Tito Renaldo Movies

Honest wrestler Wayne Winchester (Malcolm Mealey) tries to blow the whistle on his mob-connected opponent Bad Luck Brannigan (Richard Reeves), who uses a secret--and illegal--paralyzing grip to incapacitate his opponents. As Superman (George Reeves) ateempts to protect Winchester from reprisals, Superman's alter ego Clark Kent must stand by in quiet desperation as Lois Lane (Phyllis Coates) expresses more than a professional interest in the handsome young rassler. This episode marks the first of several appearances by frequent Adventures of Superman "bad guy" Herburt Vigran. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Fabulous Senorita in this frothy musical is Republic's resident Latin bombshell Estelita Rodriguez, here billed simply as Estelita. The story concerns the daughter (Estelita) of a Cuban millionaire who falls in love with a bookish professor (Robert Clarke) rather than the wealthy fiance of her father's choosing. The plot complications require our heroine to pose as twin sisters, with highly contrasting personalities. Meanwhile, a very young Rita Moreno essays one of her fist important screen roles as Estelita's actual sister. Laughs are provided by owl-eyed Marvin Kaplan as a nerdish undergrad. The story and songs are for the birds, but Estelita Rodriguez is always worth watching. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The people of a jungle village are suffering from a strange illness that is killing off the female population. The natives resort to kidnapping women from other regions -- including Jane (Vanessa Brown), the mate of Tarzan (Lex Barker). Never one to hold a grudge, Tarzan offers to deliver a serum that will wipe out the epidemic. Unfortunately, numerous unforeseen perils await Tarzan during his journey through the foliage. The "slave girl" of the title is played by Denise Darcel, whose role as a nurse is secondary but decorative. An 8 X 10 glossy of the underdressed Darcel, her wrists shackled, clinging desperately to Lex Barker's bare legs, turned out to be one of the biggest-selling "pin-ups" of the 1950s. Not bad for a post-Weissmuller Tarzan flick, Tarzan and the Slave Girl falters only during an extended comic sequence involving Cheta the chimp and a bottle of booze. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart) has a problem that he won't admit to: his wife, Claire (Audrey Totter), wants more fun and excitement out of life than the quiet, soft-spoken pharmacist can give her. So she steps out on him regularly, something that Warren refuses to recognize until the day she packs her bags and announces she's moving in with Barney Deager (Lloyd Gough), the flashy, high-living salesman whom she's been seeing on the side. Warren goes to Deager's, to ask her to come back, and gets beaten up by his rival. The worm suddenly turns in his own quiet way of doing things, and Warren decides he's going to get even -- he's going to murder Deager, but to do it and not get caught, he bides his time. He begins building a new identity for himself, changing his appearance (starting with getting rid of his thick glasses in favor of then-newly-invented contact lenses), and establishing his alter ego of "Paul Sothern" at a new address. He then starts making threatening calls to Deager, identifying himself as Sothern, in order to establish a history of enmity between the two. It's all going according to plan -- he will kill Deager and the blame will fall on "Sothern," who, of course, doesn't exist, and will have vanished. But then he meets Mary Chanler (Cyd Charisse), a neighbor at "Sothern"'s apartment building, and the two become attracted to each other. For every step forward that he takes in his plan for murder, he also finds himself with new possibilities in his life, growing out of his relationship with Mary. Finally, the night comes when he breaks into Deager's home and is about to kill him, when it dawns on Warren that he doesn't need to do this....He awakens Deager and tells him what almost happened and that he's leaving, and Deager is welcome to Claire, and leaves. It seems as though he's averted disaster when Claire shows up later that night, pleading for reconciliation and finally, when pressed, telling him that someone has murdered Deager. The man has been shot, and the police, led by lieutenants Bonnabel (Barry Sullivan) and Gonsales (William Conrad), are hunting for Paul Sothern. Now Warren is scared for his life, having done his best to frame himself, and Claire isn't helping by trying to run interference -- he can't tell if she's trying to protect the two of them, implicate Sothern, or protect herself, and he's too scared to say almost anything at all to the detectives. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Set in the Cuba of 1933, We Were Strangers stars John Garfield as revolutionary-minded Tony Fenner. A member of an underground movement dedicated to toppling the despotic Machado regime, Tony supervises the booby-trapping of a cemetery where several top Cuban officials are planning to converge for a state funeral. Also involved in the assassination scheme is China Valdes (Jennifer Jones), whose brother had been executed by the government. As often happens in a John Huston film, the best-laid schemes of the protagonists go tragically awry. Based on a portion of Robert Sylvester's novel Rough Sketch, We Were Strangers was scripted by frequent Huston collaborator Peter Viertel. The film has the curious distinction of being lambasted by both the left-wing and right-wing critics in the U.S. Audiences were likewise underwhelmed, compelling Columbia Pictures to withdraw the film from distribution early on. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Robert Montgomery directed and starred in this exotic film noir set during a New Mexico fiesta. Montgomery plays a secretive ex-GI who plans to extort money from a prominent gangster (Fred Clark) as retribution for the death of Montgomery's best friend. An FBI man (Art Smith) would like the government to get the incriminating information on the gangster that Montgomery is carrying. Trailed by the FBI agent, Montgomery takes refuge at an old carousel, where he meets a Mexican gamin (Wanda Hendrix) who refuses to leave his side. The girl is on hand when the gangster catches up with Montgomery and has him beaten. She nurses Montgomery back to health, but the would-be blackmailer is determined to confront the gangster again. This time, however, the FBI agent comes to the rescue. Ride the Pink Horse is a properly moody melodrama, containing one of the few truly good performances from eternal ingenue Wanda Hendrix. The film was remade for TV in 1964 as The Hanged Man. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Kid (Duncan Renaldo) masquerades as a government inspector in this pleasant, and pleasantly tuneful, Cisco Kid series entry. Learning that his old friends have been killed and Manuel Gonzales (Tito Renaldo) wrongly accused of cattle rustling by corrupt district officer Miguel Sanchez (George J. Lewis), the Kid assumes the identity of the murdered government official. In town, Cisco discovers Manuel's sister, Dolores (Lillian Molieri), whom Sanchez is brutally forcing to sing for her supper, but using his usual cunning and with a bit of help from sidekick Pancho (Martin Garralaga) and jealous cantina girl Pepita (Armida), our hero soon gets the goods on the villainous district officer and his chief lieutenant Torres (Francis McDonald). A rather obviously dubbed Renaldo joins Armida, Lillian Molieri and The Guadalajara Trio in warbling "Adios Amor", by Louis Herscher and J. Castelleone), and a couple of standard Spanish ballads. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

A middle-aged Clark Gable returned from active duty in World War II to star in this MGM release that was heavily advertised as his big comeback. Gable is Harry Patterson, the bosun mate on a merchant marine vessel, a tough sailor and fighter with the proverbial girl in every port. But while in a San Francisco library, looking up a book on the human soul for his sidekick Mudgin (Thomas Mitchell), who thinks his soul has departed his body, Harry meets librarian Emily Sears (Greer Garson), whom he woos, marries, and leaves to sail off on another freighter. When he returns, Emily has retreated to an old farm to await the birth of their child. Harry continues to resent staying in one place, but he ultimately changes his tune when his baby's life hangs in the balance. Garson and Joan Blondell, playing her outspoken best friend, are both terrific, and Gable gives a less heroic performance that's a thoughtful change for him, although critics at the time were less than charitable. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

Like the John Steinbeck novel on which it is based, Tortilla Flat is not so much a movie as a series of warm-hearted anecdotes, all linked to a small California fishing village populated by poor but happy immigrants. The focus is upon Pilon (Spencer Tracy), a good-natured, charismatic freeloader, and Danny (John Garfield), a hot-headed fisherman who is dragged kicking and screaming into the world of personal responsibility when he inherits two small houses. As Pilon toys with the notion of stealing the nest egg saved up by an old man known as "the Pirate" (Frank Morgan), Danny tries to spark a romance with sexy cannery worker Dolores "Sweets" Ramirez (Hedy Lamarr). Abandoning the robbery plans when he learns that the Pirate intends to use his money to purchase a candlestick for St. Francis, Pilon turns his attentions to stealing Sweets away from Danny. But when Danny is injured in a drunken fight, the mercurial Pilon switches gears again, devoting his energies to bringing Danny and Sweets back together. Of the film's many highlights, standouts include the surprisingly effective "straight" performance by comic actor Frank Morgan (for which he received an Oscar nomination), and the seemingly improvised songfest between Spencer Tracy and John Garfield. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When MGM made a program western, it generally looked more expensive than an entire years' sagebrusher output at Monogram or PRC. MGM's Apache Trail stars Lloyd Nolan and William Lundigan as two brothers; Nolan is a bellicose highwayman, Lundigan a genial chap assigned guard duties. The main thrust of the film involves an Apache uprising triggered by the theft of a peace pipe. American-as-Cherry-Pie Donna Reed (who plays Lundigan's paramour) is herein cast as "Rosalia Martinez"! Based on a story by Ernest (Stagecoach) Haycox, Apache Trail was remade as Apache War Smoke. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi