Joan Chandler Movies
- 1958
Teenager Rick Martin (Gary Clarke) promises his loving mom (Fay Wray) that he won't get into any fights any more-certainly no fights like the one that put him in jail a few months back. But Rick can't seem to stay out of trouble, especially when a bunch of motorcycle punks begin harrassing his drag-racing pals. During a fracas, one of the cyclists is killed, and the cops naturally blame Rick. He has to spend the rest of the film (which, at 68 minutes, isn't a lot of time) proving his innocence. Dragstrip Riot was originally released on a double bill with The Cool and the Crazy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvonne Lime, Gary Clarke, (more)
- 1958
Like many American International films of its era, How to Make a Monster was sold to distributors on the basis of its title alone: only after theatrical play dates had been established did anyone get around to writing a script! Robert H. Harris plays Pete Drummond, who according to the script has been chief makeup man at American-International for 25 years, or approximately 20 years before the studio was actually established. When the studio is sold, Pete is brusquely informed that neither he nor his monster creations -- notably the Teenage Werewolf and Teenage Frankenstein -- will be required any longer, inasmuch as American International is going to concentrate on musicals from now on. Angered and humiliated, Pete takes revenge on the callous studio heads by hypnotizing a couple of actors (Gary Clarke and Gary Conway) into believing that they're genuine monsters. Under Pete's control, the two thespians begin committing murders left and right, wreaking havoc throughout the American International lot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert H. Harris, Gary Conway, (more)
FBI operative Mark Stevens is dispatched by his boss Lloyd Nolan to infiltrate a criminal gang. Stevens ingratiates himself with Richard Widmark, the gang's leader, then helps concoct a robbery that will deliver the criminals into the hands of the authorities. But there's an informant in the police department, who gets word back to Widmark. Aware that there's a stoolie in his gang, Widmark automatically assumes that his wife Barbara Lawrence is the guilty party, and beats her senseless. Eventually determining that Stevens is the "mole," Widmark methodically plans to kill Stevens during a holdup; by this time, however, the FBI is a step or so ahead of him. Remade in 1955 by Samuel Fuller as House of Bamboo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Stevens, Richard Widmark, (more)
Rope, Alfred Hitchcock's first color film, was adapted from Patrick Hamilton's stage play Rope's End by no less than Hume Cronyn. Loosely inspired by the Leopold-Loeb case, the plot concerns two implicitly homosexual college chums, played by Farley Granger and John Dall. Their heads filled with Nietzchean philosophy by their kindly professor James Stewart, Granger and Dall kill a third friend just for the thrill of it. The boys hide the body in an antique chest in the middle of their posh apartment, then perversely arrange to hold a dinner party around the chest, inviting the victim's family, friends and fiancee (Joan Chandler), as well as their intellectual role-model Stewart. As the guests wander obliviously around the sealed chest, the killers make snippy, veiled comments about their deed--never going so far as to reveal the existence of the body nor their involvement in the murder. As all the guests file out, however, professor Stewart begins to suspect that something is amiss. In Rope, Hitchcock attempted the daunting technical challenge of filming the entire picture in one long, seemingly uninterrupted take. Actually, there are several edits in the movie: since a reel of film was divided into two ten-minute minireels back in 1948, the internal reel-breaks are "fudged" by having a dark object briefly obscure the camera lens, sustaining the illusion that no editing has taken place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, John Dall, (more)
Fannie Hurst's novel Humoresque is the lachrymose tale of a famed Jewish-American violinist who forgets all about his friends and family in his rise to fame. Screenwriters Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold refashioned this timeworn material into a first-class, big-budget soap opera, completely dominated by the high-octane talents of Joan Crawford and John Garfield. A gifted musician, Garfield rises from the slums to the upper echelons of society, thanks to the patronage of wealthy, alcoholic Crawford. Virtually ignored by her husband Paul Cavanaugh, Crawford adopts Garfield as her lover as well as her protégé. He is only mildly offended by the setup; she, on the other hand, becomes jealous and possessive. It is not a woman who comes between Crawford and Garfield: it the intensity of his talent, not to mention the spectre of the great composers whose works he interprets so brilliantly. Garfield's virago of a mother (Ruth Nelson) feeds upon Crawford's jealousy, planting the seeds of guilt for (allegedly) holding her son back. The ultrastylish suffering of Joan Crawford and the street-punk insouciance of John Garfield (who looks like a "Dead End Kid" even while wearing a tux) is counterpointed by the phlegmatic comedy relief of Oscar Levant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Crawford, John Abbott, (more)
