Franz Planer Movies

This 1954 Disney version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea represented the studio's costliest and most elaborate American-filmed effort to date. Kirk Douglas plays a trouble-shooting 19th century seaman, trying to discover why so many whaling ships have been disappearing of late. Teaming with scientist Paul Lukas and diver Peter Lorre, Douglas sets sail to investigate--and is promptly captured by the megalomaniac Captain Nemo (James Mason), who skippers a lavish, scientifically advanced submarine. The film's special effects, including a giant squid, were impressive enough in 1954 to win an Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ernie Driscoll (John Payne) is an ex-fighter who came within seconds of winning the world championship. He's now forced to eke out a living driving a cab. A basically decent guy, he has lots of people who care about him, including Linda James (Evelyn Keyes), a slightly ditsy actress friend -- but Ernie also has a short fuse, especially where his wife Pauline (Peggie Castle) is concerned. His rage boils over when he spots her kissing another man, but her unfaithfulness turns out to be the least of his worries. The man she's seeing, Vic Rawlins (Brad Dexter), is a career criminal with both the police and his former partners after him, and he sees Ernie as the perfect fall-guy. The law and Rawlins' criminal associates are soon closing in on Ernie, while he tries desperately -- with Linda's help -- to buy the time he needs to unravel this nightmare. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this desert adventure, a cruel commander viciously rules a regiment of foreign legionnaires. They tire of his brutality and rebel, stranding the despot and his few loyal soldiers in the burning sands with a few supplies. The deposed commander vows that he will return to civilization and have his revenge. It is difficult, but eventually the leader and his men make it back to the lonely outpost and find that it is under attack by Arab raiders. The soldiers inside take the leader back and they help to vanquish the invaders. Later the ring leader of the mutineers is awarded a medal for his courage then court-martialed for his crime. The leader too gets his just desserts when his second-in-command tells the court of his superior's cruelty. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This wartime melodrama stars George Sanders as Keith Wilson, a disillusioned Britisher who becomes a "Lord Haw Haw"type at a Nazi radio station. All the time he's dispensing anti-British propaganda over the airwaves, however, Wilson is actually a secret agent in the employ of the His Majesty's government. It is Wilson's intention to use his intimate relationship with the Germans to expose a worldwide Nazi spy ring. Romance enter the picture in the form of Ilse Preissing (Marguerite Chapman), the sister of a Nazi agent whose decision to join Wilson's side results in her death. Veteran movie villainess Gale Sondergaard also appears in the film, cast against type as a courageous British intelligence agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Another timely entry from the Columbia assembly line, Canal Zone stars Chester Morris as flight instructor "Hardtack" Hamilton (his nickname sums up his personality with sublime perfection). Our hero's students will eventually help ferry bombing planes across the Atlantic-with the possible exception of stuck-up civilian pilot Harley Ames (John Hubbard), who shows no signs of acquiring discipline and responsibility. When the chips are down, however, Ames proves he's got the Right Stuff, rescuing Hardtack after a particularly nasty plane crash. The heroine is Harriet Hilliard, later beloved by millions as one-half of TV's "Ozzie and Harriet", while one of the pilots is portrayed by future Jolson Story star Larry Parks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his final starring film, bandleader Kay Kyser is cast as bandleader Kay Kyser. Picking up where Kyser's previous RKO Radio film Around the World left off, Columbia's Carolina Blues finds Kay and his band returning to America after a worldwide USO tour. Phineas J. Carver (Victor Moore), the woebegone "black sheep"scion of a powerful family of industrialists, poses as one of his wealthier relatives to persuade Kyser to perform at a defense plant. When Kyser's regular vocalist Georgia Carroll quits the band to get married, Carver's talented daughter Julie (Ann Miller) steps in as replacement. Naturally, Julie is a hit, and equally naturally, she lands Kyser as a husband. Outside of the expected musical numbers (which, in addtion to Kyser's aggregation, feature such artists as The Step Brothers and the Nicholas Brothers) Carolina Blues is highlighted by the bravura performance of Victor Moore, who essays five roles in all. Ironically, singer Georgia Carroll did retire from show business in real life to get married-to Kay Kyser! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While far from the only good film on boxing, Champion is perhaps the best drama ever based on the fight game. It is remarkable for a number of things: the unrelenting, grinding logic that leads to the hero's tragic fate; the beautiful cinematography and editing that make it a masterpiece of light and shadow; near-perfect performances by everyone, from Kirk Douglas as Midge Kelly, down to the actor who plays a sleazy small-time ring manager; and the boost it gave to the budding careers of Douglas and others. The basic story has been told many times, but never so powerfully: a poor, ambitious boy accidentally learns that he is a "natural" boxer, and that he might "go all the way." He wins his early fights with ease and, at last, in the big one, he becomes champion of the world. Then rot sets in. He lives it up, deserts his loved ones and best friends, and loses his physical and moral advantages. Near the end -- out of condition, demoralized -- the champion loses (or almost loses) his boxing crown. Finally, he grits his teeth, returns to rigorous training and to people he really likes, and he regains (or holds onto) the championship.

Part of Champion's dramatic superiority is in its brilliant revealing of the boxer through the eyes of other people in his life. There are good guys: Midge's brother Connie (Arthur Kennedy); his tough but honest trainer (Paul Stewart); his wife, Emma (Ruth Roman); and Johnny Dunne, the up-and-coming contender he eventually beats. There are bad guys: the manager who cheats him in his first, amateurish fight; two successive "owners," of the diner where Midge and Connie try to be entrepreneurs and end up as dishwashers; the blonde siren (Marilyn Maxwell) who abandons Johnny Dunne and helps corrupt Midge; and the mob-connected promoter Harris, who gets Midge his championship bout. There are ambiguous in-betweens, like Palmer (Lola Albright) who is Harris' wife, but who loves Midge and is, perhaps, loved in return. Then there is Midge himself. Unlike Charlie in Body and Soul (John Garfield, 1947) or the hero of the Rocky quintuplets (Sylvester Stallone, 1976-1990), Midge is not a basically nice guy who's been led astray. His ambition, arrogance, and stubbornness make him at once villain and hero. These "fatal flaws" contain, as surely as in Macbeth or Othello, the seeds of the champ's ultimate dissolution. Midge is dealt his share of life's unfairness and bad luck. Yet it is not the events themselves, but his bitter, violent responses to each blow that seal his doom. The final irony comes when he makes his comeback. In the last round of the last fight, his most manly virtues -- bull-like strength and stubborn stamina -- bring about both victory and defeat.

Too bad that this wonderful film -- nominated for six Oscars including Best Actor -- won only an Academy Award for Film Editing (Harry Gerstad) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography (Franz Planer). All the acting performances are superb: Champion was the breakthrough role for Douglas; his Oscar nomination led to many later starring vehicles. Champion also launched the careers of actresses Roman and Albright, and has what is probably Marilyn Maxwell's finest performance as the unforgettable gold digger Grace Diamond. And all that terrific acting certainly implies some credit for director Mark Robson, who went on to do award winners like Bright Victory and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Regardless of what Oscars it won or didn't win, Champion is a landmark film that should be on everyone's must-see list. ~ Michael P. Rogers, 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

It was considered a serious coup at Columbia Pictures when producer Stanley Kramer landed the rights to Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, and got most of the key members of the Broadway cast for the movie, plus Kevin McCarthy from the original London cast. The one exception was Lee J. Cobb, who'd done the part of Willy Loman on Broadway but, because of his alleged past left-wing political associations, couldn't do the movie -- so Kramer and Columbia went with a proven box office star, Fredric March. He plays Willy Loman, who has spent a lifetime pursuing success, only to find himself a failure at age 60, a victim of poor choices, lost opportunities, and unreasonable expectations, especially for his two sons, and in particular the older one, Biff (Kevin McCarthy). Despite the support of his loving, patient wife Linda (Mildred Dunnock, in the performance of a lifetime), Willy's life comes apart along with his hold on reality, as he increasingly slips between the present and the past, reliving incidents in a desperate search for what went wrong. March brings a good deal of dignity to the role, and McCarthy and Cameron Mitchell are superb as his two sons, but the movie was a failure at the time of its release, partly owing to its difficult subject matter -- the failure of the American dream was not the first item on every moviegoer's list in 1951, no matter how successful the play had been on Broadway or how many awards it won -- and also to March's performance, which was just as likely the fault of director Laslo Benedek; he's sympathetic but too externalized, without Cobb's seething energy (represented in the 1960's television portrayal), and in the second half is too over-the-top in his madness. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The "office manager" of the title is Joachim Reinsnagel, played by Felix Bressart. Employed by lawyer Fritz Barke (Herman Thimig), Joachim takes a special interest in one of his boss' clients, the beautiful Katrin (Margot Walter). In his efforts to put Katrin's finances in order, our hero inadvertently sets the stage for a compromising situation between the girl and the innocent Herr Barke. Mrs. Barke (Julia Serda) very nearly files for divorce, but Joachim pulls off a miraculous bit of chicanery and saves the day. Der Herr Buerovorsteher was based on a play by R. Bernauer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The plot of this German slapstick comedy can be summed up by its English-language title, The Stork Strikes. The humor is predicated on pregnancy, both imagined and actual, both planned and unexpected. The characters run around in helter-skelter fashion for nearly an hour and a half, but all problems are straightened out by fadeout time. Siegfried Arno, a splendid comic actor who later became a much-in-demand Hollywood bit player, heads the cast. Der Storch Streikt cost only about $70,000, but raked in nearly twenty times that amount at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director F.W. Murnau and scriptwriter Thea von Harbou both took a change of pace from their usual dramas with this satiric farce about Grand Duke Don Ramon XX (Harry Liedtke), whose idyllic country is threatened by revolution. The troublemakers are a trio of conspirators, working with a corrupt financier who intends to convert the landscape into a profitable sulfur mine. Don Ramon comes close to being hanged, but is rescued by Olga (Mady Christians), the Grand Duchess of Russia, who loves him and agrees to pay off all his debts. A compromising love letter from Olga falls into the conspirators' hands, but she and Don Ramon, with the help of the adventurer Philip Collins (Alfred Abel) are able to set their affairs right. Note who plays one of the conspirators: Max Schreck, who starred as the hideous vampire in Murnau's horror classic Nosferatu. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide