Movies by Ricardo Cortez

Wonder Bar

Wonder Bar

Harry and Inez are a dance team at the Wonder Bar. Inez loves Harry, but he is in love with Liane, the wife of a wealthy business man. Al Wonder and the conductor/singer Tommy are in love with Inez. When Inez finds out that Harry wants to leave Paris and is going to the USA with Liane, she kills him.

Not So Long Ago

Not So Long Ago

Against the backdrop of New York City of the early 1850s, a young woman -- naively seeking to win the love she reads about in the romance novels she devours -- finds one prospect in an earnest denizen of the Bowery, and another in an elegant young aristocrat. Focusing on the bygone era's fashions, the novelty of the bicycle-built-for-two, and an inventor's quest for the horseless carriage, the film gently stirs the audiences' nostalgia for simpler times.

I Am a Thief

I Am a Thief

A man dodges jewel thieves while carrying a fortune in diamonds on the Orient Express.

Rubber Racketeers

Rubber Racketeers

Racketeer Gillin is paroled from prison and immediately goes to work trying to make an illegal buck from America's war effort. With rationing in effect the black market tire business is booming. Gillen's mob sets up car lots around town where they peddle stolen tires and "new" tires milled in the gangster's factories from cheap faulty materials. People begin to die in crashes as the defective tires fail. Bill Barry leads his fellow defense plant workers on a crusade to uncover the source of the black market rubber and bring the guilty to jus...

The Eagle of the Sea

The Eagle of the Sea

Eagle of the Sea is based on Charles Tenney Jackson's swashbuckling novel Captain Sazarac.

City Girl

City Girl

In this tearful crime melodrama, a waitress becomes so taken with her dream of living in posh luxury and comfort that she leaves her honest boyfriend the district attorney to take up with a notorious gangster who lavishes her with stolen furs and fabulous diamonds. She has no idea that the crook is only using her as a pawn in his scheme to learn the DA's secrets. When she finally does learn the truth, she gives up her life for truth, justice and love.

The Next Corner

The Next Corner

While honeymooning in Paris Elsie is rescued from attentions of a man.Her hero is Don Arturo who takes her to Countess Longueval after her husband must go for work to Argentine.When her husband returns he is shocked how have Elsie change.Elsie goes to a party in Arturos hunting lodge,where he forces himself on her.Arturo is shot by a Stranger and Elsie confesses all to her forgiving husband.Juan Serafin is found shot.

Frisco Kid

Frisco Kid

After a roustabout sailor avoids being shanghaied in 1850s San Francisco, his audacity helps him rise to a position of power in the vice industry of the infamous Barbary Coast.

A Shot in the Dark

A Shot in the Dark

A reporter and a police detective sort through the clues in a night-club owner's murder.

The Lost Zeppelin

The Lost Zeppelin

Explorers to the South Pole in an airship Zeppelin crash in the frozen Antarctic and must struggle for survival in the land of eternal snow and ice.

The Private Life of Helen of Troy

The Private Life of Helen of Troy

Setting the standard for his later light-hearted biopics The Private Life of Henry VIII and Rembrandt, producer-director Alexander Korda steadfastly refuses to take any of The Private Life of Helen of Troy seriously. Maria Corda, wife of the director, plays the title character as a fetchingly underdressed coquette, oblivious to all the political turmoil she's causing when she allows the handsome Paris (Ricardo Cortez) to kidnap her. Meanwhile, poor King Menelaus (Lewis Stone), Helen's husband, stands by in stoic silence, just as he's done on...

The Younger Generation

The Younger Generation

Soap-opera about a social-climbing Jewish man and his old-world parents who are heartbroken by his rejection of them. Young Morris Goldfish follows his immigrant father into business. His ruthless business practices cause him to become a big success, and he moves the family to Park Avenue. They go, but were happier back on the East Side. Morris is ashamed of this parents and his humble origins, but learns in the end that there is more to life than money.

The Firebird

The Firebird

Herman Brandt, a handsome but overly conceited actor, lives in the same apartment building in Vienna as Carola and John Pointer and their 18-year-old daughter Mariette. One day, as Carola leaves the building, Brandt catches her in the stairwell and proposes she "visit" him at his apartment after everyone has gone to bed. Shocked and offended at his brazenness, she complains to the building manager, who orders Brandt to leave. He refuses, so the Pointers decide that they will move out instead. While they're packing, the police show up at thei...

Manhattan Moon

Manhattan Moon

Night club owner Dan Moore is trying to collect a debt owed to him by playboy Reggie Van Dorn, but Reggie is a playboy with no money but lots of social connections. In lieu of the cash, Dan gets Reggie to introduce him to the swells of high society. They go to the opera and, after hearing Yvonne Malloy sing, Dan falls in love with her. Reggie introduces them, but the introduction is to Yvonne's double and stand-in, Toots. This leads to many complications for all concerned.

Who Is Hope Schuyler?

Who Is Hope Schuyler?

A girl reporter is trying to tack down the lady-in-the-title, as a key witness in a graft trial, which involves three murder and that many failed attempts. A prosecuting attorney in the district attorneys office is aiding her in solving the mystery of the missing lady.

The Californian

The Californian

Native son returns from school in Spain to California in 1855 and finds corrupt politicians stealing land from old California families. He becomes a sort of Robin Hood in order to fight them.

Big Executive

Big Executive

Big Executive

In the Name of Love

In the Name of Love

Naturalized American Raoul Melnotte travels from Chicago to his native France in search of his childhood sweetheart, Marie Dufrayne.

Argentine Love

Argentine Love

While his daughter, Consuelo, is visiting the United States, Emanuel GarcĂ­a, the Mayor of Alcorta in the Argentine, arranges for her marriage to Juan Martin, in return for Martin's financial assistance. On her return, Consuelo, who is in love with Philip Sears, an American engineer working in Argentina, refuses Juan but gives no reason. Juan is furious with outraged pride and soon kills Rafael Cornejo, the son of a senator, when he flirts with Consuelo.

Her Husband Lies

Her Husband Lies

J. Ward Thomas of Park Avenue leads a double life as an investment broker and as notorious gambler Spade Martin, despite the protests of his beautiful wife Natalie, a nightclub singer who retired when they married. Spade's younger brother "Chick" wires Spade from Seattle that he has quit gambling for a job in real estate and is about to marry a nice girl named Betty. Relieved to find his kid brother is straight, Spade sends him $10,000 cash as a wedding present. When a woman posing as a pregnant wife comes to Spade for a loan, Spade gives it...