Wilbur Mack Movies

Mary Carr is once more cast as a saintly matriarch in The Hidden Way. This time she plays the sweet, grey-haired mother of Mary (Gloria Grey), a wide-eyed young innocent who brings three hoboes home for a nice dinner. What Mary doesn't know is that two of her new "friends," Bill (Tom Santschi) and Mulligan (Ned Sparks), are ex-convicts. Under the influence of Mary's mom, Bill decides to "go straight," as does the third hobo, handsome Harry (Arthur Rankin), who has fallen in love with Mary. Discovering an artesian well on Mary's property, Bill and Harry decide to turn the house into the headquarters for a pure-spring-water company. Once the two ex-bums have accumulated a tidy nest egg on behalf of Mary, Mulligan reveals his true colors by stealing the money and heading for the border. But Mulligan's two former partners capture the thief before he gets very far, paving the way for a happy -- and financially lucrative -- ending for Mary and her Mom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before such films as The Little Foxes and Detective Story, director William Wyler served his apprenticeship on low-budget westerns like Ranch Riders. Minor-league cowboy star Ted Wells comes to the rescue of heroine Lillian Gilmore when she inherits a gold mine. The villains would like to get their dirty hands on the gold, and to that end they've enlisted the aid of Gilmore's jellyfish nephew. Wells straightens the kid out in time, then concentrates on mowin' down the bad guys, one by one. It isn't likely that Wyler indulged in his habit of filming dozens of takes of each scene while putting together Ranch Riders. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hayden Stevenson played the title role in this, one of Universal's most popular silent serials. A mystery villain, known only as the Spider (Al Hart), is out to steal Lord Blanton's (Herbert Prior) secret formula for the manufacturing of gold. Blanton's plucky daughter, Lady Diana (Gloria Grey), hires Angus Blake, a retired Scotland Yard detective, to capture the Spider, which the eminent sleuth finally manages to do in chapter 12, "The Final Reckoning." Along the way, Blake is aided at key moments by the helpful but enigmatic Lady in White (Grace Cunard). Produced for around 100,000 dollars, Blake of Scotland Yard grossed more than three million dollars worldwide and necessitated a sequel, The Ace of Scotland Yard (1929). A remake starring Herbert Rawlinson was produced by low-budget Victory Pictures in 1937. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

When Sandow the dog failed to work out as Pathe's answer to Rin Tin Tin, the studio banked its hopes on another noble hound, Grey Boy. The human hero of The Avenging Shadow is Ray Hallor, playing a young bank clerk framed on a robbery charge. Grey Boy gallops to the Great White North in search of the genuine miscreants. Hallor is cleared, winning the hand of warden's daughter Margaret Morris in the process. The Avenging Shadow is utterly free of surprises, but it cleaned up at the box offices in the hinterlands. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A prize-fighter and a professional wrestler meet in a benefit match in this routine comedy-drama. Believing boxer Jack Townsend (Jack Daugherty) is his romantic rival, fortune hunter Peyson Turner (Wilbur Mack) places a stolen bracelet in his dressing-room during the match. Townsend escapes the police to search for the real thief, who turns out to be none other than the wrestler (George Kotsonaros). Virginia Brown Faire, who was named a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1923 (an award given by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers to promising young actresses), had played Tinkerbell in Peter Pan (1924), and was cast as hero Daugherty's socialite girlfriend in this late-silent from Universal. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Despite what you might think by glancing at the title, The Argyle Case has nothing to do with socks. The film's plot is set in motion when the head of the house of Argyle is murdered. In one of his few talking-picture appearances, silent star Thomas Meighan is the detective on the case. Meighan discovers that the culprit is a member of an espionage ring, intent upon stealing valuable state secrets. Based on a play by Harriet Ford, Harvey J. O'Higgins, and William J. Burns, The Argyle Case was previously filmed in 1917. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sad drama, a nightclub chanteuse gives up everything to have her daughter educated abroad. When her grown-up, highly cultured daughter returns from Europe, she is appalled to learn the truth about her mother -- that she has a low class job entertaining boozy old men. She disowns her mother and the distraught mother begins singing the blues in earnest. Songs include: "I'm The Last Of The Red Hot Mommas," "I'm Doin' What I'm Doin' For Love," "He's A Good Man To Have Around," "I'm Feathering A Nest (For A Little Bluebird)," and "I Don't Want to Get Thin." and "Some of These Days." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The one-time-only combination of director John Ford and actors Spencer Tracy (in his first film) and Humphrey Bogart (in his second) should be recommendation enough for the offbeat comedy-drama Up the River. Tracy and Warren Hymer play Saint Louis and Dannemora Dan, two hard-boiled but likeable prison convicts. While in stir, the boys befriend another convict named Steve (Bogart), who is in love with woman's-prison inmate Judy (Claire Luce). Eventually, Steve and Judy are released, whereupon they get married and head to a small town where no one knows of their criminal pasts. It isn't long, however, before the couple's future happiness is threatened by dishonest salesman Frosby (Gaylord Pendleton), the no-good rat who framed Judy. Frosby threatens to expose Steve's prison record if the latter refuses to go along with a scheme to defraud his neighbors. Learning of this situation, Saint Louis and Dan escape from jail, foil Frosby's scheme, and return behind bars just in time to play in a prison all-star baseball game! Nonsensical to say the least, Up the River is also a film that's hard to dislike. It was remade by 20th Century-Fox in 1938, with Preston S. Foster and Tony Martin respectively in the Tracy and Bogart roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this frothy musical, a lovely young woman is wooed by two men. One of them meets her father's approval so it is only natural that she attempt to elope with the other. Fortunately the good guy catches up with them before it is too late. Songs include: "Spring Is Here in Person," "I Married an Angel," "Yours Sincerely," "Rich Man, Poor Man," "Baby's Awake Now," "With a Song in My Heart" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart), "Cryin' for the Carolines," "Have a Little Faith In Me," "Bad Baby," and "How Shall I Tell?" (Sam Lewis, Joe Young, Harry Warren). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a radio announcer works at the same station as a bogus psychic who while ostensibly answering fan letters on the air, is actually sending encoded messages to his gang concerning upcoming bank robberies. The clairvoyant is a real slick fellow and wins the love of the girl, the announcer has secretly loved for a long time. To prevent the announcer from winning her after all, the crook orders him abducted. Fortunately, the clever announcer escapes and reveals the psychic's trued identity. Happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ostensibly based of the life and violent death of glamorous New York mobster Arnold Rothstein, this early talkie from Universal featured Broadway actor John Wray as Mort Bradstreet, a powerful but crooked political boss whose friendship with Jay Grant (John Harron) turns sour when Grant is revealed to be a muckraking newspaper reporter. Scheming to have the reporter "taken care of," Mort is himself gunned down by a rival gang. In the mistaken belief that the gangster will recover, Grant readies his exposé, but when Mort is pronounced dead, the reporter decides that their friendship would not permit him to submit the story. Instead, he leaves the paper and begins a new life with Mort's erstwhile moll, Connie (Betty Compson). Directed by William J. Craft, a longtime Universal hack who had helmed scores of inexpensive Westerns in the silent days, The Czar of Broadway proved an especially leaden entry in the first wave of "all-talking" gangster melodramas. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this courtroom drama, a lawyer defends his sister's fiance after he is accused of murder. The lawyer knows his client is guilty, and that another man, a sailor, also accused of the crime because he gambled away his gun, which became the murder weapon, but he must honor the confidentiality between he and his client. The sailor is given the death sentence. Just before he is to die, the lawyer's client comes forward and tells the truth. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide