Victor Potel Movies

The second of singing cowboy Dick Foran's Warner Bros. westerns, Song of the Saddle was a decided improvement on the first (Moonlight on the Prairie). Foran is cast as Frank Wilson Jr., who heads Westward to avenge the long-ago murder of his father (Addison Richards). Frank had witnessed the killing, but only has a few fragmentary clues to go by. Ultimately he learns what the audience has known all along, that the killer was ruthless land baron Phineas P. Hook (Charles Middleton); heck, that name alone should have given him away! Among the minor players in Song of the Saddle are former western hero William Desmond, up-and-coming child star (and future Lone Ranger producer) Bonita Granville, and, fleetingly, the Sons of the Pioneers (with Roy Rogers). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Louis Weiss (of Poverty Row's Weiss Bros.) produced this commonplace B-Western starring one of the lesser names of the genre, Rex Lease. Falsely accused of horse-thieving and saved in the nick of time from a lynching party by decent gang leader Scarface (Dick Alexander), cowboy Bill (Lease) hightails it to the Texas Panhandle, where he obtains the job of foreman on the Barton ranch. The spread is about to be taken over by vicious Larkin (George Chesebro), who claims to have won it in a poker game with the late, lamented Pa Barton. With the help of Larkin's erstwhile girlfriend, saloon hostess Alice (Janet Morgan), Bill gets the goods on the villain, thus saving the ranch for Ma Barton (Adabelle Driver) (whose fine cooking is much discussed) and spirited young Bobby Barton (Bobby Nelson). Released by Poverty Row company Stage and Screen, The Cowboy and the Bandit was a reunion of sorts for several once-popular silent screen performers, including former cowboy heroes William Desmond, Bill Patton, Franklyn Farnum, Art Mix, and Wally Wales. Another survivor of silent films, leading lady Blanche Mehaffey, was so distressed at the downward turn her career was taking that she insisted on using a pseudonym, the aforementioned Janet Morgan. No one was fooled, however, and Mehaffey's career quickly came to an end. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The second of eight low-budget versions of Peter B. Kyne short stories, Hot Off the Press starred Jack LaRue as Bill Jeffry, a reporter who leaves The Evening Call in favor of rival Star Bulletin. When one of the Star's intrepid newsboys, Mickey Karnes (Mickey Rentschler), is attacked, Bill, who was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, finds himself falsely accused of the cowardly deed. Investigating the situation with the help of a friendly district attorney (Edward Hearn) and fellow reporter Jimmy (Fuzzy Knight), Bill manages to unmask the real criminal -- Evening Call publisher J.C. (Monte Blue). In return, he wins the love of stenographer Brenda Johnson (Virginia Pine). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Hard Rock Harrigan is an easygoing George O'Brien actioner with emphasis on comedy and romance. The plot revolves around a rivalry between sand-hog "Hard Rock" Harrigan (O'Brien) and his foreman Black Jack Riley (played by O'Brien's frequent screen sparring partner, Fred Kohler Sr.) At the center of their conflict is their mutual affection for heroine "Andy" Anderson (Irene Hervey). But when the chips are down and Riley is trapped in a tunnel cave-in, it is Harrigan who comes to the rescue. George O'Brien's films could never be accused of being High Art, but they sure delivered what his fans wanted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy with musical numbers set in the Old South, Bing Crosby plays a singer (talk about a casting stretch!) from Philadelphia named Tom Grayson, who has fallen in love with Southern heiress Elvira Rumford (Gail Patrick). Tom wants to marry Elvira, but a man called Major Patterson (John Miljan) has announced his desire to do the same, and he challenges Tom to a duel to decide who will have Elvira's hand. Tom is not at all agreeable to this idea, which leads Elvira's father (Claude Gillingwater) to proclaim Tom to be a coward and deny him permission to wed his daughter. Elvira's sister Lucy (Joan Bennett), who is infatuated with Tom, thinks that he's merely being sensible, but Tom thinks that Lucy is too young for a serious relationship. In need of work and not especially welcome in the Rumford's community, Tom takes a job performing on a riverboat piloted by the blustery Commodore Orlando Jackson (W.C. Fields). One night, Tom finds himself in a barroom brawl with a man named Captain Blackie (Fred Kohler), who dies accidentally from a shot fired by his own gun. Hoping that his infamy will draw crowds, Jackson begins billing Tom as "The Singing Killer." Tom comes to realize that Lucy may be the right woman for him after all, but Lucy is not interested in a man with blood on his hands, and now Tom must convince her that he's not a killer at all. Noted gambling aficionado Fields has a hilarious poker-playing bit, and he steals most of his scenes from the rest of the cast. Mississippi was loosely based on the play "Magnolia" by Booth Tarkington. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Ann Sothern and Jack Haley star in this inconsequential little musical. Haley is a struggling playwright of minimal talent, whose latest play is miraculously selected for a Broadway berth by producer Roger Pryor. The problem: Pryor isn't a producer at all, but an out-of-work actor anxious to get into anyone's play, even Haley's. After several ups and downs, the play actually makes it to Broadway, where it is regarded as the ultimate in ridiculous comedy and becomes a success! It would be stretching things to suggest that this was the inspiration for Mel Brooks' similarly plotted The Producers, since the backstage legend of a flop play becoming an accidental hit is as old as the Theatre itself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This musical drama stars Dick Powell as the son of an admiral (Lewis Stone), who'd rather sing than go to sea. Through the genteel pressures of Powell's girlfriend and nightclub partner Ruby Keeler, Powell dons Navy garb and becomes a hero. Busby Berkeley had nothing to do with this one; the direction was in the capable hands of sentimentalist supreme Frank Borzage. The Borzage touch was particularly noticeable in a heartrending--but non-maudlin--scene in which Ross Alexander is "washed out" as an Annapolis cadet. Shipmates Forever proved to be a treasure trove of background music for the Warner Bros. cartoon department. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rin Tin Tin clone Tarzan the Wonder Dog is top-billed in the independently produced Inside Information. Tarzan nuzzles up to hero Rex Lease, a detective assigned to locate some missing bonds. The crooks prove no match for Tarzan, who bares his fangs and tears their clothes asunder. A happy ending is had by all, include Lease's lady friend Marion Shilling. Inside Information was co-scripted by Victor Potel, a silent comedy star of the pre-World War I era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Written (under the pseudonym of Jimmy Hawkey) and directed by Robert F. Hill, this very low-budget Western from poverty row company Spectrum starred former silent screen cowboy Bill Cody and his real-life son Bill Cody, Jr.. Everything of course being relative, Frontier days, filmed at majestic Lone Pine, was perhaps Cody senior's best sound Western although he looked emaciated and a tendency to act overly coy with the ladies ladies became grating at times. Cody played an agent for the Well's Fargo masquerading as The Pinto Kid, complete with pinto horse Chico and fancy pinto vest. Trailing a gang of stage robbers, he is falsely accused of killing rancher Franklyn Farnum. Farnum's daughter, Ada Ince, believes in him though, and he proves his innocence saving the girl from crooked banker Wheeler Oakman and his gang of desperadoes, the real murderers. Surprising B-Western devotees everywhere, the usually so jovial Robert McKenzie, he of the Andy Devine-like gravel-voice, turned out to be one of the Bad Guys this time around -- billing himself "Bill McKenzie" for the occasion. Ancient-looking Lafe McKee got to play the girl's grandpa instead of her father for a change and 8-year-old Billy, Jr. managed to pretty much stay out of harms way. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Barbara Stanwyck, displayed in all her pre-Code glory, once again plays "damaged goods" in Warner Bros.' The Purchase Price. Hard-boiled nightclub singer Joan Gordon (Stanwyck) gets fed up being the kept woman of her married boss, bootlegger Ed Fields (Lyle Talbot). Fleeing New York City, she ends up in North Dakota as the mail-order bride of wheat farmer Jim Gilson (George Brent). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in India, Arabia, and Darkest Africa, this 12-chapter Mascot Pictures serial had been created for Harry Carey and Edwina Booth, the stars of MGM's highly anticipated Trader Horn (1930). That film, however, needed quite a bit of re-tooling and producer Nat Levine had to settle for lesser names Walter Miller and Nora Lane. A top serial leading man of the 1920s, Miller played a soldier of fortune, falsely accused of murder, who tracks the real killer to the jungles of Africa. Once there, he aligns himself with a young girl (Lane), whose brother (Carroll Nye) has stumbled on a secret diamond mine. Boris Karloff, in his fourth and last serial for Mascot, played one of the villain's henchmen. In the serial's second chapter, "Man-Eaters," the future Frankenstein monster flings poor Carroll Nye into a pit containing -- of all things -- the first and only African tiger. The redoubtable Nye survives not only this surprising encounter, but is also confronted with a bizarre half-man, half-beast creature named Bimi and played by Cyril McLaglen, brother of Victor. Containing one of the more eclectic casts in any serial, King of the Wild also featured the delightful Mischa Auer as an escaped lunatic, Laurel and Hardy regular Dorothy Christy as a society dame, veteran action star Tom Santschi as the killer, and real-life explorer/actor Albert DeWinton. In a case of life imitating art, DeWinton disappeared and apparently perished during an expedition to the Amazon River shortly after finishing this serial. King of the Wild was filmed at Yuma, AZ, and Bronson Caverns (the future "Bat-Cave") in Los Angeles' Griffith Park. A seven-reel feature version was released under the title Bimi. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide