Eugene J. Forde Movies

In this suspense film, a detective must find the murderer of a rich and jealous wife and her husband, a doctor with a tendency to work late into the night. After many missteps and false leads, he finally finds himself confronted with a sexy former patient of the deceased doc. Is she the guilty party, or does the determined detective find another guilty party? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though 20th Century-Fox was phasing out its B-picture unit in the late 1940s, a few inexpensive films, some made in England to utilize the studio's wartime "frozen funds", still managed to trickle into theaters. The Jewels of Brandenburg stars Richard Travis as Johnny Vickers, a US government agent operating in London. Vickers puts a tail on a double agent named Marcel Grandet (Leonard Strong), with whom he'd worked during the war. Grandet has stolen a fortune in jewels with which he intends to finance a neo-Nazi movement. Posing as a fellow fascist, Travis is able to infiltrate the villains-but will he be able to return the gems and save his own skin? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This second entry in Columbia's "Crime Doctor" series once again stars Warner Baxter as Dr. Ordway, a former criminal turned criminologist. In this outing, Ordway is called in to analyze the dreams of elderly Patricia Cornwall (Virginia Brissac). It is hoped that this will provide a clue to the long-ago disappearance of Patricia's husband-not to mention $30,000. Naturally, there's at least one person who doesn't want the secret revealed, and that's the person who murdered Cornwall and hid his body in the basement of a popular café. Could the guilty party be Diana Burns (Rose Hobart), widow of Cornwall's former partner, who has just become a murder victim himself? Billed ninth in the cast of Crime Doctor's Strangest Case is young Columbia contractee Lloyd Bridges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romance, a spoiled, self-centered rich boy John T. Bromley III, is simultaneously disinherited by his wealthy aunt and kicked out by his social climbing girl friend. The fellow is naturally depressed and while slumping in a bar drinking heavily he meets a former pug who ends up knocking him flat in a brawl. Now the fellow is humiliated as well; and he demands a rematch, but before he goes through with it, he enrolls in a training camp for fighters. There he meets and falls for the trainer's daughter. Unfortunately her foster brother doesn't like her new beau and begins giving him a hard time. By the picture's end, the fellow has learned the proper etiquette for eating humble pie. Fortunately, his dream girl is there to eat it with him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The fourth of 20th Century-Fox's "Michael Shayne" mysteries finds private detective Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) anxiously preparing for his long-delayed marriage to showgirl Joanne La Mar (Mary Beth Hughes). Alas, Mike's pre-nuptual tete-a-tete with Joanne is interrupted by the sound of a scream. Rushing into a well-appointed hotel room, Shayne finds Emily the maid (Virginia Brissac) trembling beside the dead bodies of a washed-up Broadway producer and a faded stage actress. Noodling around the room a bit, our hero discovers that both murder victims had participated in a popular musical comedy some 25 years earlier. A souvenir program from that production provides a lengthy list of potential suspects, sending Shayne off on another clue-hunting expedition, while Joanne fusses and fumes in her apartment. Hired by two of the suspects, Phyllis Lathrop (Mae Beatty) and Julian Davis (Henry Daniell), to locate the real murderer, Mike has a high old time confounding police inspector Pierson (William Demarest) and reconstructing the crime with the reluctant aid of janitors Rusty (Ben Carter) and Sam (Mantan Moreland). This time around, however, Mike is just as surprised as the audience when the "mystery killer" is revealed, and for a few anxious moments it looks like curtains for Mr. Shayne. A dizzying blend of comedy and melodrama, Dressed to Kill benefits from a powerhouse supporting cast and the effectively moody cinematography of Glenn MacWilliams. The film was based on The Dead Take No Bows, a "Quinny Hite" mystery written by Richard Burke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fresh from his contract-player duties at Warner Bros., future TV "Superman" George Reeves heads the cast of 20th Century-Fox's Man at Large. Reeves is cast as FBI agent Bob Grayson, working in collaboration with Max (Richard Derr), a British agent posing as a fugitive German aviator. Meanwhile, fearless girl reporter Dallas Dayle (Marjorie Weaver) is assigned by her editor to track down the enemy aviator and get an exclusive story. When she catches up with Grayson and Max, Dallas is under the impression that Grayson is a rival reporter and Max is the genuine fugitive, leading to the usual complications. All three protagonists ultimately pool their resources to expose a German spy ring operating in the United States. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though the 1931 Fox release Charlie Chan Carries On apparently no longer exists, modern viewers can get a general idea of the film's quality by taking a look at its 1940 remake, Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise. On the verge of revealing the identity of an international murderer, a Scotland Yard man is himself killed in the Honolulu offices of detective Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler). The only existing clues point to the fact that the murderer is one of several passengers on a ship bound for San Francisco. In time-honored movie-mystery tradition, the ship's manifest is chock full of such suspicious types as Dr. Sudermann (Lionel Atwill), Professor Gordon (Leo G. Carroll) and religious fanatic Mr. Walters (Charles Middleton). Another murder takes place before Chan is able to expose the perpetrator with the help of the supposedly blinded widow (Kay Linaker) of the original victim. Comedy relief is provided by Victor Sen Yung as Chan's eternally bumbling Number Two son and by Cora Witherspoon as man-chasing spinster Susie Watson (a character originally portrayed as a youthful gold-digger by Marjoire White in Charlie Chan Carries On). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pier 13 is a remake of the delightful Spencer Tracy-Joan Bennett vehicle Me and My Gal, which itself was a reworking of a 1922 silent picture. Wisecracking cop Danny Dolan (Lloyd Nolan) takes a liking to self-reliant waterfront waitress Sally Kelly (Lynn Bari), and the feeling is definitely mutual. But when Sally begins behaving strangely, Dolan suspects that she's mixed up with notorious criminal Johnnie Hale (Douglas Fowley). In fact, Sally is merely covering up for her flighty sister Helen (oan Valerie), who has foolishly fallen for Hale and has become deeply involved in the latter's underhanded activities. Things come to a head during a nocturnal warehouse robbery, with Dolan and Hale settling their differences face to face. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, newlyweds soon discover that life in the fast lane is not as fun as it seems. As they both work for the same advertising agency, they can well afford the high life. They joyfully spend all their money on fast cars, country clubs, and booze. They begin to change their lifestyle after they encounter three social freeloaders who proceed to suck the newlyweds dry. Realizing that their life has caused them to fall deeply in debt, the lovers adopt a saner, slower lifestyle. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

20th Century-Fox's Meet the Girls was the vanguard of an intended series about the misadventures of two trouble-prone chorus girls. June Lang and Lynn Bari star as Judy Davis and Terry Wilson, who after losing their jobs in a Honolulu nightclub also manage to misplace their ticket money for the boat trip home. Stowing away on a San Francisco-bound liner, Judy and Terry get mixed up with a comic-opera gigolo (Erik Rhodes), a hypochondriac (Gene Lockhart) and a mysterious jewel thief. As if that weren't enough, our heroines must fend off the friendly advances of well-dressed boozer Mr. Brady (played by perennial movie souse Jack Norton). A minor success, Meet the Girls spawned a sequel, Pardon Our Nerve (1939), but no series materialized. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a married couple, tired of constantly bickering, separate. The woman heads to France where she immediately gets involved with a suave playboy. This causes the husband to decide that he wants her back. He gets his chance after he finds out the lothario has another lover. In the end, the husband convinces the playboy to marry the lover. Meanwhile his wife returns to him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Charlie Chan was the Jessica Fletcher of the 1930s; no matter where he took a vacation, someone got murdered! This time, the wily Chan (Warner Oland) and son Lee (Keye Luke) are on holiday in Monte Carlo when a casino messenger is killed while en route to Paris. The messenger was carrying a million dollars' worth of bonds, which passes through several hands in the course of the film. One of the prime suspects is a Chicago gangster, working incognito as the casino bartender -- at least until he's bumped off as well. The motivating factor behind all the mayhem is woman-with-a-past Virginia Field, who, though she turns out not to be the killer, is as morally guilty as the genuine culprit. Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo represented Warner Oland's final appearance as the aphorism-spouting oriental detective; he died suddenly in August of 1938, whereupon 20th Century-Fox replaced him with Sidney Toler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide