Raymond Schrock Movies

A naive, wealthy small-town girl, bored with her routine life, falls for a dashing con artist who has come looking for fresh marks to swindle. He soon charms her into faking her prominent father's name on a letter of endorsement, which he presents to the other local merchants. They willingly give him all sorts of goodies and he prepares his escape, but not before conning the girl into becoming his wife. After their wedding night in a sleazy hotel, he abandons her. Fortunately, by the story's end, she is able to reassemble her shattered life and find happiness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The film career of actress Leslie Brooks lasted long enough for her to contribute several mesmerizingly bitchy performances. In Blonde Ice, Brooks is cast as Claire, a society reporter who'll do literally anything for a story. She manages to keep herself in the headlines by marrying and romancing a series of wealthy men, all of whom die under mysterious circumstances. To deflect suspicion from herself, Claire frames her erstwhile boyfriend, sportswriter Les Burns (Robert Paige). Because the police department is incredibly obtuse throughout the film, it's up to a criminal psychologist (David Leonard) to expose Claire as a homicidal sociopath. Blonde Ice might make a fascinating double feature with Nicole Kidman's 1994 starrer To Die For. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Warner Brothers' Broken Hearts of Hollywood is still another of the "mother love" dramas that festooned the silent era. Louise Dresser plays a selfish woman who deserts her child in pursuit of movie stardom. The years pass, and the girl grows up to be Patsy Ruth Miller. With no mother to guide her, Patsy falls in with the wrong crowd and gets mixed up in a murder. Louise nobly takes the blame for the killing, facing execution on behalf of the daughter who doesn't even know her. Featured in the cast is 18-year-old Douglas Fairbanks Jr., as well as two "regular" cast members of the films of Douglas Fairbanks Sr: Anders Randolf and Sam DeGrasse, cast respectively as the prosecuting and defense attorney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After making a hit in the Torchy series of two-reelers, Johnny Hines chose this lively picture as his first full-length comedy. It was one of the year's hits. Young Barnes (Hines) is called "Burn 'Em Up" because of his love for fast driving, both on the track and on the street -- much to the annoyance of the local traffic cops. When Barnes shows no interest in business, he gets in an argument with his father, a millionaire car manufacturer (J. Barney Sherry), and leaves home. Almost immediately he is attacked by a gang of thugs who steal his clothes and toss him, unconscious, into a freight car. When he comes to, Barnes meets two tramps (Edmund Breese and George Fawcett) who adopt him as one of their own. The three of them land in a small town where Barnes falls in love with Madge (Betty Carpenter), the daughter of the town's bank president (Richard Thorpe). He has competition for the girl's affection, however, and his rival is glad to see him falsely arrested for kidnapping a baby. But through a series of adventures and misadventures, Barnes manages to prove his innocence and he winds up in a race which wins him a nice sum of money. This picture was remade as both a serial and a feature in 1934. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Edgar G. Ulmer's Club Havana is Grand Hotel, PRC style. The titular club is a popular nightspot where everyone who is anyone congregates. Six couples, none of whom are acquainted with the others, show up at Club Havana on one fateful evening, and the result is sheer murder-literally. Among the participants in the heavily plotted proceedings are suicidal socialite Rosalind (Margaret Lindsay), novice doctor Bill Porter (Tom Neal), callous playboy Johnny Norton (Don Douglas) and would-be philanderer Willy Kingston (Ernest Truex). Former Paramount leading lady Gertrude Michael delivers a poignant cameo as a worn-out powder room attendant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The PRC "special" Danny Boy stars Ace the Dog in the title role. Danny Boy, a highly decorated war dog, is kidnapped by a nasty sort who gets his jollies out of mistreating animals. While he comes dangerously close to turning vicious and unmanageable, Danny Boy manages to escape with his basic good nature intact. After a torturous journey home, Danny Boy is reunited with his young master, Buzzy Henry. In real life, Ace the Dog was nowhere near as docile as the character he was playing, and it is obvious throughout that he'd just as soon take a bite out of Buzzy Henry as nuzzle the kid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Martha Vickers was given a rare leading-role opportunity in Daughter of the West. Vickers plays Lolita Moreno, a part-Native American girl who falls in love with college-educated Navajo Navo (Philip Reed). The film's Indian characters are depicted in a dignified, respectful manner: not so the white villains, headed by crooked Indian agent Ralph Connors (Donald Wood). When Connors and his flunkies try to cheat the Navajos out of their land, Navo gets wise to their scheme and nips it in the bud. The film's highlight is an authentically staged Indian harvest sequence, lensed in Cinecolor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Florence Lawrence, the motion-picture industry's first real movie star, was at the tail end of her popularity when she appeared in Elusive Isabel. Lawrence plays a seductive secret agent for an unnamed Latin nation. Her mission is to clear the path for a takeover of the U.S., engineered by the combined South American powers (the film was made at a time when the U.S. and Mexico were at serious odds with one another). She is deflected from her purpose by American spy Hamilton Grimm (Harry Millarde). Elusive Isabel was based on a jingoistic "preparedness" novel by Jacques Futrelle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Roxbury Mecroft (Richard Tucker) has to go to New York incognito to engage in some top-secret financial work, and he asks his pal, architect Terry Brock (Reginald Denny), to assume his identity while he is away. As a result, bachelor Brock has to vacation in Catalina with Mecroft's wife, Edith (Ethel Grey Terry), and annoying little girl, Toodles (Muriel Frances Dana). Edith has brought her sister, Connie (Laura LaPlante), along on the trip and Brock falls madly in love with her. This causes a huge scandal amongst the society folk at Catalina and causes the hotel management to investigate the situation. Brock is compelled to evade the gossips and troublemakers in various ways in order to pursue his romance. He finds himself in a number of jams before the situation is settled to everyone's satisfaction. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Sinclair Lewis wrote the story to this heartwarming drama. Don Dorgan (George Nichols) has been patrolling his beat in a rough section of town for the past 30 years and has managed to keep the peace through friendship and understanding. One young neighborhood tough, Terry Rafferty (Ralph Graves), has fallen in love with Effie Kugler (Bessie Love), the daughter of a deli owner, Rudolph (George B. Williams). But Rudolph Kugler does not approve of the young man in spite of his efforts to straighten up. In his depression over the father's snubbing, Rafferty gets into a drunken brawl with the district's political boss and is sent to prison for two years. Meanwhile, Manning, a new police commissioner (Melbourne MacDowell), is hired, and he decides it's time to retire Dorgan. Since the new cop favors using his club instead of compassion, Dorgan decides to put on his uniform once again and patrol his beat -- at least when the new cop isn't looking. Rafferty gets out of prison but is almost immediately assaulted by a gang leader. Dorgan takes him under his wing and sends for Effie. The couple are reunited in spite of her father's protests. Manning finds out about Dorgan's "ghost patrol," but instead of upbraiding him, he promotes him to captain. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Hard Rock Harrigan is an easygoing George O'Brien actioner with emphasis on comedy and romance. The plot revolves around a rivalry between sand-hog "Hard Rock" Harrigan (O'Brien) and his foreman Black Jack Riley (played by O'Brien's frequent screen sparring partner, Fred Kohler Sr.) At the center of their conflict is their mutual affection for heroine "Andy" Anderson (Irene Hervey). But when the chips are down and Riley is trapped in a tunnel cave-in, it is Harrigan who comes to the rescue. George O'Brien's films could never be accused of being High Art, but they sure delivered what his fans wanted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jim Davis, better known to contemporary audiences as Josh Ewing, J.R.'s (Larry Hagman) father on Dallas, is the two-fisted star of 1950's Hi-Jacked. Davis plays truck driver Joe Harper, who after his rig is stolen is accused of masterminding the theft himself. To clear his name, Joe sets out on his own to trap the real thieves. What he doesn't know is that one of his own co-workers has been tipping off the crooks whenever the trucking routes are changed. Joe's wife Jean is played by Marsha Jones, who during her child-star days was known as Marcia Mae Jones. Inasmuch as Hi-Jacked was produced by Lippert Films, it is perhaps inevitable that Sid Melton shows up in the supporting cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set at a major newspaper, this crime drama centers on a fellow who returns to newspaper reporting after he bombs as a playwright. Believing his grown son is in danger of marrying a gold digger, the paper's publisher assigns his new reporter to expose her. In order to do so, he cons the gal's maid into letting him into her apartment. There he hides a camera. Later that night, the gold digger is murdered there. Fortunately, the reporter's camera caught the killer in the act. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide