Etta McDaniel Movies

Like so many Gene Autry westerns of the early 1940s, Carolina Moon draws its title from a popular song of the era, duly warbled by Autry in the course of the film. In fact, music takes precedence over action in this outing, which would remain one of Gene's quietest and most laid-back vehicles. The plot finds Autry and his perennial saddle pal Frog (Smiley Burnette) coming to the rescue of several elderly Carolina plantation owners, presently at the mercy of a Uriah Heep-ish villain. The southern setting is as good an excuse as any to trot out several African American spirituals, soulfully performed by the Hall Johnson Choir. And as mentioned, Autry tackles the title tune, singing enthusiastically to wide-eyed heroine June Storey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This poverty-row epic stars William Bakewell as Bob, inventor of a futuristic motorboat engine. Bob's new device may be the salvation for the failing shipping business run by Drexel (Wilfred Lucas), the father of Bob's sweetheart Wynne (Arletta Duncan). But villainous Count Ribalto (Duncan Renaldo) enters the picture, cheating Drexel out of his savings and very nearly ruining his business. Putting his new engine into operation, Bob manages to save the day and send Ribalto packing. It's worth noting that the script for Crime Afloat was written by the film's villain, Duncan Renaldo, long before his career turnaround as TV's Cisco Kid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Republic's False Faces is a choice example of wartime "victory casting", with all the male cast members drawn from the ranks of the undraftable. Rex Williams plays morose saloon patron Craig Harding, who is on hand during a barroom brawl which leads to the death of songstress Joyce Ford (Veda Ann org). Suspected in the murder are Harding and his pal Don Westcott (Bill Henry). Harding's father, district attorney Stanley Harding (Stanley Ridges), faces a difficult decision: on the basis of circumstantial evidence, he may be forced to send his own son up the river for life. It's giving nothing away to reveal that the Most Likely Suspects didn't do it, but the Least Likely Suspect did. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

First-time director Lew Ayres performs miracles on a tiny budget in the Civil War drama Hearts in Bondage. The story offers a romanticized version of the events leading up to the battle between the "ironclads" Monitor and Merrimac. Northern naval officer Kenneth (James Dunn), the nephew of Monitor designer John Ericsson (Fritz Leiber) is dishonorably discharged when he sinks the Merrimac instead of burning it, as ordered. He is restored to duty as a crew member on the Monitor, and in the ensuing sea battle with the recommissioned Merrimac he kills Confederate officer Raymond (David Manners), the brother of Kenneth's fiancee Constance (Mae Clarke). The estranged sweethearts are ultimately reunited with the help of Abe Lincoln himself! Both James Dunn and Mae Clarke are miscast in their roles, but they do their best under the circumstances to make their material "work" -- and often succeed. The real stars of Hearts in Bondage are Republic's special-effects mavens Howard and Theodore Lydecker, whose splendid utilization of scale models in the climactic Monitor-Merrimac confrontation is both exciting and convincing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A grown-up Jane Withers is joined by a whole slew of former child stars in the lightweight Republic musical Johnny Doughboy. Withers capably essays the part of a teenaged movie star who tires of the spotlight and runs away from Hollywood. Adopting an alias, she joins "The Junior Victory Caravan", a group of youthful USO performers. She also pursues a romance with much-older playwright Henry Wilcoxon, only to be (deliberately) disillusioned by the man. Among the juvenile favorites making cameo appearances in Johnny Doughboy are Bobby Breen, Baby Sandy, Butch & Buddy, Cora Sue Collins, Robert Coogan (Jackie's brother) and ex-"Little Rascals" George "Spanky" McFarland and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"How would you like to star opposite the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood?" Enticed by these words, brunette leading lady Fay Wray dyed her hair blonde and accepted the role of Ann Darrow in King Kong -- and stayed with the project even after learning that her "leading man" was a 50-foot ape. The film introduces us to flamboyant, foolhardy documentary filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who sails off to parts unknown to film his latest epic with leading lady Darrow in tow. Disembarking at Skull Island, they stumble on a ceremony in which the native dancers circle around a terrified-looking young girl, chanting, "Kong! Kong!" The chief (Noble Johnson) and witch doctor (Steve Clemente) spot Denham and company and order them to leave. But upon seeing Ann, the chief offers to buy the "golden woman" to serve as the "bride of Kong." Denham refuses, and he and the others beat a hasty retreat to their ship. Late that night, a party of native warriors sneak on board the ship and kidnap Ann. They strap her to a huge sacrificial altar just outside the gate, then summon Kong, who winds up saving Ann instead of devouring her. Kong is eventually taken back to New York, where he breaks loose on the night of his Broadway premiere, thinking that his beloved Ann is being hurt by the reporters' flash bulbs. Now at large in New York, Kong searches high and low for Ann (in another long-censored scene, he plucks a woman from her high-rise apartment, then drops her to her death when he realizes she isn't the girl he's looking for). After proving his devotion by wrecking an elevated train, Kong winds up at the top of the Empire State Building, facing off against a fleet of World War I fighter planes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remake of Rafter Romance (1933), which starred Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster, Living On Love treats the story of two unwilling apartment-mates a bit more briskly and broadly, to the point of being downright screwy at times. This time out, it's Solly Ward as landlord Eli White, who takes two tenants (James Dunn, Whitney Bourne) who can't afford the rent they're paying, and puts them together in the same basement apartment -- the idea is that neither one will ever see the other, as Dunn is a would-be artist who works nights at a trucking company garage, and Bourne is a saleswoman with daytime hours. Inevitably, they chafe at each other's presence as each intrudes on the other's space, and come to resent each other, a fact expressed in a series of increasingly ambitious practical jokes played on one another; similar action went on in the original film, but in Living On Love it gets carried over the top, into surreal and silly moments. But as always happens in stories like this -- and in the original film as well -- the two manage to meet away from the apartment and, not realizing who the other is, fall in love. Complications ensue involving her boss (prissy Franklin Pangborn, amazingly and effectively cast as a ladies' man) and his wealthy, dominating would-be fiancee (Joan Woodbury), but the two do finally get together on a round-the-clock, permanent basis. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Some 25 years before his "discovery" in In Cold Blood, 9-year-old Bobby (later Robert) Blake made his feature-film starring debut in MGM's Mokey. When his widowed father Herb (Dan Dailey Jr.) remarries, little Mokey Delano (Blake) has a lot of trouble getting accustomed to his stepmother Anthea (Donna Reed). Though Andrea is gentle and loving, Mokey resents her presence, and does everything he can to make her life miserable. Only when he's on the verge of being packed off to reform school does Mokey realize how wrong he's been. A rare directorial effort by screenwriter Wells Root, Mokey features not only Bobby Blake but two of his "Our Gang" series costars, Cordell Hickman and Billy Thomas, the latter better known as "Buckwheat". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Roaring Speedboats is the TV title for the inexpensive 1937 indie Mile a Minute Love. William Bakewell stars as an inventor who develops a high-powered boat engine. Bakewell, of course, created this wonder machine to benefit mankind-and, incidentally, to win an upcoming motorboat race. But a group of crooks don't see things his way, thus they sabotage his invention. Peeking through the miles of speedboat stock footage are such reliable actors as Duncan Renaldo, Vivien Oakland and Wilfred Lucas. PS: Future "Cisco Kid" Renaldo also penned the original story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

To say that Smoking Guns is one of Ken Maynard's strangest Westerns is understating the case. The film wastes no time getting started, with Ken Masters (Maynard) in mid-sentence accusing the villain (Harold Goodwin) of murdering Masters' father. Framed for murder himself, our hero is forced to escape to the swamplands of Louisiana, where he is pursued by lawman Dick (Walter Miller). Rescuing Dick from a pack of hungry alligators, Masters is forced to perform an emergency leg amputation, which, combined with a bad case of jungle fever, unfortunately results in the lawman's death. Astonished at the close resemblance between himself and Dick (the two men are actually about as similar as Abbott and Costello!), Masters decides to assume Dick's identity and return to the dead man's hometown. He manages to pull off his masquerade with everyone, even Dick's fiancee Alice (Gloria Shea), thereby giving himself free reign to finally trap the bad guys in a spooky old mansion. Decked out with a serpentine plotline that would do Erich Von Stroheim proud, Smoking Guns doesn't make much sense, but that's part of the fun -- as is the astonishing final shot, wherein the heroine's low-cut blouse threatens to slip from her shoulders as she and the hero ride off together. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Directed in 1940 by S. Sylva Simon, Sporting Blood stars Robert Young as racing stable owner Myles Vanders. Shortly after traveling back to his ramshackle family estate in Virginia, he stirs up a long-term family rivalry with Davis Lockwood (Lewis Stone), who runs a neighboring stable. Vanders (Young), in order to get under Lockwood's (Stone) skin, initiates a romance with Lockwood's daughter Linda (Maureen O'Sullivan. As the big race approaches, however, Vanders slowly realizes he truly loves Linda. Though a stable fire harms his best racing prospect, Vanders' cockiness has waned significantly, and he enters Linda's best nag in the race against her father's stable. Following the competition, Vanders attempts to mend fences between himself and Lockwood. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Edmund Goulding directed this remake of his own 1929 The Trespasser, which starred Gloria Swanson. Here Bette Davis assumes the lead role of Mary Donnell, a young innocent married to a bootlegger. When her husband is killed, she decides to pursue a better life and gets a job as a secretary to attorney Lloyd Rogers (Ian Hunter). Lloyd falls in love with Mary but stoically keeps his feelings hidden from her. One of Lloyd's clients is the millionaire Merrick (Donald Crisp), whose playboy son Jack (Henry Fonda) falls in love with Mary. The two elope and take off on their honeymoon, but Merrick, who feels that Mary is not good enough for Jack, asks that the marriage be annulled. Jack reluctantly agrees and Mary goes back to her old job with Lloyd. But Mary finds that she is pregnant and has a baby boy. She swears Lloyd to secrecy concerning her child and Lloyd agrees. Meanwhile, Jack marries a woman of his own class, Flip (Anita Louise), but she is fatally injured in an automobile accident. Lloyd also falls ill and dies at Mary's feet --but not before confessing his love for Mary. When his will is read, it reveals that he has left Mary and her child a vast fortune. Lloyd's wife (Katherine Alexander) believes the baby boy is Lloyd's illegitimate child, and she tries to overturn the terms of the will. Jack hears about Mary's child, and she confesses that the child is actually his. Merrick then tries to have the baby taken away from Mary, contending that she is unfit to raise the baby. Unable to withstand Merrick's legal hammering, Mary offers the child to Jack and Flip. Mary, distraught after abandoning her baby, leaves on a European trip. While she is gone, Flip dies and Jack leaves for Europe to try to find her. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide