Edmund MacDonald Movies
Muscular American general-purpose actor Edmund MacDonald entered films in 1933. MacDonald was briefly a 20th Century-Fox contractee in the early 1940s; his best role under the Fox banner was the antagonistic Sgt. Hippo in Laurel & Hardy's Great Guns (1941). At other studios, he was usually cast as plainclothes detectives or minor gangsters. Aficionados of "film noir" will remember Edmund MacDonald as Charles Haskell Jr., the foredoomed motorist who gives Tom Neal a lift in Edgar Ulmer's Detour (1945). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi- 1949
Red Canyon was one of several medium-budget, Technicolor westerns turned out by Universal-International between 1949 and 1959. Howard Duff plays wandering cowpoke Lin Sloane, who spends most of the film trying to capture a fabled wild stallion. While thus occupied, he finds time to romance Lucy Bostel (Ann Blyth), daughter of the region's most influential horsebreeder (George Brent). Conflicts arise when Lucy intends to race the captured stallion, much to the dismay of her father; there's also a major brouhaha involving Sloane's disreputable family heritage. Red Canyon was adapted by Maurice Geraghty from a rugged novel by Zane Grey. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ann Blyth, Howard Duff, (more)
- 1948
Black Eagle was based on The Passing of Black Eagle, a short story by O. Henry. William Bishop stars as Jason Bond, who stays out of trouble by the simple expedient of avoiding other people. Unfortunately, the plot dictates that Bond must come into contact with several characters, all of whom end up fleecing our hero in one way or another. Even so, Jason manages to enjoy a brief romance with pretty Ginny Long (Virginia Patton) before returning to his life of carefree vagabondage. A very minor film, The Black Eagle makes the most of its excellent supporting cast, including Gordon Jones, Trevor Bardette, Will Wright and stuntman extraordinaire Richard Talmadge. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- William Bishop, Virginia Patton, (more)
- 1948
That Lady in Ermine tells two parallel stories, both taking place in the small Mittel-European duchy of Bergamo, but one set in the 19th century and the other in the 16th. In 1861, the Countess Angelina (Betty Grable) and her newlywed husband, Baron Mario, have just entered the bridal chamber when a Hungarian army regiment under the command of Colonel Teglash (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) invades. Mario flees the castle, leaving Angelina to face the invaders, just as her 16th --century ancestor Francesca (also Betty Grable) was forced to protect her turf under similar circumstances. Colonel Teglash is struck by a portrait of Francesca (the lady in ermine of the title), and the resemblance between her and Angelina makes it difficult for him to rule with his customary iron fist. Meanwhile, Francesca haunts the dreams of both Angelina and Teglash. She appears to advise Angelina to pretend interest in the colonel and then kill him, much as she herself did so many years ago. At the same time, Teglash dreams that Francesca/Angelina overcomes the desire to kill him and falls in love with him. The 19th-century couple play out their story against the backdrop of Francesca's own tale, but with the twist that Angelina really does find herself caring for Teglash. Although the direction is credited to Ernst Lubitsch, he died after 8 days of filming; the film was completed by Otto Preminger. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi
- Starring:
- Betty Grable, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., (more)
The stars of Shoot to Kill are Douglas Blackley and Susan Walters, both of whom later changed their professional names to, respectively, Robert Kent and Luana Walters. Blackley is a gangster who is framed by crooked DA Edmund MacDonald. Walters, Blackley's wife, secures a job as MacDonald's assistant, the better to find the proof of the DA's dishonesty. Reporter Russell Wade helps Walters expose MacDonald, falling in love with her along the way. The film is related in flashback by Walters, who lies hovering between life and death in a hospital bed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Russell Wade, Susan Walters, (more)
- 1947
Blondie's Anniversary invades territory already mapped out by Columbia's two-reel Hugh Herbert comedies. Blondie (Penny Singleton) finds a valuable watch that has been hidden by hubby Dagwood (Arthur Lake). She assumes that it's a surprise wedding gift, but the truth is that Dagwood has been guarding the watch on behalf of a client who bought the gift for his own wife. The snowballing comedy of errors eventually involves criminals who hope to snatch the watch for themselves. Blondie's Anniversary was the 22nd in Columbia's marathon B-picture series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
This Pine-Thomas Production was scripted by Geoffrey Homes (aka Daniel Mainwaring), best known as the author of the novel upon which the "film noir" classic Out of the Past was based. Robert Lowery plays victim-of-circumstance Tom Durling, in the wrong place at the wrong time when a bank robbery occurs. As the only witness to the crime, Durling is sought after by June Reynolds (Barbara Britton), who wants to prove that her brother, killed in the holdup, was innocent of complicity. Trouble is, the police have fingered Durling as their primary suspect, so he naturally wants to remain scarce. By film's end, however, Durling and June have taken it upon themselves to track down the villains. Unusual for its time was the film's depiction of its policeman characters, who are shown to be reasonable and intelligent rather than conclusion-jumping and dull-witted. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Lowery, Barbara Britton, (more)
Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour begins when hitchhiker Al Roberts (Tom Neal) accepts a ride from affable gambler Charles Haskell Jr. (Edmund MacDonald). When Haskell suffers a fatal heart attack, Roberts, afraid that he'll be accused of murder, disposes of the body, takes the man's clothes and wallet, and begins driving the car himself. He picks up beautiful but sullen Vera (Ann Savage), who suddenly breaks the silence by asking, "What did you do with the body?" It turns out that Vera had earlier accepted a ride from Haskell and has immediately spotted Roberts as a ringer. Holding the threat of summoning the police over his head, Vera forces Roberts to continue his pose so that he can collect a legacy from Haskell's millionaire father, who hasn't seen his son in years. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Neal, Ann Savage, (more)
- 1945
Incendiary Blonde is a highly entertaining if historically suspect biopic of "Queen of the Nightclubs" Texas Guinan. As played (or overplayed) by Betty Hutton, Guinan is a hoydenish Texas gal whose showbiz career gets under way when she joins a Wild West show in 1909. A favorite with male patrons because of her salty vocabulary and what-the-hell attitude, Guinan rises to fame as a Broadway musical-comedy star and movie actress, only to crash-land after an unhappy marriage to her manager Tim Callahan (Bill Goodwin). Taking advantage of Prohibition, Guinan opens the first of several nightclubs, fending off the Feds while welcome her customers with an insouciant "Hello, sucker!" Naturally, Betty Hutton is given several opportunities to sing and dance, which she does with her usual unbridled enthusiasm. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Betty Hutton, Arturo de Cordova, (more)
- 1945
This curious mixture of comedy, romance and melodrama teams up comic actor Eddie Bracken and glamour girl Veronica Lake, two of Paramount's most popular stars of the mid-1940s. He plays Ogden Spencer Trulow III, a wealthy kleptomaniac; she plays Sally Martin, who may or may not provide the "cure" for the lovesick Trulow. As it turns out, Sally is a professional thief, part of a gang planning to rip off the Romanoff necklace. Trulow tries to prevent this, and in so doing divest himself of his own kleptomania. Sally's cohorts aren't at all interested in Trulow's problems, and accordingly spend half the film trying to bump him off. Buried somewhere in the glossy silliness of Hold That Blonde is a pre-WW1 play by Paul Armstrong; some of the sight gags in the film are even older than the Armstrong original. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eddie Bracken, Veronica Lake, (more)
The title The Lady Confesses is slightly misleading, since it's the hero of the film is accused of murder. On the eve of his marriage to Vicki McGuire (Mary Beth Hughes), Larry Craig (Hugh Beaumont) discovers that his first wife Norma (Barbara Slater), long missing and presumed dead, is very much alive. Shortly thereafter, Norma is killed, and Larry is the number one suspect. To save her sweetie, Vicki becomes an amateur detective, hoping to expose the genuine murderer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mary Beth Hughes, Hugh Beaumont, (more)
- 1944
Arthur Lake takes a break from his Dagwood Bumstead duties in the "Blondie" series to star as furloughed sailor Marble Head Tomkins in Columbia's Sailor's Holiday. The plot is the old one about an engagement being broken because both male and female have fallen in love with someone else. In this instance, two engaged couples are thus rent asunder, though everything turns out OK by the final reel. Though top billed, Arthur Lake is essentially the comedy relief. He was added to the cast as "name insurance", permitting Columbia to introduce several of their newest contractees-including a young Broadway refugee named Shelley Winters. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1944
Timber Queen is another of Pine-Thomas' rugged low-budget adventure films of the 1940s, most of which (like this one) starred Richard Arlen. It all begins when Russ (Arlen), a former Army pilot, comes home after a physical discharge. He befriends Elaine (Mary Beth Hughes), the widow of an Army buddy, who has inherited a financially-strapped timber camp. Elaine's financial future hinges on a huge timber shipment, which must arrive at its destination On Time-and that's where Russ and his little airplane come in. Sheldon Leonard is his usual surly self as Smacksie, a reformed racketeer who helps Russ complete his mission. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mary Beth Hughes, June Havoc, (more)
- 1944
Melodramatic gangster action characterizes this tough and freely fictionalized biography of notorious, murderous Chicago mobster Roger Touhy. Set during Prohibition, it centers on Touhy's rise from small time thug to the city's most powerful bootlegger whose empire is rivaled only by that of Al Capone (who is referred to, but never named in the story). It is his rival who frames Touhy for kidnapping and arranges for him to serve a life-long term in Stateville prison. Determined to be free again, the desperate Touhy and his cellmate Basil "the Owl" Banghart, begin plotting a violent break out. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Preston S. Foster, Victor McLaglen, (more)
- 1944
The genesis of The Story of Dr. Wassell is said to have been a story told by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to director Cecil B. DeMille. Gary Cooper stars as Corydon M. Wassell, a real-life country doctor from Arkansas who worked as a medical missionary in China in the years prior to WWII. When America enters the war, Dr. Wassell joins the Navy and is shipped to Java. As the Japanese overtake the island, Wassell is placed in charge of the wounded evacuated marines. Ordered to leave the area immediately, the doctor disobeys his commands, staying behind to care for ten seriously wounded men from the USS Marblehead, even as Japanese bombs rain down upon his staff. With the help of other stranded allied troops, Wassell and his wounded make it to Australia, where despite his insubordination he is lauded as a hero. Not as much of a spectacular as earlier DeMille films, The Story of Dr. Wassell concentrates on personalities, with mixed results. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Laraine Day, (more)
Hangmen Also Die is set in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation. Czech loyalist Brian Donlevy assassinates the vicious Gestapo leader Heydrich, then goes into hiding. The wounded patriot is sheltered by history professor Walter Brennan, who is already under surveillance by the Nazis thanks to his veiled classroom attacks on the Third Reich. Fifth columnist Gene Lockhart arranges for the professor and 400 other Prague citizens to be rounded up as hostages, to be killed if Heydrich's assassin is not revealed. Ultimately Lockhart himself is framed by the citizenry, giving the actor full scope to cringe and cower as only he could. Persuasively directed by Fritz Lang, Hangmen Also Die was based on a story by Lang and expatriate German playwright Bertold Brecht. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan, (more)
- 1943
A retired septuagenarian writes books on criminology based on his experiences as a Scotland Yard officer. On his seventieth birthday, the DA's office pays homage to him by requesting his assistance on a puzzling case. Though the police are sure they have solved the case, it is the old man using his old fashioned methods who proves them terribly wrong. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Henry Stephenson, Lloyd Corrigan, (more)
One of the silliest and most unbelievable of the Universal Sherlock Holmes series, Sherlock Holmes in Washington is also undeniably one of the most enjoyable. The story gets under way when an Allied spy (an unbilled Gerald Hamer, one of this series' "regulars") smuggles a valuable piece of microfilm into the U.S. The film is hidden in a matchbook cover that passes through several hands, ultimately ending up in the possession of Washington, D.C., socialite Nancy Partridge (Marjorie Lord). Brought to Washington from London to help locate the missing film, Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) do their best to rescue Nancy from the clutches of the Axis villains -- nearly losing their own lives in the process. And when the case is finally solved, Holmes reveals that there's still another twist to the proceedings -- a few minutes before he delivers his obligatory patriotic quote from Winston Churchill. One of the delights of Sherlock Holmes in Washington is the casting of George Zucco and Henry Daniell as the bad guys; both actors also played Holmes' archenemy Moriarty in other series entries. It's also fun to see poor old Watson tangle with American slang and a wad of bubble gum, and to watch as Holmes and Watson driven past a series of famous D.C. monuments -- covering several miles in a matter of seconds! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, (more)
- 1943
Randolph Scott was the star of Corvette K-225, a tribute to the World War II corvette escorts which guided Allied convoys through treacherous Atlantic waters. Scott plays the officer in charge of a Royal Canadian corvette cruiser, dedicated to keeping the troops safe from enemy submarine attack. The focus of the film is a danger-ridden journey from Halifax to Britain, the tension quotient heightened by the use of actual combat footage. Only the romantic triangle involving Scott, James Brown and Ella Raines bogs down this thrill-a-minute war picture. Corvette K-225 was produced by Howard Hawks, though the direction was credited to Richard Rosson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, James Brown, (more)
- 1943
The Ritz Bros' third low-budget musical for Universal was the pointlessly titled Hi'ya, Chum! In this 61-minute timekiller, the Ritzes play The Merry Madcaps, a trio of itinerant entertainers who purchase a restaurant in a California boom town. While leading ladies Jane Frazee and June Clyde hold down the fort at the restaurant, the Ritz boys do their best to thwart the crooked schemes of gambler Edmund McDonald. Robert Paige, Ms. Frazee's vis-a-vis in Olsen and Johnson's Hellzapoppin', plays the nominal romantic lead. Outside of an amusing ballet parody, Hi 'Ya, Chum! is about 61 minutes too long. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Al Ritz, Jimmy Ritz, (more)
- 1942
The Milton Berle starrer Whispering Ghosts was clearly inspired by the Red Skelton comedy-mystery Whistling in the Dark (itself inspired by Bob Hope's The Ghost Breakers). Uncle Miltie is cast as H. H. Van Buren, a radio sleuth who delights in solving real-life mysteries ahead of the official constabulary. At the behest of his sponsor, Van Buren tackles an unsolved case from ten years earlier: the death of an old sea captain. To this end, he visits the ship where the dirty deed took place, accompanied by his nervous valet Euclid (Willie Best, who played much the same role in Ghost Breakers). At first convinced that the ship is haunted, our hero deduces that the "ghosts" are actually a gang of crooks, in search of the treasure left behind by the murdered skipper. The arrival of Elizabeth Woods (Brenda Joyce), the lawful heir to the missing treasure, convinces Van Buren to stick around for a while to solve the decade-old murder and locate the captain's legacy. Why is it that none of Milton Berle's vehicles for 20th Century-Fox--Whispering Ghosts, Over My Dead Body, Margin for Error--have shown up on TV since the 1970s? Now there's a mystery worth solving! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Milton Berle, Brenda Joyce, (more)
The Flying Tigers were a group of American volunteer aviators, flying against the Japanese on behalf of General Claire Chennault and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek in the months just prior to World War II. John Wayne is the most responsible of the bunch, and John Carroll the least. It's bad enough that Carroll tries to beat Wayne's time with pretty Red Cross nurse Anna Lee; but when Carroll's negligence results in the death of veteran-flyer Paul Kelly, the man becomes a pariah to the rest of the pilots. Unable to serve in World War II due to health reasons, John Wayne spent the duration licking the Japanese and the Germans in front of a Republic Studios process screen. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Wayne, John Carroll, (more)
- 1942
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill, (more)
- 1942
Timber is a typical Universal Pictures amalgam of he-man virility and endless spools of stock footage from earlier films. Newly recruited from MGM, Dan Dailey Jr. stars as Kansas, a two-fisted troubleshooter from the U.S. Forestry Service. Kansas, his pal Arizona (Andy Devine) and mill owner Quebec (Leo Carrillo) try to find out who's been plaguing Quebec's lumber camp with a series of highly suspicious accidents. It all builds up to a literally cliff-hanging climax involving a runaway timber truck. The late "B"-film historian Don Miller has noted a booking error made by Universal Pictures when the studio shipped out Timber on a double bill with Chapter One of the Universal serial The Great Alaskan Mystery -- which was comprised almost exclusively of highlight footage from Timber! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leo Carrillo, Andy Devine, (more)
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