Ralph Morgan Movies

Magician-turned-actor John Calvert, previously the suave leading man of Film Classics' "Falcon" series, is a curious choice to star in the rough-and-tumble western Gold Fever. John Bonar (Calvert) and grizzled old prospector Nugget Jack (Ralph Morgan) strike it rich, whereupon they are besieged by Bill Johnson's (Gene Roth) outlaw gang. Heavily outnumbered, our heroes are forced to rely on brain rather than brawn. In this respect, they have a distinct advantage over the dimwitted crooks (especially perennial pea-brain Tom Kennedy). Ann Cornell, who was Mrs. John Calvert when Gold Fever was filmed, is on hand as the nominal but barely relevant heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Winterset is the classic play featured in this recording of a live television production. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

As indicated by its title, Blue Grass of Kentucky is a horse-racing opus. Bill Williams plays Lin McIvor, the owner of a horse named Blue Grass. He doesn't know it, but the horse was sired by a Kentucky Derby winner, owned by Armistead (Russell Hicks). The aristocratic Armistead had previously refused to mate his prize horse with McIvor's best mare, but the union was orchestrated in secret by Armistead's sympathetic daughter Pat (Jane Nigh). Highlighted by actual scenes from the annual Derby at Churchill Downs, Blue Grass of Kentucky was pleasingly lensed in Cinecolor. The film is ample proof that prolific "B"-flick director William "One Take" Beaudine was capable of turning out first-rate work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Universal went briefly out of the "B" horror film business in 1946, the studio sold two of its productions to other studios. The Brute Man went to PRC, while The Creeper was shipped off to 20th Century-Fox, where it lay on the shelf for nearly two years before its release. Dr. Morgan (Onslow Stevens) and Dr. Cavigny (Ralph Morgan) star as a brace of scientists who return from the West Indies with a potent, phosphorescent serum that allegedly changes human beings into cats. Though the medical value of this serum is rather doubtful, that doesn't stop Morgan from experimenting on human guinea pigs-nor from killing Cavigney when the latter disapproves. All sorts of mayhem transpires before the clawed, meowing "Creeper" is halted in his paw-tracks. Though billed first, Eduardo Ciannelli has little to do in his red-herring role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dissatisfied with his postwar Republic westerns (not to mention his comparatively low salary), Gene Autry switched his base of operations to Columbia in 1947, where he wore two hats as both star and producer. Autry's first Columbia effort, The Last Round-Up, is a vast improvement over the Republics that preceded it. The story finds Autry arranging for an impoverished Indian tribe to move from their desolate reservation to a more fertile and attractive location. Understandably, the Indians doubt Autry's motives, having been previously burned by such usurping crooks as Mr. Mason (Ralph Morgan) and his son Matt (Mark Daniels). Once Autry has convinced the Indians that he's on their side, he must contend with the Masons' murderous minions. In the course of events, Gene Autry sings five songs, several of them directed to pert leading lady Jean Heather. Featured among the Indian characters is little Bobby Blake, a recent graduate of Republic's "Red Ryder" series. Some of the action highlights in The Last Round-Up were lifted from the 1940 Columbia "A" western Arizona. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title tells all in the Monogram "expose" Black Market Babies. Alcoholic physician Dr. Jordan (Ralph Morgan) joins forces with gangster Eddie Condon (Kane Richmond) and shyster lawyer Anthony Marco (George Meeker) in a crooked adoption racket. Coercing unwed mothers to give up their babies for adoption, the unholy trio operates a supposedly philanthropic baby farm which caters to childless couples who have been frustrated by the legal adoption system. The villains rake in oodles and oodles of cash before the authorities close in. But once the jig is up, the crooks fall out, resulting in murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Columbia Pictures, as usual, cast a lesser-known player -- in this case the handsome but rather stolid Robert Lowery -- in the starring role of The Monster and the Ape, a rough-and-tumble serial released in 15 chapters. Lowery played Ken Morgan, an agent for a company manufacturing the newly invented Metalogen, a metal that can render a robot invincible. An evil professor (the wonderfully hammy Ralph Morgan, brother of Frank) attempts to steal the metal, using a trained gorilla as his weapon. Not one of the studio's better chapterplays -- to put it mildly -- The Monster and the Ape stayed mercifully forgotten until reappearing on early-morning television in the late '60s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Doctor Charles Korvin walks out on his musician wife Merle Oberon when he suspects her of infidelity. Twelve years later their paths cross again; Oberon is now saddled with an abusive husband. Possessed of a protective instinct that he hadn't evinced in the first part of the film, Korvin rescues his ex-wife from her miserable marriage, and the two fall in love all over again. Based on a play by Luigi Pirandello (no, it wasn't called Two Characters in Search of a Movie, This Love is Ours is worth watching only when supporting player Claude Rains is on the scene. The 1956 remake Never Say Goodbye was no improvement, not even with Rock Hudson taking over from the stolid Charles Korvin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical, two young people inherit their foster father's nightclub. The joint teeters on the brink of bankruptcy until they bring in exciting jazz music and entertaining acts ranging from comedy to cartoonists. Songs include: "Shoo-Shoo Baby," "The Music Goes 'Round and Around," "Roundabout Way," "Bullfrog Jump," "How Could You Do That to Me," "The King Was Doing the Rhumba," "Trying to Forget" and "Can't Take the Place of You." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The White Cliffs of Dover is one of those overlong MGM wartime films that everyone seems to have seen a part of, but no one can remember the film as a sum total. Based on a poem by Alice Duer Miller, the story chronicles the trials and tribulations of one courageous woman through two world wars. Irene Dunne plays an American girl who, in 1914, falls in love with titled Englishman Alan Marshal. At the end of World War 1 in 1918, it is painfully clear that Marshal will not be returning from the battlefields. Remaining loyal to her husband, Irene vows to raise their child in England. Played by Roddy McDowell in his early scenes, Irene's son grows up to be Peter Lawford. At the outbreak of World War 2, Irene despairs at the thought of losing another loved one, but Lawford convinces her that his dad would have wanted him to answer his country's call to the colors. While working as a Red Cross volunteer, Irene finds that she must tend her own mortally wounded son. Unable to save his life, she is grief-stricken, but is gratified with the notion that neither her husband nor her boy have died in vain. Like many films of its ilk and era, White Cliffs of Dover struck a responsive chord with filmgoers, to the tune of a $4 million profit. Watch for a touching scene between Roddy McDowell and 12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor; 19 years later, lifelong friends Roddy and Liz would be playing mortal enemies in Cleopatra (1963). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The disfiguring disease of acromegaly-which grotesquely extends the bones and distorts one's facial features-was the "gimmick" in the PRC horror opus The Monster Maker. J. Carroll Naish stars as Markoff, a mad doctor who has no qualms about experimenting on human beings. Markoff's unwitting victim is famed concert pianist Lawrence (Ralph Morgan), who is injected with the doctor's acromegaly-inducing serum. It is Markoff's intention to extort a great deal of money from Lawrence before providing an antidote-and also to win the hand of Lawrence's pretty daughter Patricia (Wanda McKay). Though the film is as lumpy and unconvincing as Lawrence's rubbery facial makeup, the flawless performances of those old barnstormers J. Carroll Naish and Ralph Morgan carry the day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" thrillers, Weird Woman stars Lon Chaney Jr. as Norman Reed, a college professor worried about the sanity of his new bride, Paula (Anne Gwynne), who was raised in Hawaii with all manners of superstitions, including voodoo. Jealous of Paula, Norman's former girlfriend, librarian Ilona Carr (Evelyn Ankers), does what she can to ruin the marriage, including suggesting to fellow professor Millard Sawtelle (Ralph Morgan) that Norman is about to expose him as a fraud, and helping moonstruck college girl Margaret Mercer (Lois Collier) obtain a job as Norman's assistant. Margaret's advances quickly become grating to Norman, who summarily throws the girl out of his office, and Sawtelle commits suicide rather than face disgrace. Mrs. Sawtelle (Elizabeth Russell) blames her husband's death on Paula's supposed witchcraft and Margaret's boyfriend, David (Phil Brown), physically attacks Norman. The boy is killed in the ensuing struggle and Norman begins to question his own sanity. Until, that is, he finally puts two and two together and sets a trap for Ilona. Based on the 1943 novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber Jr., Weird Woman was remade twice, as Burn, Witch, Burn (1962) starring Janet Blair and Witches' Brew starring Lana Turner. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide