Jane Adams Movies

Johnny Mack Brown stars in the Monogram oater Outlaw Gold. The plot is motivated by revenge: sentenced to five years in prison, vicious gunman Sonny Lang (Myron Healey) vows to "get" Dave Willis (Brown) the moment he's released. Our Hero, however, can't be bothered by such trivialities. He's too busy trying to prevent the hijacking of a gold shipment on the Mexican border. Inevitably, Willis and Lang's paths cross, but not before Willis exposes the mastermind behind the robbery. The film's romantic element is handled by Marshall Reed (cast as a crusading newspaperman) and Jane Adams. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In their last feature film, the Cisco Kid (Duncan renaldo) and Pancho (Leo Carrillo) come up against a vicious gang who is robbing stagecoaches in their likenesses. But when the latest holdup injures driver Jerry Todd (Bill Lester), the real Cisco and Pancho make sure that the youngster gets medical treatment, much to the surprise and gratitude of his intended, Nora Malloy (Jane Adams), who agrees to help set a trap for the real culprits. Filmed at Pioneertown, a popular movie location just east of Los Angeles, The Girl From San Lorenzo was the last of producer Philip N. Krasne's Cisco Kid feature films for United Artists. It was followed by the 1950-1956 television series, again produced by Krasne and starring Renaldo and Carrillo. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Johnny Mack Brown's first starring western for 1950 is cut from the same cloth as his 1949 releases. Brown's principal antagonist this time is the town boss (Hugh Prosser), an outlaw who has killed the community's leading citizen. The dead man's grown children (Jane Adams and Riley Hill) want to investigate the killing, but the outlaw puts a stop to this by hiring a dance-hall dame (Constance Worth) to pose as the kids' long-lost mother. Johnny isn't fooled by this subterfuge, nor is his comic sidekick (Max Terhune). Once the plot has been established, Western Renegades adheres strictly to formula -- right down to Johnny Mack Brown's relinquishing the film's romantic-lead responsibilities to the younger, thinner Steve Clark. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The 15th film in the Bowery Boys series, Angels in Disguise combines lowbrow humor with "film noir" melodramatics. Bowery boys Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) are copy boys for a crusading newspaper, whose publisher (Ray Walker) is trying to crush the notorious "Loop Gang". When the boys' policeman pal Gabe (Gabriel Dell) is wounded in a shoot-out with the Loop mob, Slip and Sach take it upon themselves to expose the gang. All the Bowery boys (including sweet-shop proprietor Louie) disguise themselves as gangsters and infiltrate the Loop Gang, which is run by a young, erudite intellectual (Mickey Ryan). The scheme to destroy the Loop mob from the inside is flummoxed by the crusading newspaper's cartoonist, actually a member of the crooked gang who has been sending out coded tips in his comic strip. The Loop Gang gives the Bowery Boys a real "going over", but the cops arrive in time to round up the crooks. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The "He" of the title is Richard Basehart, a clever but psychopathic burglar (based on real-life criminal Erwin Walker) Basehart stays one step ahead of the law by listening in to the police band on his radio. To avoid detection, he changes his M.O. on each crime, making it seem that the string of burglaries is the work of several thieves. But Basehart trips himself up when he kills a cop. His own personal Waterloo occurs in the Los Angeles sewer system--a stylish predecessor to the similar (and more widely praised) climax in Sir Carol Reed's The Third Man. Though the direction is credited to Hollywood old-timer Alfred Werker, most of He Walked By Night is the handiwork of an uncredited Anthony Mann. Featured in the film's cast is Jack Webb in the small role of a police lab technician. Impressed by first-hand experience with police procedure and by the semi-documentary quality of He Walked By Night Webb expanded on these elements for his own radio and TV project, Dragnet. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this western, a tuneful saddletramp is appointed sheriff of Rawhide and begins rounding up three troublesome brothers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Charles Barton took a break from his Abbott and Costello assignments at Universal to direct the second-feature thriller Smooth as Silk. Kent Taylor plays a slick criminal lawyer adept at all sorts of sneaky legalistic tricks. Taylor's girl friend Virginia Grey jilts him for the more honest Milburn Stone. The lawyer hatches a plan to murder Stone, then to use his knowledge of the law to get off scot-free and implicate someone else for the crime. Though running a scant 65 minutes, Smooth as Silk packs a bigger wallop than some of Universal's more ambitious "A" melodramas of the same period. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When a local banker is killed in the West, G-man Kirby Grant and partner Fuzzy Knight investigate and uncover an insurance scam. ~ Rovi

British character actor Lionel Atwill, in his final performance, appeared as a power-mad Englishman attempting to rule the world in this 13 chapter Universal serial. Sir Eric Hazarias (Atwill) is searching the mountains of Himalaya for Metorium 245, the only known antidote to the Bomb. Sir Eric is opposed by United Peace Foundation investigator Rod Stanton (Russell Hayden of Hopalong Cassidy fame); scientist daughter Marjorie Elmore (Jane Adams, who had been so memorable as the hunchbacked nurse in House of Dracula); and a local guide, Tal Shen (Keye Luke, Charlie Chan's number one son). Midway through the serial, the British megalomaniac steps in the background in favor of the even more nefarious Malborn (John Mylong), "the power in back of Sir Eric." The sad reason for this sudden change of direction was the fact that Atwill was dying of bronchial cancer (he died April 22, 1946). Bits of dialogue filmed earlier were inserted, and actor George Sorel doubled Atwill in several scenes, Sir Eric's trademark Panama hat pulled well down over his face. In an economy move, The Lost City of the Jungle used stock footage from Columbia's earlier Lost Horizon, the 1943 Maria Montez vehicle White Savage, and even Leni Riefenstahl's legendary White Hell of Pitz Palu. Leading lady Adams, who later professed to have had a great time filming this serial, was the only Universal contract actor in the cast. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

In this western, the hero fights the bad guys by impersonating the son of a rancher. The outlaws have been making the good landowners pay fake taxes. Not only does the good guy succeed in catching the bad guys, he also catches himself the postmistress. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This campy little drama launched the career of B-girl Yvonne De Carlo. It is set during the Franco-Prussian war and chronicles the exploits of Salome, a beautiful Viennese dancer who falls for an American reporter and for him gets involved in cloak-and-dagger activities involving the Bismarck, before returning to Arizona with him. There, she uses her talent and abundant charms to inspire the lawless residents of his hometown to reform. They in turn, name the town after her. She then goes to San Francisco where she seduces and marries a wealthy Russian who builds her an opera house and gives her the happy life she had always craved. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi