Robert Stevenson Movies

An air-traffic reporter discovers that his partner--a St. Bernard dog--has accidentally swiped a priceless necklace from a jewel-smuggling gang. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

This lush historical drama chronicles the brief reign of the late Henry VIII's successor, Lady Jane Grey. After only nine days on the throne, she was beheaded at the behest of the treacherous Mary Tudor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Fred Gipson, Old Yeller is set in Texas in 1869. While his father is away on a cattle drive, 15-year-old Travis Coates (Tommy Kirk) takes over management of the family farm. Adopting a "strictly business" policy, Travis is irritated when younger brother, Arliss (Kevin Corcoran), adopts a frisky stray dog. But soon Travis is as fond of the dog as everyone else in the family; moreover, "Old Yeller" is an excellent watchdog. But while fighting off a mad wolf, Yeller is infected with rabies. Though Yeller seems unaffected at first, he eventually behaves so viciously that the disheartened Travis has no choice but to shoot the dog. A heart-to-heart talk between Travis and his returning father (Fess Parker), coupled with the adoption of a new pup, paves the way to an emotional but reasonably happy ending. Earning eight million dolalrs domestically on its first release, Old Yeller convinced Walt Disney to devote more and more time to live-action films and less time to animation -- which at the time was a sagacious business move. In 1963, Disney released a lesser sequel to Old Yeller titled Savage Sam. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Investment broker Eric Pollard (Lloyd Bochner) seems to have gone off his trolley when he begins suffering from dizzy spells; to begin with, he publicly charges his wife Sybil (Marian Moses) with every crime under the sun--and as a capper, he hires a taxi to rob a bank! Though he is thrown in jail, Eric receives a suspended sentence thanks to Sybil's probation-officer friend Roy Galen (Jason Evers). Far from grateful, Eric accuses Roy and Sybil of being lovers--and when Sybil is murdered, it is Roy who is arrested. In order to save an innocent man from the gas chamber, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) must first find the real reasons behind Eric's nutty behavior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A delightful film that begs to be rediscovered, Return to Yesterday was adapted from Goodness, How Sad, a play by Robert Morley. Clive Brook is ideally cast as Robert Maine, a famous movie star who longs for the simpler days before he became the idol of millions-and before he was trapped into a loveless marriage with his present wife. Maine takes a sentimental journey to the provincial repertory theatre where he got his first break, only to discover that the little troupe is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Without revealing his true identity, he joins the actors and helps to get them over their financial hump. He also happens to fall in love with ingenue Carol Sande (Anna Lee, the wife of director Robert Stevenson), but realizes eventually that she will be better off without him. Dame May Whitty heads the hand-picked supporting cast as Mrs. Truscott, the troupe's garrulous character woman, who is wise enough not to say anything when she overhears Maine letting Carol down gently by replaying a scene from one of his earlier stage triumphs. Long ignored by movie historians, Return to Yesterday was given an honored spot in William K. Everson's affectionate volume Love in the Film (1979). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though overlong even for a Hayley Mills vehicle, That Darn Cat is an expert blend of laughs and suspense. The eponymous feline is D.C., a Siamese belonging to sisters Hayley Mills and Dorothy Provine. One evening, D.C. comes flouncing home with a lady's wristwatch attached to her neck. The watch contains an unfinished plea for help scribbled on its back, written by Grayson Hall, a bank teller held captive in a neighboring house by robbers Neville Brand and Frank Gorshin. Mills and Provine contact the FBI, who send agent Dean Jones (who's allergic to cats) to investigate. In their efforts to locate and rescue Hall and capture the crooks, Jones and the two sisters embark upon a series of slapstick misadventures involving an unending stream of top character actors. The highlight is a lengthy sequence at the drive-in movie theatre managed by ulcerated Richard Deacon. That Darn Cat is based on Undercover Cat, a somewhat more serious suspense novel by The Gordons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A stage play by the astonishingly prolific Edgar Wallace was the source for the British melodrama Case of the Frightened Lady. The story focuses on the aristocratic Lebanon family, with Dowager Lady Lebanon (Helen Hayes) harboring a Deep Dark Secret. It seems that every generation or so, the Lebanon clan produces a homicidal maniac. The unfortunate candidate this time around seems to be Lord Willis Lebanon (Marius Goring), a fact that the Dowager Lady hopes to hide from the world. Alas, blood will tell and murder will out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

British musical-comedy star Jack Hulbert and Hollywood ingenue Patricia Ellis share top billing in Gaiety Girls (aka Paradise for Two). Hulbert plays Martin, a straight-laced Parisian millionaire who falls in love with saucy chorus girl Jeannette (Ellis). The plot requires that Martin pose as a reporter who is called upon by Jeannette to pose as her wealthy benefactor: in other words, he's hired to impersonate himself! With all this going on, it's a wonder that our hero has time to offer a few song-and-dance numbers of his own, but Jack Hulbert does not disappoint his fans. Billed fourth in Gaiety Girls is Googie Withers, whose name would mean a lot more at the box-office within a few short years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 20th Century-Fox Hour (later syndicated as The Hour of Stars) ran on CBS just shy of two years, from October 1955 through September 1957. An anthology program, the series typically featured readaptations of 20th Century-Fox feature films for a sixty-minute TV airslot. The 1955 production of Miracle on 34th Street - a reworking of George Seaton's 1948 blockbuster and Christmas perennial - was just such an example and became one of the first episodes of the series. The program makes its home video debut following recent appearances on The Fox Movie Channel. In this slightly condensed version of the Seaton story, Thomas Mitchell takes over the Edmund Gwenn role, portraying Kris Kringle, Teresa Wright plays Doris Walker, and Sandy Descher stars as her daughter, Susan Walker, filling the role originally made famous by Natalie Wood. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

The Las Vegas Story features two of Hollywood's most impressive physiques. Victor Mature stars as Dave Andrews, a gambler, while Jane Russell plays Linda, the love of his life. Assuming that Andrews has forgotten her, Linda marries Lloyd Rollins (Vincent Price) on the rebound. All three main characters are reunited in Las Vegas, where they become enmeshed in a robbery scheme that results in murder. Clearly inspired by Casablanca, the film even includes a philosophical piano player, portrayed by Hoagy Carmichael who also wrote the film's incidental songs. Though Las Vegas Story was largely scripted by Paul Jarrico, producer Howard Hughes refused to give Jarrico screen credit because of the latter's alleged pro-communist sympathies. Jarrico promptly sued Hughes and RKO, sparking one of the more famous cause celebres of the Blacklist era. As it turned out, nobody came out ahead with The Las Vegas Story: the film posted a loss of $600,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Attractive scientist Dr. Clare Wyatt (Anna Lee) fondly declines the proposal of journalist Dick Haslewood (John Loder), who loves her, and she goes to work for the reclusive Dr. Laurience (Boris Karloff), whom the scientific world regards as a crackpot. At Laurience's remote estate, she's greeted at the door by bitter, wheelchair-bound Clayton (Donald Calthrop), one of the doctor's more hopeless cases. Dick hangs around the neighborhood, sending stories to his newspaper, which is owned by his tycoon father, Lord Haslewood (Frank Cellier). Laurience demonstrates the reality of his discredited theory to an astonished Claire. Using an array of electrical equipment, he switches the minds of a good-natured and a cranky chimpanzee, then suggests to Claire that this could be done with people, making immortality possible. Lord Haslewood turns up unexpectedly, and offers the skeptical scientist the full use of the prestigious Haslewood Institute in exchange for the right to run stories on Laurience's progress, and to own the resulting patents. But problems arise when Haslewood sets up a conference of prominent scientists to hear Laurience explain the intent of his research. They all scoff loudly, and walk out. Lord Haslewood is furious, feeling he's been humiliated; he tells the shocked Laurience that he, not the scientist, owns everything, and orders him out of the Institute. Laurience suffers a mental breakdown, and invites Haslewood to his lab, where he straps him into the chair of his apparatus, then switches the minds of Haslewood and the crippled Clayton. When Haslewood realizes he's now in Clayton's body, he bursts into laughter and drops dead, puzzling the other two. Clayton is delighted to be in a body that's not only capable of walking, but is that of a financially powerful man. When Laurience offers Claire "eternal youth, eternal loveliness," she is shocked, and he realizes she's in love with Dick, so he makes plans for Dick to come to the Institute.

Meanwhile, Clayton learns why Haslewood laughed: Clayton is trapped in the body of a dying man: Haslewood had a weak heart. With his own scheme in mind, Laurience murders Clayton. He switches his mind with Dick's, giving the perfect alibi for murder -- and Laurience, in Dick's body, will have Claire. After the transfer, Laurience, in Dick's body, places Dick, in Laurience's body, in a chamber with poison gas. But when Claire arrives, she immediately realizes what has happened. Dick, in Laurience's body, awakes and falls out a window, gravely injured. On the street below, Sue encounters scientist Dr. Gratton (Cecil Parker), and convinces him to help her switch back the minds of Dick and Laurience before Laurience's body dies. Afterward, Laurience, in his own body, admits he was wrong, and begs Claire to destroy his equipment, then he dies.

A few years after this film, Karloff would make a series of movies for Columbia Pictures with plots very similar to this, but British film is far livelier than those; it's to the point, intelligent and entertaining. This was partly due to the clever script by L. Du Garde Peach, Sidney Gilliat and John L. Balderston. Gilliat later wrote several films for Alfred Hitchcock, and Balderston had co-written Dracula, among other notable films. Director Robert Stevenson was busy making a name for himself as a kind of back-up Hitchcock, though Hitchcock was not likely to have tackled The Man Who Changed His Mind, King Solomon's Mines or Non-Stop New York. Later, Stevenson came to the United States and gradually evolved away from thrillers to more romantic films, such as the 1944 Jane Eyre. His career was then spotty until he signed with Walt Disney, where he helmed many of the more prestigious films, including Mary Poppins, a far cry from the brisk horror of The Man Who Changed His Mind. Also known as The Man Who Lived Again, the U.S. title of this film is Brainsnatcher, and the U.S. reissue title is Dr. Maniac. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

The sequel to 1963's Misadventures of Merlin Jones finds young Mr. Jones (Tommy Kirk) still in college and still going out with Jennifer (Annette Funicello). In this movie, he must help football players pass their tests and invent a flying machine win a contest for the school. Funicello and the Beach Boys sing the title song. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a master of disguises commits a series of crimes. He is so good, that no one knows what he really looks like. He even masquerades as a doctor and kills his own partner who has been under police protection because he agreed to lead him to the crook. Later it is revealed the chameleon like criminal was out for revenge against the partner as he killed the fellow's sister. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide