Michael Gordon Movies

Also released as A Man of Affairs, His Lordship was adapted from The Nelson Touch, a play by Neil Grant. George Arliss essays the dual role of British foreign secretary Lord Dunchester and his lordship's twin brother Richard, a private detective. Hoping to solve the murder of a foreign Emir, which may have long-ranging diplomatic consequences, Richard kidnaps his brother and assumes his identity. He saves Britain from all-out war, but generously allows Lord Dunchester to take the credit. Bereft of lavish production values or a stellar supporting cast, His Lordship is George Arliss' show all the way. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally conceived as a musical (called Asking for Trouble) to showcase the talents of leading lady Jessie Matthews, Climbing High emerged as a straight romantic comedy, albeit one that sometimes sets up musical numbers that don't occur. Michael Redgrave plays Nicky Brooke, a millionaire unhappily involved with a society dame who is primarily interested in him for his money and name. Matthews plays a beautiful young girl of limited means, Diana Castle, who works as a model (along with her roommate, Alastair Sim, portraying a communist forced to take a job as the loincloth-clad "before" picture in a muscle-building ad). While out driving, Brooke nearly runs over Diana; in the process, he falls for her but decides that he will have a better chance of getting his love returned if he courts her in disguise. Disguised as another ordinary working man, he succeeds -- until his real identity is revealed. More complications ensue -- including an escaped lunatic and a finale in which all of the characters end up climbing the Alps -- before Brooke and Diana end up together, where they always belonged. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

Reformed criminal Boston Blackie (Chester Morris) and his pal "The Runt" (George E. Stone) obey the film's title and head for Tinseltown. Blackie has been asked by a friend to transport $60,000 to California, but the L.A. cops assume that he's involved in the disappearance of the valuable Monterey Diamond. As always, Blackie spends a goodly portion of his time in disguise, assuming the identity of a bearded foreigner. Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood was the fourth in Columbia's series of B-pictures based on Jack Boyle's pulp-fiction character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, based on a popular radio program, the leader of a ring of burglars suffers a blow to the head and loses his memory. Unable to remember anything about his past, he starts anew and becomes a psychiatrist. He never does stop trying to remember his past life, even while his present life continues to advance. He is soon made the head of the state parole board. There he gets entangled with former gang members, one of whom hits him in the head, again. Suddenly, he remembers. He gives himself up, but then receives a suspended sentence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Bob Regan (Edmond O'Brien) -- a small-time attorney from the wrong side of the tracks who nonetheless has a lot of dedication -- is representing a vegetable pushcart owner (Tito Vuolo) in a damage suit against multi-millionaire Andrew Colby (Vincent Price). It seems Colby's car wrecked the man's cart, and he and his attorneys have been too busy running the world (or Colby's world) to deal with the case, so Regan barges right into the millionaire's office. Professing to be impressed with Regan's tenacity on behalf of his client, Colby offers to hire him, for a lot more money than he is making or ever stood to make, but not as an attorney -- rather, as a bodyguard/troubleshooter. It seems that Colby's been receiving threats lately, and he likes the way Regan looks after his clients. To aid him in his new job, Colby also secures a gun and permit for his new employee. Regan is so surprised at this whole turn of events in his life that he accepts the offer for the chance to finally get in on some the big money he sees around him. He's given entrée to Colby's upper-crust world, including his huge New York townhouse and all that goes with it, never smelling a rat. This is mostly because, apart from the money he's suddenly earning and traveling in the midst of, he's distracted by the presence of Colby's personal secretary, Noel Faraday (Ella Raines) -- about as pretty, intelligent, and seductive a female as Regan has ever seen, and who seems mutually intrigued by his rather earthy and plain-spoken presence in the Colby organization. Regan is a fresh dose of working-class honesty amid the elegance, affectation, and duplicity that oozes out of Colby's world, and on Regan's side of it he can hardly keep his hands off of her.

However, during Regan's first night on the job, a shot rings out from upstairs and he finds Colby in a struggle with an intruder carrying a gun -- and Regan shoots the man dead. The stranger turns out to be Leopold Kroner (Fritz Leiber), Colby's one-time business associate, who just finished a ten-year stretch for embezzlement of a million dollars. The threats seemed to come from Kroner, and there was a gun in his hand when Regan shot him, but that's not good enough for Lieutenant Damico of the NYPD; it's all a little too convenient that Colby's one-time partner gets himself killed that way, at the hands of some lawyer playing detective whose gun permit barely has the ink dry. Damico makes no secret of his doubts to Regan, or of the fact that he would like nothing more than to pull his friend in on a murder rap just for being a prize chump, mostly because he doesn't like murder and can't really see Regan as being as stupid as he seems. It turns out that he is just about that stupid, and is always a step behind Colby in trying to unravel the mystery of what really happened and how Kroner came to be in the house. Even Noel, for all of her intelligence and education, can't keep ahead of her employer's machinations; even as they dig deeper, more and more evidence gets planted implicating them both in a conspiracy, and before they can spring their trap, Damico is there ready to put the cuffs on both of them. But that's when matters get really interesting, as Damico begins to prove that if Regan isn't half as bright as he ought to be, the police lieutenant is a lot smarter than he looks or his job description calls for. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Another Part Of The Forest begins some twenty years before the events of Lillian Hellman's play and movie The Little Foxes and shows how that film's Hubbard family became the ruthless, greedy lot they were. It's fifteen years after the Civil War, and the Hubbards dominate their small Southern town financially, if not socially; The patriarch of the family (Fredric March) sold salt for $8 a pound to the Confederate Army at a time when they needed it most. Edmond O'Brien and Dan Duryea play his sons, the former as mean as his father, the latter and younger one a weakling. When the elder child finds out that his father was responsible for the death of Southern troops during the war, he threatens to expose the truth unless the family fortune is placed in his hands. In the end, only Hubbard's wife (Florence Eldridge) stands by her husband during his inevitable fall, and she banishes her own children from their house. Brilliant acting by all, especially March, Duryea, and O'Brien, plus a sharp script, make this unrelentingly grim melodrama fascinating to watch. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven deserves a historical footnote as director William Castle's only comedy western. Future Wild Bill Hickok star Guy Madison plays Eddie Taylor, a lonesome cowboy who falls in love with city-gal Perry Dunkin (Diana Lynn). The couple "meets cute" in Brooklyn, where the two have migrated to seek their fortunes. The plot veers into Runyonesque territory as Eddie tries to write the Great American Play, while Perry "adopts" pickpocket Mandy (Florence Bates) to pose as her mother. The loosely structured storyline permits several entertaining diversions, including a trip to Coney Island and a wild episode at a Brooklyn riding academy which hero and heroine have been conned into purchasing. Audie Murphy makes his second film appearance in a near-microscopic role. Based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Barry Benefield, Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven was released in England as The Girl From Texas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

Recreating his stage role, Jose Ferrer stars as Edmond Rostand's Cyrano, a 17th-century French cavalier, poet and swordsman whose prominent proboscis is the subject of many a duel. Cyrano is madly in love with the beautiful Roxanne (Mala Powers), but assumes that she'd never love him back due to his cathedral of a nose. Roxanne is also loved by the handsome Christian (William Prince), who unfortunately can't put two consecutive words together when it comes to pitching woo. Cyrano agrees to help Christian win Roxanne by feeding him the right words for his midnight courtships and love letters; in this way, Cyrano can vicariously express his own ardor for the fair lady. Years later, Cyrano's deception is revealed, and he dies happily in the arms of his beloved Roxanne, who realizes that she has really loved Cyrano all along--by way of Christian. Cyrano de Bergerac wasn't seen by many paying moviegoers upon its original showing, but its relative box-office failure resulted in an early release to television, where it has remained a perennial attraction for the past forty years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Glenn Ford plays a convict who breaks out of a 19th century Nevada prison in the company of several less handsome inmates. When they enter a snowbound California village, they find that all the men have left to prospect for silver; only the women remain. The village is known as Convict Lake because, years earlier, $40,000 of stolen money was hidden somewhere in the area. Town matriarch Ethel Barrymore seems to know where it is, but she ain't talkin'. After recovering the money, the convicts are forced to shoot it out with the returning menfolk. All prisoners are rounded up by the law except for Glenn Ford, who has fortuitously been cleared of false charges, allowing him a fadeout embrace with costar Gene Tierney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Malta Story stars Alec Guinness as WW II camera reconnaissance pilot Peter Ross. Crash-landing in Malta, Ross presents his photographs to the resident air officer (Jack Hawkins). The photos reveal that the Italians are planning a major invasion of the island. Low on fuel and men, the officer is all but helpless as the Italians mount their attack. Only the last-minute arrival reinforcements and supplies prevent Malta from falling into the hands of the enemies--but the story doesn't end there. Filmed on location, The Malta Story boasts some exceptional aerial photography, not to mention excellent performances from Guiness, Hawkins, Anthony Steele, Muriel Pavlow, Flora Robson and the rest of the stellar cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The recent Mau Mau uprising in Kenya served as story material for the 1955 British film Simba. White farmer Dirk Bogarde and his neighbors are targeted for extermination by the zealously nationalistic Mau Maus. Native doctor Joseph Tomelty, whose brother had earlier been killed under questionable circumstances, endeavors to help the whites escape the hordes, only to discover that his own father is the local leader of the insurrectionists. Given the cruelties of colonial rule in Africa, it is hard for any film to make the Mau Mau total villains, despite their own well-documented brutal treatment of their enemies. Simba downplays side-taking and ideology, choosing instead to concentrate on the adventure and suspense elements. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide