Robert Allen
Birth : 1906-03-28, Mount Vernon, New York, USA
Death : 1998-10-09
History
Robert "Tex" Allen (also credited as Bob Allen) was a leading actor in both feature films and B-movie westerns between 1935 and 1944.
Born as Irvine E. Theodore Baehr on March 28, 1906 in Mount Vernon, New York, Allen went on to graduate from the New York Military Academy in 1924, where he rode in the academy cavalry and from Dartmouth College in 1929 with a degree in English. In vacations he had driven a truck as a labourer. He worked for a bank which soon failed in the Great Depression. He flew briefly with the Curtis Flying service as a commercial pilot. He first came to the screen in 1926 before signing a standard acting contract with Paramount Pictures, in 1929. He appeared in the famous Marx Brothers movie Animal Crackers and several other small parts. Then, he signed with Columbia Pictures in 1935. He also later contracted with 20th Century Fox.
Allen's first notable role was the male lead in Love Me Forever (1935), for which he won a Box Office Award. He gained additional notice as the star of When You're in Love (1936), opposite Grace Moore. The same year, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in the title role in the film The Life of Lafayette.
After the departure of cowboy star Ken Maynard, Allen was plugged into producer Larry Darmour's formulaic Ranger pictures. Along with sidekick Wally Wales (played by Hal Taliaferro), he redefined the role, starring in six films for director Spencer Gordon Bennet in that year alone. These films became known as the Bob Allen Ranger series. However, the studio was looking for a singing cowboy to compete with Gene Autry and Allen was eventually replaced by Roy Rogers. He appeared in two dozen films after that, however.
He had acted on Broadway in the original productions of Show Boat and Kiss Them for Me. In 1956 he appeared in the original production of Auntie Mame, opposite Rosalind Russell, and later Greer Garson. He appeared in other Broadway plays, in touring productions, in soap operas, documentaries and commercials. He became a real estate broker in 1964 but returned to the stage from time to time, including an appearance as J.B. Biggley in the 1972 Equity Library Theatre revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert (Tex) Allen, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Dr. Carstairs
In an abandoned prison, a doctor has revived executed convicts as the living dead. Teenager, Jonathan creates a laser gun from a videodisc player and pursues the walking dead, aided by his girlfriend and grandfather. Also tracking down the zombies is a tabloid reporter.
Fred Walcott
Texas girl goes to New York, becomes a newspaper reporter, and tries to get her gambler boyfriend to come home.
Tom Walker
When a waiter makes a lucky hit and wins a benefit prizefight, gamblers rig some fights for him; but a reporter arranges for a real boxer to put him in his place.
Dick Lane
The Jones family encounters new theories of childrearing when an author arrives in town to lecture on the topic.
Charlie
Trixie is a female pilot looking to win a big race to advance her career. During one race, however, her plane becomes damaged, and she needs help to repair it. She meets a Navy pilot named "Tex" Price and tries to gain his aid. Tex soon meets another pilot, Gerry, a novice who seeks to win an important upcoming race. Tex, concerned for Gerry's safety, tries to convince her not to race. But Gerry, now a rival of Trixie's, is determined to fly.
Greg Bogart
A prize-winning stallion breeds off-guard with a mare owned by his rival. The colt is trained to race from birth, eventually running in the Kentucky Derby against another horse owned by its sire.
Man Dancing with Sally (uncredited)
Young lovers Jack and Sally are from families that compete to send horses to the 1938 Kentucky Derby, but during the Civil War, her family sided with the South while his sided with the North--and her Uncle Peter will have nothing to do with Jack's family.
Charles Tucker
Entertainers lose their jobs and their fares from Honolulu back to San Francisco so they must become stowaways.
Stanley Harper
Jane breaks into the film business while also reviving the flagging career of her film director uncle and getting him hooked up with his secretary.
Reporter
Irish immigrant meets returning war correspondent on a liner bound for New York. When she resists the amours of another passenger, charges result in her being detained at Ellis Island.
Midshipman
Two football players fight over the same girl.
Frank Randall
Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.
Bob Allen
Tom Martin wants to buy the Jed Warren ranch as he knows the railroad wants it for the right-of-way, but Jed refuses to sell...
Jim Allen / Bob Allen
When Jim Allen is lynched, his identical twin brother Bob, a Texas Ranger, takes his place in an attempt to flush out the man responsible.
Ranger Bob Allen
Working undercover, Rangers Bob and Wally arrive to take up ranching. Out to stop them is Bill Nash and his men. When Bob plans to file on a ranch, Nash finds out and heads for the Registrar ahead of him.
Bob Allen
The Harper wagon train is carrying money and Bull and his gang are after it. When their first attack is foiled by the rangers, Allen trails them. But he is captured and his ranger badge used to divert the rangers away leaving the wagon train unprotected.
Bob Allen (as Bob Allen)
Sayres and his outlaw gang operate out of a town just across the border and out of the jurisdiction of the Texas Rangers. Ranger Bob Allen is sent across the border where he poses as an outlaw hoping to lure the gang back into Texas. He gets into Sayres' gang displacing the gang boss but the disgruntled ex-boss is able to expose the hoax and Bob is made a prisoner.
Gene Fredericks
Harriet, Walter Craig's wife, is an upper-class woman obsessed with control, material possessions and social status whose behavior makes difficult her relationship with domestic service and family members.
Bob Allen (as Bob Allen)
Bob Allen in his starring debut gets a job on Wright's ranch where he hopes to find the rustlers no one else has been able to locate. Everyone is looking for men when the actual rustler is a horse.
Dmitri
A man is haunted by a murder he's committed.
Larry Donovan
Attorney Joshua Scranton hires "Budge" Edwards and Larry Donovan, who has just bought into Edwards' detective agency, to protect Estelle Hudson, a client of his who is to inherit three-million dollars the next Thursday. He tells them he has reason to believe the girl is in danger from five relatives who stand to benefit from her death.
Lt. Albert Lussan
In a 16th-century European town, the ruling family has been given a prophecy that, should there ever be twin boys born, the younger will murder the older; so is dismayed when twins are born to the popular baron. The older grows to be a selfish, slovenly man, who inherits the castle at his father's death and becomes ruler over the formerly happy villagers. He enjoys his power until he learns his younger brother is returning from abroad and, afraid of the prophecy, he determines to murder his sibling, hide his body in the "black room" - an old torture chamber sealed away behind the fireplace - and then impersonate him, right down to his withered arm. In this way he hopes to not only avoid the prophecy, but also escape consequences of his other criminal deeds and obtain marriage to a local girl of the nobility...
Phillip Cameron
A man who loves an aspiring opera singer is prepared to sacrifice everything to help her with her career, even though he knows she doesn't love him.
Bill Lewis
A small, independent air delivery service is menaced by a mad scientist with a death ray machine that blows up planes in mid-flight.
Roy Daniels
When a small-town girl's boyfriend leaves in disgrace, gossips spread false reports of her pregnancy.
Constable Bob Rutledge
Mountie Tim O'Hara is sent to Indian River to investigate a fur trading racket. But he quickly finds himself in trouble when he is accused of shooting a prisoner in the back and is then put in jail by a fellow Mountie.
Joe
Nora Clegg, an actress, marries Carl Brent, an unemployed young engineer, whose estimation of his worth and ability keeps him from getting a job. He finally acquires a position that will require him to go to Russia for a period of time, while Nora goes back to the stage during his absence. But he loses out on the job at the last minute, and rather than tell Nora he has failed again, he steals a roll of money from his prospective employer to buy some things for Nora and go out and have a good time before, she things, his departure. His departure is to jail rather than Russia and he hides the truth from Nora by having an acquaintance mail his letters from Russia. He then finds out that Nora is pregnant.
Chad Harmon
Cowboy Tim McCoy becomes an instrument of revenge when he discovers his parents have been killed.
Baker
Evelyn Vail (Florence Rice) is a nurse convicted of poisoning a patient. Out on parole, Evelyn decides to fly to Sing-Sing and confront death row inmate who accused her of the deed in the first place. On board the airliner, Evelyn makes the acquaintance of John Robinson Gordon (Nagel), who is transporting a revolutionary munitions formula to Washington, D.C. Another passenger, Baker (Robert Allen), complains of having been poisoned and leaves the plane during a stopover in Dallas. Back in the air, Gordon's bodyguard, Lieutenant O'Brien (Fred Kelsey), suffers the same fate, but this time the poison proves fatal. The plane returns to Dallas, where Police Captain Barrie (William B. Davidson) accused poor Evelyn of the crime. Happily, Gordon can prove otherwise and the real culprit is unmasked.
Johnny Kane
Tim is dismissed from the Rangers for letting his friend Kane who is accused of murder escape. When newspaper editor Alexander dies, Tim takes over to continue that fight against Heston and his stooge Sheriff. He also hopes to find the notorious leader of an outlaw gang and to also help Kane prove his innocence.
Jim Rainey
Larry O'Roark is a boxer who's insanely posssesive and jealous of his fiancee, Jo. the sight of her and her employer, Mr. Lambert, at ringside during his big fight distracts Larry and he is knocked out. He then promises never to be jealous again and marries Jo. When she realizes that they're broke she asks Lambert for a job (she had quit on marrying Larry.) One thing leads to another and Larry, enraged with jealousy, end up killing Lambert. He then wanders off in a daze, and Jo takes the rap for the murder. Larry descends from his amnesiac fog just in time to interrupt the announcement of the jury's verdict in Jo's trial. then it's off to the chair for Larry. Or is it?
Andrew Forsythe
A psychotic man stalks three innocent people whom he believes are responsible for his brother's death.
Socialite (uncredited)
Chorus girl Patsy Shaw crashes a high-society party, meets playboy Charlie Breen, they fall in love, and are on their merry way to wedded bliss. However, Charlie's snobbish, ever-loving mama doesn't think that Patsy is worthy and sets out to prove it.
Party Guest (uncredited)
Lora Hart manages to land a job in a hospital as a trainee nurse. Upon completion of her training she goes to work as a night nurse for two small children who seem to be very sick, though something much more sinister is going on.
House Party Guest (uncredited)
The well-known explorer and hunter Captain Spaulding has just returned from Africa, and is being welcomed home with a lavish party at the estate of influential society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse when a valuable painting goes missing. The intrepid Captain Spaulding attempts to solve the crime with the help of his silly secretary Horatio Jamison, while sparring with the anarchic Signor Emanuel Ravelli and his nutty sidekick The Professor.
