Herman Brix Movies

Veteran character star Charles B. Middleton ("Ming the Merciless") escapes from a penitentiary after 15 years of imprisonment swearing vengeance on his former partner (Miles Mander) in this action adventure serial efficiently directed by the team of William Witney and John English. Kidnapping his former partner, Granville (Mander), Prisoner 39013 (Middleton) assumes the man's identity and sets out to destroy his various enterprises. At one of these, the Granville Amusement Pier, three athletes known as The Daredevils of the Red Circle swear vengeance when Prisoner 39013 blows up the pier, thereby killing the kid brother (Robert Winkler) of one of them. They align themselves with Granville's granddaughter (Carole Landis) and with a mysterious benefactor known only as The Red Circle. After 12 exciting chapters, the heroes finally destroy Prisoner 39013, leaving Gene Townley (Charles Quigley) and Miss Granville to plan their future together. A typically well-made Republic cliffhanger, Daredevils of the Red Circle starred not one but three heroes: Quigley, a former Columbia contract player, Herman Brix, who later changed his name to Bruce Bennett and enjoyed a modest leading man career at Warners, and stunt-man David Sharpe. Just starting out in films, leading lady Carole Landis was picked by none other than D.W. Griffith to star in One Million B.C. (1940), which earned her a studio contract with 20th Century Fox. Better known for her off-screen escapades, Landis, sadly, committed suicide in 1948. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The United States Marine Corps. became the focus of this typical Republic Pictures serial directed by two of the best in the business, William Witney and John English. The villain was yet another cloaked figure -- this time an inventor whose contribution to mankind was a weapon capable of discharging huge amounts of electricity from an airplane -- known only as "The Lightning." A group of alarmed scientists attempt to develop a countermeasure to the diabolical machine, and the government assigns a couple of marine lieutenants (Lee Powell and Herman Brix) to track down the master criminal. Both relative newcomers, Powell and Brix also co-starred in the year's most popular serial, The Lone Ranger. The former, sadly, lost his life in World War II, while Brix later signed with Warner Bros. and became a well-known second-lead under the name Bruce Bennett. To keep the audience guessing, Witney and English cast Lester Dorr as "The Lightning" when in costume and had Edwin Stanley furnishing his voice. Hugh Sothern played the villain's alter ego, the seemingly upstanding Ben Warfield. Fighting Devil Dogs was also released in an edited feature version, The Torpedo of Doom. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Perennial chorus girl Toby Wing earns a rare chance to play a leading role in this horseracing melodrama which cast her as a debutante, of all things. When Less Winters (James Melton) fails to persuade Jimmy Shay (Herman Brix) to sell his prize-winning racehorse Lightning Lad, wealthy stable owner Marion Braddock does her level best to sabotage Jimmy in the 100,000-dollar San Lucas Race. But when she learns that Less is in cahoots with a gang of crooked gamblers, and that Jimmy is the boy who once saved her life, Marion decides to switch sides. By masquerading as a vagabond, the plucky girl not only helps Jimmy win the Big Race but also earns his love. Filmed on-location at the Lazy A Ranch near Los Angeles and at the Pomona Race Track, Silks and Saddles was a remake of a 1929 potboiler of the same title. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this boxing drama, a prizefighter fights for the love of the woman who disdains him and his chosen profession. She begins to take a different view after the fighter uses his winnings to bail her father out of financial trouble. He also beats the gamblers who have fixed the match. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Puritan Pictures seldom turned out a film that looked most expensive than it really was. The studio's Million to One appears to have been made on a budget of eight dollars and a box lunch, but that doesn't lessen its entertainment value one bit. Herman Brix (later known as Bruce Bennett) stars as Johnny Kent, a hot-shot Olympic athlete who lets success go to his head. After a dizzying cycle of wine, women and song, Johnny is no good to anyone, least of all himself. He wises up in time to qualify for a decathlon competition with his arch-rival Hale (Reed Howes). Oldtimers Monte Blue and Kenneth Harlan play key supporting roles, while the ingenue is a pretty but antiseptic newcomer named Joan Burfield. By the time Million to One made it to New York (nearly three years after it was made), Ms. Burfield was billing herself as Joan Fontaine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set amidst the tense and suspenseful world of men who transport large amounts of nitroglycerin, used to put out fires in oil fields, this drama centers on the conflict between a young med student, who has become a nitro handler to help pay his way through school, and the old trucker who hauls the deadly chemical on site. The trucker resents the young man's attentions toward his daughter because he feels that there can be no security with a man who could accidentally blow himself up at any moment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An heiress on the lam, a federal agent on a mission to catch a gang of mail thieves, and Hattie McDaniel are the main ingredients in this charmingly silly low-budget thriller from the fertile brains of producer-director Sam Katzman and writer Basil Dickey. After balking at an arranged marriage, society debutante Marion Bronson (Joan Barclay) stows away on an airplane piloted by federal investigator Eric Lane (Herman Brix). After much bickering, the two are caught by the gang but Marion's quick thinking and Lane's brawn eventually save the day. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Notorious Hollywood tightwad Sam Katzman's first serial, Shadow of Chinatown stars Bela Lugosi as Victor Poten, a Eurasian with a destructive hatred of both whites and Asians hired by Sonya Rokoff (Luana Walters) to ruin the tourist trade in San Francisco's Chinatown. But, as Sonya discovers and Poten himself acknowledges, she has inadvertently created a seemingly unstoppable "Frankenstein's monster." The forces of good opposing Poten and Rokoff include Martin Andrews (Herman Brix, aka Bruce Bennett), a novelist specializing in all things Oriental, sob-sister-turned-crime-reporter Joan Whiting (Joan Barclay), and Chinese houseboy Willy Fu (Hawaiian crooner Maurice Liu). Sonya Rokoff, whose allegiance to the madman quickly comes under some strain, is destroyed by a falling chandelier in Chapter 14, but Victor survives to be carted off to jail in the 15th and final chapter, "The Avenging Powers." Shadow of Chinatown was filmed in two weeks in Culver City, CA, and on rental stages at Hollywood's Talisman Studios. A slightly altered feature version in which Lugosi's character is killed off in the final reel was released simultaneously. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author who created Tarzan, produced this film (edited from a serial) which he hoped would be a more accurate interpretation of his character than the series being produced at MGM at the same time. Deep in the jungles of Guatemala lies The Green Goddess, an idol worshiped by a primitive tribe. The totem contains both a valuable cache of jewels and the formula to a powerful explosive which could change the shape of warfare as we know it. One Major Martling of Africa (Frank Baker) is travelling to Guatemala to find the Goddess and make sure it's deadly secret does not fall into the wrong hands; on the other end of the scale of virtue is Raglan (Ashton Dearholt), a mercenary who has been hired to find the Green Goddess and the formula. En route to Guatemala, the men encounter Lord Greystoke (Bruce Bennett), a British nobleman who was lost in the jungles as a child and learned to fend for himself in the wilds, where the animals and natives called him Tarzan. Greystoke is searching for the whereabouts of his friend d'Arnot when he hears of Martling's urgent mission, and Raglan's plan to use the Green Goddess for evil purposes. Tarzan's New Adventure featured material from the first half of the serial Burroughs produced; the second half was compiled into the feature Tarzan and the Green Goddess. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Cortland Fitzsimmons, the storyline of this "gimmick" mystery follows the St. Louis Cardinals during a championship season. The arrival of hotshot pitcher Larry Kelly (Robert Young) coincides with an apparent plot to sabotage the Cards' chances of making it to the World Series. A failed attempt to poison all the pitcher's mitts is followed by a series of murders: catcher Dunk Spencer (Joe Sauers) is shot while sprinting to third base, pitcher Frank Higgins (Robert Livingston) is strangled in the locker room, and lovable catcher Truck Hogan (Nat Pendleton) is killed with an arsenic-laden hot dog. Finding himself one of the many suspects, Kelly nearly becomes a victim as well when he is slipped a booby-trapped baseball. With the help of sportscaster Jimmy Downey (Paul Kelly), Kelly exposes the murderer, surviving to win the pennant and the heroine, team secretary daughter Frances Clark (Madge Evans). Partly filmed on location at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs' minor-league LA farm team), Death on the Diamond offers a fresh slant to the standard whodunit format, with some particularly good work by Ted Healy as an exasperated umpire. That MGM produced the film is tipped off by two of the studio's trademarks: The killer's last-minute confession, wherein the guilty party transforms from a mild-mannered soul into a raving lunatic, and the shoddy process-screen work in the ballgame scenes. Future stars Mickey Rooney, Walter Brennan and Bruce Bennett show up in bit roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Klopstokia: A Far-Away Country. Chief Exports: Goats and Nuts. Chief Imports: Goats and Nuts. Chief Inhabitants: Goats and Nuts." This introductory title ushers in Million Dollar Legs, one of the zaniest comedies ever to emerge from a major studio. W.C. Fields stars as the president of Klopstokia, who will hold on to his office so long as he can best the secretary of the treasury (Hugh Herbert) in their daily arm-wrestling contests. Like most of the Depression-era world, Klopstokia is broke, forcing the government to take drastic measures to raise money. Fortunately, everyone in the country is a super-athlete, inspiring visiting Fuller Brush salesman Migg Tweeney (Jack Oakie) to come up with a brilliant idea: Klopstokia will enter the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. Alas, the subversive cabinet members, hoping to overthrow the president, plot to undermine the Klopstokian athletic team with the aid of sexy seductress Mata Machree (Lyda Roberti), "the woman no man can resist." Words can hardly describe the nonstop parade of gags and verbal insanity in Million Dollar Legs: Ben Turpin, playing a cloaked-and-caped spy, pops in and out with neither rhyme nor reason; the conspirators' outdoor hideout is incongruously equipped with hydraulic lifts and elevators; Mata Machree's butler informs the villains that "Madame can only be resisted from 2 to 4,"; and, when asked why all the Klopstokian men are named George and the women named Angela, the president's daughter (Susan Fleming, later the wife of Harpo Marx), replies "Why not?" then launches into the national anthem -- a double-talk version of "One Hour With You." Among the writers were Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Henry Myers, who were also responsible for the wacky Wheeler andWoolsey political satire Diplomaniacs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide