Jack Kennedy Movies

Hot on the heels of his starring turn in The Mad Doctor of Market Street, Lionel Atwill was top-billed in another chiller-diller, The Strange Case of Dr. Rx. Somebody has been going around murdering known criminals who've escaped prosecution thanks to crooked lawyer Dudley Crispin (Samuel S. Hinds). That someone has also left a calling card at the site of each murder, signed "Dr. Rx". Private eye Patric Knowles suspects at first that the elusive murderer is sinister Lionel Atwill, whose "red herring" status is so obvious from the outset that his character name is Dr. Fish! Before the actual killer's identity is revealed, the audience is kept awake by the comic antics of Mantan Moreland and Shemp Howard, both of whom are far funnier than their material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This painfully-bad Monogram feature wastes the talents of two of horrordom's finest -- star Boris Karloff and co-writer Curt Siodmak (who would write the horror classic The Wolf Man for Universal the same year). The goofy plot involves the efforts of one Dr. Adrian (Karloff) to procure human spinal fluid for his polio-vaccine research by donning the pelt of a slain circus ape and slaughtering innocent people. The fact that he's snapping spines in the interest of medicine doesn't really help to clear the moral waters (he never does find a cure, anyway). Filmed during a particularly grueling year for Karloff, this marks the end of his lengthy stir with Monogram (after a tedious string of Mr. Wong potboilers). Without Karloff to kick around, the studio concentrated their humiliating efforts on Bela Lugosi, who appeared in a virtual remake, The Ape Man, three years later. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

In this B movie actioner, a plucky female cub reporter is determined to get her boss a front page scoop and so finagles a way to spend a few days with two drivers in the title squad. While with them she finds herself reporting a huge fire at a chemical plant. She gets herself in real danger when she begins looking into a disaster-plagued tunnel construction site and finds that a racketeer is in cahoots with a crooked contractor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this romance, a girl from the bayou falls in love with an aspiring lawyer who lives on the nicer side of the tracks. It is tragedy that brings the two together, when the man her avaricious auntie betrothed her to is murdered. The suspected killer is defended by the rookie attorney -it is his first case. Naturally he wins, and so does the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Paramount borrowed John Wayne from Republic Pictures for the studio's second screen version of Zane Grey's Born to the West, which was also the Western's original release title. A couple of drifters, Dare Rudd (Wayne) and Dinkie Hooley (Sid Saylor), arrive in a Wyoming town hoping for a handout from Dare's rancher cousin, Tom Fillmore (Johnny Mack Brown). Dare takes but one look at Tom's girlfriend, Judy Worstall (Marsha Hunt), and decides to stay in town. He obtains the job of chuck wagon cook, but Judy, who is falling for the charming newcomer, convinces Tom to give Dare a job with more responsibilities. To get rid of a potential rival and to prove Dare's irresponsibility once and for all, Tom assigns his cousin the job of selling the herd. Unbeknownst to either Tom or Dare, however, saloon owner Bart Hammond (Monte Blue) also has his greedy eye on the herd and sets a trap for Dare. Hell Town used quite a bit of stock footage from the original silent version, Born to the West, which had starred Jack Holt. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The MGM historical "spectacular" San Francisco was allegedly based on a three-sentence synopsis, submitted verbally to producer B.F. Zeidman by studio troubleshooter Bob Hopkins. The story begins on the Barbary Coast on New Year's Eve, 1906, as rakish but likeable political boss Blackie Norton (Clark Gable) hires demure young singer Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) to perform at his rowdy Paradise gambling house. Local priest Father Mullin (Spencer Tracy), Blackie's best friend, disapproves of the exploitation of the lovely Mary, feeling that she's suited for classier surroundings. Jack Hurley (Jack Holt), Nob Hill socialite and Blackie's political rival, agrees with Father Mullin and offers the girl the opportunity to sing with the San Francisco Opera. Blackie, who's fallen in love with Mary but won't admit it to himself, jealously holds on to her contract, forcing Mary to walk out on him. For the rest of the film, Mary is torn between the "respectable" lifestyle offered her by Hurley and the baser creature comforts provided by Blackie. It looks for a while that Hurley has won out, but fate takes a hand in the form of the devastating San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906 (a special effects tour de force for art directors Arnold Gillespie and his uncredited associate James Basevi). Hurley is killed in the holocaust, while Blackie, desperately searching for Mary in the rubble, at long last finds religion and prays to God for his sweetheart's salvation. At the end, an unidentified bit player shouts defiantly "We'll build a new San Francisco!" -- and by golly, they do! The Hollywood censors were not so much bothered by the sexual subtext of San Francisco or its harrowing earthquake finale as they were by a scene in which Father Mullin is knocked down by an unrepentant Blackie. To "purify" this potentially blasphemous sequence, screenwriter Anita Loos quickly added an earlier scene in which Mullin and Blackie, both dressed in turtleneck sweaters, genially duke it out at an exercise gym, whereupon the priest cold-cocks Blackie with the greatest of ease. By establishing that Mullin could have punched out Blackie, but chooses not to in the controversial later scene, not only allows that scene to pass, but also strengthened the priest's character. San Francisco proved to be one of MGM's biggest hits, remaining in almost constant reissue for the next three decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1927 with Gary Cooper and Thelma Todd, the Zane Grey story Nevada was remade in 1936 with Buster Crabbe and Kathleen Burke. Crabbe plays Nevada, a cattle-drive trail boss, while Burke is cast as Hettie Ide, who is brought into the story when Nevada rescues her from a runaway horse team. Unpopular with his fellow cattlemen because of his criminal past, Nevada is accused of aiding and abetting a gang of rustlers. The actual miscreant turns out to be another cattle rancher, played by an actor who always seemed to be cast as "mystery" villains in Paramount's Zane Grey series. A third version of Nevada would be filmed in 1944, with Robert Mitchum and Nancy Gates. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this rather black comedy, a nervous office worker goes to a local quack for a check up and learns that he has only three months left to live. The mild-mannered man decides that if he is going to go, he is going to go with gusto. When he finds someone has robbed his boss's safe, he decides to take off after the thieves. His new boldness attracts the attention of another office introvert. Her attentions inspire him to perform even more dangerous feats of daring do. His courage pays off and the badguys are caught. He then wins the girl, and learns that he is in perfect health. The happy couple enjoy a long life together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a waitress at a local lunch counter inadvertently foils a bank robbery and finds herself turned into a national heroine by an eager-beaver reporter. Unfortunately, her sudden notoriety causes gangsters to abduct her. The plucky waitress not only manages to talk them into returning her, she also convinces them to go straight. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ray Walker plays Jimmy Case, a combustible young man who loses one job after another because he can't keep his fists to himself. On the verge of losing his girl friend Grace (Dorothy Granger), Walker agrees to hold his temper and try once more. He lands a job as a process server, only to find out that his first assignment is to serve a summons to equally temperamental nightclub singer Eleanor Rogers (Virginia Cherrill, best remembered as the blind flower girl in Chaplin's City Lights). For an early Monogram film, this one is surprisingly high-budgeted, with a particularly impressive cabaret set. Scripted by a very young Dore Schary, He Couldn't Take It was remade three times, most famously as the 1946 "Bowery Boys" series entry Live Wires. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lon Chaney Jr.-- still billed under his given name of Creighton Chaney -- was afforded one of his earliest leading roles in Monogram's 16 Fathoms Deep. Chaney is cast as Joe, a strapping young sponge fisherman who dreams of owning his own boat. Forced to borrow money from his rival Savanis (Georges Regas) to achieve his goal, Joe finds himself up to his ears in debts and usurious "interest." It's all part of a master plan concocted by Savanis to prevent Joe from marrying their mutual sweetheart Rosie (Sally O'Neil). The story is resolved by a plot device that would later be taboo when the Production Code went into effect. 16 Fathoms Deep was remade in 1948, with Lon Chaney Jr. recast as the villain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Harold Lloyd plays Ezekial Cobb, a missionary's son who has spent his entire life in China. Cobb is sent to his father's home church in California, where it is hoped he will find a wife. A true babe in the woods, Cobb is befriended by politician Jake Mayo (George Barbier). Mayo is a cog in a crooked political machine whose bosses plan to set up a "reform" candidate for mayor, so that they can continue their underhanded activities unmolested. The candidate drops dead, so Mayo sets up the innocent Cobb as the mayor-to-be--a "cat's paw" to deflect attention from the system's corruption. But once elected, Cobb takes his duties quite seriously and begins to clean up the town. The machine frames Cobb with planted evidence of wrongdoing, destroying the lad's political career. Undaunted, Cobb remembers the story of an ancient Chinese leader, who, similarly disgraced, took the law in his own hands and executed all known criminals in his last days of power. Cobb orders that every crook in town be rounded up and brought to a dark cellar. He insists that they confess their crimes or face instant death--and backs up his words by "beheading" two of the crooks on the spot! Actually, these executions are cleverly designed magical illusions, and no one is really killed; but the terrified criminals are so hoodwinked by Cobb's apparent cold-bloodedness that they literally climb over one another to confess. Cobb is exonerated, and honesty is restored to his administration. While not Harold Lloyd's best feature film, The Cat's Paw is definitely his most unorthodox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide