Jess Lee Brooks Movies
- 1943
Son of Dracula represents a felicitious creative collaboration between director Robert Siodmak and his screenwriter-brother Curt. The story is set in the American south, where the mysterious Count Alucard (Lon Chaney Jr.) has recently taken up residence. Katherine Caldwell (Louise Allbritton), a student of the occult, is fascinated by Alucard, so much so that she agrees to become his wife. But when Katherine begins to look and act strangely, her former suitor Frank Stanley (Robert Paige) suspects that something's amiss. Assisted by town doctor Brewster (Frank Craven) and psychologist Laszlo (J. Edward Bromberg), Frank comes to the inescapable conclusion that Count Alucard is actually the dreaded vampire Count Dracula's offspring (this much he might have figured out simply by spelling the man's name backward!) To prevent Dracula from spreading his influence throughout America, Frank and his confreres race against time to destroy the count and, hopefully, rescue poor Katherine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lon Chaney, Jr., Robert Paige, (more)
- 1943
This second film version of the George and Ira Gershwin's Broadway hit Girl Crazy stars reigning MGM musical prince and princess Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. The 1932 version of Girl Crazy de-emphasized the main plot, building up the comic subplot involving a timorous temporary sheriff and a city slicker con man -- the better to accommodate that film's stars, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey. The 1943 remake does without the comic relief, concentrating on Rooney, a teenaged playboy who is sent to a Western mining school by his father (Henry O'Neill), in the hopes that the Rooney will forsake his wastrel ways. Judy Garland is cast in the role originated on stage by Ginger Rogers: the feisty, lovelorn frontier postmistress Ginger Gray, who falls in love with the hero -- the difference being that Garland has been promoted from postmistress to the daughter of mining-school dean Phineas Armour (Guy Kibbee). The new plot involves a contest for rodeo queen, pitting Ginger against Marjorie Tait (Frances Rafferty), who is also her rival for Rooney's affections. The contest serves a double purpose: Rooney is hoping that the publicity engendered by the rivalry will attract students to the failing school, proof positive that for all of his bravado, he's a swell, altruistic guy underneath. These plot complications are merely prologue for a gargantuan musical finale built upon the Gershwin standard "I Got Rhythm," staged by the film's original director, Busby Berkeley. Other musical carryovers from the stage play include "Embraceable You," "Bidin' My Time," and "But Not for Me." Featured in the cast are June Allyson, Rags Ragland, and the Tommy Dorsey Band. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, (more)
- 1943
Practically everybody on the Warner Bros. lot shows up in the wartime morale-boosting musical extravaganza Thank Your Lucky Stars. Believe it or not, this one has a wisp of a plot. A pair of enterprising producers, played by S.Z. Sakall and Edward Everett Horton, want to hire singer Dinah Shore for their upcoming Cavalcade of Stars. Unfortunately, this means they must deal with Shore's boss, radio comedian Eddie Cantor. The egotistical Cantor insists upon joining the show himself, driving everyone crazy with his take-charge attitude. Meanwhile, singer Dennis Morgan, hoodwinked by a crooked agent into thinking he's signed a contract with Cantor, shows up backstage at Sakall and Horton's rehearsal, only to be given the boot. While all this is going on, aspiring actress Joan Leslie has befriended a bus driver named Joe Simpson--who happens to be a dead ringer for Eddie Cantor (and why not? Ol' "Banjo Eyes" plays both parts). Turns out that Joe is another showbiz wannabe, but he has been denied a break because he looks too much like Cantor. You see what's comin' now, right, folks? Morgan and Leslie will get their big breaks when Joe Simpson impersonates Eddie Cantor, who's been kidnapped by Indians (bet you didn't see that one coming!) All of this expository nonsense is merely an excuse to show off Warners' talent roster in a series of engaging specialty numbers: John Garfield talk-sings Blues in the Night, Jack Carson and Alan Hale do a buck-and-wing, a jitterbug number is performed by Ida Lupino, Olivia de Havilland and George Tobias, Hattie McDaniel and Willie Best strut their stuff in Ice Cold Katie, and so on. Highlights include Errol Flynn's That's What You Jolly Well Get, an English music hall-style sendup of Flynn's movie heroics, and Bette Davis' peerless (and endearingly off-key) rendition of They're Either too Young or Too Old. As a bonus, Humphrey Bogart shows up long enough to be browbeaten and intimidated by S.Z. Sakall ("Gee, I hope none of my movie fans see this!" moans Bogart as the soundtrack plays a mocking rendition of Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?) Subtle and sophisticated it isn't, but Thank Your Lucky Stars is so entertaining that you'll forget all about its multitude of flaws. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Cantor, Dinah Shore, (more)
- 1942
Burlesque stripper-turned-thespian Ann Corio plays yet another white girl brought up in the jungle after her missionary parents are killed in this unintentionally funny espionage thriller from PRC. As Kuhlaya, Corio rescues a couple of Americans, Captain Gary Hart (!) (Buster Crabbe) and Sgt. Mike Jenkins (Paul Bryar), from the ubiquitous Nazis. But just as they all feel safe, the party discovers that their hotel in the jungle is operated by a fifth columnist named Herr Lukas (Arno Frey). The latter's bored wife, Anna (Evelyn Wahl), attempts to seduce Captain Hart, much to the consternation of Kuhlaya, who has fallen in love with the handsome American. An evil chief (Jess Brooks) performs a bit of voodoo but Dr. Harrigan (Milton Kibbee), Kuhlaya's foster-father, calls his bluff and the jungle is soon free from both Nazi sympathizers and evil natives. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1942
A talented cast hacks its way through a so-so script and miles of stock footage in Universal's Drums of the Congo. In the heart of Africa, naval intelligence officer Kirk (Don Terry) searches for a rare metal vital to the war effort (just why it's vital is never thoroughly explained). He is aided in his quest by missionary Ann Montgomery (Ona Munson) and by dishevelled "bwana" Congo Jack (Stu Erwin). Alas, a couple of minions of the Third Reich are also after the elusive metal, and they're not above committing murder to get what they want. The most novel aspect of Drums of the Congo is the casting of likeable, fresh-faced Universal ingenue Peggy Moran as one of the villains. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ona Munson, Stuart Erwin, (more)
In Preston Sturges' classic comedy of Depression-era America, filmmaker John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea), fed up with directing profitable comedies like "Ants in Your Plants of 1939," is consumed with the desire to make a serious social statement in his upcoming film, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" Unable to function in the rarefied atmosphere of Hollywood, Sullivan decides to hit the road, disguised as a tramp, and touch base with the "real" people of America. But Sullivan's studio transforms his odyssey into a publicity stunt, providing the would-be nomad with a luxury van, complete with butler (Robert Greig) and valet (Eric Blore). Advised by his servants that the poor resent having the rich intrude upon them, Sullivan escapes his retinue and continues his travels incognito. En route, he meets a down-and-out failed actress (Veronica Lake). Experiencing firsthand the scroungy existence of real-life hoboes, Sullivan returns to Hollywood full of bleeding-heart fervor. After first arranging for the girl's screen test, he heads for the railyards, intending to improve the lot of the local rail-riders and bindlestiffs by handing out ten thousand dollars in five-dollar bills. Instead, Sullivan is coldcocked by a tramp, who steals Sullivan's clothes and identification. When the tramp is run over by a speeding train, the world at large is convinced that the great John L. Sullivan is dead. Meanwhile, the dazed Sullivan, dressed like a bum with no identification on his person, is arrested and put to work on a brutal Southern chain gang. With its almost Shakespearean combination of uproarious comedy and grim tragedy, Sullivan's Travels is Sturges' masterpiece and one of the finest movies about movies ever made. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, (more)
- 1941
German director Joe May was light-years removed from his glory days at UFA when he helmed the "Little Tough Guys" entry Hit the Road. This time, the youthful protagonists-Tom (Billy Halop), Pig (Huntz Hall), String (Gabe Dell) and Ape (Bernard Punsley)-are all the orphaned sons of gangsters who'd been murdered by mob boss Spike (Edward Pawley). "Graduating" from reform school, the boys show every sign of follwing in their parents' footseps, so they're paroled in the custody of kindhearted reformed gangster Jimmy Ryan (Barton MacLaine). Taking the kids to his cattle farm, Ryan gives them more than enough chores and responsiblities to keep them out of trouble, and before long the boys have cleaned up their act-but not without a bit of strong-arm persuasion from Ryan's tough-talking wife Molly (Gladys George). When Spike and his mob try to steal the $50,000 which the Ryans have saved to build a Boys' Town-like school for wayward youths, the Little Tough Guys rally to the defense of their benefactors, throwing punches and wisecracks with reckless abandon. The most pleasant aspect of Hit the Road is the presence of charming leading lady Evelyn Ankers (who later recalled having to fend off the amorous advances of teenaged Huntz Hall by deploying a well-aimed knee!); the least pleasant is the lachrymose performance of child actor Bobs Watson, who never spoke when crying would do. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gladys George, Barton MacLane, (more)
- 1940
The all-black Gang War was originally designed for the "colored" movie houses which thrived in segregated communities throughout the 1930s and 1940s. The plot concerns the deadly rivalry between gangsters Killer Meade (Ralph Cooper) and Lou Baron (Lawrence Criner). The object of their war is the control of Harlem's jukeboxes, a plot device that allows for the logical interjection of a few musical numbers. Heroine Mazie (Gladys Snider) falls in love with one of the crooks, only to be left in the lurch when he's cut down by a hale of bullets. The film's overreliance upon newspaper montages as a narrative device suggests that several important plot points were forgotten in the haste of completing the picture within its near-nonexistent budget. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Cooper, Gladys Snyder, (more)
Santa Fe Trail, Errol Flynn's third western, has precisely nothing to do with the titular trail. Instead, the film is a simplistic retelling of the John Brown legend, with Raymond Massey playing the famed abolitionist. The events leading up to the bloody confrontation between Brown and the US Army at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, are treated in a painstakingly even-handed fashion: Brown's desire to free the slaves is "right" but his methods are "wrong." Whenever the leading characters are asked about their own feelings towards slavery, the response is along the noncommittal lines of "A lot of people are asking those questions," "I don't have the answer to that," and so forth. Before we get to the meat of the story, we are treated to a great deal of byplay between West Point graduates Jeb Stuart (Flynn) and George Armstrong Custer (Ronald Reagan), who carry on a friendly rivalry over the affections of one Kit Carson Halliday (Olivia DeHavilland). Just so we know that the picture is meant to be a follow-up to Warners' Dodge City and Virginia City, Flynn is saddled with Alan Hale and "Big Boy" Williams, his comic sidekicks from those earlier films. Despite its muddled point of view, Santa Fe Trail is often breathtaking entertainment, excitingly staged by director Michael Curtiz. The film's public domain status has made Santa Fe Trail one of the most easily accessible of Errol Flynn's Warner Bros. vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, (more)
- 1940
Idealistic black doctor James Dunbar (Ralph Cooper) wants to minister to his people in Harlem, and to this end sets up a free clinic. But a gang of racketeers threaten to shut Dr. Dunbar down unless he becomes an "underworld doctor", taking care of wounded crooks without notifying police. The doc resists at first, but finally succumbs because he needs the money to keep his clinic going. So here's the question: Is committing a crime OK if the result is for the greater good? The answer is quite surprising in this refreshingly non-formula film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Cooper, Sybil Lewis, (more)
- 1937
Dark Manhattan is an all-black melodrama, aimed at what were once known as "colored" movie houses. Ralph Cooper stars as anti-hero Curley Thorpe, the head of all protection rackets in Harlem. Curley begins to think about reforming when he falls in love with virginal nightclub chanteuse Cleo (Cleo Herndon). Alas, a rival gang begins encroaching upon Thorpe's territory, resulting in the climactic death of the poor fellow in a hail of bullets. Production-wise, Dark Manhattan is several notches above most of the cheapie all-black films of the era, with good direction and choreography compensating for the haphazard camerawork and uneven performances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Cooper, Clarence Brooks, (more)
