William Gargan

  • Hal Roach – The Housekeeper’s Daughter (1939)

    1931-1940ComedyCrimeHal RoachScrewball ComedyUSA

    Synopsis
    A gangster’s moll runs home to mother, with reporters and amateur detectives hot on her tail. Cast: Joan Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, William Gargan, Victor Mature.Read More »

  • Anthony Mann – Strange Impersonation (1946)

    Anthony Mann1941-1950DramaFilm NoirUSA

    Quote:
    A research scientist conducting experiments on a new anaesthetic finds herself being blackmailed by a women she accidentally knocked down with her car; the woman wasn’t hurt, but a scheming attorney has convinced her she can get a lot of money for the “accident.” Meanwhile, the scientist’s research assistant, who is in love with her boss’ boyfriend, arranges for an explosion in the laboratory that disfigures the scientist’s face, in order to take the boyfriend away from her. The scientist has plastic surgery to make her look like the woman who tried to blackmail her – who while struggling with the scientist fell out of a window and was killed – and determines to get back her boyfriend and punish her scheming assistant.Read More »

  • Cy Endfield – The Argyle Secrets (1948)

    Cy Endfield1941-1950DramaMysteryUSA

    Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
    Only faintly related to the old stage play The Argyle Case, The Argyle Secrets is based on a half-hour radio program originally heard on CBS’ Suspense. In the immediate postwar years, several above-suspicion Americans attempt to hide their past collaborations with the Nazis. Reporter William Gargan refuses to let sleeping dogs lie, however, and tracks down some of these fifth columnists. The film’s “Macguffin” is a set of incriminating papers, which are stolen early in the proceedings. The supporting cast of this Film Classics programmer includes future Danny Thomas Show co-star Marjorie Lord and former “Dick Tracy” portrayer Ralph Byrd. The Argyle Secrets was written and directed by one-time MGM film editor Cyril Endfield, later the man behind the megaphone on Zulu (1964).Read More »

  • Stephen Roberts – The Story of Temple Drake [+ Extras] (1933)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaStephen RobertsUSA

    Loosely adapted from William Faulkner’s controversial novel Sanctuary, this notorious pre-Code melodrama stars Miriam Hopkins as Temple Drake, the coquettish granddaughter of a respected small-town judge. When a boozehound date strands her at a bootleggers’ hideout, Temple is subjected to an act of nightmarish sexual violence and plunged into a criminal underworld that threatens to swallow her up completely. Steeped in southern-gothic shadows by influential cinematographer Karl Struss and shot through with moral ambiguity, The Story of Temple Drake is a harrowing vision of sin and salvation that boasts an astonishing lead performance from the fiery Hopkins, whose passage through the stations of terror, trauma, and redemption is a true tour de force of screen acting.Read More »

  • S. Sylvan Simon – The Crime of Doctor Hallet (1938)

    1931-1940DramaS. Sylvan SimonUSA

    This underrated feature stars Ralph Bellamy as Dr. Paul Hallet, working in the jungles of Sumatra with associate Jack Murray (William Gargan), experimenting on monkeys in search of a cure for red fever. Enter a much younger doctor, Phillip Saunders (John “Dusty” King), whose arrival is met with disapproval by the much older Hallet, who consigns the newcomer to a life of cleaning test tubes. Accidentally stumbling on a possible cure, Saunders tries to share his discovery with the unresponsive Hallet, then decides to conduct his own private research without the others knowledge. When Hallet arrives at his own solution, the eager Saunders inoculates himself with red fever, trusting that Hallet’s cure will save him, but it fails. Read More »

  • James P. Hogan – A Desperate Chance for Ellery Queen (1942)

    1941-1950James P. HoganMysteryUSA


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    IMDB Review.
    Ellery Queen is about to leave for San Francisco, where his new book will be set, when he is visited by a woman who asks him to find out if her husband is alive or dead; supposedly he drowned in a boat accident a few years ago, but someone who looks a lot like him was recently seen in SF. Ellery takes Nikki Porter with him and has her impersonating the missing man’s wife, to bring him out into the open. The plan works, but a case of embezzlement and a murder bring Inspector Queen to SF as well, and guess who the chief suspect for both crimes is: the man Ellery was looking for! “A Desperate Chance For Ellery Queen” had the potential to be one of the best entries in the series, but it’s a little too messily put together to achieve that. Kudos, however, to Lilian Bond for her sexy femme fatale. I think it’s the first time in the series where another woman steals the show from Margaret Lindsay.Read More »

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