Richard Gaines Movies

Billy Winder directed and co-wrote this bitterly satiric comedy-drama which turns a jaundiced eye towards both the news media and its consumers. Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) is a talented but short-tempered reporter whose fondness for booze and unwillingness to bow to authority has cost him jobs at some of America's most prestigious newspapers. When Tatum's car breaks down in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tatum persuades the editor of the local paper (Porter Hall) to give him a job until he can make enough to get his jalopy running and find a story that will put him back in the good graces of the Big City journals. After a year in Albuquerque, Tatum begins to wonder if a big scoop will ever cross his path, but when he's sent to Los Barios to cover the annual rattlesnake hunt, he lucks into a great human interest story -- Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict), who runs a local diner, motel and curio emporium, is caught in an abandoned mine shaft after a rockslide, which some superstitious locals attribute to an Indian curse. Tatum writes up the story with all the flourish he can muster, and portrays Leo's wife Lorraine (Jan Sterling) as a devoted spouse fearful for her husband's life, even though she can barely stand Leo and is planning to leave him. Tatum's story is picked up by the wire services and he makes friends with local sheriff Kretzer (Ray Teal) to insure he has an inside line on updates on Leo's rescue. When Tatum learns that Leo can be freed in a mere twelve hours, he persuades Kretzer and his men to adopt another rescue method that will take several days, which will generate more copy for Tatum, more press attention for Ketzer's re-election campaign, and more business for Lorraine's diner. Soon Los Barios is the biggest tourist attraction in the state, but as the media circus mounts, Leo begins to fall seriously ill. Also released as The Big Carnival, Ace In The Hole was a major box-office disappointment upon its original release in 1951, even though it was sandwiched between two of Wilder's biggest hits, Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17. Despite never being released in home video until 2007, Ace In The Hole's bitter tone earned it an enthusiastic cult following, and it's now regarded as one of Wilder's best films of the Fifties. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Extortionist Jimmy French (Robert Loggia) selects as his latest patsy Maude Sheridan (Barbara Baxley), the lovelorn secretary of psychiatrist Dr. Cooper (Theodore Newton). Pretending to be in love with Maude, French uses her to gain access to Cooper's files, thus enabling him to blackmail the shrink's patients. Choosing the file of one "M.J.H." as his first victim, the enterprising French succeeds only in outsmarting himself -- and losing his life in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Burt Lancaster had one of his first starring roles in this hard-hitting prison drama. Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is a cruel, corrupt prison guard who has his own less-than-ethical ways of dealing with inmates, enough so that Joe Collins (Lancaster) -- the toughest inmate in the cell block -- has decided to break out. Collins tries to persuade Gallagher (Charles Bickford), the unofficial leader of the inmates and editor of the prison newspaper, to join him, but Gallagher thinks Collins' plan won't work. However, Collins does have the support of his cellmates, most of whom, like himself, wandered into a life of crime thanks to love and good intentions. Tom Lister (Whit Bissell) was an accountant who altered the books so he could buy his wife a mink coat. Soldier (Howard Duff) fell in love with an Italian girl during World War II and took the rap for her when she murdered her father. Collins pulled a bank job to raise money to pay for an operation that could possibly get his girl out of a wheelchair. And Spencer (John Hoyt) made the mistake of getting involved with a female con artist. After Munsey drives Tom to suicide and prevents Gallagher from obtaining parole, Gallagher joins up with Collins and his men in the escape attempt. Director Jules Dassin would next direct the influential noir drama The Naked City; six years later, he would move to Europe after political blacklisting prevented him from continuing to work in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a young juvenile delinquent convinces other teens to join his gang. The gang raids a warehouse and there he ends up killing the school's most beloved teacher. The boy is tried. In court the D.A.'s adopted daughter stands up for the boy. Years before, when they were both orphans, he had done the same for her. The D.A. is unmoved an tries to prosecute to the full extent of the law. The defense, says the real blame should be upon the boy's parents. The boy is given a life sentence. Unbeknownst to the self-righteous D.A., the boy is his long-lost son. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a barge captain with an Electra complex marries two women. He married the first because she laughed like his late mother. He married the other because she cooks like his mom. He soon finds himself in over his head. A good friend helps extricate him by devising an ingenious plot. The captain is to be blamed for a murder. He can then escape his wives by pretending to be sent to prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Directed by Billy Wilder and adapted from a James M. Cain novel by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, Double Indemnity represents the high-water mark of 1940s film noir urban crime dramas in which a greedy, weak man is seduced and trapped by a cold, evil woman amidst the dark shadows and Expressionist lighting of modern cities. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces insurance agent Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into murdering her husband to collect his accident policy. The murder goes as planned, but after the couple's passion cools, each becomes suspicious of the other's motives. The plan is further complicated when Neff's boss Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), a brilliant insurance investigator, takes over the investigation. Told in flashbacks from Neff's perspective, the film moves with ruthless determinism as each character meets what seems to be a preordained fate. Movie veterans Stanwyck, MacMurray, and Robinson give some of their best performances, and Wilder's cynical sensibility finds a perfect match in the story's unsentimental perspective, heightened by John Seitz's hard-edged cinematography. Double Indemnity ranks with the classics of mainstream Hollywood movie-making. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Cary Grant met his future wife Betsy Drake on the set of the appropriately titled Every Girl Should be Married. Grant plays well-known baby specialist Madison Brown, who is Dr. Spock in everything but name. After a chance meeting with headstrong young Anabel Sins (Drake), poor Brown finds his every move and thought monitored by Anabel, who intends to become his wife come heck or high water. Upset that Brown steadfastly resists her charms, Anabel decides to make him jealous by playing up to her boss Roger Sanford (Franchot Tone). When Brown still won't bite, our plucky heroine mounts a campaign enlisting everybody in town to wear down the doctor's resistance. Nowadays, this is called "stalking"; in 1948, it was called "funny." Produced, directed and written by Don Hartman, Every Girl Should be Married was a box-office winner to the tune of $775,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Flight to Mars is the second American film of the postwar era (after the previous year's Rocketship X-M) to depict a manned space trip to the Red Planet. Leading-man responsibilities are evenly divided between Arthur Franz as brilliant scientist Dr. Jim Barker and Cameron Mitchell as two-fisted reporter Steve Abbott. Both men make the journey to Mars, finding time along the way to battle over the affections of leading lady Virginia Huston. Upon landing on Mars, the earthlings learn that planetary leader, Ikron (Morris Ankrum, a fixture of 1950s sci-fi), intends to conquer the world. Fortunately a group of good Martians are on hand to lend moral and physical support to the heroes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fannie Hurst's novel Humoresque is the lachrymose tale of a famed Jewish-American violinist who forgets all about his friends and family in his rise to fame. Screenwriters Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold refashioned this timeworn material into a first-class, big-budget soap opera, completely dominated by the high-octane talents of Joan Crawford and John Garfield. A gifted musician, Garfield rises from the slums to the upper echelons of society, thanks to the patronage of wealthy, alcoholic Crawford. Virtually ignored by her husband Paul Cavanaugh, Crawford adopts Garfield as her lover as well as her protégé. He is only mildly offended by the setup; she, on the other hand, becomes jealous and possessive. It is not a woman who comes between Crawford and Garfield: it the intensity of his talent, not to mention the spectre of the great composers whose works he interprets so brilliantly. Garfield's virago of a mother (Ruth Nelson) feeds upon Crawford's jealousy, planting the seeds of guilt for (allegedly) holding her son back. The ultrastylish suffering of Joan Crawford and the street-punk insouciance of John Garfield (who looks like a "Dead End Kid" even while wearing a tux) is counterpointed by the phlegmatic comedy relief of Oscar Levant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Sidney directs this pleasant romantic comedy concerning mayoral love. During a convention of mayors in San Francisco, Clarissa Standish (Loretta Young), the mayor of a small town in Maine, meets Steve Fisk (Clark Gable), the down-to-earth leader of a tiny northern California community. During the rowdy proceedings of the convention, the two find themselves pushed together frequently, with the typical result -- they fall in love. After the convention, the two head back to Steve's town, where crooked local politician Les Taggart (Raymond Burr) is squaring off against Fisk in a mayoral election. With the help of Clarissa, Steve gears up for his reelection bid. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This nonsensical farce stars Robert Cummings as an air force reserve pilot, called back to active duty on the eve of his wedding to Marie Wilson. When he returns, he discovers that Wilson has inherited a million dollars, and plans to be the head of their household. Under the circumstances, Cummings decides not to get married and to re-enlist. The air force subjects poor Cummings to a team of psychiatrists, on the theory that any man who wouldn't want to marry the wealthy and voluptuous Ms. Wilson has to be crazy! Marry Me Again has the look, feel and logic of an animated cartoon, which shouldn't be surprising since the director is former Warner Bros. animator Frank Tashlin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this film noir with romantic overtones, con man and cardsharp Nick Blake (John Garfield) returns home after serving in WWII to discover that a rival syndicate now controls New York's gambling rackets -- and that his girlfriend Toni (Faye Emerson) has run off with his money. Looking for a fresh start, Nick heads for California, where he becomes reacquainted with Pop Grueber (Walter Brennan), who gave him his start in the underworld. Pop and his boss Doc Ganson (George Coulouris) tip Nick off to a scam they've brainstormed to separate young widow Gladys Halvorsen (Geraldine Fitzgerald) from her recently inherited fortune. Nick's job is to sweet talk Gladys out of her money and then make tracks, but he finds himself falling in love with her and wants out of the deal. Meanwhile, Toni comes back into the picture and tries to convince Doc that Nick is trying to cheat him, leading to a kidnapping. Incidentally, John Garfield won the leading role in Nobody Lives Forever after Humphrey Bogart turned it down. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide