Michael Chekhov Movies

This minor MGM feature stars Gig Young, Janice Rule, Keenan Wynn and Richard Anderson as diverse individuals caught up in New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebration. Young is cast in the leading role as a doctor, whose plans for the celebration are altered when punch drunk prizefighter Wynn commits murder. The killing completely changes the course of Young's life, and effects the lives of those closest to him. Though it didn't cost much, Holiday for Sinners suffered the fate of many second features produced during the early TV years and failed to make back its budget. Gig Young would have to wait several years for full stardom--and then usually as comedy relief for bigger stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven deserves a historical footnote as director William Castle's only comedy western. Future Wild Bill Hickok star Guy Madison plays Eddie Taylor, a lonesome cowboy who falls in love with city-gal Perry Dunkin (Diana Lynn). The couple "meets cute" in Brooklyn, where the two have migrated to seek their fortunes. The plot veers into Runyonesque territory as Eddie tries to write the Great American Play, while Perry "adopts" pickpocket Mandy (Florence Bates) to pose as her mother. The loosely structured storyline permits several entertaining diversions, including a trip to Coney Island and a wild episode at a Brooklyn riding academy which hero and heroine have been conned into purchasing. Audie Murphy makes his second film appearance in a near-microscopic role. Based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Barry Benefield, Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven was released in England as The Girl From Texas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ben Hecht wrote and directed this bizarre comedy/suspense/dance film, featuring a discordant musical score by George Antheil. The film concerns a love affair between young, innocent ballerina Haidi (Viola Essen) and her psychotic genius dance partner Andre Sanine (Ivan Kirov). The crux of the tale concerns whether the newly married dance team will last through a performance of the Spectre of the Rose ballet -- since the ballet sets Andre's brain into a murderous rage that compels Andre to plunge a knife into his new wife. Also on hand for the festivities is Judith Anderson as La Sylph (an aging ballerina who runs a ballet academy), Lionel Stander as Lionel Gans (a frustrated poet), and Michael Chekhov as Max Polikoff (a pre-politically correct gay ballet impresario). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

As Alfred Hitchcock's classic psychothriller opens, the staff of a posh mental asylum eagerly awaits the arrival of the new director. When the man in question shows up, it turns out to be handsome psychiatrist John Ballantine (Gregory Peck). But something's wrong, here: Ballantine seems much too young for so important a position; his answers to the staff's questions are vague and detached; and he seems unusually distressed by the parallel marks, left by a fork, on a white tablecloth. Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman) comes to the conclusion that Ballantine is not the new director, but a profoundly disturbed amnesiac--and, possibly, the murderer of the real director. But is she correct in her inferences? Scriptwriters Angus MacPhail and Ben Hecht soon add to this the complication that Constance begins to fall in love with John. Director Hitchcock tapped surrealist artist Salvador Dali to design the visually arresting dream sequences in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One can only imagine the reaction of arch-conservative MGM head Louis B. Mayer when Song of Russia first tumbled over the spools in the studio projection room. It must be remembered, however, that back in 1944 it was politically expedient for Hollywood to offer hosannas to America's Russian allies, and to gloss over the less-attractive aspects of the Stalin regime. Based on Scorched Earth, a story by Leo Mittler, the film stars Robert Taylor as John Meredith, a famous American symphony conductor who is touring Russia just before the war. Meredith falls in love with Russian lass Nadya Stepanova (Susan Peters), who impresses him with her conviviality and charm: why, she's almost like a typical American girl! In the course of their romance, Meredith and Nadya visit a collective farm, where the peasants sing, dance and smile all day. The lovers marry, only to have their honeymoon abruptly halted when the Nazis invade the Soviet Union. Nadya promptly joins the Resistance, solemnly assembling molotov cocktails and shooting down Germans with her comrades. Just before the Nazis swarm into Nadya's village, the peasants set fire to the place so that Hitlers minions will not be able to plunder its resources. All of this is played out against the music of Tschiakovsky and other Russian composers. During the HUAC investigations in the early 1950s, several of the personnel involved in Song of Russia were required to explain why they'd been involved in so blatantly "pro-communist" a project. Louis B. Mayer blithely explained that he "just wanted to make a picture about Russians, not communists," while star Robert Taylor -- likewise a staunch anti-Red -- insisted that he'd been forced to make the film, and that he'd demanded script deletions throughout productions. In the end, the losers were screenwriters Richard Collins and Paul Jarrico, both of whom ended up on the egregious Hollywood Blacklist, simply for adhering to America's wartime pro-Soviet sentiments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide