Ilka Chase Movies
The daughter of the editor of the fashionable Vogue magazine, Ilka Chase was the recipient of a high-priced European education. Deciding to become an actress, Chase made her first Broadway appearance in the 1924 production The Red Falcon; she later appeared in such long-running hits as The Animal Kingdom and The Women. In 1929, she made her talking picture debut in Paris Bound. Though her film roles were few, they were always worthwhile and eminently watchable. She was at her very best as the casually cruel Lisa Vale in Now Voyager (1942) and as a Hedda Hopperesque gossipmonger in The Big Knife (1955). In addition to her acting assignments, Chase was a widely read newspaper columnist, essayer, and novelist. An early arrival on the TV scene, she was a panelist on such series as Celebrity Time (1949-51), Masquerade Party (1952) and Keep Talking (1959); she also hosted Glamour Go Round (1950), wherein she was billed as "a recognized authority on style and beauty," and the syndicated gabfest The Ilka Chase Show (1959). Her last regular TV assignment was as Margaret in Trials of O'Brien (1965). The first of Chase's three husbands was actor Louis Calhern, to whom she was wed for less than a year. Ilka Chase died in Mexico City of complications after a fall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
During a Los Angeles Christmas, a group of 82nd Airborne vets assembles under the leadership of gamblin' man Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra) to rip off four Las Vegas casinos just after the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day. Playboy Jimmy Foster (Peter Lawford) joins in the scheme because he's sick of needing his oft-married mother's money, especially now that she's about to wed Duke Santos (Cesar Romero), a self-made man with all sorts of underworld ties. After he receives the news that he could die at any time, newly released convict Anthony Bergdorf (Richard Conte) reluctantly agrees to participate so he can leave some money to his estranged wife and young son. Ocean's own wife, Beatrice (Angie Dickinson), doesn't think much of her husband's promise of a big score to come, but her quiet protests don't dissuade him. With Las Vegas garbage man and fellow vet Josh Howard (Sammy Davis Jr.) and several casino employees among their number, the titular band of thieves have just a few days to get ready for their caper. When Duke Santos, Jimmy's mother, and one of Ocean's discarded paramours all show up in Sin City at the same time as the veterans, the crew's perfect plans face some serious hurdles. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, (more)
- 1955
This episode of the '50s game show features ordinary people trying to guess the identity of celebrities who are disguised with makeup. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
Robert Aldrich's screen adaptation of Clifford Odets' stage play reflects the quandary of the writer's later career; the golden boy of the Group Theater in the '30s, when his plays were the toast of Broadway, his talent seemed to wither after a number of years in the screenwriting trenches, and a revulsion for what he saw as hackwork combined with his capitulation to HUAC to blight his final decade. Jack Palance stars as Charlie Castle, a major film star who has refused to sign a long-term contract for big money with a studio run by the tyrannical Stanley Hoff (Rod Steiger). This has led to the return of his wife, Marion (Ida Lupino), who had left him due to his womanizing and a willingness to kowtow to Hoff in doing bad movies only for the money. After his agent, Nat Danziger (Everett Sloane), tries unsuccessfully to get him to reconsider, Hoff himself badgers Charlie, insisting on the absolute necessity of his signing. When the star continues to resist, Hoff threatens to blackmail him with an ugly incident from his past. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, (more)
- 1954
Tony Curtis stars as Johnny Dark, a moody automobile designer. Rejected by a major auto firm because of his "radical" notions, Johnny sets out to prove the efficiency of his cars on the racetrack. He is aided and abetted by pretty Piper Laurie and less pretty Paul Kelly, while motor mogul Sidney Blackmer fumes and fusses until he realizes that Johnny's designs will save his company. Most of the film is devoted to a marathon race, pitting Johnny against his friendly enemy Don Taylor. Johnny Dark is a must for racing buffs, as well as a prime example of Tony Curtis in his beefcake period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, (more)
Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday) is an unsuccessful model and actress who believes that a jolt of publicity will do her career a world of good. She gets that publicity by renting a billboard in the middle of Manhattan, emblazoned with her name and photograph. As a result, Gladys is showered with endorsement by (Peter Lawford). He becomes enamored with Gladys, which irritates her "unofficial" boyfriend, documentary-director Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemmon) (in his film debut). Pete grows tired of Gladys' publicity stunt, feeling that it is turning her into an object rather than a human being, but Gladys luxuriates in the fame and fortune. A happy ending may be inevitable, but it's a hard-won happiness for both hero and heroine. Scriptwriter Garson Kanin had intended this as a vehicle for Danny Kaye, but Kanin's wife Ruth Gordon suggested the gender-switch to Judy Holliday, noting that what might seem aggressive from Kaye would appear merely whimsical from Holliday. In one of the best scenes, real-life celebrities Melville Cooper, Ilka Chase and Constance Bennett show up as talk-show panelists -- the ideal magnet for the likes of Gladys Glover, who has become famous merely for being famous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford, (more)
- 1948
A woman stands to inherit a fortune if she can get all her brothers and sisters in one place...which is far more complicated than it might sound. When the Tatlocks, a very wealthy couple, suddenly and unexpectedly die, the executor of the estate informs Nan Tatlock (Wanda Hendrix) that their will stipulates that all members of the immediate family must be present at the reading in order for it to be valid. Nan immediately smells trouble, as the Tatlocks are a notoriously eccentric group of people, and as the sole "normal" member of the family, she's generally the only one who can be counted upon to arrive on schedule. As it turns out, Nan's greatest problem is rounding up her brother Skylar, who is so dizzy that he requires a full-time caregiver, Denno (Barry Fitzgerald). However, Skylar got away from Denno during a trip to Hawaii, and no one is sure where he is -- or even if he's still alive. When Nan learns that she could inherit several million dollars if she can bring her relatives together, and Skylar stubbornly refuses to materialize, the caretaker hires Burke (John Lund), a Hollywood stuntman who bears a striking resemblance to the missing man, to pose as Skylar at the reading of the will. Miss Tatlock's Millions was the first film directed by veteran British comic actor Richard Haydn, who appears in a small role under the pseudonym "Richard Rancyd." Ray Milland and noted director Mitchell Leisen also make cameo appearances. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lund, Wanda Hendrix, (more)
- 1943
Mitchell Leisen utilizes his stylistic pizzazz to enliven this romantic comedy that proves the old adage "opposites attract" -- but only after three or four reels. Claudette Colbert is Katherine Grant, an upper-crust fashion photographer who has a gang of admirers snapping at her heels. When her vindictive editor tries to teach her a lesson for her snobbishness by giving her an assignment photographing lower-class workers digging a tunnel, she falls for Jim Ryan (Fred MacMurray). Ryan is also attracted to her, so when she leaves her camera tripod in the tunnel, Ryan obligingly returns it to her. When Ryan returns to the job site, he is ribbed by his co-workers. Ryan loses his head and gets into a fight and is subsequently suspended from his job. Katherine, feeling guilty about Ryan being suspended from his job (and also looking for an excuse to have him around), hires him as her assistant. But in his new job, Ryan starts to put the make on one of Katherine's flirtatious models, Darlene (June Havoc). Katherine must now find a way to overcome her superior attitude and make her true feelings known to Ryan. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, (more)
Olive Higgins Prouty's popular novel was transformed into nearly two hours of high-grade soap opera by several masters of the trade: Warner Bros., Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, director Irving Rapper, and screenwriter Casey Robinson. Davis plays repressed Charlotte Vale, dying on the vine thanks to her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper). All-knowing psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains) urges Charlotte to make several radical changes in her life, quoting Walt Whitman: "Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find." Slowly, Charlotte emerges from her cocoon of tight hairdos and severe clothing to blossom into a gorgeous fashion plate. While on a long ocean voyage, she falls in love with Jerry Durrance (Henreid), who is trapped in a loveless marriage. After kicking over the last of her traces at home, Charlotte selflessly becomes a surrogate mother to Jerry's emotionally disturbed daughter (a curiously uncredited Janis Wilson), who is on the verge of becoming the hysterical wallflower that Charlotte once was. An interim romance with another man (John Loder) fails to drive Jerry from Charlotte's mind. The film ends ambiguously; Jerry is still married, without much chance of being divorced from his troublesome wife, but the newly self-confident Charlotte is willing to wait forever if need be. "Don't ask for the moon," murmurs Charlotte as Max Steiner's romantic music reaches a crescendo, "we have the stars." In addition to this famous line, Now, Voyager also features the legendary "two cigarettes" bit, in which Jerry places two symbolic cigarettes between his lips, lights them both, and hands one to Charlotte. The routine would be endlessly lampooned in subsequent films, once by Henreid himself in the satirical sword-and-sandal epic Siren of Baghdad (1953). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, (more)
- 1939
Stronger Than Desire is a streamlined remake of 1934's Evelyn Prentice. Instead of the earlier film's William Powell and Myrna Loy, we are offered Walter Pidgeon and Virginia Bruce in the roles of a dynamic attorney and his wife. Little has changed storywise from Evelyn Prentice: Bruce kills (or thinks she kills) a man who is blackmailing her; another woman is accused of the crime; and as luck would have it, Pidgeon defends the accused woman. The remake is inferior to the original, save for the presence of child actress Ann Todd, who as the couple's daughter is a lot more appealing than Evelyn Prentice's nails-on-the-blackboard moppet Cora Sue Collins. Sidebar: Ann Dvorak, playing an "other woman" role originated by Rosalind Russell in Evelyn Prentice, is directed in Society Lawyer by her then-husband, Leslie Fenton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1936
Ann Harding stars as Anne Talbot, the wife of prominent physician Michael Talbot (Herbert Marshall). Despite his happy marriage, the good doctor's head has been turned by much-younger socialite Jerry Mannerly (Margaret Lindsay). A "modern woman," Anne gallantly steps aside, confident that Michael will eventually tire of his new flame and come to his senses. And of course, he does, but not without the help of his wise old dad (Edward Ellis). This harmless romantic drama was raked over the coals by the American and Canadian Glass Blowers' Union, who complained that beer was served in a tin can in one scene (special-interest pressure groups were definitely not a phenomenon of the 1990s!). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Harding, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1936
In the print ads for Soak the Rich, writers/producers/directors Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur were shown singing "We're the boys who wrote the yarn/ And here's what it's about/ Class ideas don't mean a thing/ When love kicks 'em out." The film pokes broad fun at New Deal liberalism and 1930s campus unrest, which the authors evidently regarded as a passing fad ("the latest form of necking," observes one character) Millionaire college chairman Humphrey Craig (Walter Connolly) is saddled with fuzzy-headed daughter Belinda (Mary Taylor), who allows campus radicals to hold rallies in her living room. The main bone of contention is Belinda's romance with starry-eyed economics professor Buzz Jones (John Howard), whom Craig had fired after the publication of Jones' inflammatory book Soak the Rich. Belinda's enchantment with "pinkos" comes to an end when she's kidnapped by a comically menacing communist agitator (Lionel Stander) and when Buzz proposes marriage (in the Brave New World, she reasons, there is no room for matrimony). Her fed-up daddy solves matters with a shotgun wedding -- only it's the bride, not the groom, who's the reluctant participant. Novelist Alice Duer Miller, a longtime Hecht-MacArthur crony, plays a supporting role. Soak the Rich may sound like a "lost masterpiece," but it isn't; in fact, many critics regard it as one of the worst films of the 1930s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Connolly, Mary Taylor, (more)
- 1932
The first film version of Philip Barry's Broadway play The Animal Kingdom stars Ann Harding, Leslie Howard and Myrna Loy. Howard plays a wealthy publisher who decides to marry the socially prominent Loy, leaving his mistress Harding in the lurch. In comically convoluted fashion, Loy behaves like a callous libertine, while Harding is the soul of love and fidelity. The frustrated Howard declares at the end that he is going back to his "wife"--meaning, of course, the faithful Harding. Animal Kingdom was long withdrawn from public view due to the 1946 remake One More Tomorrow; a pristine 35-millimeter print was discovered in the Warner Bros. vaults in the mid-1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Harding, Leslie Howard, (more)
- 1931
The Gay Diplomat was an attempt by RKO Radio to make a movie star out of Ivan Lebedeff, a Russian actor better suited to supporting roles as gigolos and stuffed shirts. Lebedeff plays a Russian military officer sent to Rumania to dispose of a beautiful female spy. Genevieve Tobin plays the suspected espionage agent; not surprisingly, Lebedeff falls in love with her and finds himself unable to carry out his mission. Just as well, since the real spy is another woman, played by Betty Compson. Henry Hobart, the original production supervisor of Gay Diplomat, was so upset by the film's inadequacies and by Lebedeff's lack of star quality that he walked off the project. His replacement was Pandro S. Berman, later the principal producer of RKO's wonderful Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ivan Lebedeff, Genevieve Tobin, (more)
- 1931
In this marital drama, a wife fears that her checkered past will be revealed when she and her husband move to the city to further his career. Soon after their arrival, the husband overhears a conversation about her. Apparently she had been a "kept" woman before she met him, and this causes him to become enormously jealous. For a while things look bad for their marriage, but everything is rectified in the end and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Mackaill, Joel McCrea, (more)
- 1930
In this comedy, set during the 1900s, a Florodora girl slowly falls for a gentle millionaire. Songs include: "My Kind Of Man," "Pass The Beer And Pretzels," "Swingin' In The Lane," and a Technicolor stage sequence of "Tell Me Pretty Maiden." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marion Davies, Lawrence Gray, (more)
- 1930
Anita Garvin, the willowy brunette comedienne who graced many a Laurel & Hardy comedy, once remarked with a mixture of pride and sarcasm that she'd been in "the worst film ever directed by Leo McCarey."Red Hot Rhythm isn't quite as bad as Garvin remembered, but it certainly isn't representative of McCarey at his best. Alan Hale heads the cast as a duplicitous songwriter who makes his living stealing the tunes of others and passing them off as his own. He makes the mistake of his life, however, when he double-crosses heroine Katherine Crawford. Nominal leading man Walter O'Keefe later became a popular Los Angeles radio and TV host. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josephine Dunn, Walter O'Keefe, (more)
- 1930
In this backstage musical, an aspiring actor comes to Hollywood to get his big break. Trouble ensues when he is mistaken for a famous opera star and given red-carpet treatment wherever he goes. He even stays at the singer's mansion until he gets his break. Unfortunately, he soon loses his girlfriend after the singer's wife, who has not yet seen him, appears. The whole mess is cleared up when the real singer appears, and the young actor learns that he is the singer's nephew. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Wagstaff, Lola Lane, (more)
- 1930
In this drama, a New York dressmaker struggles to make it big so she can provide a good life for her beloved son. As her son enters college, she opens a Fifth Avenue boutique. When her son falls in love with a chorus girl, the mother is appalled. Later, the girl finds herself a wealthy benefactor and runs up a large tab at the dress shop. The dressmaker's son has no idea that his true love is messing around. When he returns from college, still deeply in love, the mother attempts to blackmail the chorine into breaking up by forcing her to pay her bill or else. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marion Shilling, H.B. Warner, (more)
- 1930
In this pygmalionesque musical, a drab secretary leads a boring life until a good friend intervenes. The friend begins a total make-over upon her friend. First she slathers her in mud-packs, and then she encases her in lovely silk dresses. Soon the plain woman is transformed into an extraordinary beauty. It is no surprise that her boss, not knowing her true identity, falls hopelessly in love with her. Singing, dancing and romancing ensues. Songs include: "A Picture No Artist Can Paint," "You Gotta Be Modernistic," "I'm Telling the World About You," "Maybe Someday," and "Can I Help It." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Mulhall, Sue Carol, (more)
- 1930
Previously filmed in 1925, Avery Hopwood's stage play The Best People was refashioned by Preston Sturges as the Miriam Hopkins vehicle Fast and Loose in 1930. Hopkins (in her film debut) and Henry Wadsworth are cast as Marion and Bertie Lenox, the footloose, prodigal offspring of wealthy, social-climbing Bronson and Carrie Lenox (Frank Morgan and Winifred Harris). The parents are shocked beyond belief when daughter Marion falls in love with low-born car mechanic Henry Morgan (Charles Starrett), while Bertie becomes enamored of down-to-earth showgirl Alice O'Neil (Carole Lombard). But mom and dad change their minds when it turns out the Henry and Alice have more common sense than either of their grown-up kids. This was the film in which Paramount contract starlet Carol Lombard changed the spelling of her first name to "Carole" -- or, rather, it was changed for her by a careless title-writer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard, (more)
- 1930
Sometimes all it takes to save a marriage is a good pop, right in the kisser or so this family drama seems to imply. The story focuses on a troubled married couple. At first the wife turns to a therapist, but she finds herself paying a lot of money for nothing. In desperation, she decides to pack up the children and move out. Her husband tries to persuade her to comeback, but she refuses. He then punches her in the face. This seems to do the trick, and she comes home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Genevieve Tobin, Conrad Nagel, (more)
- 1930
One of the most delightful of Marion Davies' early talkies, The Floradora Girl is set in New York at the turn of the century. The star plays Daisy Dell, one of the members of the original Floradora Sextette ("O Tell Me, Pretty Maiden") She spends several seasons on stage in this capacity, during which time the other five Floradoras all land wealthy husbands. Daisy's one chance at connubial bliss with handsome young socialite Jack Vibart (Lawrence Gray) apparently comes to an end when she is persuaded by Jack's mother to give the boy up -- not because of class consciousness, but so that Jack can marry a wealthy woman and thereby save his family from bankruptcy. Before the film can metamorphose into a Gay '90s variation of Camille, Jack decides that love is far more important than money, whereupon he makes a surprise appearance in the last act of Floradora to sing his proposal to Daisy. Some of the exterior scenes in Floradora Girl were filmed outside the gargantuan "beach house" built for Marion Davies by her sponsor-lover William Randolph Hearst. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1929
This drama is an adaptation of a popular 1927 play and tells the story of a pair of married liberals who are content to remain faithful in spirit only. The ends up having an affair with a musician while her husband heads for Europe. When he returns he tells her about his affair with a French woman. The wife is devastated, for never did she believe her husband would actually sleep with another. In the end, they decide to re-adopt traditional marital morals and remain monogamous. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Harding, Fredric March, (more)
