Dick Botiller Movies

In this western, a young man infiltrates a vicious gang of bank robbers in order to capture his father's killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This fifth entry in MGM's off-and-on "Thin Man" series maintains the high production and story values of the first four. Per the title, retired private detective Nick Charles (William Powell) pays a visit to his home town of Sycamore Springs, with wife Nora (Myrna Loy) in tow. Poor Nick is amusingly browbeaten by his parents (Harry Davenport and Lucile Watson), who wanted their boy to study medicine, is frustrated by the fact that there isn't a good stiff drink to be had in town, and is hilariously defeated by a recalcitrant hammock. In a more serious vein, Nick and Nora become involved in international intrigue while investigating the murder of a local house painter. If the identity of the murderer seems obvious today, it is only because the actor in question has played so many "surprise killers" in other films of this genre. A refreshing change of pace for the usually urbanized "Thin Man" series, The Thin Man Goes Home features such colorful suspects as Gloria DeHaven, Edward Brophy, Lloyd Corrigan, Leon Ames, and, best of all, Ann Revere as a local eccentric named "Crazy Mary". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, fake settlers make themselves at home on an ex-ranger's ranch and drive him away. A shady newspaper publisher and a gambler then conspire to take over the land. Fortunately, another ranger endeavors to help his pal. Enlisting the aide of his fellow rangers, they get oust the homesteaders. The publisher and the gambler shoot each other and the retired ranger gets his ranch back. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls is a romantic drama set against the turbulent tapestry of the Spanish Civil War. Gary Cooper plays Robert Jordan, an idealistic American fighting with a Spanish guerilla band. He is assigned to blow up a crucial bridge in order to halt the enemy's progress. He falls in love with Maria (Ingrid Bergman), a young peasant girl who's joined the fight after being ill-used by enemy troops. Pablo (Akim Tamiroff), the eternally drunken leader of the guerillas, resents Jordan's attentions toward Maria, and he refuses to help Jordan in his sabotage work. Pablo's wife Pilar (Oscar-winner Katina Paxinou) takes over command of the guerillas and helps Jordan by arranging horses for the band's departure after their job is done. The man supplying the horses (Joseph Calleia) is killed, and Jordan is left to finish his task minus a means to escape. For Whom the Bell Tolls was a long, faithful adaptation of the Hemingway novel, with excellent performances, torrid love scenes, and first-rate Technicolor photography. Available for many years only in the 130-minute reissue version, it was restored to nearly its full original length of 168 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charles Starrett rides again as the Durango Kid. This time Durango investigates the murder of a town marshal, in which an innocent man has been implicated. In the course of his investigation, Durango becomes the target of the murderers himself. He plays his cards close to his vest and traps the culprits. Bad Men of the Hills was released in Great Britain as Wrongly Accused, deftly disguising the fact that it was a "Yankee" western. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having accidentally caused a merchant ship to blow up, stowaways Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are shipwrecked on the African coast. Commandeering a convenient camel (who takes time to ad-lib a spit in Hope's eye!), Bob and Bing are off on the road to Morocco, an event they celebrate in song. With nary a penny in their pockets, the boys try various methods to scare up a meal. Old reliable Bing shows up with the necessary funds; when Bob asks where the money came from, Bing calmly informs his pal that he's been sold into slavery. Bob is dragged off to parts unknown; later, Bing, his conscience bothering him, scours the town in search of his buddy. He stumbles into a luxurious palace, where Bob is being treated like a rajah. Even more puzzling, Bob is being kissed and cosseted by Moroccan-princess Dorothy Lamour, who announces plans to marry him in a few days! Neither Bing nor Bob can figure this out, but the audience knows that Dorothy has been advised by her astrologers that her first husband will suffer a violent death, and that her second marriage will be long and happy. Since Dorothy is affianced to desert sheik Anthony Quinn, ol' buddy Bob is once more set up as a dead duck. But Dorothy finds herself attracted to Bing, and forgets all about her pre-arranged marriage to Quinn (just as well, since Quinn is the heavy of the piece). On the eve of the wedding, the astrologers find they've made a mistake, and that Dorothy is now free to marry the man of her dreams-who, by this time, is Bing. Bob must console himself with handmaiden Dona Drake, who's some looker herself. As the wedding procession proceeds, Quinn comes riding into town, kidnaps Dorothy, and leaves Bob and Bing trussed up in the desert. Freeing themselves, Bob and Bing make their way through the desert wastes ("This must be where they empty the old hourglasses") in search of Quinn's camp. After an amusing series of mirages, the boys sneak into camp and attempt to rescue Dorothy and Dona. Imprisoned by Quinn, the boys muff an opportunity to use a magic ring, but still manage to escape. Using exploding cigars and hotfoots, our heroes sabotage a peace conference between Quinn and rival sheik George Givot, prompting a talking camel to remark "This is the screwiest picture I've ever been in." Bob, Bing and the girls escape to New York, but not before Crosby spoils Hope's chances at getting an Academy Award by interrupting Bob's "mad scene." Generally regarded as the best of the "Road" pictures, Road to Morocco is as fresh and funny today as it was back in 1942; even in repeated viewings, the rapid-fire one liners and comic setpieces result in boffo bellylaughs. An Oscar was bestowed upon Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen's ballad "Moonlight Becomes You". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Don "Red" Barry's first western of 1941, Wyoming Wildcat told the careworn but still potent story of a war veteran returning home to find that his father is now a wanted outlaw. But as Frank Gannon (Frank M. Thomas explains, circumstances -- in this case severe economic conditions forced upon the settlers by local banks -- drove him into a life of crime. Trying to prove his father innocent of killing a local bank manager, Bill Gannon (Barry) is himself falsely accused of murder. Sprung from jail by his faithful army buddy Butch (Syd Saylor), Bill tracks down the real culprit, outlaw Blackie Jordan (Dick Botiller), but in the ensuing shoot-out, Frank is mortally wounded. Before he dies, however, Gannon clears his son of any wrong-doings and Bill is free to marry pretty Wells Fargo employee Derry Carson (Julie Duncan). The blond Miss Duncan, who also appeared in the previous Don "Red" Barry entry, Texas Terrors (1940), was a prize-winning steeplechase rider. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Pinto Kid was one of Charles Starrett's last "formula" westerns before he permanently assumed the screen guise of the Durango Kid. The story takes places just after the Civil War, with hostilities between Yanks and Rebels still in effect between Kansas and Texas. The villain, cattle rustler Vic Landreau (Paul Sutton), intends to play both factions down the middle for his own benefit. But Landreau meets his match in the form of wandering do-gooder Jud Calvert (Charles Starrett). The film is highlighted by a violent gun battle, in which, incredibly, nary a drop of blood is spilled. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wild Bill Hickock (William Elliott), aka The Peaceable Man, meters out justice in the tough town of Deadwood in this highly fictional western from Columbia. Unlike the historic character, Elliott's gunfighter survives his encounter with the South Dakota hellhole, where he arrives to aid beleaguered livery stable owner Clint Wilson (Richard Fiske) and his sister, Madge (Dorothy Fay), in their battle against self-appointed town czar "Flash" Kirby (Arthur Loft). But before he gets that far, there is a little matter of proving Kirby guilty of wrongdoing and to achieve that, Wild Bill earns the enmity of both the Wilsons. Comic sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) relieves the tension by performing Milton Drake's "Of Course, It's Your Horse" and "Saturday Night in San Antone", both numbers culminating with an unwanted shower. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Those wily Egyptians are once again selfishly attempting to keep the treasures of the Pharaohs to themselves in this rough-and-tumble melodrama from Universal. The wiliest of them all is one Abbadi (George Zucco), who leaves no stone unturned in his quest for possession of the fabulous "seven jewels of the seventh pharaoh," which American archeologist Professor Wyndham (Wright Kramer) obligingly has excavated. The elderly professor is easily gotten rid of, but Abbadi also faces Police Inspector Joachim (Rod LaRocque), a rather more formidable foe. Soon, knives are whizzing through the air, swarthy natives abduct pretty maidens, and a couple of All-American archeologists crack wise and perform daring stunts. Sigrid Gurie, Samuel Goldwyn's version of the "Edsel," is star-billed and The Dark Streets of Cairo also employs Ralph Byrd, Eddie Quillan, and, seething in the background, Katherine DeMille. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Virtually a textbook example of Howard Hawks' "macho" mode, Only Angels Have Wings takes place high in the Peruvian Andes. Cary Grant heads a ramshackle airmail and freight service, forced to fly in the most perilous of weather conditions to the most treacherous of destinations. Facing death on a near-hourly basis, Grant and his flyers have adopted a casual, all-in-day's-work attitude towards mortality. If a pilot cracks up and dies, it's simply because he didn't have what it took, and that's that. Stranded showgirl Jean Arthur can't stand this cavalier attitude at first, but before long she becomes, in true Hawksian fashion, "one of the guys". Complicating the story is the presence of Richard Barthelmess, who has been persona non grata with the other pilots ever since his carelessness cost the life of one of their number. In addition to a surfeit of guilt, Barthelmess is saddled with a faithless wife, played by Rita Hayworth in her first important A-picture role. Hayworth makes a play for Grant, but he spurns her, finally realizing that, in spite of himself, he's in love with Arthur. Grant himself is riddled with guilt when near-blind pilot Thomas Mitchell insists upon taking on one final flight. Having lost his best friend, Grant drops his hard-bitten shell, and for the first time opens himself up emotionally to Arthur-which of course leads to a nail-biting climax wherein Arthur suffers mightily as Grant faces certain death. Scripted by Jules Furthman from a story by Hawks, Only Angels Have Wings is a treasure trove of terse, pithy dialogue: our favorite scene occurs when, upon discovering that he's about to die, Thomas Mitchell says he's often wondered how he'd react to imminent death-and, now that death is but a few moments away, he'd rather that no one else be around to witness his reaction. Though sometimes laid low by obvious miniatures, the aerial scenes in Only Angels Have Wings are by and large first-rate, earning a first-ever "best special effects" Oscar nomination for Roy Davidson and Edwin C. Hahn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Code of the Secret Service was the second of Warner Bros. "Brass Bancroft" series, starring Ronald Reagan as troubleshooting federal operative Bancroft. This time, Brass and his wisecracking partner Gabby (Eddie Foy Jr., brother of producer Bryan Foy) take on a particularly vicious gang of counterfeiters. Our heroes end up in Mexico, where they undergo a series of wild and wooly adventures the like of which were seldom seen outside of the Republic serials. According to Reagan, he was obliged to do his own stunts in the film because the budget couldn't afford a double; it certainly looks that way. Entertaining in its own dizzy fashion. Code of the Secret Service is proof positive that Reagan could carry a film with the right material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide