Man Hunt (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), Blues in the Night (1941), The Suspect (1944), Johnny Come Lately (1943), Special Agent (1935), Mandalay (1934), The General Died at Dawn (1936) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Potboiler movies.
Storyline: British hunter Thorndike vacationing in Bavaria has Hitler in his gun sight. He is captured, beaten, left for dead, and escapes back to London where he is hounded by German agents and aided by a young woman.
Plot Keywords: based on novel, persecution, world war two, survival, london underground, improvised weapon, cave ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Jeff and Turkey, two wild and crazy guys adrift on a raft in the Mediterranean, are cast away on a desert shore and hop a convenient camel to an Arabian Nights city where Turkey soon finds himself sold as a slave...to luscious Princess Shalmar of Karameesh. Naturally, Jeff would like to rescue Turkey from this "dire" fate, even if it means taking his place! But they haven't figured on virile desert chieftain Mullay Kassim, who has designs on the princess himself...—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: meta film, 1940s, boat accident, wish, tombstone, tent, telescope ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: "Jigger' Lane forms a band that includes singer Ginger 'Character' Powell, wife of the trumpeter Leo Powell, and Nickie Haroyen and Peppi. All of them dedicate themselves to work as a unit and to play 'blues' music. The dedication isn't paying off in money and, while riding the rails in a boxcar, they meet and befriend a gangster named Del Davis. He offers them a job at a New Jersey roadhouse, where Powell falls in love with Kay Grant, a former 'real-good friend' of Davis. But when Powell learns that 'Character' is about to have a baby, he returns to her. "Jigger" tries to make Kay the band's singer and, when this fails, runs off with her. She leaves him with nothing to show for him except a nervous breakdown.Back at the roadhouse, after his recovery, Kay shows up, has a quarrel with Davis, shoots and kills him and plans to take back up with "Jigger", who knows better but just can't help himself. While she is waiting in a car for him, along comes cripple Brad Ames, who she put in that condition, and he gets in and drives the car over a cliff, leaving no survivors in the two-passenger crash. The band is back together at the end, still using boxcars as their transportation, but happy playing the blues.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: new jersey, racketeer, racial stereotype, prisoner, police officer, missouri, liquor ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Bachelor Harry Quincey, head designer in a small-town cloth factory, lives with his selfish sisters, glamorous hypochondriac Lettie and querulous widow Hester. His developing relationship with new colleague Deborah Brown promises happiness at last...thwarted by passive, then increasingly active opposition from one sister. Will Harry resort to desperate measures?—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: bachelor, cigarette smoking, church choir, sermon, anger, hatred, grief ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Newspaper man wanders about and helps older woman save her paper.
Plot Keywords: based on novel, stock footage, slang, misery, false accusation, potboiler, dire straits ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Newspaperman Bill Bradford becomes a special agent for the tax service trying to end the career of racketeer Alexander Carston. Julie Gardner is Carston's bookkeeper. Bradford enters Carston's organization and Julie cooperates with him to land Carston in jail. An informer squeals on them. Julie is kidnapped by Carston's henchmen as she is about to testify.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>, A. Nonymous
Plot Keywords: tax evasion, police, washington d.c., bookkeeper, deception, racial stereotype, slot machine ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Russian refugee Tanya Borisoff is suddenly abandoned penniless in Rangoon, Burma, by her lover, Tony Evans, who accepted a gunrunning deal from Nick, the owner of an amoral nightclub. Nick made the deal hoping to get Tanya as his main "hostess," which Tanya accepts after an initial refusal, just to make the best of a bad situation. She becomes notorious using the name "Spot White," but her affairs cause the commissioner of police to deport her. She reminds the commissioner of a previous tryst he had with her and extorts 10,000 rupees from him with which to make a new life. She uses a new name, Marjorie Lang, going to Mandalay, Burma, via the Irrawadi River by steamer, where she meets alcoholic Dr. Gregory Burton, who is on his way to help in an area plagued with a deadly contagious fever. As they slowly fall in love, she learns he's doing that to make amends for once operating on a patient while drunk, causing his death. She decides to go with him so they can put their pasts behind them together. But Tony is on the steamer too, and tries to convince Tanya he still loves her. Tony gets a wire from Nick telling him the police are on his trail and will pick him up at the next port, so he leaves evidence to suggest he took poison and jumped overboard, but actually he hides in the hold of the boat. The captain finds the evidence and believes Tanya murdered Tony, but at the urging of Dr. Burton and the first mate who finds the wire, he finally decides it was a suicide and frees her. When Tony returns to an astonished Tanya, he tries to convince her to open a club with him in Mandalay, where she could be a "hostess" again. Through with that life, she eyes the poison still in the cabin as Tony asks her to make him a drink.—Arthur Hausner <genart@volcano.net>
Plot Keywords: prostitution, location in title, potboiler, vindication, actress billed above the title, retribution, held at gunpoint ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In revolution-torn China, American mercenary O'Hara is entrusted with a perilous mission, to get arms for the helpless authorities in a province ravaged by warlord General Yang. On the train to Shanghai, he meets Judy Perrie, whose father is in league with Yang. Will Judy regret agreeing to lure O'Hara to his doom, and if so, can she make it up to him? The balance of power seesaws to a perilous conclusion.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: china, despair, frustration, determination, ruse, racial stereotype, violence ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: "Candy" Johnson, a great crook of the Wild West, decides to find a town where he could become a big boss. To achieve this, he will need to conceal his true identity and not only pretend to be an honest man, but lead the struggle against the corrupt sheriff. No one in town realizes that the anti-corruption hero is just a greater crook himself. And there is only one person who is stronger than Johnson - a girl he is in love with.—Alexey (Moscow)
Plot Keywords: regret, hustler, poker player, poker game, lynch mob, funeral, gambler ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: McKinley B. "Mac" Thompson, American reporter in Moscow, smuggles out uncensored news under the alias "Comrade X," but hotel valet Vanya discovers his secret. Vanya fears for the safety of his daughter Golubka ("Theodore") and blackmails Mac into helping her leave the country. Mac is happier about his task once he meets lovely Theodore, but can he convince her of his sincerity? The anti-communist humor becomes alternately grim and farcical.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: marriage of convenience, spy, spying, reference to karl marx, handkerchief, pig, reference to josef stalin ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Early 1905, French governess Emilie Gallatin (Ingrid Bergman) is hired to care of a luxurious family mansion and the four sons of wealthy Adam Stoddard (Warner Baxter) and his wife, Molly Stoddard (Fay Wray). Things couldn't be more perfect, until in 1907, first Molly dies, and then the stock market crashes, wiping out the Soddard's fortune. Emilie is forced to go back home to France. The parting is difficult, for the teenager boys - Jack Stoddard (Billy Ray), David Stoddard (Steven Muller), Chris Stoddard (Wallace Chadwell), and Phillip Stoddard (Bobby Walberg) - had grown to depend on Emilie more after the loss of their mother, and Emilie had fallen in love with Adam. Seven years later, just before the beginning of World War I, the family's fortunes have improved, and Adam insists with Emilie to return and stay on as part of the family - preserving her from the foreseeable fates of war. The four boys are adults, and they all serve in various branches of the military - Jack Stoddard (Richard Denning), David Stoddard ('Johnny Downs (I)'), Chris Stoddard (Robert Shaw), Phillip Stoddard ('Charles Ling'). Meanwhile, David, the second son, brings home his carefree, gold-digging wife named Hester (Susan Hayward). To make things worse, she comes to live in the family home while David is out at war. Hester degrades Emilie, cons Adam into believing she is a sweet young thing, and cheats on David by attempting to seduce his brother Jack, who will have nothing to do with her. One night, the father sees a silhouette of the supposed lovers, but before he can identify them, Emilie enters the room from another door and pretends that it was her, not Hester, with Jack. This cover-up for Jack will strain Emilie's relationships with both the boys and Adam, and makes an easy target of her for the gutter-snipe Hester. The internecine war between the governess and Hester culminates in an out-and-out brawl. Adam unwittingly sides with Hester, who showers crocodile tears on his shoulder (with a telling close-up as she displays a wicked smile over his shoulder) while he comforts her. Hester's malicious personality is revealed to a visiting aunt, Adam's cousin Phillippa (Helen Westley), and Hayward is exposed as an uncontrollable vixen.—Artemis-9
Plot Keywords: character name in title, seduction, self sacrifice, single father, single parent, world war one, brother brother relationship ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Bickering husband and wife Tim and Sally Willows mutter a few angry words to a statue of Buddha and wind up living each other's life.
Plot Keywords: pregnancy, partnership, pet shop, radio, secretary, wager, wish ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A newspaper publisher (Emory Parnell) is being blackmailed by a burlesque queen (Joan Woodbury), and he sends one of his reporters (William Tracy) to talk to her. The girl is murdered and the reporter, the publisher and the publisher's daughter (Beverly Loyd) all come under suspicion.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: clown, balloon, war veteran, war hero, violinist, suspect, stage show ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In the South Seas, Val Stevens and Lucille Gordon are getting married when a ship goes down offshore. Val rescues Captain Deever and passenger Eric Blacke. Later Eric saves Val from an octopus. Unknown as their friendship develops is the fact that Val is a fugitive and Eric is the detective sent to arrest him.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: tobacco, desperation, potboiler, vindication, grindhouse film, rescue, south seas ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: During World War 2, a small plane off the south coast of America is low on fuel and blown off course by a storm. Guided by a faint radio signal, they crashland on an island. The passenger, his manservant and the pilot take refuge in a mansion owned by a doctor. The easily-spooked manservant soon becomes convinced the mansion is haunted by zombies and ghosts. Exploring, the 3 find a voodoo ritual in the cellar, where the doctor is trying to acquire war intelligence by transferring personalities into his zombies. But the interruption causes the zombies to turn on their creator.—Cynan Rees <cynanrees@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: airplane, island, voodoo, zombie, airplane crash, ruse, retribution ...
Movie Details Click Here!