Ralph Bellamy Movies

Ace of Aces was based on Bird of Prey by John Monk Saunders, an acknowledged master of aviation epics. Richard Dix stars as Rex Thorne, a pacifistic sculptor who registers as a conscientious objector when WWI breaks out. Thorne's unwillingness to fight in a war he believes to be unnecessary is misread as cowardice by his socialite sweetheart Nancy Adams (Elizabeth Allen). In "four feathers" fashion, Thorne signs up with the air corps to prove his courage. Before long, he has established a reputation as a reckless, ruthless flying ace, with little concern for anyone's safety, including his own. This fails to satisfy Nancy -- now also serving her country as a Red Cross nurse -- who feels that Thorne has become too bloodthirsty for his own good (What does this woman want?) The supporting cast includes radio singer Art Jarrett and James Cagney's look-alike brother Bill. Some of the aerial scenes in Ace of Aces were "borrowed" from Howard Hughes's Hell's Angels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Affectionately Yours offers the spectacle of glamorous Merle Oberon and gorgeous Rita Hayworth jockeying for the best camera positions, virtually pushing male leads Dennis Morgan and Ralph Bellamy right off the screen! Here's the deal: Neglected wife Sue Marberry (Oberon) obtains a quickie Nevada divorce from her globetrotting war-correspondent husband Rick (Morgan). Still in love with Sue, Rick rushes home to win her back, but by now she has found solace in the arms of her new fiancee Owen Wright (Bellamy). To arouse Sue's jealousy, Rick pretends to carry on an affair with female journalist Irene Malcolm (Hayworth), a scheme that backfires when Irene decides she wants Rick for keeps. Of interest is the supporting-cast presence of Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen, two years away from their domestic duties in Gone with the Wind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The air-mail pilots who fly from a small airport in the Rocky Mountains are determined but not paid well, and there are occasional fatal crashes. It's a tradition of long standing that when this happens, chief pilot Mike Miller (Ralph Bellamy) makes the next flight himself. Daredevil Duke Talbot (Pat O'Brien) is hired; he starts an affair with Irene Wilkins (Lilian Bond), wife of pilot Dizzy (Russell Hopton). A fierce snowstorm rages when Dizzy next takes off. He crashes and is killed, so Mike makes the next flight. He crashes in an inaccessible valley, but survives. Although Duke has now run off with Irene, when he hears about Mike's crash, he decides to fly to the rescue. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

The 1987 portmanteau comedy feature Amazon Women on the Moon lampoons several film genres in general and the 1954 sci-fi cheapie Cat Women of the Moon in particular. Other sketches in Amazon Women include an opening bit with Arsenio Hall; a vignette titled "Son of the Invisible Man" wherein a naked Ed Begley Jr. runs around in full view of the nonplussed supporting cast; the It's Alive parody "Hospital", which offers the spectacle of Michelle Pfeiffer giving birth to Mr. Potato Head; and a Siskel & Ebert takeoff, featuring Arche Hahn as a TV viewer whose entire life is given a "thumbs down." Directed by several hands, including Joe Dante, Carl Gottleib, Peter Horton, John Landis, and Robert K. Weiss, Amazon Women on the Moon also features a satire of the Kroger G. Babb school of "sex hygiene" exploitation cheapies, with syphilis victim Carrie Fisher being counseled by unctuous doctor Paul Bartel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first of Columbia Pictures' "Inspector Trent" whodunits, the inspector (Ralph Bellamy) is called in to investigate the death of Edward Arnold (William Jeffrey). Although the young doctor in charge, David Marsh (Arthur Pierson), maintains that Arnold died of natural causes, a family curse causes Trent to become suspicious. The good inspector becomes even more alarmed when the victim, who has indeed been poisoned, proves to be one John Fry, the real Arnold (Claude Gillingwater) having changed places with an old friend in order to defeat the curse. But who killed Fry? Was it the Japanese houseboy, Kono (Otto Yamaoka)? Or the family attorney (Bradley Page)? Suspicion also centers on Arnold's beautiful ward, Janet (June Collyer); Fry's widow, Mavis (Betty Blythe); and sundry other more or less sinister characters lurking about the family's cavernous Forest Lake estate. Before Midnight was followed by three additional "Inspector Trent" mysteries: One Is Guilty, The Crime of Helen Stanley, and Girl in Danger, all released in 1934 and starring the affable Ralph Bellamy. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

After saving RKO Radio from receivership with King Kong, producer-director Ernest B.. Schoedsack relaxed a bit with the comparatively sedate crime caper Blind Adventure. King Kong co-star Robert Armstrong plays Richard Bruce, an American in London who stumbles into the lair of a kidnap-blackmail gang. Playing his cards close to his vest, Bruce manages to get his hands on the "secret papers" that are so important to everyone in the story. He also wins the heroine, the aptly named Rose Thorne (Helen Mack, Armstrong's vis-a-vis in Son of Kong). Of the supporting players, Roland Young is terrific as a dry-witted burglar. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Once a staple of summer stock and community theatres, Bella and Samuel Spewack's Broadway farce Boy Meets Girl dates rather badly when seen today. The 1938 movie version is also a bit mildewed, though it is saved by the dynamo-like energy of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The stars are cast as Robert Law and J.C. Benson, a pair of iconoclastic Hollywood screenwriters based upon Ben Hecht and Charlie McArthur. Cynically declaring that every film can be boiled down to "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl", Law and Benson drive their studio-executive bosses crazy with their zany irreverence. Their pet target is bigwig C. Elliot Friday (Ralph Bellamy), a delicious take-off of 20th Century-Fox prexy Darryl F. Zanuck. Friday orders the boys to concoct a screenplay for cowboy star Larry Toms (Dick Foran), whose popularity is on the wane. Upon making the acquaintance of pregnant, unmaried waitress Susie (Marie Wilson), Law and Benson hit upon a brilliant scheme: they'll transform Susie's baby into a child star and team the kid with Toms in his latest epic ("based on an original story by William Shakespeare"). Complication piles upon complication, reaching a high point of hilarity when the baby gives Larry Toms the measles. Ronald Reagan appears briefly as a radio announcer covering the Hollywood premiere of Law and Bensen's newest masterpiece. Boy Meets Girl was originally conceived as a Marion Davies vehicle, with the comedy team of Olsen & Johnson playing the screenwriters, but things changed radically (and for the better) when Davies' sponsor William Randolph Hearst huffily pulled his Cosmopolitan Pictures unit off the Warner Bros. lot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title of this Bob Hope vehicle Cancel My Reservation is a multiple pun, referring to elements in the story. The ever-youthful Hope plays Dan Bartlett, a late-night TV talk show host. Frazzled, he takes a much-needed vacation in Arizona. There, he stumbles upon a murder and a conspiracy by local rancher, John Ed (Ralph Bellamy) to defraud a local Native American group of part of its reservation. Dan is a suspect in the murder, and must investigate in order to clear his name. Though the story is rather light, celebrities of all sorts have either small parts or cameos in this film, and much of the film's entertainment value comes from spotting them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Nice Night for a Hanging was the feature-length pilot film for the never-sold TV series Charlie Cobb. Clu Gulager stars as Cobb, a private detective operating in the Old West. Our hero comes to California at the behest of a powerful rancher (Ralph Bellamy), and is hired to locate the rancher's long-lost daughter, who was kidnapped in infancy. Cobb runs into resistance from several unsavory characters who have their eyes on his client's fortune. Produced by Columbo creators Richard Levinson and William Link, Charlie Cobb: Nice Night for a Hanging premiered June 19, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this episode of the series, defense attorney Cromwell thinks that the bizarrely murdered members of an investment club were killed for money. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this action film two Coast Guard pilots fall in love with the same woman. She chooses the more macho of the two, but soon tires of his hyper-masculine behavior. She leaves him. He tries to win her back by showing off in a Navy plane, but ends up crashing and losing his pilot's wings. When his buddy is lost in the Arctic, the wingless pilot begs for the chance to redeem himself and find him. He gets his chance and no one is let down by his heroic efforts. Even his estranged wife returns to him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Condominium is a two-part, four-hour TV adaptation of the novel by John D. McDonald. The setting is a hastily constructed Florida high-rise, assembled at the least possible cost by its greedy owners. An oncoming hurricane threatens to topple the structure and its residents into the ocean. Various degrees of greed, lust, terror and concern are displayed by stars Steve Forrest, Dan Haggerty, Ralph Bellamy, Barbara Eden, Stuart Whitman, Jack Jones and Pamela Hensley. Produced for the syndicated "Operation Prime Time" series, Condominium was first made available to local stations on November 20, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a story by Vicki Baum (of Grand Hotel) fame, Dance, Girl Dance finds innocent young Judy (Maureen O'Hara) journeying to the Big Apple in hopes of gaining fame as a classical dancer. Instead she ends up as the "stooge" for raucous strip-tease artist Bubbles (Lucille Ball), who attempts to perform ballet before leering, catcalling, unappreciative burlesque audiences. Eventually, Judy and Bubbles both fall for playboy Jimmy Harris (Louis Hayward), a rivalry that culminates in a hair-pulling, eye-scratching cat fight. Eventually, Harris's ex-wife (Virginia Field) reels him back in, and Judy is hired by ballet producer and entrepreneur Steve Adams (Ralph Bellamy). In recent years, Dance, Girl, Dance has been canonized as a feminist manifesto, due to the fact that Dorothy Arzner was the director and because of Maureen O'Hara's climactic burlesque-house speech, in which she lambastes the male spectators for their puerile chauvinism. It should be noted, however, that Arzner became director only after Roy Del Ruth pulled out of the project. Uncertain how to promote the film, RKO Radio elected to sneak it into its first-run houses without fanfare, and the result was a $400,000 loss for the studio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide