Frank Reicher Movies

Veteran movie leading man Bert Lytell warmed the director's chair for Along Came Love. Irene Hervey plays a shopgirl, while western star Charles Starrett dons civvies in the role of a pediatrician. Through a series of bizarre but credible complications, Hervey's mother (Irene Franklin) is arrested during a raid at a burlesque house, which plot device serves to bring hero and heroine together. All misunderstandings are ironed out within the film's 65-minute time frame, as we all knew they would be. Along Came Love was cowritten by Arthur Caesar, miles away from his Oscar-nominated original story for 1934's Manhattan Melodrama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A handful of German soldiers readjust to civilian life in the bitter wake of World War I in this follow-up to the classic All Quiet On The Western Front, which like the first film was based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque. After the signing of the armistice, Capt. Von Hagen (John Emery) dismisses what is left of his troops, who march home to an uncertain future. Tjaden (Slim Summerville) finds himself helping to fend off rioters demanding food from a shop owned by the town's mayor (Etienne Girardot); the grateful mayor in turn offers Tjaden his daughter's hand in marriage. Weil (Larry Blake) becomes a political activist and finds himself acting as a spokesman for another group of citizens demanding precious food; this time, Weil is shot by troops led by his former commander, Capt. Von Hagen. Willy (Andy Devine) visits his former schoolteacher, who presents him with an ironic gift -- a toy gun he took away from Willy when he was a boy. And Albert (Maurice Murphy) comes home to discover his fiancée has wed another man, a man who avoided the war but found ways to profit from it at home. In a fit of rage, Albert kills the man, and finds himself on trial for his life. Combining a strong anti-war message with prescient warnings about the dangers of the rising Nazi regime, The Road Back was intended to be a powerful and controversial picture, and Universal entrusted it to their finest director, James Whale. However, by the time shooting was completed, new management had taken over the studio, and Nazi officials began applying pressure to Universal (as well as members of the film's cast) to delete the material critical of the Nazis, threatening to scuttle European distribution of future Universal product if their demands were not met. Universal bowed to their wishes, and the film was partially reshot with another director, and the remainder extensively re-edited, leaving the final product a pale shadow of what Whale had originally intended. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The notorious Orient Express provides the setting for this romance involving two rival reporters in pursuit of a munitions baron. The two rivals eventually fall in love, but not before they are implicated and subsequently cleared of a plot to kill the arms maker. The munitions man also falls in love and decides to use his skills for making more peaceful products. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set during World War I, Lancer Spy stars a young George Sanders as Michael Bruce, an officer in the British Navy who bears an uncanny resemblance to the recently-captured Baron Kurt von Rohbach (also Sanders). Rohbach is highly connected in the German aristocracy, and his capture has been kept quite secret. This allows Bruce to be drafted into service to impersonate the German officer, infiltrate the enemy at the top level, and send back information that can turn the tide in the war. Bruce does a remarkable job and fools just about everyone; only the head of the secret police Major Gruning (Peter Lorre) has his doubts, but he can hardly accuse someone of the Baron's standing on nothing more than suspicions. He therefore engages a comely nightclub singer Dolores Daria Sunnell (Dolores Del Rio) to seduce Bruce and find out if his suspicions are sound or baseless. Unfortunately for Gruning, the singer finds her heart genuinely stolen by the imposter. She discovers the truth, but refuses to out him. Meanwhile, Gruning has laid his hands on some evidence of his own, and he moves to capture Bruce. Having accomplished his mission, Bruce flees to Switzerland. Gruning captures Dolores instead and puts her to death for her betrayal. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

In this crime thriller, an old, ailing scientist has been robbed of the burglar alarm he invented by his partner, who owns a security company. The scientist invents a superior alarm to provide for his daughter and sells it to the company for royalties, but his partner refuses to sell it. The scientist then invents a device that nullifies his partner's alarms and breaks into stores to prove that it works. He is kidnapped by a gang, who force him to give them the device by kidnapping his daughter. They go on a crime spree, and the scientist escapes and convinces his partner to help him catch the crooks. They rescue his daughter, and the partner pays him in full for all his inventions. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

The "Stavisky Affair," a high-level swindling scandal which all but destroyed the French government in the early 1930s, was the unofficial inspiration for Stolen Holiday. Claude Rains plays a suave confidence artist who has wormed his way into top European social and financial circles. When faced with exposure, Rains is protected by governmental and business higher-ups lest they be arrested for complicity in his crimes. Kay Francis plays an ambitious model who marries Rains, but regrets it when she falls in love with Ian Hunter. The real Alexander Stavisky ultimately avoided prosecution by committing suicide. The Hays Office wouldn't stand for that, so Claude Rains' character in Stolen Holiday is conveniently murdered. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a railroad agent is blamed for a terrible train crash. Actually, just before the crash, the agent was trying to keep a gunman from hijacking the train. The agent then runs from the authorities. He ends up sheltered by an impoverished family whom he tries to help while conducting his own investigation into the crash. He soon reveals the culprit's true identity and brings him to justice. He also manages to keep a second train tragedy from occurring. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A Mississippi flood saves the life of a petty crook who is about to be lynched for a murder he did not commit. After he escapes, he flees to a nearby plantation where he and a woman (claiming to be his wife) are taken in and treated with great kindness. They are happy until the killer that framed the crook shows up. Things look bleak until once again, the Mighty Mississippi roars in to save the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Fulton Oursler, the prolific Reader's Digest editor whose range extended from detective stories to religious books, tried his hand at domestic drama with Second Wife. The title character is Gertrude Michael, recently married to Walter Abel--though not that recently, since she's about to have a baby. Abel discovers that his son by his first wife is ill in a remote Swiss village, and is forced to leave Wife Number Two alone during childbirth. She resents Abel's absence and prepares to walk out in the company of another man, but her erstwhile lover wants nothing to do with children. The plot is worked out to everyone's satisfaction but the audience, which recognized Second Wife as an antiquated remake of a 1930 weeper of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this taut WW I espionage thriller set in 1914, an English actor falls in love with a German actress. When the war erupts, the two are torn apart and begin working as spies for their countries. They encounter each other, but now they are enemies. Fortunately their love is too deep and is soon rekindled, and an understanding master-spy helps them get to Holland where they can be married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

"Every time Paul Muni parts his beard and looks through a microscope, we lose a million dollars." Producer Jack Warner's lament concerning Muni's historical dramas is cute enough, but hardly backed up by facts; the economically produced The Story of Louis Pasteur proved to be a surprise hit for the Brothers Warner. The Sheridan Gibney-Pierre Collings screenplay concentrates on Pasteur's tireless efforts to find a cure for anthrax and hydrophobia. The famed French scientist is continually challenged and thwarted by his principal rival, hidebound bacteriologist Dr. Charbonnet (Fritz Leiber). The film's climax, involving a desperate Pasteur, the immovable Charbonnet, Pasteur's ailing daughter (Anita Louise), and a hydrophobia-infected youngster (Dickie Moore), is straight out of the Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight school of melodrama. Within the film's context, however, this contrivance works magnificently. Virtually thrown away by Warners upon its first release, The Story of Louis Pasteur was finally awarded class-A treatment when the picture proved to be favorite with audiences and critics alike; Paul Muni's Academy Award win was the mere icing on the cake. The film's success led to Warners' decision to go ahead with 1937's The Life of Emile Zola, also starring Muni. This time, the studio copped its first Best Picture Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

French actress Simone Simon made her American film debut in Girls' Dormitory. Simon portrays a twentyish student in a Swiss private school, harboring a secret passion for headmaster Herbert Marshall. For her own amusement, Simon writes an intense love letter to an imaginary beau; the letter falls in the hands of two snoopy teachers, who suspect the worst. Running away from her accusers, Simone has a chance meeting with Marshall, who reveals that he is in love with her. The official studio synopsis for Girl's Dormitory states that Simone nobly steps aside to allow a middle-aged teacher (Ruth Chatterton) to marry Marshall, but in the film itself Simon ends up with Marshall after all. The synopsis barely mentions Tyrone Power, appearing in his first film for 20th Century-Fox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Murder of Dr. Harrigan is based on a "Nurse Sarah Keats" mystery novel by Mignon Eberhardt. The middle-aged protagonist of the novel has been transformed into pretty, young nurse Sally Keating (Kay Linaker), in love with handsome doctor George Lambert (Ricardo Cortez). The founder of the hospital where Sally works disappears while en route to the operating room. Not long afterward, chief surgeon Dr Harrigan (John Eldredge) is mysteriously murdered by?whom? The key to the mystery is the formula for a revolutionary new anesthetic -- and there's plenty of suspects (including the perennial Mary Astor), motive and opportunity. Nurse Keating does a little mental "bypass surgery" on the police and figures out the mystery herself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide