Jimmy Ames Movies

The hardships faced by a widow and her eight-year-old son on a rugged Canadian ranch provide the basis of this gripping outdoor adventure. She lost her husband to a forest fire. To help her run the ranch, she hires a handy man. A handsome, but taciturn fellow who has known much tragedy, he works hard for her. The woman's son though resents him, and when he learns that his mother is planning to marry him to quell ugly rumors in town, the youth is most unhappy. After the wedding, the step-father treats the boy harshly, not out of cruelty, but because he wants to prepare the boy to survive the tough life ahead. This creates friction and frustration. Sometimes the handyman beats both the wife and the child. On the day the wife learns she is pregnant, the boy and his step-father get into a violent fight. Afterward the husband goes to the local saloon and ends up jailed for brawling. A month later he is released. When he gets home he finds his wife has moved his things to the barn. A natural disaster changes the family's lives and relationships and after much turmoil, honesty and pain gives them a chance to heal and start afresh. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

She's Working Her Way Through College is a completely depoliticized remake of the liberal-minded comedy The Male Animal (1942). Virginia Mayo plays an exotic dancer, Angela Gardner, who decides to improve her mind; she enrolls in a college where Professor John Palmer (Ronald Reagan) teaches English. In between Angela's lively musical numbers, the film concentrates on an old rivalry between the bookish Palmer and onetime college football jock Shep Slade (Don DeFore, who'd played a bit in The Male Animal). When the college trustees oppose Angela's presence on campus, Palmer staunchly defends her right to an education. In the original Male Animal, the climactic scene involved a controversial public reading of a letter by anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti; in She's Working Her Way Through College, Palmer stands up at a public assembly to convince the populace that exotic dancers have the same rights as anyone else. Of course, Ronald Reagan could take a political stance if he wanted to...but not in this film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nick Robey (John Garfield) is a down-on-his-luck two-bit hood, fast on his feet but a little slow on the uptake. His running buddy, Al Molin (Norman Lloyd), does most of the thinking for him, which includes a payroll heist that goes horribly wrong when a cop spots them just as they've slugged the man with the cash. Al is wounded and caught, but Nick manages to get away, shooting the police officer in the process. He remembers Al's last instructions, to act calmly and melt into the crowd, but Nick isn't quite able to do that -- he hides out at a public swimming pool, where he meets Peg Dobbs (Shelley Winters), a nice but shy working girl, and convinces her to let him take her home. Once there, he tries to spend a normal evening, as though he were on a date, while her mother (Selena Royle), father (Wallace Ford), and younger brother (Bobby Hyatt) go out to a movie. But he can't relax, and their return rattles Nick enough so that he pulls his gun and reveals who he is and what he's done. This is one of several miscalculations that Nick makes in the course of holding the family hostage over the next two days. He initially plans on leaving in the morning, but when he discovers that the police officer whom he shot has died, and that they know who he is, he has to stay, letting the Dobbs family go about their business but always keeping at least one of them at home with him as a hostage, to make sure the others don't talk to the police. The family's plight is further complicated by the fact that Peg is truly attracted to him, despite what he's done, and seems willing to risk a great deal to see her family safe and him safely away from their home. She wants to love him, but discovers that someone who can't trust anyone for more than a few seconds at a time -- forget the gun he's always threatening to use -- can't even feel love, much less act on those feelings. Meanwhile, the police dragnet keeps getting tighter, and Peg's father knows he has to act soon to end this situation before the authorities come knocking on his door and Nick starts shooting. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

When Lizabeth Scott's Jane Greer husband Arthur Kennedy accidentally gets his mitts on $60,000 in stolen money, she insists that he keep the dough rather than turn it over to the authorities. Two-bit private eye Dan Duryea catches on to Scott's subterfuge, and demands that she turn the cash over to him. Scott persuades Duryea to split the money with her--then, determining that Kennedy might be too honest for everyone's own good, she murders her husband. To cover her tracks, Scott reports her husband as missing. This brings in yet another fly in the ointment: Don DeFore, the brother of Scott's first husband, who died under mysterious circumstances. The already knotted webs of intrigue become even more tangled before Scott's ironic comeuppance. Too Late for Tears was scripted by Roy Huggins, who later produced such TV detective series as The Rockford Files. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama a boxer-turned-minister counsels a troubled young fighter who is framed for murder after refusing to take a dive in an upcoming bout. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this courtroom drama, two opposing lawyers lead a double life. In the courtroom they are ruthless toward each other, but once the day is over they become passionate lovers. Unfortunately their newest case may well threaten their relationship as the defense attorney is defending a corrupt district attorney who happens to be her ex-husband. The prosecutor knows nothing of their past relationship; all he knows is he wants to nail the crook and his cronies to the wall. Unfortunately, the truth comes out in court and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Daisy Kenyon stars Joan Crawford as the eponymous heroine, a Manhattan commercial artist. Daisy is torn between two men: a handsome, married attorney (Dana Andrews) and an unmarried Henry Fonda. Deciding to do the "right thing", Daisy marries Fonda, but carries a torch for the dashing Andrews. When the lawyer divorces his wife, he calls upon Daisy and tries to win her back. She is very nearly won over, but her husband isn't about to give up so easily. Both men argue over Daisy, who is so distraught by the experience that she nearly has a fatal automobile accident. In the end, Daisy realizes that she truly loves Fonda, and gives Andrews his walking papers. Daisy Kenyon is given a contemporary slant with a subplot about child abuse (in a Joan Crawford film!); and, in one scene set at New York's Stork Club, several celebrities (Walter Winchell, Leonard Lyons, John Garfield) make unbilled cameo appearances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Republic Pictures attempted to mix the popular Zorro sub-genre with a modern crime story in this action serial directed by veterans Spencer G. Bennet and Fred C. Brannon. It was an uneasy mix at best, and after establishing that Dolores Quantaro (Adrian Booth) was indeed the granddaughter of the legendary daredevil, the serial settled down to become a rather drawn-out whodunit concerning the murders of several descendants of a Spanish settler. Attempting to get to the bottom of the carnage, Dolores is aided by crime reporter Cliff Roberts (played by future Superman, Kirk Alyn), but despite their combined efforts, it took another 11 episodes before the culprit was finally unmasked. Adrian Booth had been billed Lorna Gray when playing the evil high priestess Vultura in the earlier, and still fondly remembered, Perils of Nyoka (1942). The brunette starlet went on to some success as a leading lady in Republic Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Oriental Dream is the TV title for the 1944 Technicolor version of Kismet. Ronald Colman plays Hadji, "king of beggars" in the days of the Arabian Nights. Posing as a prince, Colman woos Marlene Dietrich, the favorite wife of the evil Wazir (Edward Arnold). Meanwhile, Colman's daughter Joy Ann Page falls in love with handsome Caliph James Craig--while the Wazir connives to get Page into his own harem. Several plot convolutions later, Colman ends up with Dietrich, Page winds up with Craig, and the Wazir winds up six feet under. Kismet was based on the war-horse stage play by Edward Knoblock, previously filmed in 1920 and 1930 with the play's original star Otis Skinner. The title Oriental Dream was bestowed upon the 1944 Kismet when it was remade as a musical in 1955. The earlier version had its musical moments as well, notably a delicious dance number spotlighting Dietrich, painted gold head from head to toe; an additional dance sequence was cut, but later showed up in the Abbott and Costello comedy Lost in a Harem (1944). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Judy Canova plays Bessie Cobb, a kitchen worker at a Miami hotel who happens to have a crackerjack singing voice. The bell captain, Chick Patterson, learns that band leader Danny Marlowe is looking for a new girl singer, and a contest will be held at the hotel to choose one. Chick sees this as a way to make some significant money, which would allow him to marry his sweetheart, and so he persuades Bessie to enter. Chick takes a recording of Bessie to Marlowe, only to discover that gangster Honest Joe Kincaid is ordering Marlowe to choose his moll, Sugar, instead. Marlowe doesn't want to do this, but he's in over his head with gambling debts. Chick plays Bessie's record, but tells Marlowe that the voice belongs to Sugar. When Sugar comes to town, Danny and his pals kidnap her and Bessie goes on, pretending to be her. Unfortunately, Sugar's former boy friend sends two hit men to take care of her -- and they abduct Bessie, assuming she is Sugar. Things get even more complicated before all identities are straightened out and Bessie emerges the winner of the contest. Songs include the title number and "Barrelhouse Bessie from Basin Street." ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

William Powell and Myrna Loy re-team for this (literally) crazy screwball comedy about a happily married couple who, thanks to a visit from mother, find their marriage on the rocks and the husband committed to a mental institution. Poised to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary, Steven (William Powell) and Susan Ireland (Myrna Loy) find their domestic bliss shattered by a visit from Susan's mother (Florence Bates). Susan's mother sprains her ankle and extends her visit, just in time to draw the wrong conclusions when her son-in-law pays a friendly visit to his old girlfriend Isobel (Gail Patrick). Susan's mother eavesdrops and reports it all to Susan, who in a jealous rage tries to make Steven jealous. But she winds up being chased through the hallway of her apartment building by half-naked archery enthusiast Ward Willoughby (Jack Carson). The couple agree on a divorce, but Steven then has second thoughts. On the advice of his lawyer, George Renny (Sidney Blackmer), Steven pretends he is insane, since the law prohibits Susan from divorcing him if Steven is mentally ill. Unfortunately, Susan is wise to his charade and has him committed to an asylum. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide