Jacqueline Wells Movies

The Girl in 313 is undercover police detective Joan Matthews (Florence Rice), who infiltrates a gang of jewel thieves. It is Joan's goal to unmask the leader of the gang, who is presently hiding behind a veneer of respectability. Piecing the clues together, she discovers that the crooks are in cahoots with a shady insurance company. Things look pretty bleak for Joan when her ruse is discovered, but she is rescued by Greg Dunn (Kent Taylor), the handsomest of the thieves, who has fallen in love with her. It took three writers to put together this 56-minute quickie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, two rival sisters, one plain-but-good-hearted, and one a gorgeous manipulator, compete for the love of a handsome man. They are assisted by their pretty cousin who is involved in a tempestuous engagement. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Ranger and the Lady stars Roy Rogers and Jacqueline Wells (aka Julie Bishop) in the title roles. Captain Colt (Rogers) of the Texas Rangers finds himself at odds with territorial administrator Kinkaid (Henry Brandon), left in charge of the Lone Star Territory while President Sam Houston is in Washington on important business. Kinkaid immediately begins acting like a sagebrush dictator, levying huge taxes on his fellow Texans and using an army of strong-arm thugs to enforce his restrictive new laws. Though loyal to Houston, Captain Colt eventually realizes that Kinkaid is hardly the right man for the job, leading to a noisy and violent denoument. Unlike the standard simpering western ingenues, heroine Jane (Wells), owner of a trading-service, fights side by side with Colt against the despotic Kinkaid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When both John Wayne and Ray "Crash" Corrigan defected from Republic's "Three Mesquiteers" series, the studio hastily replaced them with Robert Livingston (whom Wayne had originally replaced) and future "Cisco Kid" Duncan Renaldo. In Kansas Terrors, Stoney (Livingston) and his saddle pal Rusty (Raymond Hatton) take a job delivering horses to a flyspeck Caribbean island. Here they join forces with Rico (Renaldo) to topple the regime of a despotic commandante (George Douglas). Despite the fact that Rico was introduced as a horse thief, he becomes fast friends with Stoney and Rusty, and by film's end has agreed to return with them to the US, so that there'll be three Mesquiteers once more. After two years' worth of the Livingston-Renaldo-Hatton team, Republic would come up with yet another winning combination, consisting of Livingston, Bob Steele and Rufe Davis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Brian Donlevy was well enough established as a film personality in 1939 that he didn't have to accept the leading role in the Columbia "B" Behind Prison Gates. But like many other actors, Donlevy realized that Columbia treated character actors like stars-and boy, did he ever want to be a star. In this no-frills prison drama, Donlevy plays an undercover agent who goes "in stir" to locate the money stolen by a pair of cop-killing bandits. He almost pulls it off, but then someone recognizes him. Jacqueline Wells assumes the "gal on the outside" role generally played by Anne Sheridan over at Warner Bros. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When G-Men Step In is Columbia's spin on Paramount's "FBI" B-picture series. On this occasion, the feds are after a gang of clever racketeers who've stuck their dirty thumbs in several pies, from charitable organizations to advertising agencies. The main conflict boils down to the antagonistic relationship between gangster boss Frederick Garth (Don Terry) and his G-Man brother Bruce (Robert Paige). As the plot thickens, Bruce comes to realize that Frederick has been working on the "right" side all along. The inescapable Jacqueline Wells is the girl in the case, while Horace MacMahon provides some unexpected chuckles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The plot of She Married an Artist is summed up by the title, as was often the case in such 1930s romantic comedies. European import Lulli Deste plays Toni, the wife of commercial artist Lee Thornwood (John Boles). Because Thornwood's portraits of comely model Sally Dennis (Frances Drake) are in such great demand, he is obliged to spend virtually all his time with Sally, which prompts Toni to seek retribution in divorce court. The timely intervention of housekeeper Martha Moriarty (Helen Westley) averts marital disaster for Toni and Lee. Supporting player Franklin Pangborn is at his most "nance-y" in this one, adding an extra layer of camp to the proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There were those who considered child star Edith Fellows to be far more talented than her "rival" Shirley Temple; still, while Temple was starring in A pictures at Fox, Fellows had to be content with such Columbia B's as The Little Adventuress. In this one, Fellows plays juvenile equestrian Pinky Horton, whose vaudevillian parents are killed in an on-stage accident. Pinky and her beloved trick horse are bundled off to relatives in California, where she befriends her "black sheep" cousin, chronic gambler Dick Horton (Richard Fiske). With the help of trainer Handy (Cliff Edwards), Pinky transforms her horse into a racing champ, saving the family's honor (and bank account) in the obligatory Big Race. Part of the fun in Little Adventuress is watching perennial Three Stooges foil Richard Fiske play a romantic lead opposite the ubiquitious Jacqueline Wells (aka Julie Bishop). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marked Woman was the most famous of the late-1930s films based on New York DA Thomas Dewey's attack on vice lord Lucky Luciano; Paid to Dance was among the least famous. All-purpose Columbia leading lady Jacqueline Wells plays Joan Bradley, a long-suffering hoofer in the seedy dime-a-dance joint controlled by racketeer Jack Miranda (Arthur Loft). Like her fellow "hostesses," Joan is expected to clip the customers for their bankrolls -- and, it is implied, offer their bodies as well as their terpsichorean skills (though we're assured that Joan is still pure of heart and every other portion of her anatomy). Crusading detective William Dennis (Don Terry) vows to save Joan and her ilk from Miranda's clutches, but it takes plenty of brains and muscle to topple the villain's criminal empire. Billed last, Ralph "Dick Tracy" Byrd has a marvelous moment when he takes on two hoodlums at once -- and wins! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Otto Kruger once again plays a dynamic, bombastic attorney in Columbia's Counsel for Crime. Kruger plays William Mellon, a shifty shyster whose underhanded methods loses him the love of his sweetheart Anne (Nana Bryant), who subsequently marries a powerful senator (Thurston Hall). What Mellon doesn't know is that Anne has borne him a son, whom the senator has adopted. Reaching adulthood, Paul (Douglass Montgomery) opts for a legal career himself, taking a clerical job with his own father's firm. In typical "B"-picture, Mellon is charged with murdering one of his more odious clients -- and Paul is appointed prosecuting attorney in the case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The excellent box-office returns for the previous Laurel & Hardy comic operas The Devil's Brother and Babes in Toyland encouraged Hal Roach to cast the team in still another operatic adaptation, a self-styled "comedy version" of William Balfe's The Bohemian Girl. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play members of a gypsy tribe wandering through middle Europe sometime in the early 19th century. As if he hasn't got enough trouble trying to train dimwitted Stan to be a "first-class pickpocket," Ollie is also saddled with a faithless wife (Mae Busch), who is in love with dashing gypsy robber captain Devil's Hoof (Antonio Moreno). While trying to break into the palace of gypsy-hating Count Arnheim (William P. Carleton), Devil's Hoof is captured and flogged. In retaliation, Ollie's wife kidnaps Arnheim's little daughter Arline (Darla Hood of "Our Gang" fame) and leaves the child in Ollie's care, explaining that the baby is his ("I didn't want to tell her who her father was until she was old enough to stand the shock!") Twelve years later, Arline (now played by Jacqueline Wells) has grown into a beautiful young woman who's forgotten all about her aristocratic childhood, except whenever she dreams "she dwelt in marbl'd halls" (from the song of the same name). By coincidence, Arline one day finds herself wandering around the grounds of her ancestral home. She is captured by the Captain of the Guards (James Finlayson) and sentenced to be flogged, whereupon her foster-daddy Ollie and her drink-besotted Uncle Stanley race to her rescue. There's a happy ending for Arline, but not for Stan and Ollie, who wind up the picture with one of their famous "physical distortion" gags. A troubled production, The Bohemian Girl had to be extensively reshot and re-edited after previews because of the sudden (and still unsolved) death of co-star Thelma Todd, who was originally cast as the Gypsy Queen. It was decided out of respect for Todd to retain only one of her musical numbers and to refilm the rest of her scenes with other actors; as a result, Bohemian Girl is one of the patchiest and most uneven of the Laurel & Hardy features. Fortunately, Stan and Ollie's scenes are well up to par, especially the classic bit wherein Stan inadvertently becomes progressively drunker as he tries to bottle a cask of bubbling wine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide