Paula Stone Movies

Laugh it Off was one of two Johnny Downs vehicles released within the same week in December of 1939 (the other was Bad Boy). Downs plays Stephen Hannis, a Broadway bandleader who aspires to become a lawyer. He gets his big break when he champions the cause of a group of elderly ex-chorus dancers who've been booted out of their retirement home. The thorn in the hero's side is gangster Phil Ferranti (Horace McMahon), who wants to take over operation of the home for his own nefarious purposes. Among the venerable damsels appearing in Laugh it Off are Marjorie Rambeau, Cecil Cunningham and Hedda Hopper, the latter already well established as a Hollywood columnist. For romantic purposes, Johnny Downs is teamed up with a somewhat younger showgirl, played by Constance Moore. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Atlantic Flight was designed as a vehicle for Dick Merrill, a real-life pilot then very much in the news because of his record-breaking flights. Merrill is cast as flyboy Dick Bennett, the best friend of aspiring aircraft designer Bill (Weldon Heyburn). Entering a national air meet, Dick is prevented from flying by an unscrupulous phony nobleman (Ivan Lebedeff), whereupon darn-fool-kid Bill flies his new plane himself. On cue, Bill crashes to the ground, and soon is hovering between life and death in the hospital. Only a rare miracle serum can save Bill's life, but the only supply is in London. Dick volunteers to make the round-trip flight to retrieve the serum, thereby setting yet another air record (48 hours!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This western tells the story of a brave Army captain assigned to escort an important official's daughter through Indian country. Unfortunately, a pair of wicked buffalo hunters have been trying to upset the Cheyenne by breaking the treaty the woman's father created; they are hunting the massive beasts. The woman gets entangled with the crooks after her guide is tossed in the poky and the fed-up Cheyenne begin waging war. Fortunately, the hero manages to escape and mount his trick horse to stop the villains and restore peace. Look for super-athlete Jim Thorpe as the Cheyenne leader. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This drama is set at a struggling radio station. To drum up more listeners, the station owner dredges up an old mystery and tells her announcer to make it into a serial. He and his secretary are against the idea because the story is true. The broadcasts create problems for the woman originally acquitted of the charge. Over the last two decades, she has married and raised a daughter who is getting ready to marry the son of a prominent industrialist. The airing of her mother's old dirty laundry threatens to destroy her upcoming nuptials. The mother and her husband are so distraught that they kill themselves. The bereaved daughter, blaming the radio station for her parents' demise, goes there to kill the announcer. Her fiancé follows and mayhem ensues. The story is also called One Fatal Hour. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Filmed in two weeks at Red Rock Canyon and Lone Pine, California, Hop-Along Cassidy was the opener of one of the best -- and most fondly remembered -- B-Western series of all time. Former silent screen star William Boyd regained his lost fame playing the prematurely gray, black-clad hero of pulp-writer Clarence E. Mulford's Bar 20 stories, with young Paramount contract player James Ellison as handsome sidekick Johnny Nelson and Charles Middleton (in a surprisingly low-key performance) as Cassidy's old friend, Buck Peters. Bill Cassidy arrives at the Bar-20 ranch in the middle of a range war with the neighboring Meeker spread. Old man Meeker (Robert Warwick) has been driving his cattle onto Bar-20 land for water against Buck's wishes. Cattle begin to disappear from both ranches and a couple of Meeker cowboys are shot. Meeker blames the Bar-20 crew but his daughter Mary (Paula Stone), who is in love with Johnny Nelson, believes in their innocence. Looking out for the headstrong Johnny, Cassidy is shot in the leg, thus acquiring his famous nickname of "Hop-Along." Bar-20 oldtimer Uncle Ben (George "Gabby" Hayes) discovers that cattle from both ranches have their brands altered and the two ranches band together to trap a vicious gang of rustlers lead by Meeker's unscrupulous foreman Pecos Jack Anthony (Kenneth Thomson). In the ensuing war, Uncle Ben is killed by Anthony but "Hop-Along" manages to catch the killer, whom he drives off a cliff to his death. With the Dance of the Furies from Gluck's Orfeo et Euridice underscoring the climactic ride, Hop-Along Cassidy proved a fast-paced, well-acted opener to the series. George "Gabby" Hayes, whose contribution to this success was vital, returned in the next entry, The Eagle's Brood (1935), as as a bartender, finally finding his true place in the "Hopalong Cassidy" oeuvre as Windy, Hopalong's grizzled old windbag of a sidekick, in the third film, Bar 20 Rides Again. Producer Sherman left Paramount in 1942 in favor of United Artists where the "Hopalong" series continued to flourish until 1948. Boyd then bought the rights to the films and re-edited them for television. The 1949-1951 Hopalong Cassidy series was so popular that Boyd filmed 52 new half-hour episodes for the 1952-1954 seasons. Hop-Along Cassidy, the initial "Hopalong" feature, is usually shown today under its re-release title, Hopalong Cassidy Enters. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi