Peter Brocco Movies

A mentally unstable naval officer goes mad with jealousy when his wife's recent lover shows up as a lieutenant on the submarine he commands. It is the smell of cheap perfume that arouses the husband's suspicions, and he plans to confront the lieutenant in the sub. The wife follows him there, knowing very well that while in a jealous rage her husband cannot be responsible for his actions. Her husband catches her and locks her in his cabin then deftly steers the sub towards a freighter. Just before the ships collide, he forces the lieutenant to take the controls. It is a terrible crash and the sub sinks, stone-like, towards the bottom. Even as they go down, the cuckoo commander insists the lieutenant is to blame for the tragedy. Meanwhile the woman successfully convinces the remaining crew members of her husband's lunacy, they accept the orders of their new commander, the lieutenant, and escape together just in the nick of time. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the enduring series, the suave jewel thief finds himself helping the police break up a ring of diamond smugglers. Along the way, he winds up accused of both robbery and murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an egomaniacal producer freely treads upon those around him without regard to the harm he does. The devoted wife of a novelist sees this after the producer foists himself on her during a party; she tries to warn her novelist husband who wants the man to produce his play, but he does not listen. Later the producer tries to destroy his own girl friend's career by spreading vicious rumors; he succeeds and she loses her contract. Meanwhile the writer and his wife, thanks to the producer's manipulation, have separated. The writer is then forced to revise the play. The result is so bad that he cannot attract the actor he wanted to play his leading man. The novelist's wife gets her revenge on the producer by showing an original draft of the play to the actor her husband wanted. He is impressed and helps her find another producer. When the husband hears about his wife's actions he immediately returns, but not before punching the egotistical producer in the eye. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The positive public response to such productions as Crossfire and Gentleman's Agreement led to a mini-cycle of postwar anti-prejudice films. One of these was The Vicious Circle, based on a true incident which had previously been dramatized in G. W. Pabst's The Trial. In the late-19th century, an anti-Semitic Hungarian baron (Reinhold Schunzel) foments a pogrom against his country's Jews when a 14-year-old servant girl commits suicide. Falsely accused of subjecting the girl to a ritualistic murder, five Jewish farmers are put on trial for murder. Defying the slings and arrows of public condemnation, defense attorney Karl Nemensch (Conrad Nagel) intends to prove the farmers' innocence -- and to expose anti-Semitism for the poisonous scourge that it truly is. The Vicious Circle was based on The Burning Bush, a play by Herald and Geza Herczeg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart) has a problem that he won't admit to: his wife, Claire (Audrey Totter), wants more fun and excitement out of life than the quiet, soft-spoken pharmacist can give her. So she steps out on him regularly, something that Warren refuses to recognize until the day she packs her bags and announces she's moving in with Barney Deager (Lloyd Gough), the flashy, high-living salesman whom she's been seeing on the side. Warren goes to Deager's, to ask her to come back, and gets beaten up by his rival. The worm suddenly turns in his own quiet way of doing things, and Warren decides he's going to get even -- he's going to murder Deager, but to do it and not get caught, he bides his time. He begins building a new identity for himself, changing his appearance (starting with getting rid of his thick glasses in favor of then-newly-invented contact lenses), and establishing his alter ego of "Paul Sothern" at a new address. He then starts making threatening calls to Deager, identifying himself as Sothern, in order to establish a history of enmity between the two. It's all going according to plan -- he will kill Deager and the blame will fall on "Sothern," who, of course, doesn't exist, and will have vanished. But then he meets Mary Chanler (Cyd Charisse), a neighbor at "Sothern"'s apartment building, and the two become attracted to each other. For every step forward that he takes in his plan for murder, he also finds himself with new possibilities in his life, growing out of his relationship with Mary. Finally, the night comes when he breaks into Deager's home and is about to kill him, when it dawns on Warren that he doesn't need to do this....He awakens Deager and tells him what almost happened and that he's leaving, and Deager is welcome to Claire, and leaves. It seems as though he's averted disaster when Claire shows up later that night, pleading for reconciliation and finally, when pressed, telling him that someone has murdered Deager. The man has been shot, and the police, led by lieutenants Bonnabel (Barry Sullivan) and Gonsales (William Conrad), are hunting for Paul Sothern. Now Warren is scared for his life, having done his best to frame himself, and Claire isn't helping by trying to run interference -- he can't tell if she's trying to protect the two of them, implicate Sothern, or protect herself, and he's too scared to say almost anything at all to the detectives. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Warren Douglas is Post Office Investigator Bill Mannerson in this diligent Republic programmer. Top billing, however, is awarded to Audrey Long as villainess Clara Kelso. The "maguffin" is a collection of rare stamps, which the baddies attempt to steal from stalwart Mr. Mannerson. Aiding and abetting the hero is his spirited fiancee April Shaughnessy (Jeff Donnell). The film's most interesting performances are rendered by Marcel Journet as a cosmopolitan criminal mastermind and former boxer Richard Benedict as Journet's deaf-mute henchman. Originally clocking in at 60 minutes, Post Office Investigator seems to be brisker and more entertaining in the 48-minute version prepared for television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Republic's Trucolor "special" Susanna Pass stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, King and Queen of the West. Rogers plays "himself," while Evans is cast as female doctor Kay Parker. The villains this time around are trying to force a fish hatchery owner out of business so they can drill for underwater oil. The film's action content never impedes its musical highlights (and vice versa); among the vocal contributors are Estrelita Rodriguez (who figures prominently in one of the cliff-hanging action setpieces) and Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage. Susanna Pass represented the on-screen reteaming of Rogers and Evans, after several attempts by Republic to link up their Number One cowboy star with other leading ladies. Surprising, Rogers isn't teamed with a comical sidekick, though Estrelita Rodriguez is admittedly pretty funny as a flirtatious senorita. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lucille Ball is Miss Grant, an efficient but naïve secretary hired by William Holden. Ostensibly a legit real estate salesman, Holden is actually the brains of a bookie ring. It takes forever for Ball to tumble to what's going on, but when she does she settles matters in the same fashion as her later I Love Lucy character would--by adopting a disguise and a line of snappy patter. The chastened Holden marries Ball and agrees to devote his life to running an honest real-estate firm on behalf of the deserving homeless. Among the contributors to the success of Miss Grant Takes Richmond are producer S. Sylvan Simon, director Lloyd Bacon and scenarist Frank Tashlin, all of whom would later team up again for the zany Lucille Ball vehicle The Fuller Brush Girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Flaming Fury is Republic Pictures tip o' the hat to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Roy Roberts heads the cast as the fire chief, anxious to find out who's been torching a series of prosperous business establishments. Roberts deduces that the fires were started by a gang of thieves hoping to cover their robberies. Rookie fireman George Cooper goes undercover as one of the gang. The brains of the organization is a "Ma Barker" type, played by Celia Lovsky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A blend of melodrama and film noir, The Reckless Moment stars Joan Bennett as Lucia Harper, a suburban housewife whose husband is away on business. Her daughter, Bea (Geraldine Brooks), an aspiring artist, has fallen for Ted Darby (Shepperd Strudwick), a shady older man from Los Angeles who claims to be an ex-art dealer. One night, after a secret rendezvous in the Harpers' boathouse that turns into an argument, Bea accidentally kills Darby. When Lucia discovers his body in the morning, she panics and dumps it in the lagoon instead of contacting the police, who would surely charge her daughter with murder. Her problems only increase when a suave Irish gangster named Donnelly (James Mason) shows up with a package of love letters from Bea to Darby, and blackmail on his mind. With her husband out of town, Lucia has no choice but to give in to his demands, and brings him along on a desperate quest to raise the money that takes them from bank to loan office to pawn shop. Along the way, Donnelly seems to develop sympathy -- even affection -- for her. When his boss shows up to pressure him into finishing the job, Donnelly's surprising decision sets up the film's startling climax. The Reckless Moment was remade in 2001 by Scott McGehee and David Seigel as The Deep End. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide

A married team of diamond smugglers enter New York to fence their purloined gems unaware that the wife is carrying the highly contagious, deadly smallpox virus. The crooks ensconce themselves in a hotel without realizing that the wife's every move is being monitored by a Treasury agent. The husband directs her to stay put while he goes off on business. Actually he is going out to tryst with his conniving sister-in-law. Back in the room, the wife feels ill and so creeps out to see a doctor. The T-man loses her trail. The doctor doesn't recognize the dread disease until much later and so the woman is free to travel about leaving a trail of death behind her. Once again she is followed, but the agents have a hard time keeping up with her. Eventually she finds her husband and learns the truth. Not only has he been unfaithful, he and her sister are planning to abscond with the jewels. A struggle between man and wife ensues culminating in the husband's death. Afterward the woman goes to authorities and before succumbing to the disease, provides them with a badly needed list of those she contacted. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Gunmen of Abilene top-bills Republic western hero Allan "Rocky" Lane and his horse Black Jack. Lane plays a U.S. marshal who is sent to investigate a reign of outlaw terror in Abilene. He arrives in town incognito, securing a job as deputy sheriff. Soon he discovers that the outlaws want to scare off the populace so that they can claim the gold ore that rests beneath the town. It's no surprise that Roy Barcroft is the chief heavy, though it is a bit startling that Barcroft's partner-in-crime is played by Peter Brocco, an actor usually cast as a pasty-faced gangster henchman or communist spy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gene Kelly as an Italian-American attorney? Once you get past this, the rest of Black Hand ought to go down easy. This expose of organized crime is set in New York's "Little Italy" the late 19th century. The various Italian immigrant merchants find themselves at the mercy of the Black Hand, a group which extorts money upon threat of death. Seeking vengeance for the mob-dictated murder of his father, Kelly tries to gather evidence against the Black Hand. He is frustrated in his efforts until he teams with Italian/American police inspector J. Carroll Naish. Though Naish is eventually murdered while assembling evidence, he is able to mail his findings to Kelly, who, after beating crime boss Marc Lawrence to a bloody pulp, delivers the guilty parties to the authorities. In the real-life incidents upon which this film is based, it was the Mafia, not the Black Hand, who functioned as the villain. Even in 1950, however, Hollywood had to tread gingerly whenever dealing with big-time crime; it was easier (and safer) to go after a "dead" criminal organization than a "live" one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide