Claire Rochelle Movies

A disparate group of women join the Women's Army Corps to fight WW II in this upbeat war-time drama. One of the women is a frivolous debutante who is informed that she will not receive a dime from the family fortune until she can prove herself mature enough not to squander it on nightclubs and fancy cafes. She joins up with no intention of remaining a WAC; as soon as she gets the money, she is planning to leave. Another recruit comes from an Army family and sees no other recourse than to join up to. The third gal is married to a soldier and wants to be close to him. The army brat and the debutante constantly lob barbed remarks at each other leaving the wife to try to make peace. Things get even more out of hand when the Army brat gets promoted and begins abusing her rank. Things come to a head when the debutante slaps her and is brought up on charges. Meanwhile the wife is devastated to learn that her husband has been killed. Still she says nothing and instead tries to get her other two cohorts to make up. Ironically, it is the pain of her loss that brings the three together and cements their friendship and commitment to the Corps. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

With such charismatic villains as John Carradine and J. Carroll Naish on hand in PRC's Waterfront, who cares about nominal leading man Terry Frost. The story is set in the docks of San Francisco, where Nazi spy Carl Decker (Naish) poses as a harmless optometrist. Decker is aided and abetted by fellow goose-stepper Victor Marlowe (Carradine), who keeps the local German-Americans in line by threatening them with reprisals against their families. The film's "Maguffin" is a code book, which briefly falls into the hands of hapless hero Jerry Donovan (Frost) and helpless heroine Freda Hauser (Maris Wrixon). Evidently the only thing that can save Democracy is a falling out between Decker and Marlowe, and that's just what happens in the final reel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comic murder mystery, two bail bondsmen try to help out a man who is suspected of stealing bonds from his partner. More mayhem ensues when the other partner is found dead. Now the bail bondsmen must try to prove the fellow is innocent before it is too late. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

As PRC pictures go, the modest Harvest Melody is practically a spectacular. Rosemary Lane plays former film star Gilda Parker, who hopes to regain her popularity with a carefully staged publicity stunt. Aiming for the "rural" trade, Gilda goes to work on a farm at harvest time. At the behest of Gilda's fast-talking agent Chuck (Sheldon Leonard), several other show-bizzers begin pitching hay alongside our heroine. A little more altruistic than Gilda is farmer's son Tommy (Johnny Downs), who turns down a chance at a movie contract to devote his energies to the establishment of a patriotic National Farm Labor Club. But he doesn't turn down Gilda, allowing the film to end happily. Outside of its better-than-average cast, the most impressive aspect of Harvest Melody is the glittering new PRC logo at the beginning of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Blonde, tough-looking Claire Rochelle played the main villain(ess) in this low-budget Western, an entry in PRC's "The Lone Rider" series starring former opera-singer George Houston. Houston and pal Al St. John come to the aid of their old friend Sheriff Smoky (Dennis Moore), who is having trouble with a power hungry cattle rancher, Huxley (Charles "Slim" Whitaker). The crooning "Lone Rider" and his sidekick go up against Huxley's powerful ally, bandit leader Nora Mason (Rochelle) and her chief lieutenant (Archie Hall), an outlaw disguised as a monk. Nora is a cattle rustler, a fact she hides from her friend, innocent Kate Stewart (Wanda McKay), whose brother (Karl Hackett) is killed by rancher Huxley. A necklace belonging to the wife of a notorious outlaw finally reveals Nora's real identity. The stalwart Houston, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, sang "Ride, Cowboy, Ride," "There's Only One Rose in Texas," and "We Will Meet in the Valley," all composed by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a woman performs a mercy killing and ends up in jail. To clear her name, she escapes and ends up hiding out with a kindly country doctor who helps her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Wild Bill Hickock (William Elliott), aka The Peaceable Man, meters out justice in the tough town of Deadwood in this highly fictional western from Columbia. Unlike the historic character, Elliott's gunfighter survives his encounter with the South Dakota hellhole, where he arrives to aid beleaguered livery stable owner Clint Wilson (Richard Fiske) and his sister, Madge (Dorothy Fay), in their battle against self-appointed town czar "Flash" Kirby (Arthur Loft). But before he gets that far, there is a little matter of proving Kirby guilty of wrongdoing and to achieve that, Wild Bill earns the enmity of both the Wilsons. Comic sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) relieves the tension by performing Milton Drake's "Of Course, It's Your Horse" and "Saturday Night in San Antone", both numbers culminating with an unwanted shower. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Ken Maynard's western series for bottom-barrel Colony Pictures sputtered along with Lightning Strikes West. Former government agent Ken Morgan (Maynard) is pressed back into service when bank robber Taggart (Michael Wallon) escapes from jail. Morgan's principal nemesis is Taggart's partner Laikon (the ineluctable Charles King), who also happens to be the cruel guardian of heroine Mae (Claire Rochelle). The screenplay is credited to Martha Chapin, but it appears as though star Maynard contributed a few of his characteristically bizarre and non-sequitur adlibs along the way. Not long after Lightning Strikes West, Ken Maynard left films for a couple of years to concentrate on personal appearances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Carl Krusada (aka Val Cleveland) was credited with the screenplay for this typically inferior Jack Randall oater from Poverty Row company Monogram. In reality, the story of a drifter helping a sheriff catch a gang of smugglers was as old as the hills of Chatsworth, CA, where The Kid From Santa Fe was filmed in little under a week. Appointed deputy sheriff by Sheriff Holt (Forrest Taylor), the Santa Fe Kid (Randall) is soon framed in the murder of Kent (George Chesebro), one of the outlaws. Escaping from jail courtesy of the sheriff's lovesick daughter (Clarene Curtis), the Kid is trailed by Millie (Claire Rochelle), Kent's girlfriend who succeeds in knocking him into the river. Presumed to have drowned, the Kid returns to town very much alive and ready to track down the real killer, Bill Stewart (Tom London), the murdered man's partner. Randall, who was nearing the end of his four-year Western sojourn, was the brother of popular B-Western star Robert Livingston. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In his sixth and final Western release of 1939, diminutive Bob Steele played a cowboy, who, searching for his father's killer, is mistaken for a notorious outlaw in a corrupt border town. Directed by producer Harry S. Webb's younger brother Ira, El Diablo Rides featured the usual Metropolitan Pictures stock company of villains, including Carleton Young, Ted Adams, and Robert Walker. The barely released Western, however, was a far cry from Bob Steele's main effort of 1939, the role of Curly in Lewis Milestone's perhaps definitive version of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The fourth of eight ramshackle Bob Steele oaters ground out by Metropolitan Pictures 1939-1940, Riders of the Sage joined the growing list of B-Westerns dealing with the cattle rancher vs. homesteader problem. The site of the trouble this time is Apache Basin, into which rides innocent Bob Burke (Steele). Bob soon joins the forces of homesteader Jim Martin, whose son, Tom (Dave O'Brien), has been kidnapped by the nasty Halsey brothers: Luke (Carleton Young) and Hank (Earl Douglas). With the help of Poe Powers (Ted Adams), a Robin Hood-like masked outlaw and the leader of the legendary "Riders of the Sage," Bob gets the goods on the Halseys and peace is soon restored. Despite the always welcome sight of Steele, Dave O'Brien, and leading lady Claire Rochelle (as the Halseys' rebellious sister), Riders of the Sage was soundly defeated by producer/director Harry S. Webb's slipshod production methods. As he had in the previous Steele entry, Mesquite Buckaroo (1939), villain Carleton Young billed himself as Gordon Roberts. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The first of four Fred Scott singing Westerns produced by C.C. Burr, Code of the Fearless was like all thirteen Scott vehicles released by poverty row company Spectrum Pictures. Scott, a former baritone with the San Francisco Opera, played a Texas Ranger infiltrating the feared Skull Mesa Gang by pretending to be an outlaw himself. Unfortunately, the lawman is so convincing that he even seems to have fooled Ranger Captain Walter McGrail, who accuses him of fraternizing with the enemy. Scott's only defender is pretty Jean Morrison (Claire Rochelle) but even she is dumbfounded when he joins the Skull Mesa bandits at their secret hideout. It is all a ruse, of course, and Captain Rawlins and his Rangers arrive just in time to round up the entire gang. The story had been told many times before (and would be many times again); the only difference here is that Scott took time out to warble such ditties as Here's Romance and Gonna Ride, both by Lew Porter and Johnny Lange. Popular sidekick Al St. John, who had supported Scott in seven previous Westerns, was replaced here by former burlesque comic Harry Harvey. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide