Dick Purcell Movies

Based on the comic book by the same name, the hero takes on a crazed scientist who creates deadly machines for his own villainous schemes. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Timber Queen is another of Pine-Thomas' rugged low-budget adventure films of the 1940s, most of which (like this one) starred Richard Arlen. It all begins when Russ (Arlen), a former Army pilot, comes home after a physical discharge. He befriends Elaine (Mary Beth Hughes), the widow of an Army buddy, who has inherited a financially-strapped timber camp. Elaine's financial future hinges on a huge timber shipment, which must arrive at its destination On Time-and that's where Russ and his little airplane come in. Sheldon Leonard is his usual surly self as Smacksie, a reformed racketeer who helps Russ complete his mission. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At 70 minutes, the Roy Rogers musical western Idaho was packaged and promoted as a "special", rather than just another B-flick. The story concerns the efforts by kindly judge Grey (Harry Shannon) to establish a "Boy's Town"-style establishment for wayward youngsters. The judge is opposed by gambling-house proprietress Belle Bonner (Ona Munson), who is a prositute in everything but name. Belle hopes to discredit Grey by revealing the judge's criminal record, but state ranger Roy Rogers comes to the rescue. The climax finds Rogers, heroine Terry Grey (Virginia Grey) and the ex-delinquent kids (played by members of the Robert Mitchell Boy Choir) capturing Belle's bandit gang. Gabby Hayes, Roy Rogers' former sidekick, is conspicuous by his absence in Idaho; Hayes was replaced on this occasion by the ubiquitous Smiley Burnette, as always cast as "Froggy Millhouse." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

High Explosive is a Hollywood "B" precursor to the later, more critically lionized The Wages of Fear. Chester Morris plays a two-fisted trucker who takes on a deadly assignment: Transporting nitroglycerin over bumpy terrain. As half the supporting cast is blown to smithereens, Morris persists in his white-knuckle mission. His diligence is motivated by guilt; Morris had been responsible for the training death of his girl friend's (Jean Parker) brother. High Explosive was a lucrative entry produced by Paramount's "Two Dollar Bills," William Pine and William Thomas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Monogram melodrama is a remake of the 1932 thriller The 13th Guest, which starred Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot. In the remake, Ginger's role, that of a woman who is both murder victim and murder suspect (honest!), is played by Helen Parrish. Talbot's character, a womanizing private eye, is essayed by Dick Purcell. The plot concerns a an anniversary dinner, a mysterious legacy, and a hooded villain who utilizes electricity to dispose of the heirs. While Mystery of the 13th Guest falls short of the original, it is in its own way quite a treat. Both films were based on a novel by Armitage Trail, better known as the author of Scarface. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

X Marks the Spot was the first of eight brisk wartime-oriented melodramas, each running slightly under an hour, produced and directed in rapid succession by George Sherman. Private detective Eddie Delaney (Damian O'Flynn) swings into action when his father (Robert E. Homans), a police sergeant, is gunned down by rubber racketeers (please recall that rubber was a valuable commodity during WW2). With the help of heroine Linda Ward (Helen Parrish) and police lieutenant Decker (Dick Purcell), Delaney chases after the villains, experiencing all sorts of serial-like dangers along the way. Numbered among the bad guys are the typecast Jack LaRue and the cast-against-type Neil Hamilton (later Batman's Commissioner Gordon). Though the script covers familiar ground, X Marks the Spot is exhilarating entertainment in the true Republic Pictures tradition. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With its slight resemblance to Destry Rides Again (1939) -- probably not entirely coincidental -- this rousing Western from Republic Pictures remains a joy throughout. John Wayne plays Tom Craig, a mild-mannered druggist from Boston who opens a shop in wild and woolly Sacramento shortly before the Gold Rush. The town is "owned" by the Dawson brothers, Britt (Albert Dekker) and Joe (Dick Purcell), who poison Craig's tonic when saloon hostess Lacey Miller (Binnie Barnes) takes too much of an interest in the handsome newcomer. Town drunk Whitey (Emmett Lynn) has one drink too many, and all of Sacramento is soon in a lynching mood. The news of "gold in them thar hills" saves the druggist in the nick of time, but his business is destroyed. While everyone is heading for the gold fields, Craig prepares to leave town with snobbish debutante Ellen Sanford (Helen Parrish), whom he intends to marry. News of typhoid fever among the prospectors changes his mind, however, and the man once referred to as "a human hitchin' post instead of a two-legged man," risks his own life to save the suffering populace. The Dawson brothers, meanwhile, plan to hijack the medical supplies and sell them to the highest bidder, but when Britt Dawson learns that Lacey is helping the sick and may be stricken with the disease herself, he has a change of heart and eventually confesses to spiking Craig's medicine. Cast against type for most of the film, John Wayne fails to make his amiable druggist entirely believable but remains simply John Wayne throughout -- which is as it should be. Binnie Barnes is rowdy and fun whether leading a chorus of "California Joe" by Johnny Marvin and Fred Rose, or jealously interrupting a tête-à-tête between Wayne and 19-year-old Helen Parrish. Usually cast as glacial "other women" in Hollywood films, the British-born Barnes had actually begun her professional career touring Europe and South Africa with bucolic American headliner Tex McLeod, which was as good a preparation as any to play In Old California's saloon belle. Patsy Kelly, who shoots down her laundry with a Winchester, and Edgar Kennedy, as Wayne's tooth-ache plagued sidekick, add to the general fun. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this murder mystery, a re-working of The Sphinx, a distract attorney is determined to prove that the community's most respected member, a deaf-mute philanthropist, is a cold-blooded killer. When the prominent fellow is acquitted, the disgusted DA quits his job and begins investigating the murder himself. His investigation takes an unexpected turn when he learns the truth about the killing--the suspect is both guilty and not guilty. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set in the Caribbean shortly before the U.S. was drawn into WWII, this zombie chiller tells the tale of an American special agent who, along with his butler and a pilot, is sent out to find a missing American Admiral, whose plane crashed on one of the islands. Unfortunately, the hero's plane also crashes. Fortunately, a suave but sinister German doctor with a very strange wife is there to help them. The doctor explains that his spouse is in a strange trance and he is trying to find a cure. The butler soon discovers that she is not the only one; the island is teeming with zombies. When the butler tries to tell his employer, the employer refuses to believe in "voodoo hocus pocus." The butler and the pilot find themselves entranced. Fortunately, the agent is still around to solve the mystery of the zombies and to confront the culprit, an enemy spy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Detective Chester Morris and his nosy wife Jean Parker set up housekeeping in a small Reno hotel room, whence Morris conducts his investigation of a kidnap case. It appears that the abduction has some tenuous connection with a recent bank robbery. As Morris digs deeper, he finds that virtually all of his neighbors either have something to do with cases at hand, or else they have something to hide. Its screenplay sticking fairly closely to the source novel by Daniel Mainwaring (writing under the pseudonym of Geoffrey Holmes), No Hands on the Clock is a rare foray into mystery for Paramount's action-picture production team of Pine and Thomas. The title refers to a handless clock hanging inside a Reno mortuary--which of course turns out to be a vital clue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Columbia's Two in a Taxi is perfect "Late Late Late Show" fare, just the sort of brisk, breezy film with which one would want to greet the new sunrise. Cab driver Jimmy Owens (Russell Hayden) hopes to push a hack just long enough to raise enough money-300 bucks, to be exact--for his own gas station. He also intends to marry his longtime sweetheart Bonnie (Anita Louise) as soon as he's on his feet financially. Alas, this plan hits a snag when the couple breaks up over a silly misunderstanding; in addition, Jimmy manages to lose his nest egg at every turn, even after collecting $1000 for capturing a gang of bank robbers. The conformist travails of Jimmy and Bonnie are counterpointed by the the faintly Communistic speeches delivered by a radical cabbie known as The Professor (Henry Brandon), whose presence in the film adds a welcome (but never overdone) dash of vitriol. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A serious journalist is sent to France and forced to write fashion fluff pieces. Tiring of this, she decides to sneak off to find an elusive notorious rebel and write a hard-new first-hand-account of the Spanish Civil War. This lively romantic comedy chronicles her adventures after she finds him and saves him from prison by pretending he is her husband. After the break-out, they fly to France in a stolen plane. At first she only cares about her story and resists the advances of the amorous renegade. As soon as her tale hits the front page, she accepts an assignment in Berlin. She boards a train and takes off. She meets her "hubby" once again when the train accidentally runs into his car. At this point she realizes that she loves him. The two decide to hole up for a few days in a nearby French inn. While they tryst, WW II begins and she misses the scoop. That's okay, because all she and he care about now is each other. Their attitudes change dramatically when their New York-bound ship is torpedoed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a government investigator looks into a counterfeiting ring that passes its fake bills through a gambling boat. During one evening, a murder occurs and the captain immediately sails the boat three miles off the coast where authorities have no jurisdiction. When the crew mutinies, the investigator takes over and gets his man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide