In a story by real-life warden Lewis E. Lawes of Sing Sing prison, Dick Foran plays wannabe boxer and part time crooner Jerry Davis. Jerry is framed for the murder of his crooked manager and is sent to prison for manslaughter. John Litel plays Father Connor, the prison chaplain who helps Jerry turn his life around. June Travis is the love interest.

Familiar faces: Ward Bond (Bert the cop from It's a Wonderful Life) plays the murdered manager; John Hamilton (TV's Perry White) plays the warden; Jonathan Hale (Mr. Dithers in the Blondie movies) plays the governor.

Ward Bond

Jonathan Hale

John Hamilton

A cool close-up of a gun

Ronald Reagan plays attorney Neil Dillon in maybe not his first leading role, but certainly one of his first. It is a solid B-movie as the evocative title would suggest. Jane Bryan plays Connie Heath who (through a series of unfortunate coincidences) is accused of a series of crimes. Here's how it went: Connie's father rules his household with an iron fist and forbids Connie from buying a new dress to go dancing. Connie's co-worker Hilda convinces her to go out on the sly and loans her a dress to wear. Hilda is a fun-loving rule-beaker, and has actually "borrowed" the dress from the dry cleaners where both girls work.  At the Hula Club, Neil is out with his girlfriend Susan Hayward who realizes that Connie is wearing her dress. To make matters worse, the dress is damaged during the evening. The next day Connie is accused and fired. Hilda refuses to 'fess up and leaves town.  Neil turns out to be the attorney for the insurance company responsible for replacing the dress. He makes good the loss out of his own pocket so that the insurance company will not press charges against Connie, to whom he has taken a shine. Connie decides to strike out on her own in a different town where she hopes to earn enough to pay Neil back. In this different town, she runs across Hilda and stops to give her a dressing down. Unfortunately, Hilda is at that moment playing getaway driver for a bank heist, and Connie gets caught up in that. Hilda and her bank robber boyfriend are sent to prison, but Connie manages to convince the probation board that she is relatively innocent and is given probation. She travels back to her hometown where she finds that Neil is now Deputy District Attorney, and they become engaged. Hilda is eventually released on parole and returns to blackmail Connie. Hilda's boyfriend escapes from prison and causes even more trouble. Things turn out okay in the end.

"She's wearing my dress!"

Look out! Your dress is caught in the taxi door!

Familiar face: John Hamilton (Perry White to George Reeves's Superman) as the Police Chief

John Hamilton with the accused women

Mr. Wong, Detective with Boris Karloff.  Chinese amateur sleuth Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) is approached by businessman Sam Dayton (John Hamilton, who was Perry White to George Reeves' Superman) because he feels his life is in danger.  The following day Dayton is the victim of a classic "locked room" murder.  Dayton's two business partners, Meisel and Wilk, are prime suspects because they have all just signed a tontine amendment to a business venture - in the event any of the three men dies, his interest in the venture reverts to the survivors. Another suspect is Carl Roemer, uncompensated inventor of the chemical involved in the business venture.  Over the course of the investigation, Meisel and Wilk both succumb to the same method of murder while Roemer is in police custody.  Mr. Wong calmly and pleasantly interviews suspects and discovers evidence, and eventually solves the case.

The film was made by Monogram Pictures, one of the "poverty row" low budget movie production studios.  Mr. Wong was a character in a popular series of stories from Collier's Magazine.  You can watch this movie in it's entirety on the internet at http://www.archive.org/details/Mr._Wong_Detective, but I'm betting you won't.

"Good Evening, Mr. Dayton. I am James Lee Wong"