Jack Clifford Movies

In this courtroom drama, a French girl stands trial for murder. Flashbacks tell the grim story of how, during the Great War she got involved with a wealthy soldier and married him. He disappeared after the war. She then came to the U.S. There she finds him married to another woman. To cover himself, he tries to get her deported. In the ensuing argument, she accidently kills him. She is found guilty, but when they learn that she is expecting, the widow helps her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Bearing traces of such earlier hits as My Favorite Blonde and The Ghost Breakers, Where There's Life is one of the best of Bob Hope's postwar vehicles. The inimitable Mr. Hope is cast as New York radio personality Michael Valentine, who's poised to marry his long-time fiancee Hazel O'Brien (Vera Marshe). But destiny takes a hand when, in the far-off kingdom of Barovia, King Hubertus II (William Edmunds) is felled by an assassin's bullet. To avoid a revolution, the King's cabinet hurriedly searches for Hubertus' sole heir -- who, according to all reliable sources, is one Michael Valentine. Gorgeous General Katrina Grimovich (Signe Hasso) is dispatched to New York to bring Valentine back to Barovia, while a group of insurrectionists, headed by Krivoc (George Coulouris) and Stertorius (George Zucco), conspire to kill Valentine before he can ever leave American soil. When Valentine is apprised of his royal lineage, he assumes that he's the victim of a practical joke perpetrated by his announcer Joe Snyder (George Zucco). Once he's convinced that it's no joke, Valentine and Katrina scurry about the streets of Manhattan, dodging potential assassins at every turn -- not to mention keeping out of the way of Hazel's muscle-bound policeman brother Victor (William Bendix), who assumes that Valentine is merely trying to weasel out of his wedding. Full of bright dialogue and hilarious gag situations, Where There's Life is vintage Bob Hope. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Olivia De Havilland won the first of her two Academy Awards for To Each His Own. During World War I, De Havilland falls in love with a young soldier (John Lund). He is killed in battle before they can marry, leaving De Havilland to raise their child alone. She gives the baby up for adoption, then goes to work in the cosmetic business, working her way up to an executive post. While in London on business during World War II, Olivia comes face to face with her grown son (John Lund again), now a military officer himself. Though she resists revealing her true identity, mother and son are brought together by a wise old British peer (Roland Culver). Olivia De Havilland's Oscar win was doubly sweet in that To Each His Own was her first film after an enforced two-year absence, brought about when she sued Warner Bros. to get out of her restrictive contract. Long available only in washed-out TV prints, To Each His Own was eventually restored to its pristine 35-millimeter glory by the American Film Institute. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this musical, a chorus of convicts conspires to get a paroled crooner chucked back in the clink. Songs include: "Time Will Tell," "Now And Always," "Round The Bend," and "How Lovely." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This campy little drama launched the career of B-girl Yvonne De Carlo. It is set during the Franco-Prussian war and chronicles the exploits of Salome, a beautiful Viennese dancer who falls for an American reporter and for him gets involved in cloak-and-dagger activities involving the Bismarck, before returning to Arizona with him. There, she uses her talent and abundant charms to inspire the lawless residents of his hometown to reform. They in turn, name the town after her. She then goes to San Francisco where she seduces and marries a wealthy Russian who builds her an opera house and gives her the happy life she had always craved. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this western, set in Texas, the brave heroes Rod, Fuzzy, and their good-guy gang attempt to keep a band of ruthless outlaws who are trying to take over the reins of a stage coach line. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this western, an innocent saddletramp is blamed for killing a man. Fortunately he finds the real culprit before it is too late. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Each of Bob Hope's "My Favorite" films (My Favorite Blonde, My Favorite Brunette, My Favorite Spy) was, by accident or design, a parody of a dead-serious movie genre. 1942's My Favorite Blonde, for example, was a takeoff of Alfred Hitchcock in general and Hitchcock's 39 Steps in particular. Two-bit vaudeville entertainer Hope gets mixed up with gorgeous blonde British-spy Madeline Carroll. The "maguffin" (Hitchcock's nickname for "gimmick") which ties the two stars together is a ring which contains the microfilmed plans for a revolutionary new bomber. Hope and Carroll are forced to take it on the lam when Hope is framed for murder by Nazi-agents Gale Sondergaard, George Zucco et. al. Highlights include Hope eluding capture by impersonating a famed psychologist (watch for Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as Hope's most contentious "patient"). Madeline Carroll also got several opportunities to shine comedically, especially when she lapsed into cloying baby talk while posing as Hope's wife. Bob Hope was hesitant to work with My Favorite Blonde director Sidney Lanfield, having heard of Lanfield's reputation as an on-set dictator. However, the two got along so swimmingly that they would collaborate on such future top-notch Hope farces as Let's Face It (1943) and The Lemon Drop Kid (1951). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This 12-chapter Universal serial is one of several that Universal made featuring the Dead End Kids (also known as The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys). In this entry, the Dead End Kids go after a Nazi gang that operates a ship called the "Sea Raider" that has been sinking Allied shipping. ~ Brian Gusse, Rovi

That "Peaceable Man," William "Wild Bill" Elliott, once again plays Wild Bill Hickock in this fine B-Western from Columbia Pictures. This time, sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) discovers that two old enemies, swindlers Cord Crowley (Bradley Page) and Jeff Adams (Frank LaRue), are fooling the good folks of Lodestone into believing that they are solid citizens. When the banker, Jason Perry (John Dilson), refuses to heed Wild Bill's warning, the peaceable man is forced to show his hand. Adams is the first to blink and when confronted with his criminal record, the veteran crook commits suicide. Crowley proves a tougher nut to crack, but, as always, Wild Bill gets his man in the end. Taking a breather from the action, Dub Taylor performs his own "The West Gets Under My Skin," while suffering the consequences of a flee-ridden cowhide west. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

When the Daltons Rode is the much-embellished tale of that celebrated outlaw family, the Daltons. Broderick Crawford, Brian Donlevy, Stu Erwin and Frank Albertson play the gunslinging brothers, with Mary Gordon on hand as Ma Dalton. In the tradition of the 1939 western Jesse James, the film whitewashes the Daltons, showing them being forced into committing their crimes by duplicitous railroad interests. There's plenty of comic banter and byplay until about twenty minutes from the end; then the film becomes a nonstop marathon of action, halted only by the Daltons' fateful (and for the most part fatal) bank robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas. Randolph Scott is the nominal hero, a lawyer who befriends the boys and tries to dissuade them from their life of crime. When the Daltons Rode ends with all four brothers dead as doornails--even though the script was based on the autobiography of the surviving Dalton! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the sixth of eight Renfrew of the Royal Mounted "Northwesterns," mounties Renfrew (James Newill) and Kelly (Dave O'Brien) come across the body of a murdered prospector, Jim Smithers (Budd Buster). The dead man's cabin has been tossed, it turns out, and when his alcoholic brother (Al St. John) is found dead as well -- a none too convincing suicide -- Renfrew begins to suspect that the deaths may be connected to a counterfeit ring operating from a general store on the Yukon. In addition to Betty Laidlaw and Robert Lively's signature tune "Mounted Men," James Newill performs Vick Knight, Johnny Lange, and Lew Porter's "Ah, Here's Romance" and "Down the Yukon Trail." Murder on the Yukon was based on characters created in 1931 by Laurie York Erskine. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi