Jack Mulhall Movies

Neath The Canadian Skies was one of a quartet of 45-minute "northerns", all produced by Golden Gate Productions and released by Screen Guild. Russell Hayden stars as a stalwart Mountie who poses as a criminal, the better to solve the murder of a prospector. Allegedly based on a story by James Oliver Curwood, the film ends rather abruptly; a second off-length film, North of the Border, ties up some of the loose plot ends of Neath The Canadian Skies, suggesting that these two short films were originally one long one. Confirming this suspicion is the fact that the supporting casts of both films (Inez Cooper, Douglas Fowley, I. Stanford Jolley etc.) were identical. A second pair of 45-minuters starring Russell Hayden, Where the North Begins and Trail of the Mounties, showed up in 1947. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

District attorney Walter Pidgeon pursues the conviction of criminals so diligently that word has gone out in the state prison to "get" Pidgeon at the first opportunity. The DA has several enemies on the outside as well, one of whom frames him on a bribery charge. Pidgeon is sentenced to the prison where he has sent so many miscreants in the past. Dodging attempts on his own life, Pidgeon makes several valuable convict friends and manages to clear himself during a climactic jailbreak. 6,000 Enemies runs only 61 minutes--an average of about 100 enemies per minute. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this crime drama, a remake of Forgotten Faces (1936), a convict busts out of prison to protect his daughter from her conniving mother so that the girl will be able to marry a decent guy in the future. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Awakening in a strange bed and suffering from a terrible headache -- not to mention the mysterious bruises all over her body -- alcoholic Karen Stewart (Phyllis Thaxter) tries to piece together the events leading up to her present condition. All she can recall at first is her most recent promise to her boyfriend Jeff (Warren Stevens) that she will stop drinking, and stop drinking for good. But Jeff had heard that song many times before, and he was in no mood to put up with her subsequent drunken binge. From this point forward, Karen's mind is a blank...but the blank will soon be filled in a horrific fashion. In light of the serious nature of the story, host Alfred Hitchcock foregoes his usual humorous epilogue. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In trying to help Betsy (Joan Barclay), who has stolen a diamond her father left for collateral with loan sharks Crone (Monte Blue) and Jaffin (Jack Mulhall), artist Jimmy Baxter (Herman Brix) soon finds himself up to his neck in trouble. ~ Bill Warren, Rovi

This lavishly appointed Sam Goldwyn soap opera is set in Ireland during "the troubles." Irish rebel leader Dennis Reardon (Brian Aherne) falls in love with Lady Helen Drummond (Merle Oberon), the aristocratic daughter of British diplomat Lord Athleigh (Henry Stephenson). Reardon's underground associates, not so romantically inclined, assume that their leader has sold out to the enemy, when in fact he is working tirelessly for an honorable and equitable end to the hostilities. His best friend O'Rourke (Jerome Cowan) is given the job of assassinating Reardon, leading to a tragic climax more suited to an Italian opera than an Irish political meller. Beloved Enemy was very loosely based on the exploits of Irish patriot Michael Collins, who of course was the subject of the far more accurate 1996 biopic starring Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Former Dead End Kid Huntz Hall made his first appearance with the East Side Kids in 1941's Bowery Blitzkrieg. The plotline concentrates on Danny Breslin (Bobby Jordan), a good kid in danger of going bad thanks to the influence of two-bit crook Monk Martin (Bobby Stone). When Danny is disqualified from the upcoming Golden Gloves boxing championship, his pal Mugs (Leo Gorcey) takes his place. Thanks to the chicanery of Monk and his gambling cronies, the public becomes convinced that Mugs intends to throw the fight. Nothing could be further from the truth, but for a while it looks as though both Mugs and Danny will be kayoed permanently by the villains. As "Limpy", Huntz Hall doesn't have much to do except act as Mugs' dimwitted stooge; Hall's unique comic gifts wouldn't fully blossom until the next East Side Kids entry, Spooks Run Wild. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After starring in two successful serials as All-American Boy in Outer Space Flash Gordon, Larry "Buster" Crabbe found himself visiting very familiar territory in 1939's Buck Rogers, a 12-episode serial in which he played an young adventurer sent 500 years into the future. Buck Rogers (Crabbe), his friend and sidekick Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran), and Buck's sweetheart, Wilma Deering (Constance Moore), are piloting a new and experimental airship when bad weather sends them crashing into the Arctic wastes. A newly developed drug called Nirvano is supposed to keep this crew in suspended animation until help arrives; however, five centuries pass before Buck, Buddy, and Wilma are found by scientists working for Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw). Huer is an idealist who is attempting overthrow fearsome ruler Killer Kane (Anthony Warde), who rules the Earth with an iron fist. Buck and his pals throw in their lot with Huer and his staff, and attempt to find allies on Saturn; however, Buck is unaware that Saturn has already fallen to the minions of Kane. Originally released as a serial, Buck Rogers was later re-edited into two different feature-length condensations, Planet Outlaws and Destination Saturn. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Something of a distaff Mr. Chips, schoolteacher Ella Bishop (Martha Scott) devotes her life to her work, ageing 50 years (from 19 to 69) in the course of the film. At a testimonial dinner on the occasion of her retirement, Miss Bishop's former students wonder why their beloved teacher never married. In flashback, the audience learns that town grocer Sam (William Gargan) has carried a torch for her for five decades, while she obliviously pursued unfortunate romantic relationships with weak-willed Delbert Thompson (Donald Douglas) and unhappily married John Stevens (Sidney Blackmer). Adapted by Stephen Vincent Benet from the melancholy novel by Bess Streeter Aldrich, Cheers for Miss Bishop was not only a tour de force for Scott, but also represented the screen debut of another young character actress, Rosemary De Camp. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dore Schary, several years removed from his tenure as head of MGM, was screenwriter for the modest Universal actioner Chinatown Squad. Lyle Talbot plays Ted Lacey, a disgruntled ex-cop reduced to driving a sightseeing bus in Chinatown. When a man who has been collecting funds for the Chinese communist cause is murdered, Lacey leaps at the opportunity to solve the case in hopes of getting his badge back. The killing is tied in with some stolen airplanes -- and, this being Hollywood's version of Chinatown, there's an abundance of sinister-looking suspects. Eighteen-year-old Valerie Hobson is the pretty if antiseptic heroine. For reasons best known to the folks at Universal, Chinatown Squad was included in TV's "Shock Theatre" package, lumped together with the studio's Frankenstein and Dracula pictures! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Film historian William K. Everson once observed that the secret to the success of Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 Cleopatra is that DeMille subtly reshaped the known historical events into a contemporary "gold-digger makes good" scenario. Exhibiting the same determination with which Barbara Stanwyck sleeps her way to the top in 1933's Baby Face, Queen Cleopatra (Claudette Colbert) uses her feminine wiles to become sole ruler of Egypt. By turns kittenish and cold-blooded, Cleopatra wraps such otherwise responsible Roman worthies as Julius Caesar (Warren William, who wittily plays his role like one of his standard ruthless business executives) and Marc Antony (Henry Wilcoxon) around her well-manicured little finger. To emphasize the "contemporary" nature of the film, DeMille adds little modernistic touches throughout: The architecture of Egypt and Rome has a distinctly art-deco look; a matron at a social gathering clucks "Poor Calpurnia...well, the wife is always the last to know"; and, after Caesar's funeral, Mark Anthony is chided by an associate for "all that 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen' business!" Cleopatra's barge scene and her suicide from the bite of a snake marked two of the most memorable sequences in DeMille's career. Remarkably, for all the enormous sets and elaborate costumes, Cleopatra came in at a budget of $750,000 -- almost $40 million less than the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor remake. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi