''Red Lights Ahead'' is a 1936 American film directed by

Roland D. Reed Roland D. Reed (July 7, 1894–July 15, 1972) was an American film editor, producer and director. He worked on many films for the low-budget Chesterfield Pictures and later started '' Roland Reed Productions, Inc.'' that shut down in November 19 ...

. It was the last film released by the

Poverty Row Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did ...

studio

Chesterfield Pictures Chesterfield Motion Picture Corporation, generally shortened to Chesterfield Pictures, was an American film production company of the 1920s and 1930s. The company head was George R. Batcheller, and the company worked in tandem with its sister stud ...

before it became part of

Republic Pictures Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City a ...

Plot

A family evening situation with quarreling daughters and sons, about using the bathroom before their respective dates and evening programs, opens the movie. Two daughters and two sons. The younger son Willi being 17. Mary having allures of high society and psychic fortunetelling and crystal gazing. Edna changes her date partners a little too often and George dreaming to become speaker in the radio. Pa Wallace a hard working man and Ma looking for her children and managing the money for the family. Unfortunately Mary meets a Mr. Nordham who pretends to be a scientific and gazes with her in the crystal ball announcing a big fortune coming from the earth (like oil), talking about aura colors to her mother, while Pa Wallace goes to his Whale Harpooners Broderhood Meeting, where the Grand Harpoon Mr. F. Q. Whitney (a sort of Master of Ceremony) wants to sell some very profitable stocks of a Gold Mine. While Ma Wallace tries to keep her family with their feet on the ground, Pa Wallace and especially Mary are talked into it and when the next meeting with Nordingham and Whitney at Wallace home for a dinner takes place Pa Wallace hands a check about 5000 dollars to Mr. Whitney and Ma Wallace stays with the sorrow, that her home has been mortgaged for the goldmine Stocks. Meantime Grandpa Hopkins who arrived to Wallace home from Kansas, to stay for good, who had talked on his own account to Whitney and Nordham has to collect his daughters sorrow. But short after they get a phone call that the mine stocks are already giving the expected gain. Family starts to swim in money, a butler is hired that knows how to "find" everywhere money in the family, a maid pretending to be French tries to blackmail Mary, and some other not so funny things happen around. Until the day, when Pa Wallace goes to a Whale Meeting and Mr. Whitney and Mr. Nordham are being arrested as crooks. The question then is where did the money come from. And surprisingly to all the source of all that wealth leads finally to cure the family members from their "blindness" and to become helpful to each other.

Cast

Andy Clyde Andrew Allan Clyde (March 25, 1892 – May 18, 1967) was a Scottish-born American film and television actor whose career spanned more than four decades. In 1921 he broke into silent films as a Mack Sennett comic, debuting in ''On a Summer ...

as Grandpa Hopkins *

Lucile Gleason Lucile Gleason ( Webster; February 6, 1888 – May 18, 1947) was an American stage and screen actress. Gleason was also a civic worker who was active in film colony projects. Early life Lucile Webster was born on February 6, 1888, in Pasad ...

as Molly "Ma" Wallace *

Roger Imhof Frederick Roger Imhof (August 15, 1875 – April 15, 1958) was an American film actor, vaudeville, burlesque and circus performer, sketch writer, and songwriter. Early years Imhof was born in Rock Island, Illinois on April 15, 1875 to Nicholas ...

as Pa Wallace * Ben Alexander as George Wallace *

Ann Doran Ann Lee Doran (July 28, 1911 – September 19, 2000) was an American character actress, possibly best known as the mother of Jim Stark (James Dean) in '' Rebel Without a Cause'' (1955). She was an early member of the Screen Actors Guild and s ...

as Mary Wallace * Frank Coghlan Jr. as Willie Wallace *

Paula Stone Paula Stone (January 20, 1912 – December 23, 1997) was an American theater and motion pictures actress from New York City. Birth She was the daughter of Fred Stone, a stage actor, dancing comedian, and owner of the Fred Stone theatrical ...

as Edna Wallace * Addison Randall as Nordingham *

Sam Flint Sam Flint (born Samuel A. Ethridge; October 19, 1882 – October 17, 1980) was an American actor. Flint appeared in more than 230 films, often as a "judge, lawyer, military officer, senator, sheriff, chief of police, or doctor." Flint was ...

as Franklin Q. Whitney * Eleanor Stewart as Celeste - the Maid *Herbert Clifton as Perkins *

Matty Kemp Matty Kemp (September 10, 1907 – December 12, 1999) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 50 films between 1926 and 1943. After retiring from acting, Kemp produced many musical short films. In 1954, he contributed the story ...

as Jerry Carruthers

Soundtrack

External links

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References

1936 films 1936 comedy films American comedy films American black-and-white films Chesterfield Pictures films Films directed by Roland D. Reed 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{1930s-comedy-film-stub