George Wallace Sayre Movies

Downed Air Force pilots find themselves contending with scantily-clad female druids and stop-motion dinosaurs when they crash land upon an uncharted South Seas island. The castaways must also deal with man-eating plants and the island's dim-bulbed hairy males, who resent the intrusion of rivals. With dialogue such as "Shoot anything with hair that moves" and movie posters promising "Savage beauties who feared no animal...yet fell before the touch of men," you just know you're in for an evening of good campy '50s-style fun with Untamed Women. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this children's move, a teenager and his loyal dog wander the wild West. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The title tells all in the Monogram "expose" Black Market Babies. Alcoholic physician Dr. Jordan (Ralph Morgan) joins forces with gangster Eddie Condon (Kane Richmond) and shyster lawyer Anthony Marco (George Meeker) in a crooked adoption racket. Coercing unwed mothers to give up their babies for adoption, the unholy trio operates a supposedly philanthropic baby farm which caters to childless couples who have been frustrated by the legal adoption system. The villains rake in oodles and oodles of cash before the authorities close in. But once the jig is up, the crooks fall out, resulting in murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Just as Edgar C. Ulmer would at PRC around the same time, young Phil Karlson turned Monogram's almost nonexistent production values to his advantage in two Charlie Chan whodunits: The Shanghai Cobra (1945) and Dark Alibi (1946). Karlson added touches of film noir to the usual hoary Chan melodramatics and the result was arguably the best of the Monogram "Chans." In The Shanghai Cobra, Charlie (Sidney Toler) is investigating several murders connected with the manufacture of wartime radium. The employees of a bank connected with the radium experiments have an unfortunate tendency to get themselves killed by the injection of cobra venom. Charlie remembers a similar case back in Shanghai in 1935, but the suspect in those murders escaped. Since his face was damaged in an explosion, the only tell-tale sign to identify him is by a streak of white in an otherwise jet-black mane -- unless of course the murderer has heard of hair dye. As always, Charlie's faithful if bumbling companions, Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) and Tommy, the Number Three Son (Benson Fong), are along for the ride, offering their now patented sidekick humor. Toler, whose fondness for imbibing on the job was legendary, could basically sleepwalk through his role by 1945 and does so here. As for director Karlson's noir-ish touches, they quickly give way to business as usual, but the opening scenes of The Shanghai Cobra remain quite evocative. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This '40s film (based upon a Jack London story) is set in Alaska's gold rush days and revolves around the dilemma faced by a man wrongfully accused of murder whose future depends upon his ability to solve the crime. ~ All Movie Guide

It may be ungentlemanly to say it, but pert leading lady Gale Storm was nearly 21 when she starred in Monogram's Nearly Eighteen. Storm plays teenaged songstress Jane, who is too young to land a nightclub job but too old to enroll in a prestigious academy of music. She poses as a 14-year-old so that she can be tutored by handsome and talented music-professor Leonard (Bill Henry). By and by, Jane falls in love with Leonard, but dares not admit it lest her subterfuge be revealed. The fun really begins when Jane, lying about her age (again!) to secure a nightclub gig, is ardently pursued by handsome bookie Tony (Rick Vallin). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Even by Monogram standards, Wings Over the Pacific is a modest effort. In his final film role, Montague Love plays WW I veteran Butler, who during WW II prefers to take an isolationist stance and squirrels himself away on a remote Pacific island. Alas, Butler's solitude is interrupted when American Naval aviator Allan (Edward Norris) and German fighter pilot Kurt (Henry Guttman) both land on the island. While Allan romances Butler's daughter Nona (Inez Cooper), Kurt, discovering that the island is rich with oil, tries to signal the Japanese fleet. Shaken out of his complacency, Butler is forced to take sides in the global conflict, with explosive results. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this contemporary western, clever cattle rustlers use shortwave radios to harvest lost doggies. Two brave heroes get government assistance to solve the case and soon discover the location of the troublesome transmitter. The heroes then sing a song over the shortwave to inform the government of the transmitter's location. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this episode of the "Billy the Kid" series of westerns, outlaw Billy (Buster Crabbe) is mistakenly appointed Sage Valley's new sheriff. He likes the job and works hard to maintain order. Unfortunately his crooked twin brother, who runs a casino and is in hiding after a murder, wants to keep the town a haven for crooks. To do this, he masquerades as Billy and starts causing trouble. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Idealistic black doctor James Dunbar (Ralph Cooper) wants to minister to his people in Harlem, and to this end sets up a free clinic. But a gang of racketeers threaten to shut Dr. Dunbar down unless he becomes an "underworld doctor", taking care of wounded crooks without notifying police. The doc resists at first, but finally succumbs because he needs the money to keep his clinic going. So here's the question: Is committing a crime OK if the result is for the greater good? The answer is quite surprising in this refreshingly non-formula film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A scientist's greatest invention proves to be his darkest curse in this thriller that was part of Columbia and star Boris Karloff's "mad doctor" series. Karloff stars as Dr. Henryk Savaard, a brilliant heart expert who has created a pump that will allow him to place a patient in a state of death so that vital organs can be replaced with few problems. His first experiment on a human quickly goes awry when his nurse Betty (Ann Doran) sends for the police. The experiment is interrupted leaving the young man dead and Savaard in jail. He is sentenced to hang, but unleashes a bitter diatribe against his executioners promising to avenge his death. After his hanging, Savaard's assistant, Stoddard (Joseph DeStefani), hooks up the corpse to the heart pump and resurrects his boss. Several months pass and a local reporter (Robert Wilcox) discovers that six of the jurors in the case have mysteriously committed suicide -- all by hanging. The newsman's investigation leads him to follow the judge, the prosecutor, nurse Betty, and the surviving jurors to a specially arranged meeting at Savaard's former home. There, they are stunned to discover that Savaard is not only alive, but planning to execute them one by one every 15 minutes. As the bodies quickly begin to pile up, it is through the one person close to Savaard's heart that they can hope to make it out alive. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide

Flying Hostess stars Judith Allen as the title character, rookie airline stewardess Helen Brooks. William Gargan co-stars as Hal Cunningham, the tough-but-likeable man in charge of the stewardess training program. Helen proves she's stayed awake during classes when a pilot is knocked out by a criminal during a TWA passenger flight. With Cunningham guiding her in via radio, plucky Helen takes over the controls herself, guiding the plane to safety. Featured in an unsympathetic minor role is Addison Randall, who later achieved stardom as cowboy hero Jack Randall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western about the adventures of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a fur trapper is robbed and killed by a local thug. Although he is caught by the Mounties and thrown in jail, his partner soon breaks him out. It turns out they are both part of a gang headed by a ruthless killer -- who is a woman! ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide