Captain Tugboat Annie

Ultra-low-budget film is the third to feature the Tugboat Annie character, here competing with rival Captain Bullwinkle (Edgar Kennedy) for a juicy contract. Seems like Annie's been in dry dock as the government had taken over all the tugboats for the war effort, but she's back is town and hiring a new crew. She hires only war veterans, but gets a sullen parolee foisted on her by a judge (H.B. Warner). The new guy got bilked by a business partner and returned from the war to find his fortune gone.

Aside from battling Bullwinkle, Annie finds time to get a kid (Saundra Berkova) a gig at the local symphony and the judge's secretary (Pamela Blake) interested in her new crew member, the parolee (Charles Gordon).

Things come to a head when Annie and crew brave a ship afire and loaded with chemicals that's about to blow up and take the harbor with it.

Despite a decent cast, the storyline is pretty weak and the production values just plain terrible. After both Marie Dressler and Marjorie Rambeau had cracks at Annie, Darwell does a good job playing the tough old bird, and Republic Studio likely had ideas of a franchise, but it never happened. Others in the cast include Jack Norton, Mantan Moreland, Hardie Albright, Fritz Feld, Barton Yarborough, Cyril Delevanti, and Joseph Crehan.

Tugboat Annie would return as a short-lived TV series in the 1950s starring Minerva Urecal. She hasn't been seen since.