Alan Roscoe Movies

While Tonart Studios is filming a gangster movie, one of the actors is killed in a shooting accident. After several other incidents occur, police begin to think of sabotage. Their list of suspects includes the studio chief (Alexander Carr), his manager (Bela Lugosi), the director of the film (Edward Van Sloan) and an actress (Adrienne Ames). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

This western features a case of mistaken identity after a friendly cowboy is thought to be the dreaded outlaw "Denver Ed." Now the cowpoke must prove his innocence before he and his gal can find peace and happiness. Mayhem ensues, but justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A varied group of more or less greedy relatives is once again gathered at the reading of a will in this atmospheric thriller from low-budget Monogram Pictures. But this time, the benefactor, Silas Wayne (William V. Mong), isn't quite dead yet and the law, in the persons of dense Lieutenant Mitchell (Regis Toomey) and his equally addle-brained reporter girlfriend, Toodles (June Clyde), is already present in the room. Suddenly, Silas slumps over and Dr. Bailey (Jason Robards) pronounces him very much dead, the victim of a vicious dagger. But whodunit? And how? Among the suspects are the deceased's housekeeper, Mrs. Sheen (Lucille La Verne), niece Sarah (Isabelle Vecki), and her husband, Stephen (Alan Roscoe), and nephews Robert (Dwight Frye) and Claude (Eddie Phillips). The latter, however, has gone missing and is later found strangled in a closet by a terrified Toodles. The old man's innocent ward, Gloria (Nadine Dore), then finds herself kidnapped by a masked figure who, as Lieutenant Mitchell discovers, is none other than.... Well, suffice it to say, the murderer proves to be the least obvious suspect. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Future Academy Award-winner Hattie McDaniel briefly brightened the proceedings in this, one of her two B-Western appearances in 1932. (The other was George O'Brien's The Golden West.) The rotund African-American comedienne portrays a cook on a ranch belonging to banker Tom Kirk (Lafe McKee). Also working on the premises is Jimmy Duncan (Hoot Gibson), an unruly young man who has promised his Uncle George (George Hayes) he will behave (or else...!). Treacherous bank teller Holt Narbrough (Wheeler Oakman), who not only desires Kirk's ranch, but also his pretty daughter, Laura (Helen Foster), attempts to rid himself of an irritating rival by constantly picking fights with Jimmy. The latter, however, is steadfast in his resolve and soon becomes the laughing stock among the ranch hands. In the end, Jimmy earns both Laura's love and Uncle George's respect by foiling a bank robbery. The Boiling Point was one in a series of cheap Westerns Hoot Gibson made for low-budget company Allied Pictures from 1931 to 1933. Gibson, whose generosity was legendary, found employment for old friends such as Roy "Skeeter Bill" Robbins and Fred Gilman in all of his Allied films, including The Boiling Point. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location at Lone Pine, CA, this above average Ken Maynard oater features the veteran cowboy star in the title role, a former cavalry officer sent up the river with an accomplice, Bouncer (Nat Pendleton), convicted for failing to pay a restaurant bill. When Judy Brooks (Ivy Merton) announces her intention of running the champion horse Tarzan in the upcoming Big Race, rancher Mark Edmunds (Alan Roscoe) threatens her certain victory by securing ace horseman Austin's release from the chain gang. But Ken overhears Edmunds plotting to sabotage Tarzan and switches sides. Does he win the race on Tarzan instead? Why, of course he does! ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a detective is called in to investigate the fate of a derelict ship that was found floating off the coast of Port Said. But for a madman and a woman, the ship is empty. The investigator soon reveals a plot involving the destruction of the vessel and insurance money. When the crew found out about it, they mutinied. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Last Mile is the film version of the 1930 John Wexley play which previously brought stage fame to both Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable. Wrongly accused of murder, young businessman Richard Walters (Howard Phillips, repeating his stage role) is sentenced to Death Row. Here he gets swept up in a jail break engineered by the desperate Killer Mears (Preston S. Foster), who grabs the keys of a guard and takes control of the cell block, holding the guards as hostages and freeing the other condemned prisoners. Refusing to accede to Mears' demands for a fast car and head start, the warden precipitates a bloodbath, with Walters caught in the middle of the fray. Ultimately, however, Mears sacrifices his own life in hopes of sparing Walters. In the original play, the Richard Walters character was guilty and went to the electric chair halfway through the first act; in the film, Walters's pathetic farewell speech and "long walk" were inherited by secondary character Berg (George E. Stone). Fairly strong stuff for its time, The Last Mile is actually superior to its more explicit 1959 remake, which starred Mickey Rooney as Killer Mears. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Columbia spent the 1920s and 1930s dusting off its reliable "two guys/one girl" military plotline and dressing it up in a variety of uniforms. Dirigible was the 1931 edition of this old chestnut, with navy pilots Jack Holt and Ralph Graves battling over the affections of Fay Wray. The film picks up tremendously during an experimental dirigible flight over the Antarctic, which crashes upon a remote iceberg. The in-flight footage during this scene and the subsequent rescue is remarkable, making up for the banality of the romantic subplot. Much of Dirigible was filmed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, where the era of passenger airships would come to a fiery end six years later with the Hindenberg. Reportedly, Boris Karloff shows up unbilled as one of the Navy crewmen in the crash scene; try to find him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A wimpy king is forced to take responsibility for his little North Sea island kingdom after his iron-fisted wife goes on a vacation to the US in this comedy. Soon after she leaves, his subjects launch a revolt and the flighty fellow must quickly figure out what to do. Things get worse when his daughter tells him that she plans to marry a commoner. Fortunately, once the king makes his decisions, things settle down and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Adapted from a play by Eva Kay Flint and Martha Madison, Subway Express takes place entirely on a single subway car. When a murder is committed, the passengers are ordered to stay put while police inspector Killian (Jack Holt) investigates. From all appearances, it would seem that the victim was shot, but the coroner declares that the wound was administered after the man was dead. Piecing the clues together, Killian concludes that the killer used an electrical shock to dispatch the victim -- and after administering a psychological third degree, he extracts a confession from the guilty party. The supporting cast is comprised of the usual stereotypes, including the inevitable dumb flatfoot played by the inevitable Fred Kelsey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After serving as comedy relief in three big-budget RKO Radio musicals, the comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were rewarded with their own starring vehicle, the dated but still delightful Half Shot at Sunrise. Set in Paris during WWI, the film casts Bert and Bob as Gilbert and Tommy, two AWOL doughboys. When not posing as officers to impress the local mademoiselles, our heroes spend their time ducking a pair of diligent MPs, and while doing so make the acquaintance of the hoydenish Annette (Dorothy Lee), the daughter of dyspeptic Colonel Marshall (George MacFarlane) and Marshall's snooty wife (Edna May Oliver). Tommy falls in love with Annette, while Gilbert is equally enamored of Olga (Leni Stengel), the Colonel's sultry lady friend. Hoping to save the boys from court-martial by turning them into war heroes, Annette and Olga contrive to send Gilbert and Tommy to the Front with "borrowed" secret orders. After nearly being killed by enemy shellfire, the two errant soldiers are arrested and brought to Marshall's headquarters, averting a firing squad only by revealing that their "secret orders" were actually love letters written to the Colonel by the flirtatious Olga. There are many funny routines in Half Shot at Sunrise (the scene in which Wheeler and Woolsey pose as French waiters is a riot), and the songs, particularly the Wheeler-Lee duet "Whistling the Blues Away," are quite entertaining. But the film's highlight is an uncharacteristic "straight" scene toward the end, when a panic-stricken Woolsey risks death to rescue an injured Wheeler from No Man's Land (and never mind that the scene ends with a satirically comic punch line). Half Shot a Sunrise proved beyond all doubt that Wheeler and Woolsey could carry a picture by themselves; they would remain top box-office attractions until Bob Woolsey's death in 1938. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Legendary Broadway comedian Joe Cook, who was capable of reducing audiences to paroxysms of helpless laughter by telling them what he wasn't going to do that evening, was invariably better than the shows in which he appeared. Fully aware of this, director Frank Capra brought Cook's 1928 stage musical Rain or Shine to the screen, cutting all of its songs and concentrating almost exclusively on the star. The mere wisp of a plot focuses on the tinker-toy travelling circus owned by heroine Joan Peers. Advance-man Cook does his best to stir up business and to avoid the sheriffs and process-servers, but it's an uphill battle. The climactic tent-fire scene is a cinematic tour de force for Capra, who'd improve upon it one year later in The Miracle Woman (1931). While Joe Cook's non-sequitur patter seems more bizarre than funny at times, he is always worth watching, as are his perennial stooges Tom Howard (who looks astonishingly like Robert Woolsey of Wheeler & Woolsey fame) and Dave Chasen (yes, the same Dave Chasen who later became a celebrated Hollywood restaurateur). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide