Wild RKO pre-Code gem Are These Our Children? (1931) examines Prohibition-era youth gone wild. Includes brief biography of star Eric Linden. Also co-star Arline Judge.
Wild Boys of the Road (1933) Meets “Boy And Girl Tramps of America”
Contemporary reaction to William A. Wellman’s Wild Boys of the Road (1933), plus writer Danny Ahearn, and a peek at Thomas Minehan’s study “Boy and Girl Tramps of America.”
Show Them No Mercy (1935) Starring Rochelle Hudson and Cesar Romero
A band of kidnappers return to their hideout with $200,000 in ransom money in Show Them No Mercy. They find a stranded family at the house and have no choice but to hold them captive until they make sure the ransom money is good.
Richard Dix Reckons Himself The Public Defender (RKO, 1931)
Richard Dix is a harmless playboy until trouble calls and with the assistance of Boris Karloff and Paul Hurst he becomes The Reckoner in RKO’s The Public Defender (1931).
RKO’s Hell’s Highway (1932) Beats Other Chain Gang Movie to Theaters
It’s tempting to call RKO’s Hell’s Highway (1932) a knockoff on I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. However the Richard Dix movie came first. A long essay looking at Hell’s Highway, Dix, the Etude Ethiopian Chorus and that other Chain Gang movie.
Rochelle Hudson’s Uneven Career Featuring Will Rogers and Way Down East
A biography of 1930’s screen ingenue Rochelle Hudson focusing on a career which saw her work with Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, and Shirley Temple, plus star in a remake of Way Down East and eventually come back to the big screen to play a small role in East of Eden.
