Houston Branch Movies

This Republic potboiler is no relation to the like-vintage Swedish film of the same title. The wayward girl in question is Judy Wingate (Marcia Henderson), the stepdaughter of predatory alcoholic Frances Wingate (Katherine Barrett). Judy is thrown into prison for a murder actually committed by Frances. The motivation: both women were in love with the same man. Frances keeps mum about her crime until it's almost too late for the people whom the audience truly care about. Some of the best scenes involve B-picture "regular" Whit Bissell as a lovelorn middle-ager. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Nader stars as David Carr, a construction engineer operating in the Belgian Congo. In true jingoistic fashion, Carr wants to introduce the local natives to civilzation by re-zoning the Congotanga Falls region. Because this region is currently exempt from extradition, a small colony of fugitive criminals has sprung up. Among these worthies is suspected murderess Louise Whitman (Virginia Mayo), who like her fellow exiles would prefer that Carr not bring the region under the control of the Congolese government. One of these exiles is so anxious to get rid of Carr that he hires Chicago gunman Bart O'Connell (Michael Pate) to do the job. The supporting cast of Congo Crossing is a feast for film buffs, ranging from Peter Lorre as a cynical police inspector to Rex Ingram as a dedicated doctor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After several years of supporting parts, Victor McLaglen once more landed a leading role in Republic's City of Shadows. McLaglen plays Big Tim Channing, an ageing but powerful gangster who raises young newsboy Dan Mason as his own son. Upon reaching adulthood, Mason (John Baer) becomes a law student, with the covert (and illegal) help of Channing. Despite his checkered past, Mason opts for honesty when he falls in love with Fern Fellows (Kathleen Crowley). This decision ultimately spells the doom for Mason's mentor Big Tim. The all-character actor cast includes such familiar faces as Anthony Caruso, Paul Maxey, Frank Ferguson, Richard Travis, and Kay E. Kuter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Reportedly, there was no love lost between the three stars of Untamed Frontier, and perhaps it was this tension that added so much depth to this otherwise formula-bound western. Joseph Cotten plays Kirk Denbow, the straight-laced son of ruthless cattle-baron Matt Denbow (Minor Watson), while Scott Brady co-stars as Glen Denbow, Kirk's firebrand brother (shades of Duel in the Sun, which also starred Cotten). Waitress Jane Stevens (Shelley Winters) witnesses a murder committed by Glen, then is railroaded into marrying him to prevent her from testifying in court. Inevitably, Jane falls in love with Kirk, the first of several fateful steps which lead to the film's bloody denouement. The late Suzan Ball, whose screen career was so tragically brief, makes her movie debut in Untamed Frontier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yvonne DeCarlo dons 19th century "adventuress" garb once more in River Lady. This time she's a 19th century gambling queen, in charge of a profitable Mississippi riverboat casino. DeCarlo falls in love with logger Rod Cameron; when he won't succumb to her charms, she tries to buy his affections by setting up a logging empire. DeCarlo's partner Dan Duryea is also fascinated with her, but he's his usual slimy self and hasn't got a chance of either winning the girl or surviving to the fade-out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A women's prison provides the setting for this drama that centers around a naive small-town woman framed by a man whom she met in a nightclub in the big city. She is not welcomed by the inmates and immediately the prisoners are divided. The conflict ends in murder. In the end, the innocent woman's lawyer comes to her rescue and she is at last, freed. Included are two stirring songs sung by the inmates in the prison's rec room. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Belle Of The Yukon is standard backstage musical fare, featuring Randolph Scott as a reformed con man who has fled north from the law and opened a successful dancehall/ gambling establishment in the upper reaches of Malamute. Meanwhile, his former lover Belle (Gypsy Rose Lee), who he deserted when he went on the lam, arrives as part of a new show troupe and finds her ex-boyfriend's new ways powerfully attractive. But Lettie Candless (Dinah Shore) also has designs on our hero. A thin plot and light characterizations are kept afloat by bouncy performances, glitzy production, and the usual clutch of sprightly musical numbers. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

The luridly titled Women in Bondage was Monogram's "answer" to RKO Radio's wartime melodrama Hitler's Children. The plot concerns the nationalization and subjugation of Germany's women during the Third Reich. Expected to devote their every waking moment to the cause of Nazism -- and this includes bearing strong Aryan children for Der Fatherland -- several women, notably Margot Bracken (Gail Patrick), begin to rebel. When she finally determines that Hitler has gone to far in his regimentation of the populace, Margot casts her lot with the Allies, becoming a martyr to the cause of freedom. Unusually well-acted for a Monogram film, Women in Bondage boasts an especially strong cast, including Nancy Kelly, Gertrude Michael, Anne Nagel, Tala Birell and H.B. Warner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Blonde from Singapore was one of several Columbia B-pictures that were presold to exhibitors on the basis of their titles alone. Pilot Terry Prescott (Leif Erickson), forced to resort to poaching pearl beds to keep financially afloat, makes the acquaintance of ex-showgirl Mary Brooke (Florence Rice) in a Singapore dive. Prescott surreptitiously slips his ill-gotten pearls in Mary's handbag, intending to retrieve them when the heat's off without the girl's knowledge. But this proves impossible when Mary heads off to parts unknown, obliging Terry to chase after the girl, gradually falling in love with her all the while. Director Edward Dmytryk was clearly destined for better films than Blonde From Singapore, but he handles this sow's ear as if it were a silk purse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of six Mr. Wong whodunits, Mr. Wong Detective presented Boris Karloff as pulp writer Hugh Wiley's Oxford-educated Oriental sleuth. Wong is visited by Simon Dayton (John Hamilton), an industrialist fearing for his life. Dayton and his partners Meisle (William Gould) and Wilk (Hooper Atchley) have been selling a poison gas invented by Roemer (John St. Polis), who, feeling cheated out of the deal, shows up in Dayton's office waving a gun. Minutes later, Dayton is found murdered by his secretary, Myra Ross (Maxine Jennings). Police Captain Sam Street (Grant Withers), Myra's boyfriend, immediately puts Roemer under arrest. Wong is not convinced of the man's guilt, especially after discovering a broken piece of glass near the body. During the ongoing investigation, the two remaining partners are also slain, but who done it? Are the killers foreign-accented Baron Anton Mohl (Lucien Prival) and his beautiful Brooklyn-born associate who calls herself Countess Dubois (Evelyn Brent)? Or did Roemer do the dirty deed? Could the dead man's nosy office manager (Wilbur Mack) have committed the crime and does Mrs. Roemer (Grace Wood) know more than she is telling? As Mr. Wong discovers, the answer is to be found in the origin and purpose of the mysterious pieces of glass found near each victim. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Coincidentally, Warner Bros. contractee Jane Wyman made her starring debut in the same year as her husband-to-be Ronald Reagan. In Public Wedding, Wyman plays Flip Lane, one of five young and healthy carnival workers. Broke and jobless, the five "carnies" concoct a publicity stunt to get work: a phony wedding, staged in the mouth of a stuffed whale. Flip is chosen to be the bride, while Tony Burke (William Hopper) is selected as the groom. The fun begins when Flip and Tony, between whom no love is lost, discover that they're really married after all. Without the benefit of foresight, critics in 1937 had no way of knowing that pert little Jane Wyman would one day win an Academy Award, so they lavished their praise on "dumb-blonde" supporting player Marie Wilson (then the wife of Nick Grinde, the film's director). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this anti-Japanese WW II propaganda film, Japanese invaders attempt to raid Alaska and are totally obliterated. The trouble begins when a stranger visits a small town and tells them that the U.S. is going to be taken over by a powerful country. The story turns out to be true when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. The town then rises up and slaughters a Japanese raiding party. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide