Virgil Vogel Movies
Virgil Vogel enjoyed a half-century-long career in the movie industry, starting out in the editing department at Universal as an assistant in his early twenties and eventually becoming a successful director. Vogel's early credits as an editor include Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, the Frank Sinatra vehicle Meet Danny Wilson, and the Tony Curtis costumer Son of Ali Baba. By the second half of the decade, he was working on such top studio releases as This Island Earth and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (the editing of which became a major source of contention between Welles and the studio). In 1956, tired of editing, he earned his directorial debut on the sci-fi horror film The Mole People (1956), a silly but extremely popular and profitable release, and he also closed out the Ma and Pa Kettle series with The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm (1957), having edited the preceding movie in the series. Over the next few years, he handled the direction on such modest (if popular) programmers as The Land Unknown and Invasion of the Animal People (a Swedish-made science fiction film that had many hauntingly eerie and beautiful sequences), while also working increasingly in television, principally for Universal's Revue TV division, on series such as Mike Hammer, Overland Trail, and Wagon Train, and later on series such as Bonanza, Burke's Law, Honey West, Dan August, and The Streets of San Francisco. His 1970s credits included many detective and action series, among them Cannon, Police Story, and Joe Forrester, as well as the occasional science fiction-oriented show such as The Six Million Dollar Man and The Man From Atlantis. Vogel's career in the 1980s brought him to such series as Knight Rider, Magnum P.I., and Miami Vice, while in the 1990s he worked on Walker, Texas Ranger, among other series. Vogel retired in the mid-'90s and passed away in 1996. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1950
The trendy elegance of director Douglas Sirk's later big-budget soap operas is nowhere to be found in Sirk's Atomic-Age melodrama Mystery Submarine. MacDonald Carey stars as Brett Young, a U.S. undercover agent whose job it is to prevent atomic secrets from falling into the wrong hands. Marta Toren co-stars as Madeline Brenner, a woman of mystery who is seemingly in cahoots with enemy agents. The film's "maguffin" consists of the top-secret info stored within the brain cells of scientist Adolph Guernitz (Ludwig Donath). The titular mystery submarine figures into the film's climax, which takes place just off the coast of Mexico. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- MacDonald Carey, Märta Torén, (more)
- 1950
Richard Conte plays a big-city racketeer whose luck runs out on him. He is sent to a Southern prison, but vows to be out and about before long. Applying a little psychology and a lot of cynicism, Conte manages to pull off his escape by firing only one shot. He wheedles his way into becoming a prison trustee, then earns a parole by shooting down an "escaping" convict. Under the Gun is a lively second-feature meller, with Richard Conte exuding his patented cold-blooded charm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Conte, Audrey Totter, (more)
- 1951
Mona Freeman plays Bonnie Lee, who is--surprise!--not the Lady from Texas in this well-constructed Universal western. A lowly kitchen helper at a large ranch, Bonnie seeks the aid of self-styled do-gooder Dan Mason (Howard Duff). It seems that Bonnie's elderly friend Miss Birdie (Josephine Hull) is in danger of being victimized by villains Cyril and Mabel Guthrie (Craig Stevens, Barbara Knudson). Mason is reluctant to help out until he gets to know Miss Birdie, a feisty Civil War widow who refuses to believe that her husband has been dead these 20 years. Guthrie tries to have Miss Birdie declared incompetent so that he can claim her land, but Mason isn't about to let that happen. Thus it is that Josephine Hull, fresh from her Oscar win for Harvey, is the titular Lady From Texas, even though she's contractually consigned to third billing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Howard Duff, Mona Freeman, (more)
- 1951
The best of Universal-International's followups to Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man casts Bud and Lou as mail-order private eyes. The boys champion the cause of boxer Arthur Franz, who has been framed for murder. Utilizing the formula created by Claude Rains in the original Invisible Man (1933), Franz vanishes before Dr. Gavin Muir's astonished eyes. Cloaked by invisibility, Franz talks Bud and Lou into helping him nab the real murderer, gangster Sheldon Leonard. A string of uproarious gags and comic setpieces is highlighted by a boxing-ring finale, wherein Lou, backed up by the invisible Franz, dukes it out with a behemoth prizefighter. A clever special-effects closing gag caps this delightful A&C vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, (more)
- 1951
Economically utilizing the Universal Studio itself as a "set," Hollywood Story is a murder mystery centered in the film capital. The story concerns a long-unsolved homicide case involving several silent-film stars (an echo of the William Desmond Taylor scandal of 1922). Producer Richard Conte decides to make a movie based on the case, and to this end rounds up its surviving participants, including a once-great star/director (Henry Hull) reduced to bit parts. The denouement holds no surprises for mystery fans, but is effectively staged by director William Castle. Hollywood Story is given the aura of verisimilitude by the presence of several silent-movie celebrities (including William Farnum and Francis X. Bushman) as "themselves." Also appearing in an unheralded bit part is Elmo Lincoln, moviedom's first "Tarzan." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Conte, Julie Adams, (more)
- 1951
Columbia and Universal were the leading purveyors of well-crafted "little" pictures in the 1950s. It was Universal who put together Reunion in Reno, which opens with little Maggie (Gigi Perreau) walking into the offices of divorce-attorney Norman (Mark Stevens), demanding a divorce from her parents! It seems that Maggie is an adoptee, who fears that she'll be left in the lurch when mom (Frances Dee) and dad (Leif Erickson) become natural parents, which will happen very soon. As Norman strives to solve his youthful "client"'s problems, problems, he decides at long last to wed his own fiancee Laura (Peggy Dow) -- though if ever there was a strong argument against marriage and parenthood, it is the precocious Maggie. Elements of Reunion in Reno were later reworked into the 1984 comedy Irreconcilable Differences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Stevens, Peggy Dow, (more)
- 1952
Reportedly, there was no love lost between the three stars of Untamed Frontier, and perhaps it was this tension that added so much depth to this otherwise formula-bound western. Joseph Cotten plays Kirk Denbow, the straight-laced son of ruthless cattle-baron Matt Denbow (Minor Watson), while Scott Brady co-stars as Glen Denbow, Kirk's firebrand brother (shades of Duel in the Sun, which also starred Cotten). Waitress Jane Stevens (Shelley Winters) witnesses a murder committed by Glen, then is railroaded into marrying him to prevent her from testifying in court. Inevitably, Jane falls in love with Kirk, the first of several fateful steps which lead to the film's bloody denouement. The late Suzan Ball, whose screen career was so tragically brief, makes her movie debut in Untamed Frontier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten, Shelley Winters, (more)
- 1952
Blue-collar gal Henrietta Smith (Anne Sheridan) is mistaken for a woman of wealth by plumber Fred Newcombe (John Lund). Henrietta goes along with Fred's error when the opportunity presents itself to bring in much-needed revenue for herself and her inebriate father (Cecil Kellaway). The comic situations pile up thick and fast, culminating in an imagined romantic quadrangle involving Henrietta, Fred, banker Walter Medford (Robert Keith) and Medford's dizzy wife Gertrude (Natalie Schafer). One would have thought that Anne Sheridan had outgrown this sort of nonsense back in the 1940s, but she gamely attacks the material as though everything in the storyline is happening for the first time. The expert lineup of supporting laughmakers includes Harvey Lembeck, Alan Mowbray and Burt Mustin (playing old men even back then!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Sheridan, John Lund, (more)
- 1952
Some observers have suggested that Meet Danny Wilson could just as well have been titled Meet Frank Sinatra. A star vehicle if ever there was one, the film casts Sinatra as Danny, a would-be singer, playing cheap saloons while waiting for the Big Break. Danny and his buddy Mike Ryan (Alex Nicol) find the going rough until they're befriended by nightclub chirp Joy Carroll (Shelley Winters), who gets them a job in a nightspot run by crooked Nick Driscoll (Raymond Burr). Danny scores a hit, whereupon Driscoll demands 50% of his salary in perpetuity, leading to a violent climactic confrontation. Meanwhile, Danny romantically pursues Joy, who seems more interested in Mike. Meet Danny Wilson proves beyond doubt that Frank Sinatra was capable of delivering a solid dramatic performance long before his "breakthrough" role in From Here to Eternity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Shelley Winters, (more)
- 1952
Fans of Loretta Young were rather taken aback by the early scenes of Because of You, wherein Young is seen as brash, uninhibited bleach-blonde Christine Carroll. On the verge of marrying gangster Mike Monroe (Alex Nicol), Christine is arrested by the cops, and sent to prison on the strength of incriminating evidence slipped into her purse by the duplicitous Monroe. Through the kindness of prison psychiatrist Dr. Breen (Alexander Scourby), Christine turns her life around in prison, becoming a nurse's aid in the infirmary. Upon her release, Christine gets a job at a respectable hospital, where she falls in love with wounded combat pilot Steve Kimberly (Jeff Chandler). Will she ever be able to reveal her sordid past without sending the emotionally fragile Steve off the deep end? And what about that no-good Mike Monroe? The supporting cast of Because of You includes two of Loretta Young's contemporaries of the 1930s, Frances Dee and Mae Clarke, in strongly defined character roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Jeff Chandler, (more)
- 1952
In this boxing drama, a deaf-mute prizefighter whose career is on the rise falls in love with a gold digging singer who only loves him for his potential earnings. He is also loved by a wholesome journalist who loves him for himself. It is she that helps him get the operation that restores his hearing. Unfortunately, upon finally figuring out that it is she who really loves him, the fighter again loses his hearing during a championship bout. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Jan Sterling, (more)
- 1952
In this swashbuckling adventure-satire, Kashma Baba's famous father Ali, sends the reluctant youth to military school to prepare him for the troubles ahead. Meanwhile, an evil Caliph kidnaps and enslaves an Arabian princess as part of his plan to steal Ali Baba's fabulous treasure. He then sends his new "slave' to Kashma's home. The Caliph tells the Shah, to whom the princess is betrothed, that Kashma has stolen her and that he will get her back. While staying with Kashma, the princess finds herself falling in love. When Kashma learns of the plot he and his buddies pick up their swords and begin trying to save her and retrieve his father's stolen treasure. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, (more)
- 1953
Director Budd Boetticher moves out of his traditional western surroundings for the Technicolor programmer East of Sumatra. Jeff Chandler stars as an American miner, who journeys east of Sumatra in search of tin ore. He runs afoul of Anthony Quinn, a local despot who rules the Pacific island which Chandler hopes to mine. This being a Boetticher film, there's a lot of "faking out" from both hero and villain, as each man takes full measure of the other before making any sudden, violent moves. The climactic native uprising, is well worth the wait, even though everyone in the audience is fully aware who will come out on top. East of Sumatra was based on a novel by Louis L'Amour, a western specialist who like Budd Boetticher proved quite capable of working outside his own particular genre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Chandler, Marilyn Maxwell, (more)
- 1953
Rock Hudson stars in Seminole as 19th-century army officer Lance Caldwell. Born and raised in Florida, Caldwell is assigned to Fort King in the Everglades. Immediately clashing with his commanding officer Major Dade (Richard Carlson), Caldwell opposes Dade's plans to wipe out the Seminole Indians. The fact that Caldwell was the boyhood chum of Seminole chief Osceola (Anthony Quinn) is all the more reason to resist Dade's genocidal policies. After a deadly confrontation which costs dozens of lives on both sides, Osceola rescues Caldwell, whereupon the latter is court-martialed. Later on, Osceola comes to Fort King to talk peace, and is promptly killed by persons unknown. An attempt is made to frame Caldwell for the killing, but the truth eventually prevails. In the tradition of Broken Arrow, Seminole is essentially sympathetic to the Indian's point of view. Co-starring in the film are Barbara Hale as the requisite heroine and Lee Marvin as a surly sergeant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Barbara Hale, (more)
- 1953
The Man From the Alamo manages to pack a few nuances and surprises in its traditional western plotline. During the siege at the Alamo, John Stroud (Glenn Ford) is chosen by lot to leave the fort and warn the families of the mission's defenders of the impending arrival of General Santa Ana. But when everyone around him is wiped out by the Mexicans, Stroud has no proof that he was ordered to leave his post, and is therefore branded a coward. He spends the rest of the film performing acts of conspicuous bravery to clear his name--and also tracks down the film's real villain, Jess Wade (Victor Jory), who robbed the Alamo victims of their possessions after the smoke cleared. Julie Adams, Chill Wills, Hugh O'Brien, Neville Brand, Arthur Space and future soap-opera star Jeanne Cooper round out the cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Julie Adams, (more)
- 1953
Audie Murphy plays wagon train scout Jim Harvey in Universal-International's Tumbleweed. Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, Harvey is wrongly accused of saving himself while allowing the people under his protection to be slaughtered by Indians. With the help of sheriff Murchoree (Chill Wills) and his Native American friend Tigre (Ernesto Iglesias), Harvey breaks out of jail to prove his innocence. Figuring largely in the proceedings are horse-rancher Nick Buckley (Roy Roberts) and his wife Louella Buckley (K.T. Stevens), who provide Harvey with a "loser" horse that turns out to be a winner when the hero needs it most. The revelation of the film's true villain should be amusing for fans of TV's Gilligan's Island. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audie Murphy, Lori Nelson, (more)
- 1954
Audie Murphy is at his taciturn best in the Universal western Drums Along the River. Murphy is cast as Gary Brannon, a peaceful homesteader living a quiet existence with his father Sam (Walter Brennan). No-account Frank Walker (Lyle Bettger), hoping to open up the Ute Indian territory for gold-mining purposes, tries to foment a war between the Utes and the local whites. As an added filip, he steals a gold shipment and pins the blame on Brannon. Now a fugitive from justice, Brannon joins Walker's gang, much to his father's dismay. Actually, it's all part of a plan to expose Walker's perfidy and prevent Ute hostilities, but no one knows this until Brannon wants them to. Jay Silverheels, best known as Tonto on TV's Lone Ranger, co-stars as Ute warrior Taos. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audie Murphy, Walter Brennan, (more)
- 1954
Tony Curtis makes his musical-comedy debut in the frolicsome Universal production So This is Paris. Curtis, Gene Nelson and Paul Gilbert play three American sailors on leave in the City of Light. In record time, the trio makes the acquaintance of three lovely lasses: Gloria de Haven, Corinne Calvert and Mara Corday. Before the boys' 24 hours are up, they are inveigled into staging a benefit show for a group of tousle-haired war orphans. The whole thing resembles a Gallic variation of MGM's On the Town, except that the songs aren't quite as memorable. So This is Paris was directed by Richard Quine in much the same manner as his previous musical confections for Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Gloria de Haven, (more)
- 1954
Shelley Winters was still in the sex-symbol phase of her career when she headed the cast of Universal's Playgirl. Ms. Winters plays Fran, a nightclub vocalist whose main squeeze is married publisher Mike Marsh (Barry Sullivan). When Mike makes a play for new employee Phyllis Matthews (Colleen Miller), the jealous Fran shoots him down. The ensuing scandal ruins Phyllis' reputation, whereupon she, and not Fran, becomes the libertine $100-dollar-a-night playgirl of the title. When Phyllis' life is endangered by gangsters, Fran unexpectedly comes to her rescue. Though dealing with a censorable subject, Playgirl manages to stay within the bounds of good taste, for better or worse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Winters, Barry Sullivan, (more)
- 1954
Yankee Pasha has the potential for silliness, but is commendably played straight by most of the participants (exceptions being such professional funsters as Hal March and Benny Rubin). Jeff Chandler plays American frontiersman Jason, who springs into action when his sweetheart Roxanna (Rhonda Fleming) is kidnapped by Barbary Pirates. Pursuing the villains all the way to Morocco, Jason gains the confidence of sultan Lee J. Cobb, who helps our hero thwart the megalomanic machinations of Omar-Id-Din (Bart Roberts). Mamie Van Doren is better than usual as a pampered harem girl who develops a crush on the stalwart Jason. Just as Universal's 1953 release Abbott and Costello Goes to Mars was an excuse to show of the charms of that year's crop of Miss Universe contests, so to does Yankee Pasha devote plenty of screen time to the pulchritudinous finalists of the 1954 Miss Universe pageant, including such now-forgotten lovelies as Christiane Martel, Kinuko Ito and Maxine Morgan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Chandler, Rhonda Fleming, (more)
For reasons that defy logic, the excellent This Island Earth was held up for ridicule as an allegedly bad movie in the film version of TV's Mystery Science Theater. If not the best science-fiction film of the 1950s, Earth is certainly one of the most intelligent and elaborate. The story begins when the image of Exeter (Jeff Morrow), a huge-domed scientific genius from the planet Metaluna, appears on an experimental 3D television screen. Exeter invites several noted scientists from around the world to work on a top-secret project at Exeter's earthly mansion. Among those accepting the invitation are Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) and his ex-fiancee Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue). Soon, Cal and Ruth learn Exeter's true motives; to use the Earth's atomic knowhow in building a defense shield to protect Metaluna against the enemy planet Zahgon. Eventually, Exeter boards his high-tech flying saucer and whisks Cal and Ruth off to his dying planet, where, among other perils, they are menaced by a hideous mutant. Based on a novel by Raymond F. Jones, This Island Earth is one of those rare 1950s speculative films that holds up as well today as it did when first released, despite the comparative quaintness of the special effects and high-tech paraphernalia. Incidentally, the climactic Metalunan scenes were directed by Universal's resident sci-fi specialist, Jack Arnold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, (more)
- 1955
In this deceptively titled and paced Western, Kirk Douglas shines in the hyper-macho role of Dempsey Rae, a good-natured drifter with a mysterious past up from Texas, a top hand with a gun, a horse, or a herd, who can even play the banjo and sing. He rides into a Wyoming town in a freight car, in the company of much younger drifter Jeff Jimson (William Campbell), who knows even less about the West than he does about life. Dempsey gets Jeff out of a few scrapes with the law, and both get hired by the foreman (Jay C. Flippen) of the Triangle Ranch. With 8,000 head, the Triangle is already the largest spread in the territory, but the new owner from back east, Miss Reed Bowman (Jeanne Crain), arrives with plans to move in another 22,000 head onto the open range, threatening to squeeze out the smaller ranches completely. Meanwhile, the other ranchers plan on saving some of the grass for winter feed and fence it off with barbed wire. When Bowman discovers that she can't hold onto Dempsey as either a man or a foreman, she seduces Jeff -- who's too quick to become a man -- to run interference on him, and hires a crew of gunmen led by Steve Miles (Richard Boone) to tear down the wire. A range war is about to break out, and Dempsey, who wants no part of barbed wire and carries the scars to show why, plans on pulling out. But then Miles and his men overplay their hand, and Dempsey throws in with the smaller ranchers. The body count suddenly starts going against Miles, who digs in for a final fight, and now it's Jeff and Bowman who find themselves caught between two unstoppable forces that they've helped unleash. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Crain, (more)
- 1955
The title tells all in this seventh entry in Universal's "Ma and Pa Kettle" series. This time around, Ma (Marjorie Main) and Pa (Percy Kilbride) take their brood to Hawaii, where Pa is to take over management of his cousin's fruit processing operation. The villains are a group of rival businessmen who kidnap Pa and spirit him off to a remote island. Before long, however, it's the bad guys who need rescuing. Some of the funnier scenes involve Ma and Pa's Hawaiian counterparts, played by Hilo Hattie and Charley Lung. With this entry, Percy Kilbride bade adieu to the role of Pa Kettle, leaving Marjorie Main to carry on alone in the remaining two series installments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, (more)
- 1956
The Mole People holds the dubious distinction of being the weakest of the Universal-International horror films. John Agar plays Dr. John Bentley, who leads a Middle Eastern expedition in search of a lost tribe of Sumerians. Bentley and his cohorts follow a tunnel deep, deep, deep below the surface of the earth, eventually coming across a tyrannical tribe of albino Sumerians, who use the semi-human Mole People as slaves. What follows is so dull and plodding that stars John Agar and Hugh Beaumont seem like Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger in comparison. Some prints of The Mole People are minus the pre-credits "explanation" by 1950s celebrity egghead Dr. Frank Baxter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, (more)
- 1957
The 8-year-old "Ma and Pa Kettle Series" came to an end with The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm. In her last screen appearance, Marjorie Main is back as Ma Kettle, while Parker Fennelly replaces the defecting Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle. This time, Ma and Pa try to smooth the path of romance for newlyweds Sally Flemming (Gloria Talbot) and Brad Johnson (John Smith). Despite her wealthy parents' objections, Sally intends to "rough it" with her back-to-the-soil husband by living on the Kettles' old, ramshackle farm. Ensuing comic complications include a set-to with a bunch of crooked loggers and a wild appearance at a rodeo. A worthwhile finale to this durable series, The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm was still making the second-run-theater rounds as late as 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Main, Parker Fennelly, (more)
