Robert Preston Movies
A vital, virile, exciting Broadway performer, Preston was once called, "the best American actor -- with a voice like golden thunder," by Richard Burton. He decided to become an actor at age 15. After studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, he became a steady, dependable performer in Hollywood films from the late '30s. Preston became well-known after Cecil B. De Mille cast him as Barbara Stanwyck's gambler husband in Union Pacific (1939). He was almost strictly a second-lead actor for 20 years, finally breaking through to lead roles after becoming a star on Broadway. For his Broadway performance (his first in a musical) as ebullient con-artist Harold Hill in The Music Man he won a Tony Award; he repeated the role in the screen version (1962) and it became the work for which he is best known. Preston went on to earn another Tony Award for his performance in the 1966 musical I Do! I Do!, opposite Mary Martin. Another outstanding performance was as Julie Andrews' gay friend Toddie in Blake Edwards' Victor/Victoria (1982), a performance which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1941
In this patriotic war drama, a unit of Army recruits train for a parachute corps. One is an arrogant football star who finds jumping a kick. Another is a coward who eventually finds his courage. Finally there is a chronic bumbler. The coward and jock find themselves competing for the affections of an indecisive young woman. The filmmakers of this movie paid careful attention to detail and was made with the cooperation of the 501st Parachute Battalion at Fort Benning, Georgia using actual paratroopers. The viewer is taken through every stage of a jump including folding the chute at the beginning. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Edmond O'Brien, (more)
- 1956
Adapted by Hagar Wilde from his own 1946 Broadway play, this TV version of Made in Heaven offered the once-in-a-lifetime pairing of Imogene Coca and Robert Preston. After several years of marriage, Elsa and Zachary Meredith (Coca, Preston) have a tendency to take each other for granted. All this changes when the couple angrily, and briefly, come to a parting of the ways following a row at a cocktail party. The next morning, Elsa is amazed to discover that she has attracted the attentions of another party guest, suave European Laszlo Vertes (Jacques Bergerac), while Zachary is equally astonished by the attentions lavished upon him by a flashy blonde (Sheila Bond. Peter Lawford serves a host of this frothy Playhouse 90 presentation, which originally aired live from CBS Television Center in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Cecil B. DeMille's Technicolor historical spectacle Reap the Wild Wind was to have starred Gary Cooper, but Cooper's prior commitment to Goldwyn's Pride of the Yankees compelled DeMille to recast the leading role with John Wayne. The film, set in the mid-19th century, centers around Key West, Florida, where piracy reigns unchecked. Wayne plays the captain of a salvage business, working on behalf of Raymond Massey to rescue valuables from the merchant ships wrecked by pirates. During one expedition, Wayne is rescued from drowning by Paulette Goddard, the hoydenish manager of a rival salvage firm. Goddard arranges for Wayne to go to work for her boss, Ray Milland, and a romantic rivalry ensues. Later on, Goddard's cousin Susan Hayward is lost at sea when her ship is attacked by pirates. Wayne is accused of engineering the wreck, thanks to the duplicity of Massey, the real brains of the pirate operation. Wayne and Milland both don deep-sea diving gear and swim to the bottom in search of evidence. When Milland is attacked by an octopus, Wayne saves his rival's life at the expense of his own. Massey is exposed, and Milland wins Goddard. Essentially a standard maritime meller, Reap the Wild Wind takes on the veneer of importance thanks to DeMille's epic treatment of the material. Though competition is fierce, Ray Milland steals the show with a truly offbeat characterization (he even gets to indulge in a little ventriloquism!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Milland, John Wayne, (more)
Richard Levinson and William Link serve up another Thinking Man's murder mystery with the made-for-television Rehearsal for Murder. Playwright Robert Preston is on the verge of marrying glamorous film star Lynn Redgrave. But a scant few hours after her Broadway debut, Redgrave is found dead, an apparent suicide. Convinced that Redgrave was murdered, Preston contacts the most likely suspects and assembles them in an empty theatre, ostensibly to read through his latest play. But Preston locks the doors and uses his play as a means to, in the words of Hamlet, "catch the conscience" of the killer. Filmed under the working title Cold Reading, Rehearsal for Murder was the winner of the Edgar Award, a prize bestowed annually by the Mystery Writers of America. It was first broadcast on May 26, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this biting comedy satirizing Hollywood cynicism from writer-director Blake Edwards, Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan) is a motion picture director whose career is on the skids. Having just completed a family musical that is sure to be a $30 million flop, Felix knows that his days are numbered and tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide. When he recovers, Felix suddenly has a brainstorm and hatches a scheme to buy the film back from his studio and lens new scenes that will turn it into a pornographic movie with big stars, a sure-fire box office winner. In order to pull it off, he'll need to convince his female lead and wife, Sally Miles (Julie Andrews, not coincidentally the director's real-life wife) to defy her wholesome, squeaky-clean public image by baring her breasts on film. S.O.B. (1981) was the final film of legendary actor William Holden. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Andrews, William Holden, (more)
Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson star as two pro-football pals who both fall for the team-owner's very rich daughter. Kind of goofy, kind of funny, and somewhat endearing--those are the qualities that surface in this light-hearted comedy built upon an extremely predictable scenario. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, (more)
- 1983
Robert Preston seems to be having the time of his life in the made-for-TV September Gun. The "Music Man" is cast as a long-in-tooth gunfighter who forms an uneasy alliance with Catholic nun Patty Duke Astin. The single-minded sister wants to erect a sanctuary for a group of Apache orphans. Preston picks an ideal spot, right in the center of town--the local saloon and "bawdy house"! Sally Kellerman co-stars as Madame Queen (not the same lady who used to be on Amos N Andy) in this harmless western romp, which first aired October 8, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1942
Star-Spangled Rhythm is a typical wartime all-star musical-comedy melange, this time from Paramount Pictures. The slender plot involves the efforts by humble studio doorman Pop Webster (Victor Moore) to pass himself off as a big-shot Paramount executive for the benefit of his sailor son Jimmy (Eddie Bracken). The overall level of humor can be summed up by the scene in which Webster is advised that the best way to pretend to be a studio big-shot is to say "It stinks!" to everything -- whereupon Cecil B. DeMille shows up to ask Webster's opinion about his current production. Betty Hutton, cast as studio switchboard operator and co-conspirator Polly Judson, is at her most rambunctiously appealing here. The huge lineup of guest performers includes Bing Crosby (and his 8-year-old son Gary!), Bob Hope, Veronica Lake, Dorothy Lamour, Dick Powell, Mary Martin, Alan Ladd, Fred MacMurray, William Bendix, Paulette Goddard, and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, most (but not all) of them going through their characteristic paces. Highlights include a surrealistic rendition of That Old Black Magic with Johnnie Johnston and Vera Zorina; a frantic staging of the old George S. Kaufman sketch "If Men Played Cards as Women Do" with MacMurray, Ray Milland, Franchot Tone, and Lynn Overman; and The Sweater, the Sarong and the Peekaboo Bang, first performed by Goddard, Lamour and Lake, then lampooned in drag by Arthur Treacher, Sterling Holloway and Walter Catlett! PS: The actor playing Rochester's chauffeur in the Smart as a Tack number is John Ford "regular" Woody Strode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Moore, Betty Hutton, (more)
- 1948
MGM's all-purpose title The Big City was deployed once more for this treacly 1948 drama. To prevent orphaned Midge (Margaret O'Brien) from being sent to an institution, Protestant minister Andrews (Robert Preston), Jewish cantor Feldman (Danny Thomas) and Catholic cop Patrick O'Donnell (George Murphy) jointly "adopt" the girl. Midge grows up in Feldman's home, and all is rosy until O'Donnell, on the verge of marrying funloving "Shoe-Shoe" Bailey (Betty Garrett in her film debut), announces that he wants to take full custody of the child. It's up to Midge herself, with the help of kindly Judge Abercrombie (Edward Arnold), to sort things out. Meanwhile, the Reverend Andrews finds romance in the shapely form of Florence Bartlett (Karin Booth). Though it's hard to forget that Danny Thomas was one of show business' most prominent Catholics, he delivers a convincing performance as the tune-happy Cantor Feldman, at one point foregoing his usual Kol Nidres in favor of a rousing cowboy song! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret O'Brien, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1979
The Chisholms was a three-part miniseries adapted by Evan Hunter from his own novel. Covering the years 1842 through 1844, the dramatization follows the westward trek of the Chisholm family. Patriarch Robert Preston is driven from his midwestern homestead by a feud. Starting down the Ohio river, Preston and his family head for the greener pastures of Oregon. In Part Two, a romantic angle is introduced thanks to young lovers Stacey Nelkin and Charles Frank, while the Chisholms' safety is threatened by thieves and hostile lawmen. Several deaths impede the family's progress in Part Three, which brings the pilgrims to Wyoming. Spread out over four weeks (from March 29 through April 19, 1979), this miniseries version of The Chisholms served as the precursor to a weekly TV series, which did without the services of Robert Preston (who was unceremoniously knocked off in the first episode). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Robert Preston plays the flip side of his eternally ebullient Professor Harold Hill in Dark at the Top of the Stairs. Preston portrays an early 20th-century harness salesman, fully aware that his product is rapidly becoming obsolete. He tries to compensate for his own lack of self-esteem by cheating on his patient wife Dorothy McGuire; Preston's "other woman" is played by Angela Lansbury. Meanwhile, daughter Shirley Knight falls in love with Jewish boy Lee Kinsolving, who kills himself in the face of relentless bigotry. And McGuire's sister Eve Arden is stuck in a loveless marriage with spineless Frank Overton. Robert Eyer plays the young alter-ego of William Inge, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning play on which this film is based. Eyer's fear of the "dark at the top of the stairs" is meant to be symbolic of the other characters' inner demons, a fact that Inge drives home every three minutes or so. In typical Inge fashion, an unlikely happy ending is reached just before "The End." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Dorothy McGuire, (more)
- 1949
Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman whose addiction to gambling all but ruins her life. Stanwyck's husband Robert Preston tries to stand by her side, but even he is driven away by her gambling mania. Stanwyck lies, cheats and steals in order to raise capital for her addiction, descending from comparative wealth to grinding poverty in the process. Eventually she is reduced to gambling for penny-ante stakes in back alleys, before she is rescued by her still-faithful spouse. The Lady Gambles includes an appearance by young Tony Curtis, in the bit role of a helpful bellhop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1941
In this western, a schoolteacher battles for women's rights in mid 19th century Wyoming. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Robert Preston, (more)
Victor Mature is in rare form in this otherwise uneven cavalry Western about a trapper who prevents a Little Big Horn-type disaster. Having been robbed of a year's worth of skins by marauding Indians, Jed Cooper (Mature), Gus Hideout (James Whitmore), and Mungo (Pat Hogan) sign on at a nearby fort. Jed, however, falls in love with Corinna (Anne Bancroft), the refined wife of the commanding officer, Colonel Marston (Robert Preston), and when the latter begins to plan an all-out attack on an unruly Indian tribe, he attempts to prevent what, in all likelihood, will be a mass slaughter. Based on a novel by Richard Emery Roberts, The Last Frontier was re-released to television as Savage Wilderness and came complete with a rousing title song performed by Rusty Draper. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Mature, Guy Madison, (more)
Trailer-park teenager Lance Guest regularly escapes from his humdrum existence by playing the video game Starfighter. His expertise at this recreational endeavor attracts the attention of affable stranger Robert Preston. Before he knows what's happening, Guest is whisked by Preston into the outer reaches of the galaxy! It turns out that the Starfighter game is being played in deadly earnest in outer space, and that Guest is expected to join Preston's Star League, then do battle with the wicked Kodan forces. Guest's principal ally is the lizardlike Grig (Dan O'Herlihy--and we didn't recognize him either). His great rival is the traitorous Xur (Norman Snow). The contrast between Guest's earthbound life as the son of single-mother Barbara Bosson and his new position as Starfighter is daunting at first, but soon the boy is manning a spacecraft and zapping the baddies as though he's been doing it all his life. The Last Starfighter was clearly designed with "sequel" in mind: giveaways include the resurrection of a "dead" character and the surprisingly casual escape of the villain. While the film didn't stir up enough business to warrant a sequel, the Starfighter video game remained a much-sought-after commodity by joystick-happy "warriors" all over the country. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lance Guest, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1947
When a man dies under suspicious circumstances, the law must decide if it was murder or an accident. Francis Macomber (Robert Preston) is a wealthy, carefree gentleman who hires Robert Wilson (Gregory Peck), an expert hunter, as his guide when he sets off on a safari in Kenya. Francis' wife Margaret (Joan Bennett) regards her husband as a fool and a coward, and before long, she develops a strong attraction to Robert -- which she does not bother to keep secret. However, Robert informs her that as a matter of personal ethics, he would not consider becoming involved with her. After several weeks on the African savannah, Francis feels himself changing; he's developed a new bravery and sense of confidence, and as a test of himself, he one day stands in the path of a charging buffalo as he prepares to shoot. However, shots ring out from behind him, and Francis falls dead. Margaret insists that she was trying to kill the animal before it could trample Francis and missed, but given her well-documented contempt for her husband, the widow finds herself on trial for murder. The Macomber Affair was based on the short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" by Ernest Hemingway, though director Zoltan Korda found it necessary to rework the material (with the input of the featured cast) in order to appease the industry censors of the day. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1980
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Filmed in Vermont, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg is based on one of Mark Twain's more mysoginistic works. Mysterious stranger Robert Preston shows up in Hadleyburg, a town that prides itself upon the honesty and integrity of its leaders. Preston offers $40,000 in gold to the anonymous Hadleyburg citizen who, years earlier, had given Preston a handout and some valuable advice. The stranger sends letters to each of Hadleyburg's nineteen finest families, containing cryptic clues pointing to the identity of the beneficiary of the gold. Before the story is over, it becomes painfully clear that 18 of the town's "nineteeners" are willing to lie and deceive in order to claim the prize. Adapted by Mark Harris (who was compelled to sweat out 40 pages of the original story in order to make it "play" on TV), The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg was first presented in tandem with a dramatization of William Faulkner's Barn Burning on PBS' American Short Story series; the program first aired on March 17, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Meredith Wilson's hit 1957 Broadway musical was transferred to the screen in larger-than-life fashion in 1962. Robert Preston repeats his legendary stage performance as fast-talking con man Harold Hill, who goes from town to town selling citizens on starting a "boy's band," then extracts money from them by ordering instruments and uniforms, with the promise that he'll teach the kids how to be musicians. Once he's collected his bankroll, Hill skips town, leaving the kids in the lurch. Looking for new suckers in Iowa, Hill arrives in River City, where he declares that the only way to save the youth of River City from the lure of the poolroom is to organize a boy's band. He charms the mayor's wife Eulalie (Hermione Gingold) into forming a "ladies' dance committee" and sets his sights on winning over local music teacher Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones). Marian rightly considers Hill a fraud, especially when he espouses the "Think System" of learning music: if you think a tune, he claims, you can play it. But Marian becomes Hill's staunchest ally when her young brother Winthrop (Ronny Howard), sullen and withdrawn since the death of his father, exuberantly comes out of his shell at the prospect of joining Hill's band; and Marian's budding romance with the charming but unreliable Hill ultimately brings her out of her own shell as well. Marion Hargrove's script uses most of the original play, with a handful of amusing expansions, especially in the roles played by Gingold and by Buddy Hackett as Hill's comic sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, (more)
- 1941
Ayn Rand's Broadway stage hit The Night of January 16th was distinguished by a clever gimmick, wherein members of the audience sat in the jury box while a fictional murder trial was conducted: the outcome of the play was thus totally in the hands of the spectators, and accordingly Rand penned two different endings, depending on whether the jury voted "guilty" or "not guilty". This marvelous theatrical device was unfortunately absent in the film version of Night of January 16th, which was also hampered by a B-grade budget. Even so, the story, concerning the murder trial of stenographer Kit Lane (Ellen Drew), moves along swiftly and entertainingly. Accused of killing her employer, financier Bjorn Faulkner (Nils Asther), Kit is championed by wisecracking sailor-on-leave Steve Van Ruyle (Robert Preston), who has a vested interest in the outcome of the trial. As was typical of the Paramount B product of the time, Night of January 16th spotlights several established contract players (Drew, Preston et.al.), along with a number of actors on the way up (Rod Cameron, Margaret Hayes) and the way down (Nils Asther, Alice White). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Ellen Drew, (more)
Filmed in a two-tone process called Cinecolor, The Sundowners is a compact little western making good use of an old Hollywood chestnut. Robert Preston and Robert Sterling play two brothers who find themselves on opposite sides of the legal fence. Since Sterling rather than Preston has the mustache this time, Sterling's the bad guy. Caught in the crossfire is Preston's son, who is menaced by Sterling. This 1950 version should not be confused with the 1960 Warners film of the same name, which is set on an Australian sheep ranch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Robert Sterling, (more)
Though billed fourth in This Gun For Hire, Alan Ladd was catapulted to stardom in the role of Phillip Raven, a ruthless professional killer with a long-suppressed streak of decency. After successfully pulling off his latest murder, Raven reports to his boss, effeminate fifth columnist Willard Gates (Laird Cregar). He collects his $1000 fee, only to discover later that Gates has double-crossed him with marked bills. This was done at the behest of Gates' boss, crooked business executive Alvin Bewster (Tully Marshall), who wants no loose ends left around to connect him with a plot to sell poison gas to the Axis. As Raven ducks and dodges the police, detective Michael Crane (Robert Preston) is hot on the trail of Bewster and Gates. Crane talks his girlfriend, nightclub singer-musician Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake), into taking a job at Gates' nightclub. While on the train to the club, Ellen makes the acquaintance of the escaping Raven. Gates boards the train, spots Ellen innocently sitting next to Raven, and assumes that the two are in cahoots. Later, Gates kidnaps Ellen and spirits her away to his mansion, intending to do away with her the first chance he gets. Instead, Raven, still seeking revenge for being set up, bursts into the mansion in search of Gates. Having previously been impressed by Ellen's kindness, he rescues her, though he intends using her as hostage should the police catch up with him. As they hide out together in the rail yards, Ellen and Raven get to know each other. Learning of Raven's miserable, abusive childhood, Ellen tries to chip away his murderous veneer, hoping to reform him. But when the cops arrive, Raven reverts to his instincts, shooting his way out of his hiding place. As Crane escorts Ellen out of harm's way, Raven rushes towards a bloody showdown with Bewster and Gates. Based on Graham Greene's A Gun For Sale, This Gun For Hire was remade in 1958 as Short Cut to Hell, then again under the original title as a 1990 made-for-TV film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, (more)
Tulsa was, in 1949, the most elaborate production released to date by the Eagle-Lion corporation-though all evidence, especially the technical credits, suggests that the film was put together at Universal-International, then merely distriibuted by Eagle-Lion (who made a fortune at the box office). The film traces the matriculation of the sleepy Oklahoma village of Tulsa into a major oil center Susan Hayward stars as an amibitious cattleman's daughter who wishes to wreak vengeance on the encroaching oil interests but who becomes a "black gold" mogul herself. Robert Preston costars as a geologist who hopes to rescue his beloved Oklahoma from being utterly devastated by drilling and derricks. This being a late-1940s film, Greed runs a poor second to Good at film's end, with the oilmen and the conservations learning to work together rather than as bitter enemies. While the story is a good one, the true selling angle of Tulsa was its action sequences, notably a fire scene that must have cost as much as all the other Eagle-Lion releases of 1949 combined. Originally lensed in vibrant Techicolor, Tulsa is usually seen today in washed-out, two-color Public Domain prints. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Hayward, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1940
Typhoon was Paramount's answer to Samuel Goldwyn's The Hurricane, even utilizing the same leading lady, Dorothy Lamour. The film is set in a small island off Dutch Guinea. Two sailors (Robert Preston and Lynne Overman) make the acquaintance of a young white girl (Lamour) who has been living on the island since childhood, the victim of a shipwreck. The Technicolor cameras are given a thorough workout recording not only Lamour's sarong-clad frame and the climactic typhoon, but also an added-attraction forest fire. Incidentally, the working title for Typhoon was The Big Haircut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1939
Cecil B. DeMille takes us back to the 1860s, then rebuilds the first intercontinental railroad in Union Pacific. The real-life spectacle is occasionally interrupted by the fictional adventures of railroad overseer Joel McCrea, postmistress Barbara Stanwyck (with an incredible Irish brogue), and McCrea's best pal Robert Preston. Unfortunately Preston has fallen in with Brian Donlevy, who is dedicated to destroying the Union Pacific railroad on behalf of a crooked political cartel. During an Indian attack, McCrea and Preston fight side by side to save Stanwyck, prompting Preston to turn honest. On the day in 1869 that the "Golden Spike" is to be driven at Promontory Point, Preston is killed saving McCrea from Donlevy's bullets. Union Pacific owes a great deal to John Ford's 1924 film on the same subject, The Iron Horse, even restaging one or two major action sequences from the earlier film. This DeMille spectacular was a big hit with audiences of 1939, who craved a booster shot of flag-waving now and again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, (more)
On the verge of starvation in 1930s Paris, erstwhile entertainer Victoria (Julie Andrews) is rescued by gay cabaret performer Toddy (Robert Preston). What she needs to succeed, opines Toddy, is a gimmick. What if she becomes a male impersonator? Better still: what if she becomes a male impersonator, pretending to be a female impersonator? As "Victor/Victoria," s/he becomes the toast of Paree, and an object of fascination for big-time Chicago gangster King Marchan (James Garner), who can't quite understand the teasing sensations he experiences whenever watching her in action-especially since he, like everyone else, assumes that she is a he. Enjoyable though the stars of Blake Edwards' comedy may be, the film is stolen by Lesley Ann Warren, who won an Oscar nomination as King's screechy-voiced moll, and Alex Karras as King's chief henchman, who, assuming that his boss is "that way," literally comes out of the closet. Victor/Victoria was a remake of the 1931 German film Viktor und Viktoria, which had previously be reworked in 1937 as the Jessie Mathews vehicle First a Girl. In 1996, Victor/Victoria was transformed into a Broadway musical, again directed by Edwards and starring Andrews. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Andrews, James Garner, (more)
