Nick Grinde Movies

This patriotic WW II-era bit of anti-Japanese propaganda centers on a white Texas college student who becomes such good friends with Japanese students on campus that he goes to their country after he is wrongfully accused of being a traitor. All this happened before the U.S. declared war on Japan. After the war begins, the fellow willingly makes pro-Japanese radio broadcasts. Fortunately, the fellow turns out to be a red-blooded American boy through and through and thanks to him, the Japanese are rendered helpless by the end of the film. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this drama, set during the gold-rush, an unsuccessful prospector prepares to leave Alaska. But first he has a grand, drunken send-off. During the celebration a lawman is killed. The prospector is the prime suspect, and so he escapes to keep from being arrested. While on the lam, he encounters a wealthy but avaricious Englishman who is planning on robbing and killing an aged sourdough who has just found a productive stream. After murdering the old prospector, the English cad begins threatening the prospector's daughter; she and the younger prospector flee across a dangerous frozen river to escape him. En route, the young man falls in love with her. He soon finds out that he did not kill the lawman. The two lovers lead long and happy lives soon after. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Convicted Woman was Columbia's annual "all girl" B picture, allowing studio executives to decide which of their female contractees would be retained and which would be dropped. Rochelle Hudson plays Betty Andrews, a jobless girl who through a series of unfortunate setbacks ends up in a girl's reformatory. Her fellow inmates include three-time-loser Hazel (Lola Lane), the nasty Duchess (June Lang), and such Columbia "regulars" as Iris Meredith, Lorna Gray, Mary Field, Beatrice Blinn, Dorothy Appleby, and hefty June Gittleson (aka June Bryde). Reporter Jim Brent (Glenn Ford) tries to secure a release for Betty, all the while exposing corruption among the prison officials. Also concerned with Betty's welfare is lady lawyer Mary Ellis (Freda Inescourt), who has some of the best scenes in the picture. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The lives of female hoboes in the Great Depression are chronicled in this interesting drama. In order to fully understand the travails of their existence, the governor's daughter dresses down and joins them. There in the hobo camps she experiences their aimless unlucky lives as they hitchhike across the country, and live out of doors. The women are hindered by a pesky sheriff who constantly harasses them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Condemned to death for a mercy killing, Dr. John Garth (Karloff) continues to experiment in prison to develop a serum that will put at end to the ageing process. On the eve of his execution, he offers himself as guinea pig for his youth serum, which has recently been mixed with the blood of an executed psychopath. Miraculously, Garth does grow younger before the astonished eyes of kindly prison physician Ralph Howard (Edward Van Sloan). Alas, the serum has murderous side effects, which Howard discovers only as Garth strangles him to death. Pardoned from Death Row thanks to a script contrivance, Garth spends the rest of the film trying to carry on his humanitarian work despite embarrassing lapses into homicidal mania. Many observers regard Before I Hang as the best of Karloff's "Mad Doctor" series for Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Akim Tamiroff plays the title role, an underworld leader who controls all illicit operations in Chinatown. Tamiroff is toppled from power by two members of his own mob (Anthony Quinn and J.Carroll Naish). He is left for dead, but is saved by a dedicated Chinese-American doctor (Anna May Wong). In gratitude, Tamiroff turns over his fortune to a Chinese war relief fund. King of Gamblers was directed with flair by the otherwise unimaginative Nick Grinde, who seems to have borrowed several artistic touches from fellow Paramount contractee Robert Florey. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

No relation to the 1932 W.C. Fields comedy of the same name, Million Dollar Legs is a college picture starring most of Paramount's younger contract players. The college is in financial trouble, so the students pin their hopes on a race horse--the "million dollar legs" of the title. As it turns out, the college's salvation rests with its rowing team, captained by Jackie Coogan (who was once upon a time a leading-man type). At the time Million Dollar Legs was made, Coogan was married to his costar, Betty Grable. A few years later, Grable would parlay her own lovely legs into a career worth several millions. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Paramount's Sudden Money has all the earmarks of a Charlie Ruggles-Mary Boland vehicle, except that this time Ruggles is teamed with Marjorie Rambeau. It all begins when Sweeney Patterson (Ruggles) and his brother-in-law Doc Finney (Broderick Crawford) win $150,000 in the Irish sweepstakes. All of a sudden, Sweeney and his wife Elsie (Marjorie Rambeau) are besieged by relatives and "friends" whom they've never seen before, all of whom want a piece of the action. After a series of not-so-merry misadventures, the Pattersons decide that they were better off when they were poor. Not bad for such a familiar plotline, Sudden Money benefits from the byplay between Ruggles and Rambeau, who play together as if they'd been a team for years. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A scientist's greatest invention proves to be his darkest curse in this thriller that was part of Columbia and star Boris Karloff's "mad doctor" series. Karloff stars as Dr. Henryk Savaard, a brilliant heart expert who has created a pump that will allow him to place a patient in a state of death so that vital organs can be replaced with few problems. His first experiment on a human quickly goes awry when his nurse Betty (Ann Doran) sends for the police. The experiment is interrupted leaving the young man dead and Savaard in jail. He is sentenced to hang, but unleashes a bitter diatribe against his executioners promising to avenge his death. After his hanging, Savaard's assistant, Stoddard (Joseph DeStefani), hooks up the corpse to the heart pump and resurrects his boss. Several months pass and a local reporter (Robert Wilcox) discovers that six of the jurors in the case have mysteriously committed suicide -- all by hanging. The newsman's investigation leads him to follow the judge, the prosecutor, nurse Betty, and the surviving jurors to a specially arranged meeting at Savaard's former home. There, they are stunned to discover that Savaard is not only alive, but planning to execute them one by one every 15 minutes. As the bodies quickly begin to pile up, it is through the one person close to Savaard's heart that they can hope to make it out alive. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi

Drawing heavily on both Madame X and Stella Dallas, this cheap exploitation-melodrama was produced by the ill-named Progressive Pictures at the newly formed Grand National studios. The parents of the title are Edythe Ellis (Marjorie Reynolds) and Charles Wharton (Carlyle Moore Jr.), who are forced to marry in secrecy because of his socially prominent family. A child, Carol, is born, but Charles is forbidden to see Edythe and the little girl is adopted by the kindly Cardwells (Walter Young and Sybil Harris). Years later, Carol (Doris Weston), now a pretty teenager, falls in love with handsome Bruce (Maurice Murphy), much to the chagrin of her adopted cousin, Betty (Terry Walker), Bruce's former girlfriend. In spite, Betty reveals that Carol is adopted and the distraught girl leaves home to take a job as an entertainer in the Cuddle Club, a notorious establishment secretly owned by Charles Wharton (now Morgan Wallace). When Carol refuses to change her mind, Bruce solicits the aid of Edythe (now Helen MacKellar), who has become a famous judge. Keeping her identity a secret, Edythe warns Carol about an upcoming police raid and is eventually able to have Charles arrested. Tearfully but still incognito, Edythe then gives her blessing for Carol and Bruce to be married. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Fugitive in the Sky closely resembles such earlier aviation programmers as 13 Hours by Air and Absolute Quiet. Once again, a plane-load of diverse passengers is hijacked by a fugitive criminal, who this time forces the plane to land during a dust storm. This incident opens a whole new can of worms concerning a still-unsolved murder case, which seemingly involves everyone on the plane. The carefully disguised killer is revealed in a devilishly clever (and cinematically inventive) manner, though the identity of this worthy is inadvertently tipped off in the opening credits. This is the sort of "good, little picture" which, once seen in childhood, is never forgotten. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Exiled to Shanghai uses the then-waging wars in Spain and China as backdrops for a familiar "rival reporters" yarn. Wallace Ford plays Ted Young, a brash newsreel cameraman who is fired by his dyspeptic editor Fred Sears (Dean Jagger) for photographing the wrong general during the Spanish Civil War. Down but not out, Ted embraces a new form of technology, establishing the first television newsreel service (and this was two years before commercial TV made its "official" American debut at the New York World's Fair). As a result, Ted is rehired and promoted to editor, while poor Fred ends up being transferred to China (hence the film's title). While all this is going on, Ted and Fred still find time to battle over heroine Nancy Jones (June Travis). A pretty good film on its own merits, Exiled to Shanghai has gained curiosity value by virtue of its use of TV journalism as a dramatic device. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi