Noble Johnson Movies

Tropic Fury is one of several Universal programmers built around the box-office appeal of handsome Richard Arlen and ratchet-voiced Andy Devine. Arlen plays private detective Dan Burton, assigned to prevent enemy agents from taking over an old rubber plantation. Aided and abetted by his tubby partner Tiny Andrews (Devine), Burton also rescues heroine Judith Adams (Beverly Roberts) from a horrible fate at the hands of the libidinous head spy (Leonard Mudie). Lupita Tovar, who'd starred in the Spanish-language versions of such early talkies as Dracula and The Cat Creeps, is the obligatory amorous native girl. Some of the fun in watching Tropic Fury can be had by guessing the original sources of the film's innumerable stock shots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Juarez was originally designed to concentrate almost exclusively on the tragedy of Hapsburg Emperor Maximillian, whose attempts to establish a puppet government in Mexico on behalf of Napoleon III ended in disaster and death. But when Paul Muni decided that he wanted to play Zapotec-Indian-turned-Mexican President Benito Pablo Juarez, the film's emphasis perceptibly shifted -- and Bette Davis, cast as Empress Carlotta, was shunted to second billing rather than first. Muni's makeup and costuming convincingly transforms him into Juarez incarnate. But unlike his other historical impersonations (Pasteur, Zola), Muni's Juarez is a one-note characterization: stoic, uncompromising, and v-e-e-r-y slow of speech. Far more exciting dramatically is Bette Davis as Empress Carlotta, whose highly stylized descent into madness is a tour de force both for the actress and for director William Dieterle. Claude Rains and Gale Sondergaard, as Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie, in essence repeat their diabolical characterizations from Anthony Adverse (1936), while John Garfield is singularly miscast as Pofirio Diaz. The best performance is delivered by Brian Aherne, whose kindly, honorable Emperor Maximillian is less a despot than a misguided political pawn. When Aherne, about to be executed at Juarez' orders, requests that his favorite Mexican song "La Paloma" be played as he is led before the firing squad, audience sympathies are 100% in Maximilian's corner--which was not quite what the filmmakers intended. Based largely on Bertita Harding's book The Phantom Crown (the film's original title), Juarez takes every available opportunity to parallel its title character's fight against foreign intervention with the then-current European situation. To protect their investment in Juarez Warner Bros. purchased outright a like-vintage Mexican film on the same subject, The Mad Empress, suppressing the latter film's release in the United States. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This 12-episode serial stars Herman Brix as Kioga, a young man who is raised by natives after wrecking his ship on a remote island. He eventually has to protect his land from invading pirates. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

In this lovely John Ford film, Joyce Williams (June Lang) and her young daughter, Priscilla (Shirley Temple), travel to India to live on a British Army base with Joyce's father, Colonel Williams, Aubrey C. Smith). Once there, sweet, young Priscilla manages to win the love and affection of the soldiers and her curmudgeonly grandfather, and she plays an important role in easing a local rebellion. One of the best Shirley Temple movies, Ford allows her to be sweet without being cloying and moves the action at a good pace. A wonderful cast of some of Hollywood's best supporting actors add charm to this film which is appealing to both children and adults. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

It took British author James Hilton six weeks to write his visionary novel Lost Horizon. It took director Frank Capra two years-and half of his home studio Columbia's annual budget-to bring it to the screen. After a lengthy preamble, inviting audiences to imagine their own ideas of Utopia, the film opens on a chaotic scene at a Chinese airfield. As hordes of bandits approach, hundreds of refugees scramble to board the last plane out. Only five people make it: Mildly disenchanted Far Eastern diplomat Robert Conway (Ronald Colman), his hotheaded younger brother George (John Howard), embezzler Barnard (Thomas Mitchell), dithery fossil expert Lovett (Edward Everett Horton) and consumptive prostitute Gloria Stone (Isabel Jewell). As the plane flies off towards the Himalayas, Robert realizes that he and his fellow passengers are heading in the wrong direction. They are, in fact, being kidnapped-but why? And where to? The plane crash-lands in the snowy Tibetan interior. The pilot is killed, but the passengers are safe. By and by, a strange caravan approaches, led by an enigmatic Chinese named Chang (H. B. Warner). Joining the caravan, Conway and his party are led through a treacherous mountain pass and into a land of temperate weather and dazzling beauty. This is Shangri-La, the idyllic lamasery presided over by the aged, wizened High Lama (Sam Jaffe). In this fertile valley, people are not encumbered by such exigencies as crime, dictators and hatred; instead, everyone is devoted to the pursuit of wisdom and self-improvement-and best of all, the aging process has been slowed to a walk, allowing people to live well past the two-century mark. Though he still does not know why he was brought here, Conway is quicker to adapt to Shangri-La than his wary fellow passengers. He even falls in love with Sondra (Jane Wyatt), an attractive, intelligent young woman. Finally granted an audience with the High Lama, Conway discovers that the old man is actually Father Perrault, the Belgian missionary who founded Shangri-La-over two hundred years earlier. Dying, the High Lama has selected Conway, whose idealism and even-handedness is world famous, to succeed him-and hopefully spread the "love thy neighbor" edict of Shangri-La to the rest of the war-torn world. Conway is willing to assume leadership, but younger brother George, his mind poisoned by spiteful Shangri-La resident Maria (Margo), insists upon escaping to the outside world. The older Conway warns that, despite her youthful appearance, Maria is well past sixty and will surely perish once she leaves Shangri-La; but Maria retorts that the high lama is insane, and that everything he has told Conway is a lie. Disillusioned, Conway agrees to leave with Jack and Maria. The trek back to civilization is a grueling one, especially for Maria, who-true to Conway's prediction-shrivels from age and dies. Appalled that he has been misled, George kills himself. Weeks later, and amnesiac Conway stumbles into a Tibetan mission, where he is rescued and brought back to England. When his memory is restored, however, Conway runs back to Shangri-La, and into the arms of Sondra. When Lost Horizon was shown to preview audiences, it ran nearly three hours-and it was a disaster. In his autobiography, Capra claims to have rescued his pet project by merely burning the first two reels and opening the film with the evacuation scene; In fact, while Capra did remove the film's "flashback" framework, he made most of his cuts in the body of the picture. The release length of Lost Horizon was 132 minutes, pared down to 119 when it when into general distribution. When it was reissued in the 1940s and 1950s, it was rather clumsily pared down to anywhere from 95 to 100 minutes. Only in the mid-1980s was Lost Horizon restored to its original length, with stills used to illustrate certain scenes for which only the soundtrack existed. While not the enormous hit Capra and Columbia had hoped it would be, Lost Horizon was popular enough to allow the name "Shangri-La" enter the household-word category. In 1973, producer Ross Hunter felt the urge to inflict a wretched musical remake onto an unsuspecting public. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Carnival barker Spencer Tracy befriends elderly concessionaire Henry B. Walthall, who owns a picturesque but stodgy display depicting Dante's Inferno. Walthall is more interested in the spiritual aspects of Man's fascination with Hell, but Tracy uses hoopla and exaggeration to get the suckers into the Inferno. His interest isn't altruistic; Tracy is enamored of Walthall's niece, Claire Trevor. Through his publicity savvy, Tracy builds the Inferno into a major attraction, complete with full orchestra and scantily clad "devil girls". He also buys up the rest of the carnival, using cold-blooded tactics that result in the suicide of a fellow concessionaire. Within five years, Tracy is a millionaire tycoon of the Entertainment industry. While loved by his wife (Trevor) and son (Scotty Beckett), Tracy conducts his business ruthlessly, bribing a city official to look the other way regarding structural defects in his Inferno display. When this duplicity results in a disastrous accident at the exhibit, the bribed official kills himself. Tracy is exonerated thanks to legal chicanery, but his wife is fed up; she walks out on him, taking their son along. Injured in the accident, Inferno creator H. B. Walthall warns Tracy of the pitfalls of success, using an illustrated edition of Dante to make his point. For nearly ten minutes, the movie audience is treated to a lavish depiction of Hell, magnificently photographed by Rudolph Mate. When the plot resumes, Tracy is on hand for his latest venture, a sumptuous gambling ship. Thanks to the drunken negligence of the crew, the ship catches fire, and it is only upon learning that his son has sneaked aboard that Tracy realizes the consequences of his greed. Tracy labors heroically to rescue the passengers--and, incidentally, to atone for his past sins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gary Cooper stars in this rousing adventure saga of three British officers of the 41st Regiment of Bengal Lancers of India. The story begins as Lt. McGregor (Gary Cooper) accepts two new officers to his company -- the brash Lt. Fortesque (Franchot Tone) and Lt. Stone (Richard Cromwell), the son of the garrison's commander, Col. Stone (Guy Standing). In an effort not to show favoritism, Stone's father barely acknowledges his son during a parade of the new officers. Lt. Stone resents this treatment by his father and becomes embittered at both his dad and the British army. McGregor is ordered to search for a British spy, Lt. Barrett (Colin Tapley), who has infiltrated the army of crazed chieftain Mohammed Khan (Douglas Dumbrille). The three officers find Barrett, who tells them Khan is planning an uprising against the British, utilizing the mountain tribes for a massive assault. Lt. Stone finds himself captured by the rebels and is taken to Mohammed Khan's mountain fortress to be tortured. Stone's father refuses to send in the lancers to save his son, reasoning that his son was captured to lure the British forces to their doom. Disguising themselves as Indian peddlers, McGregror and Fortesque go off to rescue Stone. But they are soon discovered and taken to Mohammed Khan's lair to be tortured, with Khan telling McGregor, "We have ways of making men talk." Mohammed wants the soldiers to tell him where a shipment of ammunition will be delivered. McGregor and Fortesque withstand the torture without divulging the location, but Lt. Stone cracks and tells Khan what he wants to know. The three officers see the ammunition delivered to Khan's fortress, but then they hear Col. Stone and 300 lancers have arrived outside of Khan's gates. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

What a shame that the 1934 Fox crime meller Murder in Trinidad is currently unavailable for viewing. In one of his best performances, Nigel Bruce is cast as Bertram Lynch, a slovenly, sweat-stained detective with a mind like a steel trap. Lumbering his way through a tropical outpost, Lynch searches for a clever gang of diamond smugglers, who rely upon the local crocodiles and quicksand to keep the authorities at bay. Along the way, he is helped by socialite Gregory Bronson (Douglas Walton), who is compelled to spend most of his time rescuing heroine Joan Cassell (Heather Angel) from one peril or another. Complicating matters are three murders, each apparently committed by the same knife-wielding assailant. Murder in Trinidad was remade as Mr. Moto in Danger Island in 1938, and as The Caribbean Mystery in 1945. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A countess and a doctor embark on an adventure in Africa in order to find a cure for sleeping sickness, but superstitions and crocodiles get in their way. Of course, they end up together. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

Hoping to immediately cash in on its blockbuster hit King Kong (1933). RKO Radio commissioned producers Willis O'Brien and Ernest B. Schoedsack to hastily slap together a sequel. Son of Kong begins where King Kong left off, with foolhardy entrepreneur Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) facing hundreds of thousands dollars in lawsuits from the damages inflicted by the mighty Kong on the city of New York (remember?) Denham's partner Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) suggests that they escape to Malaya, where they make the acquaintance of Hilda (Helen Mack), the daughter of drink-besotted circus-owner Peterson (Clarence Wilson). When her father is killed in a fire caused by Norwegian sea captain Helstrom (John Marston), Hilda is comforted by Denham, who has taken a liking to the unfortunate girl. It turns out that Helstrom was the sailor who sold Denham the map to Skull Island, where King Kong once ruled unchecked. Hoping to escape prosecution for the fatal fire, Hellstrom claims that there's a fabulous treasure buried somewhere on Skull Island and offers to lead Denham and Englehorn back to the Pacific flyspeck. With no place else to go, Hilda stows away on Englehorn's boat and joins the expedition. After an unpleasant confrontation with the natives whom Kong trampled and chewed up in the earlier film, Denham and Hilda explore another part of the Island -- and there they find Little Kong, a 12-foot-high white gorilla who is as lovable as his "old man" was nasty. As the treacherous Hellstrom meets his doom elsewhere on the island, cute Little Kong protects his new friends Denham and Hilda from a variety of marauding dinosaurs, ultimately sacrificing his own life to save the human hero and heroine from a native war party. Largely played for laughs (at one point Little Kong makes an "Oy vey" gesture, as the soundtrack plays a snatch of a Jewish dance!), Son of Kong is nowhere near the classic stature of its illustrious predecessor. On the other hand, the stop-motion photography is quite impressive, at times even better than the animation seen in the original King Kong. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having missed the opportunity to direct Frankenstein for Universal, Robert Florey was offered Murders in the Rue Morgue as a consolation, whereupon he transformed a pedestrian property into a minor classic. Owing more to Cabinet of Dr. Caligari than to Edgar Allen Poe, the film stars Bela Lugosi as Doctor Mirakle (accent on the second syllable), a carnival sideshow entertainer who doubles as a mad scientist. Kidnapping prostitutes off the Paris streets, Mirakle endeavors to mix their blood with that of his pet gorilla. His experiments will forever be doomed to failure, however, until he is able to obtain the blood of a virgin -- and that's where Camille L'Espanye (Sidney Fox) comes into the picture. When Mirakle's monkey kidnaps Camille and murders her mother, suspicion immediately falls upon the girl's sweetheart, starving artist Pierre Dupin (Leon Waycoff, later known as Leon Ames). But by using the deductive skills displayed in the original story by Poe's master detective C. Auguste Dupin, our hero not only proves his innocence, but rescues the helpless heroine from Mirakle's clutches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The comedic sidekick is shockingly done away with in this unusual and highly atmospheric Western from Fox. George O'Brien, of Sunrise (1927) fame, stars as Bob Sanborn, an Arizona ranger assigned to quell a reign of terror instigated by Paradise Valley rancher Henry Steele (Charles Middleton), who employs a band of Apaches to prey on his neighbors. Obviously insane, Steele has a penchant for killing not only his enemies but also defenseless animals. Masquerading as a cowboy, Bob manages to gain access to Steele's ranch where he encounters lovely Jane Emory (Cecilia Parker), the daughter of Steele's late partner whom the clearly mad rancher has lured into his lair. When Bob learns that Steele is planning to force Jane into marriage, the ranger telegraphs for assistance in the form of cockney jockey Artie Brower (Forrester Harvey), whose riding skills and quick wit save Bob from being mauled by Steele's giant servant Muto (Noble Johnson). Although down, Steele is not quite out and the insane rancher manages to kill Artie before committing a spectacular suicide. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

One of the most frequently telecast films of the 1950s and 1960s, East of Borneo stars Rose Hobart as Linda, the wife of African missionary Dr. Clark (Charles Bickford). Feeling stifled by her unfamiliar surroundings, Linda is further isolated from civilization when her husband runs off into the jungle, believing that his wife has been unfaithful. With grim determination, our heroine heads into the wilds herself in search of Clark, braving all manner of marauding wildlife and human predators. When she finally catches up with her husband, she finds he's been living in comparative luxury as court physician of the Prince of Marudu (Georges Renavent). The End? Not quite -- we've still got a volcano in the offing! East of Borneo achieved latter-day fame when an avant-garde filmmaker got hold of a print of the film, spliced together all of the leading lady's close-ups, and came up with a surrealistic exercise titled Rose Hobart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide