Ethan Laidlaw Movies

Set in the Central American jungle, Lucille Ball plays plantation owner Joan Grant in The Marines Fly High. When a platoon of US Marines need a safe place to stay, Joan (Ball) allows them inside of her home, oblivious to the fact that two of the Marines would later compete for her affections. All conflict must be put aside, however, after she's kidnapped by a gang of bandits. The troop of Marines quickly unite, and immediately set off to save her. The Marines Fly High was directed by Ben Stoloff and George Nichols Jr., and also includes actors Richard Dix, Chester Morris, Steffi Duna, John Eldredge, and Paul Harvey. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

In this western, a retired marshal must once again put on his badge to protect his town from the vicious desperadoes that killed his girl friend's father. The girl uses her shooting prowess to assist them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a vengeful woman searches for the man she blames for her sister's suicide. To get at him, the woman masquerades as a mousy maid in the tiny hotel where he stays. The story is set in Gallacia during WW I and while she enacts her plan, the Russians and Austrians take over the town. This does not stop her from getting revenge. This is a remake of a 1927 film of the same title. In Hollywood it has the legend of being a cursed production in that it suffered endless production problems and major changes in cast and crew. Originally Marlene Dietrich was to play the title role, but she and director Henry Hathaway were constantly at loggerheads. With the help of Paramount head Arthur Lubitsch, she got Hathaway to rewrite the script with Grover Jones. The new story was called I Loved a Soldier and things resumed. Unfortunately, Lubitsch had been fired and Dietrich, still miserable, abruptly quit, costing Paramount, a fortune. All production ceased, but later they resurrected the original script and tried again to make the film with Margaret Sullavan. Unfortunately, Sullavan and a co-star were horsing around one day on the set and she ended up with a broken arm. The studio heads demanded she perform the role in a sling. This was too much for Hathaway who immediately quit. Soon after, Dietrich returned with her long-time director Josef von Sternberg and said she was now willing to make Hotel Imperial. The studio heads refused and eventually the lead was given to Italian actress Isa Mira. A major sex symbol in Italy, she made this her U.S. debut. Unfortunately, she spoke little English and was forced to recite her lines phonetically. Meanwhile her co-star Ray Milland nearly died during a scene in which he had to lead a cavalry charge. During the run, he was thrown off his horse and tossed head first into a brick pile. Fortunately he only suffered a concussion. Later Hotel Imperial was remade as Five Graves to Cairo Sometimes, as in this case, the history behind the film is more interesting than the film itself, no? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The second of three films based on the Wyatt Earp biography by Stuart N. Lake, Frontier Marshal stars Randolph Scott as Marshal Earp of Tombstone. Earp and his brothers enforce the law as much by reputation as by gunplay. Occasionally the marshal's efforts are complicated by his "friendly enemy" Doc Halliday (based on Doc Holliday and played by Cesar Romero), a consumptive gunslinger who runs the gambling activities in town. When a murderous outlaw (Joe Sawyer) invades Tombstone and kills Halliday, Earp is moved to action -- and the result is the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. A remake of the 1934 film of the same name, Frontier Marshal was itself remade by John Ford as My Darling Clementine (1946), with Henry Fonda as Earp and Victor Mature as Doc Holliday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This "Three Mesquiteers" western is based upon the exploits of one James Addison Reavis, a clever 19th century con artist who through a series of elaborate land swindlers tried to declare himself owner of the state of Arizona (Reavis' checkered career was later the basis for Samuel Fuller's The Baron of Arizona, starring Vincent Price). George Douglas plays the Reavis character, here named Talbot. Establishing himself as dictator of an unnamed western territory, Talbot taxes the citizens beyond endurance. Enter the Three Mesquiteers-Stony Brooke (John Wayne), Tucson Smith (Ray Corrigan) and Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune)-who don capes and masks to do battle with Talbot's minions under cover of darkness. Part of the plot hinges on the fact that only President Garfield knows that the Mesquiteer's "crimes" are being committed on behalf of Liberty and Justice For All-and when Garfield is assassinated, our heroes are up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Directed by Lewis Milestone nine years after taking home the best director Academy Award for All Quiet on the Western Front, this backstage drama stars Pat O'Brien as Dan O'Farrell, a boozy Broadway producer who makes his way back to show-business after a long absence. As a young man, O'Farrell had a brilliant career as a playwright-actor-producer, but when his wife left him, he threw it all away and fell into seclusion. Years later, his estranged daughter Alyce (Olympe Bradne) locates him and inspires him to return to the Great White Way. With his eye on re-emerging as a smash hit with critics and the public alike, O'Farrell enlists the aid of two loyal friends and embarks on a full-fledged comeback. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Gene Autry goes up against another "protection" racket in this tuneful series entry, which also features country & western singer Patsy Montana and the CBS-KMBC Texas Rangers. Doc Blair (Robert Barrat), a crooked veterinarian, is doing a good business terrorizing the local dairy farmers into paying for not having their deliveries destroyed -- until, that is, Gene and Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) move in. Blair, as it turns out, does not even shy away from murdering the local sheriff (William Farnum) and attempts to get his own stooge, Dave Haines (Buster Crabbe), elected in his stead. But Gene takes up the fight and wins the election. Now he only has to win over Haines' innocent sister, radio announcer Carol Haines (June Storey), whom Blair has used to relay coded messages to his henchmen over the air waves. Autry, Burnette, Patsy Montana, and the CBS-KMBC Texas Rangers perform "Colorado Sunset," "On the Merry Way Back Home," "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart," "Poor Little Doggie," "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" and "Seven Years with the Wrong Woman," all by Con Conrad and L. Wolfe Gilbert. The Gene Autry debut of producer William Berke, Colorado Sunset was filmed on location at Keen Camp near Hemet, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this gangster movie set in the Big Apple, a crime lord strong arms teamsters into paying him protection money. One young trucker with a very pregnant wife, stands up to the thug. His partner also refuses to pay in the hopes that they will help the other truck drivers. Naturally this enrages the king-pin and his mob. Simultaneously an idealistic young attorney is chosen by the DA to do all he can to get that crime boss convicted and off the streets for good. Back on the streets, the mobster manages to force the young trucker into paying up; this causes the man to quit and begin selling tomatoes. The lawyer finds him and offers him a chance to help the government and prosecute the gangster. He accepts and together the two do just that. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Virile George O'Brien straddles the "western" and "crime-flick" genres in RKO Radio's Border G-Men. The plot gets under way when the FBI learns that ammunition and men are being smuggled out of the US and into Mexico in violation of the neutrality act. Federal agent O'Brien is dispatched to Texas to investigate, promptly falling in love with pretty Laraine Johnson (later billed as Laraine Day), whose brother is unwittingly mixed up with the smugglers. Villains John Miljan and Rita LaRoy, in the employ of an unnamed foreign power, use every dirty trick at their disposal to continue their nefarious activities, but O'Brien proves a bit too fast and a great deal too smart for them. Several trade papers applauded RKO Radio's marketing strategy with Border G-Man, which enabled the studio to promote the film as either a straightford western or an espionage adventure, depending upon the demands of the exhibitors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Its somewhat risible title aside (how can a saddle have rhythm?), this is one of the better Gene Autry westerns of the late 1930s. The story is built around a Frontier Week rodeo, owned by pretty Maureen (Peggy Moran). Despite doing land-office buisness, Maureen is in danger of losing the rodeo thanks to the chicanery of villain Pomeroy (Leroy Mason). But trick rider Autry and his saddle pal Frog (Smiley Burnette) can be counted upon to come to the rescue, even though he finds himself at the mercy of Pomeroy's minions somewhere during the fourth reel. One of the minor characters is played by Archie Hall, the legendary wheeler-dealer later immortalized in the 1961 Jack Webb picture The Last Time I Saw Archie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Radio comedian Joe Penner, of "You Naaassty Man!" fame, was very much an acquired taste in 1938, and even more so when seen today. Nevertheless, such Penner movie vehicles as I'm From the City never failed to make a tidy profit for RKO Radio Pictures. In this one, the star plays a circus bareback rider who happens to be deathly afraid of horses. In order to perform his equestrian act, Penner must be hypnotized, whereupon he turns into a fearless, ridin' fool. This single joke is stretched across 7 reels as Penner finds himself participating in a grueling cowboy race, snapping out of his hypnotic trance at the most inopportune of moments. Former dancer Lorraine Krueger is actually funnier then Penner in the role of the hero's birdbrained girlfriend, as is Paul Guilfoyle as a comic-strip Indian. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Penitentiary was the first of two remakes of Howard Hawks' 1931 prison flick The Criminal Code (the second remake was 1950's Convicted). Sent to prison on a manslaughter charge, young William Jordan (John Howard) is befriended by the man who sent him up, Judge Mathews (Walter Connolly). The judge sees to it that Jordan is given every opportunity to rehabilitate himself, though he's a bit uncomfortable when his own daughter Elizabeth (Jean Parker) falls in love with the young convict. All of this extra effort goes out the window when Jordan, adhering to the "criminal code" of never snitching on a fellow con, allows himself to be implicated in the murder of a stoolie. Jordan is saved from the hot seat by the last-minute confession from the real killer, a hard-bitten but honorable "lifer" named Finch (Arthur Hohl). In the original Criminal Code, Walter Huston, Philips Holmes, Constance Cummings and Boris Karloff essayed the roles played in Penitentiary by Connolly, Howard, Parker and Hohl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Allegedly based on two factual works, Bouck White's The Book of Daniel Drew and Matthew Josephson's The Robber Barons, RKO's The Toast of New York is a largely fanciful account of the career of 1870s financier "Jubilee Jim" Fisk. As played by Edward Arnold in his usual "tycoon" mode, Fisk was a likable scoundrel who finagled his way into the upper rungs of Wall Street as much for fun as for profit. The film conveniently ignores Fisk's involvement with the infamous Tweed Ring, and skims over his complicity in 1869's "Black Friday," one of the most disastrous events in American economic history. We are also offered a sanitized version of Fisk's notorious mistress Josie Mansfield, who as played by Frances Farmer is an apple-cheeked lass who regards Fisk only as a loyal friend. Cary Grant is along for the ride as "Nick Boyd," a thinly disguised version of Fisk's actual partner in crime Ned Stokes. Too costly to post a profit, Toast of New York is nonetheless fine non-think entertainment, kept alive by a superb supporting cast ranging from Donald Meek as Daniel Drew and Clarence Kolb as Cornelius Vanderbilt to such bit players as Laurel & Hardy perennial James Finlayson, who plays the inventor of a self-tipping hat! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide