Ralph Bellamy Movies

In her second starring film, teenaged singing sensation Jane Powell plays Cheryl Williams, a 15-year-old music student who is led to believe that her older sister Josephine (Constance Moore) is a big Broadway star. In truth, Josephine is a stripper in a tawdry burleycue house, but fortunately Cheryl (apparently) never reads any out-of-town newspapers and thus is in a state of blissful ignorance. The fun begins when Cheryl arrives in New York, figures out the truth, and tries to marry Josephine off to big-time Broadway producer Arthur Hale (Ralph Bellamy). As a result, both Josephine and Cheryl are starring in Hale's latest production. Yes, it's a Deanna Durbin picture without Deanna, right down to newly arranged versions of old operetta favorites. Delightfully Dangerous is currently available from several video companies thanks to its "public domain" status. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A conniving nephew (Anthony Geary) wishes to get rid of his elderly uncle (Ralph Bellamy) to collect a large inheritance, so he hires the three worst orderlies he can find (played by the Fat Boys). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray), Lt. Tim Griffin (Regis Toomey), and Lt. Swede Larson (Louis Jean Heydt) are longtime US Navy flying buddies, about to be transferred to different posts when Larson suffers a blackout during high-altitude maneuvers and cracks up. Navy doctor Douglas Lee (Errol Flynn) insists on trying to save him with an immediate operation, and the mortally injured pilot dies on the table. This sets the stage for a long, lingering, and bitter hatred between Blake and Lee -- which is only exacerbated when Lee chooses to become a flight surgeon so he can help to find a solution to the problem of high altitude blackout. Lee is assigned to medical research with Lt. Cdr. Lance Rogers (Ralph Bellamy), a flight surgeon whose dedication to high-altitude research has left him unfit for further flying. Their work proceeds through small triumphs and terrible tragedy, and Lee and Blake keep crossing paths, unwillingly -- they not only don't like each other personally, but end up competing for the attentions of the same woman (Alexis Smith) at one point. But they're forced to work together for the good of the service, even after Lee grounds Tim Griffin as medically unfit to keep flying. A fresh tragedy shows Blake that Lee has always been looking out for the best interests of the pilots, and they begin working together in earnest, at last. Blake pushes his piloting skills to their limit and beyond, and he soon finds a purpose and dedication that he's never known before -- and then he learns that he may have to be grounded because of his own deteriorating medical condition. While Lee frets over having to give the news to his friend, the only question for Blake is whether he will be able to see the final test of Lee's high-altitude pressure suit through to the end. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Among a cliquish set of country club doctors and surgeons, it seems that sleeping around is the norm. Early in the film, however, one husband murders his promiscuous wife (Dyan Cannon) while she is in bed with a rather unlikely adulterer. The various alliances and rivalries in this close-knit community are further stressed as the murderous husband uses his knowledge of the community for a wide-ranging blackmail scheme. While the police investigate, the doctors who do open-heart surgery on their patients experience heart-rending situations themselves. The film has a large and distinguished cast of actors, including Richard Crenna, Dyan Cannon, Caroll O'Conner, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Hackman, John Colicos, Diana Sands and Janice Rule. The story is based on Doctors' Wives by Frank G. Slaughter. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Steamship captain Steve Andrews (Ralph Bellamy) is demoted to second officer when Marge Walker (Ann Sothern), daughter of Steve's boss, insists that her boyfriend Roy Dale (John Buckler) be put in charge of the ship. Dale's first assignment is to deliver a valuable cargo to Shanghai within a designated date. Marge stows away on board to be nearer to Dale, which earns her the unbridled scorn of the embittered Steve. During a violent storm at sea, Dale panics and leaves his post, obliging Steve to take over command of the ship. As a result, it is Steve who guides the vessel safely to Shanghai -- and instead of being brought up on charges of mutiny, he wins the love of Marge at fade-out time. Here as elsewhere, Ralph Bellamy and Ann Sothern work so well together that one might assume they were married in real life (which they weren't). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ralph Bellamy makes the third of four appearances as "master detective" Ellery Queen in Columbia's Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime. The principal villain is crooked stockbroker John Mathews (Douglass Dumbrille), whose Wall Street manipulations render Ray Jarden (H. B. Warner) penniless. Mathews' chicanery seems particularly coldblooded, inasmuch as his daughter Marian (Linda Hayes) is engaged to Jarden's son Walter (John Beal). When the latter disappears, Mathews asks Ellery Queen to locate the young man. Shortly thereafter, one of the principal characters is murdered, forcing Ellery to get his deductive skills into high gear-no small task, since he's depicted in this film as a complete dunderhead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ralph Bellamy made the first of four appearances as fictional sleuth Ellery Queen in Columbia's Ellery Queen, Master Detective. For reasons that defy logic, the studio elected to transform the brilliant, analytical Queen into a hopeless bumbler, who seems incapable of tying his own shoes, much less solving a murder. Set at a posh health resort, the story gets under way when wealthy physical culturalist John Braun (played by former director Fred Niblo) is killed after threatening to cut all his heirs out of his will. Investigating the killing is crime novelist Ellery Queen, his police-inspector father (Charles Grapewin), and another mystery writer, Nikki Porter (Margaret Lindsay). In short order, the body disappears, along with the will, a set of X-rays, and an ambulance! Somehow, Ellery Queen manages to put the pieces together and solve the crime, whereupon Nikki Porter offers to become Ellery's secretary-even though it's clear she's got more brains in her left toe than he has in his whole carcass. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A barely disguised rip-off of 20th Century-Fox's all-female Tail Spin (39), Warner Bros.' Flight Angels is an inexpensive "tribute" to airline stewardesses. Among the angels of the title are haughty Virginia Bruce and hoydenish Jane Wyman, who in one scene actually come to blows over their long-simmering rivalry. Dennis Morgan, Wayne Morris and Ralph Bellamy are among the men who do the "real" work above the clouds. The climax involves a pilot who loses his sight, compelling the stewardess on board to perform "above and beyond " etc. Keep an eye out for Flight Angels bit players Jan Clayton, later Tommy Rettig's mother on the TV series Lassie; and DeWolfe Hopper Jr., who changed his name to William Hopper and played Paul Drake on Perry Mason. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In her only Warner Bros. starring film, Carole Lombard plays a Hollywood movie actress who makes the park-bench acquaintance of an impoverished French marquis (Fernand Gravet). Hoping to coerce Carole into marriage, the nobleman poses as a butler and enters her household. His plan is to compromise Lombard and force her to make him an "honest man"--with the attendant cash settlement. Ralph Bellamy, as ever, is the poor clod who really loves Lombard but who loses her in the end to the chastened Gravet. Rodgers and Hart were commissioned to write several songs for this film, but found most of their efforts consigned to the cutting room floor. Fools for Scandal was based on Nancy Hamilton's stage play Return Engagement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romance a school marm takes a cruise and falls for an unobtainable man, a district attorney married to a crippled woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The fourth and last of Columbia's "Inspector Trent" mysteries, Girl in Danger once more stars Ralph Bellamy as the super-methodical Trent. The endangered girl is socialite Gloria Gale (Shirley Grey), who on a caprice steals a valuable emerald. Pursued by Inspector Trent, the playful Gloria leads the detective on a merry chase, apparently never realizing that Trent is merely trying to protect her from a murderous gang of jewel thieves. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Trent is murdered, leaving Gloria to her fate. Or is this what really happens? Nothing is quite what it seems to be in Girl in Danger, keeping the audience on guard throughout the picture -- and, incidentally, obscuring the film's many plot holes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Guest in the House is an involving psychological melodrama, well directed and acted, concerning a young woman's obsessive love. Evelyn (Anne Baxter), an emotionally vulnerable and unstable woman, stays at the home of her doctor Dan Proctor (Scott McKay). There she meets and falls in love with his brother, Douglas (Ralph Bellamy), who is happily married to Ann (Ruth Warrick). Evelyn then sets forth to break up the happy marriage and win the love of Douglas -- with tragic results. A Guest in the House directed by John Brahm, aided by Andre De Toth and Lewis Milestone, who are uncredited, is a sensitive, well-acted melodrama. Baxter gives a fine performance as the unstable young woman, who cannot overcome her obsessions. The fine musical score, composed by Werner Janssen, was nominated for an Academy Award. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide