Richard Lane Movies
A repertory actor since childhood, Wisconsin-born Richard Lane was singing and dancing in vaudeville by the time he reached his thirteenth birthday. Lane toured europe with a circus "iron jaw" act, then bluffed his way into a dance band job. After more vaudeville work, Lane began securing "legit" gigs on Broadway. He appeared with Al Jolson in the late-'20s musical Big Boy, and was a headliner with George White's Scandals when he was signed to an RKO movie contract in 1937. While at RKO, Lane developed his standard characterization of a fast-talking sharpster, which secured him a recurring role on Al Pearce's popular radio program. He played a variety of detectives, con artists and travelling salesmen throughout the '40s, most often at 20th Century-Fox, Universal and Columbia. He was featured in several Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy comedies during the decade, and costarred as Inspector Farraday in Columbia's Boston Blackie B-series; he also appeared in 11 Columbia 2-reel comedies, teamed with comic actor Gus Schilling. Though most closely associated with breezy, urban characters, Lane was also effective in slow-and-steady dramatic roles, notably the father in the 1940 sleeper The Biscuit Eater and baseball manager Clay Hopper in 1950's The Jackie Robinson Story. A television pioneer, Lane worked at Los Angeles' KTLA-TV as a newsman, sportscaster and used-car pitchman. For over twenty years, he was the mile-a-minute commentator on KTLA's nationally syndicated wrestling and roller derby matches. Significantly, Richard Lane's last screen appearances were in Raquel Welch's roller-derby epic Kansas City Bomber (1978) and Henry Winkler's pro-wrestling spoof The One and Only (1982). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1981
- R
Director Robert Aldrich's last film, All the Marbles stars Peter Falk as a "win-at-all-costs" type manager of a ladies tag-team wrestling combo. These girls are good and Falk wants them great. And he doesn't really care what they've got to do to get there. (This film's "R" rating is not for Raunchy, but it could be for "Revealing.") Following sort of a Rocky theme, this film finds our ladies tag team climbing its way to the top of the women's wrestling world where they face off against the world's best. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Vicki Frederick, (more)
- 1946
In this episode of the popular mystery series, the crook turned sleuth must clear his name after he is accused of murder. To help him, Blackie enlists the aid of his pal. Together they reveal the real murderer before the Inspector can put Blackie back in jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chester Morris, Lynn Merrick, (more)
- 1941
The girl is stenographer Dot Duncan (Lucille Ball); the guy is her boss, stuffy young shipping magnate Stephen Herrick (Edmond O'Brien); and the gob is a brash sailor known as Coffee Cup (George Murphy). Not surprisingly, the plot involves the efforts by the self-effacing Stephen and the self-confident Coffee Cup to woo and win the lovely Dot. And that's about all the "story" there is; the rest of the picture is jam-packed with round-robin comic misunderstandings and wild slapstick setpieces. A Girl, a Guy and a Gob was one of two RKO Radio films produced by silent-screen great Harold Lloyd, who reportedly dropped in on the set from time to time to offer a bit of sage comedy advice (note the "handkerchief" bit utlized by Edmond O'Brien; it had previously done service in Lloyd's own Welcome Danger). Not as big a moneymaker as Harold's starring features of the 1920s, the RKO film nonetheless turned a tidy profit for the studio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Murphy, Edmond O'Brien, (more)
- 1944
Released by Monogram, A WAVE, a WAC and a Marine was packaged by Biltmore Productions, a partnership consisting of Abbott and Costello's agent Eddie Sherman and Lou Costello's father Sebastian Cristillo. Though Elyse Knox, Sally Eilers and Ann Gillis head the cast, the film is a showcase for nightclub comedian Henny Youngman, here cast as a Hollywood agent named (what else?) Henny. Sent out by his studio to sign up a pair of gorgeous Broadway stars (Ramsay Ames and Marjorie Woodworth) Henny signs the stars' understudies (Knox and Gillis) by mistake. Fortunately, the "substitutes" are every bit as talented as the real stars, and as a result are contracted to appear in a big-budget film, cast as the aforementioned WAVE and WAC (who's the Marine)? Henny Youngman's delivery was as sharp then as it is now, but he was undermined by substandard sound recording. More impressive was the first-time direction of former Universal production assistant Philip Karlstein, who went on to auteur fame as Phil Karlson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elyse Knox, Ramsay Ames, (more)
- 1942
Laurel & Hardy's second starring vehicle for 20th Century-Fox is arguably their weakest feature film, with the laughs few and far between. Broke as usual, the duo is given 24 hours to get out of town by the local constabulary. In dire need of travelling expenses, they take a job accompanying a coffin to Dayton, Ohio. Unbeknownst to our heroes, the coffin contains a live gangster: one Darby Mason (James Bush), who wants to get to Dayton to claim an inheritance without risking arrest by the Feds. Chugging towards their destination by train, Stan and Ollie lose their money to a pair of slick con artists but are bailed out by another passenger, Dante the Magician (played by "himself", aka Harry A. Janssen), who takes a liking to the boys and hires him as assistants for his magic act. It so happens that one of Dante's illusions involves a coffin -- and you guessed it, this coffin gets mixed up with the one bearing Darby Mason. Aside from a few slapstick contributions to Dante's stage act, Laurel & Hardy barely have any purpose in this picture at all: to paraphrase L&H buff Randy Skretvedt, the two comedians have been reduced to supporting players in their own film. A-Haunting We Will Go seemed much funnier when it was cut from 67 to 9 minutes and released to the 8-millimeter home movie market back in the mid-1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sheila Ryan
- 1943
In this entry in the "Boston Blackie" series, the reformed crook meets his former lover who tells him that her father has just been freed from prison and that he is heading out to a safe deposit box where he hid a sack of diamonds. The good daughter wants her father to return the rocks and reform and wants Blackie to help him. Unfortunately, the father is murded en route to the bank and the hapless detective is arrested for the crime. Following his escape, Blackie learns that the girl has been kidnapped by gangsters who want her to reveal the location of the valuable box. There is a major showdown in a local nightclub when Blackie bursts in on the mob. In the end, he stops the gang, saves the girl, and overcomes temptation and returns the jewels. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chester Morris, Richard Lane, (more)
On December 6, 1941, a squadron of nine B-17 bombers takes off for Hickam Field, HI. The crew of the Mary Ann, including two new men, assistant radio man Private Chester (Ray Montgomery) and gunner Sergeant Joe Winocki (John Garfield), assembles for the flight, and in the first 20 minutes, the movie reveals certain things about the crew: the shadowy past of one, the mother of another, and the wife of a third; two of them are good friends with the sister of McMartin (Arthur Kennedy), the bombardier, who lives in Honolulu; the son of the senior member of the crew, Sgt. White (Harry Carey Sr.), is a pilot stationed at Clark Field in the Philippines. Then more characters make entrances: the aircraft commander Quincannon (John Ridgely); Weinberg (George Tobias), a Jewish mechanic from New York; and a man from a farm in the upper Midwest -- they all represent a broad cross-section of America as it saw itself, and the "regular guys" in the Army Air Force as it existed in 1941. The flight proceeds without incident. Winocki, an embittered, washed-out flight school candidate who accidentally killed another pilot, is about to leave the service when the weather report from Hickam Field is interrupted, and the radio man begins picking up transmissions in Japanese. The Mary Ann and the rest of the squadron fly right into the middle of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor unarmed and out of gas, and nearly crack up landing on an emergency field; no sooner do they make repairs than the crew comes under attack, and the plane takes off and makes for Hickam Field, which they find a flaming shambles. They fly on to the Philippines, stopping at Wake Island just long enough to meet a few members of the doomed Marine garrison, taking their company mascot, a dog, with them. At Clark Field, the Mary Ann and her crew finally go into action against the enemy, flying in alone against a Japanese invasion force; Quincannon is mortally wounded in the brief action, which leaves the plane damaged seemingly beyond repair. The remaining crew won't give up the plane, however, even when ordered to abandon and destroy her; they get the bomber off just ahead of the advancing Japanese, and survive to help bring retribution to the invading fleet and the Japanese empire. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ridgely, Gig Young, (more)
- 1942
In this entry in the "Boston Blackie" series, the suave ex-thief returns to prison to see a Christmas show. There he is impressed by the talent of the inmates. One particularly talented fellow uses his magic act to break out of prison. Now Blackie must find him. Meanwhile the fugitive searches for his look-alike, the man who really committed the crime. Clever Blackie manages to catch them both and then insures that the real crook goes to jail while the innocent man goes free. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1944
This 20th Century-Fox programmer stars Preston Foster as breezy detective Steve Carromond. When a man dies of a suspicious heart attack, the victim's niece, Constance Martin (Ann Rutherford), hires Steve to investigate. The solution to the mystery lies in a tontine-like arrangement, wherein six WW1 vets have pooled their savings for a joint insurance policy, to be collected by the surviving veteran. Props essential to the action include a package of poisoned cigarettes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Preston S. Foster, Ann Rutherford, (more)
- 1938
A French sculptor travels to LA and, with the help of Ace the Wonder Dog, pretends to be blind so he can sneak into a museum and reclaim some missing love letters. The amorous missives were written by his sister and could destroy her reputation. Someone has been using them to blackmail her, so her brother steals them. Unfortunately, they get mixed up in some shipping crates and get sent to California with a bunch of his latest creations. When the crooks learn that the letters are there, they too head for LA making the bulk of this crime drama a race to find those letters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dix, Whitney Bourne, (more)
Clark Gable is "Big John" and Spencer Tracy is "Square John"; both "Johns" seek their fortunes in the Texas oil fields. They simultaneously fall in love with Claudette Colbert, but it's "Big John" who wins out. When both Johns grow rich on oil, "Big John" lets money go to his head, and he begins neglecting wife Colbert for Hedy Lamarr, the "been around" companion of businessman Lionel Atwill. "Square John", who still carries a torch for Colbert but doesn't want to see her heart broken, tries to buy off Lamarr; when this fails, he decides to ruin "Big John" financially. But when "Big John" is charged with violating anti-trust rules by the crooked Atwill, "Square John" rushes to the side of his old pal. Both men end up where they started--broke but happy. "Big John" returns to faithful Colbert, while "Square John" stands by with an ear-to-ear grin. Boom Town was the last film to co-star Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy; though Tracy was fond of Gable, he resented playing "eunuch" in their on-screen romantic triangles. Claudette Colbert's scenes with Clark Gable are pleasant enough, but the sparks that had ignited their scenes in It Happened One Night are largely absent here. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, (more)
- 1945
In this lively entry in the Boston Blackie mysteries, Blackie gets in trouble when he helps a friend auction off a first-edition Charles Dickens book and discovers that it was counterfeit. As a result of his involvement in the con, Blackie must clear himself after being accused of murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1942
Reformed criminal Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) and his pal "The Runt" (George E. Stone) obey the film's title and head for Tinseltown. Blackie has been asked by a friend to transport $60,000 to California, but the L.A. cops assume that he's involved in the disappearance of the valuable Monterey Diamond. As always, Blackie spends a goodly portion of his time in disguise, assuming the identity of a bearded foreigner. Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood was the fourth in Columbia's series of B-pictures based on Jack Boyle's pulp-fiction character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1946
This twelfth entry in Columbia's "Boston Blackie" series is essentially a remake of 1942's Alias Boston Blackie. In the original, a falsely accused convict (Larry Parks) escapes while Blackie (Chester Morris) is putting on a magic show for a men's prison, prompting Blackie to stop the escapee before he can kill the man who framed him. In the remake, Blackie stages yet another magic act, this time at a woman's prison. Sure enough, a female inmate (Constance Dowling) escapes, determined to wreak vengeance on the man who done her wrong. Implicated in the escape, Blackie manages to clear himself and to extract a recorded confession from the actual killer. In both the original and the remake, Chester Morris is given ample opportunity to show off his considerable skills as a magician. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chester Morris, Trudy Marshall, (more)
- 1949
In this final episode of the Boston Blackie mystery series, our hero and his side-kick find themselves accused of murder after they are seen exiting a Chinese laundry where the proprietor is soon found murdered. Blackie must find the real killers before he gets in real trouble. Action and mystery ensue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chester Morris, Joan Woodbury, (more)
- 1945
Boston Blackie's Rendezvous quite transcended its B-picture origins, and was easily the best of Columbia's "Boston Blackie" series. In this one, crook-turned-sleuth Blackie (Chester Morris) tries to track down homicidal maniac James Cook (Steve Cochran). This time it's personal: Cook has been committing a number of violent murders while posing as Blackie. Stuck in the middle is Sally Brown (Nina Foch), who is kidnapped by the villain so that Blackie will lay off. When asked in later years about Boston Blackie's Rendezvous, Nina Foch couldn't remember too many plot details, but did note with pride that costar Richard Lane (cast as Blackie's perennial nemesis Inspector Farraday) later became a prominent TV sportscaster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chester Morris, Nina Foch, (more)
- 1944
Two Bowery vaudevillians compete to be the first to produce shows on Broadway. They might be friends were they not so convinced that each has stolen ideas from the others. This bouncy musical chronicles their rivalry and the success they find after they finally team up. Unfortunately the success is short-lived when one of them suddenly departs to work for a beautiful woman. This time the feud erupts with a vengeance. Fortunately, their paths again cross and a happy ending follows. Songs include: "Just Because You Made Dem Goo Goo Eyes at Me", "There'll Always Be a Moon", "Coney Island Waltz", "Yippie-I-Addy-I-Ay", and "Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Montez, Jack Oakie, (more)
- 1944
Brazil is perhaps the best of the handful of American films made by Brazilian singing sensation Tito Guizar. In typical screwball-comedy fashion, the plot is set in motion by authoress Nicky Henderson (Virginia Bruce), who has hit the best-seller charts with her latest tome, Why Marry a Latin? While researching her next book in Rio De Janeiro, she finds out "why" when she meets handsome songwriter Miguel Soares (Guizar). Upon learning about Nicky's book, Miguel decides to teach her a few lessons in affairs of the heart. Edward Everett Horton is also on hand, twittering his way through the role of a well-meaning buttinsky. Thanks to the "Good Neighbor" policy of the 1940s, South American musicals were a glut on the market, but Brazil was good enough on its own merits to pay its way at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tito Guizar, Robert Livingston, (more)
Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant star in this inspired comedy about a madcap heiress with a pet leopard who meets an absent-minded paleontologist and unwittingly makes a fiasco of both their lives. David Huxley (Grant) is the stuffy paleontologist who needs to finish an exhibit on dinosaurs and thus land a $1 million grant for his museum. At a golf outing with his potential benefactors, Huxley is spotted by Susan Vance (Hepburn) who decides that she must have the reserved scientist at all costs. She uses her pet leopard, Baby, to trick him into driving to her Connecticut home, where a dog wanders into Huxley's room and steals the vital last bone that he needs to complete his project. The real trouble begins when another leopard escapes from the local zoo and Baby is mistaken for it, leading Huxley and Susan into a series of harebrained and increasingly more insane schemes to save the cat from the authorities. Inevitably, the two end up in the local jail, where things get even more out of hand: Susan pretends to be the gun moll to David's diabolical, supposedly wanted criminal. Naturally, the mismatched pair falls in love through all the lunacy. Director Howard Hawks delivers a funny, fast-paced, and offbeat story, enlivened by animated performances from the two leads, in what has become a definitive screwball comedy. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, (more)
Edward G. Robinson plays orchid-loving gangster Little John Sarto, who aspires to "real class." During a power struggle with usurping mobster Jack Buck (Humphrey Bogart), Sarto is taken for a one-way ride, but he escapes his would-be assassins and hides out in a monastery overseen by Brother Superior (Donald Crisp). Sarto insists that he'd like to become a monk himself, but in fact he's using the monastery as a hideout, the better to mount his counterattack against Buck. Eventually Sarto's resolve is weakened by the kindness of the monks, and he decides to turn over a new leaf. He sees to it that Buck is brought to justice, and also fixes up his true-blue "moll," Flo Addams (Ann Sothern), with good-hearted Texas rancher Clarence Fletcher (Ralph Bellamy). (News flash! Bellamy gets the girl for once!) Sarto, now known as "Brother Orchid," returns to the monastery for good, declaring that he's finally found the real class. Though Edward G. Robinson didn't want to play another gangster, he agreed to star in Brother Orchid in exchange for being allowed to essay the lead in Warner Bros.' historical drama A Dispatch From Reuter's (1940). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, (more)
- 1942
Damon Runyon's short story Butch Minds the Baby is about a certain Broadway citizen by the name of Butch, who is known far and wide to be involved more than somewhat in business of a dishonest nature. Butch is the lookout for a gang of safecrackers, one of whom is forced to bring his squalling baby son along with him on the job; Butch is obliged to mind the baby while the safe is being knocked over. In the film version of Butch Minds the Baby, Aloysius "Butch" Grogan (Broderick Crawford) is motivated to pursue a life of crime in order to provide the lovely widow O'Neill (Virginia Bruce) with the funds to support herself and little son. The end result is the same: Butch acts as baby-sitter while the rest of the crooks appropriate vast quantities of other people's money. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Bruce, Broderick Crawford, (more)
It's more Ginger Rogers than Fred Astaire, and more comedy than singing and dancing in this Astaire-Rogers entry into the screwball comedy sweepstakes which features a top-of-the-line Irving Berlin score (Change Partners, I Used to be Color Blind, The Night is Filled with Music). Fred Astaire plays Dr. Tony Flagg, a psychiatrist, who enters the psyche of Amanda Cooper (Ginger Rogers), a radio singer whom Tony's friend Stephen Arden (Ralph Bellamy) takes to see him. It seems Arden thinks that Amanda needs psychiatric help since she can't reach a decision regarding Stephen's proposal of marriage to her. As Tony explores her subconscious dream life, she falls in love with him. Tony feels that her love is temporary -- merely a sign of transference. To channel her love in the right direction, Tony hypnotizes her to believe that she is in love with Stephen. But then things become more complicated when Tony comes to realize that he, in fact, is in love with Amanda himself. He now has to figure out a way to bring her out of her hypnosis and get her back to normal so that they can both fall into the clinch. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, (more)
- 1938
Sidney Toler made his first appearance as aphorism-spouting oriental sleuth Charlie Chan in 1938's Charlie Chan in Honolulu, while Victor Sen Yung likewise makes his series debut as Charlie's Number Two Son Jimmy. While awaiting the birth of his first grandchild, Chan endeavors to solve a shipboard murder on a Hawaiian freighter. Hint: the most likely suspect is played by George Zucco, so it's safe bet that he's not the guilty party. Hampering Chan's investigation is the well-meaning assistance of overeager Charlie Chan Jr. (Layne Tom), as well as the dangerous menagerie of animal trainer Al Hogan (Eddie Collins). Audiences immediately warmed to Sidney Toler as the new Charlie Chan, encouraging 20th Century-Fox to keep the series going as long as possible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Toler, Phyllis Brooks, (more)
- 1940
Former Latin Lover Ricardo Cortez directed this farfetched but fast-paced gambling melodrama in which girl reporter Julie Reynolds (Lynn Bari) attempts to infiltrate a crooked gaming establishment by pretending to be a naïve girl from Texas. Julie's plans go awry, however, when one of the owners, Steve Walker (Donald Woods), recognizes her as his childhood sweetheart. Although Steve's mentor, The Judge (C. Aubrey Smith), warns him of the consequences, the young man insists on resuming his relationship with Julie, a decision that almost costs him his life when rival gangster Marty Connors (Richard Lane) decides to move in on the operation. But Steve and Julie pull a fast one on Marty and The Judge skips the City of Chance on a floating casino. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lynn Bari, C. Aubrey Smith, (more)
- 1941
Chester Morris makes his second screen appearance as crook-turned-detective Boston Blackie in this superior series entry. This time, Blackie gets into trouble when he attends an art auction with his millionaire pal Arthur Manleder (Lloyd Corrigan). It so happens that the auction gallery is run by thieves, which heroine Diane Parrish (Harriet Hilliard) has just discovered. To keep her quiet, head crook Joe Buchanan (Ralph Theodore) takes a shot at Diane, but though he only wounds her he kills sculptor Allison (Walter Soderling). Conclusion-jumping Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) assumes that Blackie fired the shot, forcing our hero to spend the rest of the film eluding both the police and the criminals. Highlights include a hilarious fit of rage perpetrated by secondary villainess Joan Woodbury, and an amusing if slightly sadistic running gag involving hapless ice-cream vendor Billy Benedict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chester Morris, Richard Lane, (more)
