Harry Strang Movies

A Woman of Distinction serves as a tailor-made vehicle for Rosalind Russell. The star is cast as Susan Middlecott, a highly respected college dean. As can be expected, Susan is too busy for romance -- at least until handsome professor Alec Stevenson (Ray Milland) enters the picture. At first, the dean and the prof are thrown together by the overzealous machinations of a press agent, and they're none too pleased about it. No matter how hard they try to keep their distance from each other, Susan and Alec constantly find themselves in embarrassing situations in full view of the public. It takes the behind-the-scenes maneuvers of Susan's puckish papa (Edmund Gwenn) to straighten things out. Appearing in unbilled cameos are Lucille Ball as herself, and Ball's future TV cohort Gale Gordon as a railroad ticket agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the Ben Hecht-scripted Angels over Broadway. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays a poker hustler working in cahoots with good-time girl Rita Hayworth. Alcoholic playwright Thomas Mitchell, having saved embezzler John Qualen from suicide, decides to enter Fairbanks' high-stakes game, using Qualen as an easy-mark "bait." Mitchell's clever schemes to beat Fairbanks come acropper, but Fairbanks has a sudden change of heart and decides it's more fun to perform good deeds. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the best of the High Noon derivations, At Gunpoint is the story of reluctant hero Fred MacMurray. When a band of gunmen invade a small frontier town, storekeeper MacMurray fires off a lucky shot and kills the leader. Hailed as a hero, MacMurray realizes deep down that he's a coward. When the surviving gunmen return to town, thirsting for revenge, the townsfolk expect MacMurray to singlehandedly stand up to the villains. When he asks for help, his neighbors turn their backs on him, ordering him to get out of town to avoid further trouble. Only doctor Walter Brennan and MacMurray's wife Dorothy Malone remain loyal. Facing certain death,MacMurray discovers that he's not as yellow as he thought he was-a revelation that brings about a change in the rest of the town. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Twenty years after the Armistice, doughboy Stan Laurel continues guarding a trench in France--simply because no one told him the war was over. His rescue coincides with the first wedding anniversary of his old pal Oliver Hardy. Heading to town to pick up a gift for his wife (Minna Gombell), Ollie discovers that Stan has been located and is now residing at the Veteran's Home. The two buddies share a warm reunion, whereupon Ollie invites Stan home to enjoy a "big thick juicy steak" prepared by Mrs. Hardy. As a result of Ollie's hospitality, Stan inadvertently wrecks Ollie's brand new car; the boys spend half the afternoon trudging up and down 13 flights of stairs; Ollie gets into a fight with belligerent Jimmy Finlayson; Mrs. Hardy angrily walks out on her husband; the boys manage to blow up the kitchen while preparing their own meal; and Hardy's beautiful next-door neighbor (Patricia Ellis) ends up minus her dress in Ollie's steamer trunk, with both Mrs. Hardy and the neighbor's husband, big-game hunter Billy Gilbert, converging upon our bethumped heroes. Essentially a remake of the 1929 Laurel and Hardy two-reeler Unnaccustomed as We Are, Block-Heads is a brilliant parade of virtuoso comedy turns. The best bits of business include the mountain of bean cans representing Stan's two decades in the trenches; the "white magic" gags involving Stan's pulling down the shadow of a window shade, producing a glass of water from his pocket and smoking his thumb like a pipe; and an uproarious "black" joke involving Ollie's mistaken belief than Stan has lost a leg in the war. The film sustains its high level of humor for 56 of its 57 minutes, faltering only in its disappointing closing gag (borrowed from the 1928 short We Faw Down). Among the writers of this chucklefest was former silent comedian Harry Langdon. Erroneously announced in 1938 as Laurel and Hardy's final feature, Block-Heads was indeed the last of the team's genuine classics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A never-completed stage musical was the source for the MGM superproduction Born to Dance. The plot is another three-sailors-on-leave affair, with Ted (James Stewart), Mush (Buddy Ebsen) and Gunny (Sid Silvers, who also co-wrote the script) romancing the eminently romanceable Nora (Eleanor Powell), Peppy (Frances Langford) and Jenny (Una Merkel). Nora aspires to become a dancing star, but her career nearly ends before it begins when she inadvertently comes between Broadway luminary Lucy James (Virginia Bruce) and her producer-lover McKay (Alan Dinehart). If anyone watching back in 1936 really cared about the plot, they probably weren't music lovers. The lovely Cole Porter score (his first written directly for the screen) includes "I've Got You Under My Skin", sung by Virginia Bruce to James Stewart, and "Easy to Love", warbled by Stewart to Eleanor Powell. Highlights include Reginald Gardiner's impersonation of a symphony-conducting traffic cop (a routine he'd previously performed on stage) and Eleanor Powell's climactic tap routine on board an art-deco battleship (a sequence later re-deployed for the climax of 1944's I Dood It). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed on a B-picture budget, Buck Privates was Universal's biggest box-office hit of 1941, firmly securing the movie popularity of the studio's hot new team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The story is fairly evenly divided between the antics of Bud and Lou-here cast as sidewalk salesmen Slicker Smith and Herbie Brown-and the romantic triangle involving Randolph Parker III (Lee Bowman), Judy Gray (Jane Frazee) and Bob Martin (Alan Curtis). Escaping the wrath of policeman Mike Collins (Nat Pendleton), Slicker and Herbie duck into a nearby movie theater, which unbeknownst to them has been converted into a US Army recruiting center. As the boys are reluctantly inducted into the Service, wealthy draftee Parker hopes to pull a few strings to avoid putting on a uniform, while Parker's former chauffeur Martin willingly answers his call to the Colors. Once ensconced in boot camp, Slicker and Herbie continually run afoul of their sergeant, who is none other than their old nemesis Mike the cop. Meanwhile, Parker and Martin vie for the attentions of USO hostess Judy, who'll have nothing to do with Parker until he proves his worth as a soldier. Poor Slicker and Herbie are shunted into the background as the romantic subplot is resolved, but at least our heroes get to steal the film's closing scene. It's hard to believe that anyone cared about the Parker-Martin-Judy triangle with Abbott & Costello on hand to perform their classic "dice game", "awkward squad", "turn on the radio" and "boxing ring" routines-not to mention their timeless verbal exchanges, the best of which finds Bud convincing Lou that if he marries an underage girl, she'll eventually be older than he (it plays better than it reads!) As a bonus, the film spotlights the Andrews Sisters, performing such top-ten tunes as "Apple Blossom Time" and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". Even from the vantage point of six decades, with the WWII draft but a dim memory, it is easy to see why Buck Privates was such a huge success. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his first starring role (after being second-billed to Claudette Colbert in The Gilded Lily), Fred MacMurray plays officer Ross Martin of the Michigan State Police. After completing his training, Martin is pitted against dignified Professor Anthony (Sir Guy Standing), who uses his academic status as a cover for his bank-robbery activities. Keeping himself abreast of police maneuvers by listening to car radios and unobtrusively hanging around headquarters, Anthony ultimately uses his technological know-how to paralyze the police communications systems. But with the cooperation of the Massachusetts police department, whose radios are in full working order, rookie Martin and rustic sheriff Pete Arnot (Frank Craven) combine forces for a final assault upon Anthony's hideout. Its sometimes illogical plot twists notwithstanding, the screenplay is based on a series of factual articles, first published in Saturday Evening Post. Also given a career boost in Car 99 is another new Paramount contractee, Ann Sheridan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After wrapping up his last case in Egypt, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) heads to Shanghai for a well-deserved rest. It isn't long, however, before Chan has been summoned by the local constabulary to help smash an international dope ring. He is aided by erudite American intelligence agent James Andrews (Russell Hicks) and to a lesser extent by his overeager Number-One-Son Lee Chan (Keye Luke). The film is structured more like a serial than a mystery, with Chan and his friends escaping death and/or abduction at every turn. Only after rounding up the smugglers does Charlie reveal the well-concealed identity of the criminal mastermind behind it all. The nominal romantic lead is played by Charles Locher, who went on to greater fame as Jon Hall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though not acknowledged by contemporary reviewers, Colorado Territory is a westernized remake of the 1941 crime drama High Sierra. Raoul Walsh, director of the earlier film, returns to helm the remake, doing a grand job on both occasions. Joel McCrea stars in the Humphrey Bogart role, playing a veteran outlaw who hopes to pull off one last, spectacular heist. Virginia Mayo portrays the Ida Lupino counterpart, a "bad" dance-hall girl who proves to be the only person who genuinely cares about McCrea's well-being. As in the earlier film, the climax finds McCrea making a futile bid for escape in the mountains, with tragic consequences. High Sierra was good for at least one more remake, the 1955 Jack Palance-Shelley Winters starrer I Died a Thousand Times. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Monogram's seemingly endless series of inexpensive crime mellers continued with Convict's Code. Robert Kent plays a star football player who is framed by gamblers on a robbery charge and sentenced to prison. Serving three years behind bars, Kent is paroled in the custody of the same gambling boss (Sidney Blackmer) who engineered the frame. Unaware that his benefactor is also the guy who sent him up, Kent falls in love with the gambler's innocent sister Anne Nagel. Ten points to anyone who can figure out the relevance of the film's title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Danger on Wheels is one of the 14 Richard Arlen-Andy Devine adventure films ground out by Universal Pictures between 1939 and 1941. Arlen is cast as daredevil test-car driver Larry Taylor, while Devine brings up the rear as Larry's mechanic. A rivalry develops between Larry and hotshot motorist Bruce Cowley (Jack Arnold), culminating in Bruce losing his job before an important race. Larry takes Bruce's place in the contest, whereupon he accidentally kills the brother of his sweetheart Pat (Peggy Moran). Our hero redeems himself in everyone's eyes by proving the efficiency of a new oil-burning motor invented by Pat's father (Herbert Cothrell). Danger on Wheels is allegedly based on the exploits of real-life stunt driver Lucky Teeter, who is represented throughout via stock footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Produced and directed by George Sherman, Death Valley Outlaws starred James Cagney-lookalike Donald Barry as Johnny Edwards, a cowboy saving lovely Carolyn Johnson (Lynn Merrick) from a gang of vigilante raiders. When his friend, Bill Weston (Michael Owen), becomes the next target of the vigilante gang, Jim promises the dying boy to avenge him. He does so by infiltrating the gang disguised as an outlaw, learning along the way that the leader is bank president Charles Gifford (Karl Hackett). The latter's right-hand man, Jeff Edwards (Milburn Stone), is Johnny's long-lost brother, but the undercover cowboy can only watch as Jeff is mortally wounded by his boss. Enraged, Johnny rushes to the bank where Gifford and the crooked sheriff (Rex Lease) are in the midst of robbing the store, so to speak. Alerted by local veterinarian Doc Blake (Robert McKenzie) and his African-American servant, Snowflake (Fred Toones), the angry citizenry help Johnny round up the gang. A former producer/director/actor from the silent era, rotund and jovial Robert McKenzie was given several good opportunities to shine in the Red Barry series, which was otherwise without a continuing comic sidekick. Less appealing were several appearances by Toones, who in Death Valley Outlaws was treated more or less in the same vein as Barry's horse, Cyclone, and dog Duke. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

When director Julien Duvivier's episodic, all-star drama Flesh and Fantasy proved a bit too long in previews, Universal decided to remove the film's opening segment, which dealt with the foredoomed romance between an escaped criminal and a blind girl. Because this segment was too good to waste, the studio hired screenwriter Roy Chanslor to come up with additional material and Reginald LeBorg to direct a few new scenes, so that the episode could be released as a separate feature film. The result was the 65-minute Destiny, a curious melange of the sublime and the banal. The Duvivier-directed footage stars Alan Curtis as fugitive-from-justice Cliff Banks, who hides from the authorities in the farmhouse owned by kindly Clem Broderick (Frank Craven). Clem's daughter Jane (Gloria Jean), blind from birth, "sees" only the good in the outwardly unsavory Cliff, so it isn't surprising that the two fall in love. This tender little episode was supposed to have ended tragically, but Universal insisted upon a few "framing" scenes, directed by LeBorg, wherein Cliff is shown to be innocent of the crimes for which he has been imprisoned, and which allowed Cliff and Jane a happy denouement The stylistic schism between the "old" and "new" scenes is glaringly obvious; still, what's left of the original Duvivier footage is terrific, with Alan Curtis and Gloria Jean offering the finest performances of their screen careers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide