Marie Harmon Movies
The winner of a Chicago Tribune "Perfect Blind Date" contest, blonde Marie Harmon obtained a contract with Universal, who then wasted her in supporting roles in such fare as Hers to Hold (1943) and the All-Girl Ladies Courageous (1944). She was rather better served by Poverty Row company Monogram, for whom she appeared opposite singing cowboy Jimmy Wakeley, and Republic Pictures, who put her under contract in 1946. More B-Westerns followed but Harmon retired in 1951 to marry. She is the mother of actress Cherie Currie and the mother-in-law of actor Robert Hays. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1949
First love leads to unexpected responsibilities and difficult decisions in this well-crafted drama. Sally Kelton (Sally Forrest) is a free-spirited young woman who is chafing at the restrictions of living at home with her folks and wants to make something of herself. One evening after work, she stops for a drink with some friends and meets Steve Ryan (Leo Penn), a charming but cynical piano player. Sally falls for Steve in a big way and they embark on a brief romance, but Steve regards Sally as a passing fancy and soon moves on to another town. While Sally follows him, Steve makes it clear things are over between them and he takes a gig in South America. Heartbroken Sally takes a new job at a filling station and general store run by Drew Baxter (Keefe Brasselle), a war veteran with a bad leg and a serious crush on Sally. Sally is still getting over Steve and isn't interested in Drew when she learns that she's carrying Steve's child. The disgraced Sally decides to give her child up for adoption, but finds her maternal instincts are stronger than she expected and her desire to have her baby back leads her on a desperate and dangerous path. While Streets of Sin (aka Not Wanted) is credited to director Elmer Clifton, most of the picture was actually shot under the aegis of co-producer Ida Lupino after Clifton fell ill during production; it was the actress' first film as a director. In the '60s, Streets of Sin was reissued as The Wrong Rut, with the addition of footage of a Caesarian birth "borrowed" from an educational film, and booked into drive-ins and grindhouses on the exploitation circuit. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle, (more)
Even star Joan Bennett and director Fritz Lang regarded The Secret Beyond the Door as the weakest of their collaborative efforts. Bennett plays spoiled socialite Celia, who falls recklessly in love with the handsome but emotionally complex Mark Lamphere (Michael Redgrave, in his first American film). After their wedding, Celia becomes uncomfortably aware that Mark's mild distrust of women is actually a deep-set, and potentially dangerous, hatred. Even when facing the possibility that she'll be murdered in her sleep, Celia remains loyal to her unbalanced husband. The slowly mounting tension is enhanced by the mood-drenched cinematography of Stanley Cortez and the feverish musical score by Miklos Rozsa. But when it's all over, The Secret Beyond the Door fails to linger in the memory in the manner of such earlier Lang-Bennett efforts as The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Bennett, Michael Redgrave, (more)
- 1948
Roy Rogers plays Roy Rogers, as ever, in Night Time in Nevada. This time Roy is a cattle owner whose stock is stolen by Grant Withers. It is Withers' hope to sell the livestock, thereby covering funds that he's been appropriating from leading lady Adele Mara's trust fund. Roy is able to vanquish the villain during several lightning-paced fight and chase sequences, stage-managed by the always reliable William Witney. Rogers' song interludes include "The Big Rock Candy Mountain," "Sweet Laredo Lou," and the title tune. The comedy content in Night Time in Nevada is in the capable outsized paws of Andy Devine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers, Adele Mara, (more)
- 1946
In this Western, an outlaw tries to escape from a gang of robbers after they refuse to assist a gang member wounded during a stagecoach caper. He and the wounded outlaw leave and try to steal a stagecoach as their ex-gang robs it. The sheriff's daughter observes the incident. Believing that the two outlaws were trying to save the stage, she takes them into town where the "heroes" are given jobs working for the stage. The wounded crook really does want to go straight, but his partner is only interested in waiting for the perfect caper so he can retire in style. As he is guarding an office, his old gang busts in. Soon the truth about his past is revealed. For revenge he shows the posse the location of the robbers' hideout. He then captures the leader, which results in a pardon for he and his partner. The protagonist then marries the sheriff's daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sunset Carson, Marie Harmon, (more)
- 1946
In this comedy, a puritanical math teacher at a midwestern university is forced by the dean's wife to go to New York to collect the royalties for a naughty romance the latter wrote under a penname. Unfortunately, while there, the professor suffers a blow to the noodle and wakes up believing that she wrote the torrid little tome. Now she finds herself being manipulated by a clever publisher who has the phony writer become passionately involved with a bogus Russian nobleman. Later the woman's memory returns and she goes back to her dull, well-ordered life on campus. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Davis, Jack Oakie, (more)
- 1946
Crooked newspaper columnist Jeff Mann (James Cardwell), who apparently was blackmailing half the criminal gangs in the city, is murdered in his own office, and a police officer is killed the same night in the alley outside the newspaper's building -- and the prime suspect is the Shadow, the mysterious masked adventurer with the ability to cloud men's minds so they can't see him. The Shadow is, in reality, millionaire playboy and dilettante criminologist Lamont Cranston (Kane Richmond), who is about to get married to Margo Lane (Barbara Read); he's vowed to give up being the Shadow, but now he has to investigate this case to clear himself, much to Margo's dismay. Police Inspector Cardona (Joseph Crehan) wants to prove the Shadow committed the murders, and Mann's editor Brad Thomas (Robert Shayne) is calling for the Shadow's blood in his newspaper's editorial pages. This leaves Cranston with his hands full, especially after Margo -- anxious to get him to the altar -- tries to solve the case herself, at one point even masquerading as the Shadow. Between keeping her out of his way and staying ahead of the real culprit, the police, and the gangs that Mann was blackmailing, Cranston and his valet Shrevie (George Chandler) just about get themselves killed a couple of times, amid a string of comedic and mysterious twists that lead right back to the murder scene for the identity of the killer. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kane Richmond, George Chandler, (more)
- 1946
A would-be nightclub entertainer finds her life jeopardized after she inadvertently witnesses a gangland murder while heading for an audition. Fortunately, a brave photographer is there to save her and this crime drama ends on a happy note. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1946
In this crime drama, a sorority girl is photographed hanging around with known criminals in illicit gambling dens. The resulting pictures are then used to blackmail her father, a district attorney. Later, the crooks try to make the girl believe that she ran over and killed someone with her car. Fortunately, her father helps her prove that the charges are false. Together they help capture the real crooks and justice is served. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1946
Larceny in Her Heart was the second entry in PRC's revival of the "Michael Shayne" series, with Hugh Beaumont as Brett Halliday's two-fisted sleuth. It all starts when Shayne agrees to track down the stepdaughter (Marie Harmon) of a local bigwig. But when his client's corpse turns up at his doorstep, our hero finds himself reluctantly involved in yet another murder mystery. Along the way, he must fend off femme fatale Phyllis (Cheryl Walker), who may or may not be intimately involved in the killing. He also endures a chilling episode at an alcoholic ward that's straight out of The Lost Weekend, by way of Murder My Sweet. It says in the credits that Larceny in Her Heart is based on a novel by Brett Halliday, though liberties were obviously taken. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Beaumont, Cheryl Walker, (more)
- 1945
In this romantic comedy, three man-hungry sisters consult a fortune-teller to help them with their romantic futures. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1944
Universal's yearly quota of cheap, 60-minute musicals occasionally yielded such likeable diversions as South of Dixie. David Bruce stars as Danny, a popular composer of southern ballads. Striking while the iron is hot, Danny's partner Brains (Jerome Cowan) promotes a filmed biography of the southern-fried songsmith. Trouble is, Danny is a fraud-he was born in the North, with nary a relative below the Mason-Dixon line to his name. Anxiously, Brains "invents" a southern lineage for Danny, going so far as to hire a voice tutor named Dixie (Anne Gwynne) and to cook up a romance between the hero and the daughter (Ella Mae Morse) of Southern colonel Morgan (Samuel S. Hinds). Inevitably, South of Dixie features several black performers in stereotypical roles, including Louise Beavers and Mantan Moreland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Gwynne, David Bruce, (more)
- 1944
Reckless Age is a by-the-numbers Universal musical, elevated by the presence of perky songstress Gloria Jean. The star plays Linda Wadsworth, the granddaughter of fabulously wealthy department-store magnate J. H. Wadsworth (Henry Stephenson). Rebelling against Wadsworth's close-minded tyranny, Linda assumes an alias and takes a job at one of his stores. She also moves into a boarding house for Wadsworth employees, overseen by stern-but-kindly Mrs. Connors (Jane Darwell). Oddly, there is no romantic subplot to speak of; like Deanna Durbin before her, Gloria Jean plays a sexless "Little Miss Fixit" who saves the day when all looks bleak. The film is noteworthy only as the screen debut of that matchless comic actor Jack Gilford, then starring in the Broadway revue Meet the People, whose budding film and TV career was egregiously cut short by the Hollywood Blacklist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Jean, Henry Stephenson, (more)
- 1944
At least 30 percent of Universal's "vest-pocket" musicals of the 1940s included the word "Hi" in the title. Such was the case of 1944's Hi, Good-Lookin', an agreeable vehicle for songstress Harriet Hilliard and her bandleader husband Ozzie Nelson. The barely existant plot finds aspiring singer Kelly Clark (Hilliard) falling in love with incognito radio star King Castle (played by future Sky King star Kirby Grant). As a punch line, Castle, working under an assumed name, is hired as his own summer replacement, with Kelly in tow. Eddie Quillan provides chuckles as talent agent Dynamo Carson (who evidently doesn't lack for self confidence), while the Delta Rhythm Boys show up for a mellow rendition of "Paper Doll." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Quillan, Kirby Grant, (more)
- 1944
All but forgotten today, Ladies Courageous was one of the more successful wartime morale-boosters. Loretta Young heads the virtually all-female cast as Robert Harper, no-nonsense executive officer of the original 24 members of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. Each of the women under her command has a story to tell, and tell it they do in long, verbose flashbacks. Standing out in the supporting cast is Geraldine Fitzgerald as Vinnie Alford, who joins the WAFs for publicity purposes and nearly scuttles the program in the process. Also appearing is the tragic Diana Barrymore, whose leading role was considerably trimmed before the film was released to the public. Though not all that exciting (especially considering the subject matter), Ladies Courageous served its patriotic purpose in 1943. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Geraldine Fitzgerald, (more)
- 1944
In this musical comedy, a vaudevillian father, wanting a better life for his son, fires the youth from their act. The deeply angry young man's devoted and creative gal, a hat-check girl, helps him land a job with a big band. But despite his resulting success, he remains estranged from his heart-broken father, until the girl friend uses her creative writing skills to effect a reunion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grace McDonald, Richard Davies, (more)
- 1943
Deanna Durbin is all grown up in Hers to Hold, the unofficial sequel to her "Three Smart Girls" films of the 1930s. Durbin plays Penelope Craig, the starry-eyed daughter of wealthy Judson and Dorothy Craig (Charles Winninger, Nella Walker). Developing a crush on much-older playboy Bill Morley (Joseph Cotton), Penelope stops at nothing to land the elusive Morley as her husband. Highlights include Durbin's renditions of "Begin the Beguine" and the "Seguidilla" from Carmen, and a captivating sequence that includes highlights from Durbin's earlier films, presented as home movies! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deanna Durbin, Joseph Cotten, (more)
