Jon Hall Movies

After wrapping up his last case in Egypt, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) heads to Shanghai for a well-deserved rest. It isn't long, however, before Chan has been summoned by the local constabulary to help smash an international dope ring. He is aided by erudite American intelligence agent James Andrews (Russell Hicks) and to a lesser extent by his overeager Number-One-Son Lee Chan (Keye Luke). The film is structured more like a serial than a mystery, with Chan and his friends escaping death and/or abduction at every turn. Only after rounding up the smugglers does Charlie reveal the well-concealed identity of the criminal mastermind behind it all. The nominal romantic lead is played by Charles Locher, who went on to greater fame as Jon Hall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Former pony express riders John Blair (John Wayne) and Larry Adams (Lane Chandler) don't buy the Brooklyn Bridge in this Republic Western, but the two greenhorns instead purchase a dilapidated stage line to a ghost town. While the unscrupulous seller, "Honest Cal" Drake (Douglas Cosgrove), count his loot, John and Larry learn that Crescent City is inhabited by Rocky (Lew Kelly), who claims to be mayor, postmaster, and sheriff, and Dr. William Forsythe (Sam Flint), a fellow victim of the duplicitous Drake. But despite its current condition, Crescent City has rich potential, especially if the newcomers can obtain a $25,000 government mail subsidy, the winner of which will be determined by a stagecoach race between nearby Buchanan City and Sacramento. Winds of the Wasteland was filmed on location in the Sierra Mountains and in the Sacramento Valley. Watch for future Universal star Jon Hall as one of John Wayne's pony express colleagues. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Lad and the Lion, which had been filmed previously in 1917, this ersatz-Tarzan melodrama shifts the scene from Darkest Africa to the Arabian Desert. The treacherous Sheik Youssef Ab-Dur (Ted Adams) kills an entire expedition and among the slain is Sir Ronald Chatham (Eric Snowden). Unbeknownst to the sheik, Sir Ronald's young son (Bobby Fairy) is saved from the attack by Sherrifa (Finis Barton) and given to a kindhearted desert mystic, Hassan El Dinh (Richard Carlyle). A young adult and now known far and wide as El L'ion, young Chatham (Jon Hall) goes in search of the villain who killed his father, falling in love along the way with the beautiful Eulilah (Kathleen Burke). The Lion Man was produced by Arthur Alexander for Normandy Pictures, a Poverty Row company otherwise engaged in producing cheap Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Framed in a flashback related by doctor Thomas Mitchell, The Hurricane is in essence the story of a struggle between individual freedom and colonial oppression. Jon Hall plays Terangi, a tempestuous native of the French-controlled island of Manakoora. After marrying childhood sweetheart Marama (Dorothy Lamour, saronged as usual), Terangi takes a job on a ship. While docked in Tahiti, Teragni is goaded into a fight by a white man-an offense punishable by a stiff prison term. French governor DeLaage (Raymond Massey) has nothing personal against the native, but he is dedicated to upholding the strict letter of the law. Even the appeals made on behalf of Terangi by doctor Mitchell, priest C. Aubrey Smith, ship's captain Jerome Cowan and the governor's own wife (Mary Astor) fail to weaken DeLaage's resolve to do his duty. Thus begins a chain of events that entangles the freedom-loving Terangi in the impenetable web of white "justice". Time and again Terangi escapes from prison, only to be recaptured and sentenced to longer and longer terms. Finally managing to make his way back to Manakoora -- and killing a prison guard in the process -- Terangi continues to be doggedly pursued by DeLaage. Just as Terangi is about to sail off to parts unknown in an outrigger canoe with Marama and their child, the hurricane begins. At the risk of his own life, and his freedom, Terangi rescue DeLaage's wife and several other storm refugees. Largely the handiwork of art director James Basevi, the hurricane of The Hurricane was not directed by the film's official helmsman John Ford, but by an uncredited Stuart Heisler -- a fact readily acknowledged by Ford. Adapted by Dudley Nichols and Oliver H. P. Garrett from a novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, The Hurricane was poorly remade in 1979 with Jason Robards and Mia Farrow in the Raymond Massey and Mary Astor roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beefcake star Jon Hall shows off his sleek physique in the exotic melodrama South of Pago Pago. The son of an island chieftan, young Kehane (Hall) defiantly opposes the efforts by crooked pearl hunter Bucko Larson (Victor McLaglen) to invade his domain. Larson and his minions hope to dissuade our hero by introducing him to seductive Ruby (Frances Farmer), who lures Kehane away from his childhood sweetheart Malia (Olympe Bradna). But Ruby turns honest at the last moment, saving Kehane's life at the expense of her own. Originally released by United Artists, this Edward Small production later made the revival-house rounds through the distribution channels of PRC Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The sailor in this entertaining 20th Century-Fox programmer is Danny Malone (Jon Hall), while the lady is Sally Gilroy (Claire Trevor). Danny's impending marriage to Sally is put on the back burner when she is put in charge of an orphaned baby (Bruce Hampton, playing a girl!) During naval maneuvers, the infant is accidentally deposited on board Danny's ship. Chaos reigns supreme until Danny hits upon a way to set things right. But before this mess can be cleared up, Danny and Sally will have to be reunited, something that their cast-off sweethearts Georgine (Katherine Aldridge) and Rodney (Larry "Buster" Crabbe) would like to prevent. Written by Lt. Commander Frank "Spig" Wead (of Wings of Eagle) fame, Sailor's Lady boasts one of the most impressive casts ever seen in a mere B picture, including Joan Davis, Wally Vernon, Dana Andrews, Don "Red" Barry, Kane Richmond, Ward Bond, Peggy Ryan, Barbara Pepper, Marie Blake (Jeanette MacDonald's sister) and George O'Hanlon (old "Joe McDoakes" himself). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Universal's "Invisible Man" series does its bit for the war effort in this slyly tongue-in-cheek action melodrama. Jon Hall stars as Frank Raymond, grandson of the man who invented the invisibility formula several pictures back. When Nazi agents try to coerce the secret formula out of Raymond, he eludes them by becoming transparent himself. Shortly afterward, the US government parachutes Raymond behind enemy lines, reasoning that an invisible counterespionage agent would be an invaluable tool in defeating the Axis. He is aided and abetted by the beautiful Maria Sorenson (Ilona Massey), who may or may not be in league with villains Helser (J. Edward Bromberg in a scene-stealing turn), Stauffer (Cedric Hardwicke) and Japanese spy Ikito (Peter Lorre). As was always the case in Universal's mid-1940s fantasies, David Horsley's special effects work in Invisible Agent is absolutely first-rate, with some truly eye-popping moments. Incidentally, this is the film in which an elderly victim of Nazi persecution moans "I can't sign? I can't sign? You have broken my fingers!" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a harem in a Middle Eastern palace, the guardian leads the women he protects in telling the tale of Halroun-Al-Raschid (Jon Hall), the Caliph of Bagdad, who found himself an enemy close to home in the form of his half-brother Kamar (Leif Erickson), who was ineligible for the throne because of his mother's having been a slave. Halroun and his followers initially put down Kamar's attempt at usurpation, until Halroun's ambitious vizier Nadan (Edgar Barrier) changes sides. In the confusion of the ensuing battle, Halroun is wounded -- spotted by the young acrobat Ali (Sabu), he is sheltered by a group of traveling players led by Ahmad (Billy Gilbert), whose ranks also include a player and storyteller (and, if he is to be believed, former sailor) named Sinbad (Shemp Howard) and a man named Aladdin (John Qualen) who is searching for a magic lamp -- and a dancer named Scheherazade (Maria Montez), who had beguiled Kamar and welcomes his ascent to the throne, because she has been told that she is destined to marry a king. She loves the wounded man in her care, whose identity she doesn't know, but is intent on marrying Kamar, now that he is Caliph. But her plans are thwarted by Nadan, who wants no competition from her in his sway over Kamar, and has arranged to have her killed; but when an avaricious officer (Turhan Bey)instead sells her and the entire performing troup to a dishonest slave trader (Thomas Gomez). From that moment, complications ensue for all concerned, as the new Caliph goes after his beloved, the deposed king Halroun tries to protect her and regain his throne, and Nadan hopes to come out sitting on the throne himself. Treachery and narrow escapes, and even a few thwarted plans ensue on all sides as the hero Haroun has to watch out for Scheherazade and himself from several sides at once, all while keeping his identity from her. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The general perception of the Technicolor costume adventure movies that Maria Montez and Jon Hall made for Universal in the early 1940's is that they were pure escapist entertainment, intended to make people forget for an hour or so about the Second World War and the general world situation. And generally that is true about them -- they were mostly no "about" much more than having fun for 90 minutes or so amid pretty sets with lots of action and some pretty women in exotic outfits. But watching Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, one has to wonder if even here the screenwriter, Edmund L. Hartmann, was able to totally get away from the day-to-day reality around him. The opening Mongol invasion of Bagdad and the murder of the old Caliph (Moroni Olsen) while trying to set up a government-in-exile without thinking of the German and Japanese conquests and occupations of various nations that would have been going on at the time; additionally, the fact that the old Caliph is murdered with the help of a traitor in his own noble ranks -- a "quisling" in the term coined during World War II -- wouldn't have been missed by audiences at the time. Further, the screenplay very specifically paints the forty thieves as heroes who have gone from being criminals to an active resistance force against the occupying Mongols -- indeed, at the denouement, their invasion of the palace is greeted as a day of liberation by the people of Bagdad. The movie walks a strange tightrope, casting about veiled topical references of that sort, even as is otherwise sufficiently tongue-in-cheek to cast Andy Devine as a desert bandit. Obviously, Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves was sold as -- and mostly intended as -- light entertainment, but just below that glitzy Technicolor surface were some fascinating allusions to the real world. None of this stops Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves from being immense fun -- it is, even if the "fun" isn't totally escapist in nature -- and it's great to look at as well, even 60 years on; Universal has apparently kept preservation-quality source materials on this and Hall and Montez's other Technicolor costume romps. And this particular entry in that group of movies also contains one very instructive clue to the morays and censorship of the time in one scene, in which the hero meets the heroine bathing at an oasis -- the makers seem to have been forced to insert a particular shot that is there for no other reason then to make it clear that she is not totally naked when he sees her. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

On the eve of her wedding to Ramu (Jon Hall), the beautiful Tollea (Maria Montez) is spirited away from her tranquil South Sea island to the mysterious, forbidden place of her birth, Cobra Island. Ramu follows and, with help from his young-but-not-too-bright friend Kado (Sabu) and their chimp Coco, manages to land on the island and avoid capture, which would mean death. It turns out that Tollea is the rightful high priestess of Cobra Island, the first born of two twin daughters of the earlier priestess. Tollea was not immune to the venom of the king cobra, however, so she was spirited away from the island as an infant to avoid her unnecessary death. Now her grandmother, the Queen (Mary Nash), has secured her return. Tollea's twin sister, Naja (also played by Montez), has turned cruel, greedy, and ambitious, and is killing, torturing, and tormenting her people and perverting their religion; Naja must be deposed, hopefully before the volcano on the far side of the island registers too loud an objection to her blasphemies. But Naja -- who is wanton enough to want Ramu for her own pleasure -- and her confederate, the evil, ambitious Martok (Edgar Barrier), don't plan on leaving quietly.

Meanwhile, Ramu has to keep himself and Kado alive and decide if he's willing to give up the woman that he loves so that she can save her people; Tollea must choose between love and duty, fate and her birthright. One of the most ridiculously and unselfconsciously campy costume adventure movies of its era, Cobra Woman was apparently a lot of fun to work on and a relief from the reality of the Second World War for audiences in 1944. The script, co-authored by Richard Brooks a long time before he wrote The Brick Foxhole, much less directed Blackboard Jungle or made In Cold Blood or Lord Jim, is incredibly sloppy, the mix of harem dancers and ridiculous prop snakes is bizarre, and some of the worst choreography of its era doesn't help -- and yet it all hangs together, somehow, as entertainment. Director Robert Siodmak reportedly liked it, and as a refugee from the Nazis, working on it still beat the fate he'd fled in Germany. The movie is also alleged to be the primary inspiration for Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures -- which starred female impersonator Mario Montez -- and looking at it in the 21st century, one wonders if it was ever seen by Edward D. Wood Jr.; not only does the production sort of anticipate (albeit on a much higher level and budget) his work in the adventure genre, but the script seems to contain the essence of inept moments that he would elevate to an art of sorts. And one can just imagine Wood, as a young marine recruit, watching Cobra Woman eagerly and "learning" all the wrong lessons from its writing and production. But, like the best of Wood's movies -- only more so -- Cobra Woman is still great fun of the "guilty pleasure" sort. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this swashbuckler, a princess is raised by gypsies and becomes their queen. The trouble really begins when a count is murdered and the evil, ambitious baron who really did it blames the crime on the gypsies. The baron's messenger knows the truth and tries to prove it. When he notices that the gypsy queen is wearing a pendant bearing the slain count's crest, he reveals her true identity--the count's estranged sister and heir to the throne. The messenger then accuses the baron of the death. The baron has him thrown into the same dungeon as the gypsies and together they team up and escape. Meanwhile the gypsy girl, who has finally promised to marry the wicked baron in exchange for her clan's freedom, is kidnapped by the baron. The gallant messenger rescues her, kills the baron, and gets to marry the young queen. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Freely adapted from a successful Broadway musical by Moss Hart, this story stars Ginger Rogers as Liza Elliott, the editor of a popular fashion magazine. Despite her beauty, wealth, and success in business, Liza is unhappy and out of sorts. And while three men are vying for her affections -- advertising director Charley Johnson (Ray Milland), newly single Kendall Nesbitt (Warner Baxter), and youthful and handsome Randy Curtis (Jon Hall) -- Liza has been unlucky in love, and she feels that she's come to the end of her emotional rope. She begins seeing Dr. Brooks (Barry Sullivan) in hopes of resolving her emotional crises and finding happiness, and her self-searching explorations of her past take the form of a handful of musical numbers. While the stage version of Lady in the Dark featured songs written by the estimable team of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin, several of them were replaced for this screen adaptation; "The Saga of Jenny", "One Life to Love", and "Girl of the Moment" were the most notable among the Weill/Gershwin tunes that survived the editing process. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In another of her series of romantic desert adventures, popular actress Maria Montez is this time Naila, the newly crowned queen of an ancient Egyptian land. Her father the king has just been assassinated and she intends to make those responsible pay for their crime. She sets out into the desert to find the killer herself -- little does Naila know that her "loyal" assistant Horadef (George Zucco) may be working against her, for he has designs on the throne for himself. John Hall plays a secondary role as Merab, an adventurer who shows up in the titular region with his comic-relief pal Nebka (Andy Devine), and the two help Naila, totally unaware that she is the queen. The romantic lead this time out is Herua (Turhan Bey), a rebel leader opposed to the despotic Horadef. The villain has Naila under his evil influence, but this state of affairs comes to an end when she falls in love with the charismatic rebel. The climax, wherein Horadef and his invading hordes are caught in a cleverly rigged death trap, is the film's highlight. As usual, Maria Montez plays her rather ridiculous role in Sudan with the determined seriousness of a Lady Macbeth, which only adds to the giddy fun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide