Don Rowan

Don Rowan

Born: January 22, 1905
Died: February 16, 1966
in New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Movies for Don Rowan...

Purple Death from Outer Space
Title: Purple Death from Outer Space
Character: Captain Torch
Released: January 1, 1966
Type: Movie
Edited version of the 1940 Universal serial "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe", released in a syndication package to TV in 1966.
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Riders of Death Valley
Title: Riders of Death Valley
Character: Blake
Released: July 1, 1941
Type: Movie
The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick Foran and Buck Jones. The latter contributed deadpan humor to the proceedings, making Jones perhaps the highest paid B-western comedy relief in history. The two heroes defend the Death Valley borax miners from an outlaw gang headed by Wolf Reade. An extraordinarily strong cast -- for a serial, at least -- supported the stars, headed by Charles Bickford as Reade, Leo Carillo, Lon Chaney, Jr., and silent screen star Monte Blue. Leading lady Jeanne Kelly later changed her name to Jean Brooks and starred in the atmospheric RKO thriller The Seventh Victim (1943). Universal claimed to have spent $1 million on this serial and made sure to get their money's worth by endlessly recycling the action footage in serials and B-westerns for years to come.
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When the Daltons Rode
Title: When the Daltons Rode
Character: Annabella's Brother
Released: August 23, 1940
Type: Movie
Young lawyer Tod Jackson arrives in pioneer Kansas to visit his prosperous rancher friends the Daltons, just as the latter are in danger of losing their land to a crooked development company. When Tod tries to help them, a faked murder charge turns the Daltons into outlaws, but more victims than villains in this fictionalized version. Will Tod stay loyal to his friends despite falling in love with Bob Dalton's former fiancée Julie?
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You're Not So Tough
Title: You're Not So Tough
Character: Conley
Released: July 26, 1940
Type: Movie
The Dead End Kids are out of the slums of New York's East Side and running around the sunny valleys of California looking for a way to make a quick buck. The idea of working never enters their minds until Halop is egged on by Grey to show his capabilities. Before long, he and Hall are working on the ranch of Galli, an elderly Italian woman who treats her workers like human beings instead of animals. Galli's son disappeared as an infant, and Halop tries to convince her that he is that long lost son, thus possibly sharing in her wealth. Galli is such a good person that Halop is soon motivated by respect instead of greed, so he devises a plan to help her when truckers and a labor organization band together to keep her crops from making it to market.
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Brother Orchid
Title: Brother Orchid
Character: Al Muller
Released: June 7, 1940
Type: Movie
When retired racket boss John Sarto tries to reclaim his place and former friends try to kill him, he finds solace in a monastery and reinvents himself as a pious monk.
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La Conga Nights
Title: La Conga Nights
Character: Moving Man Foreman
Released: May 31, 1940
Type: Movie
In this comedy, actor Hugh Herbert plays six different roles. Only one of the roles is a man. The story centers around a dizzy music lover, who has grown rich through real estate deals. Also figuring in the story are a cab driver/performer, and a down-on-her-luck, aspiring singer. They meet when she hails his cab as she skips out on her former boarding house because she cannot pay rent.
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Johnny Apollo
Title: Johnny Apollo
Character: Guard (uncredited)
Released: April 19, 1940
Type: Movie
Wall Street broker Robert Cain, Sr., is jailed for embezzling. His college graduate son Bob then turns to crime to raise money for his father's release. As assistant to mobster Mickey Dwyer, then falls for Dwyer's girl Lucky. He winds up in the same prison as his father.
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Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
Title: Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
Character: Captain Torch
Released: March 3, 1940
Type: Movie
A mysterious plague, the Purple Death, ravages the earth. Dr. Zarkov, investigating in his spaceship, finds a ship from planet Mongo seeding the atmosphere with dust. Sure enough, Ming the Merciless is up to his old tricks. So it's back to Mongo for Flash, Dale, and Zarkov.
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The Green Hornet
Title: The Green Hornet
Character: Lou Markeim (uncredited)
Released: January 8, 1940
Type: Movie
A newspaper publisher and his Korean servant fight crime as vigilantes who pose as a notorious masked gangster and his aide.
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Buried Alive
Title: Buried Alive
Character: Big Billy
Released: November 6, 1939
Type: Movie
A prison trustee rescues a despondent executioner from a bar-room brawl, and is blamed for the fight by a tabloid reporter who actually started it, and loses parole, becomes embittered, and gets blamed for murder of guard.
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The Roaring Twenties
Title: The Roaring Twenties
Character: Gangster (uncredited)
Released: October 28, 1939
Type: Movie
After World War I, Armistice Lloyd Hart goes back to practice law, former saloon keeper George Hally turns to bootlegging, and out-of-work Eddie Bartlett becomes a cab driver. Eddie builds a fleet of cabs through delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere.
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Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase
Title: Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase
Character: Phillips the Chauffeur
Released: September 9, 1939
Type: Movie
Nancy helps two aging spinsters fulfill the byzantine provisions of their father's will, but the murder of their chauffeur complicates matters.
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Everybody's Hobby
Title: Everybody's Hobby
Character: Don Rowan
Released: August 26, 1939
Type: Movie
A hobby-mad family makes their obsessions pay off.
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Oklahoma Terror
Title: Oklahoma Terror
Character: Slade
Released: August 24, 1939
Type: Movie
Cartwright's racket is to sell a ranch and then have Mason and his men drive the ranchers away so he can resell it. If they want their money back he gives it to them and then has them killed. Jack arrives and learns that Mason and his men are the culprits but that they have a boss. He suspects Cartwright and sets trap to expose him.
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Ex-Champ
Title: Ex-Champ
Character: Betting Official
Released: May 11, 1939
Type: Movie
A former prizefighter tries to help his son pay off his gambling debts.
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Big Town Czar
Title: Big Town Czar
Character: Stranger
Released: May 3, 1939
Type: Movie
When gangster Phil Daley gets rid of his chief Paul Burgess he has everything that money can buy, except the respect of his parents and his sweetheart Susan Warren. His younger brother Danny quits college and forces Phil to make him part of the gang. The overly-ambitious Danny fixes a prize-fight on which rival gang-leader Mike Luger loses heavily and, thinking that Phil has double-crossed him, sends gunmen out to kill Phil. They kill Danny instead and the frightened Phil flees to a country hideout. His chief lieutenant, Sid Travis, sets a trap for Phil when he returns.
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Tough Kid
Title: Tough Kid
Character: Bill Grogan
Released: December 28, 1938
Type: Movie
Skipper Murphy is serving as trainer and inspiration for his brother Red Murphy training for a world championship title bout. Trouble comes for the Murphys when Red runs up against a gambling syndicate and is put on the spot to throw the fight.
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Wanted by the Police
Title: Wanted by the Police
Character: Owens
Released: September 21, 1938
Type: Movie
A young man, Danny, decides to get a job in order to support his mother. He's hired to work in a garage, but soon finds himself being implicated in a stolen-car racket.
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Racket Busters
Title: Racket Busters
Character: Cliff Kimball
Released: July 16, 1938
Type: Movie
A trucker with a pregnant wife fights a New York mobster's protection racket.
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Sea Racketeers
Title: Sea Racketeers
Character: Henchman Lew
Released: August 20, 1937
Type: Movie
J. Carrol Naish plays a slimy villain again; this time he's running a casino on a ship and smuggling furs past the Coast Guard.
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When's Your Birthday?
Title: When's Your Birthday?
Character: Steve
Released: February 19, 1937
Type: Movie
Some shady characters discover that a sad sack nightclub bus boy has the ability to predict outcomes of races and other events through astrology.
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Devil's Playground
Title: Devil's Playground
Character: Reilly
Released: January 24, 1937
Type: Movie
A remake of Frank Capra's Submarine (1928), Devil's Playground is a snappy Columbia "B plus" picture starring Richard Dix and Chester Morris. Submarine officers Dorgan (Dix) and Mason (Morris) battle on land for the affections of dance-hall girl Carmen (Dolores del Rio). She marries Dorgan but makes a play for Mason when her husband is on duty. The romantic rivalry is forgotten when Dorgan must rescue Mason and his crew from a sunken sub.
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Murder with Pictures
Title: Murder with Pictures
Character: Siki
Released: September 24, 1936
Type: Movie
Suspected crime boss Nate Girard beats a murder rap, and newspaper photog Kent Murdock is on the story. Girard and lawyer Redfield throw a party for the news men where Murdock romances a mystery woman who confronted Girard in front of him, but Murdock's fiancée Hester shows up. After they return to his apartment, have a fight, and she leaves, the mystery woman slips in and begs for his help. Police Inspector Bacon and the cops show up, looking for the mystery woman; Murdock hides her. Murdock goes with the cops to discuss the murder the woman is suspected of. Bacon explains (in flashback) how some photogs were setting up a shot with Girard and Redfield. When the flashbulbs popped, Redfield keeled over dead and the woman, Meg Archer, fled while the newsmen ran out to phone their papers. The newsmen (who were rounded up later as thoroly as possible) are taken into police custody, except for Murdock (who wasn't at the scene), who is given a cap on the sly by rival McGoogin. Altho ...
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Sing, Baby, Sing
Title: Sing, Baby, Sing
Character: Undetermined Role
Released: August 21, 1936
Type: Movie
The "Caliban-Ariel" romance of fiftysomething John Barrymore and teenager Elaine Barrie is spoofed in this delightful 20th Century Fox musical. Adolphe Menjou plays the Barrymore counterpart, a loose-living movie star with a penchant for wine, women, and more wine. Alice Faye plays a nightclub singer hungry for publicity. Her agent (Gregory Ratoff) arranges a "romance" between Faye and Menjou. Eventually Faye winds up with Michael Whalen, allowing Menjou to continue his blissful, bibulous bachelorhood. Sing, Baby, Sing represented the feature-film debut of the Ritz Brothers, who are in top form in their specialty numbers--and who are awarded a final curtain call after the "The End" title, just so the audience won't forget them (The same device was used to introduce British actor George Sanders in Fox's Lancer Spy [37]).
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The Arizona Raiders
Title: The Arizona Raiders
Character: Henchman Luke Arledge
Released: June 27, 1936
Type: Movie
After saving himself from hanging, Laramie Nelson saves Tracks Williams from the same fate. They then travel to Lindsay's ranch where they get jobs. There they run into Adams who they learn is planning to rustle Lindsay's horses.
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The Return of Sophie Lang
Title: The Return of Sophie Lang
Character: 'Buttons' McDermott
Released: June 18, 1936
Type: Movie
In order to give up her life of crime and go straight, renowned jewel thief Sophie Lang fakes her own death and retires to London. She soon finds a job as a companion to a wealthy old lady who is also a jewel collector. One day her employer decides to take an ocean trip to the US, taking Sophie with her. She also takes along a $200,000 diamond, which she locks up in the ship's safe. Of course, the diamond is soon stolen from the safe. A reporter also happens to be aboard the ship, and he has had his suspicions about who Sophie really is. Sophie has to find the real thief and recover the jewel before the ship docks in New York, because an investigation could reveal her true identity.
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And Sudden Death
Title: And Sudden Death
Character: Police Sgt. Maloney
Released: June 16, 1936
Type: Movie
An heiress with a penchant for speeding runs afoul of a traffic cop. Romance develops between the two, but it's soon complicated when he believes she is responsible for killing someone due to reckless driving.
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Don't Gamble with Love
Title: Don't Gamble with Love
Character: Henchman
Released: February 28, 1936
Type: Movie
Standard tale of husband and wife living a party lifestyle. He works in a gambling hall and she occasionally models and sings. Because they want to start a family wife feels the need to change their situation. Situation is changed and husband gets a new job and then a promotion but is tricked into a bad business deal and wants to go back to his old life.
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Whipsaw
Title: Whipsaw
Character: Curley
Released: December 18, 1935
Type: Movie
Hot jewels from London make their way to New York, where they are stolen by racketeer Ed Dexter, who hides them with the help of his vivacious girlfriend, Vivian Palmer. Federal agent Ross McBride goes undercover to infiltrate the gang and, suspecting Vivian can lead him to the jewels, comes to her aid when she is chased by a rival gang. The two flee to the Midwest with both gangs in pursuit, but Vivian is not as gullible as Ross thinks.
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Taking Ways
Title: Taking Ways
Released: April 30, 1930
Type: Movie
In this Vitaphone one-reeler, husband-and-wife team Frank Orth and Ann Codee in one of the many co-starring shorts they made together for Vitaphone, Orth is one of a pair of house-burglars who take time out from their looting to make amorous advances toward the wife of the house, Ann Codee.