayed this success into a film, which proved to be one of Autry's best postwar efforts. The basic plot concerns Autry's efforts to clear rancher Ralph Lawson (Steve Darrell) of a trumped-up murder charge. The trumper-upper, Rock McCleary, is played by Robert Livingston, a former cowboy star who turned to character roles late in his career. The heroine is played by Gloria Henry, ten years removed from her TV fame as Alice Mitchell in Dennis the Menace. The title song is imaginatively staged by director John English, with a ghostly Tom London riding hard and fast as a montage of moody images play across the screen. So effective was this vignette that Columbia included it in the coming-attractions trailer for Riders in the Sky. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Gloria Henry, best known to modern viewers as Alice Mitchell in TV's Dennis the Menace, was the winsome leading lady of Law of the Barbary Coast. As Julie Adams, Henry assists D.A. Michael Lodge (played by Robert Shayne, the future Inspector Henderson of Superman) in his efforts to clean up the Barbary Coast district of San Francisco. Impeding their efforts is Stefan Schnabel as gambling czar Boralof, not to mention the fact that most of the DA's eyewitnesses turn up dead. Stephen Dunne provides a romantic interest for Adams as assistant DA Phil Morton, while Adele Jergens breezes through another of her "hard-boiled dame" characterizations. Law of the Barbary Coast was assembled with Columbia's usual low-budget efficiency. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Danny Mitchell (Ted Donaldson) and a handful of his friends have long enjoyed the friendship of Counselor Gibson (Thuston Hall), the town patriarch of Lawtonville, Illinois, where they live. For years, the elderly man -- who owns the biggest estate in town, as well as the factory that employs a major part of the Lawtonville population -- has invited the boys to his home for dinner every Sunday, so that they may talk and exchange ideas. And he has now decided that these boys, who represent through their parents a good cross-section of the actual town -- are well on their way to achieving the maturity that will allow them to responsibly use the legacy he plans on leaving them, his home and the land around it. Danny and his friends look forward to creating a camp, or even a school, where children from all over the country -- and possibly the world, as far away as China (as Danny suggests) -- can come and get to know each other. But Counselor Gibson dies before he can sign the new will, and an earlier will leaves everything to his Chicago-raised nephew Fred (Stephen Dunne), who has little use for the town or the estate, and plans on selling the property and the factory. Danny takes an instant dislike to Fred when the latter admits he also doesn't like dogs and doesn't want Danny's German shepherd Rusty around -- the rest of the town follows suit when they learn of Fred's plans to sell the factory. The only hitch is the will, which requires Fred to live in Lawtonville for one full year or lose his inheritance. He and the rest of the town are soon in a battle of wits, with Danny and his friends (including one played by a young David Ackles) playing practical jokes that soon escalate to vandalism and, through an accident, arson. Cooler heads, including Danny's lawyer father (John Litel) and family friend Lyddy Hazard (Gloria Henry), who actually likes Fred and sees some good in him, try to get everyone to hold their respective tempers. But it falls to Rusty, through an unexpected chain of events and a near-tragedy, to get everyone talking to each other again. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

The upsurge in commercial air travel in the postwar years resulted in several films dealing with the trials and tribulations of airline stewardesses. Gloria Henry, who'd later star as Alice Mitchell in TV's Dennis the Menace, is teamed with Danny Thomas' future TV wife Marjorie Lord and Audrey Long in Air Hostess. The three leading ladies are cast as stewardesses-in-training, and of course each of the girls is pursuing her own agenda. Henry wants to follow in the footsteps of her sister; Lord wants to honor the memory of her late husband, an airline pilot; and Long is on the lookout for a wealthy husband. Way down on the cast list is another TV star-to-be, Barbara "June Cleaver" Billingsley. In addition, Air Hostess represents one of the few talking pictures made by former silent-screen favorite Leatrice Joy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Years before she played Dennis Mitchell's mom in TV's Dennis the Menace, Gloria Henry was a B-picture ingenue at Columbia. In Racing Luck, Gloria is top-billed as Phyllis Warren, sister of headstrong jockey Boots Warren (Stanley Clements). There's plenty of stock racetrack footage, intermingled with newly-lensed sequences of staged races. The plot is the usual "disgraced jockey redeems himself" folderol, told with speed if not freshness. Of special interest is the presence in the supporting cast of Dooley Wilson, who as we all know portrayed the legendary "Sam" in Casablanca (1942). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Two future TV favorites--Rocky Jones' Richard Crane and Dennis the Menace's Gloria Henry-head the cast of Columbia's Triple Threat. Crane plays Don Whitney, an egocentric college football hero who receives a good strong dose of reality when he joins a professional team. Whitney's game really begins to suffer when he moons over sweetheart Ruth Nolan (Henry), who seems interested in someone else. All the various subplots are resolved in the obligatory "Big Game" climax. The principal selling card of Triple Threat was the presence of several real-life gridiron stars, including Sammy Baugh, Paul Christman, Johnny Clement, Steve Van Buren and Bob Waterfield (later the husband of actress Jane Russell), not to mention sports commentators Harry Wismer, Tom Harmon and Bob Kelley. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on an old Gene Stratton Porter story, Keeper of the Bees was a shade too bucolic for postwar audiences. Michael Duane stars as an artist who has lost confidence in humanity. He regains it with the help of a faith healer and her two daughters. One of the girls is played by Gloria Henry, later "Alice Mitchell" on Dennis the Menace. One of the earliest directorial efforts of John Sturges, Keeper of the Bees was previously filmed by Monogram in 1935, with Neil Hamilton in Duane's role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi