Stage Struck

1948
Approved
1h 11m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Pamela Blake, Ralph Byrd, John Gallaudet, Audrey Long, Wanda McKay, Conrad Nagel, and Kane Richmond in Stage Struck (1948)

The police find the body of hostess Helen Howard (Wanda McKay), disposed of by petty racketeer Nick Mantee (Kane Richmond) after she was shot in his Bluejay night club by Benny Nordick (John... Read allThe police find the body of hostess Helen Howard (Wanda McKay), disposed of by petty racketeer Nick Mantee (Kane Richmond) after she was shot in his Bluejay night club by Benny Nordick (John Gallaudet) because she knew too much about Mantee's rackets. Police Lieutenant Williams (... Read allThe police find the body of hostess Helen Howard (Wanda McKay), disposed of by petty racketeer Nick Mantee (Kane Richmond) after she was shot in his Bluejay night club by Benny Nordick (John Gallaudet) because she knew too much about Mantee's rackets. Police Lieutenant Williams (Conrad Nagel) and police Sergeant Tom Ramey (Ralph Byrd) inform the dead girl's parents an... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

207

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Final film of veteran director William Nigh.

Goofs
At the end of the opening credits, the closing of the curtains is done by showing the opening of said curtains in reverse. Note how the bottom of the curtains precedes the top.

User reviews11

Review

Featured review

6/10

Going Out With A Decent Movie

Hostess Wanda McKay's corpse is found, and police Lt. Conrad Nagel is assigned the case, but Miss McKay's small-town sister, Audrey Long, grows impatient with nothing happening. She decides to go undercover herself at the suspects' talent agency, where Kane Richmond and John Gallaudet charge ridiculous fees to girls for dramatic training, feed them to their operations as b-girls at their club, and eventually into the white slavery trade.

William Nigh's last movie is filled with competent talent in a 1930s B movie plot. If you wish to play spot the performer, you'll have a good time seeing Ralph Byrd, Pamela Blake, Nana Bryant, Evelyn Brent, and Franklyn Farnum, and the dialogue is pretty good, but the story is tired.

Nigh had entered movies in 1913 as an actor at Keystone. By the next year he was directing, and by the 1920s he was directing for MGM. Like many directors, his career went downhill fast during the sound era, and by 1931 he was on Poverty Row. He was in charge of 121 movies in total. He died in 1955, shortly after his 74th birthday.