Priscilla Lane Movies

Granite-jawed Lawrence Tierney is the Bodyguard in this second-echelon noir thriller. Invited to resign from the LA police, short-tempered Mike Carter (Tierney) hires on to protect wealthy dowager Eugenia Dyson (Elizabeth Risdon). Before the film has reached its halfway point, Carter has been accused of murder, and is being hunted down by his former fellow officers. Only his file-clerk fiancee Doris Brewster (Priscilla Lane) believes in Carter's innocence, and it is she who is instrumental in cornering the actual killer. After a few more films like Bodyguard and The Narrow Margin, it was obvious that director Richard O. Fleischer had outgrown B pictures and was ready for more prestigious assignments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arsenic and Old Lace is director Frank Capra's spin on the classic Joseph Kesselring stage comedy, which concerns the sweet old Brewster sisters (Josephine Hull, Jean Adair), beloved in their genteel Brooklyn neighborhood for their many charitable acts. One charity which the ladies don't advertise is their ongoing effort to permit lonely bachelors to die with smiles on their faces--by serving said bachelors elderberry wine spiked with arsenic. When the sisters' drama-critic nephew Mortimer (Cary Grant) stumbles onto their secret, he is understandably put out--especially since he has just married the lovely Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane). Given the homicidal tendencies of his aunts, the sinister activities of his escaped-convict older brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) and the disruptive behavior of younger brother Teddy (John Alexander)--who is convinced that he's really Theodore Roosevelt, and runs around the house yelling "CHAAAAARGGGE"--Mortimer isn't keen on starting a family with his new bride. "Insanity runs in my family," he explains. "It practically gallops." Further complications ensue when the murderous Jonathan Brewster arrives home, with his snivelling accomplice Dr. Einstein (Peter Lorre) in tow. When Jonathan learns that his darling aunts have killed twelve men, he is incensed--they're challenging his own record of murders. Though the movie rights for Arsenic and Old Lace were set up so that the film could not be released until 1944, director Capra shot the film quickly and inexpensively in 1941, so that his family could subsist on his $100,000 salary while he was serving in World War II. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Aircraft plant worker Robert Cummings is accused of sabotaging his factory and causing the death of a co-worker. Actually, Cummings is the fall guy for a clever ring of Nazi spies, headed by above-suspicion American philanthropist Otto Kruger. Our hero goes on a cross-country chase after genuine saboteur Norman Lloyd, all the while pursued himself by the police. Along the way, he acquires a reluctant "travelling companion" in the form of Priscilla Lane, who at first despises Cummings and intends to turn him over to the authorities at the first opportunity, but who gradually comes to realize that the boy is innocent. Alfred Hitchcock intended Saboteur to be the American equivalent to his British The 39 Steps, employing such details as the solid-citizen villain, the handcuffed hero, the unwilling blonde heroine, and any number of stopovers with a variety of offbeat characters (a travelling "freak" show, a compassionate blind man, a grizzled old prospector who turns out to be one of the spies, etc.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this upbeat drama, a lovely European heiress is disturbed to discover from her lawyer that her father made his fortune by cheating his own partner. This precipitates her hasty return to the US where she meets the partner's granddaughter. The heiress then moves into the girl's boarding house and gives her a million dollars. Unfortunately, her newfound wealth causes the girl, untold trouble as her lover, a proud musician, refuses to marry a woman with more money than he. The girl solves the problem by donating her fortune to charity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Four Mothers was the last of three films inspired by Fannie Hurst's sentimental novel Sister Act. As in the earlier Four Daughters and Four Wives, the quartet of heroines-Ann, Kay, Thea and Emma Lemp-are enacted by real-life siblings Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola Lane, and by Gale Page as the fourth sister. As the film opens, all four daughters are happily married, and three are mothers. The girls return to the home of their musician-father Adam Lemp (Claude Rains) for a family reunion, whereupon Thea's husband Ben Crowley (Frank McHugh) inveigles the family and the rest of the community into investing in a "land boom." A disastrous hurricane wipes out everyone's hopes-and their bank accounts-but things begin to look up a bit in the final reel. As a bonus, the previously barren fourth daughter Emma announces that she has finally become pregnant (thereby justifying the title). Like its predecessors, Four Mothers is expertly produced, directed and acting, but the franchise was beginning to wear out its welcome. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy is the sequel of Brother Rat. The film begins with the three original protagonists after their graduation from the Virginia Military Institute. One of them has just applied for a job as the academy's baseball coach and the others come to assist him. Mayhem ensues; especially after the two well-meaning friends steal the would-be coach's baby and put it aboard a plane headed for Peru. The babe finally comes back and the ensuing publicity gets the coach his dream job. Meanwhile, the other two finally get the girls of their dreams. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, the sequel to Four Daughters, the daughters are now adults. Three of the sisters rally together to find a new love for the fourth sister whose husband recently committed suicide. The widowed woman then discovers that she is pregnant with her deceased husband's child and this causes her to refuse a marriage proposal. At the same time, another sister learns that she is barren, one sister adopts and then finds herself carrying twins, and a different sister gets married. All are very happy except for the pregnant widow who bears her child prematurely. The baby is saved by a blood transfusion from her recently rejected suitor, and the grateful mother promptly elopes with the gallant chap. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based upon an idea by Broadway columnist Mark Hellinger, The Roaring Twenties opens during World War I as doughboys Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney), Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn), and George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) discuss what they will do when the war is over. Bartlett wants to go back to repairing cabs, and Hart yearns to be a lawyer, but it becomes clear that Hally has less reputable plans in mind for himself. Come the end of the war, things are not as easy for veterans like Bartlett as they should be. He is unable to get his old job back and ends up driving a cab for little money. One night he is asked to deliver a package (which turns out to be whiskey) to an address that turns out to be a speakeasy. This starts him on a life of crime, as he gets deeper involved as a bootlegger. Things are not made easy by a rival bootlegger -- who turns out to be Hally. The two join forces and prosper. Hart shares in their prosperity, as Bartlett engages him to take care of his legal matters. Unfortunately, Hart is also interested in Jean Sherman (Priscilla Lane), a young woman that Bartlett has had an eye on for quite some time. He loses her to Hart at about the same time that his criminal empire crumbles, and he is reduced to driving a cab again while Hally continues to prosper with his ruthless ways. Eventually, Hart -- now a crusading prosecutor -- runs afoul of Hally, who tells Jean that he will kill him if he doesn't change his ways. Jean begs Bartlett to intercede with Hally; because he still is carrying a torch for her, Bartlett agrees -- but by doing so, he may have signed his own death warrant. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

The romantic hills and valleys of an advertising agency secretary provide the basis of this comedy drama. Unlike her soon-to-be-married roommate, the secretary is determined to remain single and forge a strong career. She does have a suitor, but he is not ambitious enough for her and she keeps her distance. The girl gets her chance to climb the corporate ladder after she invents a sure-fire cure for hangovers. Sure enough she begins her ascent. Meanwhile, her suitor continues to plead with her to leave her job and become his bride. But the secretary has fallen for an ambitious adman who is engaged with another who is already cheating upon him. At this point, the stage is set for considerable romantic confusion and things are a mess until the very happy end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Dick Powell stars as a Brooklynite who becomes a cowboy in spite of himself. Drifting into a small western town, Powell takes the only job available as a ranch hand. He likes to sing in his spare time, which attracts the attention of talent scout Pat O'Brien. Before you can say Gene Autry, Powell is promoted into America's favorite singing cowboy--though he's hard pressed to prove his western skills when the plot situations demand it. Rather condescending in its attitude towards western stars (as non-western movies tended to be in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s), Cowboy From Brooklyn was another step backward in the (temporarily) fading career of Dick Powell. The only good thing to come out of the film was the song "Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride", which became the leitmotif of many a Warner Bros. cartoon short. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy drama, a Yale tennis star endeavors to be a good sport at every turn. He finds a girl and together they elope. One day, while he is off on a business trip, she resumes a old fling. When he finds out, the tennis player discovers he is a sore loser, but not nearly as sore as the woman's lover after he finishes beating him up. When he is finished with him, he then goes to his cheating wife and gives her a good spanking. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide