''Mexican Manhunt'' is a 1953 American

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by Rex Bailey and starring

George Brent George Brent (born George Brendan Nolan; 15 March 1904 – 26 May 1979) was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included ''Jezebel'' and ''Dark Victory ...

Hillary Brooke Hillary Brooke (born Beatrice Sofia Mathilda Peterson; September 8, 1914 – May 25, 1999) was an American film actress. Career A 5′6″ blonde from the Astoria neighborhood of New York City's borough of Queens, Brooke, who was of Swedish an ...

and

Morris Ankrum Morris Ankrum (born Morris Nussbaum; August 28, 1897 – September 2, 1964) was an American radio, television, and film character actor. Early life Born in Danville, Illinois, Danville in Vermilion County, Illinois, Vermilion County in eastern ...

.Fetrow p.273 The screenplay concerns a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

-based author who travels to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

to search for a celebrated

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

who disappeared there many years before.

Plot

Tip Morgan's teenaged daughter Linda is upset because her alcoholic father is drinking inside a bar and has a heart condition. Tip, a widower and a former newspaper crime reporter, moved to

many years ago without explanation. Trying to make amends for his behavior, Tip gets in touch with Dave Brady, a crime novelist he admires. Dave explains to his best friend, Los Angeles district attorney Dan McCracken, that he intends to travel to Mexico to see Tip in person. McCracken is aware of the circumstances, that Tip was a suspect in a murder case but skipped the country instead. Tip explains to Dave that he was about to expose the killers' identities 15 years ago when gangsters Caruthers and Gato forced him to flee to Mexico by threatening his daughter's life. He is now ready to return Linda to the land of her birth and face the consequences. But when a hired assassin called Cookie takes a shot at him, Tip realizes that the gangsters are after him. Taking back roads toward Nogales in a car, Dave and the Morgans are pursued by Caruthers and Gato as well as Cookie. A passing car's driver, an American woman, Eve Carter, offers to be of help. Linda is taken hostage and knocked unconscious. It turns out Eve is in collusion with the gangsters. She berates them for bungling the job, and Cookie is killed over his incompetence in completing the job. Eve remains in hot pursuit, but using wiles that helped him with his crime novels, Dave arranges for the border police to nab Eve and the gangsters. He manages to get the Morgans back to L.A. safely. There, to his disappointment, he finds out that his friend, McCracken, is behind the whole scheme, having years ago taken a bribe from the mob. The Morgans are no longer in danger, however, because Dave, having had his suspicions, has already summoned the police here, too.

Cast

as David L. 'Dave' Brady *

as Eve Carter *

as Tip Morgan *

Karen Sharpe Karen Kay Sharpe (born September 20, 1934) is an American film and television actress. She is known for playing Laura Thomas in the American western television series ''Johnny Ringo''. Life and career Sharpe was born in San Antonio, Texas, th ...

as Linda Morgan *

Marjorie Lord Marjorie Lord (née Wollenberg; July 26, 1918 – November 28, 2015) was an American television and film actress. She played Kathy "Clancy" O'Hara Williams, opposite Danny Thomas's character on ''The Danny Thomas Show'' (also known as ''Make ...

as Sheila Barton * Douglas Kennedy as Dan McCracken * Alberto Morin as Pablo Armendariz *

Carleton Young Captain Carleton Scott Young (October 21, 1905 – November 7, 1994) was an American character actor who was known for his deep voice. Early years Born in Fulton, Oswego, New York, Young was the second and only surviving child of St ...

as Slick Caruthers * Stuart Randall as Lucky Gato * Marvin Press as Cookie

References

Bibliography

* Fetrow, Alan G. ''Feature films, 1950-1959: a United States Filmography''. McFarland & Company, 1999.

External links

* 1953 films American crime films American black-and-white films 1953 crime films Films directed by Rex Bailey Monogram Pictures films Films set in Los Angeles Films set in Mexico Films produced by Lindsley Parsons 1950s English-language films 1950s American films {{1950s-crime-film-stub