Turhan Bey Movies

When the film rights to its "Saint" series proved too expensive to renew, RKO Radio came up with a lookalike property in the form of "The Falcon", even engaging George Sanders, the best of the "Saint" impersonators, to play the studio's newest gentleman detective. The Gay Falcon opens as Gay Lawrence (Sanders) -- aka the Falcon -- is hired to guard a priceless diamond. When the owner of the gem is murdered, suspicious immediately falls upon Lawrence's ex-con chauffeur Goldie (Allen Jenkins). Two more killings occur before Lawrence is able to uncover the insurance scam behind it all. Along the way, he romance a pair of toothsome leading ladies, Helen (played by series regular Wendy Barrie) and Elinor (Anne Hunter). Hans Conried contributes a sparkling bit as a snide police sketch artist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in the burning Arabian desert, this action-adventure centers on the attempts of a well-meaning and wealthy fellow to turn a village into a democracy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Shadows on the Stairs is a slimmed-down adaptation of Frank Vosper's stage play Murder on the 2nd Floor. There's dirty work afoot at the London boarding house managed by Mr. and Mrs. Armitage (Miles Mander, Frieda Inescourt): several mysterious murders have occured, and everyone is under suspicion. One of the tenants is Mr. Bromilow (Bruce Lester), who weaves in and out of the proceedings with the all-knowing air of one who's already figured out the solution to the murders. Indeed, Bromilow has done just that, as demonstrated by a twist ending that would have done Alfred Hitchcock or Rod Serling proud. Otherwise, Shadows on the Stairs is standard stuff, standardly produced. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Dead End Kids take on a sinister gang of Japanese terrorists in this 12-chapter followup to the 1940 Universal serial Junior G-Men. When Eddie Holden (Gene Reynolds), the inventor brother of street-gang leader Billy Holden (Billy Halop), is kidnapped by minions of the Black Dragon society, Billy refuses to go to the police for help. Instead, he and his pals-Bolts Larson (Huntz Hall), Stick Munsey (Gabe Dell) and Greaseball Plunkett (Bernard Punsly)-decide to take on the villains themselves. Over the course of twelve weeks, the kids are pitted against the worst kinds of villains and pluguglies, but by the final chapter our heroes have thwarted the Black Dragons' plans to sabotage the American defense program. Despite the serial's title, however, the "Junior G-Men" hardly spend any time at all in the air. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A "B" picture with "A" aspirations, Bombay Clipper mostly takes place on a flight from India to San Francisco. Someone has absconded with $4,000,000 worth of diamonds, and that someone may very well be a passenger on the Bombay Clipper. International news correspondent Jim (William Gargan) hopes to solve the mystery for two reasons-to get a big scoop for his paper, and to repair his tattered marriage to long-suffering Frankie (Irene Hervey). Less than five minutes before the end, the jewel thief is revealed, whereupon the culprit tries to take over the plane and dispose of the other passengers. Fat chance! Obviously made on a tight budget, Bombay Clipper is nonetheless beautifully and meticulously photographed by Stanley Cortez, who on the strength of this and other Universal projects was signed by Orson Welles to lens the classic Magnificent Ambersons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A talented cast hacks its way through a so-so script and miles of stock footage in Universal's Drums of the Congo. In the heart of Africa, naval intelligence officer Kirk (Don Terry) searches for a rare metal vital to the war effort (just why it's vital is never thoroughly explained). He is aided in his quest by missionary Ann Montgomery (Ona Munson) and by dishevelled "bwana" Congo Jack (Stu Erwin). Alas, a couple of minions of the Third Reich are also after the elusive metal, and they're not above committing murder to get what they want. The most novel aspect of Drums of the Congo is the casting of likeable, fresh-faced Universal ingenue Peggy Moran as one of the villains. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

You cannot keep a good mummy down forever and Kharis is back in this sequel to The Mummy's Hand, which itself was something of a remake of the classic Boris Karloff thriller of 1935, The Mummy. Although assumed to have been killed by Stephen Banning (Dick Foran) in the previous film, Andoheb (George Zucco) has miraculously survived and is now planning a terrible revenge on both Banning and his entire family in Mapleton, MA. With High Priest Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey) as his faithful companion, Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) takes up residence in a Mapleton graveyard where the mysterious Mr. Bey somehow has obtained the job of caretaker. At the first full moon, the mummy is fed enough tanna leaves to break into the Banning residence and kill the now elderly Stephen. To find out what exactly happened, the dead man's son, John (John Hubbard), gets in contact with Babe Hanson (Wallace Ford), one of the members of the original Banning expedition to Egypt. Neither Babe nor John can prevent Kharis from killing Stephen's sister, Jane (Mary Gordon), or from kidnapping John's blonde fiancée, Isobel (Elyse Knox). A posse of upset citizens advances to the graveyard where Mehemet Bey has been promising to literally spend an eternity with Isobel. Interrupted in these romantic pursuits, Bey hands the girl over to Kharis before being shot by John. Carrying a prostrate Isobel, Kharis shuffles back to the Banning estate, which is soon set afire by the mob. Isobel is rescued in the nick of time by John and Kharis perishes in the flames. Or does he? ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

No relation to the 1933 film of the same name, the 1942 Universal programmer Destination Unknown stars William Gargan as a pilot for General Chennault's Flying Tigers. As such, Gargan is on hand to witness Japanese skullduggery in China, long before Pearl Harbor. When a cache of jewels, intended to finance Chiang Kai-Shek's fight against the Japanese invaders, disappears, Gargan and adventuress Irene Hervey desperately search for the missing gems. Everyone seems to be awfully mercenary, but patriotism wins out before the end. As was customary in wartime films, the Japanese in Destination Unknown are depicted as offensively as traffic would allow, so it's best to regard this film within the context of its times. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The general perception of the Technicolor costume adventure movies that Maria Montez and Jon Hall made for Universal in the early 1940's is that they were pure escapist entertainment, intended to make people forget for an hour or so about the Second World War and the general world situation. And generally that is true about them -- they were mostly no "about" much more than having fun for 90 minutes or so amid pretty sets with lots of action and some pretty women in exotic outfits. But watching Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, one has to wonder if even here the screenwriter, Edmund L. Hartmann, was able to totally get away from the day-to-day reality around him. The opening Mongol invasion of Bagdad and the murder of the old Caliph (Moroni Olsen) while trying to set up a government-in-exile without thinking of the German and Japanese conquests and occupations of various nations that would have been going on at the time; additionally, the fact that the old Caliph is murdered with the help of a traitor in his own noble ranks -- a "quisling" in the term coined during World War II -- wouldn't have been missed by audiences at the time. Further, the screenplay very specifically paints the forty thieves as heroes who have gone from being criminals to an active resistance force against the occupying Mongols -- indeed, at the denouement, their invasion of the palace is greeted as a day of liberation by the people of Bagdad. The movie walks a strange tightrope, casting about veiled topical references of that sort, even as is otherwise sufficiently tongue-in-cheek to cast Andy Devine as a desert bandit. Obviously, Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves was sold as -- and mostly intended as -- light entertainment, but just below that glitzy Technicolor surface were some fascinating allusions to the real world. None of this stops Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves from being immense fun -- it is, even if the "fun" isn't totally escapist in nature -- and it's great to look at as well, even 60 years on; Universal has apparently kept preservation-quality source materials on this and Hall and Montez's other Technicolor costume romps. And this particular entry in that group of movies also contains one very instructive clue to the morays and censorship of the time in one scene, in which the hero meets the heroine bathing at an oasis -- the makers seem to have been forced to insert a particular shot that is there for no other reason then to make it clear that she is not totally naked when he sees her. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This frothy fantasy adventure centers upon the exotic romance between a shark fisherman (the sharks he captured are used for the manufacture of vitamin A) and the beautiful princess of Temple Island. They meet when the fisherman asks a young boy with royal connections to introduce him to the princess so he can ask for permission to fish the teeming waters near the island. The boy introduces the hunter to the girl and love immediately blossoms until he makes his request. She believes that he is really only looking for a way to steal the treasure located in the temple pool, and she banishes him. The boy has other plans for them though. At the same time, a crooked treasure-seeking trader conspires to get the booty for himself.. A major confrontation between good guys and bad eventually ensues with wild accusations flying like palm fronds in a hurricane. The shark hunter is accused of murder and imprisoned. Once again, the brave boy comes to his rescue and together they set out to prove his innocence. The story reaches its climax at the great temple that gave the island its name. A terrible earthquake ensures that the villains get their due. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This lavish, 145-minute cinemadaptation of the Pearl Buck best-seller Dragon Seed was intended by MGM as a followup to the studio's successful film version of Buck's The Good Earth. In true Hollywood fashion, the Chinese protagonists are all played by Caucasian actors, with fascinating if not always convincing results. When a peaceful Chinese village is invaded by the Japanese prior to WW2, the men elect to adopt a peaceful, don't-rock-the-boat attitude towards their conquerors-and it is understood that the women will stoically acquiesce as well. But Jade (Katharine Hepburn), a headstrong young woman, intends to stand up to the Japanese whether her husband Lao Er (Turhan Bey) approves or not. She even goes so far as to learn to read and to handle a weapon, so that she may properly equipped for both psychological and physical combat. Jade's attitude spreads to the rest of the village, convincing even the staunchest of male traditional that the Japanese can be defeated only by offering a strong united front-male and female. Alas, there are a few Quislings in their midst, notably avaricious merchant Wu Lien (Akim Tamiroff), who learns all too late the terrible cost of collaboration. While it seems odd to see so many non-Orientals-Walter Huston, Agnes Moorehead, Hurd Hatfield, J. Carroll Naish-in the major roles, Dragon Seed manages to retain its power and entertainment value even 50 years after the fact (Incidentally, there are a few genuine Chinese in the cast-most of them playing Japanese!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paramount Pictures did their patriotic duty with this World War II era musical, with a number of the studio's biggest stars making cameo appearances. Tony West (George Raft), his sister Kitty (Grace McDonald), and their father Nick (Charles Grapewin) tour together as The Three Wests, a failing act just scraping by in the latter days of vaudeville. With job opportunities drying up on the East Coast, Tony persuades the family to take their chances in California, and for once luck is with him. Not long after arriving in Hollywood, Tony is hired as a chorus boy on a musical starring Latin bombshell Vera Zorina (Gloria Vance). Cocky Tony offers Vera some much-needed advice on her dancing. She's intrigued by his confidence, and a romance blooms; soon, the two marry. Tony becomes a major star as Vera's on and off screen dancing partner, but when World War II breaks out, Tony's conscience gets the better of him. Tony is 4-F because of a bad knee, but he's ashamed to admit this, even to Vera, who thinks he's avoiding the service out of cowardice. Vera eventually gives Tony his walking papers, and desperate to show his support of our troops, Tony organizes an all-star U.S.O. revue bringing much needed entertainment to America's fighting men overseas. Follow the Boys also features guest shots by Marlene Dietrich, W.C. Fields (demonstrating trick billiard shots), Orson Welles (doing his magic act), Dinah Shore, The Andrews Sisters, Jeanette MacDonald, Sophie Tucker, Randolph Scott, Lon Chaney Jr., and Maria Montez, among many others. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this costume drama, a woman travels from New England to California's Barbary coast to avenge her brother's death. There she becomes a saloon singer in a sleazy bar, the bar frequented by the killer. The bar's owner, and the local crime lord begin fighting over control of coastal operations. The woman falls for the bar owner until she learns that he may have been involved in her brother's demise. Happiness ensues when it is discovered that the brother is not dead at all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide