Raymond Winston Movies
- 1956
Tom Ewell plays a busy attorney who wishes to be closer to his son. To do this, he becomes manager of the boy's little league team, much to the dismay of his wife (Anne Francis), who can't stand baseball. Ewell finds that he must contend with pushy and ambitious parents who hope to live their own sports fantasies vicariously through their ballplaying children. The single mother of one of the kids (Ann Miller) goes to Ewell to plead for her boy's advancement, but the purpose of the meeting is misinterpreted by Ewell's jealous wife. Fed up with sacrificing sportsmanship to the whims of the parents, Ewell encourages his team to play for the love of the game rather than "winning at any cost." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Ewell, Anne Francis, (more)
- 1956
The Leather Saint is an uneasy blend of religious drama and prizefight picture. John Derek stars as Father Gil Allen, an Episcopalian minister who relaxes on weekends by indulging in a few rounds of boxing. Allen hopes to use the prize money to finance a medical center for young polio victims, but he doesn't offer this information--nor does he reveal his true identity--to his hard-bitten, money-grubbing manager Gus MacAuliffe (Paul Douglas). When he's not duking it out in the ring, Allen works overtime to save a pretty young girl named Pearl (Jody Lawrance) from becoming a hopeless alcoholic. Mildly entertaining, The Leather Saint used to be an Easter-weekend perennial on certain Midwestern TV stations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Douglas, John Derek, (more)
- 1956
- Add The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit to QueueAdd The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit to top of Queue
This meticulous and unusually long cinemadaptation of Sloan Wilson's best-selling novel The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit stars Gregory Peck as an ex-army officer, pursuing a living as a TV writer in the postwar years. Hired by a major broadcasting network, Peck is assigned to write speeches for the network's president (Fredric March). Peck comes to realize that the president's success has come at the expense of personal happiness, and this leads Peck to ruminate on his own life. Extended flashbacks reveal that Peck had experienced a torrid wartime romance with Italian girl Marisa Pavan, a union that produced a child. Peck is torn between his responsibility to his illegitimate son and his current obligations towards his wife (Jennifer Jones), his children, and his employer. Among the many life-altering decisions made by Peck before the fade-out is his determination to seek out a job that will allow him to spend more time with his family, even if it means a severe cut in salary. The superb hand-picked supporting cast of The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit includes Ann Harding as March's wife, Keenan Wynn as the man who informs Peck that he'd fathered an Italian child, Henry Daniell as a detached executive, and an unbilled DeForrest Kelley as an army medic (who gets to say "He's dead, captain"!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, (more)
