"Over the hill" at the tender age of 12, Shirley Temple closed out her 20th Century-Fox contract with the musical seriocomedy Young People. After years of trodding the boards in vaudeville, Wendy Ballantine (Temple) and her adoptive parents Joe (Jack Oakie) and Kit (Charlotte Greenwood retire) to a small town so that the youngster can receive a ...
Johanna Spyri's perennial children's favorite Heidi was retailored to the talents of Shirley Temple, resulting in one of her best vehicles. Orphaned early in the proceeding, Heidi is left in the care of her bitter, misanthropic grandfather Adolph Kramer (Jean Hersholt). It doesn't take long before the sweet little child has melted grandpa's ...
From director Allan Dwan, Sands of Iwo Jima is a drama set during the Second World War and follows John Stryker (John Wayne), a relentlessly tough Marine sergeant as he trains a squad of naïve, rebellious recruits at a New Zealand military station in 1943. Recently left by his wife, Stryker has become exceedingly bitter and tough, leading his ...
Filmed on location at Montana's Glacier National Park, Cattle Queen of Montana makes excellent use of the diverse talents of Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan. Stanwyck is cast as Sierra Nevada Jones, who hopes to stake her claim in the cattle business despite opposition from hostile land barons. She is helped along by government agent Farrell, ...
When Fox bought the rights to Ralph Spence's warhorse stage mystery-comedy The Gorilla for the Ritz Brothers, they walked out en masse, refusing to work on the picture until their contracts were renegotiated and the script heavily rewritten. The finished product features an escaped circus gorilla apparently perpetrating a series of murders. ...
Refreshingly, the tropical melodrama Pearl of the South Pacific never takes itself too seriously. Virginia Mayo heads the cast as a phony missionary, in cahoots with crooks Dennis Morgan and David Farrar. The trio intend to make off with a fortune in black pearls, which rests in an underwater shrine guarded by a huge octopus. On the verge of ...
The life of Stephen Foster, one of America's greatest and best-loved songwriters of the 19th century, sets the stage for this musical biography. Foster (Bill Shirley) is a shy bookkeeper who writes songs in his spare time. He is madly in love with Inez McDowell (Muriel Lawrence), but she isn't interested in him, and she eventually gives him the ...
Another winning collaboration between producer Benedict Bogeaus and director Allan Dwan, Tennessee's Partner is the third film version of the same-named Bret Harte story. The plotline is motivated by the curious friendship between slick gambler Tennessee (John Payne) and gunslinging Cowpoke (Ronald Reagan). Setting up shop in California gold-rush ...
In this Republic musical, all heck breaks loose when the girlfriend of an aspiring composer becomes a model for the starving artist who lives next door. The story takes place at the turn of the 19th century and is set in Miss Rich's boardinghouse, the temporary home of many young artists and performers hoping to make it big in New York. Songs ...
Next to Slightly Scarlet, Silver Lode is the best of the many 1950s collaborations between producer Benedict Bogaeus and director Allan Dwan. Clearly inspired by High Noon, the story covers three hours in the lives of a group of westerners. As the townsfolk prepare for the Fourth of July celebration, stranger Dan Duryea rides into view, followed ...
Originally filmed at Republic in 1948, Montana Belle was purchased by producer Howard R. Hughes, who'd loaned the services of the film's star, Jane Russell. After laying on the shelf for three years, Montana Belle was finally released by Hughes' RKO Radio Pictures in October of 1952. Russell plays notorious western outlaw Belle Starr, who after ...
Hollywood Party was planned as a lavish, star-studded MGM musical titled Hollywood Revue of 1933 . Under the less-than-sterling guidance of "kicked upstairs" MGM producer Harry Rapf, production dragged on interminably, using up the talents of five directors (none of whom were credited) and seven writers. The "all star" cast lineup slowly dwindled ...
Jack Oakie is near the top of his form as Boley Bolenciecwcz, the best college football player to come down the pike in a generation. But Boley has two problems -- he likes to sleep a lot when he's not training, and he isn't terribly bright, and might just fail his examinations and become inelligible to play. So the president of his college, under ...
In this production from Benedict Bogeaus and RKO Radio, Robert Ryan stars as a fugitive from justice who hides out in the Far Eastern teak plantation managed by Barbara Stanwyck. As the two fall in love, Stanwyck comes to believe in Ryan's innocence. Upon the arrival of doggedly determined security officer David Farrer, Ryan and Stanwyck escape ...
The winning combination of producer Benedict Bogeaus and director Allan Dwan once more struck box-office gold with Passion. Set in 19th century California, the film stars Cornel Wilde as a young rancher seeking vengeance for the murders of his wife Yvonne de Carlo and his parents. The guilty parties are a group of terrorists, headed by Rodolpho ...
Previously filmed in 1917 and 1932, Kate Douglas Wiggins' bucolic novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is herein refashioned--and completely, totally, utterly rewritten--as a vehicle for 10-year-old Shirley Temple. Unable to land a radio contract for himself and his niece Rebecca Winstead (Temple), fly-by-night vaudevillian Henry Kipper (William ...
Allan Dwan's comedic musical adaptation of the classic Dumas story sticks close to the original tale, yet it augments it with healthy doses of humor and songs. Don Ameche stars as D'Artagnan and the Ritz Brothers play his two other musketeers. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
The Iron Mask was Douglas Fairbanks' sequel to his popular 1921 vehicle The Three Musketeers. Fairbanks returns to his original role of D'Artagnan, while Marguerite de La Motte and Nigel De Brulier briefly reprise their Musketeers roles as, respectively, Constance and Cardinal Richelieu. After tying up loose plot ends from the first film, the ...
Several popular radio personalities converge in the RKO Radio "comedy salad" Look Who's Laughing. Taking a vacation from his radio series, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen sets out in his private plane, accompanied by his dummy Charlie McCarthy. Developing engine trouble, Bergen makes a forced landing in the town of Wistful Vista, home of Fibber McGee ...
Robin Hood, Douglas Fairbanks' biggest (though not necessarily best) production of the silent era, represents the first time that many familiar of the elements of the Robin Hood legend were presented on screen. To bring the project to full fruition, Fairbanks and his wife Mary Pickford purchased the old Jesse Hampton studio in Santa Monica, and on ...
A bank robber's avarice and obsessive quest for freedom lead to his downfall in this adventure-packed crime drama that was shot on location in Mexico. After lifting a cool million from a U.S. bank, the crook is anxious to sneak across the border into Mexico, but to do so he must hire an experienced wilderness guide. He goes to the guide's ranch ...
This little film noir is freely adapted from James M. Cain's novel Love's Lovely Counterfeit, the story of a gangster working for a powerful Don who is fighting to retain control of the city's criminal activities when an honest mayoral candidate launches a strong anti-crime campaign. In a desperate attempt to derail his career, the Don assigns the ...
Angel in Exile represents a one-time-only directorial collaboration between cult favorite Allan Dwan and B-western workhouse Philip Ford. Upon his release from jail, hardened criminal Charlie Dakin (John Carroll) heads to Mexico in search of his stolen gold, hidden in a mine shaft by Dakin's confederates. Posing as an honest prospector, Dakin ...
Of the many attempts by Republic Pictures' CEO Herbert J. Yates to turn his lady friend Vera Ralston into a star, Surrender is one of the better efforts. Ralston plays a conscienceless "femme fatale" who works out a complex scheme to secure her financial comfort. The plan, enacted in a western border town, involves bigamy, betrayal, and ultimately ...
Douglas Fairbanks Sr. stars as Ned Thacker, who is born during a Kansas cyclone (coincidentally the same manner in which Fairbanks' real-life contemporary Buster Keaton came into the world!) and is thus imbued with the spirit of adventure. Having been virtually weaned on Alexandre Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers, Ned grows up dedicated to old ...
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