Paul Stanton Movies

The creative team of producer Harry Joe Brown and star Randolph Scott turned out some of the best westerns of the 1950s, and Santa Fe is no exception. Set in the years following the Civil War, the film casts Scott as Britt Canfield, one of four ex-Confederate brothers who head West to carve out a new life. While his three siblings (Jerome Courtland, Peter Thompson and John Archer) cast their lot on the wrong side of the law, Britt accepts a job with the Santa Fe Railroad. Inevitably, Britt is obliged to bring his wayward brothers to justice, though he knows full well that the person responsible for their downfall is "untouchable" gambling boss Cole Sanders (Roy Roberts). In a well-staged climax, Britt squares accounts with the evil Sanders and his hulking henchman Crake (Jock O'Mahoney). Curiously, many TV prints of Santa Fe were processed with the soundtrack slightly out of sync with the action. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hoping to start up where he left off before his studio was taken over by the government during WWII, Hal Roach turned out a brief series of "streamliners" (short-length feature films) under the umbrella title Hal Roach's Laff-Time. The third entry in this series was Here Comes Trouble, a Cinecolor attempt to revive a popular Roach military-comedy series from the early 1940s. William Tracy and Joe Sawyer return respectively as Doubleday and Ames, erstwhile army buddies with a predilection for trouble. Now in civilian clothes, Doubleday, he of the photographic memory, becomes a newspaper reporter, while the long-suffering Ames joins the police force. It doesn't take long for our heroes to become involved in a hectic search for a valuable missing diary. Former silent screen star Betty Compson provides a touch of class in the role of newspaper publisher's wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The tense psychological drama Cry Wolf offers a fascinating if not altogether successful change of pace for action star Errol Flynn. Most of the story takes place at a remote and forbidding mansion, where Sandra Marshall (Barbara Stanwyck), the widow of the house's owner, arrives to take charge. An apparent golddigger, Sandra refuses to be bought off with a small cash settlement and insists on claiming her late husband's entire estate, which earns her a powerful enemy in the form of research scientist Mark Caldwell (Flynn). Upon learning that her headstrong sister-in-law Julie (Geraldine Brooks) is kept a virtual prisoner in the house, Sandra begins suspecting that Caldwell is up to no good-a suspicion seemingly confirmed when Julie dies under mysterious circumstances. But as the story slowly unravels, it becomes clear that Caldwell is actually the hero of the piece, while the villain is...well, best not to give too much away here. Cry Wolf was Geraldine Brooks' first film, and the second for her costar Richard Basehart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, a gang of con artists swindle a group of naive, starstruck investors into backing a dreadful musical that has no hope of succeeding. This garners the crooks a nice chunk of change until one of the investors dies and his lovely, canny executor insures that the show will become a smash. Songs include: "That's My Girl," "The Music in My Heart Is You," "Take It Away" (Jack Elliott), "For You and Me," "Sentimental," "Hitchhike to Happiness" (Kim Gannon, Walter Kent), and "720 in the Books" (Jan Savitt). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This little-known Warner Bros. melodrama reteams Hotel Berlin co-stars Helmut Dantine and Andrea King. He is cast as Dr. Eric Ryder, a seemingly respectable medico, while she plays Ryder's impressionable young bride Brook. Despite significant evidence that Ryder isn't all that he seems to be, his wife continues to believe in and worship him. Only when it's nearly too late does she realize that Ryder is not only a phony, but a murderer to boot. The tension is heightened by the fact that Ryder's young son (Larry Geiger) from an earlier marriage is being methodically starved to death by his deranged father. Shadow of a Woman was based on a novel by Virginia Perdue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

We prefer Rosalind Russell when she's making us laugh; judging by such films as Mourning Becomes Electra and The Velvet Touch, Russell preferred herself in heavy dramatics. In Sister Kenny, Rosalind Russell is all grim determination and pursed lips as Elizabeth Kenny, tireless battler of infantile paralysis. It is in the Australian outback that nurse Kenny first confronts the debilitating illness. Forsaking her private life (as well as any romantic entanglements), Kenny battles with the medical establishment in order to bring her radical theories towards conquering the disease to the public. Her ultimate triumph is solidified upon the formation of Minneapolis' Kenny Institute. Based on Elizabeth Kenny's autobiography, A solid piece of film craftsmanship, Sister Kenny was the sort of glossy prestige picture that always made Hollywood look good in the eyes of its staunchest critics; it was also the sort of picture that almost invariably lost a fortune at the box office (Sister Kenny took a bath to the tune of $660,000). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joan Davis, the daughter of a famed woman detective, has inherited none of her mother's deductive prowess. Nonetheless, Joan teams with patrolman Leon Errol to solve a series of blowgun murders. The two erstwhile Sherlocks track down the alleged murder weapon to a theatre, where it is being used as a prop in a play. After disrupting the performance, Davis determines that the murders weren't committed by blowgun, and that the culprit is a mild-mannered gentleman to whom murder is a "hobby." The title She Gets Her Man clues us in on the finale, and also refers to the shaky but affectionate relationship between Joan Davis and Leon Errol. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Norman Corwin's satirical radio play My Client Curley, Once Upon a Time is an engaging bit of whimsy, completely dominated by the personality of star Cary Grant. It all begins when fly-by-night Broadway producer Jerry Flynn (Grant) learns of a trained caterpillar (!) that dances to the tune of "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby." In short order, Jerry has promoted Curly the Caterpillar to international stardom-and in the process he alienates both Pinky Thompson (Ted Donaldson), the impressionable 9-year-old who owns Curley, and Pinky's attractive older sister Jeanne (Janet Blair). Eventually, Flynn comes to his senses and regains his essential decency-though it's too late to continue capitalizing on Curley, who has turned into a non-dancing butterfly! Full of delightful contemporary references and "cameo appearances" by such celebrities as producer Walt Disney and radio commentator Gabriel Heatter (both played by uncredited impressionists), Once Upon a Time proved an agreeable diversion for wartime audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Newlywed bliss surround O'Driscoll and Beery until they get on board the ship for their honeymoon in South America. Then she starts sneezing, and hay fever's uncontrollable grip does not seem to want to let up. They try everything, then finally seek out a doctor on the ship. The trouble is compounded when the physician they find, Bruce, falls for the new bride. His diagnosis: Beery is the cause of the sneezing. She is allergic to him. ~ All Movie Guide

Flight for Freedom was an "a clef" version of the Amelia Earhart story. Rosalind Russell plays the Earhart-like aviatrix Tonie Carter, who spends the early part of the film fighting against the aviation industry's prejudice against woman pilots. Tonie establishes a reputation as "the Lady Lindbergh", setting flight records on a near-weekly basis. Along the way, she falls in love with an agreeable flying ace (Fred MacMurray), much to the dismay of her conservative flight instructor (Herbert Marshall). The film's ending expands on speculation regarding Amelia Earhart's disappearance during a 1937 flight; Tonie Carter flies off on a secret mission to aid the Pacific war effort, then vanishes before completing her task. Flight for Freedom was produced for RKO by Floyd Odlum, whose wife Jacqueline Cochran was herself a renowned aviatrix. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in wartime (WW II), this film finds the fat guy, skinny guy comedy duo not much good at any attempted professions; they can't even enlist in the war effort. None of the services want them. But they do become air raid wardens, at least for a while, until their misadventures continue. They get all boozed up and are kicked off the air raid squad, too! But things get better when they thwart a spy ring and save the day. ~ All Movie Guide

A lively espionage drama that reunited the stars and director of the previous year's The Maltese Falcon, Across the Pacific was originally envisioned as the story of a Japanese invasion of Hawaii. Real-life events of December of 1941, however, precluded such a scenario and the location was changed to the Panama Canal. For reasons known only to Warner Bros., the title was retained despite the fact that none of the action takes place in the Pacific. Humphrey Bogart plays Rick Leland, a disgraced ex-army man, who, after being turned down by the Canadian military, jumps a Japanese steamer bound for the Panama Canal Zone. Also onboard are Alberta Marlow (Mary Astor), a small-town girl claiming to be en route to Los Angeles; Dr. Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet), a corpulent sociologist with a suspiciously friendly regard for all things Japanese; and Joe Totsuiko (Victor Sen Yung), a happy-go-lucky second generation Japanese-American on his way to visit the old country. But no one is exactly who he or she claims to be and the voyage from Halifax via New York City to Panama becomes a matter of life and death for the passengers in general, and for the future of the United States in particular. Director John Huston was forced to leave the film three weeks into the four-week shooting schedule when summoned to report to the Department of Special Services. According to Huston, he purposefully placed Humphrey Bogart's character in a highly precarious situation and left it up to his replacement, Vincent Sherman, to come up with the solution -- which Sherman did in an especially fiery climax. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide