Tom Tyler

An escaped prisoner must prove his innocence to a stuffy law professor with help from a spirited schoolteacher. In suburban Lochester, New England, three people end up living together in high-school teacher Nora Shelley's rental house. The first is her new tenant, renowned Harvard law professor Michael Lightcap, who has rented the house for the summer while he writes his new book. The second is Nora herself. After an auspicious first meeting, Lightcap hires Nora to be his live-in cook and secretary for a week until his manservant Tilney arrives. The third is Joseph, the property's gardener, who is currently laid up with a sprained ankle. In reality, Joseph is Nora's childhood friend Leopold Dilg, who has just escaped from prison. Leopold was being tried for the arson of the factory where he worked, and for murder for the death of the factory foreman Clyde Bracken, whose body was never recovered but who is assumed to have died in the fire. Despite the danger to herself, Nora hides Leopold since she believes his story that although he, as an activist, did speak out about the dangerous conditions at the factory, he did not set the fire, which he assumes was done by the factory's owner, Andrew Holmes, to collect the insurance money, while having Leopold as a scapegoat. Nora campaigned to get the job with Lightcap to be able to better hide Leopold in the house. Leopold escaped because he knew he would not get a fair trial because of the rabble-rousing Holmes conducted against him. Lightcap and who he knows as Joseph end up getting along famously, although activist Leopold believes Lightcap's view of the law is too clinical for him to truly be a great lawyer or great judge. Nora and Leopold learn clandestinely that Lightcap is being appointed to the Supreme Court. Nora, Leopold, and Sam Yates, Leopold's lawyer, try to get Lightcap involved in helping Leopold by showing him that Leopold indeed will not get a fair trial. In the process, Lightcap might show Leopold and Nora that his current way of thinking has much merit. —Huggo When the Holmes Woolen Mill burns down, Leopold Dilg is jailed for arson (and murder; one man was lost). Escaping, Leopold hides out in the home of his childhood sweetheart Nora Shelley--which she has just rented to unsuspecting law professor Michael Lightcap. As Lightcap's unwelcome guests, Nora and Leopold drag the professor willy-nilly from theory to practice. The story blends comedy, thriller, philosophy, mystery and romance. —billaknz@gmail.com When accused arsonist Leopold Dilg escapes jail, he hides out in the home of old friend and sweetheart Nora, who happens to be renting a farmhouse to Supreme Court candidate Michael Lightcap, but she lets Dilg hide in the attic while Lightcap gets settled. The next day, she introduces Dilg as the gardener. In conversation, though, Lightcap realizes that the gardener has a lot to say about the law. Nora and Dilg team up to convince him that Dilg was framed. The three dodge the cops, try to capture the real crooks, and discover that both men have fallen for Nora. Two different endings were filmed, one in which Nora gives her heart to Dilg, the other in which she leaves with Lightcap. Guess which one remains at the classic comic conclusion. —Fiona Kelleghan <fkelleghan@aol.com>

Archaeologists defile the tomb of mummified Kharis, who was buried alive for falling in love with an Egyptian princess. A couple of comical, out-of-work archaeologists (Dick Foran and Wallace Ford) in Egypt discover evidence of the burial place of the ancient Egyptian princess Ananka. After receiving funding from an eccentric magician (Cecil Kellaway) and his beautiful daughter (Peggy Moran), they set out into the desert only to be terrorized by a sinister high priest (George Zucco) and the living mummy Kharis (Tom Tyler) who are the guardians of Ananka^Òs tomb. —Jeremy Lunt <durlinlunt@acadia.net>

Trouble has been reported in Placerville where Tom Barton's brother is the Marshal. Arriving Tom finds a phoney Marshal in his brother's place. Learning that Clark is behind the all the trouble and that he is after the Madison stage line, Tom joins up with Mary Madison to fight Clark while he also looks for his missing brother. —Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net> When lawman Tom Barton arrests a gang of thieves, he is promoted to state inspector and his younger brother Jim is hired as state marshal on appointment in the gold mining town of Placerville. Jim disappears, however, when gang member Lukas takes over as marshal, and the gang poses as G-men to bully prospectors into relinquishing twenty percent of their profits. When Billy Parker, the son of a prospector, is killed by the gang, his father appeals to Tom for help. Meanwhile, Jim Madison has won a mail contract for his stagecoach line in Placerville, but he is killed when the gang ambushes his coach, and his daughter Mary is left to manage the coach with gang leader Clark. On his way into town, Tom, posing as a drifter, meets Madison's friend Dad Sommers, who suggests Tom work for the stagecoach line. Tom and Dad then thwart the gang's attempt to rob merchant Abe Wineman, and the three become friends. When Mary is about to sell the stagecoach line to Clark and Lukas, Tom convinces her to stall, and she fires Clark, who is hoping to get his hands on the gold shipment she is scheduled to transport the next day. That night, Clark offers Tom work, but he refuses. A fight ensues, and Tom escapes, but Clark orders reluctant gang member Reed to murder him. While the gang waits, Reed shoots a dummy Tom has placed in his bed, and Tom apprehends him, but gives him one more chance to make good by throwing the dummy off a cliff as if it is Tom's corpse. Meanwhile, Abe and Mary make another dummy of Tom to distract the gang while Tom carries the gold. When the gang threatens a Chinese man named Wong, Tom surprises them and scares them off. Tom then discovers his brother Jim hiding in Wong's closet; when Clark shot him and threw him in the river, Wong rescued him. The gang returns with Clark and fires on Wong's house, but Tom escapes through a secret tunnel beneath the floor. After he forces a gang member to wear his clothes, the man is killed by his own men while Tom escapes. Tom then prepares the dummy for the ride, but Clark knows his scheme, and when the gang follows the coach containing the dummy, Clark hops Mary's coach. Tom successfully jumps Clark and arrests him, and Mary secures her mail contract. Tom then asks Mary to be his partner for life.