Charles Chaplin, Jr. Movies
Charles Chaplin, Jr. is the first-born son of legendary screen comedian Sir. Charles Chaplin and his second wife Lita Grey. Young Chaplin appeared in several "B" movies during the 1950s including his father's Limelight (1952); he also occasionally appeared on television and on stage. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi- 1960
Curvaceous Mamie Van Doren plays a super-genius who finds herself in charge of a college science department. Mamie would like to be appreciated for her intellect alone, but her male students (and most of the faculty) are preoccupied by her monumental breasts. The science department is virtually controlled by a huge robot called Thinko, which plays bets on horses. Gangsters Mickey Shaughnessy and Allan Drake try to neutralize Thinko, who's been right once too often. Strongarming their way on campus, the two crooks recognize Mamie as a former striptease artist. Forced to resign, she marries professor Martin Milner, who has loved her pure and chaste from afar. One expects to see such people as Jackie Coogan, John Carradine and Louis Nye in garbage like this-but how did Tuesday Weld get talked into participating? And wait till you see that nightclub number performed by Conway Twitty. Beauty and the Robot played in many markets under the step-right-up-folks title Sex Kittens Go to College. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1959
Set within the popular bohemian coffee houses of the late '50s where beatniks gathered to recite poetry and perform, this sensationalistic detective drama centers upon the attempts of an insensitive police detective to catch an arrogant serial rapist, a rich young man who believes himself mentally superior and therefore beyond the law. His favorite victims are married women. When he learns that the detective is after him, the rapist targets the cop's wife. Later the poor wife discovers she's pregnant and cannot be sure who fathered her child. The film is alternatively titled This Rebel Age. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Steve Cochran, Mamie van Doren, (more)
- 1959
Mickey Rooney plays labor racketeer Little Joe Braun in this fast-paced and surprisingly violent drama about one man's determination to clean up his union. Bill Gibson (Steve Cochran) is Little Joe's nemesis and is one of the men who can testify that he saw the labor boss in an incriminating conversation with a known criminal -- something that Little Joe denied under oath. Knowing that Cochran and one other witness can bring him down, the crooked labor boss starts on a campaign of terror. One of Bill's friends is set on fire, someone else is thrown into a cement mixer (in the opening scenes), and finally, Little Joe kidnaps Bill's son Timmy (Jay North). The odds at this point, seem very much in the labor boss' favor. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Steve Cochran, (more)
- 1959
Scripted in another era, the premise for this interesting though conventional drama defending a partially mixed marriage would not be as convincing a few decades later. Chuck Nelson (John Drew Barrymore) is a wealthy young man who travels South of the border and meets and then marries Ginny (Julie London). His new bride is a wonderful woman until Chuck's socialite mother (Agnes Moorehead) discovers that one of Ginny's grandparents was of African ancestry. The imperious mother-in-law lands the new couple in an embittered court battle as she makes every attempt to annul their marriage. Nat "King" Cole plays Ginny's uncle, and Anna Kashfi is Maria, her cousin. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julie London, John Drew Barrymore, (more)
- 1959
This sexually explicit, low-budget film makes no pretensions about being anything other than offensive. There is no plot since none is especially necessary. Director Charles Haas (his last film was the following year), opens with a scene of sexually active men and women at a party. Then one of these women, Silver Morgan (Mamie Van Doren), is mistakenly accused of a crime and sent to an institution, run by Catholic nuns, for wayward young women. As it turns out, the inmates in the institution actually run it through sadistic means. One of them is even more seriously mentally disturbed than the others, and so the nuns welcome her as a novitiate, making even a non-Catholic viewer grimace. The content of this story, such as it is, is made all the worse by an accompanying disregard of the craft of filmmaking. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mamie van Doren, Mel Tormé, (more)
Producer Albert Zugsmith serves up another all-star exposé with High School Confidential. Delivering a superb performance under the circumstances, Russ Tamblyn heads the cast as "typical" high schooler Tony Baker. Usually seen in the company of his voluptuous "aunt" Gwen Dulaine (the truly impressive Mamie Van Doren), Tony convinces one and all that he's looking for kicks of the controlled-substance kind. In truth, however, our hero is really an undercover narcotics agent named Mike Wilson, bound and determined to smash the operation of drug lord Mr. A. (Jackie Coogan). The once-in-a-lifetime cast includes such worthies as John Drew Barrymore (Drew Barrymore's daddy), Ray Anthony (then married to Mamie Van Doren), Charles Chaplin Jr., Michael Landon, and Jerry Lee Lewis as "himself." This updated Reefer Madness is not to be missed! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jan Sterling, John Drew Barrymore, (more)
- 1955
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In this 1955 Otto Preminger film, Gary Cooper stars as World War I hero Brigadier General Billy Mitchell. The film recounts Mitchell's efforts to prove the viability of a strong air force. The hidebound military higher-ups refuse to finance aviation any further, figuring that the strength of the United States lies in its navy. When a friend is killed by flying a faulty plane, Mitchell charges the War and Navy department with incompetence and criminal negligence. When the brass tries to quietly court-martial Mitchell, they are forced into the open by the strength of public opinion, largely in Mitchell's favor. Subjected to the grilling of prosecutor Alan Guillon (Rod Steiger) during his trial, Mitchell sticks to his guns, even outlining a potential Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor unless the military wises up and strengthens its air power. Elizabeth Montgomery makes her film debut in the role of Margaret Landsdowne. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Charles Bickford, (more)
- 1954
Two of Charlie Chaplin's talented offspring -- Charles Jr. and Sidney -- make a rare joint appearance in the German comedy Columbus Entdeckt Kraehwinkel (Columbus Discovers Kraehwinkel). The Chaplin boys play a couple of American ex-GIs who return to the tiny Teutonic village of Kraehwinkel after the war, there to be reunited with their fraulein sweethearts. They also intend to bring Kraehwinkel into the 20th century by "Americanizing" the place, despite fierce opposition from the tradition-bound locals. Their scheme works so well that one of the boys loses his girlfriend to the town's new pro-USA burgomeister. A film that has apparently long since disappeared, Columbus Entdeckt Kraehwinkel might prove an interesting rediscovery for Chaplin buffs. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eva Kerbler, Charles Chaplin, Jr., (more)
- 1954
Charles Chaplin Jr. makes his film starring debut in the location-filmed meller Fangs of the Wild. It's the old "boy cries wolf" story, featuring a lad named Tad (Freddie Ridgeway) who is inclined to stretch the truth now and then. Thus, when Tad insists that he's witnessed a murder, no one believes him. No one, that is, except the killer (Chaplin), who now realizes that he must put Tad out of the way as well. As indicated by the film's title, Tad's fate is in the paws of his faithful dog Shep (played by Buck, who also "starred" as the bibulous St. Bernard on the Topper TV series). Fangs of the Wild was one of the better efforts to emerge from bargain-basement Lippert Studios. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charles Chaplin, Jr., Onslow Stevens, (more)
