Gene O'Donnell Movies

In this low-budget musical, two sets of politically ambitious parents attempt to pair up their youngsters who unfortunately despise each other and only pretend to like each other to please their parents. On the nights they are to go out, they sneak out with their respective true loves. It all works well until the unwilling couple find themselves falling in love for real. songs include: "I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now", and "Got Romance". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This painfully-bad Monogram feature wastes the talents of two of horrordom's finest -- star Boris Karloff and co-writer Curt Siodmak (who would write the horror classic The Wolf Man for Universal the same year). The goofy plot involves the efforts of one Dr. Adrian (Karloff) to procure human spinal fluid for his polio-vaccine research by donning the pelt of a slain circus ape and slaughtering innocent people. The fact that he's snapping spines in the interest of medicine doesn't really help to clear the moral waters (he never does find a cure, anyway). Filmed during a particularly grueling year for Karloff, this marks the end of his lengthy stir with Monogram (after a tedious string of Mr. Wong potboilers). Without Karloff to kick around, the studio concentrated their humiliating efforts on Bela Lugosi, who appeared in a virtual remake, The Ape Man, three years later. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Having joined the army in Buck Privates and the navy in In the Navy, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello signed up with Air Force in Keep 'Em Flying. Abbott and Costello play Blackie and Heathcliff, carnival workers who are fired from their jobs along with their pal, reckless stunt pilot Jinx Roberts (Dick Foran). When Jinx joins the Army Air Corps-the better to be nearer pretty USO singer Linda Joyce (Carol Bruce)-Blackie and Heathcliff loyally join up as well, obtaining low-echelon ground crew jobs. While Jinx tries to cure Linda's brother Jim (Charles Lang) of his fear of flying, Heathcliff pursues a romance with wisecracking waitress Gloria Phelps (Martha Raye), never quite catching on that Gloria has an identitical-twin sister (also Martha Raye). A bit too plot-heavy for its own good, Keep 'Em Flying is at its best when concentrating on Abbott & Costello, who in addition to performing their patented cross-talk routines participate in a zany runaway-torpedo chase and a gratuitous but amusing episode in a spooky carnival funhouse. As a bonus, Costello gets to do a bit of "straight" acting, and he's quite good at it. Deleted scenes include a comedy magic act (later restaged in Abbott & Costello's Lost in a Harem) and a wild episode at a skating rink (reworked two years later in Hit the Ice). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The curious but harmonious screen team of Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland are back again in You're Out of Luck. Elevator boy Frankie (Darro) is the brother of a detective (Richard Bond), and as such is eager to solve a crime himself. He gets his chance when a couple of mob murders occur in Frankie's hotel. With the tremulous assistance of Jefferson the porter (Moreland), Frankie pieces the clues together long before the police do-thereby flattening the stock of an obnoxious newspaper reporter (Tristam Coffin). Moreland so dominates the proceedings with his patented "Feet do your duty" routines that, in certain communities with heavily black populations, he was billed as the film's star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a slightly addled young advertising executive works for his father's radio-advertising agency. His first job is to hire a famous big-game hunter for an upcoming show. Unfortunately, the man he chooses proves to be a fake and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The attractive physiques of Tom Neal and Carol Hughes are generously displayed in the PRC comedy The Miracle Kid. Neal is cast as Jimmy, a young boxer who surprisingly wins a bout with the established champ. The loser claims that he was "jinxed" by Jimmy in the ring, whereupon Our Hero is exploited by a group of health faddists adhering to the philosophy of "mind over matter". Jimmy is subsequently pitted against several "bums" so that the health nuts can prove the vercity of their theories, but in the end he proves that the "secret" to his success lies in his fists and not his subconscious. Carol Hughes costars as Jimmy's sweetheart Pat, who shows up at one point in a form-fitting bathing suit for no reason other than to satisfy the red-blooded males in the audience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, the police endeavor to destroy the oppressive protection racket that has been plaguing their city. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The bucolic, down-home novels and short stories of Gene Stratton-Porter had been fodder for Monogram's screenwriting staff ever since the early 1930s. This cinemazation of Stratton-Porter's Freckles Comes Home stars Johnny Downs as the title character, who returns from college to his sedentary home town. Freckles' efforts to bring the community kicking and screaming into the 20th century somehow require him to tackle a group of gangsters who've taken up residence for the purpose of knocking off the town's bank. Every so often, the story stops dead in its tracks to permit black comedian Mantan Moreland to indulge in one of his famous "interrupted conversation" routines; they're the highlight of the picture. Seen as Johnny Downs' hometown sweetheart is Gale Storm, who does some of her best acting to date as the bank president's daughter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Randolph Scott was the star of Corvette K-225, a tribute to the World War II corvette escorts which guided Allied convoys through treacherous Atlantic waters. Scott plays the officer in charge of a Royal Canadian corvette cruiser, dedicated to keeping the troops safe from enemy submarine attack. The focus of the film is a danger-ridden journey from Halifax to Britain, the tension quotient heightened by the use of actual combat footage. Only the romantic triangle involving Scott, James Brown and Ella Raines bogs down this thrill-a-minute war picture. Corvette K-225 was produced by Howard Hawks, though the direction was credited to Richard Rosson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Faro dealer Earl Haney (Gene O'Donnell) is shot and killed by an unknown assailant, described as a man "in a red shirt with curly black hair." Now Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) must leave Dodge City unprotected as he tracks down the most likely suspect, Jim Bostick (played by future Mannix star Mike Connors, still billing himself as "Touch Connors"). Ultimately Matt catches up with Bostick, who insists that he is innocent, and that Doc (Milburn Stone can provide him with an alibi. . .but Doc is nowhere to be found. Capped by a grim but satisfying denoument, this episode is adapted from the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of March 19, 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Drugs are the focus of the exploitation film set in the Los Angeles harbor. The plot centers around a villain's evil scheme to raid a ship and abscond with surplus war drugs. To help him get backers for the heist, he begins showing criminals a slide show depicting his scheme. A young woman accompanies one of the leader's gang members as he takes the slide show to various gangsters. The woman falls in love with an ambulance driver and gets him involved in the scheme. During the actual caper, the mastermind is killed, the drugs are safe, and the driver and the woman walk away from the whole thing unscathed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The only thing genuinely brave about Three Brave Men is the second word in the title. The film is based on the true story of a Navy employee who was fired as a security risk, then took the case to court to prove his loyalty to the United States. Ernest Borgnine plays the victimized employee, whose life is ruined simply because he once briefly participated in an alleged "Pinko" organization. Borgnine and his family are ostracized from the community when word leaks out about his so-called disloyalty. Lawyer Ray Milland takes Borgnine's case; he pleads so eloquently on behalf of his client's patriotism that the navy, represented by Eisenhower lookalike Dean Jagger, reinstates Borgnine. The problem in Three Brave Men is in how the material is approached. Instead of attacking the atmosphere of paranoia that fostered the Communist "witch hunts" of the 1950s, the crucifixion of Borgnine is treated as a necessary evil in the interests of "democracy." The low point comes at the end, when Ray Milland profusely thanks the Navy for their open-mindedness before his client has been exonerated. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The short but bloody career of one of the most infamous outlaws of the 1930s is chronicled in this drama. Charles Arthur Floyd (John Ericson) finds work on an oil rig after serving time for armed robbery, but when he becomes involved with a married woman, her husband swears revenge. Floyd's boss doesn't know that his new employee was a jailbird, and when the cuckolded husband breaks the news, Floyd is out of a job. With nowhere to go, Floyd heads back to his father's home in Oklahoma, but when he learns that a neighboring farmer killed his father, Floyd goes berserk and murders the farmer. Floyd recruits three fellow criminals, Al (Barry Newman), Baker (Philip Kenneally), and Curly (Carl York), and together they cut a swath through the nation, robbing banks and leaving bodies in their wake. A young Peter Falk appears in a minor role, as does Al Lewis, who later gained fame as Grandpa on the TV series The Munsters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide