Author Archive: Retro

A cocky young pilot, at the urging of his girlfriend, takes a nice, “safe” job at the bank where her father is president.

Proof positive that Reliable Pictures’ Skull and Crown was filmed several years before its 1938 New York premiere is the presence in the cast of former silent-screen leading man James Murray, who died in 1936. The star of the show is Rin-Tin-Tin Jr., who among other things helps to break up a gang of smugglers. Another silent veteran, Jack Mower, plays the chief crook, but despite his bulk and muscle he’s no match for our “Rinty”. Nominal human hero Regis Toomey benefits greatly from the dog’s deductive skills, winning the hand of heroine Molly Day as a result. Allegedly based on a story by James Oliver Curwood, Skull and Crown is cheap and tacky even by Reliable’s unexacting standards. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Twenty-four hours elapse on the stoop of a Hell’s Kitchen tenement as a microcosm of the American melting pot interacts with each other during a summer heatwave.

A free-spirited college girl insists on carrying on her romance with a young mobster, scandalizing the town and going against the wishes of her father, the town’s most prominent attorney–and who has his own reasons for not wanting to attract too much attention to him and his family.

During a boxing match a fighter accidentally kills his opponent in the ring. Afterwards he finds himself falling in love with the dead man’s sister.

It’s bad enough that Clarice Kendall Andrews, Paula’s irresponsible sister, comes home from celebrating Mardi Gras and drunkenly mentions that she got married during the festivities. What’s worse is the fact that Paula knows that Clarice is still married to an equally irresponsible gigolo. Paula learns that the man Clarice married, Stephen Cormack, has skipped the country and his lawyer, thinking that Paula is Clarice, offers the older woman $5000 to annul the marriage. Paula’s lawyer convinces her to pretend she’s Cormack’s husband until he can get Clarice’s marriage annulled. Paula moves into Cormack’s house and discovers he has two teen-aged children who consider her a gold-digger after their father’s fortune. Meanwhile, Clarice’s husband refuses to have their marriage annulled and tries to blackmail Paula into giving him to $10,000 for his silence.

In this independently-produced film, Tom Willoughby is one of several seafarers shipwrecked on a tropical island. A law unto itself, the island is crawling with murderers, smugglers, forgers, and at least one potential rapist. Tom takes it upon himself to shield heroine Helen Carsons and island lass Taino from harm.

A Man is found murdered at the Lido Country Club and, although several people are under suspicion, including Elaine and Willis Purdy, the police can not find the murderer; but private detective Clay Holt, and his pretty secretary Peggy Cummings unearth the vital clue and bring the killer to justice.

Two pals (Harry Gribbon, Andy Clyde) try to prevent the marriage of one’s daughter.