Fred Niblo, Jr. Movies

Granite-jawed Lawrence Tierney is the Bodyguard in this second-echelon noir thriller. Invited to resign from the LA police, short-tempered Mike Carter (Tierney) hires on to protect wealthy dowager Eugenia Dyson (Elizabeth Risdon). Before the film has reached its halfway point, Carter has been accused of murder, and is being hunted down by his former fellow officers. Only his file-clerk fiancee Doris Brewster (Priscilla Lane) believes in Carter's innocence, and it is she who is instrumental in cornering the actual killer. After a few more films like Bodyguard and The Narrow Margin, it was obvious that director Richard O. Fleischer had outgrown B pictures and was ready for more prestigious assignments. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Warren Douglas plays an average Joe who bears a striking resemblance to a famous gangster. A group of rival hoods beat up the innocent lookalike, which gives the police an idea. They set Douglas up as the real crook in hopes of forcing his gang out in the open. An outsized (but economically staged) gunfight brings this tense little tale to its conclusion. Incident is one of the slicker directorial accomplishments of B-picture maestro William "One Take" Beaudine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Four Jills in a Jeep is the (mostly) true story of a four-girl USO team, entertaining American troops overseas. Kay Francis, Martha Raye, Carole Landis and Mitzi Mayfair play "themselves," recreating their recent whirlwind tour of Europe and North Africa. This wisp of a plot takes a back seat to the musical numbers performed by the four stars, by Dick Haymes in his screen debut as a singing GI, and by guest stars Alice Faye, Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda. Phil Silvers, George Jessel, and Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra also pop up to do their usual. Very much a time capsule of the War years, Four Jills in a Jeep was later adapted into a best-selling book, ostensibly written by costar Carole Landis. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this crime drama, a news editor writes a scandalous expose about a notorious gangster. The gangster then has the gall to sue him for libel and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Successful small-town attorney William Emory (John Litel) and his wife Ruth (Frieda Inescort) look forward to the return of their son Bill Jr. (Billy Dawson) from military school -- the elder Emory, in particular, hopes that the school's strict disciplinary regimen has curbed some of his son's wilder, more rambunctious tendencies. Instead, Bill Jr. can't wait to get out of uniform and start playing with his old neighborhood friends, and show them some of what he's learned, in building things, playing sports and, yes, fighting. The younger Emory, who can't seem to hold a thought (or an instruction from his parents) in his head for more than 30 seconds, is soon upsetting his father's life at every turn, while Ruth looks on with increasing concern -- not for her son, but her husband's rigid disapproval, openly expressed, about everything their son is about. Bill Jr. decides to run away from home and nearly falls into the hands of a pair of larcenous tramps, only to be rescued by fisherman Lunk Nelson (Christian Rub). This near-disaster causes the couple to split up, with Ruth taking her son away to live in considerably reduced circumstances. And he benefits for a time from going to work for Lunk, learning responsibility and acquiring some slivers of maturity in the process. But he wants his parents to get back together, and decides that faking his own kidnapping might be just the crisis to do it. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Perhaps nine lives weren't enough, but 63 minutes was plenty of time to relate the plot of this Ronald Reagan vehicle. Reagan plays a newspaper reporter who has a story "that'll break this town wide open!" The story involves a mysterious, unsolved boarding house murder. The suspects include the seductive Faye Emerson, wide-eyed Joan Perry, and brainless Peter Whitney. Wanna bet none of them did it? Reagan solves the case, wins the girl, and doesn't retire to politics...yet. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, set in New York City, two brothers fight it out over a girl. The boys were raised by their Italian mother. The younger brother is adopted and they grow up to pursue very different life directions. The adopted brother goes to college, but the older brother gets involved with crime and ends up going to San Quentin. He is released from prison just as the younger brother graduates. Later the older brother returns home with his girlfriend. It is not long before he is in trouble with the local syndicate. Meanwhile, the girl and the other brother fall in love and decide to marry. The older brother is not amused. Still, when the mob bursts in at the wedding, it is the older brother who keeps them at bay until the ceremony is completed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

An Angel from Texas was the fourth of five film versions of the venerable George S. Kaufman stage farce The Butter and Egg Man. The plot remains basically the same, with a wealthy but incredibly naïve young sprout coming to the rescue of a near-bankrupt Broadway musical. This time around, Eddie Albert stars as bumptuous Texan Mr. Colman, who uses his mother's life savings to finance the New York stage debut of his hometown sweetheart Lydia (Rosemary Lane). Fast-talking producers McClure (Wayne Morris) and Allen (Ronald Reagan) persuade Colman to invest his money in their upcoming production, a turgid drama that has all the earmarks of a quick failure. But through a series of wacky complications, many of them engineered by Allen's level-headed wife Marge (played by Reagan's real-life spouse Jane Wyman) the show is transformed into a Hellzapoppin-style surprise hit. Amusingly, reviewers in 1940 referred to Ronald Reagan's comedy style as "conservative"! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A tough football scout thinks he has finally found a potential star quarterback when he sees a burly country-store stock boy casually unloading huge sacks of potatoes. Then and there the talent scout signs the boy to play for the Green Bay Packers. This comedy examines what happens when the naive lad's sudden stardom goes to his head and he gets involved with some potentially dangerous gamblers. The story was adapted from the 1929 baseball film Fast Company, which was later remade as Elmer the Great in 1933. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Sad-eyed, uniquely talented child actress Edith Fellows was Columbia's "answer" to Shirley Temple, Jane Withers and Deanna Durbin. In Little Miss Roughneck, Fellows is cast as Foxine LaRue, a tomboyish sort who is being prodded into a show-biz career by her stage mother Gert (Margaret Irving). Young Mr. Partridge (Scott Colton) becomes Foxine's agent, principally because he's sweet on the girl's older sister Mary (Jacqueline Wells). Blackballed from Hollywood because of her mother's pushiness, Foxine tries to help out Partridge and her own family by cooking up a bizarre publicity stunt, enlisting the aid of easy-going Mexican "papacita" Pascual (Leo Carrillo). Along the way, both Edith Fellows and Leo Carrillo are given ample opportunity to display their singing skills. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Game That Kills is professional hockey, at least according to this Columbia "B"-picture. Charles Quigley stars as Ferguson, a rough-and-tumble hockey player who discovers that his chosen profession is nothing more than a racket, a plaything for game-fixing racketeers. When his brother is killed in a highly suspicious accident, Ferguson and team trainer Holland (J. Farrell McDonald) join forces to bring the killers to justice. Second-billed Rita Hayworth is decorative as Holland's daughter (and Ferguson's sweetheart, natch). The Game That Kills was the second of three hockey-themed films released in 1937, the others being Warner Bros.' King of Hockey and Universal's Idol of the Crowd. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi