Charles Wilson Movies

The "they" who want to marry in this RKO Radio programmer are news photographer Jim Tyler (Gordon Jones) and cute society deb Sheila Hunter (Betty Furness). The heroine's father (Henry Kolker) disapproves of the union, requiring Gordon to take a "respectable" job in daddy's advertising agency. Our hero manages to strike out on Madison Avenue, but redeems himself with a big news scoop in the final reel. E.E. Clive has all the good lines as the Hunter family's dry-witted butler. Four decades later, leading lady Betty Furness would later make a name for herself in the journalistic world as NBC's consumer reporter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, Pat O'Brien plays James O'Malley, a tough, by-the-book policeman who is so unbending on any minor infraction of the law that he even gives his own mother a ticket for jaywalking. When newspaper reporter Pinky Holden (Hobart Cavanaugh) writes an article making fun of O'Malley's obsession with order, Capt. Cromwell (Donald Crisp), the Chief of Police, demotes the officer to a crossing guard. In his first day on the job, O'Malley, true to form, gives John Phillips (Humphrey Bogart) a ticket for the broken muffler on his rattletrap car. Phillips is in dire financial straits; he's been out of work for some time, and has both a wife (Frieda Inescort) and a handicapped daughter, Barbara (Sybil Jason), to support. O'Malley takes so long writing out his ticket for Phillips that when he finally arrives at work, he's fired. Desperate for cash, Phillips tries to hock his war medals, but a disagreement with the pawnbroker leads to a fight, and after knocking him out, Phillips takes all his money. Phillips is arrested by O'Malley for his faulty muffler around the same time that Barbara wanders into traffic and is seriously injured by a motorist. Eventually, O'Malley puts the pieces together and realizes the terrible toll his unwillingness to compromise has taken on Phillips and his family. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this crime thriller, an old, ailing scientist has been robbed of the burglar alarm he invented by his partner, who owns a security company. The scientist invents a superior alarm to provide for his daughter and sells it to the company for royalties, but his partner refuses to sell it. The scientist then invents a device that nullifies his partner's alarms and breaks into stores to prove that it works. He is kidnapped by a gang, who force him to give them the device by kidnapping his daughter. They go on a crime spree, and the scientist escapes and convinces his partner to help him catch the crooks. They rescue his daughter, and the partner pays him in full for all his inventions. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

In their third crime-solving adventure, smart-aleck newspaper woman Torchy Blane (Glenda Farrell) and slightly dense homicide dick Steve McBride (Barton MacLane) are about to get hitched when Torchy's reporter friends pull a practical joke on them. As a wedding present, the harebrained newsboys hire a stage actor, Harvey Hammond (Leland Hodgson), to simulate a murder victim. But when Torchy and Steve arrive at the scene of the supposed crime, Hammond has been killed for real. Suspects, of course, abound, including Hammond's fellow thespians Hugo Brand (Anderson Lawlor) and Grace Brown (Anne Nagel), whose romance the actor had tried to destroy. Even more suspicious to Torchy are Hammond's long-suffering wife (Virginia Brissac), and his socialite mistress (a surprisingly brunette Natalie Moorhead). With little help from Steve and his even dumber sergeant, Gahagan (Tom Kennedy), Torchy sets a trap for the killer. Produced by Warner Bros.'s busy B-unit, The Adventurous Blonde was acted at breakneck speed by a justly famous stock company, who, as always, nearly managed to make a hackneyed plot seem fresh and new. Torchy herself was ostensibly based on reporter Dorothy Kilgallen and had begun her crime-solving career in Smart Blonde (1937). Eight more Torchy films were made, but Farrell and MacLane were replaced by Lola Lane and Paul Kelly in Torchy in Panama (1938), the seventh entry, and by Jane Wyman and Allen Jenkins in the final, Torchy Plays With Dynamite (1939). By then, then series had more than run its course. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Now decidedly a product of Warner Bros.' grade-B unit, The Case of the Stuttering Bishop brought the Perry Mason series to a close. Donald Woods starred as Mason, with Ann Dvorak as his loyal secretary Della Street (who is constantly promised a raise that never seems to materialize) and Edward McWade in the title role. The latter asks Mason's help in a case of a young girl, Janice (Anne Nagel), who may or may not be the granddaughter of wealthy Ronald Brownley (Douglas Wood). The bishop suspects that she is a fake and it is Mason's job to find the real Janice, whose estranged mother Ida (Mira McKinney) believes her to be one Janice Seaton (Linda Perry). But before Brownley can verify this latest claim, he is murdered by what appears to be a woman wearing a light raincoat. A fingerprint in Brownley's car points to Ida as the murderess, but is she guilty? And who is the real Janice Brownley? ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A reporter becomes an amateur sleuth to solve the mystery surrounding the death of a magician's wife and a few others. The trouble began while the magician performed his daring escape act at a coastal resort and it is the clever reporter who figures out how the crimes were committed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this outdoor drama, a plucky young woman inherits her father's logging business and decides to try running it, even though she knows nothing about it. In her innocence, she fires all her trustworthy workers and instead hires a band of slick talking hoods who immediately try to cheat her. Fortunately, a handsome logger and his trusty axe come to save her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this emotional drama, a lonely British housekeeper, uses her hard-earned savings account to finance a trip to America so she can see the successful son she has been proud of all her life. At least she has been lead to believe that her son is a big shot. Once in the US, she and her young female companion end up thumbing to California. Along the way they hook up with a kindly young man and his world-weary promoter. Unfortunately, she learns a bitter truth upon her arrival: her son is actually a prisoner in San Quentin. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This second film version of the Edna Ferber/Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Show Boat is considered by many film buffs to be the best of the three. Covering nearly four decades (was there ever an Edna Ferber novel that didn't?), the film stars Irene Dunne as Magnolia Hawks, a role she'd previously played on stage, though not in the Broadway version. The daughter of showboat impresario Captain Andy (Charles Winninger, who was in the Broadway original), Magnolia is swept off her feet by dashing gambler Gaylord Ravenal (Allan Jones). Yearning to appear on the showboat stage, Magnolia gets her chance when Captain Andy's leading lady, the tragic Julie (Helen Morgan, likewise a holdover from Broadway), is ordered not to perform by a small-town sheriff because she is Mulatto. Julie's husband Steve (Donald Cook) loyally walks out with his wife, thereby leaving the leading-man position open--but not for long, since Gaylord Ravenal agrees to take over for Steve, the better to stay close to Magnolia. Despite the disapproval of Magnolia's mother Parthy Hawks (Helen Westley), Magnolia and Ravenal are married. Later on, the couple has a baby girl named Kim. At first, the young family is blissfully happy, but as Ravenal's gambling debts begin to mount, things turn sour. Unable to support Magnolia and Kim, Ravenal walks out on them both. Desperately, Magnolia tries to get a job as a singer in Chicago. She auditions at a night spot where, fortuitously, Julie is the featured attraction. Hoping to give Magnolia a break, Julie gets drunk, forcing the manager to hire Magnolia as a replacement. During her New Years' Eve debut, Magnolia "chokes up" in front of the raucous audience--and then, who should emerge from the crowd but lovable Captain Andy, who gives Magnolia the encouragement she needs. Magnolia goes on to become a famous musical comedy star, as does her grown-up daughter Kim (played as an adult by Sunnie O'Dea). On the eve of Magnolia's retirement from the theater, she is reunited with her now-contrite husband Gaylord Ravenal. While the second half of Show Boat departs radically from both the novel (in which Ravenal never returns ) and the Broadway show, the film manages to capture the spirit of its literary and theatrical ancestors. Of the original score, "Cotton Blossom," "Ol' Man River," "Where's the Mate for Me?" "Make Believe," "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," You are Love" and "Bill" are retained, while most of the other songs are heard as background accompaniment. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II penned three new tunes for the film version: "Ah Still Suits Me," "Gallavantin' Around" and "I Have the Room Above." As in all stage and screen versions of Show Boat, the Charles K. Harris standard "After the Ball" is heard in the New Year sequence. In addition to the aforementioned Dunne, Jones, Winninger, Westley, Morgan, and O'Dea, the Show Boat cast includes the magnificent Paul Robeson as Joe (his rendition of "Ol' Man River" can still induce goosebumps), Hattie McDaniel as Queenie and Sammy White and Queenie Smith as the engagingly second-rate vaudeville team of Frank and Ellie Schultz. Though James Whale of Frankenstein fame seems an odd choice for director, he brings a vibrant theatricality to the proceedings that is lacking in other versions. Show Boat literally saved the financially strapped Universal Pictures from receivership--but not soon enough to prevent the ousters of Carl Laemmle Sr. and Jr. in favor of a new administration. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a teen is adopted from a reform school by a wealthy couple. They own horses and the boy becomes a jockey. His father was also a rider, but he got involved with crime. The young rider soon finds himself being framed by gamblers who are using his father's reputation against him. Finally the young man clears his name and wins the English Derby. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1924 by producer Sol Lesser, Harold Bell Wright's popular suspense novel The Mine with the Iron Door was again adapted to the screen by Lesser in 1936. Suckered into buying some evidently worthless property in Arizona, Bob Harvey (Richard Arlen) discovers that he may actually have come into possession of the Mine with the Iron Door, a legendary cache of Spanish gold. Teaming up with detective Dempsey (Stanley Fields) and Marta Hill (Cecilia Parker), a young woman whose family lives on Bob's property, our hero goes a-prospecting, with eccentric archaeologist Professor Burton (Henry B. Walthall) leading the way. In love with Marta himself, the jealous Burton does his best to kill Bob during the expedition, but virtue ultimately triumphs and everyone but the villain strikes it rich. Some of the background music in Mine with the Iron Door had originally been composed for 1915's The Birth of a Nation -- which ironically starred Henry B. Walthall as the hero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A love triangle forms the basis of this drama. It all begins in a steel mill when a steel worker ignores the besotted gazes of his landlady at the boarding house and falls in love with a gold-digger. His best friend also finds himself smitten by the seductive young woman. But when the one of the workers fritters away a collection that had been taken up for the wife of a deceased co-worker on a foolish bet, he and the vamp take off until the good-hearted landlady intervenes and convinces them to stay and take their lumps. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Sometimes referred to as a "baseball picture," Columbia's Panic in the Air is only peripherally involved in the sport. Lew Ayres stars as fast-talking sports radio announcer Jerry, while Florence Rice co-stars as a gorgeous socialite named Mary. Rather full of himself, Jerry delights in one-upping the police while tracking down a gang of crooks who've been fixing sports events. Our hero ultimately outsmarts himself when he offers to act as go-between to ransom Mary's kidnapped father, which serves only to get Mary arrested on a murder charge. The film's tight 54 minutes manages to accommodate a murder during a World Series game and similar skullduggery during a climactic steeplechase. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide