Lloyd Whitlock Movies

The Lost Jungle is a feature-length version of the 12-episode Mascot serial of the same name. Legendary animal trainer Clyde Beatty plays himself, while Cecilia Parker portrays Beatty's screen sweetheart Ruth Robinson. When Ruth and her father are lost in the African jungle during a scientific expedition, Beatty goes to her rescue, flying to Africa via dirigible. The huge airship crashes in a hurricane, but Beatty survives and continues his desperate search. Upon finding Ruth, our hero gets mixed up with a group of bad guys in pursuit of hidden gold. Beatty manages to vanquish the villains and even battle a wild animal or two before the long-awaited happy ending. The Lost Jungle remained in reissue for years, thanks to the presence in the cast of 13-year-old Mickey Rooney. The film was also made available in a "hybrid" version consisting of a 73-minute feature and four 20-minute concluding chapters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this action film, a New York reporter follows a group of East Coast jewel thieves trying to move their operation to the West Coast. The intrepid journalist tries to infiltrate the ring, but is quickly discovered. Mayhem ensue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

With customary lack of restraint, Bela Lugosi tore into his role of Professor Strang, a foreign agent masquerading as a wax museum proprietor, in this the first of Mascot Pictures' five serials of 1933. Bela is smuggling jewels into the country as security for a loan. The "jools," however, are stolen by an escaped convict and sought by the omnipresent Whispering Shadow, a mysterious megalomaniac out to gain control of the entire world. A science wizard, the Shadow uses radio waves to kill his enemies, but no one knows who he is. In typical Mascot fashion, suspicion falls at various times on most of the cast members -- Lugosi, needless to say, most of all. As it turns out, despite a plethora of menacing close-ups, Bela is indeed only a red herring, the real culprit, in typical Mascot style, revealed instead to be a heretofore minor comic relief. Considering the fate of the actor in question, we shall break with tradition and name him. A major comic star of the late '20s, Karl Dane could only watch as his career collapsed at the changeover to sound due to an impenetrable Danish accent. All but unemployable, Dane was given this last chance to shine by producer Nat Levine, but audiences felt cheated by the serial's somewhat unfair denouement and The Whispering Shadow proved less a comeback than a debacle. Reduced to selling hot dogs from a stand outside his former studio, MGM, Dane ended his own life on April 14, 1934, one of the best remembered victims of the sound revolution. The Whispering Shadow marked the directorial debut of Colbert Clark, formerly of the script department, who was helped along the way by the veteran Albert Herman. The serial was also released in a truncated feature version. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a recently convicted criminal boards a train bound for the prison where he will be hanged. His wife rides with him and en route tells a reporter how her husband had accidentally killed a man while protecting her. The reporter, who is dying of tuberculosis, is touched by the story and decides to help them by knocking out a guard, helping the man to escape and jumping off the train to his death. When authorities find the corpse, the assume it belongs to the young convict, and the real killer and his wife are free to start a new life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A bored noblewoman wagers that she can steal a valuable diamond necklace and then return it without discovery in this minor programmer from low-budget producer Ralph M. Like. While the Baroness Orsani (Dorothy Revier) contemplates how to reach her goal and win the bet, a gang of jewel thieves also plans to steal the gem. The leader of the gang, Pete Wells (William V. Mong), is at one point close to actually succeeding in his nefarious purpose, but is bested by the baroness, who not only returns the necklace to its rightful owner, Peter Lawton-Bond (Kenneth Harlan), but ends up marrying him. Usually starring his wife Blanche Mehaffey, producer Like this time managed to corral former Columbia star Dorothy Revier, whose mere presence lends a bit of class to this otherwise pedestrian melodrama. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Produced at the little Tec Art studio by sound engineer Ralph M. Like, this film is one of those modest whodunits where the lights go out and someone inevitably gets hit over the head with a blunt instrument. This time, the crew and passengers from a Los Angeles-bound plane seek shelter from the fog in a deserted yet fully furnished farm house. As it turns out, one of the passengers (William P. Burt) is carrying diamonds worth $500,000 and is killed during one of the blackouts. Insurance investigator Sidney Bracey attempts to catch the killer before he strikes again, and with the assistance of the plane's captain, Gene Morgan, and elderly passenger Ethel Wales, he manages to unmask the surprising culprit. Aside from being practically devoid of the obnoxious "humor" that often makes this kind of hoary melodrama tough viewing for a modern audience, Tangled Destinies offers generally fine performances from an ensemble cast of B-movie veterans and better than average production values. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The second of two projected John Wayne serials produced by genre expert Mascot Pictures, this film used the budget-saving device of having its master criminal wearing variously fiendish rubber masks, offering him the opportunity to resemble every red herring in the large cast. Known only as "The Wrecker" ("That's him, The Wrecker!" people continuously scream throughout the serial), the villain is attempting to sabotage the L. & R. Railroad in order to bolster a competing airline service. Wayne plays a commercial pilot whose father, the railroad's chief engineer (J. Farrell MacDonald), is murdered early on. Shirley Grey, as the daughter of a railroad man falsely accused of sabotage, is the damsel-in-distress (although, despite some poster art, she is never actually tied to the tracks), and Tully Marshall plays the president of the railroad. As Wayne had no drawing power whatsoever in 1932, Marshall, a veteran from the early silent era, was actually given star billing along with Conway Tearle, who portrayed the little seen company lawyer. The Hurricane Express survives in a truncated 70-minute feature version, a screening of which actually feels like watching an entire serial in one sitting. The serial was co-directed by J.P. McGowan, a veteran actor-director who had begun his long love affair with railroad themes directing his then-wife Helen Holmes in The Hazards of Helen (1915). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

To say that ace stuntman Richard Talmadge was invariably better than his movie vehicles is small praise, indeed, since most of his films were shabbily produced and miserably directed. Scareheads isn't much better than the usual Talmadge epic, but the star is as watchable as ever. This time, Talmadge plays a reporter who conducts a campaign against the crooked incumbent mayor. As a result, our hero is framed for murder and tossed into the jug. Through a series of eye-popping athletics, Talmadge escapes from jail to track down the real killers. Scareheads represents the first major screen appearance of perennial ingenue Jacqueline Wells, who later enjoyed a lengthy "second career" as leading ladyJulie Bishop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Chinatown After Dark is where you'll find Madame Ying Su (Carmel Myers), a "dragon lady" type who'll stop at nothing to get her hands on a rare dagger belonging to the Royal House of Lee Fong. Unbeknownst to the authorities, the dagger contains a priceless jewel, the owner of which will be able to wield untold power over all of Chinatown. American Jim Bonner (Rex Lease), in love with Lee Fong's ward Lotus (Vera Reynolds), is set up as the fall guy when the dagger is stolen and a man is murdered. Bonner spends the rest of the picture trying to prove his innocence to a sneezing comic-relief detective (Billy Gilbert, in one of his first important feature-length roles. "See what happens in the underworld dens after dark!" entreated the ads for this fast-moving cheapie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ships of Hate was one of the lesser entries in the "skullduggery-at-sea" genre of the early-talkie era. Hero Bart Wallace (Lloyd Hughes) happens to be on hand when the roughneck crew of the vessel commandeered by the despotic Captain Lash (Charles Middleton) decides to mutiny. Adding to Bart's problems is a collision at sea in the midst of a thick and treacherous fog. Somehow, he manages to survive long enough to rescue heroine Grace Walsh (Dorothy Sebastian) from a watery grave. Most of Ships of Hate was filmed indoors, utilizing a patently unconvincing studio water tank. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though he spent the bulk of the talkie era at mighty MGM, director Richard Thorpe put in three solid years' service on Poverty Row. In Thorpe's Neck and Neck, Glenn Tryon plays Bill Grant, a boastful young chap who claims to be an expert horseman. When he falls in love with wealthy Norma Rickson (Vera Reynolds), Grant is forced to prove his turf prowess by Norma's father Col. Rickson (Lafe McKee). Comic relief is supplied by Walter Brennan -- already playing toothless codgers at age 37 -- and stereotypical Black mirthmaker Stepin Fetchit. Much of Neck and Neck was filmed on location at the racetrack at Aguascalientes, Mexico. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Cohens and Kellys in Africa is the fourth in the seemingly endless movie series based on characters created in the 1925 stage play Two Blocks Away. Back again are George Sidney and Charlie Murray as Cohen and Kelly, those two eternally bickering business partners and reluctant in-laws. This time, the Hebraic-Hibernian duo are in the piano-manufacturing business. When a shortage in ivory threatens to close down their operation, our heroes pack up their families and head to Africa in hopes of locating the legendary Elephant's Graveyard. To the surprise of no one, Cohen and Kelly find themselves mixed up with a sheik's harem and a cannibal tribe, with time left over for a miniature-golf game (reprising gags previously seen in The Cohens and Kellys in Scotland). The level of humor can be gauged by the scene in which a swarthy tribal chieftain (Eddie Kane) turns out to be a lower-east-side Jewish merchant in disguise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide