Trem Carr Movies
A native of Trenton, IL, American film executive Trem Carr left a construction business to enter the burgeoning motion picture industry in 1922, first as a producer, then as vice-president of Syndicate Pictures. That company was reorganized into Monogram Pictures in 1931, with W. Ray Johnston as president and Carr as head of production. Four years later, the financially strapped company merged with Nat Levine's Mascot Pictures to form Republic Pictures. The spirited Carr, unfortunately, did not get along with Herbert I. Yates, Republic's impervious chairman and left the company in favor of producing for Universal. He was back with the reorganized Monogram by 1941, and stayed with that company until his death from a heart attack during a vacation near San Diego, CA. At the time of his death, Carr was a co-owner of the venerable -- and now sadly demolished -- Hollywood Hotel. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
In this musical, a struggling young singer falls in love with a nightclub owner whose father mistakes her for someone else and tries to convince her to serve a summons at the club. Fortunately, the love between the youngsters prevails. Music and happiness ensues. Songs include: Stormy Weather" (Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler) and "Just a Little Fond Affection" (Elton Box, Desmond Cox, Lewis Ilda), Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five with "Don't Worry About the Mule" (William Davis, Duke Groner, Charles Stewart), "A Tender Word Will Mend It All" (Doris Fisher, Allan Roberts) "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh), "Oh, Brother" (Matt Melneck, Allie Wrubel), "After All This Time" (Paul DeFur, Ken Thompson), and "Caledonia" (Fleecie Moore). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1939
In terms of action, Honor of the West ranks among the best of the Bob Baker westerns. In terms of its script, alas, it must rank as one of the worst. Screenwriter Joseph West (a pseudonym for director George Waggner) seems to have taken a perverse delight in serving up convoluted dialogue that Laurence Olivier might have found impossible to fathom. In one scene, ingenue Marjorie Bell (later known as Marge Champion) delivers a labyrinthine monologue that leaves her literally breathless. Best to turn down the sound and concentrate on the visual aspects of the plot, which deals with sheriff Bob Baker's decision to take off his badge and hunt down his brother's killers without the niceties of the law restraining him. Baker also gets to sing a brace of songs, the best of which is "The Old Chuck Wagon". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Baker, Carleton Young, (more)
- 1938
Several second-echelon Universal contractees earn their paychecks in the two-week wonder State Police. John King stars as Sergeant Dan Prescott, a state trooper assigned to a coal-mining community. A group of gangsters have insinuated themselves into the town's labor-management confrontations, playing one side against the other for their own gain. Prescott tries to beard gangster boss Trigger Magee (Larry Blake) in his den, a gaudy roadhouse, and the results are explosive, to say the least. Predictably, the film is highlighted by a high-speed chase; not so predictably, the chase occurs in the middle of the film rather than the climax. Second-billed William Lundigan is the only member of the youthful cast to go on to a substantial starring career, though leading lady Constance Moore did pretty well for herself in future Universal productions. Comedy relief is provided by David Oliver, who'd risen from the ranks of Universal's newsreel cameramen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Lundigan, Constance Moore, (more)
- 1938
Spy Ring (aka International Spy) was designed as a trial balloon for new Universal contractee William Hall. He is cast as Captain Todd Hayden, star player of an army-camp polo team. What Hayden doesn't know is that some of his polo cronies are enemy spies, anxious to steal the plans for a revolutionary new anti-aircraft gun. After miles and miles of polo footage, the Captain reveals that the head of the spy ring is blonde femme fatale Jean Bruce (Esther Ralston). This extremely minor film is of marginal interest today because of the onscreen presence of leading lady Jane Wyman and the offscreen omnipresence of cult director Joseph H. Lewis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Hall, Jane Wyman, (more)
- 1938
Singing cowboy Bob Baker starred in this average music western as a cavalry officer assigned to investigate the murders of several Pony Express riders. Going undercover as Pony Express riders themselves, Captain Bob Bradley and his sidekick Andy Sharpe (Don Barclay) arrive at the Ricardo Ranchero to purchase horses for the Express. Don Ricardo's neighbor Don Diego (Julian Rivero) is killed after filing a grant with the United States Land Office in Placita, and Bob begins to suspect a connection between the Pony Express killings and the Spanish land grants. Don Ricardo (Martin Garralaga) is the next obvious victim and, sure enough, shortly after the dignified rancher files his claim, the rider assigned to deliver it to Placerita is found murdered. Realizing that Don Ricardo is in danger from a gang of outlaws plotting to take over all the valley's ranches, Bob forms a posse with the surviving riders and arrives at the Ricardo ranchero just in time to save the don and his pretty daughter, Loreta (Cecilia Callejo) from the marauding thieves. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Baker, Cecilia Callejo, (more)
- 1938
Black Bandit stars Bob Baker, a singing cowboy whom Universal hoped would prove a worthy competitor to Republic's Gene Autry. We are treated to a double dose of Baker in this one: he plays twin brothers, separated at birth. Need we add that one of the Bakers grows up on the right side of the law, while the other one becomes an outlaw? Ere the final fade-out, the twins unite in a common cause: the eradication of villains Jack Rockwell and Glenn Strange. Marjorie Reynolds, a few years shy of her prominence at Paramount Pictures, is the leading lady. One minor gaffe in Black Bandit: during the inevitable fistfight between the good and bad twin, the man doubling for the trim 'n' slim Bob Baker has a rather sizeable gut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Baker, Marjorie Reynolds, (more)
- 1938
In this comedy, two racetrack gamblers lose all their dough by betting on a long shot. Now they must hitchhike to the next racetrack. En route they take cover in an apparently abandoned mansion. There they find some clothing, which they put on. Unfortunately, in that garb, they are mistaken by the servants for the owner's son and his friend. Complications ensue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Eric Linden, (more)
- 1938
The Last Stand is among the better Bob Baker westerns, with the star getting to show off his athletic prowess as well as his singing skills. The story borrows a page from the repertoire of Bob Steele, with hero Tip (Baker) trying to find out who murdered his father. To expedite this, Tip and his saddle pal Pepper (Fuzzy Knight) offer their services to a Cattleman's Protection Association. When all else fails, Tip disguises himself as an outlaw and joins the suspected murderer's gang. The usual western cliches are adroitly avoided by director Joseph H. Lewis, who clearly hoped that his Bob Baker films would lead to bigger and better things (which they did). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Baker, Constance Moore, (more)
- 1938
In this drama, a tuna fisherman is wrongly convicted for murder. Because he is a model, and oft-times heroic prisoner, he is up for early parole. While parole is better than prison, it is still not justice for the man as he is unable to travel far and marry his beloved. He decides that his only real option is to escape and begin looking for the real killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barton MacLane, Glenda Farrell, (more)
Back when silver-haired character actor Larry Blake was a firm-jawed leading man at Universal, he starred in the low-budget meller Air Devils. Blake and Dick Purcell play Horseshoe and Slats, a pair of ex-Marine aviators working as police officers on a tiny island in the South Pacific. The former flyboys are both stuck on Beryl Wallace, but she only has eyes for a third party. Horseshoe and Slats forego romance to rescue a pack train from marauding natives. Mamo Clark, who'd made an impression on moviegoers as one of the Tahitian maidens in 1935's Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), is cast in Air Devils to convince us that the entire film was, indeed, lensed in the South Seas. The film was produced by the Trem Carr unit, the same folks who'd been responsible for Universal's John Wayne vehicles of the 1936-37 season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry Blake, Dick Purcell, (more)
- 1938
In his fourth starring Western, Universal's singing cowboy Bob Baker comes to the aid of Molly Taylor (Fay Shannon), an Eastern girl about to lose her inherited ghost town because of outstanding property taxes. Gomer (Forrest Taylor), who has discovered oil on the property, kidnaps the girl on her way to the tax collector (Murdock MacQuarrie), but she is rescued in the nick of time by singing Texas Ranger Bob Martin (Baker) and his sidekick, "Cherokee" Walton (Hank Worden). Composer Fleming Allan provided a couple of songs, including "We're Headin' Home" and "That Old Home Trail," but Baker's humdrum vocalizing did not make anyone forget Gene Autry. In contrast to Autry, Baker was easily overshadowed by Universal's well-chosen supporting cast which this time included George Cleveland as a supposedly senile judge, Martin Turner as the heroine's African-American domestic, and the always welcome Hank Worden. The Baker series remained a shaky proposition and by 1939 the star was playing second fiddle to the more robust (and non-singing) Johnny Mack Brown. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1937
Seasoned newsreel cameraman Bob Adams (John Wayne) is assigned to cover the rebellion in the fictional Arab country of Samarai. Samari is chock full of tribal unrest, and in order for Adams (Wayne) to get footage of rebel leader El Kadar (Charles Brokaw), he must fight his way through a neverending stream of arms smugglers, agents, throat-cutting tribesmen, and a love affair with Pamela (Gwen Gaze), the beautiful daughter of a Colonel. Eventually, Adams gets his pictures, but not before he manages to save his brother Don (James Bush) and all of the British troops stationed in Samari. I Cover the War was directed by Trem Carr and also features actors Don Barclay, Pat Somerset, and Sam Harris. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Gwen Gaze, (more)
- 1937
Another entry from John Wayne's non-western series at Universal, Conflict casts Wayne as Pat, a bare-knuckle boxer in turn-of-the-century New York. Not the most honest of pugilists, Pat reforms for the sake of an orphaned kid named Tommy (Tommy Bupp), whom he has saved from drowning. He sets out to redeem himself by finding legitimate work in a lumber camp, but his past catches up with him. Jean Rogers, Buster Crabbe's vis-a-vis in Flash Gordon, is the heroine, while the nominal villain is Ward Bond, making the first of several co-starring appearances with John Wayne. Conflict is based on Jack London's The Abysmal Brute, previously filmed under that title with Reginald Denny in 1923. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Jean Rogers, (more)
- 1937
Cowboy star Kermit Maynard's series for Ambassador Films was evenly divided between Northwest-Mountie adventures and traditional westerns. Firmly ensconced in the latter category is The Fighting Texan, with Maynard cast as strong silent frontiersman Glenn. Riding into the middle of a range war, Glenn rises to the defense of cattle rancher Walton (Frank LaRue) when the latter is framed for murder. Our hero is nearly gunned down himself by the minions of all-around villain Hadley (Ed Cassidy) before he's able to prove Walton's innocence. The heroine in The Fighting Texan is played by Elaine Shepard, who later abandoned hoss operas to become an international newspaper correspondent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kermit Maynard, Elaine Shepard, (more)
- 1937
This action drama features John Wayne in an early, non western role. He plays a trucker who owns half of a small but increasingly successful trucking firm. When Duke's company begins stealing business away from LeRoy Mason's firm, Mason retaliates by engineering the violent death of Wayne's partner, Emerson Treacy. He falls in love with the head of the railroad shipping department. Unfortunately, the evil competitor murders the Duke's partner in a mysterious explosion. The Big Guy then joins forces with an even larger company and destroys Mason's business causing Mason to team up with a train magnate and plot his revenge. The film's highlight, is a cross country race between Duke's trucks and Mason's trains. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Louise Latimer, (more)
- 1937
In the South Seas, Seaman Duke (John Wayne) boards a whaler, and asks the owner, Capt. Drew (Montague Love) and his daughter Janet (Diana Gibson) to look after the pearls he's gathered. Drew, who's dying, persuades Duke to marry Janet to prevent her from marrying crewman Rand (Moroni Olsen), who's thereafter suspicious of Duke. When the crew learns Duke knows where more pearls are, they want to go after them, but Duke sides with Janet, who's after whales, though he's still opposed by Rand. Eventually, incited by Blackie (Maurice Black), the crew mutinies, forcing Rand and Duke to work together. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Diana Gibson, (more)
- 1937
Signed for a series of B pictures by Universal in 1936, John Wayne alternated between westerns and modern-day adventure yarns. Idol of the Crowds stars Wayne as a hockey player, threatened with more bodily harm than usual when he refuses to cheat. Leading lady Sheila Bromley falls in love with Wayne due to his "no funny business" stance. Alas, honesty has its price: Wayne's enemies contrive to seriously injure the hockey team's 12 year old mascot Billy Burrud. Idol of the Crowds was produced by Paul Malvern, the man responsible for John Wayne's earlier western series for Lone Star/Monogram. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Charles Brokaw, (more)
- 1936
Although Monogram Pictures hadn't yet reorganized as a separate entity in 1936, a few of its releases still managed to make their way to the public through the auspices of Republic. One of these was The Cheers of the Crowd, in which character actor Russell Hopton heads the cast as public-relations expert Lee Adams. Our hero gets in on the ground floor of the chain-letter craze, all the while battling over ethics with pretty female reporter Mary (Irene Ware). Things take a sinister turn when the recipient of a chain letter is murdered, a crime tied in with the long-lost wife of the film's villain. Corpulent Harry Holman, best known to modern viewers as the high-school principal in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, steals the film as the misleadingly named "Honest John." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Russell Hopton, Irene Ware, (more)
- 1936
Forbidden Heaven was accurately assessed by "B"-film historian Don Miller as "a weepie unabashed -- and a successful one." Silent-film heartthrob Charles Farrell stars as a British working stiff named Niba, who hopes one day to attain a Parliamentary seat. Niba's life is permanently altered when he rescues forlorn American girl Ann (Charlotte Henry). Though forced to give up his political dreams, Niba contentedly sets up house with Ann, eventually falling in love with her. Then tragedy strikes -- so suddenly that it seems to have been tacked onto the film as an afterthought because the writers couldn't think of anything else. Despite its abrupt mood changes, Forbidden Heaven was a real audience pleaser, allowing everyone to enjoy a good cry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Farrell, Charlotte Henry, (more)
- 1936
John Wayne steered clear of westerns for the most part during his year-long contract with Universal Pictures. In The Sea Spoilers, Wayne is cast as Bob Randall, temporary skipper of a Coast Guard cutter. Randall knows that a gang of seal poachers are operating within his jurisdiction but can do little about it, since head crook Morgan (Russell Hicks) has kidnapped Bob's sweetheart Connie Dawson (Nan Grey). Relying more on brains than brawn in dealing with Morgan's minions, Bob is finally able to secretly summon reinforcements via two-way radio. He also finds time to straighten out Lt. Mays (William Bakewell), the outwardly cowardly son of a Coast Guard commander. Sea Spoilers set up its basic premise in the first reel, devoting the remainder of the running time to a tense game of seaborne cat-and-mouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Nan Grey, (more)
This amusing lampoon of low-budget filmmaking is set in motion when fly-by-night entrepreneur Bradley Page talks small-towner Mrs. Bent (Betty Alden) into financing a movie. Mrs. Bent's shiftless brother Willie Barton (Wallace Ford) is appointed director of the film, which turns out to be a big-time bomb. The day is saved when the film, a "serious" desert melodrama, is re-edited as a slapstick comedy. The winner in this instance is Mrs. Bent's long-suffering husband (Oscar Apfel), who'd wanted all along to invest his wife's money in the nut farm of the title. Based on a 1929 play by John C. Brownell, The Nut Farm is an interesting precursor to such later moviemaking satires as After the Fox and Sweet Liberty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Apparently having cornered the market in white-collar crooks in 1935, Sidney Blackmer plays a shifty financier in Monogram's The Great God Gold. Blackmer is cast as John Hart, a "receivership representative" for shysters Nitto (Edwin Maxwell) and Simon (John T. Murray). Hart's present assignment is to claim the meager assets of heroine Marcia Harper (Martha Sleeper), who has unfortunately inherited her father's debts. Embittered by this, Marcia devotes her life to smashing the receivership "racket." She finds an ally in the form of reporter Phil Stuart (Regis Toomey), whose mysterious acquisition of an old Roman coin somehow helps to bring about Hart's downfall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Blackmer, Martha Sleeper, (more)
- 1935
One of the first releases of newly-formed Republic Pictures, Two Sinners was adapted from The Black Sheep, a serialized magazine story by Warwick Deeping. Otto Kruger stars as Henry Vane, who uncomplainingly serves a lengthy prison term for shooting the cad who compromised Vane's wife. Hoping to leave his past behind him, Vane falls in love with Elsie Summerstone (Martha Sleeper), the governess for bratty Sally Pym (Cora Sue Collins). Thanks to the infidelities of Sally's mother (Minna Gombell), Vane is unable to stay out of trouble for long. In true "Shirley Temple" fashion, it is up to little Sally to straighten out the storyline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Otto Kruger, Martha Sleeper, (more)
- 1935
Frisco Waterfront stars Ben Lyon as California gubernatorial candidate Glenn Burton. A freak election-day accident at the voting booth injures both Burton and his hated opponent Dan Elliot (Rod La Roque). While hovering between life and death on the operating table, Burton flashes back to his rise to prominence, and his ongoing romantic rivalry with Elliot over the affections of heroine Alice (Helen Twelvetrees). Landing a dockworker job in San Francisco, Burton gains power and prestige through the "good" graces of his unsavory cronies. Disgusted by this, Alice divorces Burton -- but she still loves him, and secretly maneuvers behind the scenes so that her ex-husband will emerge triumphant through his own abilities rather than his criminal connections. The nagging question posed at the finale: Were all of Alice's sacrifices really worth it? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Lyon, Helen Twelvetrees, (more)
