Adolph Milar Movies

In this wartime drama, a doctor discovers that one of his patients isn't as crazy as he thought, with dangerous consequences for the whole world. Dr. Michael Lewis (John Garfield) is an intern at a hospital where a woman named Jane (Nancy Coleman) is admitted. Jane was injured in a car wreck, and she tells Michael a remarkable story. She claims that she is actually an espionage agent with top-secret information that could help the Allied war effort; the accident occurred while she was trying to escape from Axis spies who will do anything to get her documents. Michael, who is supposed to keep an eye on Jane, thinks she must be delusional, and when psychiatrist Dr. Ingersol (Raymond Massey) arrives with Jane's father, Mr. Goodwin (Moroni Olsen), he signs Jane out in their custody. However, Michael soon discovers that Mr. Goodwin isn't Jane's father at all; he and Ingersol are actually the Nazi spies Jane was fleeing in the accident, and someone must rescue her before it's too late, both for Jane and the Allied war effort. Dangerously They Live was scripted by Marion Parsonnet from her novel, Remember Tomorrow. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Long underappreciated by film buffs, The Lady Has Plans is a screwball comedy disguised as an espionage melodrama. The title character is not star Paulette Goddard, as one might assume, but Nazi agent Rita Lenox (Margaret Hayes), who sneaks into Lisbon with a secret message written on her bare back in invisible ink. Through a case of mistaken identity, perky Sidney Royce (Paulette Goddard), the assistant to globetrotting radio correspondent Kenneth Harper (Ray Milland) is presumed to be Rita Lenox. At the behest of British Intelligence chieftan Ronald Dean (Roland Young), who hopes to extract the vital information supposedly scribbled on Sidney's back, our nonplussed heroine is treated like royalty in a posh Lisbon hotel. Meanwhile, Rita, having summed up the situation, simultaneously poses as Sidney. Once he's figured out what's what, Harper manages to waylay Rita and intercept the message, but neither he nor Sidney are out of the woods yet-not if German spy chief Baron Von Kemp (Albert Dekker) has anything to say about it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A hunter finds himself in a world of danger when he decides to stalk Adolf Hitler in this taut WWII thriller. Capt. Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) is an expert big-game hunter from England. While hunting in Bavaria, he happens upon Hitler's Berchtesgaden estate and spots the Fuhrer; he has his rifle in tow, and he toys with the idea of firing at the dictator, even raising the unloaded weapon, putting Hitler in the crosshairs, and pulling the trigger to make the gun click. Unfortunately, this draws the attention of Maj. Quive-Smith (George Sanders), a Gestapo leader assigned to guard the Führer, who promptly apprehends Thorndike, drags him off and attempts to force him to sign a confession. When he refuses, he's brutally beaten and dumped into a hole in the woods, and must climb out and make his way to safety, by hiding as a stowaway on a Danish steamer. The poor fellow then runs afoul of the menacing Mr. Jones (John Carradine), who steals his passport and identity. By the time Thorndike returns to London, the hunter has become the hunted, with Gestapo agents combing the streets looking for the would-be assassin. Thorndike finds an unlikely ally in Jerry (Joan Bennett), a seamstress and sometimes streetwalker who takes him in and helps him hide from the German forces closing in around him. And meanwhile, he must still contend with teh nefarious doings of Mr. Jones Man Hunt was directed by Fritz Lang, the great German director who fled to Paris in 1933 rather than accept a commission from Joseph Goebbels to make Nazi propaganda films. He came to America the following year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Idiot's Delight starred Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne on Broadway. Set in a lavish alpine hotel bordering an Italian air base, the story throws together several disparate people, each in his or her own way affected by the World War that threatens to erupt at a moment's notice. The only person who doesn't seem to have a political or economic stake in world affairs is Harry Van, a two-bit American entertainer who is stranded in the hotel with his travelling all-girl troupe, "Les Blondes." Harry is convinced that the alluring Irene, the foreign-accented "travelling companion" of munitions tycoon Achille Weber, is actually an American girl with whom he'd had a one-night stand years earlier, but Irene laughs off his insinuations. Eventually, Irene turns to Harry for comfort when Weber proves too disgustingly warmongering for her tastes. When war breaks out and the hotel is targeted for bombing, Harry makes sure that everyone gets to safety; he himself stays behind with Irene, with whom he has fallen in love. The two sing a hymn as the hotel is blown to oblivion. When Idiot's Delight was filmed in 1939, Norma Shearer did her best Lynn Fontanne imitation as Irene, while Clark Gable remained Clark Gable in his interpretation of Harry Van (his song-and-dance rendition of "Puttin' on the Ritz" is a classic of sneering insouciance). The film underwent an extensive "MGM-izing": while the pre-European affair between Harry and Irene is never dramatized in the play, the film shows Harry and Irene commiserating in a long prologue set in a seedy vaudeville house--and, in keeping with censorship restrictions, it is made abundantly clear that, while Harry befriends Irene, he does not sleep with her. The munitions manufacturer, here played by Edward Arnold, is depicted as an aberration, and not representative of "honest" business moguls (many of whom were close personal chums of MGM head Louis B. Mayer). And, while the ending of the play does not tell us whether or not Harry and Irene survive the bombing, the film permits the lovers a sun-streamed happy ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sudden Bill Dorn gets under way when a prospector strikes gold. Within what seems to be minutes, the entire population of a nearby town packs its mining equipment and race off to the lucky strike. One of the few speculators keeping his wits about him is the eponymous hero, played by Buck Jones. That's because he already has his hands full contending with heroine Lorna Kent (Noel Francis), fetching senorita Diana (Evelyn Brent), and black-hearted villain Mike Bundy (Harold Hodge). By the time Universal's Sudden Bill Dorn was released in early January of 1938, Buck Jones had already left the studio and pitched camp at Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Great Impersonation is based on the E. Phillips Oppenheim espionage novel of the same name, previously filmed in 1921. During WW I, drunken, dissolute British nobleman Everard Dominey (Edmund Lowe) wanders into the African jungle, where he meets his exact double, German spy Von Ragenstein (also Edmund Lowe). The scene shifts back to England, where, apparently, Von Ragenstein has assumed Dominey's identity after the latter is reported killed. The actual identity of the protagonist is kept secret until the very end. Either way, it's a story of redemption: If he's really Von Ragenstein, he may very well be persuaded to cast his lot with the British; if he's really Dominey, he might just sober up and assume his proper place in society. The film is brightened by the presence of two former Bride of Frankenstein co-stars: Valerie Hobson, then only a teenager, delivers one of her best performances as Dominey's distraught wife, while Dwight Frye goes through his usual "Renfield" paces as a roving lunatic. Both the 1935 Great Impersonation and the 1945 remake with Ralph Bellamy and Evelyn Ankers were later included in Universal's "Shock Theater" TV package, even though both films are more suspenseful than shocking. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A great white hunter embarks upon an African safari, but instead of bagging an animal, he ends up entangled with an exotic white "goddess" who has been raised by natives. Action and adventure ensues when both the heroic hunter and his devious companion fall in love with her and try to bring her back to civilization. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this melodramatic blend of romance and adventure set in the South Seas, Stella Blackney (Betty Compson) is married to Tom Shane (Noah Beery), an American exploring and exploiting the region. Stella has grown disenchanted with Tom, and decides to leave him in favor of dashing David Wade (Monte Blue). However, Stella's decision to build a life on her own is seriously hampered when she's captured by angry natives. David and Tom set aside their obvious differences and set out to rescue Stella, but David soon finds himself pursued by seductive native beauty Moira (Myrna Loy). Among the "angry natives" in the supporting cast is Duke Kahanamoku, a gifted swimmer who won medals in the 1912, 1920 and 1924 Olympic games. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Legendary Broadway comedian Joe Cook, who was capable of reducing audiences to paroxysms of helpless laughter by telling them what he wasn't going to do that evening, was invariably better than the shows in which he appeared. Fully aware of this, director Frank Capra brought Cook's 1928 stage musical Rain or Shine to the screen, cutting all of its songs and concentrating almost exclusively on the star. The mere wisp of a plot focuses on the tinker-toy travelling circus owned by heroine Joan Peers. Advance-man Cook does his best to stir up business and to avoid the sheriffs and process-servers, but it's an uphill battle. The climactic tent-fire scene is a cinematic tour de force for Capra, who'd improve upon it one year later in The Miracle Woman (1931). While Joe Cook's non-sequitur patter seems more bizarre than funny at times, he is always worth watching, as are his perennial stooges Tom Howard (who looks astonishingly like Robert Woolsey of Wheeler & Woolsey fame) and Dave Chasen (yes, the same Dave Chasen who later became a celebrated Hollywood restaurateur). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This silent adventure is best remembered for its spectacular forest fire scenes that were staged and shot by extraordinary cinematographer Stumar. The story is routine and centers on the romantic rivalry between two Alaskan men in love with the same woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This was one of Clyde Cook's better comedies for Hal Roach, perhaps due in part to the excellent direction of Stan Laurel, who at the time preferred working behind the camera (that would change a little later on when he teamed up with Oliver Hardy, who also has a small role here). Living up to his name, Clyde is a cook, working for an engineering camp that is being threatened by a local hermit (Adolph Milar). The hermit vows to blow up the whole camp if any of its members get involved with his daughter (Sue "Bugs" O'Neill). The daughter, meanwhile, makes arrangements to run off with the bridge engineer (Tyler Brooke). Her father discovers the plan, but believes the lucky man is Cook. In attempt to do away with him, the hermit puts explosives in the pancake batter, and his plot is almost successful because the pancakes blow up in the faces of everyone served (Hardy has an especially large stack explode) and they all come after the cook. Cook, the eloping couple, and the father all wind up on the same train. The couple falls off it, and it heads towards the edge of a cliff and stops. Cook and the hermit find themselves about to go over the cliff. After a number of tense but hilarious stunts, the hermit falls into the river below, and Cook jumps in when he sees a bear. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Linda Lou Heath (Corinne Griffith) is raised in a small Louisiana town by her two maiden aunts (Emily Fitzroy and Anne Schaefer). The aunts keep her ignorant of real life, so when physician David Terman (Holmes Herbert) treats her like a child, he may have good reason but it angers her anyhow. Before he leaves for Africa to work at a French penal colony, they promise to marry. While he is gone, Linda Lou falls prey to the flattery of wanderer Paul L'Estrange (Ian Keith), and she marries him instead. They travel to Canada, but L'Estrange soon grows tired of domestic life and fakes his death so he can run away on an expedition with Moreau (Adolph Milar). The two men wind up being sent to the penal colony where Terman was working. Terman, however, has returned home and married Linda Lou. When he brings her back to the penal colony she gets lost in a rainstorm and is found by L'Estrange, who was part of a big prison escape. Terman sees them together and believes that she is still in love with him. He is ready to obtain clemency for L'Estrange, but Moreau kills him. Linda Lou admits that she has loved Terman all along and the tale ends happily. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Silent era film exhibitors knew the real draw of handsome Conway Tearle -- "Tell the girls that Tearle looks great in overalls," trade paper Moving Picture World urged theater owners. As Bill Mathews, foreman at the Bethel Steel Works, Tearle spends quite a bit of time in the aforementioned overalls. In his spare time, the industrious Mathews works on an invention to tighten up production. One day, the works' owner, Philip Colt (Gladden James), visits his plant with Daphne Van Steer (Florence Dixon), and Mathews saves the girl from a fall. Mathews' invention makes him wealthy, and with the help of a down-on-her-luck society woman, he gains the polish he needs to move about in the higher echelons. Once again Mathews meets Daphne and falls in love with her. He offers to help her father out of his financial trouble if she marries him, and she agrees even though she doesn't love him. Colt continues to pursue Daphne after the wedding, and he follows her to a hunting lodge where she is vacationing. Mathews arrives to find Colt attacking Daphne, and gives him the thrashing he deserves. Happily, he discovers that his wife has learned to love him. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide