George Bricker Movies

Vic Barron (Mark Stevens) is an ex-detective from San Francisco whose career is ruined and family is destroyed because of his dedication to his job. Three years before, he'd been close to breaking a gang with ties to some very powerful people. Then they tried to kill him by bombing his car; he was permanently disfigured, and his wife and child died in the blast, and then he was set up with planted money and sentenced to prison. Now he's out, and he's no longer a cop, but that won't stop him from finishing his last case or finding the man who planted the bomb. Neither his former friends on the force (who know he was innocent) nor the "persuasive" efforts of Roxey (Skip Homeier), a psychopathic strong-arm man, can get him to change his mind or his plans. Vic thinks he knows one of the men responsible, Tino Morelli (Douglas Kennedy), but it turns out that Morelli's been hiding out in Alaska, just as desperate in his desire not to be found as Vic has been to get revenge, and hiding from the same man. No sooner does the ex-cop come to appreciate this fact then he is set up for another fall -- this time for murder. But in the process, he finally figures out who was behind the destruction of his family; and he finds some things in life worth living for, if he can manage to stay alive to enjoy them. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Filmed in 3D, Man in the Dark stars Edmond O'Brien as Steve Rawley, a man with a past. Thing of it is, Rawley knows nothing about that past: a former gangster, he underwent an operation that not only altered his appearance, but also wiped out all criminal tendencies--not to mention all memory of his past misdeeds. Rawley is kidnapped by his former mob cohorts, who demand that he cough up the $130,000 that he salted away during his gangster days. Audrey Totter co-stars as Peg Benedict, who loves Rawley for what he is, not what he was. Man in the Dark is a remake of the 1936 Ralph Bellamy vehicle The Man who Lived Twice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The fate in the Free World is threatened when three atomic scientists decide to sell their secrets to the Reds. American secret agent Steve (George Brent) heads to Tangier, where he poses as a black marketer in hopes of intercepting the rogue scientists. But Steve finds he has a formidable foe in the shapely shape of Soviet spy Millicent (Mari Aldon), who is posing as an American heiress to throw the Good Guy off the track. Dan Seymour, veteran of such espionage mellers of the 1940s as Casablanca and To Have and Have Not, has a juicy role as the head of the Tangier police. Tangier Incident wasn't quite an "A" picture, but it was too slick and expensive-looking to qualify for a "B." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Filmed on location in Mexico (one of several Hollywood-financed films of the 1950s to take advantage of the lower production and labor costs south of the border), One Big Affair stars Evelyn Keyes as Jean Harper, a scatter-brained American schoolteacher and Dennis O'Keefe as Jimmy Donovan, a stateside lawyer. When Jean is separated from her tour group, it is assumed that she's been kidnapped. In fact, she has fallen in love with fellow tourist Donovan, and has joined him in his journey to Acapulco. The local constabulary refuse to believe that Donovan isn't a kidnapper, and a zany chase across Mexico ensues. One Big Affair was produced by the estimable Benedict Bogaeus, on the verge of his lucrative association with RKO Radio, and director Allan Dwan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this anti-Communist film, a journalist goes on vacation to a small town and is surprised by the coldness of the residents. This makes him curious. His resulting investigation reveals the commies are planning to use the town as the launch pad for a biological warfare campaign. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Set in a rugged Northwest logging camp, this drama follows the exploits of the lumberjack who inherits the camp. For a long time, he has been courting a pretty young thing, and now that she believes him wealthy, she decides to finally accept his proposal. When she finds out that the company has many financial woes and that living in the woods takes guts and courage, she turns into a nagging shrew, constantly urging him to sell-out to a major corporation. Meanwhile his treacherous foreman, an agent of the bigger company, uses sabotage to change the stubborn camp owner's mind. A big forest fire flushes out the rest of the traitors and makes the wife realize that she loves her husband after all. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

As indicated by the title, Beauty on Parade is largely an excuse to display beautiful, well-proportioned young women in the latest swimming attire. That's okay for the men in the audience, but the ladies needed a plot to hold their attention, so here goes. Future All My Children-star Ruth Warrick plays aging beauty queen Marian Medford, who attempts to vicariously regain her past glories through her pretty daughter Kay (Lola Albright). Marian's relentless promotion of her daughter on the beauty-contest circuit has an injurious effect on Kay's romantic life, not to mention her own marriage to Jeffrey Woodstock (John Ridgely). "B"-picture "regular" Robert Hutton co-stars as a journalist who follows the beauty contestants from pageant to pageant. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One thing you can say about Alimony: It tackled a subject that virtually everyone in Hollywood was intimately familiar with. Martha Vickers plays a ruthless young woman who has hit upon a clever (if not original) method of fattening her bank account. She seeks out relationships with wealthy married men, gets them to leave their wives to marry her, then cooks up "alienation of affection" and "adultery" cases against them. As a result, she invariably leaves the divorce court with a huge alimony settlement. Eventually she graduates from breaking hearts to breaking laws, and is thrown in the calaboose for her troubles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Reminiscent of the classic "screwball" comedy-mysteries of the prewar years, Columbia's The Corpse Came C.O.D stars Warner Bros. alumni George Brent and Joan Blondell as rival Hollywood-based reporters Joe Medford and Rosemary Durant. When movie star Mona Harrison (Adele Jergens) receives a dead body in her morning mail, Joe and Rosemary fall over each other trying to solve the mystery and deliver a newspaper story "that'll tear this town wide open." Joe deduces that the dead man was involved with a jewelry-smuggling racket, while Rosemary chases down the stolen gems. Three murders later, the two reporters expose the killer-and though it wouldn't be nice to reveal the killer's identity, it's also worth noting that it won't be much of a surprise, either. Topheavy with comedy at the expense of mystery, The Corpse Came C.O.D. is an entertaining trifle, with the actual Columbia backlot standing in for the movie's fictional film studio. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The tragic Rondo Hatton, whose acromegaly-disfigured face secured him meaty screen roles in Universal's horror films, had died of a heart attack some eight months before the release of his final film, The Brute Man. Hatton plays former college student Hal Moffat, who when his face is destroyed in a chemical lab mishap vows to get even with those he holds responsible. After murdering several of his former classmates, Moffat, known to the police as "The Creeper", takes refuge in the home of blind piano teacher Helen (Jane Adams). Unable to see Moffat's hideous facial features, Helen falls in love with him. Momentarily softened by her affections, Moffat determines to raise enough money to pay for a sight-restoring operation, and to that end steals a cache of valuable jewels from his ex-classmates Clifford and Virginia Scott (Tom Neal and Jan Wiley), killing Clifford in the process. A diligent police detective (Peter Whitney), also in love with Helen, dedicates himself to capturing the elusive Creeper. Originally produced by Universal, The Brute Man was ultimately sold to PRC Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A scrappy gang of street kids, living in New York's lower East Side put aside their juvenile delinquent activities to help a disabled war vet start a chicken ranch in this, the first episode in a trio of low-budget knock-offs of the successful "The Dead End Kids" series. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this drama, three veteran pilots from WW II decide to start their own air freight business. In order to earn enough money, one of them takes a dangerous job as a test pilot. His very pregnant wife objects, but this does not stop him. Fortunately, another partner scams him and ends up doing the testing himself despite that fact that he was grounded during the war for a strange nerve ailment. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This thriller is set in early 20th-century London where a series of nasty murders have recently occurred. An aunt then tells an innocent young girl that the blood of the werewolf flows through her veins and that she is responsible for the deaths. The distraught lass immediately breaks off her engagement. Fortunately, her lover is sufficiently devoted to her to begin investigating the strange case on his own. He soon finds the real culprit and is reunited with his lady love. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi