Douglas Fowley Movies
Born and raised in the Greenwich Village section of New York, Douglas Fowley did his first acting while attending St. Francis Xavier Military Academy. A stage actor and night club singer/dancer during the regular theatrical seasons, Fowley took such jobs as athletic coach and shipping clerk during summer layoff. He made his first film, The Mad Game, in 1933. Thanks to his somewhat foreboding facial features, Fowley was usually cast as a gangster, especially in the Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto and Laurel and Hardy "B" films churned out by 20th Century-Fox in the late 1930s and early 1940s. One of his few romantic leading roles could be found in the 1942 Hal Roach "streamliner" The Devil with Hitler. While at MGM in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Fowley essayed many roles both large and small, the best of which was the terminally neurotic movie director in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Fowley actually did sit in the director's chair for one best-forgotten programmer, 1960's Macumba Love, which he also produced. On television, Fowley made sporadic appearances as Doc Holliday in the weekly series Wyatt Earp (1955-61). In the mid-1960s, Fowley grew his whiskers long and switched to portraying Gabby Hayes-style old codgers in TV shows like Pistols and Petticoats and Detective School: One Flight Up, and movies like Homebodies (1974) and North Avenue Irregulars (1979); during this period, the actor changed his on-screen billing to Douglas V. Fowley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1950
Some auteur critics feel that director Richard O. Fleischer did his best work while laboring in the "B" mills of RKO Radio. Fleischer's minimalist noir exercise Armored Car Robbery stars William Talman as the chief crook and Charles McGraw as the detective dogging his trail. A shade smarter than his gang underlings, Talman manages to elude capture, and even travels freely about in the company of his flashy lady friend Adele Jergens. But McGraw's persistence eventually pays off. Don McGuire, later a prolific TV producer/director, provides a welcome touch of comic relief as McGraw's rookie-cop assistant. A powerful (and slightly gruesome) climax caps this low-budget gem. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers, Estelita Rodriguez, (more)
- 1949
Joe Palooka, comic strip artist Ham Fisher's golden-hearted pugilist, heads South of the Border in The Counterpunch. Actually, Joe (Joe Kirkwood Jr.) goes no further than Monogram's cramped "ocean liner" standing set, but the audience doesn't really mind. The plot concerns a gang of counterfeiters, one of whom is murdered en route to Latin America. Everyone is a suspect, including Joe and his manager Knobby Walsh (played by comedian Leon Errol, who certainly deserves his top billing). When the treasury agent in charge of the case has trouble determining the culprit's identity, Joe uses his pugilistic prowess to solve the mystery. Elyse Knox, the real-life wife of football player Tom Harmon, is cast as Joe's sweetheart Ann Howe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leon Errol, Joe Kirkwood, Jr., (more)
- 1949
Robert Lowery stars in the 65-minute actioner Arson Inc. Lowery plays a fireman in search of a seemingly random arsonist--or arsonists. Putting two and two together, our hero figures out that culprits are a gang of thieves who've been torching businesses to cover up their robberies. Much of the film has a semidocumentary quality, as director William Berke concentrates on the real-life methods and firefighting equipment of the LA Fire Department. Curiously, the film's co-scripter was Arthur Caesar, one of Hollywood's foremost humorists. Trade-shown in May of 1949, Arson Inc. hit the neighborhood theatre screens in June. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Lowery, Anne Gwynne, (more)
- 1949
Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun, both of whom went on to star in their own TV western series, head the cast of the Monogram sagebrusher Massacre River. Madison and Calhoun play Larry Knight and Phil Acton, fellow Army officers and rivals for the attentions of colonel's daughter Kitty Reid (Cathy Downs). Losing the romantic battle, Knight loses himself in the arms of no-good gambling-hall proprietress Laura Jordan (Carole Mathews). All amorous intrigues are forgotten when Knight and Acton fight shoulder to shoulder against marauding Indians. To ensure better bookings, Monogram released Massacre River through its "prestige" subsidiary Allied Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Madison, Rory Calhoun, (more)
- 1949
Virginia Mayo is Flaxy Martin in this complicated Warner Bros. melodrama. Flaxy is a bad girl but good company, especially when she's around criminal attorney Walter Colby (Zachary Scott). When Colby begins to have second thoughts about his gangster cohorts, Flaxy arranges a murder frame, forcing the attorney to go on the run. The bulk of the film is a thrill-packed chase teaming Colby with the film's resident Good Girl, Nora Carson (Dorothy Malone). Also figuring into the proceedings is Elisha Cook Jr., playing his usual shifty little creep. Director Richard L. Bare had only recently moved up from the "Joe McDoakes" comedy shorts to features when he guided Flaxy Martin with skill and aplomb. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Mayo, Zachary Scott, (more)
- 1949
Two things are certain from the beginning of Renegades of the Sage. One is that star Charles Starrett will play a character named Steve Somebody-or-Other. The other certainty is that, when the need arises, Steve Somebody-or-Other will assume the identity of the masked righter-of-wrongs, The Durango Kid. The plot finds Steve/Durango attempting to capture ex-Civil War guerilla fighter Miller (Trevor Bardette), who may be the man who's been going around knocking down telegraph wires. Renegades of the Sage has plot holes large enough to swallow a rhinoceros, but Charles Starrett fans didn't mind so long as their hero delivered the goods, action-wise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Starrett, Smiley Burnette, (more)
- 1949
Satan's Cradle was the fourth of producer Phil Krasne's "Cisco Kid" programmers for United Artists. Anyone who remembers the Cisco TV series will know without being told that Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo essayed the roles of wandering do-gooders Cisco and Pancho. Unlike previous entries, Satan's Cradle was directed by serial veteran Ford Beebe rather than the unimaginative Wallace Fox; the improvement is immediately noticeable. This time, Cisco takes on a frontier megalomaniac, shyster lawyer Steve Gentry (Douglas Fowley), who has taken over a mining town. Gentry's confederate is dancehall girl Lil (Ann Savage) who is as deadly as she is beautiful. When itinerant preacher Henry Lane (Byron Foulger) is beaten to a pulp by Gentry's goons (an astonishingly brutal sequence), Cisco and Pancho move in for the kill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Duncan Renaldo, Leo Carrillo, (more)
Incoming MGM production head Dore Schary ramrodded Battleground into the studio's schedule over the virulent protests of MGM boss Louis Mayer. The result was an award-winning box-office hit, as well as the beginning of the end of Mayer's power. This dramatization of the battles of Bastogne and the Bulge in the waning days of World War II concentrates on a single infantry unit. Van Johnson and John Hodiak are the ostensible stars, but the film is stolen by James Whitmore as the cigar-chomping, battle-stained sergeant. Also appearing is Ian MacDonald as General McAuliffe, whose legendary response to the Nazi's suggestion that the Americans surrender consisted of a single four-letter expletive: "Nuts". Whitmore's final scenes of near-delirium before the relief troops arrive are unforgettable. Battleground tries within MGM limits to be wholly realistic, though it is slightly compromised by the scripters' inability to use Army profanity, and by pointless subplot involving actress Denise Darcel. The film doesn't hold up as well as such wartime efforts as The Story of GI Joe or Walk in the Sun, but in 1949 Battleground was regarded as an important milestone in the field of truthful, de-glamorized combat flicks. Please avoid the colorized version: this is a black-and-white subject if ever there was one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Johnson, John Hodiak, (more)
So baseball pictures never make money, eh? Try telling that to MGM, which raked in a box office gross of $4 million on their 1949 baseball musical Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Set in 1906, the film concerns the adventures and misadventures of The Wolves, a champion ball club. The team's success is contingent upon the double-play combination of "O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg." But while Goldberg (Jules Munshin) lives to play baseball, O'Brien (Gene Kelly) and Ryan (Frank Sinatra) would rather pursue their off-season vaudeville career. Both erstwhile song-and-dance men decide to stick around on the baseball diamond when they mutually fall in love with the Wolves' new owner, the lovely K.C. Higgins (Esther Williams). Though O'Brien wins K.C. for himself, Ryan is compensated with the aggressively affectionate Shirley Delwyn (Betty Garrett). Gambler Joe Lorgan (Edward Arnold), who has bet heavily against the Wolves in an upcoming Big Game, woos O'Brien away from the team with promises of a big role in an upcoming musical comedy. Having let down K.C. and the rest of the team, O'Brien vows to redeem himself by playing in the crucial game. Lorgan gets wind of this, and orders his henchmen to do away with O'Brien. Hoping to shield his buddy from harm, Ryan beans O'Brien with a pitched ball, thereby incapacitating the prodigal player. The crooks are vanquished, and K.C. forgives O'Brien. But upon learning that Ryan had knocked him out, O'Brien charges onto the diamond, thirsting for revenge. Believe it or not, this action results in no fewer than two winning home runs! We offer you this detailed synopsis because it's likely that you'll be too entertained by the film's musical numbers to pay any attention to the story. Outside of the title number and Gene Kelly's solo "The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day," the picture's best songs are contributed by Betty Comden, Adolf Green and Roger Edens. Take Me Out to the Ball Game is so delightful as it stands that one can only wonder what the film would have looked like had MGM's first choice Kathryn Grayson--or the studio's second choice, Judy Garland--played the Esther Williams role (In a similar vein, the Frank Sinatra character was originally to have been played by real-life Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, (more)
- 1949
Director Kurt Neumann, more closely associated with science fiction and mystery programmers, delivers a powerhouse of a pocket western in Bad Men of Tombstone. Barry Sullivan and Broderick Crawford head the cast as a pair of gunslingers who hold no regrets and evidently harbor no consciences. They ride into a mining camp during the Gold Rush days and set about staking a claim--and woe be unto him who gets in the way. A blood-splattered gunfight is the logical conclusion when the two gunfighters have their final falling out. Screenwriters Philip Yordan and Arthur Strawn clearly hold their leading characters in contempt, but can't help imbuing them with a certain degree of fascination. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Sullivan, Marjorie Reynolds, (more)
Hoping to make the magic of King Kong happen again, the production team of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack came up with the 1949 special-effects smorgasbord Mighty Joe Young. Robert Armstrong reprises his Kong portrayal of Carl Denham as hot-shot showbiz entrepreneur Max O'Hara. While in Africa looking for authentic decorations for his new night club, O'Hara makes the acquaintance of Mr. Joseph Young, a ten-foot-tall ape. Unlike King Kong, Joe Young has a heart of gold, thanks in great part to his owner, a lovely lass named Jill Young (Terry Moore). Against her better judgment, Jill allows O'Hara to bring Joe back to the States as a nightclub attraction. Joe proves to be a smash as he participates in Jill's musical act (he lifts her grand piano while she plays "Beautiful Dreamer") and performs a tug-of-war routine with an imposing lineup of professional wrestlers (including Tor Johnson, Man Mountain Dean and Primo Carnera). But when the patrons go home each night, Joe is unhappily relegated to his cage. When a group of obnoxious drunks begin teasing Joe, the disgruntled ape breaks loose and goes on a rampage. Slated to be put to death, Joe redeems himself by rescuing a group of screaming children from an orphanage fire. Featured in the cast are Ben Johnson as the nominal romantic lead, Frank McHugh as Robert Armstrong's assistant, and an uncredited Irene Ryan as a cocktail-lounge patron. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, (more)
- 1949
Search for Danger was the last entry in the "Falcon" film series, which began at RKO in 1941 and was sequestered at low-budget Film Classics by the end of the 1940s. Professional magician John Calvert stars as the debonair amateur sleuth known to friend and foe alike as The Falcon. This time our hero must contend with not one, but two baffling murders. It all begins when the Falcon goes on the prowl for the missing partner of gamblers Kirk (Albert Dekker) and Gregory (Ben Welden), who has skipped town with $100,000. The leading-lady responsibilities are handled by Myrna Dell, decked out in several enticing low-cut gowns. The mystery angle is well-handled, with a reasonably surprising solution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Calvert, Albert Dekker, (more)
- 1948
Allan Lane goes in search of his dead friend's brother in this fast-paced Western from Republic Pictures. Instead of finding his brother Tim as he had been promised, Fletcher Roberts (Bruce Edwards) is confronted by Jason Fox (Rory Mallinson), a criminal who needs Fletcher's horses to equip a gang of army deserters. After killing Fletcher, Fox escapes into Cemetery Ridge, an outlaw haven across the border. Claiming to be a fugitive from the law, "Rocky" Lane (Allan Lane), a border patrol officer and Fletcher's friend, crosses over into the Cemetery Ridge where he hooks up with Nugget Clark (Eddy Waller), the lawless town's pharmacist and only law-abiding citizen. Managing to infiltrate the murderer's gang, Rocky locates Fletcher's brother Tim (William Henry), who idolizes Fox. When learning about his brother's death, Tim changes his mind, however, and helps Rocky and Nugget track down not only Fox but also the town's crooked sheriff (George H. Lloyd). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Allan Lane, Eddy Waller, (more)
- 1948
Randolph Scott is a single-minded gunman bent on tracking down and killing the white man responsible for an Indian raid on a stagecoach. Scott's fiancee was killed in the raid and a large army payroll was stolen. The villain is George Macready, a "solid citizen" with fingers in several dirty pies. The film's highlight is not the final confrontation with Macready but a brutal fistfight between Scott and minor heavy Forrest Tucker. Filmed in Cinecolor (a pleasing if limited two-color process), Coroner Creek was based on a novel by western specialist Luke Short. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Marguerite Chapman, (more)
Behind the locked doors of a mental institution resides crooked politico Judge Drake (Herbert Heyes), free from prosecution so long as he pretends to be crazy. To get the goods on Drake, private detective Ross Stewart (Richard Carlson) has himself committed to the asylum as a patient. Meanwhile, reporter Kathy Lawrence (Lucille Bremer), posing as Stewart's wife, acts as his liaison to the outside world. But when Drake figures out what's going on, he pulls strings to have Stewart meet with an "accident" during his stay at the institution. Ralf Harolde, who memorably portrayed a seedy psychiatrist in Murder My Sweet, contributes another excellent performance in Behind Locked Doors as a sympathetic attendant with Something To Hide. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucille Bremer, Richard Carlson, (more)
- 1948
Docks of New Orleans was Roland Winters' second appearance as aphorism-spouting oriental sleuth Charlie Chan -- and like the first (The Chinese Ring) the film was based on an earlier "Mr. Wong" series entry. This time out, Chan attempts to solve a case involving a stolen shipment of chemicals. When murder enters the picture, the most likely suspect is a chap who claims that the victim had stolen his secret chemical formulas. Naturally, this fellow can't be guilty, which Chan proves in due time. Offering their usual ham-handed assistance are Charlie's son Tommy (Victor Sen Yung) and chauffeur Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland). Roland Winters is totally unsuited for the role of Charlie Chan, but at least he seems to be having fun in the part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Andrews, Virginia Dale, (more)
- 1948
The Pine-Thomas action/adventure assembly line put together another winner with Waterfront at Midnight. Hoping to put the cuffs on criminal mastermind Socks Barstow (Richard Travis), detective Mike Hanrohan (William Gargan) is stymied by the fact that his younger brother Denny (Richard Crane) has joined Barstow's gang. Things get worse after a bloody shootout, in which Mike apparently guns down his own brother. It takes several reels for Mike to realize he's being played for a chump by the cagey Barstow-and when he does realize this, it's every man for himself! Starting off with a brutal point-blank murder, Waterfront at Midnight remains in high gear right up to the "End" title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Gargan, Mary Beth Hughes, (more)
- 1948
Ham Fisher's comic-strip pugilist Joe Palooka is once more visualized on-screen in Monogram's Winner Take All. In this one, soft-hearted boxer Joe (Joe Kirkwood) is approached by a trio of gamblers, who want him to throw an upcoming bout. Naturally he refuses, but has cause to regret this decision when the crooks claim to have kidnapped Joe's young ward Tommy (Stanley Clements). When he discovers that the abduction is a hoax, Joe wins the fight and settles accounts with the bad guys. William Frawley costars as Joe's trainer Knobby Walsh (a role played in subsequent "Joe Palooka" entries by Leon Errol), while Elyse Knox, real-life wife of athlete Tom Harmon, plays Palooka's ever-loving fiancee Ann Howe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Kirkwood, Jr., Elyse Knox, (more)
- 1948
In this western comedy, a milquetoast gunsmith from the East Coast goes to Arsenic City, Arizona because he has heard that everybody their carries guns. His trip West is an exercise in misfortune. Everything that could go wrong on the journey, does. At least he meets a pretty woman, also en route to Arsenic City. She goes there in search of her late father's gold mine. They fall in love and work together to find her father's killer and reclaim the mine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Albert, Binnie Barnes, (more)
- 1948
Tim Holt stars in Gun Smugglers, stretching his range by playing a character named Tim Holt. Our Hero, once again teamed with wisecracking Chico Rafferty (Richard Martin), is working on behalf of the government. His quarry: A gang of mercenary criminals who steal weapons from the US Army, then sell their contraband to sinister Enemy Agents (most of whom wear baggy suits and drink vodka). There's a surprise in store for Holt when he puts his trust in a small boy (Gary Gray), who turns out to be a member of the gang! Tim Holt's leading lady in Gun Smugglers is the up and coming Martha Hyer, in her sixth film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Holt, Richard Martin, (more)
- 1948
Hoping for a success commensurate with his previous Show Business (1945), comedian Eddie Cantor poured a lot of his own money into the RKO Radio musical If You Knew Susie. Cantor and his Show Business co-star Joan Davis are reteamed herein as ex-vaudevillians Sam and Susie Parker, who retire to a small and rather cloistered New England town. Faced with the snobbery of the local "aristocracy," Sam and Susie come to believe that they aren't worthy of their new neighbors, nor of their own children. All this changes when the Parkers find a document signed by George Washington bestowing $50,000 on one of Sam's forebears! According to the government, Sam and Susie are now owed several billion dollars interest. Sam patriotically refuses to accept the money, thereby becoming a national hero -- but not before a plenitude of comic plot twists involving gangsters Sheldon Leonard and Joe Sawyer. Cast as the Parkers' daughter Marjorie is "newcomer" Margaret Kerry, who'd actually been in films since 1936 as child actress Peggy Lynch. One of the musical highlights in If You Knew Susie is a clip from Show Business, featuring Cantor, Davis, George Murphy and Constance Moore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Joan Davis, (more)
- 1948
In this western, a cowpoke is trotting towards Wyoming in hopes of buying a ranch when he is arrested for a murder he did not commit, forcing him to prove his innocence before continuing on his journey. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1948
Worthless from a historical aspect, Black Bart is nonetheless an enjoyable fabrication about the fabled Western outlaw. Rescued from a "necktie party," outlaws Charles E. Boles (Dan Duryea) and Lance Hardeen (Jeffrey Lynn) decide that it would be best to part as friends and go their separate ways. When next seen, Boles is a prosperous rancher who supplements his income by robbing the Wells Fargo gold shipments under the alias of Black Bart. Upon learning this, Hardeen rides back into Boles' life demanding a piece of the action. Both of the hero-villains are foiled when they succumb to the charms of the bewitching international courtesan Lola Montez (Yvonne DeCarlo). The story is related in flashback-from a jail cell by the outlaws' erstwhile partner Jersey Brady (Percy Kilbride). Obviously forgotten or ignored by the screenwriters was the fact that the actual Black Bart was really black, an ex-slave who "made bad" in the Wild West . Black Bart was remade in 1967 as Ride to Hangman's Tree. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, (more)
- 1947
Usually associated with erudite, urbane comedies, the legendary screen team of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy goes intensely dramatic in the expensive western Sea of Grass. Tracy plays cattle baron Colonel James Brewton, who staunchly opposes opening the western frontier to homesteaders. Standing steadfastly beside Brewton-at least at the beginning--is his headstrong wife Lutie (Hepburn). Eventually disillusioned by the stern implacability of her husband, Lutie leaves Brewton and goes off to Denver, where she falls in love with liberal attorney Brice Chamberlain (Melvyn Douglas), the champion of the homesteaders' cause. Upon giving birth to Chamberlain's son, Lutie confesses her indiscretion to Brewton, who takes the news with commendable restraint, even offering to accept the baby as his own. Unfortunately, the Brewtons' standing in the community is weakened by the revelation of Lutie's infidelity, causing her to leave her husband for a second time. Years later, Lutie's grown-up boy Brock (Robert Walker) drifts to the wrong side of the law, leading to his death at the hands of a posse. Though it hardly seems possible under the circumstances, Brewton and Lutie are at long last reconciled through the intervention of their daughter Sara Beth (Phyllis Thaxter). Elaborately produced in the traditional MGM manner and adroitly directed by Elia Kazan, Sea of Grass is still one of the lesser Tracy-Hepburns. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, (more)
