The Holy Terror
Cast & Crew
James Tinling
Jane Withers
Anthony Martin
Leah Ray
Joe Lewis
El Brendel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
After U.S. Navy Commander Captain J. J. Otis complains to Lieutenant Commander Wallace about finding Wallace's young daughter's skates on his front steps, the lieutenant commander warns his daughter Corky, who is the darling of the enlisted men, to keep out of trouble or he'll have to send her away again this summer as he has had to do in the past. During a meeting in which Captain Otis tells his men that Mr. H. D. Phelps of the House Appropriations Committee is on his way to investigate his request for an increase in appropriations, Corky flies a miniature plane which her two pals, Axel Svenson and Pelican Beek built, and the plane flies into Otis' window disrupting the meeting. Lt. Wallace gives Corky one more chance and entrusts her to enlisted man Dan Walker while he goes to meet Phelps. In town, Danny and Corky visit Dan's girl friend, Marjorie Dean, at her cafe, the Golden Anchor. Danny sees Chief Petty Officer Carson flirting with Marjorie and starts a fight, but when Corky sees that the shore patrol are coming, she tells Danny and Carson, who turn their brawl into an act for the amusement of the patrons. Two of the diners, Redman and Maria Blair, are interested in buying the cafe because the window in the building's tower affords the only view of the hangar where a secret fast airplane is being built. The two think that photographs of the plane would interest a foreign power. Although Marjorie refuses to sell the cafe, Redman is encouraged when he hears Marjorie bawl out Danny for starting a fight which could have resulted in her cafe being declared off-limits. She says that she would have to close it up if no sailors were allowed to partronize it. When Corky sees Phelps inspecting the sailors' recreation hall, she tells Pelican that Phelps might be a spy. Pelican knocks Phelps out, to Captain Otis' dismay, and he is put into the brig for his efforts, but Corky convinces her father to get Pelican out. Meanwhile, Redman arranges for a number of men dressed as sailors to disrupt a show at the Golden Anchor, which provokes a riot. The cafe is declared out of bounds for sailors, and after Marjorie leaves, Redman, Maria and others break in and begin their spy operation. On the day of the review of air maneuvers arranged for Phelps, Corky endears herself to Captain Otis and interests him in flying the miniature plane with her. When it crashes, Corky blasts the captain and refuses to end her trantrum until he agrees to release her friends, including Danny, Axel and Pelican, who are in the brig for fighting at the Golden Anchor, and allows the cafe to open again. As the review progresses and Phelps is not very impressed, Corky, with Marjorie and her cook Lil, return to the Golden Anchor, where they are captured by the spies. Corky escapes and returns to the base, and when her father refuses to allow her to interrupt the proceedings, she enters the radio room and commands all the flyers to parachute and land at the Golden Anchor. Although Captain Otis is dumbfounded, Phelps is greatly impressed by the exhibition of mass parachute jumping and promises renewed appropriations. The flyers battle the spies and subdue them with help from Lil and her frying pan. In the hospital, after Captain Otis reads a citation to the men recovering, he presents Corky with a new miniature plane, which creates havoc as it flies through the recovery room.
Director
James Tinling
Cast
Jane Withers
Anthony Martin
Leah Ray
Joe Lewis
El Brendel
John Eldredge
Gloria Roy
Andrew Tombes
Joan Davis
Gavin Muir
Fred Kohler Jr.
Victor Adams
Raymond Brown
Louis Bacigalupi
Oscar Rudolph
William Moore
Allen Fox
Ray Cooke
George Magrill
Henry Otho
Russ Clark
Gaylord Pendleton
Howard Wilson
Ben Hendricks
Hal Boyer
Dick Winslow
Dick French
Bruce Warren
David Horsley
David Newell
Emmett Vogan
Clark & Dexter
Stanley Taylor
Lew Harvey
Crew
Harry Akst
Lou Breslow
Sidney Clare
Daniel B. Clark
Nick De Maggio
William Eckhardt
W. D. Flick
Jack Haskell
Herschel
Albert Hogsett
Samuel Kaylin
Harry M. Leonard
John Patrick
John Stone
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The title of this film was taken from a play by Winchell Smith and George Abbott, owned by Twentieth Century-Fox, which was the basis of the 1927 Fox film Hills of Peril. Neither that film, nor the 1931 Fox film A Holy Terror bare any resemblance to this film.
