Jackie Moran Movies

High School Hero is all about a high school hero (what else?), played by Monogram musical star Freddy Stewart. A student at Whitney High, Freddy agonizes when the Big Football Game approaches with the school's principal rival, who have emerged victorious in all previous gridiron clashes. Director Arthur Dreifuss makes things easy for the audience by dressing the "good" football players in white and the "bad" ones in black, which is perhaps the film's comic highlight. To amplify the budget, the film is rife with "product placement" advertising plugs, a practice that would reach its nirvana in 1949's Love Happy (and would be revived, with a vengeance, in the 1980s). In addition to Freddy Stewart's perennial leading lady June Preisser, High School Hero costars Noel Neill, later to achieve TV fame as Lois Lane on Superman. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jean Porter plays the title role in Betty Co-Ed--and never mind that her character name is Joanne Leeds! The plot gets under way when Joanne, a carnival hootchy-kootchy dancer, is accepted into a snobbish college sorority when it is assumed that she hails from a blueblooded Virginia family. Most of the film concerns Joanne's ongoing feud with sorority president Gloria Campbell (Shirley Mills). Blackballed when the truth comes out about her lineage, Joanne eventually convinces her sorority sisters that she's worthy of their friendship-and that they're worthy of hers. Musical comedy actress Jean Porter later retired from films upon her marriage to director Edward Dmytryk. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The fun in this musical comedy begins when a popular swing singer mysteriously vanishes and a group of prank-loving college students try to pass off a schoolmate, the crooner's exact double, as the missing singer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

There Goes Kelly is a followup of sorts to Monogram's 1943 comedy Here Comes Kelly, with Jackie Moran taking over for Eddie Quillan as the title character. In this one, the pugnacious Jimmy Kelly (Moran) is a page boy at a big-time radio station. When the station's star vocalist is murdered, suspicion immediately falls upon aspiring singer Anne (Wanda McKay). In love with the suspect, Jimmy and his fellow page Sammy (Sidney Miller) set about to nab the genuine culprit, much to the dismay of irascible detective Marty (Ralph Sanford). Just as Here Comes Kelly was a remake of He Couldn't Take It (1933), There Goes Kelly was likewise a remake, this time of the 1940 Frankie Darro-Mantan Moreland vehicle Up in the Air. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

David O. Selznick's first production since 1940's Rebecca, Since You Went Away, based on Margaret Buell Wilder's bestselling novel, is a long but rewarding paean to the World War 2 "home front". Claudette Colbert plays the wife of a businessman who, though well past draft age, volunteered to serve his country as an officer (though the husband is never seen, he is "played"-via a photograph-by Neil Hamilton). Fighting back her own fears and anxieties, Colbert does her best to maintain a normal, stable household for the sake of her growing daughters Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple. She is offered moral support by cynical-but-kindly boarder Monty Woolley, by maid Hattie McDaniel (who willing foregoes her salary "for the duration") and by Navy man and friend-of-the-family Joseph Cotten, whose relationship with Claudette remains staunchly platonic. The harsh realities of war hit home several times throughout the film, first when it seems as though Colbert's husband is missing in action, and later when Jennifer's young boyfriend, GI Robert Walker, is killed in combat. From the vantage point of the 1990s, it is easy to see why Since You Went Away scored with its wartime audiences. Though the leading characters are slightly more financially secure than most of the moviegoers of 1944, the various vignettes presented throughout-complaints about rationing and priorities, shoulder-to-shoulder sacrifices, the weekly escape to the local movie house, tender partings, joyous reunions, the returning wounded, the dreaded wire from the war department-all had the ring of truth and topicality. Even today, the film's emotional highlights, particularly the much-imitated farewell scene at the railroad station, are sufficient to bring tears to the eyes of the most jaded viewer. Enhancing the film's heartstring tugging tenfold is Max Steiner's Oscar-winning musical score. If you can remain objective while watching Since You Went Away (it isn't easy), see if you can spot Ruth Roman, Guy Madison and John Derek, making their screen debuts in microscopic roles ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A beautiful child (14-year-old Jane Powell in her feature film debut) star tires of life in the spotlight and so disguises herself and sneaks off to join a Civilian Conservation Corps camp to work with normal kids. It doesn't take her long to discover that being "normal" isn't easy as it looks. When a crop is in danger of being ruined because there are not enough people to harvest it, the girl employs some of her famous colleagues to lend a hand. Cameo appearances include W.C. Fields, Charley McCarthy and Edgar Bergen and the dancing Condos Brothers. Songs include: "Too Much in Love," "Here It Is Monday," "Delightfully Dangerous," "Hawaiian War Chant" and "Notre Dame." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this musical, the teenage daughter of a popular movie star tires of being ignored by her separated parents and decides to make it as a star on her own. She does. Songs include: "It Had to Be You," "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The Monogram publicity machine advertised Gang's All Here as a story of "Young Americans Fighting for Their Rights." Young driver Frankie (Frankie Darro) decides to take on a gang of truck hijackers single-handed, running into opposition from the crooked district manager behind the crime spree. Frankie is aided and abetted by undercover insurance investigator George (Keye Luke), boss' daughter Patsy (Marcia Mae Jones) and longtime pal Jefferson (Mantan Moreland). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though the peak productivity of Monogram's "rural romance" films was the mid-1930s, the studio continued to put together films like Tomboy well into the early 1940s. Marcia Mae Jones plays the title character, a rambunctious city girl named Pat. Sent to the country to temper her hoydenish behavior, Pat falls in love with farm boy Steve (Jackie Moran), who lives under the thumb of his tyrannical Uncle Matt (Grant Withers). The couple's budding romance is helped along by Kelly (Grant Withers), Pat's ne'er-do-well father. The film's best performance is delivered by Clara Blandick, the immortal "Auntie Em" in The Wizard of Oz. Tomboy was directed by Robert McGowan, formerly the guiding light of Hal Roach's "Our Gang" films. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This sequel to 1934's Anne of Green Gables stars Anne Shirley as Anne Shirley, the plucky Canadian orphan girl created by novelist Lucy Maude Montgomery. Now all grown up, Anne takes on the job of vice-principal of the only school in Windy Poplars Unfortunately, she must contend with the opposition of the community's most powerful and contentious family, the much-hated Pringles. Helping matters a bit is the fact that handsome Tony Pringle (James Ellison) falls in love with Anne. It takes a near-tragedy to wash away all misunderstandings, prejudices and hypocricies and restore happiness and stability to the community. Based on L. M. Montgomery's novel Anne of Windy Willows, Anne of Windy Poplars was remade for Canadian television in 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Gone With the Wind boils down to a story about a spoiled Southern girl's hopeless love for a married man. Producer David O. Selznick managed to expand this concept, and Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel, into nearly four hours' worth of screen time, on a then-astronomical 3.7-million-dollar budget, creating what would become one of the most beloved movies of all time. Gone With the Wind opens in April of 1861, at the palatial Southern estate of Tara, where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) hears that her casual beau Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) plans to marry "mealy mouthed" Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). Despite warnings from her father (Thomas Mitchell) and her faithful servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett intends to throw herself at Ashley at an upcoming barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Alone with Ashley, she goes into a fit of histrionics, all of which is witnessed by roguish Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the black sheep of a wealthy Charleston family, who is instantly fascinated by the feisty, thoroughly self-centered Scarlett: "We're bad lots, both of us." The movie's famous action continues from the burning of Atlanta (actually the destruction of a huge wall left over from King Kong) through the now-classic closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Holding its own against stiff competition (many consider 1939 to be the greatest year of the classical Hollywood studios), Gone With the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar). The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be "The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this campus drama, an orphan wins a cadet scholarship to the Culver military academy. He is a cocky fellow, and is very proud that his late father was a decorated war hero who died in battle. His arrogance and unwillingness to comply with the academy's strict rules soon gets him into hot water. Fortunately, the lad's level-headed roommate helps him settle down and toe the line. Later the young man learns that his dad is still alive and is recovering from the trauma of battle in a local VA hospital. Time passes and the young man grows up to be a fine cadet. Meanwhile, his father heals and becomes the courageous hero he once was. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based on the character created by sci-fi writer, Phil Nolan, this feature has the space-age hero facing a number of adventures and villains when he finds himself in the future. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi