Robert Cherry Movies
In The Toy, director Richard Donner and screenwriter Carol Sobieski update the 1976 Pierre Richard farce Le Jouet as a vehicle for comedian Richard Pryor. Pryor stars as out-of-work journalist Jack Brown, who's hit with the sudden realization that his idle book writing won't pay a 10,000-dollar sum necessary to keep his house from going to auction. Desperate, he is improbably hired as a cleaning lady in the offices of rich businessman and newspaper magnate U.S. Bates (Jackie Gleason). Running afoul of Bates' quick temper, Jack gets the axe, but is later spotted goofing around in a Bates-owned toy store by Bates' bratty son, Eric (Scott Schwartz), who's spending his annual week together with his estranged father. Taking his father's offer that he may have "anything in the store" quite literally, the spoiled kid asks for Jack as his personal toy for the week. Initially unwilling to be treated as a possession, Jack soon agrees after Bates offers to pay him enough to climb out of debt. When Eric's idea of fun includes dumping buckets of booby-trapped oatmeal on Jack's head and riding down the stairs of his father's mansion with Jack riding shotgun in a miniature car, it tests both Jack's patience and his resolve. But Jack discovers that Bates is ignoring Eric, which strengthens the bond between them and prompts them to seek revenge on the big jerk. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason, (more)
- 1956
Commercial artist James Vanning (Aldo Ray) and his friend, Dr. Edward Gurston (Frank Albertson), are on a hunting and fishing trip in Wyoming when they stop to help two men whose car has crashed. The pair, John (Brian Keith) and Red (Rudy Bond), turn out to be escaped bank robbers, on the run with 350,000 dollars in stolen cash after a clean getaway, and they don't plan on leaving any witnesses -- Gurston is shot dead by Red, using Vanning's hunting rifle, but Vanning survives by accident, knocked cold but alive. He awakens to discover the stolen money, accidentally left behind, and runs with it from the returning killers -- he gets away but loses the bag in the blizzard that hits. He manages to make it to the nearest town, but not before the doctor's body is found, with a bullet in it from Vanning's rifle. Now the prime suspect in the murder, Vanning takes it on the lam, hiding out for months -- unbeknowst to him, however, he's been under observation for most of that time by Ben Fraser (James Gregory), an investigator from the insurance company whose policy covered the bank that was robbed; and has been found by John and Red -- and all of them think that Vanning can lead them to the missing money. But John and Red are perfectly prepared to torture and even maim Vanning to get the money, and they get their chance when he lets his guard down one night to talk to Marie Gardner (Anne Bancroft), a young model he meets in a bar. He manages to get away from his captors after a fierce struggle and makes his way to her place; after convincing her that it's not the police he's running from (which is not entirely true), they take off together, with Fraser and the two hoods only a half-step behind, headed to Wyoming and the spring thaw so he can hunt for the bag and the missing money and prove his innocence. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, (more)
- 1953
Bud and Lou get ready to attend police rookie school. Mike the Cop (Gordon Jones) and Mr. Fields (Sidney Fields) are driven out of A&C's apartment by the antics of Bingo the Chimp. And at tryouts for rookie school, Costello runs afoul of Professor Melonhead (Sidney Fields) and judo expert John Halloran -- who tosses him all over the mat -- and ends up on the shooting range, where he manages to ruin another day on duty for Mike the Cop, as well as his sergeant (Emory Parnell). Routines include "Mustard" and lots of gags involving equipment in the gymnasium. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
This anthology film assembles five respected directors and a top-notch cast to bring a handful of stories by the great American author O. Henry to the screen. In The Cop and the Anthem, a tramp named Soapy (Charles Laughton) tries to get arrested so that he can spend the winter in jail, only to find that is not as easy as it used to be. Marilyn Monroe appears in this episode as a streetwalker. The Clarion Call features Dale Robertson as Barney, a cop forced to arrest an old friend, Johnny (Richard Widmark). Anne Baxter stars in The Last Leaf as Joanna, an elderly woman who sees her own illness reflected in the fall of the autumn leaves; she's convinced that when the last leaf drops from the tree outside her window, her life will go with it. The Ransom of Red Chief concerns Sam (Fred Allen) and Bill (Oscar Levant), two novice kidnappers who kidnap a child, only to discover that his parents don't want him back -- and after a few hours with the brat, they find out why. And The Gift of the Magi tells the story of a pair of cash-strapped newlyweds, Della (Jeanne Craine) and Jim (Farley Granger), who struggle to get each other the perfect Christmas gift, with unexpected results. John Steinbeck narrates. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Laughton, Marilyn Monroe, (more)
The backstory of The Red Badge of Courage involves the toppling of MGM's old Louis B. Mayer regime in favor of Dore Schary and his young Turks. It is also the tale of how an intended epic was ruthlessly whittled down to a lower-berth programmer. Since this story has already been related in detail in Lillian Ross' Picture (not to mention several John Huston biographies), the focus here will be what shows up on screen in Red Badge of Courage. Based on the novel by Stephen Crane, the film stars real-life war hero Audie Murphy as a Civil War soldier who must redeem himself in his own eyes after an act of cowardice. When he finally gets his opportunity, he realizes that he is no less frightened than before; it is simply that he has learned to push on in spite of that fear. A comparative newcomer to films, Murphy acquits himself magnificently in the difficult title role; equally impressive are political cartoonist Bill Mauldin as "The Loud Soldier," John Dierkes as "The Tall Soldier" and Royal Dano as "The Tattered Man." When Red Badge of Courage tested poorly in preview, the studio sliced it down to 69 minutes and added a narrator (James Whitmore) to clarify the more obscure plot passages. Further hurting the film was Bronislaus Kaper's overbaked musical score, which seemed more suited to a gung-ho John Wayne flick than a comparatively intimate tale of personal fortitude. Though the finished product plays like a Reader's Digest adaptation, a few brilliant passages remain, notably the sequence in which a commanding officer ingratiatingly lies to his troops for the sake of morale. Like Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, Red Badge of Courage is a truncated classic -- but a classic, all the same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin, (more)
- 1950
In the late 1940s - early 1950s, Columbia Pictures enjoyed a great deal of success with a series of slapsticky feature films built around the talents of such gifted funsters as Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, William Bendix and Jack Carson. In this tradition, Columbia's Traveling Saleswoman is a showcase for the delightful Joan Davis. The star plays Mabel King, who heads westward to sell her father's soap. Tagging along is Mabel's erstwhile beau Waldo (Andy Devine). In the course of the film's 74 minutes, Mabel wins over a hostile Indian tribe, makes short work of an outlaw named Cactus Jack (Joe Sawyer) and a saloon chirp named Lilly (Adele Jergens), and even gets to warble a song or two in her own inimitable fashion. Traveling Saleswoman was produced by Tony Owen, who later prospered as producer of a long-running TV sitcom starring his wife, Donna Reed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Davis, Andy Devine, (more)
- 1948
The positive public response to such productions as Crossfire and Gentleman's Agreement led to a mini-cycle of postwar anti-prejudice films. One of these was The Vicious Circle, based on a true incident which had previously been dramatized in G. W. Pabst's The Trial. In the late-19th century, an anti-Semitic Hungarian baron (Reinhold Schunzel) foments a pogrom against his country's Jews when a 14-year-old servant girl commits suicide. Falsely accused of subjecting the girl to a ritualistic murder, five Jewish farmers are put on trial for murder. Defying the slings and arrows of public condemnation, defense attorney Karl Nemensch (Conrad Nagel) intends to prove the farmers' innocence -- and to expose anti-Semitism for the poisonous scourge that it truly is. The Vicious Circle was based on The Burning Bush, a play by Herald and Geza Herczeg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Alexander, Sam Bernard, (more)
Richard Widmark plays the borderline-psycho owner of a combination road house and bowling alley. Widmark's singer, Ida Lupino, begins exhibiting an interest in his manager, Cornel Wilde. To get even with Wilde, Widmark frames him on a robbery charge, then has the unlucky fellow released in his custody. The sadistic Widmark takes every opportunity to flaunt his control over Conte, but this only serves to deepen the relationship between Wilde and Lupino. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, (more)
- 1948
A rapidly maturing Gloria Jean is the star of the Columbia musical Manhattan Angel. She's cast at Madison Avenue copywriter Gloria Cole, at present striving to save a youth center for underprivileged children from being demolished to make way for a factory. Complications arise when Everett H. Burton (Thurston Hall), the elderly and irascible tycoon responsible for the factory project, develops a crush on our heroine. Ross Ford, later steadily employed as a TV and movie character actor, is the film's nominal leading man. Among the songs heard in Manhattan Angel is "I'll Take Romance," one of a handful of hit tunes owned outright by Columbia and thus royalty-free for "B"-movie redeployment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Jean, Ross Ford, (more)
- 1947
Based on the humorous autobiographical book by Betty McDonald, The Egg & I casts Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray as Manhattan-dwelling newlyweds. When MacMurray enthusiastically purchases an upstate farm in the hopes of cleaning up in the egg business, Colbert cautiously goes along. The film's humor is derived from the efforts of these two hopelessly citified slickers to adapt themselves to the rigors of rural life. In a plot complication added to the film, pretty neighbor Louise Allbritton upsets the equilibrium of MacMurray and Colbert's union, but both husband and wife are happily reunited at the finale (in real life, Betty McDonald and her husband were splitsville before the book even hit the stands). Retained from the novel, though heavily laundered, were the earthy characters of farmers Ma and Pa Kettle and their huge brood of children. Marjorie Main as Ma and Percy Kilbride as Pa struck so responsive a chord with filmgoers that Universal headlined them in their own "Kettle" series of B pictures, which endured until 1956. The Egg & I would be adapted into a live TV comedy serial in 1952, with Pat Kirkland and John Craven in the leading roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1945
In this 1945 filmization of Emlyn Williams' semi-autobiographical 1938 play The Corn is Green, Bette Davis steps into the role originated on Broadway by Ethel Barrymore. Davis plays Miss Moffat, a turn-of-the-century schoolteacher in a Welsh mining town. She has opened her own school in hopes of lowering the town's illiteracy rate, thus enabling the younger residents to seek out more fulfilling lives than merely sweating away in the mines until they drop. She runs into a great deal of resistance from mine-owner Nigel Bruce, who realizes that as soon as the citizens can read and write, they'll rebel against his benevolent despotry. Even Miss Moffat concludes that her mission is hopeless until she is visited by young miner John Dall, who wants to know "what is behind all those books". Within two years, Dall has made so much progress that he has qualified for Oxford. A last-minute snag involving Dall's illegitimate child is solved when Miss Moffet herself agrees to adopt the baby so that her student can complete his education. Emlyn Williams himself came from a backward mining town, and was himself inspired to better things by a compassionate schoolteacher; the pregnancy angle was (probably) added to provide the story with a third act. The Corn is Green was remade for television in 1978, with Katharine Hepburn as Miss Moffat. Watch for one amusing gaffe in the original: despite carefully setting up the premise that the villagers are illiterate, they are shown hovering around a poster and reading it out loud in an early scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, Nigel Bruce, (more)
- 1943
The second of Monogram's "zombie" thrillers, Revenge of the Zombies is better than the first, if only because of its powerhouse cast. John Carradine does his usual as Von Alltermann, a mad scientist in the employ of the Nazis. Commissioned to create a race of "living dead" warriors for the Third Reich, Von Alltermann takes time out to attempt to revitalize his deceased wife Lila (Veda Ann Borg). Stumbling into the doc's laboratory is heroine Jen (Gale Storm), who is rescued in The Nick by undercover FBI agent Larry (Robert Lowery). As in King of the Zombies, Mantan Moreland provides his patented bug-eyed comedy relief; good taste aside, he's the best thing in the picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Carradine, Robert Lowery, (more)
- 1943
The title of this low-budget Universal musical was lifted from the Andrew Sisters' hit song, introduced in 1941's Buck Privates. Evelyn Ankers stars as Lynn, who in order to collect an inheritance must quickly wed dull old Harvey (David Bruce). En route to her marriage by train, Lynn is reluctantly paired up with Tony (Allan Jones) by Tony's precocious, matchmaking sister Peggy (Patsy O'Connor). Lynn's wedding plans are spoiled when she's tricked into a marriage with Tony, but all's right with the world by film's end. No fewer than ten songs are crammed into the film's 63 minutes, five of them performed by the King's Men Quartet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Allan Jones, Evelyn Ankers, (more)
- 1942
The sure-fire combination of Judy Canova and Joe E. Brown paid off in big laughs and excellent box-office returns in the bizarre wartime musical Joan of Ozark. While hunting quail near her home, hillbilly Judy (Canova) catches a carrier pigeon bearing a message for a ring of Nazi spies. She turns the bird over to the FBI and is lauded as a heroine-much to the dismay of Philip Munson (Jerome Cowan), whose posh New York nightclub is a cover for his Fifth Column activities. As luck would have it, theatrical agent Cliff Little (Joe E. Brown) has been sent to the Ozarks to scare up new talent for Munson's club. Little wants to sign Judy for a singing contract, but she'll have none of it until he poses as a G-Man and appoints her an honorary "G-Woman." To keep Judy happy once they're back in New York, Cliff pretends to be a spy while wandering around the nightclub-and thus it is that our hapless hero and heroine stumble upon Munson's nest of Nazis. It's hard to determine which is sillier in Joan of Ozark: Joe E. Brown's imitation of Adolf Hitler or the Keystone Kop-like climactic airplane chase. Also good for a few yocks is the closing musical number, set in "the future"-namely, 1952! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Canova, Joe E. Brown, (more)
- 1942
Sweater Girl is an okay remake of 1935's College Scandal, and like its predecessor is that rare bird, a "musical mystery". Someone is stalking a midwestern college campus, murdering students left and right. Among the victims is campus radio personality Miles Tucker (Kenneth Howell) and aspiring composer Johnny Arnold (Johnnie Johnston). If this keeps up, there won't be anyone left to stage the annual college musical-and that would be disastrous! Without giving the game away, it can be noted that solution of the mystery is not unlike that of the first Friday the 13th film of the 1980s (minus the blood and gore, of course). Amidst all this merry mayhem, two choice Frank Loesser song hits are spotlighted: the amusingly provocative "I Said No" and the enduring standard "I Don't Want to Walk Without You." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Bracken, June Preisser, (more)
- 1939
Spunky Joan Blondell is practically the whole show in the diverting comedy Good Girls Go to Paris. Blondell is cast as ambitious college-campus waitress Jenny Swanson, who yearns to see the sights in Gay Paree. She gets her chance by latching onto British exchange professor Ronald Brooke (Melvyn Douglas), who is en route to the City of Light. Once she sets foot on French soil, Jenny proves the veracity of the film's title by straightening out the wayward family of dyspeptic millionaire Olaf Brand (Walter Connolly)-though for a while it looks as though she's a "bad girl", merely out to take the Brands for every penny they've got. In later years, Joan Blondell ruefully recalled that the film's original title was Good Girls Go to Paris Too, but the Hays Office nixed that harmlessly suggestive monicker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvyn Douglas, Joan Blondell, (more)
