Florence Rice

  • Arthur Dreifuss – Boss of Big Town (1942)

    1941-1950Arthur DreifussCrimeDramaUSA

    Diligent City Market official Michael Lynn resists overtures by well-to-do gangster Kenneth Craige to fix produce and dairy prices during wartime. Lynn seems unable to stop the resulting sabotage and violence on the part of the mob to bring the farmers and wholesalers into line and so is fired by city attorney Jeffrey Moore. After Lynn’s assistant Bram Hart is murdered for going to the authorities, Lynn takes responsibility for his daughter and feigns co-operation with Craige in order to discover the real boss of the criminal enterprise. Lynn unmasks Moore as the corrupt head, and the conspiracy is exposed and foiled.Read More »

  • Edwin L. Marin – Sworn Enemy (1936)

    1931-1940CrimeDramaEdwin L. MarinUSA

    A law student poses as a fight promoter to catch a notorious gangster.Read More »

  • Edward Buzzell – Fast Company (1938)

    1931-1940ComedyEdward BuzzellMysteryUSA

    Plot:
    Joel Sloane is a rare book dealer and part time detective. He finds stolen or lost rare books for the insurance companies and gets a reward for their return. But this is a little different. Otto Brockler, a rare book dealer with questionable ethics, has been murdered. The list of suspects is long.Read More »

  • George B. Seitz – Under Cover of Night (1937)

    1931-1940CrimeGeorge B. SeitzMysteryUSA

    Plot Synopsis:
    For a studio specializing in glossy soap operas, costume pictures and musicals, MGM made an inordinate number of “B”-grade crime thrillers in 1937. The first on the docket that year was Under Cover of Night, starring Edmund Lowe as intrepid sleuth Christopher Cross. This time the killer is an overachieving psychopath who strikes only at night, and is unaware that he is a murderer. Thus, the question here is not “who done it,” but rather — when will Christopher Cross catch on to what the audience knows almost from the beginning. The best performance is rendered by Henry Daniell as the respectable college professor who literally moonlights as the killer. MGM would resurrect the “Christopher Cross” character as a female private eye (played by Joyce Compton) in 1939’s Sky Murder. by Hal EricksonRead More »

  • Tod Browning – Miracles for Sale (1939)

    1931-1940ThrillerTod BrowningUSA

    Quote:

    Directed by Tod Browning (Dracula (1931) & Freaks (1932)), this film features a host of character actors led by Robert Young as retired magician Mike Morgan, who now sells tricks to the other performers in his former trade (hence the film’s title). Frank Craven plays Young’s father, having just come to NYC to visit his son, and provides the film’s comic relief. Judy Barclay (Florence Rice) is being chased and comes to Morgan for help, whose assistance becomes the story, which plays out confusingly and frenetically during this picture’s 71 minutes. Henry Hull as Houdini-like Dave Duvallo and Lee Bowman (among others, some listed later) also appear in this Harry Ruskin, Marion Parsonnet, and James Edward Grant screenplay (based on Clayton Rawson’s novel).Read More »

  • Raoul Walsh – Under Pressure (1935)

    1931-1940ActionDramaRaoul WalshUSA

    Two members of a crew of “sandhogs”, men who work on an underwater tunnel project, battle each other over the same woman and a rival team of sandhogs to see who will finish their half of the tunnel first, with the winning team getting more money and guaranteed future work.Read More »

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