Gloria Shea Movies

This Frankie Darro-Kane Richmond vehicle benefits from the brisk direction of onetime serial star Charles Hutchison. Richmond plays Bomber Brown, a pugilist forced to go on the lam after he punches out crooked gambler Smoothy (Jack LaRue). Travelling incognito bomber befriends aspiring boxer Baby Face (Darro) and trains the boy for the Championship. Smoothy tries to sabotage Baby Face's career, but Bomber cleans the villain's clock once and for all. Produced independently by the parsimonious Maurice Conn, Born to Fight is at its best in the boxing scenes, photographed with all the slick efficiency of an "A" production. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This drama focuses upon a beleaguered surgeon. He is first involved with a social-climbing fiancee who constantly puts him down. Then he suffers amnesia and wakes to find himself in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Though he cannot remember his name, his medical skills remain intact and he is able to find work as a steel mill doctor helping injured workers. There he encounters a thug who wants to destroy the mill and kill him. After the good doctor saves the life of the thug's son, the bad-guy has a change of heart and spares the doctor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Apparently having cornered the market in white-collar crooks in 1935, Sidney Blackmer plays a shifty financier in Monogram's The Great God Gold. Blackmer is cast as John Hart, a "receivership representative" for shysters Nitto (Edwin Maxwell) and Simon (John T. Murray). Hart's present assignment is to claim the meager assets of heroine Marcia Harper (Martha Sleeper), who has unfortunately inherited her father's debts. Embittered by this, Marcia devotes her life to smashing the receivership "racket." She finds an ally in the form of reporter Phil Stuart (Regis Toomey), whose mysterious acquisition of an old Roman coin somehow helps to bring about Hart's downfall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

RKO Radio's spectacular production The Last Days of Pompeii utilizes the title but precious little else of the famous Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton historical novel (at least the film admits as much in the opening credits). Preston S. Foster stars as Marcus, a happy-go-lucky Ancient Roman blacksmith who is plunged into the depths of despair when his wife and child are killed by a hit-and-run chariot. Undergoing a radical personality change, Marcus becomes obsessed with money and prestige, and to achieve these he becomes a mighty gladiator. While on a visit to Judea, Marcus takes orphaned boy Flavius (David Holt) under his wing and also spends some time with governor Pontius Pilate (Basil Rathbone), who is presently preoccupied with the execution of a subversive young rabbi named Jesus Christ. Witnessing Christ's march to Calvary, Marcus is moved by His plight, but does nothing to help the man and indeed dismisses the whole notion of Christianity as superstitious nonsense. Years later, an ageing Marcus takes up residence in a lavish villa in the resort town of Pompeii, while his grown-up foster son, Flavius (now played by John Wood), gets involved in the burgeoning Christian movement. Arrested by the authorities, Flavius and his fellow Christians are sentenced to death in the arena, much to the dismay of Marcus. Still, it takes the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii for Marcus to undergo his long-overdue religious awakening, and in the moments before he himself is engulfed by lava he arranges the escape of Flavius and the young man's sweetheart, Clodia (Dorothy Wilson). The climactic volcanic holocaust is a triumph of special effects, but that was to be expected from the production team of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, the same folks responsible for King Kong. Though Preston S. Foster delivers one of his finest performances in The Last Days of Pompeii, the film's acting honors go to Basil Rathbone as Pilate, who transforms from a swaggering young skeptic to a conscience-stricken old man. On its original release, the film lost 237,000 dollars, but in the long run made a profit via periodic reissues. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Buster Crabbe plays one of his more offbeat roles in Mayfair's Badge of Honor. Crabbe is cast as Bob Gordon, a spoiled society boy who finds himself in a small town, rife with political corruption. Hoping to bring the crooks to justice, Bob poses as a hotshot reporter, getting away with all sorts of outrages by explaining "Well, a newspaperman can do a little bit of everything." He manages to thwart the villains and win the heroine (Ruth Hall), all in a tight 62 minutes. Long believed lost, Badge of Honor was rediscovered in South America in the 1980s: currently available prints are in English with Spanish subtitles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

From low-budget Mayfair Pictures Corp., this robust action-melodrama starred Larry "Buster" Crabbe as an oil prospector whose financial backer turns crooked when he suddenly finds himself faced with bankruptcy. Learning that Dave Warren (Crabbe) has been forced to fire a troublesome worker, Simmons (Max Wagner), the backer, J.T. Varley (George Irving), convinces the man to sabotage Dave's truck. Happily, Dave survives, but his girlfriend, Alice (Gloria Shea), Varley's niece, refuses to believe that her uncle is behind the scheme. Cornered by Dave, Varley confesses that he attempted to rob him and that he hired Simmons. The latter is apprehended just as Dave hits the mother lode. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Money Means Nothing to tire salesman Kenneth (Wallace Ford), mainly because he doesn't have any. But when Kenneth falls in love with wealthy Julie (Gloria Shea), he feels obliged to support her in the manner to which she is accustomed. Thus, when a shipment of tires is hijacked, Kenneth is immediately fingered as the thief. He isn't, of course, and sets about to prove it -- and to be at last accepted by Julie's snobbish mother (Betty Blythe). A Jewish-comedy sequence with dialectian Tenen Holtz may be considered offensive by modern viewers (it was certainly regarded that way back in 1934). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

To say that Smoking Guns is one of Ken Maynard's strangest Westerns is understating the case. The film wastes no time getting started, with Ken Masters (Maynard) in mid-sentence accusing the villain (Harold Goodwin) of murdering Masters' father. Framed for murder himself, our hero is forced to escape to the swamplands of Louisiana, where he is pursued by lawman Dick (Walter Miller). Rescuing Dick from a pack of hungry alligators, Masters is forced to perform an emergency leg amputation, which, combined with a bad case of jungle fever, unfortunately results in the lawman's death. Astonished at the close resemblance between himself and Dick (the two men are actually about as similar as Abbott and Costello!), Masters decides to assume Dick's identity and return to the dead man's hometown. He manages to pull off his masquerade with everyone, even Dick's fiancee Alice (Gloria Shea), thereby giving himself free reign to finally trap the bad guys in a spooky old mansion. Decked out with a serpentine plotline that would do Erich Von Stroheim proud, Smoking Guns doesn't make much sense, but that's part of the fun -- as is the astonishing final shot, wherein the heroine's low-cut blouse threatens to slip from her shoulders as she and the hero ride off together. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his first of thirty-two B-Westerns for producer A.W. Hackel, bantamweight Bob Steele plays Bob Worth, a cowboy seeking employment at Lita Morton's (Gloria Shea) New Mexico ranch. Lita's brother Bud (Nick Stuart) turns him down flat and instead puts the property up for sale. The buyer, Dyer (Walter McGrail), has Bud assassinated on his way to deposit the first payment and Bob, who merely happens to find the body, is accused of the deed by Lita. Wounded by Dyer, Bob finds shelter with Mexican outlaw Gallindo (Don Alvarado) and concocts a plan to trap the killer. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

"Thou Shall Not Be Caught" is the commandment referred to in this low-budget melodrama ostensibly based on Ella Wendel, a New York recluse whose death provoked an avalanche of claimants to her 36-million-dollar estate. Poverty Row company Allied Pictures raised the amount to 50 million dollars and had Alan Hale act the dead woman's long-lost husband, a circus knife-thrower who promptly kills his present wife and makes plans to claim the fortune through the daughter he had also deserted. By the time Hale reaches New York City, other claimants are already pounding on executor William V. Mong's door, including a floozy (Marie Prevost), hired by the lawyer's partner (Theodore Von Eltz), and pretty Gloria Shea, who may or may not be Hale's daughter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this musical western, everybody sings, even the outlaws. The story follows a government agent who goes undercover as a musical ventriloquist named Fiddlin' to find an ruthless outlaw and his gang. The gang comes to Fiddlin's town, commits a robbery and leaves the ventriloquist to shoulder the blame. He is jailed, escapes, catches the gang, and saves the kidnapped heroine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two-bit hoofer Joe (Edward Norris) hires starry-eyed Sally (Evelyn Knapp) for his vaudeville act. They marry, but the pressures of show business, coupled with Joe's irresponsibility, leads to a breakup. Lou Kenton (Mae Busch), a tough broad with a heart of gold, decides to help the pregnant Sally by introducing her to big-time Broadway producer Wade Valentine (Alan Dinehart). Our heroine skyrockets to stardom, while Valentine subsidizes her private life and even pays the hospital bills when Sally's baby is born. He finally asks her to marry him -- but incredibly, her heart still belongs to Joe, who manages to show up at fadeout time for a tearful reconciliation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide