Phil Rosen Movies
Born in Russia, director Phil Rosen emigrated to the U.S. as a child. Entering movies as a cameraman, Rosen turned the crank on several of the Theda Bara vehicles of the teens. His silent film credits are fitfully impressive, including the Rudolph Valentino vehicle The Young Rajah (1921) and the independently produced biopic Abraham Lincoln (1925). Upon the arrival of... (read more) talkies, Rosen settled without protest into the B-picture groove, helming such potboilers as Monogram's Beggars in Ermine (1934) and Republic's Two Wise Maids (1937). One's assessment of the artistic merits of the Phil Rosen film canon usually rests upon one's tolerance for the director's curious teaming of the East Side Kids and Bela Lugosi in 1941's Spook Run Wild. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The Secret of St. Ives
1949
Long before he became a highly respected Wall Street financial adviser, Richard Ney was a minor-league film star. In Secret of St. Ives, Ney plays Anatole de Keroual, the...
Sins of the Fathers
1948
The very real dangers of venereal disease provide the framework of this informational Canadian docu-drama. The basic story concerns a hard-working health officer who tries to keep...
The Shadow Returns
1946
The Shadow Returns was the first of three above-average Monogram features based on the popular radio melodrama The Shadow. Kane Richmond stars as wealthy man-about-town...
Step by Step
1946
In this espionage drama, a WW II veteran teams up with a government secretary and begins hunting a gang of Nazi agents who are seeking the secret documents carried by the G-man...
The Red Dragon
1946
Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) heads south of the border in this so-so series entry. With the help of Mexican police official Luis (Fortunio Bonanova), Chan looks high...
Captain Tugboat Annie
1945
This tale of two tugboats focuses upon the rivalries between two operators competing to win a major shipping contract. Meanwhile a tugboat office secretary and an ex-con who wants...
Charlie Chan: The Scarlet Clue
1945
Birmingham Brown joins pal Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) in solving this missing government documents mystery, set at a New York City radio station. Various media types are...
The Strange Mr. Gregory
1945
With Universal nearly out of the "B"-grade horror film business by 1945, it was up to Monogram to take up the slack with projects like The Strange Mr. Gregory. The title...
The Scarlet Clue
1945
More tightly scripted than most of the Monogram Charlie Chan whodunits, The Scarlet Clue is set in a radio station that, rather fortuitously, is located in the same...
In Old New Mexico
1945
The second of Monogram's 1945 trio of "Cisco Kid" westerns, In Old New Mexico stars Duncan Renaldo as Cisco and Martin Garralaga as Pancho. The plot...
Return of the Ape Man
1944
Campy Bela Lugosi plays a deranged scientist in this Monogram -produced horror movie. This time, Lugosi and his partner John Carradine accidentally discover a...
Charlie Chan: The Secret Service
1944
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service is one of the series of Charlie Chan mysteries made by Monogram Pictures, featuring the inscrutable Asian detective and his son...
The Chinese Cat
1944
Charlie Chan's second mystery for Poverty Row company Monogram, The Chinese Cat is one of the inscrutable detective's better efforts. Director Phil Rosen keeps...
Charlie Chan: Meeting at Midnight
1944
This Monogram Pictures entry in the Charlie Chan series follows our hero as he tracks down a killer involved in the occult. What's worse, Charlie's daughter is the primary...
Black Magic
1944
Meeting at Midnight is the reissue title of Black Magic, a Charlie Chan "B" effort from Monogram Studios. A murder occurs during a seance conducted by a fraudulent...
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
1944
Having ended its 11-year run at 20th Century-Fox, the "Charlie Chan" series set up shop at Monogram with the singularly uninspiring Charlie Chan in the Secret Service....
Call of the Jungle
1944
Burlesque queen Ann Corio took time out of her runway activities in the 1940s to star in three Monogram features, of which Call of the Jungle was the last. Unlike the...
Range Law
1944
Range Law stars Johnny Mack Brown as "Nevada" and Raymond Hatton as "Sandy", the same characters they played in most of their mid-1940s Monogram westerns. This time,...
Army Wives
1944
Few B-picture factories ground out topical wartime dramas with as much regularity as Monogram. In Army Wives, Elyse Knox plays bride-to-be Jerry, who follows her GI...
The Jade Mask
1944
An engagingly silly Charlie Chan whodunit from Poverty Row company Monogram, The Jade Mask mixed science fiction with Old House melodramatics and a generous dose of...