Columbia (May 1936 - emerged from Poverty Row to a major studios of Hollywood) Part 1-2
Part 1-2
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- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsFranchot ToneGrace MooreWalter ConnollyPrincess is destined to marry the Emperor, until her sister steps in.
- DirectorSpencer Gordon BennetStarsKen MaynardBeth MarionWalter MillerJust after his man Louder loses the Sheriff's election to Ken, Flamer finds Ken's rowel. Then he and his men rob the train as he poses as Ken and leaves the rowel. The train crew's identification plus the rowel convicts Ken. Ken escapes but must now prove his innocence as a fugitive.
- DirectorDavid SelmanStarsCharles StarrettFinis BartonJ.P. McGowanOne of the two dozen or more Canadian-produced (usually by Kenneth J. Bishop) films distributed by Columbia circa 1935-39 in order to comply with (and circumvent) the British-Quota Law that basically required a large percentage of the cast and crew of a small percentage of the total films distributed by American film companies to the UK had to be comprised of British subjects and shot on British or Dominion soil.Distributing the Bishop-Canadian made films was cheaper for Columbia than building and maintaining a studio in London.Since Charles Starrett and stunt man Ted Mapes were about the only people connected to this film that currently or in the past weren't subjects of HRM, this film more than qualified.In this one, RCMP Alan Barclay (Charles Starrett)) is sent to investigate the presumed murder of his friend and fellow RCMPoliceman Gene (Henry Mollison)) when Gene's horse is found riderless or, in the words of French-born western director George Archainbaud, "empty." Gene had been sent to St.John's to investigate a series of accidents which threatened to close down the lumber mill.Undercover, Alan asks for a job at the mill and hears of an accident which has killed four men. He suspects Barstow (J.P. McGowan), the camp blacksmith, who welded the chain that broke and sent the men to their death. Alan convinces Barstow that he is a fugitive from justice, and would do anything for a job. Barstow gives Alan a Mountie's uniform and tells him he is to pose as a Mountie (good plan) sent to investigate the accident. Ordinarily, at this point, the jig would be up but Ann (Finis Barton)), who knows both Alan and Gene shows up and complications arise.
- DirectorDel LordStarsMary AstorLyle TalbotNat PendletonAn inventor looking for backing for his television invention gets involved with a crooked businessman and gangsters who try to steal his invention.
- DirectorD. Ross LedermanStarsRalph BellamyMarguerite ChurchillJohn GallaudetAn alcoholic attorney becomes embroiled in blackmail and murder when he continues to aid a falsely-accused client.
- DirectorDavid SelmanStarsLew AyresJoan PerryThurston HallA struggling young engineer, Bob Sanderson, refuses to marry the very-rich Edith Stuart until he can support her on his own earnings. He goes to work for her father as a messenger in the telegraph business, and, via his engineering skills, discovers a plot to kidnap Edith.
- DirectorGordon WilesStarsWilliam GarganFlorence RiceH.B. WarnerAn inept Police Inspector Killian (Paul Hurst) is assigned to investigate a blackmail case in which an equally inept amateur detective, Peter Corwin (William Gargan) is also working on the case. Joan Rankin (Florence Rice) supplies the romance.
- DirectorHerbert J. BibermanStarsEdward ArnoldLionel StanderJoan PerryRex Stout's portly detective prides himself on solving crimes without venturing outside his comfortable home; here he relies on others to do the legwork in pinpointing who among a number of suspects is responsible for two sudden deaths, which the authorities at first are not convinced were murders.
- DirectorGordon WilesStarsJames DunnJune ClayworthGeorge McKayMickey (James Dunn), is a prizefighter whose bright career hits the skids when he comes under the guidance of Ginger (June Clayworth), a female fight promoter, when he becomes involved with June Prentice (Muriel Evans) and her high-society crowd.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsChester MorrisFay WrayRaymond WalburnA cab driver takes in a young woman who claims to be a reluctant bride, and becomes involved in the search for a stolen necklace.
- DirectorSpencer Gordon BennetStarsRobert AllenMartha TibbettsHarry WoodsBob Allen in his starring debut gets a job on Wright's ranch where he hopes to find the rustlers no one else has been able to locate. Everyone is looking for men when the actual rustler is a horse.
- DirectorD. Ross LedermanStarsWilliam GarganMarguerite ChurchillGene MorganPerry Travis (William Gargan) is a wise-cracking private detective-cum-amateur radio broadcaster who sets the plot in motion when he witnesses the murder of a scientist, Sir Conrad Stava (Egon Brecher). Lois Allen (Marguerite Churchill) is the murdered man's secretary who provides complications and romance.
- DirectorDorothy ArznerStarsRosalind RussellJohn BolesBillie BurkeA domineering woman marries a wealthy man for his money, and then uses her position to further her own ambitions for money and power.
- DirectorHarry LachmanStarsRalph BellamyMarian MarshThurston HallA criminal has plastic surgery done to change his identity. However, during the operation, he loses his memory; when he comes to after the surgery, he has a change of heart and decides to help people by becoming a doctor.
- DirectorEdward LudwigStarsJean ArthurJoel McCreaReginald OwenA reporter meets an actress whose producer is a presumed-dead thief, and stakes his reputation on predicting the next crime.
- DirectorCharles C. ColemanStarsCharles StarrettMary BlakeEdward CoxenA kindly rancher is willing to allow sheep to graze on his land. When the local cattle baron hears of this, he swipes the man's deed from a timid bank clerk, whom he quickly kills in order to frame the rancher.
- DirectorD. Ross LedermanStarsTim McCoyLuana WaltersWheeler OakmanFramed by Major Jenkins, Capt. Travers is kicked out of the Army. When Travers, now living with the Indians, is captured by Jenkins, the Indians attack the fort. With his men greatly outnumbered Colonel Burke realizes that Travers is their only chance.
- DirectorDavid SelmanStarsWalter C. KellyValerie HobsonEdith FellowsAnother of the "run-away" productions made by Columbia in Canada in the mid-30's designed to either comply with or to circumvent the British Quota Law of the period, with Walter C. Kelly and Edith Fellows the only American citizens in the credited cast. When her parents are drowned at sea, "Princess" Judy is adopted by a soft-hearted old sea captain, Captain Zack, and brought to live on his tugboat. Hard times come to the Captain because his boat is unable to compete with the faster and more modern tugboats of the Darling Navigation Company owned by Zack's old rival and enemy, Captain Darling. More misery follows when Judy breaks a leg and Zack can't pay her hospital bill. He borrows the needed money from Darling but is forced to agree to give up both his boat and docking space if he can't meet the note. Then welfare workers come along and decide Judy isn't receiving proper treatment or schooling living aboard the tugboat and they haul her off to an orphanage. No eyebrows are raised reference the agency that allowed a 60-year-old geezer to adopt a non-related 13-year-old girl and put her on a boat with three men. The primary difference between this story and "Captain January" is Shirley Temple was many years younger than Edith Fellows, and Guy Kibbee's lighthouse didn't float.
- DirectorDavid SelmanStarsMary BrianRussell HardieGeorge McKayA master of disguise poses as a wax figure to rob a safe of its jewels.
- DirectorCharles C. ColemanStarsBruce CabotMarguerite ChurchillCrawford WeaverPostal inspectors Frank Marshall and Slim Hewitt infiltrate a Ku Klux Klan-like vigilante group which has mailed a bomb to a senator. When the legion kills Nancy Foster's brother, she helps Frank and Slim in their investigation.
- DirectorD. Ross LedermanStarsJames DunnMarian MarshWynne GibsonA fast-talking Pitchman,Jim Keene, working the con-games on the streets, works himself up into an executive position of a large department store, with the aide of his shill, Mae. But the owner, Elmer Woods, of the department store has a blonde-beauty daughter, Peggy, who goes to work on him.
- DirectorRichard BoleslawskiStarsIrene DunneMelvyn DouglasThomas MitchellThe author of a controversially racy best-selling book tries to hide her celebrity status from her provincial small-town neighbors, who would be scandalized if they knew.
- DirectorWilliam NighStarsJack HoltEvelyn VenableGuinn 'Big Boy' WilliamsJohn Raglan is a seal hunter being hounded by hijackers, so he strands himself on an isolated island in the Bering Sea that is owned by a corporation. During a fierce sea-storm, Raglan rescues the passengers of a floundering ship, which includes the owner of the island, his daughter and her fiancée. The owner threatens to charge Ragland with poaching on private property, and then a gang of seal-skin thieves make an entrance.
- DirectorDavid SelmanStarsCharles StarrettIris MeredithSi JenksTired of being a cowboy movie star, Yorke quits the movies and buys a ranch so he can be a real cowboy. But just as in his films trouble arrives. This time it's bank robber Sampson and his two cronies.
- DirectorNorman Z. McLeodStarsBing CrosbyMadge EvansEdith FellowsLarry Poole, in prison on a false charge, promise an inmate that when he gets out he will look up and help out a family. The family turns out to be a young girl, Patsy Smith, and her elderly grandfather who need lots of help.
- DirectorFord BeebeStarsCharles StarrettFinis BartonJ.P. McGowanA cowboy out to find out who murdered his brother discovers that the killers may not be who he thought they were.
- DirectorSpencer Gordon BennetStarsRobert AllenIris MeredithPaul SuttonBob, a Ranger, and his pal Hal, are ordered to lure Jim Sayres and his gang of outlaws across the border from Shonto into the United States. Bob disguises himself as a bandit named "Smoke," while Hal gets friendly with Sayres and tells him that there is a thousand dollar reward for the capture of Smoke. As Bob enters the Shonto area, he rescues Sandra Cullen and her little brother Buzzy from a mad steer and is invited to remain at the herding camp as a guest of the Cullens. When Bob goes to Sayres' casino, Sayres' first-in-command, Sneed, tries to disarm him, but Bob is too quick for him. Sayres is impressed by Bob's abilities and hires him after firing Sneed, and Bob's first assignment is to rustle the Cullen herd. Sneed warns Cullen of the raid, and Bob, who has gone along with the raid in order to maintain his cover, is confronted by defending cowhands. Bob easily escapes; however, when Cullen sees him talking with Hal, he tells Sayres of their ruse. Sandra, who has fallen in love with Bob, defends him from her father, but both Bob and Hal are later captured by Sayres' gang. Bob and Hal learn that the gang is plotting to kidnap Sandra and Buzzy as protection against a posse, and the two lawmen escape and lead the gang across the border as planned. The outlaws are captured and Sandra and Bob are reunited.
- DirectorCharles C. ColemanStarsCharles StarrettDonald GraysonMarion WeldonRanch foreman Steve Braddock, who works at the Texas Ranch, oversees the herding of cattle from Texas to Dodge City, Kansas. Slim Grayson, the ranch owner's son, joins Steve on the trial to gain experience, which he desperately needs.
- DirectorGordon WilesStarsMary AstorCharles QuigleyThurston HallA manicurist witnesses a gangland murder. Realizing there was a witness to their crime, the killer tries to track her down and silence her.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsJean ArthurGeorge BrentLionel StanderWhen the co-owner of a secretarial school visits a magazine editor to find out why he runs through secretaries, she's mistaken for an applicant. Drawn to him, she accepts the position.
- DirectorD. Ross LedermanStarsRalph BellamyJoan PerryDouglass DumbrillePhyllis Fowler claims to be just a "simple little country girl" trying to get by in the wicked big-city, and she takes a big getting-by step when she pulls a scam that gains her a $17,000 diamond from an exclusive jewelry store. Soon, a private-detective, who has a dupe gem matching the stolen one, the police, and two gangster buddies of the jeweler are all racing each other to get the diamond back from Phyllis. The country-girl provides them all with a wild chase.
- DirectorDavid SelmanStarsCharles QuigleyRosalind KeithRita La RoyRudolph Mordini (Henry Mollison) is a Houdini-type magician who claims he couldn't have possibly murdered his wife, as he was enclosed, at the time of the killing, in a sealed locked-on-the-outside box at the bottom of the ocean. Cub newspaper reporter Larry McGill (Charles Quigley) scoops other reporters and the police by solving the crime himself.
- DirectorSpencer Gordon BennetStarsRobert AllenMartha TibbettsWalter MillerBull, the leader of a gang, disguises his men as Indians and leads them in an attack against a wealthy wagon train. A young boy, Buzzy, sneaks away, and summons the rangers. The arrival of the rangers disperses Bull's gang. Buzzy introduces his older sister, Alice, to Bob, a ranger, who has become his idol. Bob collects evidence that contradicts the claim of an Indian attack, and he goes undercover as a prospector. When Bob goes to the saloon in Hopi, he meets Bull and some of his men. Bob notices that the tassels on Bull's outfit match one that he found at the scene of the wagon train attack. After Bull challenges Bob to a fistfight, which Bob wins, Bull's gang captures Bob. Bull takes Bob's ranger badge, and sends it with a message to the other rangers. The message, presumably from Bob, diverts the rangers from escorting an incoming wagon train, which Bull and his men, dressed as Indians, plan to attack. Bob's horse, Pal, helps Bob escape his ropes and he prevents the train from entering a mountain pass that the outlaws have planted with dynamite. Instead, Bull and his gang are caught in their own explosion, and Bob holds Alice in his arms.
- DirectorLynn ShoresStarsMay RobsonIrene HerveyDean JaggerA painting in the possession of an old lady, Phoebe Tuttle, is rumored to be a genuine Rembrandt, and Fred Stevens, ace reporter of the "Dispatch" newspaper, is sent to cover the story. The painting he sees is genuine enough but it has been stolen and a copy substituted by the time Irene Donovan, Fred's beautiful rival at the competing "Courier" newspaper arrives, with a famous art critic. Mush to his surprise and dismay, Fred is imprisoned for the theft...and startling developments follow.
- DirectorFolmar BlangstedStarsCharles StarrettRosalind KeithEdward KeaneThe gold mine belonging to "Gun" Barlow (Edward Keane) is worked out, and Barlow attempts to buy adjacent land, with the hopes his gold vein will continue, from town postmistress Marion Saunders (Rosalind Keith) who, keeping a vow she made to her father on his death-bed, refuses. Marion also owns the local stage line, and Barlow, "Bull" Feeney (Al Bridge) and Steve Hickman (Ben Welden) hatch a plot to have mysterious accidents happen to the mail coach, hoping that Marion will give up and sell out. They hire two henchmen, Slim (George Chesebro) and Shorty (Art Mix), to do the dirty work and they wreck the coach by causing a huge rock-slide, and stage-driver Andy (Arthur Stone) is hurt and left to die. A mule skinner named Jim Bradley (Charles Starrett) comes along, picks up Andy and the mail and heads for town, where he tells Marion his name is "Skinner" and offers to run the mail while Andy is recovering. Barlow and Bull drop by and rag him about his mules, and they force a bet that their horses can beat his mule-team in a race. If he loses, "Skinner" will be put to work in Barlow's mine. He wants to get into the mine so he can look things over, as part of his job as a postal-inspector working undercover. Complications arise but none that Jim Bradley can't handle.
- DirectorErle C. KentonStarsRichard DixDolores Del RíoChester MorrisSubmarine officers Dorgan and Mason battle on land for the affections of dance-hall girl Carmen. She marries Dorgan but makes a play for Mason when her husband is on duty.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsMaurice ChevalierBetty StockfeldMargaret LockwoodIn London at the turn of the century, Gaston du Nerac is due to marry his fiancee, Joanna. When her father finds himself in financial trouble, Gaston reluctantly accepts help from a rival - on condition that he never sees Joanna again.
- DirectorRobert RiskinHarry LachmanStarsGrace MooreCary GrantAline MacMahonArtist Jimmy Hudson (Cary Grant) is stuck in Mexico unable to pay his hotel bill. Meanwhile, opera singer Louise Fuller (Grace Moore) is stuck in the same town, unable to return to the U.S. because of visa problems. The solution: Hudson agrees to marry Fuller, in return for which she pays him $2,000, which allows her to return to New York to resume her opera career. Hudson and Fuller continue to meet and trade barbs, but it's clear they are falling for each other. A highlight is when Fuller joins a 5-piece band to sing "Minnie the Moocher", the Cab Calloway signature number. True love appears to be thwarted by Fuller's career obligations and divorce papers are exchanged. But in the end, love is triumphant.
- DirectorLeon BarshaStarsCharles StarrettPeggy StratfordRobert MiddlemassTed Haley rides to his brother's ranch and finds him dying from a knife wound. The brother names Sol Rothert as his killer. Leaving the house, Ted doesn't notice a mysterious man watching him, but he sees a rider gallop up to the house and enter, and Ted rushes to investigate. The rider, later identified as Adele Rothert,the young, eastern-raised niece of Sol Rothert, stages a gun battle with Ted and gets away. Ted rides to the nearest town, where he gets into a clash with Moose Nelson and Ike Britt before the sheriff intervenes. The sheriff tells Ted that Rothert could not have killed his brother, as Rothert has been a cripple for years, unable to move from his wheelchair. It isn't long before everybody but Ted, Adele and the Sheriff knows that Rothert is indeed the killer, leader of the gang and not a cripple.
- DirectorGordon WilesStarsVirginia BruceMelvyn DouglasReginald DennyA triangle romance involving Gloria Hudson (Virginia Bruce), a gold-digger from the wrong side of the tracks, a socialite, Carol Coulter (Leona Maricle), and Richard Stark (Melvyn Douglas), a wealthy artist. Fritz Eagan (Reginald Denny), a well-bred drunk and a pert soubrette, Nan LaRugue (Pert Kelton) also get involved.