Rookie

 

 (youtube)

POLICE ROOKIE-1940-Criminal "The Dutch Man" gets off again. Veteran cop Mike Hannigan (Richard Homans) goes undercover to find "the big boss" who's running things. He finds some evidence in a warehouse and is shot but chases off the gunmen. Back home, with his wife (Mary Gordon; Mrs. Hudson in the Universal Sherlock Holmes series), and their son Stevie (Gordon Jones), they have a fight over Stevie not wanting to go to the police academy. Stevie's friend Joe Kelly (Craig Reynolds) stops by and Mike is killed when a bomb blows up his car. Stevie and Joe decide to join the police department and catch Mike's killer. Mike passes the exam but Joe fails. 

Mike gets into hot water with his boss later on while investigating on his own. Following a lead to a nightclub, he meets a talkative floozy (Veda Ann Borg) while Joe kind of romances Mike's girl (Joyce Compton). Mike eventually discovers his dad's killer but almost makes a big mistake. It ends kind of tragically. 

This low budget crime drama was directed with speed by the super-fast Sam Newfield. One of 14 movies he directed in 1940! PRC (Newfield's brother Sigmund Neufeld produced most of their films) originally released POLICE ROOKIE as I TAKE THIS OATH. The title was changed upon a re-release. Of course, star Gordon Jones later played “Mike the cop” on the Abbott & Costello TV show. A few well-known character actors appear: Keene Duncan, Arthur O'Connell and Harry Harvey.

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PRC Murder

 

 (imdb)

THE LADY CONFESSES-1945-Larry Craig's wife Norma (Barbara Slater) returns after disappearing 7 years before. Larry (Hugh Beaumont) had planned to marry his girlfriend Vicki (top billed Mary Beth Hughes; I ACCUSE MY PARENTS) but Norma says that will never happen while she's alive. A few hours later she's murdered. Police Captain Brown (Emmett Vogan) investigates with his prime suspects being Harry, Vicki and club owner Lucky (Edmund McDonald) who may have been having an affair with Mrs. C. Later after a nightclub singer is killed, we learn who the murderer is. 

This small budget kind of clever PRC murder mystery was one of 11 movies directed by Sam Newfield in 1945. He also made WHITE PONGO the same year.

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Sheriff Billy The Kid

 

 (wikipedia)

SHERIFF OF SAGE VALLEY-1942-Billy the Kid (Buster Crabbe) and his two cohorts Fuzzy (Al St. John) and Jeff (Dave O'Brien; REEFER MADNESS; CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT) become the law in Sage Valley when they save a stagecoach from being robbed and the sheriff is murdered. They take on Sloane (Charles King), who runs the local crooked casino and his gang but the real boss is Kansas Ed, Billy's twin brother (also Crabbe) who kidnaps Billy and impersonates him for a while. Billy's buddies save him and they stop Kansas but are almost hanged anyway. 

This PRC western quickie was directed by...who else but the speed demon himself Sam Newfield using his frequent alias, Sherman Scott. His brother Sigmund Neufeld produced. According to my (not so reliable) calculations Buster Crabbe played a character called Billy the Kid in 36 westerns!

Read about the real outlaw: Billy the Kid | Biography, Death, & Facts | Britannica

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J'Accuse....My Parents

 

I ACCUSE MY PARENTS-1944-Over aged high school student Jimmy Wilson (Robert Lowell) wins an essay contest about this wonderful parents and home life but surprise! Jimmy's mom (Vivienne Osborne) is a lush and his father (John Miljan) is a callous louse who likes to gamble. They fight a lot and have wild cocktail parties. When mom shows up at school drunk Jimmy drops out and gets a job as a shoe salesman. His first customer is Kitty Reed (Mary Beth Hughes), a nightclub singer and it's love at first sight. 

After getting the brush off from his folks he visits Kitty at the club. There she introduces him to her boss Mr. Blake (George Meeker) who is actually sweet on Kitty. They celebrate Jimmy's birthday together. Later Jimmy goes to work for the sleazy Blake making dubious pick ups while romancing Kitty. When Jimmy is driving the getaway car during a robbery/killing, he finds out exactly what he's doing for Blake who tries to eliminate him. 

Jimmy gets away and winds up working in a hamburger joint for nice guy Al (George Lloyd). Meanwhile Kitty sings a sorry ballad (it's one of three tunes she does) and searches for her boo. Jimmy decides to go back and make Blake turn himself in. He and Blake have a tussle over a gun and Blake is killed. Jimmy, telling his story in flashbacks to a judge gets off lightly, wins Kitty and gets to hear his parents lectured by the judge. 

This nutty innocuous morality tale (that's totally entertaining) from PRC was produced by Sam Katzman and directed by the workaholic Sam Newfield who made eleven other features in 1944 including NABONGA and THE MONSTER MAKER.

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Nabonga!

NABONGA-1944-A crook named Stockton (Herbert Rawlinston) is fleeing the police with his young daughter Doreen (Jackie Newfield). During a storm they crash land in the jungle. Stockwell kills the pilot and Doreen finds a wounded gorilla (it was shot by the search party). Later in a jungle village, a mysterious guy named Ray Gorman (Buster Crabbe) is looking for a “white witch” said to live in some forbidden mountains. He and a local named Tobo (Prince Modupe) go off to find her. 

Meanwhile bad guy Karl (Barton McLane) and his moll Maria (Fifi D'Orsay) lead their own safari to find her. Of course the witch is the now grown up Doreen (Julie London) who has a gorilla (named Samson played by Crash Corrigan) for her protector and Gorman is looking for the money Stockton stole from his father's company causing his old man to commit suicide. Unfortunately when the duo find the plane, the gorilla kills Tobo and later traps Gorman in a cave but Doreen saves him. Despite the presence of the killer 'rilla the dialogue between Doreen and Gorman is intentionally humorous. Maria arrives on the scene making Doreen jealous and helping Gorman build a trap to cage Samson. When it works Gorman combs Doreen’s cave looking for the loot and Maria gets Karl. Later Karl gets his paws on the loot and leaves Gorman for dead (after they have a sped up fist fight). He dumps Maria when he meets Doreen. Dumb cluck Maria releases Samson from the trap and it kills her. It's then shot and killed by Karl but not before Samson kills him. This PRC production is very slow going and not much happens. 

Director Sam Newfield also made THE MONSTER MAKER and I ACCUSE MY PARENTS the same year (along with with 9 other features!). It's his young daughter who plays Doreen as a child. As was usual his brother Sigmund Neufeld was the producer.

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Cowboy Musical

TERROR OF TINY TOWN-1938-Everyone's favorite little peoples western begins with a narrator addressing the audience.

Billy Curtis is the cheerful hero Buck Lawson. He battles cattle rustler Bat Haines ("Litte Billy" Rhodes), a really mean guy who's trying to cause a range war between Buck's father (John Bambury) and another rancher named Tex Preston (Billy Platt). The highlight for me are the very bizarre musical numbers but it has all the elements of a regular low budget western: shoot outs, runaway stagecoach, crooked sheriff, hired gunslingers, outrageous make-up, bad acting, chiched script. The funniest character is Tex's German cook. Buck (who sings and plays guitar) falls in love with Tex's niece (Yvonne Moray) to complicate matters. Later Haines kills Tex and Buck is blamed. He's almost lynched but Haines' neglected girlfriend (Nita Krebs) clears him. In the climax Buck and Hanes duke it out in a cabin while dynamite burns in the basement.

Some of the cast would appear in THE WIZARD OF OZ the next year.

TERROR was directed by San Newfield who typically made 15 other features in 1938!

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Pongo!

WHITE PONGO-1945-In the unexplored swamps of East Africa, a white guy is tied up while natives dance around a fire. A white gorilla (Crash Corrigan) watches the festivities and gets angry when he sees the chief's wife with a  (real) pet chimp on a lease. The captive guy escapes (with the help of an older white guy who also seems to be a prisoner) but sticks around long enough to see the gorilla trample the chief and rescue the chimp.  The captive guy is rescued but dying of jungle fever. British explorer Sir Henry (Gordon Richards) and his daughter Pamela (Maris Wrixton from THE APE) arrive just in time to hear the last of his rantings. They deduce that the gorilla is White Pongo, the legendary missing link! They set out on an expedition. Although one of the white hunters is Clive (Michael Dyne), a "suitor" of Pamela's, she prefers their hired hunter/guide, the mysterious hard nosed Bishop (Richard Fraser). Also along is Baxter (George Lloyd from I ACCUSE MY PARENTS also by PONGO's director) talking in an exaggerated English accent. The group sets a trap for Pongo then stands around talking, waiting for something to happen. Bishop gets into hot water when he's caught kissing Pamela. It turns out that their German guide Kroegert (Al Eben who had a small role in CITIZEN KANE) is actually after gold and he and Clive team up to betray the rest but Bishop is actually working for the US secret service and is on to the German's shenanigans. After Kroegert kills Clive and threatens Pamela he's killed by Pongo who takes a shine to Pam and takes her back to his lair. He scares a lion away and fights a regular (man in a suit) gorilla in defense of his fur-less love. At the end the group captures Pongo, puts him in a bamboo cage and takes him back to the US!

WHITE PONGO resembles another PRC production from the same year THE WHITE GORILLA (also with Corrigan in the simian lead) which is even more cheaply assembled. Most of it is silent movie footage!

Speedy Sam Newfield made 12 other features in 1945. I wonder if he stopped for lunch?

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Just In Time For Halloween

THE MAD MONSTER-1942-Dr. Lorenzo Cameron (the great George Zucco) talks to a caged wolf in his lab then turns a cheerful, dimwitted farm hand named Pedro (Glenn Strange) into a scary snarling wolf-man (in overalls). He then addresses an imaginary panel of doctors who ridiculed him and banished his ass from his chair at a university. They didn't like his idea of creating an army of wolf-men to fight wars. Cameron vows revenges.  Pedro is very friendly especially toward the mad doctor's daughter Lenora (Ann Nagel). "It must be great to be educated", Pedro says to the doc. Cameron later lets Pedro the wolf wander the foggy swamp. Although Cameron wants to use the monster to get revenge on his former colleagues the wolf monster's first victim is a little girl. Cameron gets ready to visit and execute his first victim Prof. Blaine (Robert Strange). Meanwhile Lenora's reporter boyfriend Tom (top billed Johnny Downs) talks to Blaine about the possibility of a giant lizard being the murderer. Later after a long scene leading up to the killing of Blaine, Pedro transforms without the aid of the doctor's formula. Tom comes by looking for a story but the doctor turns him away. Later he tricks another doctor into taking a drive with Pedro just as Tom has organized a small hunting party, Then Lenora snoops around her dad's lab she runs smack into the wolf man. Amid a fire, creation turns against creator and a fire destroys everything.

Despite being made by PRC, the lowest of the low budget studios, THE MAD MONSTER has it's moments. The highlight is George Zucco's performance as the totally rational, totally mad Dr. Cameron. He really loses it at times. Zucco made appearances in many bigger budgeted Hollywood films but spend a lot of time at places like PRC and would go on to make a few more for the company like the vampire tinged DEAD MEN WALK the next year. Glenn Strange is ok as the unwitting pawn in his employer's cruel experiments and as the wolf-man he's downright terrifying! Especially when he's wandering through the foggy swamp. Ann Nagel had previously been a successful contract player at Warner Bros. but her career took a nosedive after her marriage to actor Ross Alexander. She later had un-credited roles in MIGHTY JOE JOE and the excellent low budget film noir ARMORED CAR ROBBERY. Johnny Downs was once a member of "Our Gang". Henry Hall & Mae Busch also have  small roles.

This is by far one of the best made movies by super speedy Sam Newfield who made a staggering 20 movies in 1942 (some times using pseudonyms)!

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Monster Maker

THE MONSTER MAKER-1944-This PRC horror film isn’t bad considering it’s low budget restrictions. The underrated J. Carroll Naish is Dr. Markoff, a crazy phony doctor working on a cure for agromegly (the film calls it a glandular disease but I think they were basing it on the real bone deforming disease that actor Rondo Hatton suffered from). He’s obsessed with the daughter (Wanda McKay who was in VOODOO MAN the same year) of a famous concert pianist (Ralph Morgan), who he thinks is the reincarnation of his dead wife. Markoff injects Morgan’s character with the disease so he can gain control of the daughter (who’s rejected him). Morgan becomes the mad doc’s deformed prisoner but in the end is saved by Markoff’s long-suffering assistant (Tala Burel).

Glenn Strange is Markoff’s henchman and there’s even a phony gorilla thrown in for good measure. Morgan’s make-up is pretty good but the climax is disappointing.

Besides MM director Sam Newfield made a staggering 11 more movies in 1944 including I ACCUSE MY PARENTS and NABONGA. 1944 was also a busy year for the prolific Naish. He was in 8 other movies including HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (which featured Strange as The Monster) and DRAGON SEED. He ended his career in Al Adamson’s FRANKENSTEIN VS. DRACULA (1970).

Make-up man Maurice Seiderman worked on CITIZEN KANE and TOUCH OF EVIL for Orson Welles and BRIDE OF THE MONSTER for Ed Wood!

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