Jay Morley Movies

Humphrey Bogart plays Martin Ferguson, a prosecutor about to put Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane), the head of a murder-for-hire ring, on trial. But the night before the trial, his key witness, Joe Rico (Ted de Corsia), dies in a fall out of the window of the room in which he's been guarded, part of an abortive escape attempt to keep from testifying. His case in shambles, Ferguson and detective Captain Nelson (Roy Roberts) try to piece the entire four-year investigation back together from square one, trying to find something that might give them another way to prosecute Mendoza. The main body of the movie is told in flashback, starting when a small-time hood named Duke Malloy (Michael Tolan, then billed as Lawrence Tolan) walks into a police station to turn himself in for killing his girlfriend -- and says that someone made him kill her. He babbles to the bewildered detectives about "hits" and "contracts" and men nicknamed Philadelphia, Big Babe, and Smiley. The body isn't found, but they arrest Malloy, who hangs himself in his cell. That dead end leads, almost by accident, to Philadelphia Tom Zaca (Jack Lambert), an asylum inmate who has to be put under sedation at the mention of Malloy's name. They find another suspect's body burning in his building's incinerator, and then Big Babe Lazick (Zero Mostel), a two-bit hood, hiding in a church in mortal fear of his life. He begins weaving a tale of a murder-by-contract ring and its head operator, Joe Rico, of a murder contract that Duke Malloy never filled on a girl who had to change her name, of mistaken identity and the murder of the girl's cab-driver father, and the connection between that and a murder that they both witnessed eight years earlier. In the midst of all of those interlocking stories (spread across ten years), there's something Ferguson missed -- when he had Rico to testify -- that he has to sort out from the reams of testimony and evidence, and he has to figure it out before Mendoza does, or lose the last witness he has. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard ranks among the most scathing satires of Hollywood and the cruel fickleness of movie fandom. The story begins at the end as the body of Joe Gillis (William Holden) is fished out of a Hollywood swimming pool. From The Great Beyond, Joe details the circumstances of his untimely demise (originally, the film contained a lengthy prologue wherein the late Mr. Gillis told his tale to his fellow corpses in the city morgue, but this elicited such laughter during the preview that Wilder changed it). Hotly pursued by repo men, impoverished, indebted "boy wonder" screenwriter Gillis ducks into the garage of an apparently abandoned Sunset Boulevard mansion. Wandering into the spooky place, Joe encounters its owner, imperious silent star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Upon learning Joe's profession, Norma inveigles him into helping her with a comeback script that she's been working on for years. Joe realizes that the script is hopeless, but the money is good and he has nowhere else to go. Soon the cynical and opportunistic Joe becomes Norma's kept man. While they continue collaborating, Norma's loyal and protective chauffeur Max Von Mayerling (played by legendary filmmaker Erich von Stroheim) contemptuously watches from a distance. More melodramatic than funny, the screenplay by Wilder and Charles Brackett began life as a comedy about a has-been silent movie actress and the ambitious screenwriter who leeches off her. (Wilder originally offered the film to Mae West, Mary Pickford and Pola Negri. Montgomery Clift was the first choice for the part of opportunistic screenwriter Joe Gillis, but he refused, citing as "disgusting" the notion of a 25-year-old man being kept by a 50-year-old woman.) Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running musical version has served as a tour-de-force for contemporary actresses ranging from Glenn Close to Betty Buckley to Diahann Carroll. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The son of productive western director Robert North Bradbury, Bob Steele became FBO's final western hero. Here, he is a wealthy scion who toughens up in a rough-and-tumble lumber camp when he is forced to defend Phil Dunning (Lafe McKee) and his daughter (Thelma Daniels) from the brutal George Hobbs (Tom Lingham). Steele actually didn't really come into his own until sound but then enjoyed a long career as one of Hollywood's toughest western stars which lasted well into the television era.. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Attempting to warn an old prospector (Tom Lingham) and his daughter (Marjorie King) of impending danger from a notorious outlaw (William Norton Bailey), diminutive but tough western hero Bob Steele is himself mistaken for a bandit. The villain in this minor FBO outing was played by William Norton Bailey, a veteran supporting actor who earlier in the decade had made an unsuccessful bid for western stardom under the name Bill Bailey. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

As helmed by Robert North Bradbury, the silent feature With Sitting Bull at the Spirit Lake Massacre was produced in 1925 but went unreleased until 1927, and was then considered lost for another 80 years. It stars a Native American thespian, Chief Yowlachie, as the famous 19th Century Sioux Indian Sitting Bull. The tale unfolds in the 1860s or 1870s, just outside of Spirit Lake, Iowa, where the burgeoning Caucasian populace continues to claim one Native American settlement after another, indiscriminately. They err (and in a big way) by laying hands on a settlement long promised to the Sioux, located at Spirit Lake proper; this, in turn, rouses the ire of Sitting Bull and prompts him to forcibly reclaim the territory. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Juvenile Western star Buzz Barton, as Red Hepner, and grizzled sidekick Frank Rice once again took on the bad guys in this pleasant B-Western produced by FBO. Chased by a gang of rustlers, Red and Toby (Rice) hide in the ghost town of Indigo, where they meet Betty (Jeanne Morgan), another refugee. Betty's father has been killed and the family ranch has been taken over by the nasty Sullivan gang. At the roundup, Betty is kidnapped by Santa Fe Sullivan (Jay Morley), and it is up to Red, Toby, and Betty's foreman (Arnold Gray) to recover the girl. They do that by dressing up as ghosts and goblins, scaring the bejesus out of the bandits. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A vengeful Rajah (Hal Stevens) and his henchmen travel to America to kill Bob (Jay Morley) and Wolf Raymond (Dick La Reno) in this tepid melodrama. When Bob's sweetheart Grace (Ora Carew) is captured, she offers herself to the Rajah in exchange for Bob's life. Helen Lowell and James Lono also appear in this forgettable film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Ona Carew and Jay Morley co-star with Hal Stephens and Dick La Reno in this uninspired crime drama. A daughter tries to return some pearls her father has stolen from China. She depends on the Chinese hero who once saved her mother's life years before. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A man falls in love with the daughter of his father's murderer in this obscure silent Western. Searching for his father's killer, Joe Rance (Jay Morley), prospector Frank Magee (Frank Braidwood) falls for the villain's innocent daughter, June (Inez MacDonald). A couple of Mexican bandits (Jack Pierce and Joe Bonner) learn the whereabouts of the Magee mine and attempt to file a claim. Tracking the bandits, who earlier killed Rance, Frank discovers that he is too late, but happily, faithful June has filed ahead of the Mexicans. Frank Braidwood had appeared in supporting roles in Harry Carey Westerns before starring in this film but did very few films thereafter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Green Flame is the precious jewel which motivates the plot of this hectic mellerdrammer. J. Warren Kerrigan is his usual stalwart self as a private detective, employed by the Jewelers Protective Association. The PI goes undercover to retrieve the titular gem, which has been stolen by thieves and is now being passed like a football from one crook to another. When he isn't tracking down the villains, our hero is dallying with the luscious Fritzi Brunette. The Green Flame packs a lot of energy and excitement into its 60-minute running time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Louise Glaum, one of the more successful "vamp" rivals of Theda Bara, stars in An Alien Enemy. Set during World War I, the film features Glaum in the dual role of espionage agent Neysa von Igel and one "Frau Meyer." Though the film no longer exists, we can assume that Ms. Glaum does her usual, driving helpless men to their doom on behalf of Der Fatherland. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that "Frau Meyer" has a young and virginal daughter, played by Mary Jane Irving. Alien Enemy was directed by Wallace Worsely, the same journeyman who helmed Lon Chaney's Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide