Raymond Parker Movies
- 1939
To dim-bulb accountants find themselves working for a bookie in this comedy. Their jobs and their lives are placed in jeopardy when they accidently fumble $50,000 worth of the bookie's cash over to the secretary who wastes no time in spending $44,000 of it in less than 8 hours. The bookkeepers are given 36 hours to get all of the money back by their infuriated boss. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- June Lang, Robert Kent, (more)
- 1939
A remake of Paul Leni's The Last Warning (1929), this "Crime Club" series entry once again presents the spectacle of an actor murdered in mid-performance and in front of a sellout crowd. This time the unfortunate thespian is John Wofford (Don Douglas), whose body subsequently disappears. To solve the mystery, police detective Arthur McHugh (William Gargan) goes undercover as a producer wishing to reassemble the original cast for a staging of the seemingly hexed play "Dangerous Currents." During rehearsal, the actor playing Wofford's old role, Carleton (Walter Woolf King), is found murdered and a series of threatening notes purportedly written by the dead actor continue to frighten the surviving cast and crew. Wofford's voice, heard over a disconnected telephone, adds to the terror, as does the actor's very dead body, which reappears behind a crumbling wall. But is the theater really haunted? And, if not, who is behind the strange goings-on and why? To learn the answers to these troubling questions, McHugh and his equally undercover wife, Gloria De Vere (Dorothy Arnold), must discover exactly how the original murder was committed. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Gargan, Irene Hervey, (more)
- 1939
Bing Crosby plays a tune-happy cab driver who finds himself the reluctant recipient of an abandoned baby. Together with his roommate, dour doorman Mischa Auer, Crosby offers care and shelter to the infant until he can locate the parents. The baby brings in some unwanted publicity for Crosby, which costs him his job--no real problem, in that a happy ending is obviously in the offing. East Side of Heaven was the first of a two-picture deal between Bing Crosby and Universal Pictures, which turned out to be a smart move money wise for both parties. Crosby's leading lady is the vivacious Joan Blondell, who later characterized her costar as "Aloof...I think he was born that way." The infant in the story is played by Baby Sandy (Sandra Henville), who was subsequently launched into a brief "B" series of her own before retiring at the advanced age of four. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Joan Blondell, (more)
- 1939
When German director Joe May was working on such silent classics as The Indian Tomb and Asphalt, he probably never imagine that he'd one day wind up at Universal turning out something called Society Smugglers. Preston Foster stars as Treasury agent Sully, at present trying to break up a vicious smuggling ring. To this end, Sully assigns undercover agent Joan Martin (Irene Hervey) to go to work for gang boss Massey (Walter Woolf King). A bit more inventive than most films of its ilk, Society Smugglers contrives to have the crooks use a slogan contest and a trip-to-Europe first prize as part of their scheme. Featured in the cast is Regis Toomey, who halfway through the film performs another one of his patented death scenes (in "A" pictures, Toomey was generally bumped off in the first reel). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Preston S. Foster, Irene Hervey, (more)
- 1938
In this comedy, a milquetoast clerk is betrothed to the socialite whose aunt holds a big account with his company. When the agency owner hears that the generous aunt is preparing to close her account and give all the money to the happy couple, the boss decides to stop the wedding. To do so, he hires the seductive blonde wife of a vaudevillian friend to play a "practical joke" upon the hapless clerk. The joke almost succeeds when he comes very close to losing his beloved. Fortunately, the gal is loyal and totally trusting. The marriage takes place and all is well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Ruggles, Richard Lane, (more)
- 1938
In this frothy comedy-drama, a businesswoman owns a successful service bureau for the filthy rich. Her service does everything from handling mundane finances to putting on weddings. Her most recent client wants her to prevent his rube of a nephew from coming to New York to visit him. She does her best and in the end, falls in love with the bumpkin after charming him away from his countrified girl friend. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Constance Bennett, Vincent Price, (more)
The first of the "splinter" groups to emerge from the Dead End Kids was the Little Tough Guys, consisting of veteran Dead-Enders Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsly and David Gorcey (Hally Chester and Billy Benedict would also appear in this new grouping from time to time). Though most of the "Little Tough Guy" vehicles were played for laugh, the initial entry was not. When labor activist Jim Boylan (Edward Pawley) is executed for a murder he didn't commit, his son Johnny (Billy Halop) decides to become a crook. He and his pals Pig (Huntz Hall), String (Gabe Dell), Sniper (David Gorcey) and Dopey (Hally Chester), embark upon a crime spree, aided and abetted by thrill-seeking rich kid Cyril (Jackie Searl), who happens to be the son of the district attorney. While committing a robbery orchestrated by Cyril, Johnny and Pig are trapped by the police. Pig makes a break for it, only to be killed in a hail of bullets. This startling turn of events convinces Johnny to mend his ways, but not before an obligatory stretch in reform school with his fellow Little Tough Guys-including Cyril! Beyond the spectacle of Huntz Hall dying in agony, Little Tough Guy offers very little that is new and innovational: still, the film made money, prompting a whole series of "Little Tough Guy" quickies from the Universal assembly line. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Halop, Helen Parrish, (more)
- 1938
In this lively campus-set musical comedy, a budding entrepreneur nearly loses everything after his get-rich quick scheme to earn money selling "flunk" insurance his fellow students goes terribly awry. The plan was to sell the insurance for fifty cents a shot. In exchange, any policy-holder who flunks a test will get a ten dollar settlement. At first the young fresh fellow makes a mint, but then a particularly strict professor sees fit to flunk an entire class, all of whom are insured. Keep a sharp eye peeled for a young Alan Ladd in a bit part. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dixie Dunbar, William Lundigan, (more)
A master blend of high comedy and tense emotional drama, A Letter of Introduction reteams Adolphe Menjou, Andrea Leeds, and Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, who'd previously costarred in the negligible Goldwyn Follies. Menjou plays John Mannering, a Barrymoresque actor who years earlier had divorced his wife and severed his relationship with his daughter Kay (Andrea Leeds). Now a grown woman, Kay aspires to an acting career, fully determined to make it on her own without her father's help. She goes so far as to change her last name to Martin, and to keep her actual relationship to Mannering a secret from the public. This set-up leads to a dizzying series of complications, including the breakup of Mannering's romance with a tootsie named Lydia Hoyt (Anne Sheridan), who falsely assumes that Kay is Mannering's mistress, and Kay's own romantic travails with vaudeville hoofer Barry Paige (George Murphy). Meanwhile, Kay's ventriloquist friend Bergen and his dummy McCarthy rise to superstardom on radio. It is, in fact, Bergen and Charlie who are instrumental in reuniting the estranged Mannering and Kay, paving the way for the film's tear-stained conclusion. Unavailable for many years, A Letter of Introduction re-emerged on the Public Domain circuit in 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Andrea Leeds, (more)
- 1938
Ever youthful Tom Brown once more plays a campus football hero in Swing That Cheer. Undeniably talented on the gridiron, Bob Potter (Brown) is equally undeniably an arrogant pain in the posterior. So swell-headed does Potter become that he can never admit to himself that his blocking-back teammate Larry Royal (Robert Wilcox) is equally reponsible for Bob's success. To teach his pal a lesson, Larry feigns an injury and pulls out of the Big Game, forcing Bob to go it alone. Predictably, our hero will have to ingest a bit of humble pie before he can lead his team to victory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Brown, Robert Wilcox, (more)
- 1938
This "Crime Club" series entry is based on a novel by Jonathan Latimer. Preston Foster and Frank Jenks make return appearances as Latimer's freewheeling private eyes Bill Crane and Doc Williams, here assigned to protect millionaire John Essex (Ray Parker) and John's sister Linda (Frances Robinson) from harm. Someone has been sending Linda threatening notes, eventually carrying out those threats by kidnaping the girl and holding her for ransom. Piecing clues together with the aplomb of two veteran jigsaw-puzzle aficionados, our heroes expose the Least Likely Suspect as the culprit, leading to even more surprises before fadeout time. Perennial dumb blonde Joyce Compton enlivens the proceedings as Doc's addlepated girl friend Dawn Day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Preston S. Foster, Frank Jenks, (more)
