Jack Clisby Movies
- 1952
Jungle Girl was the 7th entry in Monogram's "Bomba the Jungle Boy" series, based on the pulp novels by Roy Rockwood. This time, Bomba (Johnny Sheffield) tries to find the long-lost remains of his parents. He discovers that the person responsible for mom and dad's deaths was evil native chieftain Martin Wilkins. Only after the chief's daughter Suzette Harbin is herself accidentally killed (not by Bomba-rest, easy kids!) does the villain give himself up to the authorities. With the exception of Johnny Sheffield and co-stars Karen Sharpe and Walter Sande, most of the acting in Jungle Girl is strictly amateur night. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1949
Though Humphrey Bogart is the official star of Knock on Any Door, the film is essentially a showcase for Columbia's newest young male discovery John Derek. The first production of Bogart's Santana company, the film casts Bogart as attorney Andrew Morton. A product of the slums, Morton is persuaded to take the case of underprivileged teenager Nick Romano (Derek), who has been arrested on a murder charge. Through flashbacks, Morton demonstrates that Romano is more a victim of society than a natural-born killer. Though this defense strategy does not have the desired result on the jury thanks to the badgering of DA Kernan (George Macready), Morton does manage to arouse sympathy for the plight of those trapped by birth and circumstance in a dead-end existence. As Nick Romano, John Derek would never be better, nor would ever again play a character who struck so responsive a chord with the audience. Nick's oft-repeated credo--"Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse"--became the clarion call for a generation of disenfranchised youth. Director Nicholas Ray would later expand on themes touched upon in Knock on a Any Door in his juvenile delinquent "chef d'oeuvre" Rebel without a Cause. Viewers are advised to watch for future TV personalities Cara Williams and Si Melton in uncredited minor roles. Knock on Any Door spawned a belated sequel in 1960, Let No Man Write My Epitaph. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, John Derek, (more)
- 1948
Though atrociously directed, the all-black Look Out Sister is saved by its exuberant musical numbers. Bandleader Louis Jordan imagines that he's in charge of a dude ranch. Posing as a rootin' tootin' gunslinger, Jordan saves Suzette Harbin from the mustache-twirling machinations of Monty Hawley. The film's 64-minute running time easily accommodates eleven first-rate songs, most of them performed by Jordan and his Tympany Six. If you're looking for a genuine all-black western rather than a musical posing as a sagebrusher, try Herb Jeffries' Bronze Buckaroo or Harlem on the Prairie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Jordan, Suzette Harbin, (more)
- 1939
Twentieth Century-Fox borrowed Spencer Tracy, from MGM for the sprawling (yet economically produced) historical drama Stanley and Livingstone. Tracy plays 19th-century American journalist Henry M. Stanley, an adventure-prone sort who is assigned by his editor (Henry Hull) to locate lost Scottish missionary David Livingstone (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) in darkest Africa. There are perils aplenty before the inevitable meeting in the clearing, capped by the immortal courtesy "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Though seriously ill, Livingstone is content ministering to the natives, declining Stanley's invitation to return home. Upon arriving back to civilization, Stanley tells his story of Dr. Livingstone, but without tangible proof, he is accused of perpetrating a fraud. Only at the very last moment is Stanley vindicated; at this point, he decides to go back to Africa to continue the late Dr. Livingstone's work. This didn't happen in real life, nor is the studio-dictated romance between Spencer Tracy and Nancy Kelly completely copacetic with the facts; outside of this, Stanley and Livingstone comes pretty close to living up to Fox's ad-campaign slogan "The Most Heroic Exploit the World Has Known." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Nancy Kelly, (more)
