WANTED BY THE POLICE - 1938 - FRANKIE DARRO - RARE DVD
Product Description
Frank Johnson Jr. was born in Chicago to a husband and wife who were flying trapeze and high wire walkers in the Flying Johnsons circus act. As soon as Frankie could walk his father started training him to walk on a wire . . . First very close to the ground, and then higher and higher off the ground. Unfortunately for the circus, the Flying Johnsons got divorced when Frankie was five years old, and that ended the circus act. Fortunately for Frankie, the circus was in Southern California when his parents broke up and within a year Frankie Johnson Jr. got a job in a motion picture, changing his on-screen name to Frankie Darro. At only five foot three inches tall he never became a ‘leading man who got the leading lady’ kind of actor, but because of his athletic abilities he became a stunt man, and then an action-adventure star in movies like this one. His most famous role was one where he is never seen . . . . Frankie Darro was inside Robby the Robot in the science fiction movie Forbidden Planet.
In this gangster crime adventure he is fresh out of high school and dreaming of becoming the next superstar baseball player like Babe Ruth. He lives with his widowed mother and big sister, and sis wants to quit her job and marry a policeman, but her job is the only income for Mom Murphy and kid brother Danny. After a talk with Mom, Danny decides to put his baseball career on hold and find a job to support his mom. He finally finds a car garage owner who will hire him for $18 a week to work on cars and help around the garage. What he doesn’t know is that this garage steals cars, fixes them up a bit and sells them to dishonest auto sales lots. He finds out when he is delivering a car to a car lot and returning another stolen car to the garage. His boss is selling cars in the territory controlled by another gangster, and the other gangster grabs the stolen car he is driving and kidnaps him. When Danny gets wise to the fact that he is working for gangsters he tries to quit, but his boss tells him that if he quits or blabs to the coppers he will spend 15 years in prison along with them. . . . . And his widowed mom really needs the money . . . . What to do . . . . What to do . . . . Pop a big bowl of white kernel popcorn with plenty of warm melted butter over it and enjoy the show.
Director: Howard Bretherton
Stars: Frankie Darro, Evalyn Knapp, Robert Kent
59 minutes.
In this gangster crime adventure he is fresh out of high school and dreaming of becoming the next superstar baseball player like Babe Ruth. He lives with his widowed mother and big sister, and sis wants to quit her job and marry a policeman, but her job is the only income for Mom Murphy and kid brother Danny. After a talk with Mom, Danny decides to put his baseball career on hold and find a job to support his mom. He finally finds a car garage owner who will hire him for $18 a week to work on cars and help around the garage. What he doesn’t know is that this garage steals cars, fixes them up a bit and sells them to dishonest auto sales lots. He finds out when he is delivering a car to a car lot and returning another stolen car to the garage. His boss is selling cars in the territory controlled by another gangster, and the other gangster grabs the stolen car he is driving and kidnaps him. When Danny gets wise to the fact that he is working for gangsters he tries to quit, but his boss tells him that if he quits or blabs to the coppers he will spend 15 years in prison along with them. . . . . And his widowed mom really needs the money . . . . What to do . . . . What to do . . . . Pop a big bowl of white kernel popcorn with plenty of warm melted butter over it and enjoy the show.
Director: Howard Bretherton
Stars: Frankie Darro, Evalyn Knapp, Robert Kent
59 minutes.