Ludwig Stössel

DILLINGER Newsreels are being shown to an audience in a theater. At the end of the film, a master of ceremonies introduces to the crowd the person you have been wanting to see. An older man of countrified appearance and manner introduces himself as the father of John Dillinger. He says that John had a normal childhood and adolescence, but soon after he left his small town to seek fortune elsewhere. In a manner reminiscent of Orson Welles Citizen Kane, the rest of the film shows crucial scenes in the life of John Dillinger. A young man, John Dillinger and his date are having drinks at a booth in a bar. The girl says she wants two more drinks. The waiter insists that the drinks must be paid for in advance. John evidently does not have the money, tries to pay by check, is refused, and angrily wants to drag the girl somewhere else. The girl refuses to leave. John walks out of the bar and holds up a candy shop, pretending to have a gun in his pocket, and takes the cash from the till. In his room, later, he counts the money to be seven dollars and twenty cents. In the next sequence, John goes to see a movie. On the way in he is attracted to the girl at the box office, who returns his glances with interest. On his way out, he sees the girl counting money. Once again pretending to have a gun, he takes all the cash. He is caught by police but the box office girl does not want to finger him from the police lineup, despite the fact that she had identified him from a photograph. John is taken to a jail, where an older man is his cell mate. After initial friction, they strike up a relationship, and the older man, also a holdup robber, introduces him to four others of his gang. They become pals of sorts. Johns jail sentence is relatively short, and he promises to spring the others free after he first comes out of jail. In a sequence of economically filmed scenes, John frees his friends, they become bank robbers, and pull a long series of robberies, each more daring than the rest. In the course of time, he replaces the older robber Specs Green who had been his cell mate as the leader and brain of the operations. When things get too hot, they hole up in a remote country inn where one of the gang had grown up, raised by a kindly couple. At one point, flush with money, John goes back to find the girl that he liked from the movie house, seduces her with expensive gifts, such as a diamond bracelet priced at eight thousand dollars, and brings her to the farm hideout as an additional member of the gang. John is caught and sent to jail. While in prison, he buys from a man in the next cell a piece of wood and a whittling knife, with which he fashions a wooden replica of a hand gun. Using the replica hand gun, he manages to escape by tricking the guard. Some time later, the gang is so well known that they decide it is too risky to keep holding up banks, so they hold up a train that is carrying a load of money instead. Eventually the police authorities sniff out where they are hiding and are about to surround and storm the farm hideout. The tremendous pressure turns the gang members against each other. John shoots and kills Specs Green, and also the kindly couple who have been hiding them, when John finds them trying to phone for help. When the girl plans to leave the farm in the car with a younger gang member, John intercepts the gang member and axes him to death, successfully escaping from the inn with the girl. Because posters offering 15000 dollar reward for his capture are everywhere, John and the girl remain in hiding for months. The girl gets very tired of their existence, says she wants to have fun. John has grown a mustache so she says he will not be recognized. But they are running out of money. The girl decides she has no future, contacts the police and eventually gets John to take her to a movie. She is wearing a red dress so the police will recognize her. As they leave the movie house, she says she wants to buy some candy and leaves John alone. The police move in, and John is killed in a shootout. The policemen examine his pockets as he lies dead, and find seven dollars and twenty cents in his pocket.

NOTE: Sequel to "House of Frankenstein" (1944) Dr Franz Edelman [Onslow Stevens] of Visaria has a reputation for treating patients with strange diseases. Consequently, Count Dracula [John Carradine] (known to the outside world as Baron Latos) and Larry Talbot [Lon Chaney, Jr] (aka The Wolfman) come to Edelman in search of cures for their problems. After securing a blood sample from Dracula, Edelman finds that his blood contains an unknown parasite. Edelman thinks he can create an antitoxin and administer it through a series of blood transfusions. In the meantime, Dracula can sleep in his coffin in the basement. Talbot doesn't fare as well. When he calls, Edelman is unable to see him, so Talbot races to the village jail and asks to be confined in a cell. When Edelman arrives, he is able to personally witness the transformation of Talbot into the Wolfman and agrees to attempt a cure. After examining Talbot, Edelman announces that pressure on his brain is causing his glands to secrete an abnormal supply of the hormone that causes him to transform. Fortunately, in an attempt to help his nurse Nina [Jane Adams] become cured of her hunchback, Edelman has been working on a mold which softens calcium salts (i.e., bone). This mold might also be used to reshape Talbot's skull and take some of the pressure off his brain. Unfortunately, it will take at least a month to produce enough of the mold for the operations. Distraught at the thought of becoming the Wolfman one more time, Talbot attempts suicide by jumping from a cliff. Thinking that the rushing river below might have washed Talbot into some nearby caves, Edelman is lowered into the caves where he discovers perfect conditions for growing the molds and convinces Talbot to return for treatment. He also discovers the body of the Frankenstein monster [Glenn Strange] as well as a secret passageway between the cave and his laboratory. In the meantime, Dracula has become smitten with Edelman's other nurse, the luscious Miliza Morelle [Martha O'Driscoll], and tries to entice her into joining him. But Nina oversees the Baron casting no reflection in a mirror and reports this observation to Edelman who rushes to the garden in time to save Miliza. Edelman tells Dracula that another transfusion must be done immediately. This time, however, Dracula reverses the blood flow so that some of his blood contaminates Edelman. When Edelman realizes what Dracula has done, he moves Dracula's coffin into the sunlight and destroys him, releasing the hold on Miliza. But now Edelman starts transforming. During the day he is himself, but at night he surges with the urge to kill. Knowing that his time is limited, Edelman operates on Talbot. That night, from his wheelchair by the window, Talbot sees Edelman hop a cart. Edelman subsequently kills the cart driver, and the villagers follow him home thinking that he is Talbot. The police interview both Edelman and Talbot but agree that Talbot is physically incapable of such activity. Talbot has put two and two together and promises Edelman that he will say nothing until Edelman is able to operate on Nina. That night, however, Edelman reawakens the Frankenstein monster. Nina tries to stop him, but Edelman strangles her. Talbot shoots Edelman, and the Frankenstein monster turns on Talbot and begins destroying the laboratory. The monster is killed in a fire, and Talbot walks off into the moonlight with Miliza. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

In Paris a killer is strangling young women and dumping their dead bodies into the Seine and is nicknamed "Bluebeard "after the classic French story of the man who murdered his wives. As women group together to travel in the evening streets, the outdoor puppet theatre of Gaston (John Carradine) becomes a popular place for people to convene. When Lucille (Jean Parker) sees Gaston's puppets she is enthralled and an emotional bond is formed with the performance artist. When Gaston returns home waiting for him is a former love Renee (Sonia Sorel) who is jealous that Gaston is interested in Lucille. In a calculated cold act Gaston strangles Renee and dumps her body into the river. As Gaston's relationship with Lucille develops police Inspector Lefevre (Nils Asther) who is the fiancé of Lucille's sister Francine (Teala Loring) and when the investigation leads them to a suspicious art dealer Lamarte (Ludwig Stossel) who may be a front for a murderous painter, Francine agrees to model for the artist who turns out to be Gaston. The police believe they have their man and close in but can they catch the killer before he kills again?

Friends Bill Morley and Rosey Blake both spy debutante Penelope Craig at an American Red Cross blood drive and are attracted. Bill, a playboy flyer, pretends to be a doctor in order to meet Penny and get her address and phone number for his "little black book." That night, Bill and Rosey crash Penny's parents' anniversary party at the Craigs' home, and to get even, Penny exposes Bill's deception by introducing him to some old family friends: hypochondriac Mrs. Cartwright and physician Dr. Crane. Before he leaves her parents' home, however, Bill kisses Penny, and she immediately falls in love with him. Penny then follows Bill to a Burbank nightclub, which is near the Vega Aircraft factory where Bill and Rosey work on the assembly lines. Later, Penny and Bill go to the beach, and Bill tells her that she should not get involved with him, as he is not the domestic type and is merely waiting for his papers to join the Air Force. Not to be dissuaded, Penny gets a job at the aircraft factory, and when she is unable to find Bill in the giant plant, she performs a song at lunch to attract his attention. That night, while the Craigs are screening home movies, Bill comes over to their house and tells Penny that he has gotten his orders. They try to break up, but quickly discover that they have fallen in love and decide to spend what little time he has left in the United States together. Just before Bill is about to leave for overseas duty, however, Hannah Gordon, one of Penny's friends at the factory, learns that her flyer husband has been shot down over the Pacific. Penny then goes to her father Judson and asks him to use his influence to keep Bill at the aircraft factory. Judson refuses and tells Penny that it is her duty to support Bill's induction into the military. Penny then returns to the factory to learn that Bill has decided to end their relationship. Later, Bill tells Rosey that he ended his romance with Penny to spare her the pain he saw Hannah suffer. Rosey then goes to the Craig home and tries to give Penny a note, telling her that Bill really loves her, but Judson has ordered Binns, the family butler, not to allow either Bill or Rosey in the house. Penny receives the note, however, and races to the airport in time to say goodbye to Bill. When he tells her that he is still worried about her, Penny, paraphrasing Hannah, replies that "if he flies 'em, then she'll build 'em."