Robert Stevenson Movies
One of England's best and most successful action directors of the '30s, Robert Stevenson became a filmmaker whose work was seen by tens of millions of filmgoers well into the late '60s His name was seldom noticed, however, as the director of such Walt Disney hits as Mary Poppins, Son of Flubber, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Old Yeller, The Absent-Minded Professor, and The Love Bug. The son of a businessman, Stevenson was a science student at Cambridge, and was led to film through his graduate work in psychology. He began directing movies in 1932, and soon proved himself equally adept in all genres and subject material, capable of deriving bracing tension and excitement from material as diverse as historical drama, African adventure epics, and contemporary thrillers -- among his most notable movies in those categories, respectively, are Tudor Rose, King Solomon's Mines (the 1937 version with Paul Robeson), and Non-Stop New York. Like Alfred Hitchcock, he was signed by David O. Selznick in 1939 and brought to America, but unlike Hitchcock, Stevenson never made a movie for Selznick during the 10 years he was under contract to him. He joined the Disney organization in 1957, and became their top filmmaking hand in live-action films, directing at least a half-dozen Disney classics and another half-dozen confirmed hits over the next 20 years. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1962
The statue of St. Francis, standing in the courtyard of California's San Luis Rey mission, has been stolen. Father Clare (David Garner) prevails upon Paladin (Richard Boone) to retrieve the statue with the least possible amount of gunplay--a task that proves easier said than done, thanks to the omnipresence of a band of hostile Indians. Evidentally the only thing that can defuse this situation is a miracle--and a miracle is just what happens! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Riding into a wild-and-wooly frontier town on Christmas Eve, Paladin (Richard Boone) befriends a young cowboy and pregnant woman who need his help. It seems that the couple cannot find anyone willing or able to provide them lodging for the night; in fact, the only available space is a squalid storeroom behind the saloon. Sound familiar? The "Joseph" of this story is played by guitarist Duane Eddy, who had recently scored a big hit with his recording of "The Ballad of Paladin". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Released from prison after eight years, Aaron Bell (Barry Cahill) heads to the town where his brother was lynched during the Civil War. Fearing that Bell craves revenge, the nervous townsfolk hire Paladin (Richard Boone) for protection. As it turns out, however, Paladin must protect Bell from the townsfolk! This is the first Have Gun--Will Travel episode directed by series star Richard Boone. directed by Richard Boone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
In this curiously Brechtian drama, a government official (Lewis Martin) secretly hires Paladin to bring murder suspect Billy Joe (Martin West) to trial. The reason for the secrecy is that Billy Joe is the son of Paladin's client. Upon capturing Billy Joe, Paladin is unable to turn over boy to the authorities thanks to the interference of a wandering band of saloon bums (male and female). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Bound by a debt of honor dating back to the Civil War, Paladin (Richard Boone) offers his gun in service to ruthless land baron Costigan (Warren Stevens). A family of squatters led by a hothead named Clemenceau (Robert Stevenson) has settled on Costigan's land, and refuses to be moved--backing up their refusal with buckshot. Though legally Costigan is in the right, Paladin becomes disgusted by the land baron's violent methods, and by episode's end a change of heart seems to be on the menu. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Though irrefutably guilty of murder, Carl Soddenberg (Crahan Denton) escaped the hangman's noose when he was declared insane. Now "cured", Soddenberg is release from a mental institution in the custody of Dr. Weiser (Richard Shannon). Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired to escort patient and doctor to Soddenberg's home town, but the vengeful relatives of one of Carl's victims don't intend to let that happen. Originally filmed for the series' fifth season and scheduled to air on May 26, 1962, this episode was withheld from view until March 9, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired by Colonel Lathrop (Robert F. Simon), a wealthy and aristocratic ex-military man who claims to be writing a history of the West. Lathrop wants Paladin to find out what became of a legendary saloon queen who once presided over a now-deserted Nevada mining town. The job turns out to be a lot more dangerous than it first appears: no one previously hired by the Colonel to find the missing lady has ever returned alive. Supporting players Denver Pyle (Clay Sommers) and Peggy Rea (Lulu) were later reteamed on another popular TV series, The Dukes of Hazzard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Riding into a dusty Arkansas town, Paladin is greeted with the spectacle of a man chained in the street. The hapless prisoner turns out to be Dr. Simeon Loving (Donald Randolph), accused of murder by self-appointed "hanging judge" Elroy Greenleaf (Harold J. Stone). At the risk of his own neck, Paladin offers to act as Dr. Loving's defense counsel to save the man from the gallows--even though the wily Judge Greenleaf has pretty much stacked the deck against the prisoner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1933
In this British romance, a German duke falls passionately in love with the owner of a beautiful singing voice, even though he has never seen her. When he first hears it, the duke assumes that it belongs to the empress. The voice actually belongs to her hairdresser. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lilian Harvey, Charles Boyer, (more)
Herbie Rides Again is the first sequel to Disney's fabulously successful The Love Bug. The emphasis here is on Mrs. Steinmetz (Helen Hayes), a feisty old San Franciscan who refuses to sell her home to conniving developer Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn). Hawk's nephew, lawyer Willoughby Whitfield (Ken Berry), joins Mrs. Steinmetz's camp when he falls in love with her niece Nicole (Stefanie Powers). (This, of course, is after Nicole angrily slaps Willoughby with a boiled lobster, sending him plummeting over a balcony railing and into the drink). The day is saved by Herbie, the almost-human Volkswagen, who rallies every VW in town to thwart Hawk's machinations. Herbie Rides Again performed admirably enough to inspire still another sequel, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Hayes, Ken Berry, (more)
- 1949
There's propaganda aplenty in RKO's I Married a Communist, the first of producer Howard R. Hughes' many anti-Red broadsides. Robert Ryan plays shipping executive Brad Collins, whose youthful flirtations with certain left-wing causes have made him ripe for plucking by Commie cell leader Vanning (Thomas Gomez). Threatening to reveal Collins' "pinko" past, Vanning orders the executive to deliberately sabotage the shipping industry in the Frisco Bay area. Other characters essential to the plotline are Collins' wife Nan (Laraine Day), who knows nothing of her husband's politics, and his idealistic brother-in-law Don (John Agar) who spouts Marxist dogma at the drop of a hat. Apparently at a loss as to how to depict communist villainy, the screenwriters hark back on the gangster films of the 1930s, notably in the scene where a hapless stoolie (the inevitable Paul Guilfoyle) is taken for a ride. When the title I Married a Communist proved an audience turn-off during previews, the film was rechristened The Woman on Pier 13. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laraine Day, Robert Ryan, (more)
Howard Hawks directed this classic farce about how love attempts to triumph over military red tape after the close of World War II. Capt. Henri Rochard (Cary Grant) is a French officer who is assigned to put a stop to a black market operation in occupied Germany with the help of Lt. Catherine Gates (Ann Sheridan), an American WAC. While their initial meetings are hardly harmonious, in time Rochard and Gates find that opposites really do attract, and they fall in love. The two decide to get married, which seems simple enough, but the moment Gates receives orders to return to the United States and Rochard wants to join her, they soon discover just how complicated the U.S. Army can make things. While the Army has a strict protocol for dealing with "war brides," there is no similar routine for men who marry female Army personnel, so in order to follow his new wife into the States, Rochard has to disguise himself as a WAC. From this moment on, nearly everything that happens to Rochard is an affront to his dignity and/or his patience, from his inability to share a bunk with his new bride to his discovery that Army regulations prevent him from driving a motorcycle (Gates has to take the handlebars, while her husband is forced to ride in a sidecar). As more than one writer has pointed out, while Grant gives a deft comic performance, it's a bit of a stretch to imagine that he's French (but probably no more than to imagine that anyone would really believe that he's a woman). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Ann Sheridan, (more)
Based on Jules Verne's novel Captain Grant's Children, In Search of the Castaways is a roller-coaster of a Disney film, making up in excitement what it lacks in credibility or coherence. Hayley Mills and Keith Hamshere play the children of long-missing ship's captain Jack Gwillim. By chance, a note stuffed in a bottle comes to the attention of the kids and professor Maurice Chevalier; the note contains the fragment of a map, which suggests that Gwillim is somewhere in South America. Only after enduring a series of life-threatening adventures do Chevalier and the kids discover that they should have been in Australia all along! Once they're finally in the correct corner of the world, our protagonists are bedeviled by gunrunner George Sanders, the fellow who'd set the captain adrift. With the help of Wilfrid Brambell, a looney ex-crew member of the captain's (and the fellow who sent the bottled message), Chevalier, Mills and Hamshere are finally reunited with Gwillim--and as a bonus, Mills has found a boy friend, in the person of Michael Anderson. It's typical of the crazy-quilt approach taken by In Search of the Castaways that Maurice Chevalier decides to sing a cheery song in a moment of dire peril. Even so, the film was ideal Saturday-matinee fodder for the kiddie trade in 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Chevalier, Hayley Mills, (more)
- 1939
Irene Dunne plays an impulsive society girl; Fred MacMurray plays a no-frills prizefighter. They marry (just like Jack Dempsey and his many trophy wives) in the waning days of the Roaring 20s. MacMurray begins training so diligently for the championship that he neglects his wife and son (Billy Cook). Fed up, mother and child walk out. Ten years later, MacMurray, looking not one scintilla older, finally gets his championship bid. He also regains his family, after all concerned promise to pay more attention to one another. Invitation to Happiness is what Variety used to call a "Four-Hanky Picture." Sidebar: The director was Wesley Ruggles, who refused to allow a certain member of the supporting cast--Wesley's big brother Charlie Ruggles--to inject any "funny stuff." Charlie begged for one brief comic sequence, and Wesley complied; he just didn't bother to tell Charlie that the scene would be cut even before the first preview. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1936
Jack Hulbert is Jack Warrender in Jack of All Trades. A spoof of Big Business, 1930s style, the film begins as Jack ends a long spell of unemployment by taking a waiter's job at a fancy society reception. Because he's decked out in a tuxedo, Jack is assumed to be one of the guests, and before long everyone is convinced that he's a financial wizard (it's a lot more believable than it sounds!) Unable to reveal his true identity, Jack reluctantly accepts a chairmanship at a bank, and through a series of lucky breaks he manages to save the institution from ruin and enrich himself in the process. It stands to reason that Jack also wins the girl (Gina Malo), who would have loved him even if he'd remained a waiter. Jack of All Trades was co-directed by Hulbert and future Disney Studio fixture Robert Stevenson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Hulbert, Gina Malo, (more)
Director Robert Stevenson collaborated with novelist Aldous Huxley and theatrical-producer John Houseman on the screenplay for this 1944 adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's gothic romance Jane Eyre. After several harrowing years in an orphanage, where she was placed by a supercilious relative for exhibiting the forbidden trait of "willfulness," Jane Eyre (Joan Fontaine) secures work as a governess. Her little charge, French-accented Adele (Margaret O'Brien), is pleasant enough. But Jane's employer, the brooding, tormented Edward Rochester (Orson Welles), terrifies the prim young governess. Under Jane's gentle influence, Rochester drops his forbidding veneer, going so far as to propose marriage to Jane. But they are forbidden connubial happiness when it is revealed that Rochester is still married to a gibbering lunatic whom he is forced to keep locked in his attic. Rochester reluctantly sends Jane away, but she returns, only to find that the insane wife has burned down the mansion and rendered Rochester sightless. In the tradition of Victorian romances, this purges Rochester of any previous sins, making him a worthy mate for the loving Jane. The presence of Orson Welles in the cast (he receives top billing), coupled with the dark, Germanic style of the direction and photography, has led some impressionable cineasts to conclude that Welles, and not Stevenson, was the director. To be sure, Welles contributed ideas throughout the filming; also, the script was heavily influenced by the Mercury Theater on the Air radio version of Jane Eyre, on which Welles, John Houseman and musical director Bernard Herrmann all collaborated. But Jane Eyre was made at 20th Century-Fox, a studio disinclined to promote the auteur theory; like most Fox productions, this is a work by committee rather than the product of one man. This in no way detracts from the overall excellence of the film; of all adaptations of Jane Eyre (it had previously been filmed in 1913, 1915 and 1921, and has been remade several times since), this 1943 version is one of the best. Keep an eye out for an uncredited Elizabeth Taylor as the consumptive orphanage friend of young Jane Eyre (played as child by Peggy Ann Gardner). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, (more)
- 1942
At first glance, we seem to be watching the 1934 Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical The Gay Divorcee, which opens with a montage of Paris nightspots. Suddenly, however, stock footage from that earlier film is cut short, the screen goes dark, and an offscreen radio voice announces the Nazi invasion of France. At this point, the plot of Joan of Paris gets under way. Michèle Morgan plays a Parisian barmaid, Joan, whose patron saint is Joan of Arc. Thus, she considers it her bounden duty to aid Free French pilot Paul Lavallier (Paul Henreid) and his RAF comrades (one of whom is Alan Ladd) in their efforts to escape from occupied France. And if this means that Joan must face death at the hands of slimy Gestapo chief Herr Funk (Laird Cregar), she's eager and willing to make that sacrifice. One of the earliest French Underground dramas, Joan of Paris posted a neat profit for ever-in-the-red RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michèle Morgan, Paul Henreid, (more)
This Walt Disney filmization of Esther Forbes' Revolutionary-War novel Johnny Tremain was appropriately released on July 4, 1957. New Disney discovery Hal Stalmaster plays the title character, an apprentice silversmith in 1773 Boston. An on-the-job injury prevents Johnny from finding a job, but he is welcomed with open arms at the headquarters of the Revolution. After standing trial on a trumped-up robbery charge brought about by British sympathizer Jonathan Lyte (Sebastian Cabot), Johnny is set free, whereupon he joins the Sons of Liberty during their execution of the Boston Tea Party. Later on, General Gage (Ralph Clanton), the officer in charge of the colonies, does his best to stem the activities of the Sons of the Liberty without resorting to violence but this becomes a moot point after the battle of Lexington Green. If the storyline of Johnny Tremain seems to be divided into two even halves, it is because the film was originally intended as a two-part installment of the Disneyland TV anthology. As it turned out, the film did receive TV exposure on Walt Disney Presents, divided (as planned) into two segments: "The Boston Tea Party" (first telecast November 21, 1958) and "The Shot That Was Heard Around the World" (December 5, 1958). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hal Stalmaster, Luana Patten, (more)
- 1960
- PG
Disney produced this historical adventure of old Scotland, based on the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. James MacArthur stars as David Balfour, a wealthy lad cheated out of his inheritance and sold into servitude by his duplicitous and greedy uncle, Ebenezer (John Laurie). Aboard the ship where he's been made cabin boy, David meets Alan Breck Stewart (Peter Finch), a Jacobite loyalist who thinks the vessel's skipper (Bernard Lee) is transporting him back to Scotland. When David learns otherwise, he and Alan become a team, escaping the ship and taking off across the Highlands. Accused falsely of murder, the pair must clear their names, evade redcoat troops, and restore David's fortunes. Although director Robert Stevenson was no relation to the famed author, the studio claimed otherwise at the time of the film's release, for publicity purposes. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Finch, James MacArthur, (more)
The first of three talkie versions of H. Rider Haggard's adventure novel King Solomon's Mine was produced by British Gaumont. While Cedric Hardwicke plays the nominal leading role of explorer Alan Quartermaine, top billing goes to African-American singing-star Paul Robeson, who plays dauntless native- guide Umbopa. The plot gets under way when Anna Lee organizes an expedition to locate her father, who has disappeared in the wilds of Africa while searching for King Solomon's Mines, a legendary diamond repository. Umbopa's motivation for guiding the expedition is to reclaim the tribal throne wrested from him by treacherous witch-doctor Gagool (Sidney Fairbrother). At first treated as white gods by the natives, the explorers soon find their lives imperiled. Thanks to Umbopa's know-how, the whites are saved from a horrible death and the evil tribesmen are overthrown. As for King Solomon's Mines, Quartermaine and his party finally locate the fabled diamond cache--and then fate deals an ironic hand, as fate has a habit of doing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Robeson, Cedric Hardwicke, (more)
- 1934
Fourteen-year-old British actress Nova Pilbeam (best known for her work in Hitchcock's Man Who Knew too Much and Young and Innocent) plays the title role in Little Friend. When her parents (Matheson Lang and Lydia Sherwood) decide to divorce, poor Felicity Hughes (Pilbeam) seeks out a way to bring them back together. She tells a few "white lies" on the witness stand, which merely exacerbates the situation. Finally she attempts suicide, and it is this that brings Mr. and Mrs. Hughes back to their senses. Surprisingly, the Margaret Kennedy-Christopher Isherwood screenplay isn't as sappy and overdone on screen as it plays on paper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matheson Lang, Nova Pilbeam, (more)
- 1932
In this British musical, a shop assistant attempts to impress a girl by telling her that he is actually the manager. Unfortunately, when he is fired, he is also alone. Later he catches robbers trying to pillage the place. He is then rehired as the store manager for real. The girl comes back and he puts her in charge of the music department. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Hulbert, Gordon Harker, (more)
Long resistant to film adaptations of her Mary Poppins books, P.L. Travers finally succumbed to the entreaties of Walt Disney, and the result is often considered the finest of Disney's personally supervised films. The Travers stories are bundled together to tell the story of the Edwardian-era British Banks family: the banker father (David Tomlinson), suffragette mother (Glynis Johns), and the two "impossible" children (Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber). The kids get the attention of their all-business father by bedevilling every new nanny in the Banks household. Whem Mr. Banks advertises conventionally for another nanny, the kids compose their own ad, asking for someone with a little kindness and imagination. Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews in her screen debut) answers the children's ad by arriving at the Banks home from the skies, parachuting downward with her umbrella. She immediately endears herself to the children. The next day they meet Mary's old chum Bert (Dick Van Dyke), currently employed as a sidewalk artist. Mary, Bert, and the children hop into one of Bert's chalk drawings and learn the nonsense song "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in a cartoon countryside. Later, they pay a visit to Bert's Uncle Albert (Ed Wynn), who laughs so hard that he floats to the ceiling. Mr. Banks is pleased that his children are behaving better, but he's not happy with their fantastic stories. To show the children what the real world is like, he takes them to his bank. A series of disasters follow which result in his being fired from his job. Mary Poppins' role in all this leads to some moments when it is possible to fear that all her good work will be undone, but like the magical being she is, all her "mistakes" lead to a happy result by the end of the film. In 2001, Mary Poppins was rereleased in a special "sing-along" edition with subtitles added to the musical numbers so audiences could join in with the onscreen vocalists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, (more)
- 1932
This romance, based on a surprisingly sophisticated story by Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne, teams up Herbert Marshall with his then-wife Edna Best. Best is Mary Price, deserted by her husband when he leaves England to seek his fortune during the Boer War in 1900. Destitute and desperate, she meets aspiring author Michael Rowe (Marshall) at a museum. Rowe offers to share what little money he has with her and soon a romance develops. They agree to marry, in hopes that her husband has disappeared for good. And, as the years pass, it seems like he has. Rowe becomes a successful and respected writer and he and Mary raise a son, David (Frank Lawton). On the night that David becomes engaged to pretty society girl Romo (Elizabeth Allan), however, Price (D.A. Clarke-Smith) reappears, and while the young couple is away, Rowe has a fight with Price, who dies at the scene from a heart attack. Michael and Mary are interrogated, but Scotland Yard never makes the connection between Price and Mary, and the investigators assume that Michael was merely protecting himself from an intruder. While the couple is off the hook legally, they feel it is morally necessary to come clean about their past in front of David and his fiancée. David is more than willing to forgive his parents their sins, and Romo stands by them, too. What could have been a tiresome subject is brought to life by the talent of all involved -- not only the actors, but also writers Angus MacPhail, Robert Stevenson, and Lajos Biro, who brought Milne's story to the screen. Stevenson, incidentally, would become one of Britain's most respected directors, and MacPhail would frequently work with Alfred Hitchcock -- though apparently not on The Man Who Knew Too Much, which gave Best one of her best screen roles. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Lawton, Herbert Marshall, (more)
