Roger Pryor Movies

After several years' dormancy, the "Cisco Kid" western-film series returned to the screen with Monogram's The Cisco Kid Returns. Duncan Renaldo, actually Rumanian, starred as the Mexican "Robin Hood of the Old West", with Martin Garralaga as his corpulent sidekick Pancho. In the tradition of 20th Century-Fox's earlier "Cisco" efforts, our hero comes to the aid of an orphaned child, clears himself of a kidnapping charge, and proves that a "solid citizen" is in fact a criminal mastermind. After a trio of Cisco Kid films, Renaldo left the series, to be replaced by Gilbert Roland; but when time came in 1950 for a Cisco Kid TV series, Renaldo was back in the saddle again, this time with Leo Carrillo as Pancho. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy centers around an inept reporter who wouldn't recognize a hot story if it burned him on the hand. The trouble begins when he is assigned to do a story on a local wine festival. Meanwhile an escaped convict holds the heated interest of the rest of the newspaper employees. The bungler gets involved when he goes to the wrong location and ends up on a bus where someone is killed. He becomes a suspect, and later when he must stop at an inn, he finds his girl friend and a detective there too. At the inn, the proprietor has two priceless jeweled chess pieces that have been attracting a lot of attention from the public, and from the fugitive convict. Mayhem ensues when the crook shows up to claim the chessmen. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a bookish kid sister reads a psychology book and comes to believe that, according to the book, she is finally "grown up." To demonstrate her new maturity she begins chasing her big sister's fiance. She then winds up locked in her room during a party held in the fiance's honor. She manages to escape and begins impersonating a maid. She soon meets a handsome burglar who mistakenly believes that she is a moll. They end up attempting to burgle the fiance's home. Mayhem ensues until the young girl finally manages to steal the fiance's heart for herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this episode of the Cisco Kid saga, Cisco and Pancho must prove that they are not kidnappers. They are only protecting a little girl from the man who killed her father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Nurse Chapman begins to fall in love with a gangster and ends up entertaining miners until she manages to pull herself out of this bad situation. ~ All Movie Guide

Short of funds to buy baseball uniforms, the East Side Kids are forced to go to work for their crooked ex-pal Hank (Gabriel Dell). When Hank's fugitive mentor Butch Brocalli (Max Rosenbloom) shows up to make trouble, gang member Danny (Bobby Jordan) is instrumental in Butch's arrest, earning a big reward in the process. Danny intends to suprise his pals by buying the uniforms himself, but Mugs (Leo Gorcey) wrongly assumes Danny wants to hoard all the money for himself. Mugs and the rest of the gang force Danny to turn over the dough, whereupon they buy a beat-up car. But when Danny is seriously injured by the escaping Brocalli, the kids offer to sell the car to pay for an operation. Kindly brain surgeon Dr. Ornsby (Walter Woolf King) sizes up the situation and straightens things out to the satisfaction of everyone. The East Side Kids are at their most contentious and least appealing in this second-rate entry, while Maxie Rosenbloom, usually a comic actor, is sorely miscast as the villain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Lady Bodyguard of the title is pretty but somewhat physically frail A. C. Baker (Anne Shirley). An advertising representative for an insurance company, A. C. gets into trouble when she okays several $1000 life-insurance policies as a publicity stunt. One of the recipients is Terry Moore (Eddie Albert), who, thanks to a typographical error, finds that he's been insured for one million dollars. Desperately, A. C. tries to talk Terry into cancelling the policy, but his avaricious beneficiaries don't want this to happen. There are laughs and thrills aplenty as a sleep-benumbed Terry pilots an airplane carrying A. C. and all of those vultures who'd benefit mightily from his demise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eve Arden played her first bonafide film-starring role in the 1941 Warner Bros. "B"-picture She Couldn't Say No. A brilliant lawyer, Alice Hinsdale (Arden) is obliged to act as secretary to her legal-eagle fiancé Wallace Turnbull (Roger Pryor) because he can't abide the notion that his wife might be smarter than he. Taking on a breach-of-promise suit, Turnbull represents the defendant, only to discover that the attorney for the plaintiff is none other than newly-liberated Alice. Once before a judge and jury, Alice and her female client resort to "women's tricks" to win the case -- proof positive that She Couldn't Say No is a product of its times. The film's basic premise was used to better effect in the 1949 Tracy-Hepburn starrer Adam's Rib. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Flying Blind was the third of William Pine and William Thomas' independent productions for Paramount release. The cast includes such Pine-Thomas "regulars" as Richard Arlen and Jean Parker, and like its two predecessors dealt with the more dramatic aspects of aviation. Arlen plays Jim Clark, operator of a honeymoon air service which shuttles between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The plot shifts into melodramatic gear when Clark is forced to deal with a gang of foreign spies, determined to steal a new transformer designed for American fighter planes. A wild and largely impossible airborne chase brings this one to a rousing conclusion. For the record, Jean Parker plays Clark's secretary Shirley Brooks, who not-so-secretly hopes that her boss will fly her to Vegas for matrimonial purposes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Honest cop Bob Conlon (Bruce Bennett) is in love with Helen Regan (Rochelle Hudson),who begs off from a lasting committment because of the injuries incurred by her policeman father (Oscar O'Shea). Helen inaugurates a "safer" romance with Johnny Davis (Roger Pryor), who unbeknownst to her is the leader of a criminal gang. Bob manages to get the goods on Johnny, but his problems are far from over: Helen and her dad are kidnapped by vengeful ex-convict Blake Standish (Sidney Blackmer). Tom Kennedy goes through his usual dumb-cop paces, providing a few islands of comedy relief in this round-robin actioner. Officer and the Lady was the first feature-length directorial effort by Sam White, whose brother Jules was then in charge of Columbia's 2-reel comedy unit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A good wife's innocence is shattered when she learns that her wealthy husband is actually an amoral big-shot jewel thief. She learns this when he brazenly robs some of their vacationing friends. Naturally she wants to leave him, but he won't let her and makes her return to Chicago and stay quiet. He doesn't realize that a detective is in hot pursuit. Once in Chi-town, the thief abandons the wife and she gets a divorce. Unfortunately, she ends up accused of the latest heist. After good friends help to clear her, she meets the detective. Together they plot an ingenious revenge that culminates in the capture of the crook and a new chance at happiness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The lady in question in this delightful whodunit is Joan Bradley (Jean Muir), a former secretary who is about to marry her employer's son, Bob Pennison (Warren Hull). Mrs. Pennison (Georgia Caine) graciously lends her future daughter-in-law a priceless necklace, but when Joan returns to her apartment, she is met by what at first appears to be the ghost of her late husband, Rennick (Roger Pryor). He is no ghost -- but very much alive, in fact. Rennick grabs the necklace, shoves poor Joan away, and he's promptly shot and killed by...well, that is indeed the question. Brought into the case by accident (literally), former jewel thief-turned-master sleuth Michael Lanyard (Warren William) must once again cross swords not only with a dangerous criminal but with the ubiquitous foe, Inspector Crane (Thurston Hall). The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady was the third entry in the Lone Wolf series. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide