Francis X. Bushman Movies

American-International's Beach Party series came to an abrupt end with Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. Because of such tangible reasons as contractual commitments, coupled with such intangibles as illness and death, most of the series "regulars" are absent. Deborah Walley and Aron Kinkaid fill the roles usually played by Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, while Benny Rubin plays a comic-Indian role obviously intended for Buster Keaton. Only Harvey Lembeck, as the inimitable Eric von Zipper, is on hand from the good old days. The plot is set in motion by the ghostly Boris Karloff, a corpse who must perform one good deed before gaining entrance into the Hereafter. Together with a sexy spirit (Susan Hart) (the titular lass in the invisible bikini), the corpse attempts to save the heiress (Walley) from the murderous machinations of a greedy attorney (Basil Rathbone) and his cohorts (Rubin and Jesse White). Music is provided by such second-generation celebs as Nancy Sinatra and Claudia Martin, and with The Bobby Fuller Four lip-synching a pair of songs. The climax is a less-funny reworking of the final sequence in Beach Blanket Bingo, with the heroine (Walley) strapped to the longest buzzsaw plank in film history. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

At the behest of the family of the missing Alice Bradley (Sheila Bromley), Paul Drake (William Hopper) tracks the woman down to a mental institution, where she is suffering from amnesia--and as such is totally unaware that she is wanted for the murder of her husband. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) manages to clear Alice of that charge, but soon afterward has another client on his hands: Alice's son Charles (Richard Rust), who has been arrested for the murder of his embezzling coworker Henry Clement. The second victim is played by ventriloquist Paul Winchell, in a rare dramatic role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When Louisa Holbrook leaves $10,000,000 to her teeange daughter Trudy (Ann Benton), two different men appear out of nowhere, claiming to be Trudy's long-lost father. Though Trudy believes the "first" Jay Holbrook (Hayden Rorke), detectives have unearthed persuasive evidence that Jay Holbrook Number Two (Francis DeSales) is the genuine article. The only person who will be able to identity the real Jay Holbrook is Trudy's blind uncle Lawrence King (Francis X. Bushman)--and when King is murdered, Trudy is charged with the crime, obliging family attorney Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to rush to the girl's defense. This is the final episode of Perry Mason's third season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Seven-year-old Peggy Smith (Laurie Perreau) has spent most of her life at the exclusive Westcroft Boarding School. Her tuition has been paid by an unknown person, who has also sent Peggy a doll each year. Curious about her benefactor, and wishing to find out who her parents were, little Peggy consults attorney Perry Mason (Raymond Burr). It turns out that Peggy is the granddaughter of wealthy recluse Courtney Jeffers (Francis X. Bushman), whose hard heart melts the moment he sets eyes on the child. But no sooner has Jeffers acknowledged that Peggy is his granddaughter than he is bludgeoned to death--and the person accused of the crime is Linda Osborne (played by Maggie Mahoney, real-life mother of actress Sally Field), who at Peggy's request is defended by Perry during the inevitable courtroom intrigues. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Billy Wilder directs the lighthearted romantic comedy Sabrina, based on the play by Samuel A. Taylor. Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn) is the simple, naïve daughter of a chauffeur, Thomas Fairchild (John Williams). They live on an estate with the wealthy Oliver Larrabee (Walter Hampden) and his two sons: workaholic older brother Linus (Humphrey Bogart) and fun-loving younger brother David (William Holden). Sabrina adores the charming David, but he thinks of her as just a kid. Her father sends her away to Paris for chef school, where she meets Baron St. Fontanel (Marcel Dalio), and she returns a worldly, sophisticated woman. David immediately falls for her, but he is already engaged to marry heiress Elizabeth Tyson (Martha Hyer). Sabrina wants to break up the wedding in order to finally catch the man of her dreams, while Linus fights to keep the marriage on in the interest of family business and Mr. Tyson's (Francis X. Bushman) fortune. In order to keep Sabrina away from David, Linus pretends to court her himself. In doing so, they eventually realize their true feelings for each another. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Kirk Douglas plays the corrupt and amoral head of a major film studio in this Hollywood drama, often regarded as one of the film's industry's most interesting glimpses at itself. Actress Gloria Lorrison (Lana Turner), director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan), and screenwriter James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell) are invited to a meeting at a Hollywood sound stage at the request of producer Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon). Pebbel is working with studio chief Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), whose studio is in financial trouble and needs a blockbuster hit. If these three names will sign to a new project, he's convinced that there's no way he can lose. But there's a rub -- all three of these Hollywood heavyweights hate Shields's guts. He dumped Gloria for another woman, he double-crossed Fred out of a plum directing assignment, and he was responsible for the death of James Lee's wife. All three are ready to tell Pebbel to forget it, until they hear the voice of Shields, calling from Europe to discuss the project by phone. The Bad and the Beautiful won five Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Gloria Grahame. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

David and Bathsheba is a respectable, slightly stodgy cinematic adaptation of the Old Testament story. King David (Gregory Peck), much beloved by his subjects and a war hero of long standing, falls victim to the sins of the flesh when he falls in love with Bathsheba (Susan Hayward), the wife of Uriah (Kieron Moore), one of David's most trusted soldiers. His downfall begins when David orders Uriah into a suicidal battle, knowing that this will clear the way for his relationship with Bathsheba. His infatuation leads him to neglect his kingdom and his people, and invokes the wrath of God. Only after his land has been devastated by God's hand does David offer atonement. The film's lavish production values compensate ever so slightly for the long-winded script. David and Bathsheba was the last major "flat-screen" Biblical epic; it was filmed in 1951 B.C. -- Before Cinemascope. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Producer Darryl F. Zanuck had high hopes that Wilson would immortalize him in the manner that Gone With the Wind did for David O. Selznick. The notion of bringing the life story of Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States, to the big screen was a labor of love for Zanuck, and accordingly the producer lavished all the technical expertise and production values he had at his disposal. Though Alexander Knox seems a bit too robust and overnourished for Wilson, his is a superb performance, evenly matched by those of Ruth Nelson as Wilson's first wife Ellen, Geraldine Fitzgerald as second wife Edith, Thomas Mitchell as Joseph Tumulty, Sir Cedric Hardwycke as Henry Cabot Lodge, Vincent Price as William Gibbs McAdoo, Sidney Blackmer as Josephus Daniels, and the rest of the film's enormous cast. The story begins in 1909, a time when Wilson is best known as the head of Princeton University and the author of several books on the democratic process. Urged into running for Governor of New Jersey by the local political machine, Wilson soon proves that he is his own man, beholden to no one-and that he is dedicated to the truth at any cost. From the governor's office, Wilson is nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate, an office he wins hands-down over the factionalized Republicans. The sweetness of his victory is soured by the death of his wife Ellen, but Wilson ultimately finds lasting happiness with Edith Galt. When World War I breaks out in Europe, Wilson vows to keep America out of the conflict, despite pressure from such political foes as Henry Cabot Lodge (who is depicted as a thoroughly unsympathetic power broker). After being elected for a second term, however, Wilson finds it impossible to remain neutral, especially in the wake of the Lusitania sinking. Reluctantly, he enters the war in April of 1917. Deeply disturbed by the mounting casualties, Wilson decides that, after the Armistice, he will press for a lasting peace by helping to organize a League of Nations. Unfortunately, the isolationist congress, urged on by Lodge and his ilk, refuses to permit America's entry into the League. His health failing, Wilson nonetheless embarks on a whistle-stop tour, imploring the public to support the League of Nations and Wilson's 12-point peace program. During this campaign, he is felled by a stroke, whereupon Mrs. Wilson begins acting as liason between the president and the rest of the country (the commonly held belief that Edith Galt Wilson virtually ran the nation during this crisis is soft-pedalled by Lamar Trotti's script). All hopes for America's joining the League of Nations are dashed when, in the 1920 election, the Republicans gain control of the White House. The film ends as the ailing but courageous Woodrow Wilson bids farewell to his staff and walks through the White House doors for the final time. Idealistically ignoring the negative elements of the Wilson regime (notably his attitudes toward racial relationships), Wilson is not so much a biography as a paean to the late president. Though too long and overproduced, the film survives as one of Hollywood's sturdiest historical films of the 1940s. However, audiences did not respond to Wilson as Zanuck had hoped; the film was a terrific flop at the box office, so much so that it was for many years forbidden to speak of the project in Zanuck's presence. Still, Wilson garnered several Academy Awards: best original screenplay, best color art direction (Wiard Ihnen), best color cinematography (Leon Shamroy), best sound recording (E. H. Hansen), best film editing (Barbara McLean) and best color set decoration (Thomas Little). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Chester Gould's jut-jawed plainclothesman Dick Tracy first came to the screen in this 15-chapter Republic serial. Ralph Byrd stars as Tracy, a role which both brought him fame and typecast him for life. For the purposes of cliffhanging suspense, the Republic writing staff altered the Tracy "mythos" as set forth in Gould's daily comic strip. As the serial begins, Dick's brother Gordon (Richard Beach) is being controlled by a criminal genius known as "The Spider." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Hollywood Boulevard is a trenchant look at the underside of Tinseltown. Though the nominal hero is a disillusioned screenwriter played by Robert Cummings (whose dialogue anticipates the lines spoken by William Holden in 1950's Sunset Boulevard), the focus of the story is John Halliday as a washed-up film star. Desperately, Halliday accepts the offer from a sleazy "tell all" magazine to write his memoirs. The actor's estranged family is devastated by the resultant scandal, and out love for his daughter (Marsha Hunt), Halliday tries to break his contract. But the publisher (C. Henry Gordon) threatens to ruin Halliday's comeback attempt if he refuses to write the rest of his memoirs. In a scuffle, the publisher kills Halliday, and the blame falls on the actor's daughter. But wise guy screenwriter Cummings gets to the truth of the mystery. A slick B-plus crime melodrama, Hollywood Boulevard has the added bonus of several well-known silent film personalities (Charles Ray, Francis X. Bushman, Maurice Costello, Mae Marsh etc.) in cameo roles, as well as a guest appearance by Gary Cooper. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, an ambassador becomes terribly angry after he learns that a wealthy British financier has offered to pay a foreign despot an enormous amount of money for oil rights to his country. The clever diplomat saves the day when he masquerades as the dictator, gets the money, and ends up donating it to charity. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

One of the most overworked plots of the silent era was the one about an Eastern wastrel who toughens up on a Western ranch. The charismatic Douglas Fairbanks popularized the character in the mid 1910s, but George Duryea, the Eastern snob this time around, was no Fairbanks. Duryea hires out as a ranch hand on a dude ranch, and there is plenty of low comedy as the effeminate Easterner learns the tough ways of the West. There's a girl involved, of course (Lina Basquette) and a couple of rivals among the guests (including veteran movie star Francis X. Bushman), but this early talkie from low-rent Sono Art-World Wide was not worth anybody's while. Leading man Duryea later changed his name to Tom Keene and enjoyed a brief vogue as a "B"-western star. Later still, he became Richard Powers and played character roles. Lina Basquette married one of the Warner Bros., starred in a couple of flops, but was better known for her off-screen antics, all of which she described in salacious details in her often very funny memoirs DeMille's Godless Girl. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Banker John Caswell (Francis X. Bushman), a wealthy widower, decides to leave his scheming mistress Irene (Margaret Livingston) and marry the upper-class Helen (Helene Chadwick) instead. Seeking revenge, Irene starts an affair with Caswell's son Doug (Arthur Rankin). Caswell learns of their relationship and tells Doug the truth. The two men go to confront Irene only to discover that she has been shot to death in her apartment. Caswell puts the abandoned revolver in Irene's hand to make the shooting look like suicide. Police Detective Mitchell (Alphonz Ethier) pressures a confession from Doug, but he knows that the young man is innocent and instead accepts the notion that Irene killed herself, even though he has found one of Helen's earrings at the crime scene and knows that she is the murderer. ~ Nicole Gagne, Rovi