Fred Clark Movies

The best thing that can be said about Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops is that it's better than the team's previous outing Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Set in 1912, the film casts Bud Abbott and Lou Costello as a couple of New Yorkers who are swindled out of their life savings by a crooked lout (Fred Clark). Pursuing the villain to Hollywood, the boys discover that the double-dealer is now posing as an autocratic Russian film director. To put A&C out of the way, the crook and his partner in crime (Lynn Bari) hire the boys as stunt men, intending to kill them off at the first opportunity. But the comic duo save the day when they enlist the aid of the Keystone Kops in capturing the fleeing villain, who has absconded with the studio payroll. Pretty dull stuff for most of its 78 minutes, Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops finally comes to life during the climactic chase, which is every bit as funny and thrilling as anything put together in the silent era. Though the film is rife with anachronisms, a measure of authenticity is achieved by such silent-era guest stars as Mack Sennett (who gets to throw a pie at Costello), Heinie Conklin, Herold Goodwyn and Hank Mann. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Auntie Mame began as a novel by Patrick Dennis (aka Ed Fitzgerald), then was adapted into a long-running Broadway play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. This 1958 film version permits Rosalind Russell to recreate her stage role as Mame Dennis, the flamboyant, devil-may-care aunt of young, impressionable Patrick Dennis. Left in Mame's care when his millionaire father drops dead, young Patrick (Jan Handzlik) is quickly indoctrinated into his aunt's philosophy that "Life is a banquet--and some poor suckers are starving to death." Social-climbing executor Dwight Babcock (Fred Clark) does his best to raise Patrick as a stuffy American aristocrat, but Mame battles Babcock to allow the boy to be as free-spirited as she is. In 1974, Auntie Mame was remade as the filmmusical Mame with Lucille Ball. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Judy Holliday re-creates her Broadway role of flibbertigibbet telephone operator Ella Peterson in Bells are Ringing. Ella works for Susanswerphone, a hole-in-the-wall answering service run by her cousin Sue (Jean Stapleton). Our girl Ella can't help but become involved in the lives of her customers, which brings her to the attention of a dimwitted police detective, Barnes (Dort Clark), who suspects that Susanswerphone is a front for a house of ill repute. The cop is so obtuse that he never notices the story's genuine criminal, a flamboyant German bookie (Eddie Foy Jr.) who poses as a record executive and uses the names of composers as code for the various racetracks around the country. To avoid Barnes' wiretapping, Ella goes around New York in person to minister to the needs of her clients--most notably playwright Jeffrey Moss (Dean Martin), who is in danger of becoming an alcoholic if he can't come up with a good idea for a play. Assuming a false identity, Ella prattles on about some of her other clients, notably a dentist (Bernie West) who composes pop songs on his air hose. Moss is inspired by Ella, and eventually falls in love with her. Because she will not reveal who she really is to Jeffrey, Ella decides that her relationship is founded on lies, and walks out of his life. But Moss, together with the other Susanswerphone customers who have been "rescued" by Ella, show up at Ella's doorstep for a happy ending. Bells are Ringing is not an example of MGM's Arthur Freed unit at its best, but Judy Holliday is luminescent in this, her last screen role (incidentally, Holliday's "blind date" in one scene is played by her then boyfriend, jazz musician Gerry Mulligan). The film's songs, by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne, include the hit numbers "Just in Time" and "The Party's Over". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this squeaky clean sex comedy (the sort that could only have been made in the early 1960s), Kathy (Kim Novak) is a sociology student preparing her doctoral thesis, "Adolescent Sexual Fantasies in the Adult Suburban Male." She poses as a call girl to gain perspective on the sexual attitudes and behaviors of contemporary men, and she is soon installed as a kept woman for four men, Fred (James Garner), George (Tony Randall), Doug (Howard Duff), and Howard (Howard Morris). Except for Fred, all the men are married and looking for some of that loose, swinging action they've been hearing about, which makes the situation a research gold mine for Kathy. But she quickly discovers that while the men can talk about sex, they're too inhibited to actually do anything about it; what they really want isn't a wild fling, but an understanding ear. Fred is the only one who makes any romantic overtures, and in time he asks for her hand in marriage. Janet Blair, Anne Jeffreys, and Patti Page plays the wives of the would-be white-collar lotharios, and Zsa Zsa Gabor plays their boss's girlfriend. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The opening scene of Robert Siodmak's grim film noir depicts police lieutenants Candella (Victor Mature) and Collins (Fred Clark) observing wounded cop killer Martin Rome (Richard Conte) receive last rites. Though Rome recovers, he still must elude Candella and Collins in his desperate attempt to escape his fate. Rome has two visitors in the hospital: his girlfriend, Teena (Debra Paget), who goes into hiding, and Niles (Berry Kroeger), a crooked lawyer. Niles tries to bribe Rome to take a jewel theft and homicide rap for a client of his since Rome is facing the electric chair anyway. When Rome refuses, Niles threatens to frame Teena as the client's female accomplice. Worried that Candella might find Teena, Rome breaks out of jail and goes to Niles' office to accept the offer, but he actually plans to leave the country with Teena. When Niles reneges, Rome kills him, but not before learning the accomplice's identity and discovering the stolen jewels in the lawyer's safe. Rome finds the accomplice, Rose Given (Hope Emerson), and offers to trade the jewelry for the means to leave the country. She agrees, and they arrange a meeting in the subway, but Rome informs Candella of the plan. When the police arrive, Candella is shot, Rose is arrested, and Rome escapes to meet up with Teena in a church. As he is trying to convince Teena to run away with him, a wounded Candella shows up and tells Teena how Rome uses people and that everyone who helped in his escape will be paying a price. Teena rejects Rome, and he runs again, only to be shot down by Candella. The moral order is ultimately restored, but no one has been left unscarred. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide

Obviously inspired by such service comedies as Mister Roberts and Operation Mad Ball, Don't Go Near the Water is a tribute to those "unsung heroes" of WW2: the men and women of the Navy's Public Relations Department. Thousands of miles away from the shooting war, Lt. Max Siegel (Glenn Ford) and the rest of the PR staff spend their time issuing colorful reports of Naval heroism and sucking up to visiting US dignitaries on a tiny South Sea island. Siegel and company also battle the anal-rententive pettiness of such superior officers as Lt. Cmdr. Clinton T. Nash (Fred Clark) and such potential foes as abrasive war correspondent Gordon Ripwell (Keenan Wynn). The feminine angle is provided by Gia Scala as Melora, a European-educated local girl, Anne Francis as by-the-book nurse Lt. Alice Tomlen, and Eva Gabor as women's magazine writer Deborah Aldrich. Particularly amusing is Mickey Shaughnessy as foul-mouthed seaman Farragut Jones, whose periodic barrages of profanity are invariably drowned out by the sound of a ratchet-horn (this was, after all, 1957). Don't Go Near the Water was based on the comic novel by ex-PR man William Brinkley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dreamboat stars Clifton Webb as Thornton Sayre, the perfectionist professor of literature at a sedate Midwestern university. Widowed and with a pretty daughter (Anne Francis), Sayre has given no clue to his previous life before becoming a teacher. But thanks to television, everyone discovers that Sayre is actually Bruce Blair, a former silent screen star known as "America's Dreamboat." Sayre's onetime leading lady (Ginger Rogers) has made a comeback hosting screenings of her old films on TV, and the result is acute embarrassment for both the professor and his college. Sayre takes the case all the way to court, where he wangles a compromise agreement: he will permit his films to be televised as long as they're not "doctored" to accommodate commercial endorsements (this was based on a real-life lawsuit involving cowboy Gene Autry -- which Autry lost). The ensuing publicity costs Sayre his college job, but the renewal of interest in his old films results in a new movie contract. Although silent movies and singing commercials are easy satirical targets, Dreamboat still delivers the laughs, and it's fun to see Clifton Webb camping it up as a "Doug Fairbanks" type. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this jungle adventure, a downed Yankee flier must make his way alone through the dense Amazon jungle. At one point, he finds himself surrounded by unfriendly natives. He is just about to lose his life when a beautiful white woman, who is revered by the natives as a goddess, swoops down from the trees and saves his neck. The word of the jungle girl's existence gets around and the girl suffers dire consequences when she suddenly finds herself pursued by a wicked carney, a scientist, and the enraged natives, who believe she has betrayed them by rescuing the pilot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In the series' second takeoff of the TV western Branded, Cpl. Agarn faces death by firing squad for the murder of Sgt. O'Rourke. As Agarn awaits his fate, flashbacks reveal how all this came about (and though we don't want to spoil the suspence, it can be noted that O'Rourke is still alive and kicking). The storyline is fused together by a plaintive ballad, composed by F Troop producer Herm Saunders and the episode's cowriters Austin Kalish and Irma Kalish, and performed by John Mitchum, who'd made several appearances in Season One as Trooper Hoffenmueller. (And yes, John Mitchum is the brother of Robert Mitchum). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western the two sons of the commanding officer of an outpost attempt to clear their father's name after he is accused of conspiring with the Indians and is forced to resign. To prove his innocence, the men use terribly different methods. The older one, an adventurer, approaches suspects directly, while the younger, an army officer, choose a more subtle, methodical approach. Their different methods serve to temporarily alienate them from each other until at last the truth is discovered. The real traitor is a silver tycoon who framed their pa so he could buy up the Indian land and exploit it for it's valuable ore. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Originally intended as a 3D film, this standard-issue Bob Hope musical comedy was released "flat." The 50-year-old Hope plays over-aged chorus boy Stanley Snodgrass, whose attempts to get ahead in the early 20th-century theatre world always come acropper. His luck suddenly changes when he's promoted to the leading-man role in a show headlined by Irene Bailey (Arlene Dahl). What Stanley doesn't know is that he's been set up as a decoy to bring the murderous Jack the Slasher (Robert Strauss) out in the open. It seems that Jack is obsessed with Irene, and has a nasty habit of cutting all of her male co-stars into ribbons. Meanwhile, Stanley lays waste to the show by performing all of his big numbers incorrectly, but his faithful gal Daisy Crockett (Rosemary Clooney) loves him all the same. Tony Martin also appears as Irene's boyfriend, while Millard Mitchell makes his final film appearance as Stanley's stepfather (and never mind that he and Hope were the same age!) A brief clip from Here Come the Girls showed up in, of all places, the 1953 sci-fier Conquest of Space. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Betty Grable's final film was a remake of the 1934 Bing Crosby-Miriam Hopkins musicomedy She Loves Me Not, which in turn was based on a play by Howard Lindsay. Betty and Sheree North star as a couple of striptease "artistes" who have the bad luck to witness a murder. Hoping to evade the killer, the girls hide out in a small college town, where they immediately win the hearts of the male frat brothers. One of these is overaged undergrad Robert Cummings, who falls for Betty, while Sheree settles for not-terribly-bright Orson Bean. A subplot concerns the unending get-rich-quick schemes of college president Charles Coburn. Before the story can be resolved, both Betty and Sheree are placed under hypnosis, with hilarious results. It could not have rested well with Betty Grable that Sheree North stole the show in How to Be Very, Very Popular--especially with her energetic rendition of "Shake, Rattle and Roll"--but Betty was on the verge of retiring anyway, so what the heck? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide