Ivan Miller Movies

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

The winner of four Oscar nominations, Wake Island was one of the first major Hollywood films to deal with America's forced participation in World War II. The first two reels takes place in the weeks prior to Pearl Harbor, as Wake Island military commander Brian Donlevy carries on a friendly rivalry with Seabee supervisor Albert Dekker. Once the US is in the shooting war, all previous differences are forgotten and the Wake Island personnel begin pulling together. Despite being heavily outnumbered during the subsequent Japanese attack on Wake, the Americans put up a valiant fight, at great cost to the Imperial Forces. In a scene calculated to evoke long, loud cheers from the audience, Donlevy, weary and battle-stained, relays to the American mainland the legendary (if offensive) challenge "Send us more Japs!" As in the like-vintage Bataan, the military defeat of the Americans is treated-and justifiably so--as a moral victory. Utilizing some of the top male talents in Paramount's contract pool-Donlevy, Dekker Robert Preston, MacDonald Carey, William Bendix--Wake Island remains an excellent example of propaganda-as-entertainment ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In 1939's Days of Jesse James, the title character was played by Don "Red" Barry, with official star Roy Rogers carrying the brunt of the plotline. Two years later, Rogers was cast as ol' Jesse himself in Republic's Jesse James at Bay. Since Jesse is herein depicted as a "good guy", whose train-robbery rampage is motivated by the chicanery of a crooked railroad executive, someone else would have to handle the film's villainy. That someone was also Roy Rogers, cast as Jesse's lookalike, a local outlaw named Clint Burns. Typical of the anachronisms festooning the script of Jesse James at Bay is the presence of not one but two female newspaper reporters, played by Gale Storm and Sally Payne. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally slated as a Boris Karloff-Bela Lugosi vehicle, Man Made Monster emerged on screen as a tour de force for Lon Chaney Jr. (in his first horror-film starring role) and Lionel Atwill. Chaney plays Dynamo Dan the Electric Man, a sideshow performer whose talent for absorbing mass quantities of electricity enables him to emerge virtually unscathed when a bus crashes into a pylon. Dan recuperates in the home of Dr. Rigas (Lionel Atwill), a demented scientist ("Mad? Of course I'm mad!") who hopes to create a race of electric-powered supermen. Using Dan as his unwitting guinea pig, Rigas zaps the poor man's energy even as he injects more and more electricity into his system. Suspecting something is amiss when rabbits and goldfish die suddenly at his touch, Dan nonetheless continues to submit to Rigas' treatment. When the doctor's colleague Lawrence (Samuel S. Hinds) figures out what's going on, he confronts Rigas with a "You're mad! I'm going to notify the police!"-whereupon Rigas picks up his cue by ordering the now-zombiefied Dan to kill Lawrence and confess to the murder. The unfortunate fellow is convicted and sentenced to the electric chair, much to the delight of Rigas, who can now put his theories to the ultimate test. Surviving the death-house jolt, Dan absorbs the entire electrical current and becomes a walking, glowing human power plant, killing the warden and the guards and escaping into the countryside. Slowly dying, Dan finally regains a shred of his humanity by rescuing heroine June Lawrence (Anne Nagel) from the clutches of Regas, then puts a permanent end to the mad doctor's evil designs before spectacularly expiring himself. A prime example of Universal's B-picture unit at its peak, Man Made Monster is among the finest of the studio's second-echelon horror product. The film was re-released in the late 1940s under the timely cognomen The Atomic Monster. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Edith Fellows and Billy Lee, two of Hollywood's most talented second-echelon child stars, are teamed in the Columbia tearjerker Nobody's Children. The film was inspired by Walter White Jr.'s popular human-interest radio series, which ran from 1939 to 1941. The radio version of Nobody's Children was dedicated to finding loving homes for the orphaned and abandoned kids under the care of the Children's Home Society of Los Angeles. White himself appears in the film in the "framing" scenes, ostensibly taking place during one of his broadcasts. The story proper deals with the plight of orphaned siblings Pat (Fellows) and Tommy (Lee), whose efforts at finding adoptive parents have been thwarted by the fact that Pat is crippled. Many adults have offered to adopt Tommy alone, but he loyally refuses to be separated from his sister?and the plot wends its sentimental way from there. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

From the same folks who brought us My Son is a Criminal comes the near-lookalike property My Son is Guilty. Veteran police patrolman Tim Kelly (Harry Carey) despairs over the antics of his ne'er-do-well son Ritzy (Bruce Cabot), who prefers to live life in the fast lane. Released from prison after getting mixed up with mob activities, Ritzy promises his dad that he'll try to reform, but before long he's back with a bad crowd, compounding his misdeeds by plotting the demise of his own father. Meanwhile, Ritzy's sweetheart Julia Allen (Jacqueline Wells) gives up on the lad entirely, preferring a much safer relationship with young author Barney (Glenn Ford, in one of his first major roles). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

As indicated by the title, 20 Mule Team is all about pioneering borax miners in territorial Arizona. Wallace Beery goes through his usual paces as Skinner Bill Bragg, a fugitive from justice who forms an uneasy alliance with slick outlaw Stag Roper (Douglas Fowley). The two scoundrels plot to jump a valuable borax claim in Death Valley, but Bragg changes his minds when Roper begins to have unsavory designs on virginal heroine Jean Johnson (Anne Baxter, in her film debut). Ever on the prowl for a new Wallace Beery-Marie Dressler screen team, MGM pairs up Beery with Marjorie Rambeau this time out, with mixed results. 20 Mule Team was originally released in Sepiatone, a tinting process MGM had previously utilized in the "Kansas" scenes of The Wizard of Oz. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Despite its tantalizing title, Wall Street Cowboy must rank as one of the lesser Roy Rogers films. The story is set in motion by a crooked cartel of stock marketeers who hope to swindle Rogers out of his ranch. It seems that his property is rich with the valuable mineral molybdenum, which the villains want to use for their steel-mining activities. Unable to pay his mortgage thanks to the chicanery of fiancier Niles (Ivan Miller), Roy must rely on the help of an old enemy-turned-friend named Hammond (Pierre Watkin). With a plot that seems more suitable to Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas than Roy Rogers, Wall Street Cowboy is a major disappointment when compared to the star's promising earlier efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Through a miscarriage of justice, John Ingram (Edward G. Robinson) is convicted of a crime he did not commit and sentenced to a long stretch on a chain gang in the deep South. In time, Ingram flees to Oklahoma, where he makes a living fighting oil fires under an assumed name. Several years later, he has a successful business, a loving wife (Ruth Hussey), and a child. But he still lives in fear that his secret will be revealed, and one day he's visited by William Ramey (Gene Lockhart). Ramey admits that he committed the crime for which Ingram was convicted; he proposes that they meet with the authorities together, and Ramey will sign a confession that will clear Ingram's name. But Ramey instead double-crosses Ingram, putting him back on the chain gang while Ramey lays claim to his business. Before long, Ingram learns that his wife and child are nearly broke thanks to Ramey's gutting of his once-thriving business, and he decides that he must once again escape if he is to protect the safety of his family. Blackmail marked one of Edward G. Robinson's first "good guy" roles after making his name in a series of gangster epics; a year later, he would be starring in prestigious biopics, such as Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet and A Dispatch From Reuters. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this espionage drama, an inventor creates a way to send television broadcasts across the country and finds himself pursued by international spies. Eventually the enemy succeeds in stealing the plans. But in the end, he gets it back and even falls in love with his former partner's daughter, with whom, thanks to his new television, he has a long-distance romance. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

An enjoyably silly Gene Autry romp, this music Western had an early ecological message: Horse-power instead of tractors. Or at least tractors manufactured by greedy Thornton Farming Equipment. Having lost his horse-trading business to Thornton (Ivan Miller), Autry signs with Helen Valkis' local Grainville radio station. But unbeknownst to the singer, the program is sponsored by none other than Thornton, and when the farmers cannot live up to the greedy manufacturer's finance plan, they blame Autry. In typical Autry style, Autry not only bests Thornton on the business front, but also receives more attention at the local fair than the Thornton-sponsored Big City entertainment. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Hunted Men is part of Paramount's unofficial B-picture series based on the J. Edgar Hoover book Persons in Hiding. Lynne Overman stars as a middle-class family man whose even-keel lifestyle is shattered when he brings home an affable stranger (Lloyd Nolan) to dinner. The stranger turns out to be an escaped killer, who repays Overman's hospitality by holding his family prisoner. Both criminal and hostages tensely count the hours as the rest of Nolan's gang (including J. Carroll Naish and Patricia Morrison) formulates an escape plan. Hunted Men has earned a latter-day reputation for its accurate portrayal of a suburban household of the 1930s, and for its surprisingly sympathetic portrayal (without overtly pleading for sympathy) of head crook Lloyd Nolan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this saccharine Klondike adventure, a brave female reporter who has a rapport with wild animals heads north to cover a story. Included in her animal entourage are a pair of bear cubs, a talking rook, and a homeless collie. After she gets lost, a handsome guide shows up to lead her out of the wilderness. It is an arduous journey fraught with many natural dangers, and the travelers nearly die from hunger until another man shows up to save them. When he begins pursuing the reporter, the guide gets jealous and a terrible fight erupts. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi