Jackie Moran Movies

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

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

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

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, All Movie Guide

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

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, All Movie Guide

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

Like Captain Midnight before him, Hop Harrigan came to the serial screens courtesy of Columbia Pictures; and, also like the captain, Harrigan had appeared in both radio and the pages of comic strips before becoming a screen star in the guise of fresh-faced William Bakewell. But there the similarity ended; whereas Captain Midnight had been a uniformed super-crusader, Hop was merely an ex-serviceman, just like so many of his fans. Along with pudgy Tank Tinker (Sumner Getchell) and pretty Gail Nolan (Jennifer Holt), Hop attempts to rescue an eccentric inventor, Dr. Tobor (John Merton), from a gang headed by the mysterious Chief Pilot. As it turns out, Dr. Tobor is not quite sane and plans to destroy the world with his newest invention, and only Hop and his friends stand in the way. It might have taken them 14 chapters to get there, but in the 15th and final chapter, grandly entitled "The Fate of the World," Hop and company get rid of the insane professor once and for all. Leading lady Jennifer Holt, one of the prettiest B-film ingénues of the 1940s, was the daughter of action star Jack Holt. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Freddy Stewart and June Preisser, Monogram's answer to Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan, star in Junior Prom. The plot concerns a high-school election, with a snotty rich kid literally buying his way to the class presidency. The backers of hero Freddy Stewart garner votes by using music, specifically big-band numbers and dancing specialties. Guest stars include bandleaders Abe Lyman and Eddie Heywood, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson and the Airliners. Junior Prom represented one of producer Sam Katzman's final Monogram efforts before moving his base of operations to Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Let's Go Steady was Columbia's annual "audition" musical, spotlighting the studio's latest crop of young contractees. Cheated out of their bankroll by a phony music publisher, a group of talented youngsters come to New York, hoping to promote their songs with their own, self-stage musical revue. Trouble is, none of the big-time bandleaders want to risk utilizing unknowns. Thus, the kids persuade a GI band to showcase their tunes, thereby attracting big-time support from various Broadway bigwigs. Standing out among the youthful cast members are June Preisser, Arnold Stang, and a personable singer-drummer named Mel Torme. Screenwriter Erna Lazarus manages to work in a plug for Columbia's Cover Girl, while director Del Lord, a graduate of the studio's Three Stooges comedies, finds a spot for perennial Stooge supporting player Vernon Dent. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

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

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, All Movie Guide