Fred Clark Movies

Also known as The Passionate Thief, this fast-paced crime comedy stars Anna Magnani as the fly in the ointment for a pair of disreputable types. Pickpockets Toto and Ben Gazzara don't want Magnani around while they ply their trade, but she manages to foul up their plans by falling in love with their "pigeon", American tourist Fred Clark. Gazzara briefly rids himself of Magnani by pinning a robbery rap on her. Upon her release from jail, she is reunited with Toto, who has loved her all along. Since it is established early on that Magnani is a movie extra and Toto an out-of-work actor, Risate di Giola gets away with a few jibes at the Italian film industry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having just robbed a pawnshop, two-bit crooks Chester and Paula Diedrich (Fred Clark, Jean Carson) have only one "prize" to show for their troubles -- a cheap-looking camera. By accident, Chester and Paula discover that the camera has the ability to take pictures of things that haven't happened yet, and together with Paula's cloddish brother Woodward (Adam Williams) they intend to take advantage of this phenomenon. Inevitably, the camera's fortune-telling prowess backfires on everyone concerned. Originally telecast December 16, 1960, "A Most Unusual Camera" was written by Rod Serling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Judy Holliday re-creates her Broadway role of flibbertigibbet telephone operator Ella Peterson in Bells are Ringing. Ella works for Susanswerphone, a hole-in-the-wall answering service run by her cousin Sue (Jean Stapleton). Our girl Ella can't help but become involved in the lives of her customers, which brings her to the attention of a dimwitted police detective, Barnes (Dort Clark), who suspects that Susanswerphone is a front for a house of ill repute. The cop is so obtuse that he never notices the story's genuine criminal, a flamboyant German bookie (Eddie Foy Jr.) who poses as a record executive and uses the names of composers as code for the various racetracks around the country. To avoid Barnes' wiretapping, Ella goes around New York in person to minister to the needs of her clients--most notably playwright Jeffrey Moss (Dean Martin), who is in danger of becoming an alcoholic if he can't come up with a good idea for a play. Assuming a false identity, Ella prattles on about some of her other clients, notably a dentist (Bernie West) who composes pop songs on his air hose. Moss is inspired by Ella, and eventually falls in love with her. Because she will not reveal who she really is to Jeffrey, Ella decides that her relationship is founded on lies, and walks out of his life. But Moss, together with the other Susanswerphone customers who have been "rescued" by Ella, show up at Ella's doorstep for a happy ending. Bells are Ringing is not an example of MGM's Arthur Freed unit at its best, but Judy Holliday is luminescent in this, her last screen role (incidentally, Holliday's "blind date" in one scene is played by her then boyfriend, jazz musician Gerry Mulligan). The film's songs, by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne, include the hit numbers "Just in Time" and "The Party's Over". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Marshall directed this mild sex comedy about a showgirl who marries a U.S. Air Force sergeant and puts his love to the test by decreeing her body off-limits to him for a 30-day period (usually something built up to in the course of a marriage over a period of years). Debbie Reynolds plays Maggie Putnam, a vivacious showgirl who dreams of marrying a rich man. Instead, in an impulsive move, she marries Sgt. Joe Fitzpatrick (Glenn Ford), a penniless Air Force sergeant who wins a $40,000 car. He is assigned to a new post in Spain, and the two lovebirds pack up for Europe. Unfortunately for Joe's libido, Maggie initiates the aforementioned test, and Joe, laughingly at first, agrees to go along with it -- reasoning that it is lonely in Spain without the bull. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Auntie Mame began as a novel by Patrick Dennis (aka Ed Fitzgerald), then was adapted into a long-running Broadway play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. This 1958 film version permits Rosalind Russell to recreate her stage role as Mame Dennis, the flamboyant, devil-may-care aunt of young, impressionable Patrick Dennis. Left in Mame's care when his millionaire father drops dead, young Patrick (Jan Handzlik) is quickly indoctrinated into his aunt's philosophy that "Life is a banquet--and some poor suckers are starving to death." Social-climbing executor Dwight Babcock (Fred Clark) does his best to raise Patrick as a stuffy American aristocrat, but Mame battles Babcock to allow the boy to be as free-spirited as she is. In 1974, Auntie Mame was remade as the filmmusical Mame with Lucille Ball. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a play by Evan Wylie and Jack Ruge, Joe Butterfly also bears the influence of Teahouse of the August Moon. The title character, played by Burgess Meredith, is a wily Japanese wheeler-dealer who offers his services as interpreter to the American GIs occupying postwar Tokyo (where the film was lensed). But Joe's "services" go above and beyond the call of duty, not to mention military protocol. To make certain that the local Army newspaper will continue to meet its deadlines as more and more soldiers march into Japan, Joe sets up the paper's staff in a luxurious private home. Top-billed Audie Murphy plays an army photographer who can't seem to adjust himself to military life, while Kieko Shima portrays Murphy's Japanese sweetheart. While Joe Butterfly is well cast and smartly directed, star Burgess Meredith always felt that the film could have been better had the Universal-International production staff had more faith in the project. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director John Farrow's Back From Eternity is a virtual scene-for-scene remake of Farrow's 1939 film Five Came Back. The earlier film is the better of the two, if only because it is 22 minutes shorter. The plot concerns a small passenger plane that crashlands in South America, square in the heart of headhunter country. Pilot Robert Ryan is able to get the plane back into flying condition; unfortunately he discovers that the plane will only be able to carry five of its eleven passengers to safety. Who will have to be left behind: condemned murderer Rod Steiger, socialite Phyllis Kirk, her weak-willed fiance Gene Barry, copilot Keith Andes, elderly married couple Beulah Bondi and Cameron Prud'homme, songstress Anita Ekberg, foul-tempered cop Fred Clark, soft-hearted crook Jesse White, or tousle-haired kid Jon Provost? Rod Steiger is just fine in the role orginally played by Joseph Calleia, but Ekberg is no match for the original's Lucille Ball. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy is a remake of 1941's The Lady Eve, and tells the story of the vegetarian son of a prominent meat packer who is sailing back from an African safari when he meets and falls in love with a con-artist's lovely daughter. Posing as a military officer, the card-sharp and his boys have come to fleece a few wealthy passengers at poker. The daughter finds the milque-toast son irresistible and much to her father's dismay, they fall in love. Unfortunately their happiness is nearly destroyed when someone tells him the truth about her father. Fortunately, that is not the end of their affair. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Betty Grable's final film was a remake of the 1934 Bing Crosby-Miriam Hopkins musicomedy She Loves Me Not, which in turn was based on a play by Howard Lindsay. Betty and Sheree North star as a couple of striptease "artistes" who have the bad luck to witness a murder. Hoping to evade the killer, the girls hide out in a small college town, where they immediately win the hearts of the male frat brothers. One of these is overaged undergrad Robert Cummings, who falls for Betty, while Sheree settles for not-terribly-bright Orson Bean. A subplot concerns the unending get-rich-quick schemes of college president Charles Coburn. Before the story can be resolved, both Betty and Sheree are placed under hypnosis, with hilarious results. It could not have rested well with Betty Grable that Sheree North stole the show in How to Be Very, Very Popular--especially with her energetic rendition of "Shake, Rattle and Roll"--but Betty was on the verge of retiring anyway, so what the heck? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The best thing that can be said about Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops is that it's better than the team's previous outing Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Set in 1912, the film casts Bud Abbott and Lou Costello as a couple of New Yorkers who are swindled out of their life savings by a crooked lout (Fred Clark). Pursuing the villain to Hollywood, the boys discover that the double-dealer is now posing as an autocratic Russian film director. To put A&C out of the way, the crook and his partner in crime (Lynn Bari) hire the boys as stunt men, intending to kill them off at the first opportunity. But the comic duo save the day when they enlist the aid of the Keystone Kops in capturing the fleeing villain, who has absconded with the studio payroll. Pretty dull stuff for most of its 78 minutes, Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops finally comes to life during the climactic chase, which is every bit as funny and thrilling as anything put together in the silent era. Though the film is rife with anachronisms, a measure of authenticity is achieved by such silent-era guest stars as Mack Sennett (who gets to throw a pie at Costello), Heinie Conklin, Herold Goodwyn and Hank Mann. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1954 Martin-and-Lewis romp Living It Up is an amusing remake of the 1937 comedy classic Nothing Sacred. More specifically, it is the film version of the Broadway musical Hazel Flagg, which was based on Nothing Sacred. The heroine of the original undergoes a sex change to become feckless Homer Flagg (Jerry Lewis), who is led to believe that he's dying of radiation poisoning. Manhattan newspaperwoman Wally Cook (Janet Leigh), hoping to improve circulation of her paper, convinces her boss, Oliver Stone (Fred Clark), to fete Homer as a hero with an all-expenses-paid trip to the Big Apple. Meanwhile, Homer learns from local doctor Steve (Dean Martin) that he isn't dying at all. But Steve talks Homer into taking advantage of the celebrity treatment bestowed on him by Wally, and a good time is had by all -- until medical specialist Dr. Egelhofer (Sig Rumann) insists upon examining Homer. Highlights include a hilarious bit at Yankee Stadium, and an energetic jitterbug number featuring Jerry Lewis and Sheree North. The handful of songs retained from Hazel Flagg include "Every Street's a Boulevard in Old New York." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Martin and Lewis tee each other off on a PGA tour in The Caddy. Harvey Miller (Jerry Lewis) is an expert with his golf club, except when he tries to play in front of a crowd -- then he completely loses control. With his mind set on getting into the PGA one way or another, he latches onto Joe Anthony (Dean Martin), a stylish gadabout. Harvey teaches Joe everything he knows about the game, and when Joe enters a tournament, Harvey does too -- as his caddy. But while the golf fans still make Harvey go wild, laid-back Joe feeds upon their applause. As Joe's game improves, his ego grows, and he begins to think Harvey is useless and wants to take the tour alone. The Caddy introduced the Dean Martin classic That's Amore to the world of kitsch and features a bevy of real life professional golfers in cameo roles -- including Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, and Julius Boros. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide