Ruth Terry Movies
Actress Ruth Terry was 17 when she inked her first movie contract at 20th Century Fox. After a few nondescript roles at Fox and Columbia, Terry settled at Republic Studios, where she thrived as an all-purpose leading lady, playing roles both friendly and unsympathetic. Her more famous Republic credits include The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine (1943), My Buddy (1944), Steppin' in Society (1945), and The Cheaters (1945). Ruth Terry retired in the mid-'40s, making a brief comeback in 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1962
Scientist Alex March (John Agar) is working on developing what he hopes will be a new, non-lethal form of nerve gas -- but following an accident in his lab, he discovers that not only is the gas deadly, but also that it has invaded his entire body, and his touch is instantly fatal to any other living thing. He also realizes that the only thing keeping him alive is the partial immunity that he has developed over the course of months of work, which will soon wear off. He goes into hiding in his employer's home, hoping that a cure can be found, but he's already begun to go mad, tormented by the deaths he's caused and the mounting pain as the gas begins to affect him. Finally, the gas transforms him into a scaly, misshapen creature (vaguely resembling the Lizard from Marvel Comics, who was also, interestingly, a stricken research chemist). He goes on a rampage through suburban Los Angeles while the police hunt for him, and his fiancée (Paula Raymond) desperately hopes that he'll come to his senses long enough to surrender and allow himself to be confined to a hospital. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Anticipating the real-life political career of Maverick star Jack Kelly, who would serve two terms as mayor of Huntington Beach, California, in the 1980s, this episode finds Bart Maverick (Kelly) running for a State Senate seat on the Reform Party ticket. He has agreed to throw his hat in the ring to help Penelope Greeley (Merry Anders), daughter of the actual candidate Ellsworth Greeley (R.G. Armstrong), who has been shot and wounded by an unknown assailant. Well, maybe "unknown" is a poor choice of words: Bart's opponent Wellington Cosgrove (R.G. Armstrong) has made no secret of his plans to kill Mr. Maverick should he win the election. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1945
In this crime comedy, a prominent judge's vacation is interrupted during a sudden storm that forces him to seek refuge in a shady nightclub where he is mistaken by the mobsters for a highly esteemed racketeer. Unfortunately, mayhem erupts when a moll recognizes him as the judge who sent her low-life lover to prison and she blows the whistle. Fortunately, by the story's end, the judge has managed to reform them all. Law and order ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gladys George, Ruth Terry, (more)
- 1945
In this musical, a humble cigarette girl dreams of auditioning for the handsome bandleader at the nightclub. Her many attempts keep failing until her uncle appears. To help her, he impersonates a colonel and uses his "influence" to get her singing with the band. Eventually their ruse is revealed, but by then the bandleader has fallen in love with her. Songs include: "Tell It to a Star" (Shirley Botwin), "Love Me or Leave Me" (Gus Kahn, Walter Donaldson), "You're So Good to Me" (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne), "A Batucada Corazon" (Ary Barroso). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Terry, Robert Livingston, (more)
- 1945
A snooty blue-blooded English family learns a bitter lesson about the realities of lower class living in this British comedy. It all happens because the ditzy wife makes a terrible mistake with their money and loses a fortune. Her husband, a banker is at his wit's end as he scrambles about looking for much-needed cash. He tries his wife's wealthy, ailing uncle, but he has bequeathed his fortune to the actress he loved as a boy, (a woman he has never met). The aging star, who long ago disappeared from the screen, has no idea she is an heiress. Meanwhile, just before Christmas the daughter of the family brings home a boozy hambone of a fallen theater star who is short on cash. It is he who finds the missing actress and brings her into the house after convincing her that she and the family are related. Things go swimmingly and wealth is restored until the actor gets drunk and tells her the truth. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Schildkraut, Billie Burke, (more)
- 1944
In this romance, a GI falls in love with his pen-pal. Believing her to be a wealthy, beautiful girl, he goes to see her after the war. Unbeknownst to him, the girl is actually impoverished and wheelchair bound. Her two sisters work as char women and barely make enough to live on. When the soldier shows up, the girls trade identities and pretend to be wealthy. Even though he doesn't know about the ruse, he still ends up falling for the girl in the chair and after learning the truth stands steadfastly behind her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Lee, Ruth Terry, (more)
- 1944
Backwoods music abounds in this musical that centers on the travails of Freddie Fisher and his Schnickelfritz Band, a country music group struggling along the rocky road to success. Their troubles begin when their manager, unable to convince anyone to hire the high-spirited hillbillies, gets angry with them and takes off to the big city. There he discovers that the band's rivals Ernest Tubb and His Texas Troubadors are about to receive a hefty radio sponsorship on a popular show. Hearing opportunity's knock, he thunders back home to get Fisher and the Schnickelfritzes to the station first to steal the spot from the Troubadours. Unfortunately, when not performing, the band works on a woman's farm. When she learns they are about to leave her stuck, she begs them to reconsider and then demands that they stay. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Terry, George Byron, (more)
- 1944
In this drama a big-city reporter moves to a tiny town to begin running the newspaper he half-owns. His in-your-face reporting style does not make him very popular; especially when he begins causing trouble for the incumbent mayor's opposition. It is the candidate's pretty niece who teaches the arrogant journalist a valuable lesson. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Ruth Terry, (more)
- 1944
In this musical romance, an ice skater comes to America to represent her country at a Lake Placid carnival. Unfortunately, while she is there the war breaks out and she is unable to go home. While in America, she is cared for by her rich uncle. She soon falls in love with his handsome junior partner who is already engaged to another. When she discovers this, the skater runs away. Her lover follows and true love ensues. Songs include: "Deep Purple", "My Isle of Golden Dreams", "National Emblem March", "Winter Wonderland", "Intermezzo", "Waiting for The Robert E. Lee", "When Citrus is in Bloom", "Drigo's Serenade", "While Strolling in the Park". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vera Ralston, Eugene Pallette, (more)
- 1944
A priest relates the tale of his friend, a WWI veteran, to the Post-War Planning Committee. Unable to get a job upon his return from the war, he puts off his marriage and works for a bootlegger. He is forced to take a rap for his boss, goes to prison, and forms a gang. After his release, a gang war breaks out, resulting in his death. He leaves a note to his friend the priest asking that his story be told as a warning. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don "Red" Barry, Ruth Terry, (more)
- 1944
Brad Taylor, Republic's newest leading man (after a long tenure at Columbia as "Stanley Brown"), heads the cast of the bucolic musical Sing, Neighbor, Sing. Taylor plays wolf-in-sheep's-clothing Bob Reed, who poses as an elderly English psychologist in order to fleece the populace of a backwoods community and woo the pretty young ladies. When the genuine psychologist (Charles Irwin), shows up, Reed is in deep you-know-what, but heroine Virginia Blake (Ruth Terry) loves him anyway. Featured country-western performers include Roy Acuff and His Smoky Mountain Boys, Lulubelle and Scotty, the Milo Twins and Carolina Cotton. Republic specialized in this sort of cornpone fare throughout the 1930s and 1940s, thrilling the hinterlands while aggravating the so-called sophisticates. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brad Taylor, Ruth Terry, (more)
- 1943
In this musical, a gang of college students decide to play a little trick by creating the perfect student. The fictional gal has everything a university would ever want. The trouble begins when the campus psych professor becomes determined to meet this girl. If the gang cannot bring her forward, they will be expelled. They hire a New York actress to portray the imaginary girl and all is well at the end. Songs include: "It Seems I've Heard That Song Before," "You're So Good to Me" "If It's Love," "Man," "Gotcha Too Ta Mee," "You Got to Study, Buddy." All the songs were penned by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne who went on to become one of Hollywood's top song-writing teams. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Hubbard, Ruth Terry, (more)
- 1943
The wartime leading-man shortage obliged Republic Pictures to star draft-proof supporting player Frank Albertson in Mystery Broadcast. Albertson plays detective-fiction writer Michael Jerome, who carries on a friendly rivalry with radio scrivener Jan Cornell (Ruth Terry). Jan works for an "unsolved mysteries" series which is in the ratings doldrums. To boost listenership, she begins offering solutions to the unsolved crimes on the air, and this leads to the reopening of a long-dormant murder case-and also to a rash of new murders. Pooling their talents, Michael and Jan try to solve the case at hand, with startling results. Among the suspects in Mystery Broadcast are two former film luminaries, Nils Asther and Wynne Gibson, both on the comeback trail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Terry, Frank Albertson, (more)
- 1943
There's practically no western action in Hands Across the Border, but there's music aplenty. Roy Rogers stars as a wandering cavalier (named "Roy Rogers", naturally), who comes to the aid of entertainer Kim Adams (Ruth Terry). The daughter of a rancher, Kim does her patriotic bit by raising prize horses for the Army. But villainous Brock Danvers (Onslow Stevens) does his best to keep Kim's stock from reaching the Army, and that's when Rogers comes to the rescue. The final two reels of Hands Across the Border is a virtual nonstop parade of musical numbers by the likes of Hoagy Carmichael and Ned Washington, and featuring Rogers, Ruth Terry, Janet Martin and that zany European comedy trio The Wiere Brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers
- 1943
Though it bears the same title as an earlier Gene Autry western, Roy Rogers' The Man from Music Mountain isn't a remake. Rogers is appropriately cast as a cowboy who's hit it big as a radio singing star. Returning to his hometown for a special remote broadcast, Roy finds himself in the middle of a deadly feud. Nothing will be settled so long as cattleman Victor Marsh (Paul Kelly) resorts to villainy to achieve his goals. Fortunately, the newly deputized Roy figures out a way to straighten out the mess without undue bloodshed. Rogers' leading lady this time out is the multitalented Ruth Terry, who was in just about every other Republic B-picture of the mid-1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers
- 1943
Two tuneful gamblers gambol across the country in a struggle for the money they need to run their respective casinos. It all begins when gangsters oust a gambler from the Big Apple. In need of quick cash, he goes to Las Vegas and enters a casino owned by a tough but pretty young woman. Cheating like crazy, the gambler breaks the house back and takes his considerable winnings back to New York to open his own casino. The woman is in hot pursuit and eagerly plans to turn the tables in her favor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1942
Judy Canova plays Bessie Cobb, a kitchen worker at a Miami hotel who happens to have a crackerjack singing voice. The bell captain, Chick Patterson, learns that band leader Danny Marlowe is looking for a new girl singer, and a contest will be held at the hotel to choose one. Chick sees this as a way to make some significant money, which would allow him to marry his sweetheart, and so he persuades Bessie to enter. Chick takes a recording of Bessie to Marlowe, only to discover that gangster Honest Joe Kincaid is ordering Marlowe to choose his moll, Sugar, instead. Marlowe doesn't want to do this, but he's in over his head with gambling debts. Chick plays Bessie's record, but tells Marlowe that the voice belongs to Sugar. When Sugar comes to town, Danny and his pals kidnap her and Bessie goes on, pretending to be her. Unfortunately, Sugar's former boy friend sends two hit men to take care of her -- and they abduct Bessie, assuming she is Sugar. Things get even more complicated before all identities are straightened out and Bessie emerges the winner of the contest. Songs include the title number and "Barrelhouse Bessie from Basin Street." ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- 1942
A remake of Return of Jimmy Valentine (1936), Republic Pictures' Affairs of Jimmy Valentine is a sequel of sorts to the oft-filmed O. Henry story Alias Jimmy Valentine. In the original tale, an incognito safecracker blew his cover by rescuing a little girl from a safe, prompting a detective who'd planned to arrest the criminal to let him off scot free. Affairs of Jimmy Valentine is set some twenty years later: A radio station decides to improve ratings by launching a nationwide search for reformed cracksman Jimmy Valentine. The search leads to a small town--and a mysterious murder. Roman Bohnen plays the kindly old editor of the small town's newspaper, who may or may not be Guess Who. Acted and directed with a slick professionalism that belies its small budget, Affairs of Jimmy Valentine has been released to TV in an abridged version titled Unforgotten Crime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1942
Roy Rogers saves the day for the ranchers of Cherokee City in this fast-paced comedy-Western directed and produced by Joseph Kane. Roy and no less than three sidekicks -- Smiley Burnette, George "Gabby" Hayes and Bob Nolan of the music group The Sons of the Pioneers -- attempt to persuade eccentric river-boat owner Col. Silas Popen (Walter Catlett) to service Cherokee City. The surrounding ranchers would otherwise be forced to ship their cattle with crooked trucking company operator Ross Lambert (Edmund MacDonald). Aware of the colonel's phobia of anything Western, Lambert and his henchmen (William Haade and Hal Taliaferro) stage typical Wild West brawls, helped inadvertently by Roy's well-meaning sidekicks. Burnette, whom Rogers inherited from draftee Gene Autry, and Hayes perform their usual routines but the comedic highlights are provided by flibbertigibbet Catlett and blustery Paul Harvey, the latter playing B-Western history's perhaps most incompetent Cattlemen's Association president. Ruth Terry makes a spirited heroine as the colonel's daughter but the great African-American actor Leigh Whipper is sadly wasted in a stereotypical "comic" servant role. A proposed action scene in which Lambert and his men start a fire using gasoline was rewritten in order to avoid reminding theater-goers of the war-time rationing. In most prints seen today, Rogers' musical numbers have been cut, making Heart of the West a fast-paced hour or so of nearly non-stop action and comedy. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette, (more)
Cattleman Gene Autry is put out-to say the least-when he finds out that he's been slickered by crooked purchasing agent Thomas McCoy (Edmund MacDonald). It turns out that McCoy is in debt to bookies, and has been skimming his customers to pay off his gambling losses. Autry hopes to put a stop to all this by going directly to McCoy's boss, Grantley B. Johnson (Thurston Hall), but the Big Guy's office is crammed full of radio agents who hope to persuade Johnson to sponsor their programs. One of these agents is a young lady named Kit Carson (Ruth Terry), whose sample record disc is accidentally broken in the crush. Thus is the main plot briefly put on the back burner as Kit persuades Gene and his ranch-hand pals (the Sons of the Pioneers) to pose as radio crooners to impress Mr. Johnson. Eventually, Call of the Canyon gets back on track with an exciting runaway-buggy climax, but for the most part the film is more musical than western. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, (more)
- 1941
What's a modern guy to do when his wife's ideas about marriage are a bit too modern for his taste? Andre Casall (Charles Boyer) is a successful, free-thinking playwright who becomes infatuated with a progressive female doctor, Jane Alexander (Margaret Sullavan). They marry impulsively, and Andre soon learns that Jane's ideas about marriage are a bit different from his own -- she demands that they keep separate apartments, and they are to meet only once a day, at 7 a.m. This isn't quite the way that Andre had imagined wedded bliss, and he is soon scheming to make her jealous, in hopes that she'll demand a more traditional living arrangement. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Margaret Sullavan, (more)
- 1941
Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) is invited by his boss Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale) to accompany Dithers on an ocean cruise to South America. Dagwood's whole family comes along, including wife Blondie (Penny Singleton), son Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms) and Daisy the dog and her pups. Just before sailing, Dagwood is compelled to stay behind and watch over Dithers' business. Determined to rejoin his family, Dagwood dresses up in drag and joins the ship's all-girl orchestra. The ruse continues all the way to South America, where Dagwood must fume while Blondie is serenaded by dashing Tito Guizar. Blondie Goes Latin is the eighth in the Columbia series based on the comic strip by Chic Young. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, (more)
- 1941
Hoping to cash in on the success of Universal's Buck Privates, Republic Pictures hastily commissioned an imitation, Rookies on Parade. Instead of Abbott and Costello, Republic settled for bandleader Bob Crosby and comedian Eddie Foy Jr., a not-so-unfair exchange at that. The story details the misadventures of two itinerant songwriters named Duke (Crosby) and Cliff (Foy) as they try to survive Army boot camp. Intending to boost the morale of their fellow draftees, our heroes stage a big musical show, which they eventually hope will graduate to Broadway. The talent roster includes nightclub thrush Gertrude Niesen, double-talk expert Cliff Nazarro and dancer Louis Da Pron. And of course there's the inevitable tough drill sergeant, played with both barrels by William Demarest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Crosby, Ruth Terry, (more)
The successful producer-director combination of Walter Wanger and Tay Garnett served up another winner with Slightly Honorable. Adapted from F. G. Presnell's novel Send Another Coffin, the story concerns the efforts made by corrupt politician Cushing (Edward Arnold) to frame honest attorney John Webb (Pat O'Brien) for the murder of Alma Brehmer (Claire Dodd). In concert with his diligent and apparently slow-witted assistant Rus Sampson (Broderick Crawford), Webb hopes to squelch Cushing's plan by locating the real murderer-who turns out to be a lot closer to Webb than he'd ever imagined. Ruth Terry has one of her best screen roles as a birdbrained nightclub hoofer who helps Webb clear himself. Like many Walter Wanger productions of the period, Slightly Honorable is currently available on the public-domain video market. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Edward Arnold, (more)
