Martha Tibbetts Movies
A brunette chorus girl from Massachusetts, Martha Tibbetts later danced in the short-lived 1933 revival of Of Thee I Sing and understudied Linda Watkins in the Broadway musical Say When (1934), a flop that also featured Bob Hope. She was briefly employed by Warner Bros. -- until, she later stated, Jack Warner tore up the contract during a heated argument -- and co-starred with B-Western newcomer Robert "Tex" Allen in two Columbia oaters: Unknown Ranger (1936) and Ranger Courage (1937). There were a couple of ingénue roles in more mainstream productions, including Howard Hawks' Ceiling Zero (1935), but Tibbetts' career was going nowhere when she left Hollywood to marry an advertising executive. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
In this crime drama, an innocent wife has no idea that her husband makes his living by hijacking trucks. When she finds out that she has been implicated in the crimes, she takes off with a chauffeur. Later she falls for a handsome artist and by the end of the story, after some tragedy occurs, she ends up clearing her name. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evelyn Venable, Craig Reynolds, (more)
- 1937
Columbia's Criminals of the Air is another entry in the "alien-smuggling" movie cycle -- and as such includes the obligatory scene in which the airborne smugglers escape detection by pulling a lever and disposing of their human cargo. Hoping to collar the crooks, detective Mark Owens (Charles Quigley) poses as a down-and-out pilot looking for work. He is hired by the "Honeymoon Express," ostensibly designed to transport newlyweds across the Mexican border and back again, but actually a front for smuggling activities. Fearless girl reporter Nancy Rawlings (Rosalind Keith) covertly covers Owens' activities, ultimately landing in a heap o' trouble when the crooks catch on. In one of her last "B"-picture assignments, Rita Hayworth plays a voluptuous Latina dancer in a Mexican cabaret sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Keith, Charles Quigley, (more)
- 1937
Ranger Courage was part of Columbia's short-lived western series starring utility actor Bob Allen. Allen plays the ranger of the title, who demonstrates his courage in solving a string a stagecoach holdups. The robberies are being committed by a renegade band of Indians, or so it seems. It doesn't take long for Allen to ascertain that the crooks are really white outlaws disguised in Native American war paint. Bob Allen is as uncomfortable as ever in the saddle in Ranger Courage; whatever excitement there is in the film is generated by war-horse director Spencer Gordon Bennett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martha Tibbetts, Walter Miller, (more)
- 1936
Columbia general purpose actor Bob Allen was briefly transformed into a cowboy for the studio's "B" unit in the mid-1930s. Allen stars in Unknown Ranger as a ranch ranger on the trail of rustlers. The gang has rounded up a wild stallion, in order to lure a prize horse away from a wealthy rancher. Bob tames the stallion and bushwhacks the baddies. Bob Allen didn't catch on with the fans, principally because he seemed out of place in the Great Outdoors; Allen would fare better when he left movies for the Broadway stage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martha Tibbetts, Harry Woods, (more)
- 1936
Rex Stout's overweight, under-exercised detective Nero Wolfe was first brought to the screen in 1936 in the portly person of Edward Arnold. As brusque and short-tempered as ever, Wolfe tackles the case of a college professor who met his doom while playing golf, a tragedy followed by the seemingly unrelated death of a young mechanic. Dispatched to do Wolfe's leg work is his acerbic aide Archie Goodwin (Lionel Stander), who manages to discover that both deaths were tied in with a new weapon which silently shoots poisoned needles. Rex Stout wasn't too pleased with the expurgated screen treatment of his fictional sleuth, whose fondness for imported beers was changed by the censors to a predilection for hot chocolate! Well directed by Broadway vet Herbert Biberman, Meet Nero Wolfe was followed in 1937 by The League of Frightened Men, with Walter Connolly as Wolfe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Arnold, Lionel Stander, (more)
- 1935
The agent of the title is George Brent, a journalist sent by the Government to get the goods on a crime syndicate. Brent befriends Bette Davis, bookkeeper for suspected crime boss Ricardo Cortez. Bette's cooperation nearly costs her life, but both she and Brent manage a tricky escape during a final shoot-out. The IRS busts Cortez' gang on income tax evasion: Can you say "Al Capone"? Special Agent was remade in 1940 as Gambling on the High Seas, with Wayne Morris and Jane Wyman in the leading roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, George Brent, (more)
- 1935
Ceiling Zero is an adaptation of the Broadway play by Frank "Spig" Wead. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien are supremely typecast as, respectively, Dizzy Davis, a cocky civil aviator and Jake Lee, a sober-sided ground commander. Dizzy ducks out of a dangerous mission in order to dally with pretty Tommy Thomas (June Travis). Texas Clark (Stuart Erwin) takes Dizzy's place, and the unpolished young pilot dies in a fiery wreck. Disgraced in the eyes of his co-workers after Clark's death, Dizzy redeems himself by taking a crucial test flight in fog-laden "ceiling zero." Dizzy dies a hero, leaving behind his pal Jake to deliver the eulogy. Isabel Jewell co-stars as Clark's wife, given yet another opportunity to shake the rafters with her emotionally supercharged acting. Ceiling Zero was remade in a wartime setting as International Squadron (1940). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, (more)
