Jackie Moran Movies
After playing a minor role in 1936's Valiant is the Word for Carrie, gangling juvenile actor Jackie Moran was "discovered" by producer David O. Selznick. Put under contract by Selznick, Moran landed the prize role of Huckleberry Finn in 1938's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. His subsequent Selznick films included Gone with the Wind (1939, as Phil Meade) and Since You Went Away (1944, as Johnny Mahoney). During this period, Jackie was frequently loaned out to other studios: most of his "outside" projects were routine, with the exception of the 1939 Universal serial Buck Rogers. Jackie Moran retired from acting in 1947. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1936
When widower Stephen Blake (Melvyn Douglas) and divorcee Edith Farnham (Mary Astor) are the only guests at a snowed-in mountain resort, sports director Snirley (Romaine Callender) and hostess Alma Peabody (Dorothy Stickney) try to promote a romance between Stephen and Edith. However, Stephen's son Tommy (Jackie Moran) and Edith's daughter Brenda (Edith Fellows) think this is a rotten idea and do what they can to prevent them from getting together. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvyn Douglas, Mary Astor, (more)
- 1936
Gladys George, a superlative actress often wasted in secondary roles, carries her starring assignment in Valiant is the Word for Carrie with singular brilliance. George plays the town trollop, who for the love of two orphaned children sets up a successful dry-cleaning business. Her past comes back to haunt her, but she perseveres, giving up all thoughts of personal happiness to provide a decent upbringing for her adopted family. A real four-hanky film, Valiant is the Word for Carrie might never have been made if it hadn't been for Mae West. Paramount had signed Gladys George to star in a filmization of her stage hit Personal Appearance, but this property was deflected to Ms. West and retitled Go West, Young Man. As compensation, Gladys George was offered Carrie--and she certainly made the most of this rebound opportunity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gladys George, Arline Judge, (more)
- 1936
In this four-hanky drama, a young wife is desperate to save her foundering marriage and so takes in two adorable foundlings, a boy and his paralyzed sister. The woman arranges for the poor little girl to have an operation. At first, the woman only does this to sway the judge in her favor, but in time, she comes to truly love the kids. In the end, she keeps them both and her husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wynne Gibson, Warren Hull, (more)
- 1937
In this tearjerker, a 10-year old orphan and his crippled sister struggle to survive. The newsboy is devoted to his little sister and will do anything to help her. After their parents die, a local woman, embroiled in a messy divorce, endeavors to help them by taking them in. She also wants to help herself by proving to the courts that she is a good person. She is surprised to find herself falling for the children. They, in turn, bond with her too. When the husband sees how good his wife is with the two, he has a change of heart and stops the divorce. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1937
Warren William stars as Dr. Phillip Wendel Jones, a doctor whose patient dies under questionable circumstances. He is acquitted of murder, but is discredited in the eyes of his community. Dr. Jones settles in another town under an assumed name, where he sets up practice and falls in love with Margaret Stevens (Karen Morley). When his past is revealed, Dr. Jones is rescued from a angry mob by cantankerous old lawyer Anthony Abbott (Lewis Stone). The Outcast is a minor entry given major treatment through the ever-fascinating direction of Robert Florey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren William, Karen Morley, (more)
- 1938
The 1938 version of Adventures of Tom Sawyer appears to be producer David O. Selznick's dry run for Gone with the Wind, what with its similarities in period, costumes, color scheme and production design (both films shared the services of the great Hollywood art director William Cameron Menzies). Selected from hundreds of applicants (a precursor to Selznick's upcoming search for Wind's Scarlet O'Hara), Tommy Kelly is visually perfect as Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer though his acting varies from scene to scene. Better cast is Jackie Moran as the laconic, pipe-smoking Huck Finn (Moran would show up in Wind as Dr. Meade's son). Never forcing its pace, the film manages to include most of Twain's classic sequences, including the fence-whitewashing episode, Tom's rescue of Becky Thatcher (Anne Gillis) from the wrath of their schoolmaster (Olin Howlin), Tom and Huck's "death and resurrection" after the boys briefly skipped town for an idyll on a remote island, the murder trial of town drunk Muff Potter (Walter Brennan) and ultimately unmasking of the vicious Injun Joe (Victor Jory) as the real killer, and of course the chilling climax in the cave, wherein Tom protects Becky from the fugitive Injun Joe. Originally released at 93 minutes, Adventures of Tom Sawyer was trimmed to 77 minutes for a 1959 reissue; it has since been restored to its full length on videotape. In 1960, Tom Sawyer was syndicated to television by Selznick, with accompanying commentary by the film's now-grown-up "Becky Thatcher", Anne Gillis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Kelly, Jackie Moran, (more)
- 1938
Katharine Hepburn's association with RKO Radio Pictures came to an abrupt end when she refused to star in the studio's adaptation of Kate Douglas Wiggins' sentimental novel Mother Carey's Chickens. Hepburn was replaced by musical-comedy favorite Ruby Keeler, who though woefully miscast did her best to please. The story proper gets under way when Mr. Carey (Ralph Morgan) is killed in the Spanish American War, leaving his wife (Fay Bainter), his daughters Kitty (Keeler) and Nancy (Anne Shirley) and his young son Peter (Donnie Dunigan) to fend for themselves without a penny to their name. When Mrs. Carey is forced to put up the family's new house for sale, her daughters try to scare off potential buyers by claiming that the domicile is haunted. Thankfully, the Careys manage to find a source of income that will enable them to remain in their home, "ghosts" and all. Even more thankfully, the daughters find suitable mates in the form of Ralph (James Ellison) and Tom (Frank Albertson). With so much sugary sweetness, Walter Brennan's portrayal of the family's curmudgeonly benefactor comes as a decided relief. The film's sentimental theme music was later heard during the newsreel sequence of Citizen Kane, where it fit surprisingly well. Mother Carey's Chickens was remade by Disney as Summer Magic in 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Shirley, Ruby Keeler, (more)
- 1938
In this musical comedy, a girl with a lively imagination gets in hot water when she tries to make her tall tales real. Gloria Harkinson (Deanna Durbin) is the teenage daughter of Gwen Taylor (Gail Patrick), a well-known Hollywood actress who has shipped Gloria off to a boarding school in Switzerland to keep the girl out of the public eye, partly for her well being, and party because Gwen would prefer people not to know that she's old enough to have a teenage daughter. Gloria amuses herself and earns the awestruck admiration of her schoolmates when she begins spinning increasingly remarkable tales about the globe-trotting adventures of her millionaire father. However, in reality Gloria has no father, and after some time, her friends become skeptical and demand some sort of physical evidence that he exists. Gloria makes the acquaintance of Richard Todd (Herbert Marshall), a British composer, and she asks him if he wouldn't mind posing as her dad so that her friends could meet the man they've heard so much about. Richard agrees, but the scheme doesn't go quite as Gloria had hoped. Mad About Music was later remade as The Toy Tiger (1956), with "Gloria" turned into a young boy named Timmie, and the songs removed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deanna Durbin, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1938
Arson Gang Busters was a slick little Republic programmer highlighted by several well-staged miniature sequences, courtesy of the talented Lydecker Brothers. Robert Livingston plays a firefighter who feels that the police aren't moving fast enough in tracking down an arson ring. Livingston decides to do a little sleuthing himself, ultimately going undercover and joining the crooks. It turns out that the culprits are insurance underwriters, seeking a quick turnover by creating their own "accidents". The 65-minute Arson Gang Busters was later reissued to television as the 54-minute Arson Racket Squad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Rosalind Keith, (more)
- 1938
Barefoot Boy is a throwback to the sort of bucolic family fare in which Monogram Pictures specialized in the early 1930s. Loosely inspired by the John Greenleaf Whittier poem of the same name, the film stars Jackie Moran as Billy Whittaker, a country lad whose idyllic lifestyle is thrown into confusion upon the arrival of arrogant reform-school graduate Kenneth Hale (Bradley Metcalf). Not only does Kenneth tear down everything that Billy holds dear, but he also has the audacity to make a play for Billy's sweetheart Pige Blaine (Marcia Mae Jones). Eventually Kenneth reforms his ways and becomes a "regular guy", but not without a bit of bare-knuckle persuasion from Billy and a brief escapade involving a gang of out-of-town bond swindlers. The film was directed by Karl Brown, a former cinematographer with an unerring eye for gorgeous exterior shots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Moran, Marcia Mae Jones, (more)
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, (more)
After starring in two successful serials as All-American Boy in Outer Space Flash Gordon, Larry "Buster" Crabbe found himself visiting very familiar territory in 1939's Buck Rogers, a 12-episode serial in which he played an young adventurer sent 500 years into the future. Buck Rogers (Crabbe), his friend and sidekick Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran), and Buck's sweetheart, Wilma Deering (Constance Moore), are piloting a new and experimental airship when bad weather sends them crashing into the Arctic wastes. A newly developed drug called Nirvano is supposed to keep this crew in suspended animation until help arrives; however, five centuries pass before Buck, Buddy, and Wilma are found by scientists working for Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw). Huer is an idealist who is attempting overthrow fearsome ruler Killer Kane (Anthony Warde), who rules the Earth with an iron fist. Buck and his pals throw in their lot with Huer and his staff, and attempt to find allies on Saturn; however, Buck is unaware that Saturn has already fallen to the minions of Kane. Originally released as a serial, Buck Rogers was later re-edited into two different feature-length condensations, Planet Outlaws and Destination Saturn. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Jackie Moran, (more)
- 1939
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Cooper, Freddie Bartholomew, (more)
- 1939
In this family-style comedy, the trouble begins when a good father loses his job at the local newspaper when the publication is taken over by a major syndicate. To support his brood, he becomes a photographer. Meanwhile his son pursues his own hobby as a ham radio operator. When an enormous forest fire erupts nearby, both father and son find their occupations coming in mighty handy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Rich, Henry O'Neill, (more)
- 1939
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, All Movie Guide
As a direct result with his excellent showing as warm-hearted Dr. Dafoe in the Dionne Quintuplets films, Jean Hersholt was awarded a not dissimilar radio series about a kindly general practioner named Dr. Christian. Two years after the debut of the Dr. Christian radio series, RKO Radio launched a group of films based on the property, again with Hersholt in the lead. First of the series was Meet Dr. Christian, in which the viewer was introduced to the titular doctor, his fussbudget housekeeper Mrs. Hastings (Maude Eburne), his favorite nurse Judy Price (Dorothy Lovett), Judy's pharmacist boyfriend Roy Davis (Robert Baldwin), and grouchy but lovable town grocer George Browning (Edgar Kennedy). Set in the town of River's End, the story concerns the efforts made by the pompous mayor to remove Dr. Christian from his position as the town's health officer and replace him with a more "modern" medico. Ultimately, Christian proves his worth by performing a delicate operation without the benefit of the proper instruments. As a result, he not only keeps his job but is able to convince the town council to erect a new hospital. The overwhelmingly positive response to Meet Dr. Christian encouraged RKO to continue the series, ultimate toting up six profitable entries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Hersholt, Dorothy Lovett, (more)
- 1940
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcia Mae Jones, Jackie Moran, (more)
In the late 1930s-early 1940s, Monogram Pictures hoped to create a popular screen team in the form of teenaged thespians Jackie Moran (he was Huck Finn in Selznick's 1938 version of Tom Sawyer) and Marcia Mae Jones (a former child star who'd been in pictures since the silent days). In The Haunted House, Jackie plays a newsboy, while Marcia is cast as the niece of the paper's publisher. There's a killer loose in town, and both police and reporters are baffled. Jackie and Marcia join forces to catch the killer themselves so as to clear their mutual friend of a murder charge. The climax takes place in the haunted house of the title, with thrills and chills abounding. The high slapstick content in The Haunted House can be attributed to screenwriter Monty Collins, a veteran of the Columbia Pictures comedy short subjects unit. The director is Robert McGowan, formerly the guiding hand behind Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies of the 1920s and 1930s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Moran, Marcia Mae Jones, (more)
- 1940
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Shirley, James Ellison, (more)
- 1940
Longtime "Our Gang" director Robert McGowan wielded the megaphone for the laid-back Monogram drama Old Swimming Hole. Jackie Moran and Marcia Mae Jones, whom the studio was hoping to develop into a screen team, star as Chris and Betty, bucolic sweethearts who hope to play matchmaker for Chris' mother (Leatrice Joy) and Betty's father (Charles Brown). Another plotline concerns Chris' hopes of attending medical school, which may not happen due to his family's lack of funds. After taking it easy for several reels, the film wraps up with an exciting climax wherein one of the main characters is rescued from drowning. Old Swimming Hole was based on a story by Dorothy Davenport Reid, widow of silent-screen favorite Wallace Reid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Moran, Marcia Mae Jones, (more)
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frankie Darro, Marcia Mae Jones, (more)
In this collegiate drama, a team of college oarsmen promise their gals that they will win the big race. Unfortunately, it looks as if their victory will go to another team after their strongest rower is drafted. The sly, enterprising lads end up replacing him with a truck driver on the sly. Songs include "Look What You've Done to Me", "Sweet 16", and "Let's Do a Little Dreaming". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frankie Darro, Marcia Mae Jones, (more)
- 1943
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, All Movie Guide
- 1943
Henry's friends think he's a coward because he refuses to fight a local bully, but his reason for refusing had more to do with wanting to impress Elise, the daughter of the chemistry teacher. While in her father's lab, Elise tells Henry he misunderstood her, and points out how brave her own father is: he uses himself as a guinea pig in experiments. As Henry is holding a test tube containing his latest experimental formula, a flash of lightning scares him and he reflexively swallows the formula. Henry starts for home, but the drug starts taking affect and he wanders into Kenniston manor, a supposedly haunted house, before going home and passing out. When he awakens the next day, he has an expensive ring in his hand. He soon learns that Mr. Quid, a teacher, and Mr. Bradley, the school principal, had been in the manor at the same time he was. He also learns that Bradley has disappeared, as has the famous Kenniston ring, and that Quid has been charged in connection with these events. Afraid that, under the influence of the drug, he is responsible for Bradley's disappearance, Henry and his friends set out to discover what really happened in the haunted house. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Lydon, Charles Smith, (more)
- 1944
In this romance, a GI falls in love with his pen-pal. Believing her to be a wealthy, beautiful girl, he goes to see her after the war. Unbeknownst to him, the girl is actually impoverished and wheelchair bound. Her two sisters work as char women and barely make enough to live on. When the soldier shows up, the girls trade identities and pretend to be wealthy. Even though he doesn't know about the ruse, he still ends up falling for the girl in the chair and after learning the truth stands steadfastly behind her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Lee, Ruth Terry, (more)
