Art Smith Movies

The exigencies of the first Hollywood "Red Scare", fomented by the Martin Dies committee, prompted the US Senate Civil Liberties Committee to produce Native Land, a 1942 paean to the Four Freedoms. Narrated by Paul Robeson, the film employs a cast of familiar if not stellar character actors in a story of how certain enemies within the US have done their best to suppress their fellow citizens' rights to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and freedom from want. The villains are the usual run of fat-cat capitalists, bigoted "patriots" and strikebreakers, while the heroes and heroines are farmers, sharecroppers, union leaders, minorities and the like. The screenplay leans towards the dogmatic at times, but the actors are sincere and the rousing musical score by Marc Blitztein (and old hand at this sort of agit-prop entertainment) is first-rate. Not suprisingly, many of the contributors to Native Land--Art Smith, Howard Da Silva et. al.-ended up being blacklisted during the Communist "Witch Hunt" of the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Olivia De Havilland hadn't wanted to star in RKO's Government Girl, but was forced to do so by her home studio Warner Bros. Perhaps in retaliation, De Havilland delivers a strident, overbaked performance, which serves only to make this so-so wartime comedy something of an endurance test for modern viewers. The actress plays "Smokey", the Washington DC-based secretary of Detroit automobile expert Browne (Sonny Tufts, who's actually pretty good in this one!) Aware that Browne is a babe in the woods so far as Washington lobbying, politicking and backstabbing are concerned, Smokey takes the poor boy by the hand and shows him the ropes. Despite the derivative nature of Adela Rogers St. John's screenplay-the film seems like a hybrid of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and The More the Merrier--Government Girl was an enormous hit, posting a profit of $700,000. The film represents the film directorial debut of producer-screenwriter Dudley Nichols. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a crippled German veteran of WW I attempts to reconcile his recent experiences with his former ideologies in this drama. After the war he goes back to his hometown on the German-Polish border to his old teaching job. Time passes and he becomes increasingly cynical and bitter; he then finds himself increasingly drawn to dark, oppressive ideologies that cause his fiancee to abandon him. He then rapes a female student and finds himself thrown out of his village. It is not long before he joins the Nazi party where he quickly rises in the ranks. By the time he returns to his village, he has become a terrifying Nazi commandant. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Cary Grant delivered Oscar-calibre performances all his life, but only when he played against type in None But the Lonely Heart did the Academy Awards people break down and give him a nomination. Grant plays a restless, irresponsible cockney who seeks a better life but doesn't seem to have the emotional wherewithal to work for such a life. The hero's shiftlessness extends to his love life; musician Jane Wyatt genuinely cares for him, but he prefers the company of fickle gangster's ex-wife June Duprez. June's former husband George Coulouris convinces Grant that the quickest means to wealth is a life of crime, but Grant drops this aspect of his life to take care of his terminally ill mother Ethel Barrymore. While Cary Grant did not win the Oscar he so richly deserved for None But the Lonely Heart, Ethel Barrymore did cop the gold statuette. Written and directed by Clifford Odets, None But the Lonely Heart unfortunately lost money for RKO, which could have used a little extra cash after paying the expenses of temporarily closing Ms. Barrymore's Broadway play The Corn is Green. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two years before attaining superstardom in The Jolson Story, Larry Parks essayed the leading role the Columbia wartime meller The Black Parachute. Parks is cast as American paratrooper Michael Lindley, who drops behind enemy lines under cover of night to rescue the deposed king (Jonathan Hale) of a mythical Balkan nation. Disguising himself as a slain Naxi colonel, Lindley shows up at the German occupational headquarters, where he manages to fool the Heydrich-like General Von Rodenbach (John Carradine). The women in the case are German spy Marya Orloff (Osa Massen) and beautiful resistance fighter Olga (Jeanne Bates). Black Parachute was unconvincing even in 1944, but director Lew Landers kept things moving so quickly that no one had time to dwell upon the film's logic gaps. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Burt Lancaster had one of his first starring roles in this hard-hitting prison drama. Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is a cruel, corrupt prison guard who has his own less-than-ethical ways of dealing with inmates, enough so that Joe Collins (Lancaster) -- the toughest inmate in the cell block -- has decided to break out. Collins tries to persuade Gallagher (Charles Bickford), the unofficial leader of the inmates and editor of the prison newspaper, to join him, but Gallagher thinks Collins' plan won't work. However, Collins does have the support of his cellmates, most of whom, like himself, wandered into a life of crime thanks to love and good intentions. Tom Lister (Whit Bissell) was an accountant who altered the books so he could buy his wife a mink coat. Soldier (Howard Duff) fell in love with an Italian girl during World War II and took the rap for her when she murdered her father. Collins pulled a bank job to raise money to pay for an operation that could possibly get his girl out of a wheelchair. And Spencer (John Hoyt) made the mistake of getting involved with a female con artist. After Munsey drives Tom to suicide and prevents Gallagher from obtaining parole, Gallagher joins up with Collins and his men in the escape attempt. Director Jules Dassin would next direct the influential noir drama The Naked City; six years later, he would move to Europe after political blacklisting prevented him from continuing to work in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Ronald Colman won an Academy Award for his portrayal of an off-the-beam actor in A Double Life. A beloved stage star, Anthony John (Colman), has problems with his private life due to his unpredictable outbursts of temper. This trait has already cost him his wife, Brita (Signe Hasso), and threatens to sabotage his career. Nonetheless, Anthony makes his peace with Brita, and the two actors star in a new Broadway staging of Othello. The play is a hit, running over 300 performances, but the pressures of portraying a man moved to murder by jealousy takes its toll on Anthony. In a fit of delirium, he strangles his casual mistress, Pat (Shelley Winters), but retains no memory of the awful crime. Press agent Bill Friend (Edmond O'Brien), unaware that Anthony is the killer, uses Pat's murder as publicity for Othello. Anthony becomes enraged at this cheap ploy, and attacks Friend. At this point, Anthony realizes that he has been living "a double life" and is in fact Pat's murderer. A Double Life was written for the screen by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, who occasionally digress from the melodramatic plotline to include a few backstage inside jokes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Montgomery directed and starred in this exotic film noir set during a New Mexico fiesta. Montgomery plays a secretive ex-GI who plans to extort money from a prominent gangster (Fred Clark) as retribution for the death of Montgomery's best friend. An FBI man (Art Smith) would like the government to get the incriminating information on the gangster that Montgomery is carrying. Trailed by the FBI agent, Montgomery takes refuge at an old carousel, where he meets a Mexican gamin (Wanda Hendrix) who refuses to leave his side. The girl is on hand when the gangster catches up with Montgomery and has him beaten. She nurses Montgomery back to health, but the would-be blackmailer is determined to confront the gangster again. This time, however, the FBI agent comes to the rescue. Ride the Pink Horse is a properly moody melodrama, containing one of the few truly good performances from eternal ingenue Wanda Hendrix. The film was remade for TV in 1964 as The Hanged Man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Perhaps the finest American film from the famed European director Max Ophüls, the film stars Joan Fontaine as a young woman who falls in love with a concert pianist. Set in Vienna in 1900, the story is told in a complex flashback structure as the pianist, Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan), comes upon a letter written to him by Lisa Berndl (Fontaine), a girl who has been in love with him for years. Stefan is in the process of fleeing Vienna on the eve of fighting a duel. As he prepares himself for the nocturnal journey, the letter arrives. It begins, "By the time you read this letter, I may be dead." As Stefan sits back in his study to read this letter, it turns out to be a confession of unrequited love from Lisa. The story flashes backs to when Lisa was 14 years old and Stefan was her neighbor. After following Stefan with a girlish obsession, the romance gets much more serious, and they have a brief encounter. Stefan promises to come back to her after a concert tour, but he never does. Meanwhile, Lisa marries another man when she discovers that she is pregnant with Stefan's child. When she runs into Stefan years later, he doesn't remember her and tries to seduce her. After Stefan reads the letter, he wants to rush to her side, but now poor Lisa is dying from typhus. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Arch of Triumph is a complicated war romance directed by Lewis Milestone. Dr. Ravic (Charles Boyer) is a refugee physician practicing medicine illegally in Paris under a false name. He saves Joan Madou (Ingrid Bergman) from committing suicide after the sudden death of her lover. He gets her a job singing at the nightclub where his only friend, Boris Morosov (Louis Calhern), is the doorman. Joan falls in love with Ravic, but he is deported and she finds herself the mistress of wealthy Alex (Stephan Bekassy). Meanwhile, Ravic seeks revenge against a Nazi officer (Charles Laughton) and war is declared between France and Germany. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

George Seaton's 1948 comedy Chicken Every Sunday was based on the play by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein as well as the original memoirs of Rosemary Taylor. Set during the turn of the century on the American frontier, Emily Heffernan (eleste Holm) is the practical wife of foolish would-be businessman Jim Heffernan (Dan Dailey). While Emily struggles to keep the household together by renting out rooms to boarders, Jim wastes the family's earnings on get-rich-quick schemes. Told in flashback, Emily recalls her 20-year marriage before filing for divorce. Emily has had enough and wants to leave, but their friends try to get them back together. Also starring Colleen Townsend, Alan Young, and a ten-year-old Natalie Wood. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Taken (as far as possible) from the Cole Porter musical comedy of the same name, Red, Hot and Blue stars Betty Hutton as an ambitious chorus girl. Hutton gets a job with a musical comedy bankrolled by gangsters, and is the wrong girl at the wrong place when one of the show's backers (William Talman) is bumped off. She is arrested for suspicion of murder, then is kidnapped by the villains to keep her from spilling the beans. The plot requires that she be rescued by hero Victor Mature, though many disgruntled audience members may have been rooting for the boisterous Hutton to be dumped in the East River. The stage version of Red Hot and Blue starred Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, and Bob Hope. Hutton is no Merman, but she gives her all to the brassy production numbers and the self-absorbed ballads--written not by Cole Porter, whose score was dispensed with, but by Paramount's in-house tunesmith Frank Loesser, who also plays a small role as one of the gangsters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide