Bruce Cabot Movies

An eager cub reporter visits a roadhouse, stumbles across a corpse and decides to drum up a little notoriety for himself by pretending to make it look as if he were the killer. He then plans to write a series of articles chronicling his experiences with the courts. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately, he made the evidence look too real and he is sent to prison until the real crook is apprehended. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this romantic drama, set at the turn of the century, a womanizing Irish motorman ignores his marital vows, but only to a point. Though he has many affairs, he will not leave his wife. As the years pass, he holds many jobs, and many different women before he retires in Atlantic City where he becomes a moralistic fortune teller for women. He actually helps some of his clients and dies knowing he was not a total lout. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though the story isn't much, this actioner does offer a neat behind-the-scenes look at the travails of Hollywood stuntmen as it chronicles the romance between a stunt man and an extra. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

"How would you like to star opposite the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood?" Enticed by these words, brunette leading lady Fay Wray dyed her hair blonde and accepted the role of Ann Darrow in King Kong -- and stayed with the project even after learning that her "leading man" was a 50-foot ape. The film introduces us to flamboyant, foolhardy documentary filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who sails off to parts unknown to film his latest epic with leading lady Darrow in tow. Disembarking at Skull Island, they stumble on a ceremony in which the native dancers circle around a terrified-looking young girl, chanting, "Kong! Kong!" The chief (Noble Johnson) and witch doctor (Steve Clemente) spot Denham and company and order them to leave. But upon seeing Ann, the chief offers to buy the "golden woman" to serve as the "bride of Kong." Denham refuses, and he and the others beat a hasty retreat to their ship. Late that night, a party of native warriors sneak on board the ship and kidnap Ann. They strap her to a huge sacrificial altar just outside the gate, then summon Kong, who winds up saving Ann instead of devouring her. Kong is eventually taken back to New York, where he breaks loose on the night of his Broadway premiere, thinking that his beloved Ann is being hurt by the reporters' flash bulbs. Now at large in New York, Kong searches high and low for Ann (in another long-censored scene, he plucks a woman from her high-rise apartment, then drops her to her death when he realizes she isn't the girl he's looking for). After proving his devotion by wrecking an elevated train, Kong winds up at the top of the Empire State Building, facing off against a fleet of World War I fighter planes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In Scarlet River, Tom Keene plays "himself," a cowboy movie star, on location in the Wide Open Spaces for his latest epic. The locals chortle and guffaw at these picture people posing as genuine Westerners, but Keene proves his worth by rescuing Dorothy Wilson from villainous ranch foreman Creighton Chaney (aka Lon Chaney Jr.). Edgar Kennedy plays the flustered director, forever tearing out what little hair he has. The film-within-a-film sequences are staged with reasonable accuracy (future consumer advocate Betty Furness shows up as Keene's on-camera ingenue), while a few shots at the RKO commissary offer glimpses of studio contractees Myrna Loy, Joel McCrea and Bruce Cabot. The basic premise of Scarlet River would be revived in several future westerns by such cowboy stars as Charles Starrett, Buck Jones and Gene Autry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Merian C. Cooper was in charge of production at RKO Radio, virtually every other film produced at the studio had an aviation theme or tie-in. Set against the backdrop of a barnstorming air circus, the story concerns the travails -- both in the air and on the ground -- of flyboys Bud (Eric Linden), Ace (Bruce Cabot) and Speed (Ralph Bellamy), and female pilot Ann (Arline Judge). Speed is married to Ann, who falls in love with Bud. Seeking revenge, Speed intends to murder Bud during an air show, hoping to make it look like an accident. But Bud's brother Ace foils Speed's scheme, saving Bud's life at the expense of his own. Flying Devils was one of a handful of films directed by legendary press agent Russell Birdwell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, two sisters work as assistants to a magician. The trouble begins when the day before a big show, the magician's psychic quits. In desperation he enlists the aide of one of the assistants. The three end up hired by a woman who is trying to help her wealthy, widowed sister see that her doctor is a charlatan by holding a bogus seance in the widow's creepy mansion. During the ritual, the widow tries to contact her late husband. When the ghost really does appear, the "medium" is shocked; she is more shocked when the spirit tells her he was murdered. The three performers become sleuths, solve the murder, and prove that the physician is a money-grubbing fake. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Assistant DA Bob Martel (Bruce Cabot) is in love with sweet Muriel (Mary Brian). This in itself is not earth-shattering, except that Muriel is the sister of gangster boss Rossi (Harry Woods). The latter frames Martel for murder, but the police forensics lab provides a surprising solution to his plight. Columbia Pictures' standing prison sets, originally built for The Criminal Code, are given a good workout here. Grant Mitchell gives the best-rounded performance as Martel's father, who expedites the film's satisfying conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Edna May Oliver makes the second of her three appearances as Stuart Palmer's crime-solving schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers in RKO Radio's Murder on the Blackboard. The plot begins to percolate when a young female music teacher is murdered in her classroom late at night. Also on the campus is Hildegarde Withers, staying after hours to punish an unruly student. Upon discovering the dead woman's body, Hildegarde tries to solve the mystery herself, much to the dismay of the eternally exasperated Inspector Oscar Piper (James Gleason). Clues essential to the action are a dead ant at the bottom of a liquor glass, a half-empty bottle of scotch, a blood-stained woman's slipper, and (per the title) a musical notation chalked on a blackboard, which when deciphered reveals the killer's identity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Produced independently by Edward Small, this surprisingly realistic gangster yarn stars stalwart Richard Arlen as Mal Stevens, an attorney recruited by the newly organized Federal Bureau of Investigation. After Mal and a couple of fellow recruits, Van Rensseler (Harvey Stephens) and Tex Logan (Gordon Jones), foil a plot by Joe Keefer (Bruce Cabot) to kidnap Eleanor Spencer (Virginia Bruce), the trusting debutante foolishly secures Joe's parole. From the outside, Keefer then masterminds a prison break for some of his pals and together they begin a reign of terror. Eleanor's brother Buddy (Eric Linden) goes undercover on behalf of Stevens and is killed by Keefer, but Eleanor, still denying that Keefer, her former chauffeur, is a gangster, blames Stevens. To avoid detection, Keefer kidnaps Dr. Hoffman (George Pauncefort), a noted plastic surgeon, who goes to work altering his appearance. His usefulness over, the good doctor is summarily executed but Hoffman manages to avenge himself from beyond the grave: when the bandages are removed, Keefer's features have been mutilated and his initials carved into the scarred face. Led to the hideout by Keefer's jilted moll Lola (Dorothy Appleby), Stevens confronts the disfigured gangster and there is a final struggle. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Sinner Takes All shines with the production gloss only MGM could create; the prettiness of the images helps to hide the plot holes in this modest murder mystery. The members of an aristocratic family are murdered one by one, in retribution for the misdeeds of the family's black sheep. Margaret Lindsay is the heroine, Bruce Cabot the hero, and Joseph Calleia a man who is hiding something. As a publicity ploy, the film also featured journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, fresh from a headline-grabbing "round the world" tour. Capped by an ironic ending in which the killer surprisingly refuses to boast about his modus operandi, Sinner Takes All was one of three MGM "B" thrillers filmed virtually back-to-back in 1936 by prolific studio contractee Errol Taggart. The film was based on the novel Murder for a Wanton by Whitman Chambers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Legion of Terror was the first in a cycle of "exposé" films inspired by the upsurge in such hate groups as the KKK, the Silver Shirts and the Black Legion. The titular vigilante organization, which cloaks its extortionist motivations in the guise of patriotism, has a habit of sending mail bombs to its enemies -- and that's how Postal Inspector Frank Marshall (Bruce Cabot) becomes involved in the story. Before Marshall is able to expose the Legion of Terror for the cowards that they are, the group has murdered Don Foster (Ward Bond), the brother of Marshall's sweetheart Nancy (Marguerite Churchill). The film closes with an admonition to the audience to avoid getting suckered in by similar phony "All American" organizations. Legion of Terror was released just before Warner Bros. similar (and superior) The Black Legion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide