Angela Lansbury Movies

Angela Lansbury received an Oscar nomination for her first film, Gaslight, in 1944, and has been winning acting awards and audience favor ever since. Born in London to a family that included both politicians and performers, Lansbury came to the U.S. during World War II. She made notable early film appearances as the snooty sister in National Velvet (1944); the pathetic singer in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), which garnered her another Academy nomination; and the madam-with-a-heart-of-gold saloon singer in The Harvey Girls (1946). She turned evil as the manipulative publisher in State of the Union (1948), but was just as convincing as the good queen in The Three Musketeers (1948) and the petulant daughter in The Court Jester (1956). She received another Oscar nomination for her chilling performance as Laurence Harvey's scheming mother in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and appeared as the addled witch in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), among other later films. On Broadway, she won Tony awards for the musicals Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), the revival of Gypsy (1975), and Sweeney Todd (1979). Despite a season in the '50s on the game show Pantomime Quiz, she came to series television late, starring in 1984-1996 as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote; she took over as producer of the show in the '90s. She returned to the Disney studios to record the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast (1991) and to sing the title song. Lansbury is the sister of TV producer Bruce Lansbury. ~ All Movie Guide
1944  
 
Ingrid Bergman won her first of three Oscars for this suspense thriller, crafted with surprising tautness by normally genteel "women's picture" director George Cukor. Bergman stars as Paula Alquist, a late 19th century English singer studying music in Italy. However, Paula abandons her studies because she's fallen in love with dapper, handsome Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). The couple marries and returns to the U.K. and a home inherited by Paula from her aunt, herself a famous singer, who was mysteriously murdered in the house ten years before. Once they have moved in, Gregory, who is in reality a jewel thief and the murderer of Paula's aunt, launches a campaign of terror designed to drive his new bride insane. Though Paula is certain that she sees the house's gaslights dim every evening and that there are strange noises coming from the attic, Gregory convinces Paula that she's imagining things. Gregory's efforts to make Paula unstable are aided by an impertinent maid, Nancy (teenager Angela Lansbury in her feature film debut). Meanwhile, a Scotland Yard inspector, Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten), becomes suspicious of Gregory and sympathetic to Paula's plight. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Charles BoyerIngrid Bergman, (more)
1944  
 
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Although National Velvet was the first starring role for 11-year-old Elizabeth Taylor, the early part of the film belongs to Mickey Rooney in the showier role of Mike Taylor, a headstrong English ex-jockey. Soured on life by a serious accident, Mike plans to steal from the country family that has taken him in, but his resolve is weakened by the kindness of young Velvet (Taylor). The two find a common bond in their love of horses. Velvet wins an "unbreakable" horse in a raffle, and enters the animal in the Grand National Sweepstakes. Though Mike is unable to ride the horse, he aids Velvet in her plan to disguise herself as a jockey; she wins the race...but the story isn't over quite yet. Co-starring as Velvet's mother is Anne Revere, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance. National Velvet is based on the novel by Enid Bagnold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Elizabeth TaylorMickey Rooney, (more)
1945  
 
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The Picture of Dorian Gray was writer/director Albert E. Lewin's fascinating follow-up to his expressive-esoterica masterpiece The Moon and Sixpence. Hurd Hatfield essays the title character, a London aristocrat who would sell his soul to remain handsome and young--and, in a manner of speaking, he does just that. Under the influence of his decadent (albeit witty) friend Lord Henry Wotton (George Sanders), Dorian Gray becomes the embodiment of virtually every sin known to man. The greatest of his sins is vanity: Gray commissions artist Basil Hallward (Lowell Gilmore) to paint his portrait. Admiring his own painted countenance, Gray silently makes a demonic pact. The years pass: everyone grows older but Gray, who seemingly gets younger and more good-looking every day. Hallward eventually stumbles upon the secret of Dorian's eternal youth: he finds his painting hidden in the attic, the portrait's face grown grotesquely aged and disfigured. Gray kills Hallward so that his secret will remain safe. Later on, Gray falls in love with Hallward's niece Gladys (Donna Reed). Certain that Gray is responsible for Hallward's death, Gladys' ex-boyfriend David Stone (Peter Lawford) sets out to prove it. He is joined in this mission by the brother of dance hall performer Sybil Vane (Angela Lansbury), who killed herself after Gray betrayed her. Essentially a black and white film, Picture of Dorian Gray bursts into Technicolor whenever the picture is shown in close-up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
George SandersHurd Hatfield, (more)
1946  
 
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This glorified Technicolor commercial for the Fred Harvey restaurants stars Judy Garland as a 19th-century mail-order bride. Upon arriving in New Mexico, Garland discovers that her husband-to-be is the town drunk. She cuts her losses and takes a job at the local Harvey restaurant, an establishment which endeavors to bring a little civilization and class to the wide open spaces. Harvey's operation is challenged by saloon-owner John Hodiak, corrupt-judge Preston S. Foster, and local-madam Angela Lansbury. With the help of tenderfoot Ray Bolger, Garland and her fellow waitresses foil the corrupt elements in town. Prominent in the supporting cast are Cyd Charisse, Marjorie Main, Chill Wills, Kenny Baker and Virginia O'Brien (whose musical numbers aren't quite as rambunctious as the contributions of the others, mainly because O'Brien was pregnant during filming). The songs are for the most part perfunctory, with the spectacular exception of the Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer's Oscar-winning "Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe." The Harvey Girls is tenuously based on a more sober-sided historical volume by Samuel Hopkins Adams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Judy GarlandJohn Hodiak, (more)
1946  
 
William Powell plays a cynical con man who graduates from penny-ante operations to a big-time charity racket. The scam involves collecting money on behalf of St. Dismas, bringing Powell in close contact with several men of the cloth. As the racket rolls on, Powell is touched by the sincerity of the religious men and the plights of the charity's rightful recipients. He has a change of heart, confessing his original criminal intentions but seeing to it that the money goes to the right people. Hoodlum Saint was typical of the facile religiosity often found in MGM pictures of the period. The film is best remembered as the first non-aquatic performance of MGM swimming star Esther Williams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
William PowellEsther Williams, (more)
1946  
 
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MGM's Till the Clouds Roll By is the musicalized, and highly fictionalized, life story of beloved composer Jerome Kern, who gave his blessing to the production shortly before his death in 1946. As played by a gray-templed Robert Walker, Kern is a likeable but none too exciting sort who expresses his emotions through his music. Constructed in the form of an extended flashback, the story proper begins at the turn of the century, as Kern tries to peddle his ditties to disinterested Broadway producers. His efforts to interest impresario Charles Frohman (Harry Hayden) go nowhere because Frohman is convinced that the only good music comes from Europe. Obligingly, Kern moves to London, where he meets and falls in love with his future wife Eva (Dorothy Patrick). On the verge of securing work with Frohman, Kern's hopes are dashed when the producer goes down with the Lusitania in 1915. Fortunately, Kern has developed such powerful U.S. contacts as Victor Herbert (Paul Maxey) and Oscar Hammerstein (Paul Langton), enabling him to find success as the composer of several "intimate" musicals for New York's Princess Theater. The film ends where it begins, with Kern's triumph as composer of the Broadway blockbuster Show Boat. Van Heflin weaves in and out of the proceedings as the obligatory best friend/severest critic, a musical arranger named Jim Hessler (purportedly based on longtime Kern associate Paul Sadler). No one in 1946 really cared about the dramatic passages of Till the Clouds Roll By; the film's biggest drawing card was its lineup of all-star MGM talent, performing Kern's most famous numbers. Judy Garland (as Marilyn Miller) sings "Look for the Silver Lining"; Dinah Shore performs "The Last Time I Saw Paris" before a back-projected "Gay Paree"; Kathryn Grayson does a Rita Hayworth imitation with "Long Ago and Far Away"; Virginia O'Brien deadpans "A Fine Romance"; Tony Martin warbles "All the Things You Are"; June Allyson and Ray McDonald team up for the title number; and Frank Sinatra, incongruously dressed in white tuxedo, runs through "Ol' Man River." In addition, other musical contributions are made by Van Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Cyd Charisse, Gower Champion, and Lucille Bremer (cast as Van Heflin's daughter). The film's high point comes at the very beginning with a Reader's Digest edition of Show Boat, featuring Lena Horne, as Julie (the role she was born to play, but never did again on screen), delivering a powerhouse rendition of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." Since lapsing into public domain in 1974, Till the Clouds Roll By has, along with Royal Wedding, become the most readily accessible of all MGM musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Robert WalkerJune Allyson, (more)
1947  
 
In this drama, set in England, an honorable textbook writer in a village becomes friends with a pregnant girl. The friendship costs him his marriage. Later, the girl dies, and the authorities wonder if it is murder. A coroner's inquest is held, and for a while the writer's social and professional standing sets on the brink of ruin. In the end, he is finally cleared and is therefore free to court his true love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Walter PidgeonJohn Abbott, (more)
1947  
 
Writer/director Albert Lewin, ever on the lookout for esoteric story material that would accommodate his fascination with Egyptian sculpture and feline symbolism, managed to inject both into The Private Affairs of Bel Ami. Though based on a Guy de Maupassant story, Bel Ami seems to have been written by Oscar Wilde, another of Lewin's pets (e.g. The Picture of Dorian Gray). George Sanders plays an epigrammatic Parisian journalist, who rises to the top through the "kindnesses" of the various influential women that he's seduced and abandoned. This 19th-century rake's progress is ultimately halted by a duel, and somehow we're sorry that we don't get to see Sanders pull off at least one more caddish trick to save himself. Echoes from Lewin's previous works include his insertion of a Technicolor sequence (as he'd done in Dorian Gray and The Moon and Sixpence). George Sanders' stepping-stone ladies include Angela Lansbury, Frances Dee, Ann Dvorak, Marie Wilson, Katherine Emery and Susan Douglas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
George SandersAngela Lansbury, (more)
1948  
 
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Frank Capra's only MGM film, State of the Union was adapted by Anthony Veiller and Myles Connolly from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse. Spencer Tracy plays an aircraft tycoon who is coerced into seeking the Republican Presidential nomination by predatory newspaper mogul Angela Lansbury. Campaign manager Van Johnson suggests that, for appearance's sake, Tracy be reunited with his estranged wife Katharine Hepburn (replacing Claudette Colbert, who'd ankled the project after a pre-production donnybrook with director Capra). Realizing that Tracy and Lansbury are having an affair, Hepburn nonetheless agrees to grow through the devoted-wife charade because she believes that Tracy just might make a good President. Her faith is shattered when Tracy, corrupted by the Washington power brokers, publicly compromises his values in order to get votes. Only in the film's last moments does Tracy prove himself worthy of Hepburn's love and his own self-respect by admitting his dishonesty during a nationwide radio-TV broadcast. Much of the biting wit in the original Broadway production of State of the Union is sacrificed in favor of the director's patented "Capracorn," but the film is no less entertaining because of this. As usual, the supporting cast is impeccable, from featured players Adolphe Menjou (whose off-camera political arguments with Hepburn threatened to shut down production at times) and Margaret Hamilton, to bit actors like Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and Tor (Plan 9 From Outer Space) Johnson. Because the television rights to State of the Union belonged to Capra's Liberty Films, the picture was released to TV by MCA rather than MGM's syndication division. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Florence AuerSpencer Tracy, (more)
1948  
 
Filmed in 1946, Tenth Avenue Angel is yet another treacly vehicle for little Margaret O'Brien. The juvenile star is cast as Flavia Mills, an 8-year-old tenement dweller who insinuates herself into the lives of several down-and-outers, among them ex-convict Steve Abbott (George Murphy). Flavia's well-intentioned efforts to help Steve go straight, and to promote the blossoming romance between Steve and Susan Bratten (Angela Lansbury), are destined to hit several emotional roadblocks before the "End" title. Disillusioned by the contradictory behavior of her adult friends, Flavia eventually learns not to give up on the human race just because of a few setbacks. The Harry Ruskin/Eleanor Griffin screenplay was based on a story by Angna Enders, which in turn was based on a vaudeville sketch by veteran mystery writer Craig Rice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Margaret O'BrienGeorge Murphy, (more)
1948  
 
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The third talkie version of Dumas' The Three Musketeers, this splashy MGM adaptation is also the first version in Technicolor. Gene Kelly romps his way through the role of D'Artagnan, the upstart cadet who joins veteran Musketeers Athos (Van Heflin), Porthos (Gig Young) and Aramis (Robert Coote) in their efforts to save their beloved Queen Anne (Angela Lansbury) from disgrace. They are aided in their efforts by the lovely and loyal Constance (June Allyson), while the villainy is in the capable hands of Milady De Winter (Lana Turner) and Richelieu (Vincent Price). Notice we don't say Cardinal Richelieu: anxious not to offend anyone, MGM removed the religious angle from the Cardinal's character. While early sound versions of Three Musketeers eliminated the deaths of Constance and Milady, this adaptation telescopes the novel's events to allow for these tragedies. True to form, MGM saw to it that Lana Turner, as Milady, was dressed to the nines and heavily bejeweled for her beheading sequence. Portions of the 1948 Three Musketeers, in black and white, showed up in the silent film-within-a-film in 1952's Singin' in the Rain, which of course also starred Gene Kelly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Gene KellyLana Turner, (more)
1949  
 
Samson and Delilah is Cecil B. DeMille's characteristically expansive retelling of the events found in the Old Testament passages of Judges 13-16. Victor Mature plays Samson, the superstrong young Danite. Samson aspires to marry Philistine noblewoman Semadar (Angela Lansbury), but she is killed when her people attack Samson as a blood enemy. Seeking revenge, Semadar's younger sister Delilah (Hedy Lamarr) woos Samson in hopes of discovering the secret of his strength, thus enabling her to destroy him. When she learns that his source of his virility is his long hair, Delilah plies Samson with drink, then does gives him the Old Testament equivalent of a buzzcut while he snores away. She delivers the helpless Samson to the Philistines, ordering that he be put to work as a slave. Blinded and humiliated by his enemies, Samson is a sorry shell of his former self. Ultimately, Samson's hair grows back, thus setting the stage for the rousing climax wherein Samson literally brings down the house upon the wayward Philistines. Hedy Lamarr is pretty hopeless as Delilah, but Victor Mature is surprisingly good as Samson, even when mouthing such idiotic lines as "That's all right. It's only a young lion". Even better is George Sanders as The Saran of Gaza, who wisely opts to underplay his florid villainy. The spectacular climax to Samson and Delilah allows us to forget such dubious highlights as Samson's struggle with a distressing phony lion and the tedious cat-and-mouse romantic scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Hedy LamarrVictor Mature, (more)
1949  
 
One of the more palatable of Hollywood's anti-communist tracts of the late 1940s-early 1950s was MGM's The Red Danube. Janet Leigh plays Maria Buhlen, an Eastern Bloc ballerina who seeks political asylum in the British-occupied zone of Vienna. Maria's plight turns into a political tug-of-war involving a British colonel (Walter Pidgeon) and a Soviet colonel (Louis Calhern). Their ideological hagglings spill over into spiritualism, as represented by Mother Superior Ethel Barrymore, and romance, as personified by Maria's ardent suitor Major John McPhimister (Peter Lawford). Like earlier anti-Red cinematic exercises, The Red Danube failed to connect at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Walter PidgeonEthel Barrymore, (more)
1951  
 
This remake of the 1935 version is considered far superior to the original. It is the harrowing story of a kindly old British woman with a love of art who is tricked into allowing an artist, his wife, and another couple into staying in her house. They then begin holding her prisoner in her home while they ransack her art collection. Eventually she is able to escape and facilitate the crooks' capture. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Ethel BarrymoreMaurice Evans, (more)
1952  
 
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Director Edward Dmytryk returned from a few unhappy years on the Blacklist in the early 1950s, to direct a handful of programmers before being restored to "A" pictures. Dmytrk's Mutiny is set during the War of 1812. Mark Stevens, captain of the American ship Concord, finds himself at the mercy of mutineer Patric Knowles, who is supposedly loyal to Britain. Actually all Knowles is concerned with is the gold bullion carried by the Concord, which he plans to squander in the company of treacherous femme fatale Angela Lansbury. Stevens recaptures the ship and torpedoes the British fleet, with the aid of a pioneering submarine-like vessel. Mutiny was produced by the estimable King Brothers who allegedly trafficked in illegal gambling devices before hitting upon the more lucrative arena of independent motion pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Mark StevensAngela Lansbury, (more)
1953  
 
June Allyson plays a band singer working in New York City; Van Johnson is the manager of a fancy apartment house where a murder is committed. The victim is Allyson's wealthy uncle, and since she can't account for her actions at the time of the crime, Our Heroine is the principal suspect. The real murderer is an expert in hypnosis, who uses this skill to manipulate Allyson's actions--and to lure the girl to her potential doom. Johnson doesn't figure things out until it's almost too late. Remains to Be Seen was based on the Broadway comedy/mystery by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse, which originally starred Jackie Cooper and his then-wife Janis Paige. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
June AllysonVan Johnson, (more)
1954  
 
In this romantic drama, a secret love affair becomes the cause of a series of mysterious mishaps involving a philandering wife's hapless husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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1955  
 
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Up until its surisingly mundane finale, A Lawless Street is one of the best of the Randolph Scott westerns of the 1950s. Scott plays famed marshal Calem Ware, whose strenous activities on behalf of law and order have exacted a toll on his personal life. Keeping the peace in the town of Medicine Bend, Ware hopes to someday be reconciled with his ex-wife Tally Dickinson (Angela Lansbury), now a touring musical comedy star. Just as Tally arrives in Medicine Bend, Ware is forced to deal with big-time criminals Thorne (Warner Anderson) and Clark (John Emery), not to mention their hired gun Baskam (Michael Pate). Will he do his duty and rid the town of his outlaw element, or will he hang up his guns as Tally wants him to? One of the highlights of A Lawless Street is a lively saloon-hall number performed by Angela Lansbury, who is quite a dish in her revealing stage wardrobe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Randolph ScottAngela Lansbury, (more)
1955  
 
In this British television drama, Angela Lansbury portrays a woman who will stop at nothing to prevent her husband from learning about her sordid life history. Often credited as the first production to bear the directorial stamp of Alan Smithee. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

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1955  
 
Tony Curtis was by 1955 an accomplished enough actor to get through the costumed derring-do of The Purple Mask minus the awkwardness he'd displayed in his earlier swashbucklers. Curtis is cast as Rene, a foppish 18th century French nobleman who doubles as the Purple Mask, a Royalist supporter who kidnaps officers of the Republic and ransoms them back to Napoleon (Stefan Bekassy) for a hefty fee. Managing to elude Napoleon's minions through most of the picture, Rene gives himself up only when the love of his life, the beautiful Laurette (Colleen Miller), is placed in danger. Even when facing the guillotine, however, Rene has a few tricks up his lacey, perfumed sleeve. The Purple Mask was based on La Chevalier au Masque, a play by Paul Armont and Jean Manouissi. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Tony CurtisColleen Miller, (more)
1956  
 
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In this thriller, an amorous attorney is appalled to realize that the lovely client (with whom he was smitten) he acquitted is indeed guilty of killing her husband. Now he too feels guilty for being so gullible and so arranges for the woman to murder him so she will get caught. The woman, now interested in a young artist, is more than happy to oblige him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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1956  
 
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Danny Kaye spoofs medieval swashbucklers in this classic musical comedy. While the infant King of England awaits his rightful place as leader of the British Empire, his rule is usurped by Roderick (Cecil Parker), an evil pretender to the throne. Brave rebel leader The Black Fox (Edward Ashley) intends to remove Roderick from the palace and bring the crown back to its true owner, but in the meantime the baby king needs to be looked after, which is the job of a man named Hawkins (Kaye). The Black Fox travels with the little king and his rebels as they search for the key to a secret tunnel that will allow them passage into the castle. Maid Jean (Glynis Johns), one of the rebels, meets a man en route to the Castle who is to be Roderick's new jester. The rebels quickly hatch a plan: detain the jester and send Hawkins in his place; the king can then find the key and initiate the overthrow. Hawkins is able to persuade Roderick and his men that he is indeed a jester, but his espionage work gets complicated when Princess Gwendolyn (Angela Lansbury) falls in love with him, and he runs afoul of Sir Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone), the evil genius behind Roderick. Court Jester features Kaye's famous "Pellet with the Poison" routine. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Danny KayeGlynis Johns, (more)
1958  
 
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While often regarded as one of America's greatest novelists, William Faulkner produced work that did not always translate well to the screen; it's ironically appropriate that this movie, based on several of Faulkner's short stories, is often regarded as one of the best films based on his work, though not especially accurate to the original source material. Ben Quick (Paul Newman), a sullen but self-confident drifter, arrives in a small Mississippi town where his father had a bad reputation as a firebug. Will Varner (Orson Welles), the town's patriarch, still holds a grudge against Quick's dad, and when the young man decides to stay in town and sharecrop on Varner's land, Will goes out of his way to make his life difficult. However, Will develops a grudging respect for Quick's guts and determination, and he wishes that his weak-willed son Jody (Anthony Franciosa) could be more like him; Jody's wife Eula (Lee Remick) happens to agree. In time, Will gets the idea that Quick might be a good match for his daughter Clara (Joanne Woodward) and a better choice to take over his business dealings than Jody. However, neither Clara nor Quick care to be told what to do, and besides, Clara already has a beau -- though Alan Stewart (Richard Anderson) is even more of a milquetoast than Jody and is led by the nose by his mother (Mabel Albertson). However, sparks begin to fly between Clara and Quick, and when Jody fears he may lose his place as heir of Will's estate, he takes drastic action, trapping his father in a barn, setting it on fire, and planting evidence that would suggest that the blaze was Quick's doing. The Long, Hot Summer was the first film that Newman and Woodward made together, and they got married the same year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Paul NewmanJoanne Woodward, (more)
1958  
 
The Reluctant Debutante is a vintage example of the sort of elegant, witty "polite" comedy that Hollywood used to pull off so well. Real-life husband and wife Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall are cast as newly wed Jimmy and Sheila Broadbent, two of London's more attractive aristocrats. Jimmy has a daughter, Jane (Sandra Dee), from a previous marriage; though the girl is dead set against it, Jimmy insists that Jane make her society debut in London. Daddy wants his darling daughter to meet the "right" kind of husband, but she's more interested in handsome-but-shady American musician David Parkson (John Saxon). Little does anyone know that David, secretly a titled millionaire, is actually the prize catch of the season. The matchless Kay Kendall manages to walk away with the picture, though she's given a run for her money by fifth-billed Angela Lansbury. The Reluctant Debutante was based on the play by William Douglas Home. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Rex HarrisonKay Kendall, (more)
1959  
 
Poignant and pointed, as well as funny, this love story by director Leslie Norman has a simple message: act your age. Since they were older teens, two buddies Barney (John Mills) and Roo (Ernest Borgnine) have gone to a summer rendezvous with the same two women, for fun in the sun in Sydney. They work on sugar-cane farms and after the harvest spend the summer with their women. In this 17th such summer, they arrive only to discover that Barney's girlfriend has married and Pearl (Angela Lansbury), a rather straight-laced widow, has taken her place. Roo's girlfriend Olive (Anne Baxter) does not get her annual gift of a special doll because Roo is broke -- he has had a bad year. As these adults mix and mingle, various circumstances arise that force them to rethink their behavior. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Ernest BorgnineAnne Baxter, (more)

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