Earl Felton Movies

Narrow Margin directed by Peter Hyams and loosely based on the classic film noir of the same title, tells the story of a resourceful District Attorney who must return a witness to San Francisco alive so she can testify in a trial. Carol (Anne Archer) is in the bathroom of the hotel room of her blind date when he is murdered by mobsters for stealing money. Knowing she is the only witness, Carol flees to an isolated Canadian mountain home to hide out. She is followed by Caulfield (Gene Hackman) who knows that she is a witness and wants to make her testify. When the mobsters track Caulfield to the cabin, Carol must join him in a run for her life on a Canadian train. This film, while it is somewhat uneven, is a tour de force for director/writer/cinematographer Peter Hyams, who delivers a fast-paced, action-packed chase through the Canadian mountains, stunningly photographed and well acted by both Hackman and Archer. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Bandido is set during the Mexican civil war of 1916. Robert Mitchum stars as a sleepy-eyed soldier of fortune who finds himself in the middle of the fracas. At first refusing to take sides, Mitchum eventually casts his lot with insurrectionist Gilbert Roland. On the opposite side of the fence is gun-runner Zachary Scott, whose attractive wife Ursula Theiss has a yen for Mitchum. Lensed on location in Mexico, Bandido offers little in the way of provocative plotting or clever dialogue, but it definitely delivers the goods so far as action and adventure are concerned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

During her brief stay at MGM, starlet Jarma Lewis received starring roles in two programmers. One of these was The Marauders, in which she appeared with Dan Duryea, Keenan Wynn and Jeff Richards. The bulk of the film's drama is handled by Richards, cast as a homesteader who refuses to move despite the threats of land baron Harry Shannon. After Shannon's death, the persecution of Richards is supervised by Dan Duryea, an unhinged frustrated soldier who fancies himself a second Napoleon. The looney Duryea manages to kill James Anderson, weak-willed husband of Jarma Lewis, with the help of hired gun Keenan Wynn. But Richards stands his ground, winning Jarma in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Las Vegas Story features two of Hollywood's most impressive physiques. Victor Mature stars as Dave Andrews, a gambler, while Jane Russell plays Linda, the love of his life. Assuming that Andrews has forgotten her, Linda marries Lloyd Rollins (Vincent Price) on the rebound. All three main characters are reunited in Las Vegas, where they become enmeshed in a robbery scheme that results in murder. Clearly inspired by Casablanca, the film even includes a philosophical piano player, portrayed by Hoagy Carmichael who also wrote the film's incidental songs. Though Las Vegas Story was largely scripted by Paul Jarrico, producer Howard Hughes refused to give Jarrico screen credit because of the latter's alleged pro-communist sympathies. Jarrico promptly sued Hughes and RKO, sparking one of the more famous cause celebres of the Blacklist era. As it turned out, nobody came out ahead with The Las Vegas Story: the film posted a loss of $600,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Narrow Margin is generally considered a "model" B picture; some film buffs go farther than that, labelling this 1952 RKO suspenser as the best low-budget studio production ever made. Nail-hard detective Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) is assigned to protect gangster's widow Mrs. Neall (Marie Windsor) as she rides the train from Chicago to LA, en route to testifying at a grand jury. There's no love lost between the ill-tempered Neall and Brown, especially since Brown's partner (Don Beddoe) was killed by mobsters while shielding Neall from harm. On the train, Brown makes the acquaintance of a likeable woman (Jacqueline White) and her playful young son. He also comes in contact with a rather secretive fat man (Paul Maxey), who may well be a mob assassin. Not long before the train pulls into California, Brown is approached by small-time crook (Peter Brocco), who offers the detective a great deal of money if he'll permit Neall to be silenced. Brown appears to be tempted, but this is only a smokescreen to throw the crooks off the trail. The Narrow Margin was remade (and unnecessarily padded and attenuated) in 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When nearly perfect counterfeit 20-dollar bills start turning up, the Treasury Department recognizes them as the work of Tris Stewart (Lloyd Bridges), a man already doing a long prison stretch. They offer Stewart a break on his sentence if he'll help them find out who got hold of his old plates, but he initially refuses. Some weeks later, while being transferred to another prison, Stewart escapes from custody -- it turns out that this is a set-up to free Stewart to search for the plates with a treasury agent keeping tabs on him; then he turns on the T-man as well, escaping for real. What Stewart doesn't know is that the agents expected and desired this move, believing that he would only go for the plates if he thought he could make some money from the bills and get out of the country with his girlfriend Laurie (Barbara Payton). They've got her apartment bugged, and one of their own men, Downey (John Hoyt), has been put in place as a customer at the nightclub where she works, quietly establishing himself as a man with some angles of his own and a yen to know her better. Stewart follows the trail to one of his ex-distributors, now in business for himself with the plates. But the man needs money, and Stewart thinks he can get it with help from Downey -- he doesn't like him trying to impress her, but does like it that he is a grifter with some money. They become partners, putting up Downey's cash to get the 250,000 dollars in counterfeit twenties, which Stewart will spend at face value where he and Laurie are going, in countries where they need U.S. currency and there are no treasury agents around to help identify counterfeit bills. Before the deal can be closed (and the arrest made), a new round of possible double-crosses starts between the hoods, and Downey's cover is suddenly blown by accident -- Stewart tries to kill him but is captured instead. Downey's superiors want to pull him out, but the agent thinks he can still salvage the operation if he can get to the plates before Laurie can talk to anyone. That leads to the denouement, an extended series of split-second plot developments with several lives at risk. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Angel on the Amazon gives the viewer a pretty good notion of what Lost Horizon or She might have looked like had they been produced by Republic Pictures. Vera Ralston stars as huntress Christine Ridgeway, who embarks on one of her many hunting expeditions in the company of her husband Anthony Brian Aherne. While deep in the jungles of the Amazon, the Ridgeways and their party come across the wreckage of a plane. Among the survivors are pilot Jim Warburton George Brent and Dr. Karen Lawrence Constance Bennett. Warburton is impressed by the fact that, though apparently well on in years, Christine has retained her youthful appearance. Dr. Lawrence eventually discovers the secret of Christine's eternal beauty, which by film's end has atrophied considerably. The rambling screenplay whisks the viewer from Brazil to the Riviera to Pasadena, all courtesy of the Republic back lot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A case of mistaken identity leads to hilarity in this comedy. Eddie (Fred MacMurray) and Chuck (William Demarest) are a pair of GIs who've just been sprung from the service and plan to open a mink ranch in Wisconsin. No sooner do they arrive in the Cheese State than one Jim Arnold (Akim Tamiroff) mistakes Eddie for Francis Pemberton, a footloose playboy who owes Jim a very large gambling debt. Hard as he tries, Eddie can't convince Jim that he isn't Pemberton -- and Jim's strong-arm men demand that Eddie pay up. Eddie goes to Pemberton's estate in hopes of clearing up the confusion, but he learns that the gambler has apparently fled to Mexico. Eddie meets Joan (Marguerite Chapman), a poor but pretty relative of the Pembertons who strikes his fancy, but several other members of the family also think that Eddie and Francis are the same person -- and they're none too fond of their absent relation. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Roy Rogers champions the cause of Easterner Sylvia Clark (Helen Parrish), who is in danger of losing her father's ranch to crooked land speculators. Roy tries to deal with the villains through legal channel, but they spoil things by resorting to strong-arm tactics. Making our hero's task all the more difficult is that the principal heavy is woman, one Vera Martin (Joan Woodbury)-and just try to catch Roy Rogers punching out a female! Despite stiff competition from the ineluctable Gabby Hayes, the film is slyly stolen by Onslow Stevens as a shifty lawyer. The musical portion of the program is ably handled by Rogers and his old pals, the Sons of the Pioneers (with Bob Nolan). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title of this series entry may strike some as a tad redundant: After all, isn't crook-turned-sleuth Michael Lanyard, aka the Lone Wolf, always taking a chance? On this occasion, Lanyard (Warren William) and his trusty valet Jamison (Eric Blore) are framed on a murder charge. The actual miscreants are a gang of counterfeiters, shipping their plates into the country in a thief-proof carrier invented by Johnny Baker (Lloyd Bridges). In the course of clearing their names, Lanyard and Jamison are sealed up with poor Johnny in one of his own carriers, which is then filled with poison gas. Will they escape? Is there really any doubt? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unable to sign boxer Joe Louis to movie contract, Republic Pictures had to make do with the losers of Louis' heavyweight championship bouts. One of these was Billy Conn, who after being knocked out by Louis in the 13th round awakened to star in the Republic programmer The Pittsburgh Kid. The story finds clean-limned pugilist Conn (playing himself) being managed by pretty Patricia Mallory (Jean Parker). In addition to having a professional interest in Conn's career, Patricia is in love with the big lug. With the help of sports reporter Cliff Halliday (Dick Purcell), Patricia manages to promote Conn into the Big Time, only to nearly lose him to predatory socialite Barbara Ellison (Veda Ann Borg). To improve the box-office potential of The Pittsburgh Kid, Republic cast several boxing-world "guest stars" as themselves, including fighters Henry Armstrong, Freddie Steele and Jack Roper and referee Arthur Donovan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Warren William is back as suave thief-turned-sleuth Michael Lanyard, alias the Lone Wolf, in Columbia's The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date. Freshly arrived at the Miami airport after a sojourn in Havana, Lanyard and his general factotum Jamison (Eric Blore) rescue beautiful Pat Lawrence (Frances Robinson) from a pair of hooligans. It turns out that the thugs were after the satchelful of ransom money carried by Pat, with which she hopes to rescue a kidnapped millionaire. Invetibly, the money is stolen, leading Lanyard and Jamison on a merry chase all through Miami and its environs. Along the way, Lanyard tries to spring Pat's boyfriend Scotty (Bruce Bennett), who's been thrown in jail because the authorities think he was responsible for the kidnapping. In the final scenes, Lanyard exposes the genuine miscreant, and also unearths an insidious fraud scheme. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When German director Joe May was working on such silent classics as The Indian Tomb and Asphalt, he probably never imagine that he'd one day wind up at Universal turning out something called Society Smugglers. Preston Foster stars as Treasury agent Sully, at present trying to break up a vicious smuggling ring. To this end, Sully assigns undercover agent Joan Martin (Irene Hervey) to go to work for gang boss Massey (Walter Woolf King). A bit more inventive than most films of its ilk, Society Smugglers contrives to have the crooks use a slogan contest and a trip-to-Europe first prize as part of their scheme. Featured in the cast is Regis Toomey, who halfway through the film performs another one of his patented death scenes (in "A" pictures, Toomey was generally bumped off in the first reel). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide