Wayne Morris Movies
A friendly, open-faced, "all-American" type of hero, usually cast as a not-too-bright nice guy, he was born Bert de Wayne Morris. He trained at the Pasadena Playhouse, then debuted onscreen in 1936. His popularity increased after he played the title role in Kid Galahad (1937), and he costarred in numerous films before his career was interrupted by World War Two; as a Navy aviator he shot down seven Japanese aircraft in dogfights and sank an enemy gunboat and two destroyers. He was awarded four Distinguished Flying Crosses and two Air Medals. After returning to the screen he remained busy, appearing primarily in low-budget action films, but never regained his pre-war popularity. He died of a heart attack at 45. ~ All Movie Guide- 1950
Rod Cameron and Wayne Morris star as Civil War officers who become federal agents. The duo is sent west to investigate a series of stage hijackings. The criminals tend to bypass gold and valuables, and are seemingly interested only in the weapons carried on these coaches. It turns out that the hijackers are secret secessionists, hoping to achieve victory for the Southern cause. Stage to Tucson manages to pack a passel of thrills into its 82 minutes, compensating for the film's paucity of plot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Cameron, Wayne Morris, (more)
Johnny One-Eye was adapted from one of Damon Runyon's lesser-known stories. Pat O'Brien and Wayne Morris star as Martin Martin and Dane Cory respectively, former partners in crime who have long since split up. When a new district attorney puts the heat on, Cory, anxious to save his own hide, accuses Martin of an unsolved murder. Holed up in abandoned house, Martin is befriended by a little girl (Gayle Reed) and her dog. It so happens that the girl is the daughter of the crusading DA, and thereby hangs the rest of this tale. Produced by Benedict Bogeaus, Johnny One-Eye co-stars Bogeaus' wife Dolores Moran as a moll named Lily White. The film represented the last directorial assignment of Robert Florey, who retired shortly afterward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Wayne Morris, (more)
- 1950
Sierra Passage was the first of a brief series of program westerns produced by Monogram and starring Wayne Morris. The film casts Morris as Johnny Yorke, the sharpshooting star of a travelling show run by Sam (Roland Winters) and Thad (Lloyd Corrigan). Johnny hopes someday to run across the man (or men) responsible for the murders of his parents. Meanwhile, he romances the travelling troupe's songstress Ann (Lola Albright). Billy Gray, who later played Bud in TV's Father Knows Best, shows up as the younger Johnny Yorke. The ironic ending of Sierra Passage is but one of the film's many unexpected highlights. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Lola Albright, (more)
- 1949
House Across the Street was the second remake of the 1933 Paul Muni starrer Hi, Nellie. The original's satirical jibes against columnist Walter Winchell are downplayed in favor of undistilled concentration on the plot. Crusading newspaperman Dave Joslin (Wayne Morris) is kicked downstairs to the "Advice to the Lovelorn" column when he manages to offend a politically powerful racketeer. While pretending to stick to his job, Joslin conducts his own investigation to bring the villain to justice. Bruce Bennett, Warner Bros' busiest general-purpose actor (next to John Ridgely, that is!) brings subtlety and shading to the two-dimensional role of the racketeer. Likewise, Janis Paige avoids cliches as an intrepid girl reporter. One of the shortest top-of-the-bill Warners releases of 1949, House Across the Street clocks in at 69 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Janis Paige, (more)
- 1949
A Kiss in the Dark opens with a shot of Jane Wyman in a two-piece bathing suit. Alas, the dictates of cinematic construction demand that some sort of plot must follow this promising beginning. Wyman plays model Polly Haines, one of several mildly eccentric tenants in an apartment building owned by neurotic concert pianist Eric Phillips (David Niven). Requiring absolute peace and quiet, Eric intends to evict his tenants and thereby have the building all to himself. Soon, however, he is won over by the apartment dwellers, who in their own various ways are as high-strung as the musician. He also falls in love with Polly, just as expected. The supporting cast of Kiss in the Dark is peopled by such expert farceurs as Victor Moore, Broderick Crawford, Wayne Morris, Joseph Buloff, and Curt Bois. Making her final screen appearance is Maria Ouspenskaya as the building's resident "earth mother." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Niven, Jane Wyman, (more)
- 1949
John Lawrence (Ronald Reagan) is a returning GI. Mary McKinley (Patricia Neal in her film debut) is the girl he left behind. But their reunion will have to wait: John has returned with cockney war bride Lilly Herbish (Virginia Field) in tow. It seems that John married Lilly as a favor to get her into the U.S., intending to divorce her so that she can wed her true love, John's old pal Fred Taylor (Jack Carson). Alas, Taylor has gotten married himself in the interim--and now John is stuck with Lillie. Somewhat cleaned up from Norman Krasna stage original, John Loves Mary is otherwise faithful to its source, right down to the all-smiles curtain call at the end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Reagan, Jack Carson, (more)
- 1949
In pageant-like fashion, Warner Bros.' Task Force traces the history of the American aircraft carrier, as experienced by a group of naval air aces. Gary Cooper plays Admiral Jonathan L. Scott, who on the verge of retirement remembers his struggle to win recognition of the importance of aircraft carriers. The story begins in 1921, when Scott and his friend Pete Richard (Walter Brennan) were making dangerous landings on the primitive 65-foot carrier Langley. Scott's outspokenness wins him few friends among the brass, and after he publicly insults a Japanese diplomat on the subject of his beloved carriers, he is shunted away to a desk job. Naturally, once Pearl Harbor is attacked, Scott is vindicated. While his wife Mary (Jane Wyatt) waits patiently at home, Scott serves in World War II with distinction, guiding his carrier through a maze of Japanese artillery and kamikazes. Filmed in Technicolor, Task Force makes good use of actual color battle footage filmed by the Signal Corps. A brief clip from Task Force shows up in the drive-in movie scene in James Cagney's White Heat (1949). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Jane Wyatt, (more)
- 1949
The story of the outlaw Younger Brothers is duly Hollywoodized in this Technicolor western. Wayne Morris, Bruce Bennett, Robert Hutton and James Brown star as Cole, Jim, Johnny and Bob Younger, who as the film begins have just been released from jail. They try hard to follow the straight and narrow path, but when ex-Pinkerton man Ryckman (Fred Clark) launches a campaign of vengeance against the boys, out come the six-guns. One of Ryckman's schemes is to use female bandit Kate (Janis Paige) to lure the Youngers back into a life of crime. The villain very nearly succeeds, but the boys are saved by the beneficence of the screenwriters. Prominent in the cast of The Younger Brothers is Alan Hale, who showed up in practically every Warner Bros. western made between 1939 and 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Janis Paige, (more)
After turning down several other Hollywood producers, playwright William Saroyan sold the film rights of his whimsical Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Time of Your Life to James and William Cagney. The scene is a rundown San Francisco waterfront bar, populated by a group of lovable eccentrics. Joe (James Cagney), a philosophical souse, encourages all around him to indulge in their wildest dreams. Joe's pal Tom (Wayne Morris), a born patsy, runs errands for Joe, the only person who has ever shown him kindness. Kitty (Jeanne Cagney), a streetwalker, willingly allows Joe to sponge drinks off her in exchange for a few nice words. Harry (Paul Draper), an enthusiastic but hopelessly untalented dancer-comedian, is hired by bartender Nick (William Bendix) at Joe's urging. And Kit Carson (James Barton), an addled old man who lives in a dream world, is prodded by Joe into weaving his unlikely reminiscences of the Wild West. It is Kit Carson (James Barton) who solves everyone's problems by eliminating a particularly scabrous detective named Blick (Tom Powers). Time of Your Life was originally filmed with Saroyan's bizarrely humorous ending intact, but the preview audiences reacted negatively, forcing the Cagney brothers to shoot $300,000 worth of retakes. Though many historians have written off The Time of Your Life as a brave failure, the film was actually a hit, grossing $1.5 million. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlene Ammes, James Cagney, (more)
- 1948
In this low-budget French crime drama, the captain of a charter boat is forced to work for jewel smugglers who use him to shuttle them between France and Great Britain. The trouble begins when they frame him for murder. Later, they throw him overboard and he is forced to swim to shore. He makes it to a tiny French fishing town. As he recovers, he falls in love with a lovely young woman who helps him prove his innocence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1948
In this melodrama a boxer-turned-minister counsels a troubled young fighter who is framed for murder after refusing to take a dive in an upcoming bout. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Lois Maxwell, (more)
- 1947
Just as she had in High Sierra (1941), Ida Lupino enjoys a brief moment of bliss with a man on the run in this highly emotional drama from Warner Bros. She plays Libby, a mountain girl nearly deprived of speech due to her rather hostile environment in general and repressive home life in particular. A true innocent, she falls head-over-heels in love with Barry Burnett (Dane Clark), a member of a prison chain gang building a road through the wilderness. One of those convenient storms endemic to this kind of narrative allows Barry and Libby to escape into the hills but their blissful existence proves of short duration. Deep Valley was filmed on location at Big Sur and Big Bear, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ida Lupino, Dane Clark, (more)
- 1947
John Van Druten's Broadway hit The Voice of the Turtle was purchased by Warner Bros. as a vehicle for...well, in all likelihood, stars Eleanor Parker and Ronald Reagan were both second choices. Reagan is a returning GI who falls in love with Parker, an ingenuous young actress. Circumstances require the hero and heroine to share the same apartment, though the implications don't get much farther than the knowing wisecracks of supporting player Eve Arden. The original play's stars were Elliott Nugent and the matchless Margaret Sullavan, and both Reagan and Parker seem overwhelmed by the responsibility of filling those shoes. Nothing in The Voice of the Turtle (reissue title: One for the Book) is quite as funny as the film's outtakes, which were widely distributed during the Reagan presidency on the basis of a scene in which an increasingly testy Reagan is unable to zip up his trousers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Reagan, Eleanor Parker, (more)
- 1941
Rather than play famous outlaw Cole Younger in this film, Warner Bros. contract star Humphrey Bogart chose suspension. Ronald Reagan was considered, and so were James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and George Raft, but, happily, the role eventually went to the more age-appropriate Dennis Morgan, a former band singer. Like MGM's Billy the Kid, also from 1941, Bad Men of Missouri emerged as a complete whitewash of the title outlaws. Returning from fighting on the Confederate side in the Civil War, the Younger brothers -- Cole (Morgan), Bob (Wayne Morris), and Jim (Arthur Kennedy) -- find their money no longer viable currency and their homestead about to be usurped by carpetbagger William Merrick (Victor Jory). Standing up to Merrick and his chief henchman, Greg Bilson (Howard DaSilva), old Hank Younger (Russell Simpson) is shot dead, and, in frustration, the sons take up train and bank robbing, eventually joining the even more notorious James brothers, Jesse (Alan Baxter) and Frank. Of course, the celluloid Youngers steal only from the rich to give to the displaced poor. When they are finally caught in Minnesota, the citizenry of Missouri, viewing the Youngers as local heroes, take up a petition for their immediate release. Despite the many historical inaccuracies, Bad Men of Missouri makes for exciting, fast-paced Western entertainment; quite the opposite, in fact, of MGM's staid, overly glamorous depiction of Billy the Kid. Filmed at Sonora, CA, and cast with veterans such as Erville Alderson, Sam McDaniel (who replaced Willie Best in the role of the Younger's devoted servant), and a very funny Walter Catlett, the film premiered in Harrisonville, MO, the birthplace of the Younger brothers and the town where the elder Younger had once been elected mayor. Jane Wyman appears as the nominal heroine, the upstanding girlfriend of Jim Younger, and the film marked the screen debut of Faye Emerson as Cole Younger's ill-fated fiancée. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Morgan, Jane Wyman, (more)
- 1941
This Buck Privates knockoff concerns the misadventures of the three Patterson brothers: Charley (Wayne Morris), Eddie (Tom Brown) and Kenneth (William T. Orr). Pampered by their pacifistic mother Margaret (Irene Rich), the Patterson boys do everything they can to avoid being drafted into the Army. Once they've donned unifom, however, our heroes calmly and courageously do their patriotic duty, while their mother at last realizes it's all for the best. Before this happens, however, the audience is subjected to all manner of goofy slapstick setpieces, including a trained-seal bit right out of the Mack Sennett era. Incidentally, Three Sons O' Guns costar William T. Orr was the son-in-law of Jack L. Warner, whose studio produced the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Marjorie Rambeau, (more)
- 1941
Like MGM's Whistling in the Dark, Warner Bros.' The Smiling Ghost was inspired by the success of Paramount's comedy-mystery The Ghost Breakers--even unto the casting of Ghost Breakers' Willie Best in a similar role. During a gloriously oversized thunderstorm, hapless hero Lucky Downing (Wayne Morris) arrives at the mansion of his fiancee, heiress Eleanor B. Fairchild. Lucky hopes to break the jinx that seems to hang over Eleanor, whose last three boyfriends all met with mysterious deaths ("Anyone can be bitten by a snake." "On the fourteenth floor of a New York Hotel?") To do this, he tries to solve the triple mystery himself, aided and abetted by troublesome girl reporter Lil Bastow (Brenda Marshall) and timorous black manservant Clarence (Best). After a night of terror, replete with clutching hands and sliding panels, the murderer is revealed-after which Clarence participates in a closing gag which single-handedly sets race relations back 50 years. The Smiling Ghost was cowritten by Stuart Palmer, the creator of spinster sleuth Hildegarde Withers and a past master of locked-room mysteries with a comic touch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Brenda Marshall, (more)
- 1941
Three disparate young men struggle to become Army Air Corps pilots in this rousing drama that earned an Oscar for its excellent aerial special effects. The film is also noted for making Veronica Lake, who previously appeared in films under the name Constance Keane, a star. For added realism, the three male leads, William Holden, Ray Milland and Wayne Morris were placed into the same training program at Randolph Field, Texas (and also Kelly Field, Texas) as real recruits. Lake plays a seductress who pursues Holden while Constance Moore plays a female photographer who comes to shoot a story and ends up falling for Milland. By the time the pilots' rigorous training has finished only one will have proved himself fit to fly. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Milland, William Holden, (more)
- 1940
Ladies Must Live was based on George M. Cohan's play The Hometowners, prievious filmed in 1928. Wayne Morris plays the bumpkinish Lake, who tries to prevent his millionaire pal George (George Reeves) from marrying gold-digging nightclub thrush Pat (Rosemary Lane). As it turns out, however, Pat isn't as mercenary as she seems. In fact, it is through the auspices of Pat's inventor father Halliday (Ferris Taylor) that Lake ends up in the millionaire class himself. This outdated farce served only to keep several of Warner Bros.' young contract players busy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Rosemary Lane, (more)
- 1940
A barely disguised rip-off of 20th Century-Fox's all-female Tail Spin (39), Warner Bros.' Flight Angels is an inexpensive "tribute" to airline stewardesses. Among the angels of the title are haughty Virginia Bruce and hoydenish Jane Wyman, who in one scene actually come to blows over their long-simmering rivalry. Dennis Morgan, Wayne Morris and Ralph Bellamy are among the men who do the "real" work above the clouds. The climax involves a pilot who loses his sight, compelling the stewardess on board to perform "above and beyond " etc. Keep an eye out for Flight Angels bit players Jan Clayton, later Tommy Rettig's mother on the TV series Lassie; and DeWolfe Hopper Jr., who changed his name to William Hopper and played Paul Drake on Perry Mason. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Bruce, Dennis Morgan, (more)
- 1940
This mistaken-identity concoction takes place on a college campus--a familiar locale for Paramount B-pictures. Wayne Morris plays the dual role of scholarly Jimmy Jones and his athlete brother Bill. Jimmy is in line for a professorship, while Bill can hardly qualify for grade school. The fun begins when Bill ends up with an athletic scholarship intended for his brother, obliging both men to trade identities. Everyone is confused, none more so than cute co-ed Kay Merrill (Virginia Dale), who is actively courted by both brothers. The stereotypical supporting cast includes Alan Mowbray as a stuffy pedant, William Frawley as a dyspeptic coach, and Jerome Cowan as a point-shaving gambler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Virginia Dale, (more)
- 1940
An Angel from Texas was the fourth of five film versions of the venerable George S. Kaufman stage farce The Butter and Egg Man. The plot remains basically the same, with a wealthy but incredibly naïve young sprout coming to the rescue of a near-bankrupt Broadway musical. This time around, Eddie Albert stars as bumptuous Texan Mr. Colman, who uses his mother's life savings to finance the New York stage debut of his hometown sweetheart Lydia (Rosemary Lane). Fast-talking producers McClure (Wayne Morris) and Allen (Ronald Reagan) persuade Colman to invest his money in their upcoming production, a turgid drama that has all the earmarks of a quick failure. But through a series of wacky complications, many of them engineered by Allen's level-headed wife Marge (played by Reagan's real-life spouse Jane Wyman) the show is transformed into a Hellzapoppin-style surprise hit. Amusingly, reviewers in 1940 referred to Ronald Reagan's comedy style as "conservative"! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Albert, Rosemary Lane, (more)
- 1940
Throughout most of the running time of Universal's Double Alibi, it looks as though ostensible hero Stephen Wayne (Wayne Morris) really is guilty of three murders. Even so, girl reporter Sue Carey (Margaret Lindsay) falls in love with Wayne, despite the fact that she also thinks he's guilty. This causes no end of discomfort for city editor Walter Gifford (William Gargan), who is in love with Sue himself, and police captain Orr (James Burke), who has a vested interest in seeing Wayne delivered to the executioner. By film's end, of course, Sue has helped to prove Wayne's innocence, through the simple expedient of stumbling upon the identity of the real killer. With so much going on, it's surprising that Double Alibi could squeeze in the traditional comedy relief of Roscoe Karns, cast once more as a wisecacking photojournalist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Margaret Lindsay, (more)
- 1940
This comedy is the sequel of Brother Rat. The film begins with the three original protagonists after their graduation from the Virginia Military Institute. One of them has just applied for a job as the academy's baseball coach and the others come to assist him. Mayhem ensues; especially after the two well-meaning friends steal the would-be coach's baby and put it aboard a plane headed for Peru. The babe finally comes back and the ensuing publicity gets the coach his dream job. Meanwhile, the other two finally get the girls of their dreams. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Albert, Wayne Morris, (more)
- 1940
This 55-minute remake of the 75-minute Warner Bros. crime drama Special Agent retains a surprising amount of the original's plotline. Wayne Morris plays crusading journalist Jim Carter, who hopes to get the goods on crime boss Greg Morella (Gilbert Roland), the owner of a posh gambling ship anchored just outside the 12-mile limit. Trouble is, every time a witness is lined up for the federal district attorney (John Litel), said witness is either bought off or killed off, thanks to a stool pigeon in the DA's office. Eventually, Carter must rely upon the eyewitness testimony of Laurie Ogden (Jane Wyman), Morella's bookkeeper. To prevent this, Morella has Laurie kidnapped and hidden away on his ship, but Carter comes to the rescue. The film's central gimmick, a roulette wheel with a concealed camera, evidently caught the fancy of director George Amy, since this particular prop is given more close-ups than the two stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Morris, Jane Wyman, (more)
- 1939
Humphrey Bogart makes his first and last appearance in a horror movie in this film. Though the title implies that it is a sequel to the classic 1932 chiller Dr. X it is not. The terror begins when an eager-beaver reporter stumbles across the corpse of a popular actress who turns up, after much media hoopla, not to be dead at all. At least she seems to be alive on a surface level and is eager to sue the reporter's paper. The reporter can't help but notice that here skin is unnaturally pale and that she keeps her face concealed beneath a long-black veil. Suspecting that evil is afoot, he--who by now is unemployed--launches a private investigation to prove that she really was the corpse he saw. His search leads him into the terrifying world of a psycho blood doctor, and into a series of unsolved murders in which all the victims were found with no blood in their veins. Ultimately, the reporter finds himself face-to-face with the nefarious Dr. Maurice Xavier (Bogart), a man executed several years ago for murdering patients while performing Frankensteinian experiments. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane, (more)
