Gordon Kahn Movies
American author Gordon Kahn was best known for such breezy works as 1932's Manhattan Oases: New York's 1932 Speakeasies when he inaugurated his Hollywood screenwriting career. Most of Kahn's film work was unremarkable: Death Kiss (1933), Newsboy's Home (1939), World Premiere (1941) and Buy Me That Town (1941) were perhaps the best of this indifferent lot. But though he was hardly in the front ranks of Hollywood's talent pool, Kahn managed to make his mark in other ways. An avowed communist, he helped organize such reactionary groups as the League of American Writers. From 1945 to 1947, Kahn and fellow leftist Dalton Trumbo edited "The Screen Writer," the house organ of the Screen Writers' Guild, which Kahn helped formulate in the 1930s. When the House UnAmerican Activities Committee began its anti-Red investigations in 1947, Kahn promptly lost his job at Warner Bros. As one of the "Hollywood 19," he was subpoenaed and brought to Washington by the HUAC as an unfriendly witness. When the "19" was whittled down to ten, Kahn, who was never called to testify before the Committee, worked on the sidelines on behalf of his colleagues, even though his influence in Tinseltown's Left Wing had dramatically diminished. In 1948, he published the first book-length history of the HUAC hearings, Hollywood on Trial, which boasted a foreword by Thomas Mann (the book was reprinted on a mass-market basis in 1972). During the second HUAC hearings in 1951, which by all accounts were far more brutal and demoralizing than the first hearings, Gordon Kahn moved to Mexico rather than face another subpoena. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1949
No relation to the 1970s TV series of the same name, Republic's Streets of San Francisco stars Hollywood veterans Robert Armstrong and Mae Clarke. Armstrong plays Willard Logan, a tough Frisco detective who is forced to killer a gangster leader. Logan takes pity on the gangster's orphaned son Frankie (Gary Gray), despite the fact that the boy despises all cops with a passion. Gradually, Frankie responds to the kindnesses extended by Logan and his wife Hazel (Mae Clarke). Sentiment gives way to melodrama in the final reel, when Frankie is kidnapped by his father's mob and nearly strong-armed into a life of crime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Armstrong, Mae Clarke, (more)
Sharkishly handsome Zachary Scott is right in his element in the Eagle-Lion melodrama Ruthless. Told in flashback, this is the story of the rise and fall of unscrupulous financier Horace Vendig (Scott). Hiding behind a veneer of respectability, Vendig steps on and rolls over anyone who stands in his way, including his lifelong friend Vic Lambdin (Louis Hayward), utilities executive Buck Mansfield (Sydney Greenstreet) and various and sundry women, among them Susan Duane (Martha Vickers) and Christine Mansfield (Lucille Bremer). Poor Diana Lynn is subjected to Vendig's cruelties twice, in the dual role of Martha Burnside and Mallory Flagg. It is a tribute to the acting skills of Zachary Scott that he makes his despicable character somehow likeable and, in the end, rather pathetic. Based on a novel by Dayton Stoddart, Ruthless, like many Eagle-Lion films of its period, was topheavy with loaned-out Warner Bros. contract players. It was also one of the few big-budgeted projects helmed by "cult" director Edgar G. Ulmer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zachary Scott, Joyce Arling, (more)
- 1948
In this drama, a California artist abandons his work to become a New York prizefighter after he falls in love with a married nightclub singer. Her husband was a fighter, but suffered a crippling accident in the ring and was unable to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming the world champion. The husband decides to live out his dream through the artist and begins tutoring him. Things go well until the hubby discovers that the artist has been sleeping with his wife. He then begins giving the artist bad advice so he will get creamed in the ring. Fortunately for the artist, he wins the Big Fight. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dane Clark, Alexis Smith, (more)
- 1946
This Warner Bros. programmer stars Dane Clark as Prohibition-era columnist Don Corwin and Janis Paige as speakeasy singer Georgia King. Corwin is in love with Georgia, but she has promised herself to disreputable gambler/gangster Steve Maddux (Zachary Scott). With the repeal of Prohibition, Maddux's high-rolling days come to an abrupt end, leaving poor Georgia high and dry. But through it all, Corwin has remained faithful and true-blue. The film scores on a nostalgic level, with its colorful recreation of the Roaring 20s and its denizens. Otherwise, Her Kind of Man is rather tame stuff, with the stars looking somewhat ill at ease with their roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dane Clark, Janis Paige, (more)
- 1946
Martha O'Driscoll fills the title role quite nicely in Blonde Alibi. The plot of this rapid-fire programmer involves a murder. Aviator Tom Neal is accused of the crime, thanks to the idiotic intervention of absent-minded professor Samuel S. Hinds. It is up to O'Driscoll, Neal's secretary, to prove that her boss is innocent (Universal Pictures would later retool this plotline for their above-average "film noir" Phantom Lady). Ironically, the career of Blonde Alibi co-star Tom Neal would come to an end when, in 1965, he killed his real-life wife Gail Evatt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martha O'Driscoll, Tom Neal, (more)
Roy Rogers saves Dale Evans from being hoodwinked by a rodeo competitor in this pleasant, and pleasantly tuneful, B-Western from Republic Pictures. Due to the mismanagement of old-timer Gabby Whittaker (George "Gabby" Hayes), The Brooks Rodeo is about to be gobbled up by competitor Frank Madden (Richard Powers aka Tom Keene), who also has designs on pretty owner Marjorie Brooks (Evans) herself. But when Gabby hires Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers as the new headliners, Madden and his henchman Ken Ferguson (Roy Barcroft) are forced to commit a bit of sabotage. With the aid of Trigger, "The Smartest Horse in the Movies," and radio announcer Marty Maizely (Lloyd Corrigan), Roy and Gabby manage to the goods on Ferguson and prevent Marjorie from marrying the sleazy Madden. Featuring early silent screen star Claire Du Brey as Dale Evans' faithful housekeeper, Lights of Old Santa Fe also presents such pleasant musical divertissements as Jack Elliott's title tune, Tim Spencer's "Trigger Hasn't Got a Pretty Figger", "I'm a Happy Guy in My Levi's Britches" and "Cowpoke Polka", and Ricardo Lopez Mendez' "Amor". The latter is performed by Dale Evans in both English and Spanish versions. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, (more)
- 1944
Yet another tuneful Roy Rogers Western named after a song, The Cowboy and the Senorita features Roy and sidekick Teddy Bear (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) as a couple of would-be prospectors fired from a small town café when the latter gets in trouble with an irate customer (rotund Ferdinand Munier). At the nearby town of Bonanza, the two friends find themselves falsely accused of kidnapping young Chip Williams (Mary Lee), who is actually a runaway. Having befriended both her girl and her half-sister Isabel Martinez (Dale Evans), Roy and Teddy Bear manage to solve the riddle of a treasure hidden in a supposedly worthless mine despite the sabotaging efforts of smooth tycoon Craig Allen (John Hubbard). In between the Western shenanigans, Rogers joins Lee, Evans, the Sons of the Pioneers, and such guest artists as the dance team of Jane Beebe and Ben Rochelle in no less than five musical numbers, including the title tune and a delightful rendition of Ned Washington and Phil Ohman's "What'll I Use for Money." Spanky McFarland, of Our Gang fame, has a funny silent bit in the opening scene. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers, Mary Lee, (more)
- 1944
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans weren't yet husband and wife when they co-starred in Song of Nevada, but the rapport and chemistry is already very much in evidence. Roy befriends millionaire Thurston Hall, who was believed to have been killed in a plane crash. Hall hires Rogers to "tame" his snooty, citified daughter Evans, who has come West to take over her dad's ranch. Yes, it's Taming of the Shrew on the prairie, and it's every bit as enjoyable as its Shakespearean predecessor. Songs include such deathless gems as "The Harum Scarum Baron of the Harmonium." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, (more)
- 1942
In this North western, Indians orphan two boys who are then raised by a Mountie. The boys are different as night and day: one wants to be a Mountie; the other is drawn to gambler. During one unprofitable outing the gambler swears vengeance upon the crooked proprietor of the local casino. Years pass, and the gambler returns to town with his friend, now a Mountie. Again he returns to the gambling establishment to play roulette. There he kills two people forcing his life-long friend to arrest him. The gambler resists and a gun battle ensues. The gambler is killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Craig, William Lundigan, (more)
- 1942
Mercenary taxi driver Joe Tracy (Barry Nelson) is the Yank on the Burma Road in this MGM second feature. For strictly monetary reasons, Joe agrees to shepherd a caravan of medical supplies through Burma and into China. Going along for the ride is Gail Farwood (Laraine Day), who'd been stranded in Burma without passport when the Japanese invaded the country. Ultimately, Joe's patriotism takes precedence over his greed, and he begins striking back at any and all enemy soldiers with a vengeance. The hero's conversion takes place in a scene obviously added after the film's completion: hastily reading a letter from home, Joe mutters "So they bombed Pearl Harbor, did they?" Shoehorned in though it may have been, this little scene turned out to be the very first mention of Pearl Harbor in any American feature film, earning A Yank on the Burma Road a niche in the overall history of the cinema. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laraine Day, Barry Nelson, (more)
A producer devises an elaborate gala premiere for his latest anti-Nazi propaganda epic, The Earth in Flames. It is slated to open in Washington, D.C. and he has his press agents working overtime to produce an enormous hoopla of secrecy and publicity stunts. They come up with the plan of hiring a trio of "spies" who are to send disturbing threats just before the showing to put the audience on edge. Unfortunately, three real agents are trying to exchange the print of the new film with a pro-Nazi propaganda film. These fellows try hard, but they prove to be bungling idiots of espionage and their botched attempts provide most of the fun. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Barrymore, Frances Farmer, (more)
- 1941
A gangster and his mob buy a small-town in this warm comedy. They, tired of trying to make it as big city hoods, buy the town to use as a hideout. The leader of the gang begins to have a change of heart after he begins falling for a local girl. He decides to use the "protection money" his gang has been pocketing to benefit the townsfolk. This feels good to the tough and thug-like gangsters who begin embracing the ideals of good citizenship in favor of a life of crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Nolan, Constance Moore, (more)
- 1940
In this crime drama, a brilliant lawyer is renowned for getting guilty-as-sin-but-powerful crime figures acquitted. He has never lost a case until he defends an innocent man. The hapless client ends up imprisoned and executed for killing a policeman. The loss traumatizes the lawyer and compels him to use his talents to bring the crooks to justice. He later becomes a district attorney and gets to prosecute a major crime lord. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Lowe, Rose Hobart, (more)
- 1939
The "Little Tough Guys" get involved in a circulation war between a paper with underhanded tactics and a paper being mismanaged by the woman who inherited it. The Tough Guys' leader is partial to the latter, since it took him in when his sheriff father was murdered. He helps draw readers away from the other paper and gets to avenge his father's death, since the man playing dirty is his father's killer. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Cooper, Edmund Lowe, (more)
- 1939
In this heartwarming drama, a crook endeavors to raise his son in the slums until he kills a teller during a bank robbery. At first he sends the lad to his grandma, but when government agents threaten to catch him, he grabs the kid and hightails it. They high-jack a school bus filled with children and accidently run it into a snowdrift. The honorable son refuses to leave the freezing children and finally, the father goes out in search of help. Unfortunately, he is shot. The young man is then left to save the children. He does so by building a campfire, and thereby, becomes a hero. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Cabot, Ralph Byrd, (more)
- 1939
Stalwart Republic contractee Ralph Byrd wades through a sea of stock footage in SOS-Tidal Wave. Byrd is cast as Jeff Shannon, a hotshot television commentator who goes after a corrupt political machine. When Shannon refuses to be dissuaded by bribes or threats, the villains promise dire consequences for his wife Laurel (Kay Sutton) and son Buddy (Mickey Kuhn) if he doesn't lay off. As a last-ditch measure, the head crook (Marc Lawrence) uses TV technology to scare away voters on election day by faking a devastating tidal wave which supposedly engulfs the city. The spectacularly soggy special-effects climax of SOS-Tidal Wave was lifted in toto from the 1933 fantasy feature Deluge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Byrd, George Barbier, (more)
- 1939
In this boxing drama, an ex-champ finds himself working as a doorman at a nightclub. His son aspires to a high caliber career on Wall Street; he is getting ready to marry a banker's daughter. When not working at the club, the boxer trains a welterweight with championship potential. Later the son gets caught embezzling funds. To help him pay it back the boxer asks that his trainee throw his next fight while he bets everything on the opponent. The young fighter refuses to take a dive and wins the fight. Fortunately, the ex-champ's assistant knew this and bet even more money on their protegee. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor McLaglen, Tom Brown, (more)
- 1938
This drama chronicles the different paths taken by former partners in law. One of them, an avaricious attorney who will stop at nothing to find success, becomes a lawyer for the mob. His dreams are soon realized, but their achievement cost him his marriage, family and partner. Meanwhile his ex-associate becomes assistant DA. The two lawyers must then go head-to-head in court. Despite his best efforts, the honest lawyer cannot win a case against his former partner until the dishonest lawyer comes clean and provides him with the much needed incriminating evidence to destroy the gangsters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Cummings, Helen Mack, (more)
- 1938
In this drama, a 12-year-old boy becomes an orphan after seeing a detective shoot his father. Later the detective feels bad and offers to become his friend, but his intentions are not entirely honorable as the detective really wants to know the location of the loot his father stashed during a robbery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Cabot, Beverly Roberts, (more)
- 1938
Veteran character actors Mary Boland and Ernest Truex are aces as the stars of Republic's Mama Runs Wild. "Mama" is social-climbing Alice Summers (Boland), the wife of milquetoast Calvin Summers (Truex). When Alice accidentally causes the arrest of a bank robber, she becomes a local heroine and mayoral candidate. But when she begins to lobby for the closing of a local tavern, the opposition party picks its own candidate -- Calvin. The ending is at once satisfying in the true "worm turns" tradition, and heartwarming in that it demonstrates the deep abiding love the Summerses have for one another. Though clearly inspired by Paramount's popular Mary Boland-Charlie Ruggles vehicles, Mama Runs Wild delivers enough chuckles to stand on its own merits. The film was directed by Ralph Staub, the guiding force behind Columbia's "Screen Snapshots" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Boland, Ernest Truex, (more)
- 1937
In this romantic adventure, a wealthy Arab sheik has a reputation for breeding some of the fastest horses in the world. Meanwhile, the spoiled daughter of a corkscrew magnate bets her British betrothed that she can find a horse that can beat any nag in his stable. She and her father then set out for Arabia to find the famous sheik. They are accompanied by her eccentric aunt and ill-mannered cousin. The Americans are classically ugly in their attitudes and when they meet the traditionally garbed sheik, they mistake him for a mere porter and desert guide. To get his revenge and teach the brutish Americans something about cultural sensitivity, he kidnaps the girl and then leaves her alone in the desert. To add insult to injury, he later grabs her off the alter during her wedding and marries her himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ramon Novarro, Lola Lane, (more)
- 1937
A tough sailor bets his pals that he can win the love of a prissy librarian and so masquerades as a candidate for the Naval Academy to catch her eye. Unfortunately for him, she is not so easily fooled. He immediately changes his story and "admits" that he is actually a Navy spy. Enemy spies, who have come to assassinate a visiting ambassador, over hear this and kidnap both the sailor and the librarian. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Purcell, Mary Brian, (more)
- 1935
Preston S. Foster is the "hero" of The People's Enemy only in the sense that his is the largest male role. Foster plays a detestable gangster who works his way up to millionaire status. To gain a veneer of respectability, he marries lovely Lila Lee. But when the going gets rough, he deserts both his wife and his young daughter (Sybil Elaine). Upon Foster's arrest, noble and upright Melvyn Douglas is on hand to comfort Lee and her child. The People's Enemy was independently financed by Select Productions and released through RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Preston S. Foster, Lila Lee, (more)
- 1935
In this romance, set during the Great Depression, an impoverished socialite is forced to work by her financial situation. She gets a job working as a hostess at Club HeeHaw. How degrading! It gets worse for her when her boss promotes her to "gigolette" in his posh club Casino de Monaco. Her boyfriend is appalled, and the romance threatens to fall apart. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrienne Ames, Ralph Bellamy, (more)
- 1934
Although it is included in TV's "Shock Theater" passage, there's nothing overtly frightening about the heavily plotted Universal melodrama The Crosby Case. Even while the opening credits are rolling, the audience is introduced to the five main suspects in the murder of a certain Mr. Crosby. Police inspector Thomas (Alan Dinehart) believes that Lynn Ashton (Wynne Gibson), an ex-lover of the victim, is the most likely suspect, though the audience is encouraged not to discount the elderly, seemingly frail Lubeck (Edward Van Sloan), oafish thief Collins (Warren Hymer), heavily-in-debt gambler Willie (John Wray), or even avuncular nightclub doorman Costello (J. Farrell McDonald). The story is a mosaic of flashbacks and flat cuts, the sort that would be hailed as "new" and "innovational" when Citizen Kane was released seven years later. Like RKO Radio's unrelated Ann Vickers, The Crosby Case has gained latter-day fame (or notoriety) with its subtle allusions to an illegal abortion. And yes, that is Walter Brennan in the ship's-stateroom scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wynne Gibson, Onslow Stevens, (more)
