Bill Williams Movies

Set in British Columbia but filmed in Colorado, Cariboo Trail stars Randolph Scott as a cattle-drive boss from Montana. Crooked Victor Jory and his minions stampede the cattle, causing Scott's partner Bill Williams to lose an arm. Out of a job, Scott gives gold mining a try, but even here he is tormented by Jory. The villain is hoist on his own petard when he tries to stir up the local Indian tribes. Proving that the good guys don't always win, Scott gives up mining and turns to cattle ranching. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As indicated by its title, Blue Grass of Kentucky is a horse-racing opus. Bill Williams plays Lin McIvor, the owner of a horse named Blue Grass. He doesn't know it, but the horse was sired by a Kentucky Derby winner, owned by Armistead (Russell Hicks). The aristocratic Armistead had previously refused to mate his prize horse with McIvor's best mare, but the union was orchestrated in secret by Armistead's sympathetic daughter Pat (Jane Nigh). Highlighted by actual scenes from the annual Derby at Churchill Downs, Blue Grass of Kentucky was pleasingly lensed in Cinecolor. The film is ample proof that prolific "B"-flick director William "One Take" Beaudine was capable of turning out first-rate work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Both Van Johnson and Gregory Peck were considered for the role of baseball star Monty Stratton in the 1949 biopic The Stratton Story before settling upon the real Stratton's own first choice, James Stewart. The film covers several years in the 1930s, as Texas farm boy Stratton rises from the minors to the Chicago White Sox. Along the way, Monty marries an Omaha gal named Ethel (June Allyson), who gives him a son. In November 1938, Monty accidentally shoots himself in the leg while on a hunting excursion. When the leg has to be amputated, it looks as though Stratton's pitching career is over. He broods over his bad luck for months before snapping out of his self-pity and learning to walk with his new prosthesis. To prove to himself that he's overcome his handicap, Monty takes a job pitching with the Southern All-Stars. His return to baseball is rough sledding (the other team persistently bunts balls out of his reach), but Monty Stratton is finally able to make a successful comeback. Only occasionally playing fast and loose with the facts (the time-frame of Stratton's real-life return to baseball is telescoped by several years), The Stratton Story was one of the best and most profitable baseball pictures ever turned out by Hollywood. Fans of the game will get an extra kick from the presence in the cast of big-leaguers Bill Dickey and Jimmy Dykes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Dangerous Profession of the title is the bail-bond business. George Raft stars as Kane, a former cop turned professional bail-raiser. When one of his customers, robbery suspect Brackett (Bill Williams), is mysteriously murdered, Kane wants to know why. His reasons are twofold: he has an insatiable curiosity, and he's fallen in love with Brackett's widow Lucy (Ella Raines). As his business partner Farley (Pat O'Brien) looks on in mute bewilderment, Kane risks life and limb to solve the mystery. The plot doesn't always make sense, but in 1949 it was reassuring to see George Raft and Pat O'Brien harking back to their cinematic halcyon days of the 1930s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz adopts the same prismatic-flashback technique he'd used so well in Citizen Kane for the 1949 filmic soap opera A Woman's Secret. Based on a novel by Vicki (Grand Hotel) Baum, the film begins with the shooting of nightclub singer Susan Caldwell (Gloria Grahame). Marian Washburn (Maureen O'Hara), who'd coached Susan into the Big Time, confesses to the shooting. Neither Marian's piano-player friend Luke Jordan (Melvyn Douglas) nor police inspector Fowler (Jay C. Flippen) completely buy her story, and it is their probing investigation of the facts that sparks the flashback parade. The film details in sometimes clever, sometimes maudlin fashion the perils of living one's life vicariously through the accomplishments of others. Though filmed before director Nicholas Ray's "official" debut feature They Live by Night, A Woman's Secret was released afterward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this slick melodrama, a sort of film-noir for women, a nightclub singer has an affair with an unhappily married San Francisco doctor. Though the physician desperately wants to leave his wife, he lacks the courage to ask for a divorce. In retaliation, the singer accepts an offer to move East and start up a new club in New York. Lost without the singer, the doctor is without option until his partner suddenly dies. With a burst of inspiration, he fakes his own death and flees to New York. Later, he is horrified to learn that his death has been officially declared a homicide, and so he goes into hiding in the singer's apartment. To cope with his fear and the increasing success of his lover, the physician begins drinking heavily. This only makes him paranoid and more depressed and he begins to suspect his lover is having an affair. Upon confronting the "lover," a fight ensues, the doctor wins, and thinking he killed his rival, he takes off -- only to end up in a horrible traffic accident that leaves his face unrecognizable. Though plastic surgery gives him a new identity, it is at that time that he is arrested and sent back to California to stand trial for his own murder. Rather than burden his family with the shock that he is still alive, the doctor insists that his lover keep mum, and he stoically goes to trial where he is sentenced to Death Row. Beautifully photographed by James Wong Howe in typically expressionistic style, the film focuses on the desperation and entrapment of the characters and expresses a true bleak, fatalistic film-noir sensibility which makes this film unique in the genre. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Deadline at Dawn represented not only the sole film directorial effort of Broadway's Harold Clurman, but also the only cinematic collaboration between Clurman and his former Group Theatre associate, screenwriter Clifford Odets. While on shore leave in New York, sailor Alex (Bill Williams) is slipped a doped-up drink by B-girl Edna (Lola Lane). When he awakens, Alex discovers that she has been murdered. Though he believes that he's the killer, our hero is talked into locating the actual miscreant by philosophical cab driver gus (Paul Lukas) and nightclub dancer June (Susan Hayward). Adapted from a novel by Cornell Woolrich, Deadline at Dawn leans towards pretentiousness at times, but is redeemed by the no-nonsense performance by Susan Hayward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No relation to the later Shelley Fabares song hit of the same name, RKO Radio's Johnny Angel was adapted by Steve Fisher and Frank Gruber from a short story by Charles Gordon Booth. In one of his better performances, George Raft plays sea captain Johnny Angel, who doggedly pursues the no-good rats who murdered his father and swiped a shipment of gold bullion. Along the way, Johnny crosses paths (and words) with Lilah (Claire Trevor), the faithless wife of his boss, and French stowaway Paulette (Signe Hasso), apparently the only witness to the murder-hijacking. Aiding and abetting Johnny is philosophical cab driver Celestial O'Brien, engagingly played by songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Considered a second-echelon effort by RKO, Johnny Angel proved to be a surprise hit, toting up a box-office take of $1,192,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filling in for RKO's Western ace Tim Holt, who was fighting the war in Europe, a young Robert Mitchum starred in this fine version of Zane Grey's 1937 story of a wild and woolly West. Ordered by his doctor to get some exercise, Chicago meatpacking king Col. Lamberth (Thurston Hall) reluctantly travels west to his Texas hacienda accompanied by his headstrong daughter Rill (Barbara Hale) and her Parisian maid Suzanne (Rita Corday). En route, they witness the killing of a stagecoach driver (Bill Williams), a crime blamed on Pecos Smith (Robert Mitchum), but actually committed by a gang headed by Brad Sawtelle (Harry Woods). Rill, who decides to masquerade as a boy after being accosted by a couple of ruffians, convinces her father to hire Pecos and his Irish-Mexican sidekick Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin). Naturally, Pecos discovers Rill's true gender after a few dicey moments and they fall in love. But the threat from Sawtelle and his gang is ever present and soon the Lamberth hacienda is engaged in an all-out war. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Set in a brooding old home, this musical mystery chronicles the endeavors of a young couple attempt to solve a mysterious murder that occurred there. The victim was the first husband of the new bride. The groom was the victim's best friend. After the murder, the house was abandoned and rumors abounded that the place was haunted. The couple are determined to quell the rumors and solve the mystery themselves while holding a housewarming party. Unfortunately, soon after the guests arrive, the murders begin. Murder in the Blue Room was filmed twice before as The Missing Guest and Secret of the Blue Room. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide