Howard Hickman Movies

Humphrey Bogart makes his first and last appearance in a horror movie in this film. Though the title implies that it is a sequel to the classic 1932 chiller Dr. X it is not. The terror begins when an eager-beaver reporter stumbles across the corpse of a popular actress who turns up, after much media hoopla, not to be dead at all. At least she seems to be alive on a surface level and is eager to sue the reporter's paper. The reporter can't help but notice that here skin is unnaturally pale and that she keeps her face concealed beneath a long-black veil. Suspecting that evil is afoot, he--who by now is unemployed--launches a private investigation to prove that she really was the corpse he saw. His search leads him into the terrifying world of a psycho blood doctor, and into a series of unsolved murders in which all the victims were found with no blood in their veins. Ultimately, the reporter finds himself face-to-face with the nefarious Dr. Maurice Xavier (Bogart), a man executed several years ago for murdering patients while performing Frankensteinian experiments. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this western, a real estate agent takes everything from a bank and then frames the banker for the crime. The evil agent then becomes the receiver for the institution and begins trying to foreclose on numerous ranchers. His nefarious plans are thwarted by a cowboy hero who brings justice to the crook, reinstates the real banker, and falls in love with his daughter as well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Start Cheering is Columbia Pictures' idea of a college musical: Practically everyone in the cast is past the age of 30. Charles Starrett plays a movie star who wearies of Hollywood and decides to get a college education. He enrolls incognito in a small university, much to the discomfort of his managers Walter Connolly and Jimmy Durante. Durante heads for college himself, hoping to sabotage Starrett's plans and bring him back before the cameras. While Jimmy Durante is saddled with inferior material, the film gives full head to such guest stars as bandleader Louis Prima, vaudevillian Chaz Chase (who had a cigar-eating act), radio's Professor Quiz (Dr. Craig E. Earle), and Columbia's short-subject headliners The Three Stooges (with Curly!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Perhaps the best of Jane Withers' 20th Century-Fox vehicles, Rascals is also the one that pops up most frequently on televisoin. Withers plays Gypsy, the youthful queen of a band of wandering vagabonds. Joining Gypsy and her fellow gypsies is amnesia victim Margaret Adams (Rochelle Hudson), who soon becomes the tribe's top fortune-teller. The gypsies finance an operation that will restore Margaret's memory, only to discover that she has been slated for a loveless marriage with a buffoonish baron (Jose Crespo). She is rescued from this fate by the resourceful Gypsy, who orchestrates a romance between Margaret and the misogynistic Tony (Robert Wilcox). Musical highlights are provided by the always-delightful Withers and by harmonica virtuosos Borrah Minevitch and His Gang. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a young man aspires to a life of wealth and power in the newspaper business. Unfortunately, it takes time and money to be successful. The young man's girl is not patient and decides to dump him in favor of a wealthy gangster. This inspires the jilted youth to achieve his dreams. He begins newspaper delivery business that becomes so successful that he can afford a penthouse on Park Avenue. Still he has not forgotten the girl he once loved. This is fortuitous as she has become fed up with the gangster. Eventually, the young man loses his business and his fancy flat, but in exchange, he regains the affections of the woman he always loved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though not the first Dr. Kildare film ever made, this is the first entry in MGM's long-running series set at Blair General Hospital. With the ink still wet on his diploma, Dr. Kildare is faced with a difficult decision: should he return home to work in his father's quiet country practice, or work at exciting, New York-set Blair General Hospital? Though his parents and his girlfriend are against it, Kildare chooses the latter and promptly gets into trouble after one of his first patients, a prominent politician dies. All kinds of turmoil follows as Kildare tries to clear his name and treat his other patients. Just as it seems like the strong-willed Kildare's career is to die on the vine, curmudgeonly but always capable Dr. Gillespie becomes his mentor. For trivia buffs, the first Dr. Kildare film was Interns Can't Take Money made in 1937 for Paramount. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Jack Holt does his usual Jack Holt thing in the Columbia quickie Flight into Nowhere. Holt is cast as airline pilot Jim Horne (amusingly, considering that the actor was deathly afraid of flying in real life), who hopes to run his own South American transport service. Horne's ace flyer Bill Kellogg (Dick Purcell) annoys everyone with his braying arrogance, leading Horne to "punish" Bill by preventing him from going on a particularly dangerous mission. Incensed, Bill defies orders and flies the mission with a stolen plane, which right on cue runs out of gas in the middle of the jungle. Horne spearheads an expedition to locate the missing Bill, who by now has been "adopted" by a friendly Peruvian tribe and doesn't want to go back to civilization. Meanwhile, Bill's sweetheart Joan Hammond (Jacqueline Wells) anxiously waits back at the base, biting her nails right down to the nubs. The film's best scenes take place amongst the Peruvian natives, incongruously headed by white-maned Shakespearean actor Fritz Leiber. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Columbia's Criminals of the Air is another entry in the "alien-smuggling" movie cycle -- and as such includes the obligatory scene in which the airborne smugglers escape detection by pulling a lever and disposing of their human cargo. Hoping to collar the crooks, detective Mark Owens (Charles Quigley) poses as a down-and-out pilot looking for work. He is hired by the "Honeymoon Express," ostensibly designed to transport newlyweds across the Mexican border and back again, but actually a front for smuggling activities. Fearless girl reporter Nancy Rawlings (Rosalind Keith) covertly covers Owens' activities, ultimately landing in a heap o' trouble when the crooks catch on. In one of her last "B"-picture assignments, Rita Hayworth plays a voluptuous Latina dancer in a Mexican cabaret sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Dunn stars as Buzz Martin, a hot-air balloon ascensionist who's plenty full of hot air himself. Hired by the owners of the bank and movie theater in a tiny Pennsylvania town, Buzz stages an aerial stunt to draw customers, succeeding primarily in making a mess of things. Undaunted, our hero heads to New York, where through an unbelievable set of circumstance he establishes himself as a merchandising genius. The "venus" who "makes trouble" for Buzz along the way is pretty Kay Horner (Patricia Ellis). By 1937, James Dunn could have done this sort of picture in his sleep -- and one suspects he did. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This service comedy from the Republic Studio mills was perhaps the most aggressively titled of the "Marine Corps" film cycle of the mid-1930s (Come on Leathernecks, Pride of the Marines et. al.) Paul Kelly plays Phil Donlan, a pugnacious ex-cop and ex-Olympic athlete who is run out of New York in disgrace after falsely being accused of drunkenness. The innocent cause of Donlan's woes is pretty Paula Denbrough (June Travis), daughter of a Marine colonel (Purnell Pratt). To ingratiate himself with Paula -- and incidentally, to restore his reputation -- Donlan joins the Corps, where after a grueling training period he earns a commission. Offered a chance to return to the New York police force, Donlan gives it up to re-enlist, and Paula couldn't be happier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Former nightclub crooner Smith Ballew made his singing-cowboy debut in Western Gold. Set during the Civil War, the story finds Union soldier Bill Gibson (Ballew) heading West to prevent valuable Northern gold shipment from being systematically stolen by Confederate spies. Making our hero's job difficult is the fact that his old friend Fred Foster (LeRoy Mason) is in charge of the Rebel raiders. Anguishing over the notion of having to arrest his lifelong chum, Bill is "saved" when Foster is dispatched by a bullet conveniently fired from a stranger's gun. The leading lady in Western Gold is British-born Heather Angel, who looks mighty confused by her unfamiliar frontier surroundings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The third of MGM's profitable Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy songfests, Maytime opens in the early 20th century, with a young girl arguing with her boyfriend over her wishes to become an opera singer. The girl's neighbor, a lonely old woman whom we gradually recognize as a convincingly "aged" Jeanette MacDonald, tells the girl of her own career in opera. The old lady was once the radiant young diva Marcia Mornay. In 1868 she was the toast of Europe, thanks to the tutelage of her voice instructor Nikolai Nazarov (John Barrymore). He proposes marriage, and Marcia accepts, more out of gratitude than love. In a euphoric pre-nuptial state, Marcia finds herself on Paris' Left Bank, where she meets handsome café crooner Paul Allison (Nelson Eddy). They meet again at a lavish Maytime festival, falling in love (to the accompaniment of Sigmund Romberg's most dazzling duets) in the process. Sadly, Marcia returns to Nazarov, while Paul goes off to America to lick his wounds. Seven years later, Marcia, making her New York debut in a fictional opera based on the works of Tchaikovsky, finds that the leading baritone is none other than Paul. Unable to envision life without her new love, Marcia begs Nazarov for a divorce. He smiles slyly and promises to give her her freedom-whereupon he heads to Paul's apartment and kills the poor fellow. The flashback done, Marcia advises her pretty young neighbor that one can never have both love and a career. Out of tragedy grows the happy ending, in which the spirit of the now-deceased Marcia is reunited with Paul in a blossom-filled Hereafter. On paper, Maytime may seem to be the ultimate in Hoke, but even in recent revival showings the film never fails to cast its spell over an audience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide