Charles Coburn Movies

Robert Stack stars in this sea-faring historical epic as John Paul Jones, the first great hero of the American Navy. While originally a loyal soldier of the King's army, Jones in time becomes a fervent supporter of the American Revolutionaries, and he volunteers to lead the colonists' ragtag fleet to impressive victories against the British Navy; during a battle against the British ship Serapis, Jones utters the deathless words "I have not yet begun to fight." While his brave and intelligent leadership helps win America its freedom, his appeals to Benjamin Franklin (Charles Coburn) and the other leaders of Congress to strengthen the United States Navy fall on deaf ears; Jones is eventually branded a troublemaker, and in time, he is ordered to Russia, where he is to help guide the fleet of Catherine The Great (Bette Davis). Jones leads the Russian Navy to stunning victories in the Black Sea, reestablishing his reputation as one of the great military minds of his day. John Paul Jones also features a rousing score by the great film composer Max Steiner. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Though billed fifth, Mary Astor is the one to watch in the Ross Hunter-produced soapera Stranger in My Arms. Astor portrays a neurotically possessive mother who'll stop at nothing to win a posthumous medal of honor for her son. But air force major Jeff Chandler knows that the dead boy was a coward who actually despised his mother. June Allyson, the boy's widow, suspects the truth, but would rather not hear it. Called to testify on behalf of the boy, Chandler is bribed by Ms. Astor to lie on the stand. The painful truth is eventually revealed, but there's some compensation for Ms. Allyson, who falls in love with Chandler. Stranger in My Arms was adapted from Robert Wilder's novel And Ride a Tiger. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This satire takes a sharp poke at the intrinsic laziness of British aristocracy who would rather die of starvation than perform an honest day's work. The tale begins when a destitute nobleman conspires to murder his rich Canadian uncle for the inheritance. Unfortunately he continually fails in his efforts to off him. Instead he winds up killing his own family one-by-one. In the end, the slightly addled fellow offs himself when he walks into one of his own traps which he had set in his uncle's room. The uncle is then arrested for his nephew's murder. Fortunately an elderly aunt manages to clear the Canadian's name. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Future "Master of Disaster" Irwin Allen produced this curious but inarguably fascinating adaptation of Henrik Willem Van Loon's best- selling historical volume. A Celestial Tribunal has been convened to decide the fate of the Earth after the invention of nuclear weapons, with The Devil (Vincent Price) and The Spirit of Man (Ronald Colman) debating if humankind should be allowed to continue or be exterminated once and for all. Both men present examples of human behavior at its best and worst, including Dennis Hopper as Napoleon, Hedy Lamarr as Joan of Arc, Virginia Mayo as Cleopatra, Peter Lorre as Nero, Edward Everett Horton as Sir Walter Raleigh, and Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, and Chico Marx as, respectively, Peter Minuit, Sir Isaac Newton, and a monk (yes, the producers had the daring and vision to cast the Marx Brothers without having them play any scenes together). The Story of Mankind proved to be the last film for both Ronald Colman and Hedy Lamarr; it was also the last time the three Marx Brothers appeared in the same film, though the individual Marxes appeared in a few films following this. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production anecdotes concerning Todd's efforts to pull the wool over the eyes of local authorities in order to cadge the film's round-the-world location shots--not to mention the wheeling and dealing to convince over forty top celebrities to appear in cameo roles. David Niven heads the huge cast as ultra-precise, supremely punctual Phileas Fogg, who places a 20,000-pound wager with several fellow members of London Reform Club, insisting that he can go around the world in eighty days (this, remember, is 1872). Together with his resourceful valet Passepartout (Cantinflas), Fogg sets out on his world-girdling journey from Paris via balloon. Meanwhile, suspicion grows that Fogg has stolen his 20,000 pounds from Bank of England. Diligent Inspector Fix (Robert Newton) is sent out by the bank's president (Robert Morley) to bring Fogg to justice. Hopscotching around the globe, Fogg pauses in Spain, where Passepartout engages in a comic bullfight (a specialty of Cantinflas). In India, Fogg and Passepartout rescue young widow Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine, in her third film) from being forced into committing suicide so that she may join her late husband. The threesome visit Hong Kong, Japan, San Francisco, and the Wild West. Only hours short of winning his wager, Fogg is arrested by the diligent Inspector Fixx. Though exonerated of the bank robbery charges, he has lost everything--except the love of the winsome Aouda. But salvation is at hand when Passepartout discovers that, by crossing the International Date Line, there's still time to reach the Reform Club. Will they make it? See for yourself. Among the film's 46 guest stars, the most memorable include Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Jose Greco, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, Buster Keaton, John Mills, and Beatrice Lillie. All were paid in barter--Ronald Colman did his brief bit for a new car. Newscaster Edward R. Murrow provides opening narration, and there's a tantalizing clip from Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902). Offering a little something for everyone, Around the World in 80 Days is nothing less than an extravaganza, and it won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on a novel by Mickey Spillane, The Long Wait stars Anthony Quinn as an amnesiac who may or may not have committed a murder. Picking up the pieces of his life, Quinn wanders into a hotbed of small-town intrigue and corruption. Characters essentially to the action are highly respectable bank president Charles Coburn, gangster Gene Evans, and silky femme fatale Peggie Castle. The climax, described by historian William K. Everson as "a typical Spillane head-on collision of sex and violence", finds the trussed-up Quinn and Castle struggling to kiss each other while being goaded on by sadistic gunsel William Conrad. As for the story's surprise outcome. . .well, some things are better seen than said. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

"Winning isn't everything -- it's the only thing." These words were spoken not by Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi but by Steve Williams, the fictional college athletics instructor played by John Wayne in Trouble Along the Way. Recently divorced, Williams has trouble finding a job due to his inability to get along with his superiors. If he doesn't find work soon, he'll lose custody of his daughter Carole (Sherry Jackson). Meanwhile, St. Anthony's College, heavily in debt, may have to close its doors. Father Burke, rector of St. Anthony's, reasons that the school could get back on its feet if it had a winning football team, thereby securing the support of the alumni. Thus, against his better judgment, Father Burke hires the troublesome Steve Williams, who'll stop at nothing to assemble a winning team. Somehow, Williams has to turn into a regular human being, and that's where social worker Alice Singleton (Donna Reed) comes in. More sentimental than most Wayne vehicles, Trouble Along the Way is well worth the ride. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Howard Hawks hoped to capture the screwball comic fervor of his 1938 film Bringing Up Baby with his 1952 comedy Monkey Business. As in the earlier film, Cary Grant stars as an absent-minded professor involved in a research project. This time he's a chemist seeking a "fountain of youth" formula that will revitalize middle-agers both mentally and physically. Though Grant's own laboratory experiments yield little fruit, a lab monkey, let loose from its cage, mixes a few random chemicals and comes up with just the formula Grant is looking for. This mixture is inadvertently dumped in the lab's water supply; the fun begins when staid, uptight Grant drinks some of the "bitter" water, then begins cutting up like a teenager. A harmless afternoon on the town with luscious secretary Marilyn Monroe rouses the ire of Grant's wife Ginger Rogers, but her behavior is even more infantile when she falls under the spell of the youth formula. Everyone remembers the best line in Monkey Business: foxy-grandpa research supervisor Charles Coburn hands the curvacious Monroe a letter and says "Get someone to type this". Even better is his next line: after Monroe sashays out of the room, Coburn turns to Grant and, with eyes atwinkle, murmurs "Anyone can type." Likewise amusing is Monkey Business's pre-credits gag, wherein Cary Grant opens a door and is about to step forward when director Hawks, off-camera, admonishes "Not yet, Cary." Among the co-conspirators on Monkey Business's carefree script are Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer and I.A.L. Diamond, with an original story by Harry Segall (Here Comes Mr. Jordan) as their source. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Highwayman is based on the famous narrative poem by Alfred Noyes. The title character, played by Philip Friend, is a bold masked bandit of 18th-century England, who robs from the rich and gives (a little) to the poor. He is loved by Bess (Wanda Hendrix), the lovely daughter of an innkeeper. The film doesn't pick up the plotline of the Noyes poem until some ten minutes before the end. Everyone who read The Highwayman in high school will recall that King George's men camp themselves in the inn awaiting the Highwayman's appearance--and so that Bess won't tip off her lover, they tie her up with a musket aimed at her heart. Bess courageously manages to fire the musket just as the Highwayman approaches, saving his life at the cost of her own. Upon the subsequent death of the Highwayman, he and Bess are reunited in the Hereafter. Fairly pedestrian for the most part, The Highwayman comes to a poignant climax, but it still pales beside the Alfred Noyes original. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Never mind the top-billed Ronald W. Reagan; the real stars of Louisa are sprightly seniors Charles Coburn, Spring Byington and Edmund Gwenn. Spring plays Reagan's widowed mother, who is outwardly satisfied with her lot but inwardly lonely. Enter Coburn and Gwenn, who vie for Spring's attentions. Uptight Ronnie disapproves of his mother's dalliances, and has additional problems with his spunky daughter (Piper Laurie), who has just begun dating. Spring Byington and Charles Coburn worked so well together in Louisa that plans were made to star them in a weekly TV series. The project never sold, but Spring would star in a similar sitcom, December Bride, from 1954 through 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A remake of Wife, Husband and Friend (1938), Everybody Does It is a frantic satire of the opera world. Businessman Paul Douglas is forced to suffer in silence when his wife (Celeste Holm) decides to become an opera star. Compelled to bankroll a concert for his missus, Douglas meets genuine opera diva Linda Darnell at the concert. While passing the time, Darnell discovers that Douglas in fact has a magnificent singing voice. Partly because he is flattered by Darnell's attentions, and partly to show up his wife, Douglas embarks on his own operatic career. But on the night of his debut, Douglas suffers a severe attack of stage fright, gets "doped up" on medicine in order to survive the performance, and hilariously humiliates himself in front of everyone. Darnell l angrily stalks out of the scene, and the sadder-but-wiser Douglas and Celeste Holm return to each other's arms. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

For some reason, whenever Universal used the word "Gal" in a film's title, Yvonne de Carlo usually headed the cast. In Gal Who Took the West, de Carlo plays Lillian Marlowe, an New York songstress who heads Thataway. She becomes the romantic bone of contention between the feuding O'Hara cousins, Grant (John Russell) and Lee (Scott Brady). The hostilities boil over into an all-out range war, and federal troops are summoned. Can Lillian succeed where other, better-armed negotiators have failed. The lighthearted nature of Gal Who Took the West is underlined by staging the film in flashback, as related by a pair of toothless old codgers (Clem Bevans and Houseley Stevenson). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though he doesn't know it at first, industrialist Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) shouldn't trust his wife Irene (Helen Walker) any farther than he can throw her. Irene schemes with her lover Jim Torrance (Tony Barrett) to kill Walter in an "accidental" car crash. The plan fails, and it is Jim who is killed. When it develops that he is assumed to have also died in the accident, Walter changes his name and heads to a small town where no one knows him. Here he starts life all over again as a humble garage mechanic, falling in love with his boss Marsha Peters (Ella Raines) in the process. Disaster looms when detective Quincy (Charles Coburn) comes sniffing around; it seems that Lt. Quincy suspects the incognito Williams of murdering Torrance. To reveal any more would be giving the game away. Impact co-stars longtime favorite Anna May Wong, making her first screen appearance since 1942. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi