John Litel Movies

In this musical romance, an ice skater comes to America to represent her country at a Lake Placid carnival. Unfortunately, while she is there the war breaks out and she is unable to go home. While in America, she is cared for by her rich uncle. She soon falls in love with his handsome junior partner who is already engaged to another. When she discovers this, the skater runs away. Her lover follows and true love ensues. Songs include: "Deep Purple", "My Isle of Golden Dreams", "National Emblem March", "Winter Wonderland", "Intermezzo", "Waiting for The Robert E. Lee", "When Citrus is in Bloom", "Drigo's Serenade", "While Strolling in the Park". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This was the seventh entry in Paramount's "Henry Aldrich" series, and there were still two more to come. Per the title, trouble-prone high schooler Henry (Jimmy Lydon) finds himself in charge of a contentious group of scouts. He nobly takes the blame for the pranks perpetrated by young Ramsey Kent (Darryl Hickman), to spare Ramsay's dad, a friend of Henry's father (John Litel) from embarrassment. After numerous zany complications, the film wraps up with the old "hanging from a cliff by a rope" scene, which seems to be obligatory in every Boy Scout movie ever made. Though panned at the time of its release, Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout is one of the series' funnier entries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, two young lovers secretly elope after the woman is involved in a hit-and-run accident. The young groom takes the rap and is thrown out of school. The bride's enraged father shoots the boy. At the trial the bride lies on the stand to save her dad. Things work out, and the young couple goes on a honeymoon. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though somewhat past his prime, Edmund Lowe carries the dramatic weight of Murder in Times Square with breezy assuredness. Lowe plays Barrymoresque stage actor Cory Williams, who vaingloriously tries to solve a bizarre series of murders. Though the killings take place in the heart of New York, the victims are killed by the venom of a rattlesnake. It turns out that the killing has a vendetta against theater people, and Williams may be next on the list. Marguertie Chapman costars as perky press agent Melinda Mathews, while the many suspects and victims include Bruce Bennett, Veda Ann Borg, John Litel, and, best of all, Esther Dale as a crafty panhandler named Longacre Lil. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This socially conscious drama examines the causes of juvenile delinquency and centers on one girl who joins a gang of punks and ends up involved in a murder. She is jailed. Later her old friend returns from the Navy and convinces the courts that she wasn't really part of the killing. The chastened young woman is released. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Paramount's So Proudly We Hail, like MGM's Cry Havoc, is a tribute to the Red Cross nurses trapped behind enemy lines in the early days of the Pacific war. Claudette Colbert is the self-sacrificing head nurse, struggling to minister to the wounded and to keep her staff (including Paulette Goddard, Veronica Lake and Barbara Britton, all of them giving better than usual performances) from buckling under the pressure. Taking into consideration the regular fans of the film's female cast, the producers thoughtfully include several scenes in which the ladies pursue their romantic lives. The story culminates with the fall of Bataan, ending on a resigned but optimistic note; this finale was designed to lift the spirits of the audience, which in 1943 wasn't so certain as Hollywood of final victory. So Proudly We Hail was not only effective propaganda (though not as effective as Cry Havoc), but it also enabled Paramount to introduce its new crop of male hunks--including the estimable Sonny Tufts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Henry's friends think he's a coward because he refuses to fight a local bully, but his reason for refusing had more to do with wanting to impress Elise, the daughter of the chemistry teacher. While in her father's lab, Elise tells Henry he misunderstood her, and points out how brave her own father is: he uses himself as a guinea pig in experiments. As Henry is holding a test tube containing his latest experimental formula, a flash of lightning scares him and he reflexively swallows the formula. Henry starts for home, but the drug starts taking affect and he wanders into Kenniston manor, a supposedly haunted house, before going home and passing out. When he awakens the next day, he has an expensive ring in his hand. He soon learns that Mr. Quid, a teacher, and Mr. Bradley, the school principal, had been in the manor at the same time he was. He also learns that Bradley has disappeared, as has the famous Kenniston ring, and that Quid has been charged in connection with these events. Afraid that, under the influence of the drug, he is responsible for Bradley's disappearance, Henry and his friends set out to discover what really happened in the haunted house. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

Surprisingly little known, Universal's Men of Texas boasts an impressive cast and a fairly exciting and complex storyline. Set just after the Civil War, the film stars Robert Stack as Chicago war correspondent Barry Conovan, who is sent by his newspaper to Texas to get the low-down on the martial law that has been imposed on the state. Conovan is accompanied by Sam Sawyer (Leo Carrillo), his photographer-and never mind that newspapers didn't run photographs in 1866! Despite the good intentions of General Sam Houston (William Farnum), Texas is in the hands of carpetbaggers, scallawags and tinhorn dictators, the worst of whom is Henry Jackson (Brod Crawford), a self-styled patriot who runs his section of the territory like his own private fiefdom, with an army of outlaws at his beck and call. The plot gets even hairier when both Conovan and Jackson fall in love with Jane Baxter Scott (Anne Gwynne), whose younger brother Robert (Jackie Cooper) is a living embodiment of the ideological confusion plaguing postwar Texas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Universal's standing Show Boat sets get another workout in the 60-minute B-picture Mississippi Gambler. On the trail of mob hitman Mathews (Douglas Fowley), reporter Johnny Forbes (Kent Taylor) journeys from New York to Mississippi. Here he finds big-time gangster boss Carvel (John Litel), long thought dead but actually living pseudonymously as a respectable plantation owner. Despite his civilized veneer, Carvel continues mastermining his criminal empire, including a chain of gambling emporiums. With the help of leading ladies Beth (Frances Langford) and La Verne (Claire Dodd), Forbes manages to trap Carvel in his own den. Shemp Howard shows up as a zany taxi driver, doing a lot more for the film than it does for him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lt. Com. Frank V. Martinek's widely circulated comic strip Don Winslow of the Navy was brought to the screen in this action-packed, 12-chapter Universal serial. The villain of the piece is The Scorpion (Kurt Katch), who has been sabotaging American military forces in the Pacific. Assigned to put an end to the Scorpion's activities, Navy intelligence operative Don Winslow heads to the remote island of Tongita. Here he must deal with a gang of clever Fifth Columnists, led by Menlin (John Litel), who are in cahoots with the head bad guy. Fortunately, Winslow is able to rely upon the courage and loyalty of his sidekick Red Pennington (Walter Sande) and nurses Misty (Anne Nagel) and Mercedes (Claire Dodd). Though the miniature work in Don Winslow of the Navy is laughably inept, the film itself is one of Universal's most satisfying chapter plays. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Universal's "Invisible Man" series does its bit for the war effort in this slyly tongue-in-cheek action melodrama. Jon Hall stars as Frank Raymond, grandson of the man who invented the invisibility formula several pictures back. When Nazi agents try to coerce the secret formula out of Raymond, he eludes them by becoming transparent himself. Shortly afterward, the US government parachutes Raymond behind enemy lines, reasoning that an invisible counterespionage agent would be an invaluable tool in defeating the Axis. He is aided and abetted by the beautiful Maria Sorenson (Ilona Massey), who may or may not be in league with villains Helser (J. Edward Bromberg in a scene-stealing turn), Stauffer (Cedric Hardwicke) and Japanese spy Ikito (Peter Lorre). As was always the case in Universal's mid-1940s fantasies, David Horsley's special effects work in Invisible Agent is absolutely first-rate, with some truly eye-popping moments. Incidentally, this is the film in which an elderly victim of Nazi persecution moans "I can't sign? I can't sign? You have broken my fingers!" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Lydon makes his second screen appearance as "typical" teenager Henry Aldrich in Henry and Dizzy. The plot complications begin insuinating themselves when Henry and his pal Dizzy Stevens (Charles Smith) inadvertently wreck an outboard motor. Our heroes spend the rest of the picture trying to raise the necessary 120 bucks to repair the damage before Henry's dad (John Litel) finds out. As a result, they wreak plenty more damage before the film's slapstick denoument at beautiful Lake Wopacotapotalong. As always, Henry and Dizzy scores its biggest points with its stellar supporting cast, including Maude Eburne as a snooty dowager, Warren Hymer as a cheeful bum, former "Our Gang" kid Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as an obnoxious brat and future "Lois Lane" Noel Neill as Dizzy's waterlogged girl friend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide