John Stone Movies

Honolulu detective Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) spends an eventful weekend at an English country estate in this fog-bound series entry. Young Neil Howard (Ray Milland) has been accused of murder, but family friend Geoffrey Howard (Alan Mowbray) expresses the hope that Chan will be able to locate the genuine killer. The weapons this time include a set of poison darts, while a series of cryptic notes provide vital clues to Chan and his Scotland Yard counterpart Sgt. Thacker (E.E. Clive), who insists upon calling the humble oriental sleuth "Mr. Chang" throughout the picture. Crucial to the plot's development is a fox hunt, predating a similar sequence in John Huston's The List of Adrian Messenger by nearly 30 years. At 79 minutes, Charlie Chan in London is the longest of Fox's Chan series -- unnecessarily so, since the identity of the "surprise killer" is obvious from reel one. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this Spanish language romantic comedy, a prim young royal and her free-spirited look-alike end up falling in love with the same scientist. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this romantic comedy, a chanteuse singing in a trashy Shanghai bar finds hope for escape when a rakish sailor comes to town and falls in love with her. They are happy during his brief layover, but then his ship departs and he must return Stateside. The sailor doesn't make a lot of money and fears that he could never adequately support his new love, and so writes her a letter explaining that they can never meet again. He sends the letter, but it is intercepted by two practical jokers who write a new letter telling the singer how much the sailor loves her. Upon receiving the love letter, the hapless lady sets sail for Los Angeles. Unfortunately, her lover refuses to acknowledge her. Now the two jokers try to do everything they can to bring the two back together. Songs include: "Here's the Key to My Heart" (Richard Whiting, Sidney Clare), "She Learned About Sailors" (Clare, Whiting) and "If I Were Adam and You Were Eve" (James J. Hanley). ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Accused of murdering her employer, nightclub vocalist Alice Carroll (Madge Bellamy) is vigorously prosecuted in court by ambitious young DA Dick Starr (Don Terry). After Alice is sent to prison, however, Starr begins having second thoughts. He ends up helping her escape from jail so that she can help him prove her innocence. Alice returns the favor by rescuing Starr from the genuine murderers. Based on a story by journalist Richard Harding Davis (who seldom allowed himself to be confused by the facts), Fugitives was one of the last Fox silent films before the studio switched over exclusively to the Movietone sound process. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this early talkie from director John Ford, a Scottish captain and his regiment are sent to India during WW I and assigned to quell a native uprising in the Northern mountains. Unfortunately, soon after arriving, he gets drunk and seemingly kills another officer during a barroom fight. He escapes capture and disappears into the crowd. Now wanted as a renegade, he involves himself with a beautiful but sadistic native princess, a direct descendant of Alexander the Great. He cozies up to her and learns that she is planning to send her troops to attack the British through Khyber pass. Though she correctly suspects that the fugitive soldier is really a spy, she cannot help but fall in love with him, thereby sparing him the usual torture and castration she forces upon other captured British soldiers. Unfortunately her love causes her downfall in the exciting conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Girl from Havana is a kaleidoscopic early-talkie brew of comedy, melodrama, romance, and high-steppin' musical numbers. Lola Lane, a detective for a jeweler's protective association, disguises herself as a chorus girl and books passage on a Havana-bound liner. Her quarry is young Paul Page, who has joined a gang of jewel thieves after being implicated in a spectacular heist (wherein a phony mad dog was used as subterfuge). Like Lane, Page is not all he seems--he has allowed himself to be disgraced so that he can infiltrate the gang responsible for the murder of his jeweler father. Joining forces, Lane and Page collar the criminals. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of Tom Mix's most successful films, this silent Western grossed an impressive $227,200.00 in domestic rentals alone, a sizable amount in 1928. Mix portrayed a daredevil ranger on the trail of a gang of outlaws. To get close to the gang, Tom utilizes various cunning disguises, including donning the garb of a medicine man. Along the way, complications arise when Tom falls for the niece (Natalie Joyce) of the gang leader (William Welch).The action packed Western climaxes when Mix saves Joyce from a runaway car. The cousin of silent screen star Olive Borden and a 1925 WAMPAS Baby Star, dark-haired Natalie Joyce also appeared opposite Mix in The Circus Ace (1927). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Sammy Cohen, Fox Studios' resident Jewish comic, heads the cast of Homesick. This one is all about a cross-country bicycle race, with Sammy Schnable (Cohen) competing against his old pal Ambrose (Harry Sweet). Whoever wins the race will also win the hand of eligible bachelorette Babe (Marjorie Beebe). The ethnicity inherent in Homesick extends to the other bike riders, including stereotypical Italian Henry Armetta and ersatz Polish-American Pat Harmon. Co-star Harry Sweet later became head of the short subjects department at RKO Radio, a position he held until his death in a 1933 plane crash. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Young Paramount stars Gary Cooper and Thelma Todd, the latter a recent graduate of the studio's acting school, starred in this otherwise average Zane Grey Western directed by studio hack John Waters. It was Waters who, having spotted young Cooper in a screen test, recommended the lanky newcomer for Arizona Bound (1927). That film was successful enough for Paramount to conjure up Nevada, in which a once notorious gunfighter takes a respectable job on a ranch. Cooper's "Nevada" is charged with protecting the ranch owner's pretty daughter (Todd), arousing the enmity of ranch foreman William Powell, who is in love with the girl. The villainous foreman leaks a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and the former outlaw is soon on the run again. But along the way, he catches a gang of cattle rustlers led by -- surprise -- William Powell. Thus rehabilitated, Nevada is free to marry lovely Thelma. Despite the strong cast -- in retrospect, at least -- Nevada was considered a rather weak entry in Paramount's long Zane Grey series and actually did little to further Cooper's career prospects. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Paramount Pictures used the Zane Grey adaptation Open Range as a showcase for its newest western star (and potential Gary Cooper replacement) Lane Chandler. Teamed with winsome Betty Bronson, who three years earlier had starred in Paramount's Peter Pan, Chandler plays an itinerant cowboy who is falsely accused of rustling. For the sake of his sweetheart Bronson, our hero takes it upon himself to track down the real culprits, an outlaw gang headed by half-breed Fred Kohler Sr. Chandler's odyssey takes him to the Indian encampment where Kohler is hiding, leading to a spectacular battle between cowboys and Indians. The story is resolved when Chandler stampedes the cattle stolen by Kohler, dispersing the Indians and saving the settlers from destruction; as a coda, he rescues Bronson and her family from a blazing farmhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi