Ramsay Ames Movies
Despite being one of the great exotic screen beauties of the early '40s, Ramsay Ames never broke out of leading roles in B-movies and supporting parts in A-films. She was born Ramsay Phillips in New York (her reported year of birth varies from 1921 to 1924, depending on the source), and was a student athlete (especially excelling as a swimmer) in high school. She attended the Walter Hillhouse School of Dance, specializing in Latin-style dance, and also took up singing, becoming the vocalist with a top rhumba band. She later became part of a dance team under the name Ramsay Del Rico, and appeared as a model at the Eastman Kodak-sponsored fashion show at the 1939 New York World's Fair. A back injury sidelined her from dancing and fate intervened: in the course of a trip to California to visit her mother, she had a chance meeting at the airport with Harry Cohn. He was the president of Columbia Pictures and the meeting resulted in a screen test and then her 1943 movie debut, Two Senoritas From Chicago. From there she moved to Universal, where she was cast in key roles in movies such as The Mummy's Ghost, in which she was the hapless modern victim of the ancient curse of Kharis the Mummy, and major supporting parts in pictures like Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, Calling Dr. Death, and Follow the Boys.With her dark good looks and statuesque, athletic yet attractive physique, Ames was ideal in portrayals of exotic roles, such as the Egyptian student in her Mummy movie and the French and Latin women she often got to play. She was also good in physically demanding action roles. During the mid-'40s, she made a pair of Cisco Kid movies with Gilbert Roland, The Gay Cavalier and Beauty and the Bandit. In the first, Ames is credited in some sources with co-authoring one of the songs, and in the second, she brought a good deal of fire and humor to a script that, for the first half, resembled a cowboy version of As You Like It.
Ames had small roles in major movies like Mildred Pierce and the epic-length Green Dolphin Street, but by the second half of the 1940s she was locked into B-features such as PRC's low-budget Philo Vance Returns and was also working at Republic in serials such as The Black Widow and G-Men Never Forget. She gave up acting and Hollywood at the end of the 1940s and for many years lived in Spain, where she had her own television interview show and occasionally took acting roles in films produced in Europe. Her later movies included the features Alexander the Great (1956) and Carol Reed's 1963 thriller The Running Man. She returned to the United States in the early '60s and was married to playwright Dale Wasserman, best known for Man of La Mancha, until their divorce in 1980. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Sombra, the Spider Woman is the feature-film abridgement of the 1947 Republic serial The Black Widow (which explains why a number of the listed actors had died by this film's listed year of release). The formidable Carol Forman stars as Sombra, whose fortune-telling establishment serves as a front for a vast criminal empire. Making things trickier for hero Steve Colt (Bruce Edwards) is the fact that Sombra is a master (or mistress) of disguise. Colt and plucky girl reporter Joyce Winters (Virginia Lindley) try to prevent Sombra from stealing the plans for a revolutionary atomic rocket engine. This is one serial in which the male actors are thoroughly overshadowed by the female leads. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Based upon a novel by Shelley Smith, The Running Man opens at the memorial service for Rex Black (Laurence Harvey), the owner of a small air transport company who is believed to have drowned in a recent glider accident. It soon turns out, however, that Black is very much alive; he faked his death as a means of getting back at the insurance company who denied an earlier claim because he was one day late in making his payment. He has enlisted the cooperation of his wife Stella (Lee Remick) in this scheme. While she waits for the insurance company to approve the claim, he disguises himself, assumes a new identity (that of Charles Erskine, a shoe salesman) and goes to wait for Stella in Spain. Once there, he meets drunken Australian millionaire Jim Jerome in a bar; when Jerome inadvertently leaves his passport at the bar, Rex confiscates it and hatches a new plan to collect on Jerome's insurance as well. In the meantime, Stella has met with insurance representative Stephen Maddox (Alan Bates), who eventually approves her claim. She journeys to Spain, but finds Rex a changed man, and isn't comfortable with either his new personality or his latest scheme. To make matters worse, Maddox shows up. Is it a coincidence or is he suspicious? The rest of the film hinges on the answer to this question, as well as what Maddox's plans are in either case. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Harvey, Lee Remick, (more)
The short life and quick death of Alexander the Great is recounted in this literate historical epic. Decked out in a blonde wig, Richard Burton stars as the Grecian warrior who conquered the known world while only in his twenties, then wept because there were no more worlds left to conquer. While the film's 141 minutes are occasionally bogged down by near-existential dialogue sequences (What doth it profit a man etc. etc.), the battle sequences are among the best and most accurate ever filmed. Fredric March and Danielle Darieux costar as Alexander's parents Philip of Macedonia and Olympius, Claire Bloom does what she can with the nothing role of Alexander's wife Barsine, and Michael Hordern and Harry Andrews are cast as Demosthenes and Darrius, respectively. Lensed in Spain and Italy, Alexander the Great conquered no new worlds at the box-office, perhaps because Richard Burton, brilliant though he was, hadn't yet attained "saleability". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Burton, Fredric March, (more)
Although a few character names and minor details are different, Vicki is a fairly faithful remake of the 1941 murder melodrama I Wake Up Screaming. The title character, Vicki Lynn, played by Jean Peters, is a waitress who is transformed into a top fashion model by press agent Steve Christopher (Elliot Reid). When Vicki is murdered, psychotic detective Ed Cornell (Richard Boone) tries to pin the blame on Christopher. In fact, Cornell knows who the real killer is, but he was so desperately (and hopelessly) in love with the dead girl that he intends to railroad Christopher into the electric chair. With the help of Vicki's sister (Jeanne Crain), Christopher tracks down the genuine culprit and exposes Cornell for the nutcase that he is. Featured in the cast is future TV producer Aaron Spelling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Crain, Jean Peters, (more)
- 1948
The popular G-Men of the 1930s made a comeback in this action serial produced by Republic Pictures, starring television's future Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore. The serial, however, was not so much a showcase for the pleasant if lightweight Moore, but rather a welcome opportunity for the studio's most effective villain, the near-legendary Roy Barcroft, to strut his considerable stuff. Barcroft plays a notorious gangster who escapes from prison, and via plastic surgery, assumes the identity of the local police commissioner (also Barcroft), who he has kidnapped. The masquerade is so effective that government agents Moore and Ramsay Ames fail to catch on until the 12th and final chapter, logically entitled "Exposed." The serial was re-edited into a feature version entitled Code 645. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1947
The 161-minute costume drama Green Dolphin Street is set in 1840, on an island off the coast of Newfoundland, (or at least, the MGM backlot facsimile of same). Boiled down to essentials, it's the story of two sisters, blonde Marguerite Patourel (Donna Reed) and brunette
Marianne Patourel (Lana Turner), daughters of the wealthy Octavius Patourel (Edmund Gwenn). The two women meet New Zealander William Ozone (Richard Hart) and both quietly fall in love with him, though he's far more interested in Marguerite. To get William away from her sister, the conniving Marianne encourages the young man to fulfill his dreams by enlisting in H.R.H.'s Navy, whereby he'll be shipped off to China. But William misses the boat (no pun intended) and becomes a fugitive. He and buddy Timothy Haslam (Van Heflin) pair up and ship out to New Zealand, where they found a lumber business. William gets soused one night and writes to the sister he loves, inviting her to join him in marriage - but drunkenly uses the other sister's name by mistake. Marianne, believing he meant to write to her, decides to set off for New Zealand to be with her intended. Meanwhile,
Timothy secretly pines for Marguerite - and that's only the set up for this broadly-scaled melodrama. Reportedly budgeted at $4 million, Green Dolphin Street was based on the somewhat better bestseller by Elizabeth Goudge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Marianne Patourel (Lana Turner), daughters of the wealthy Octavius Patourel (Edmund Gwenn). The two women meet New Zealander William Ozone (Richard Hart) and both quietly fall in love with him, though he's far more interested in Marguerite. To get William away from her sister, the conniving Marianne encourages the young man to fulfill his dreams by enlisting in H.R.H.'s Navy, whereby he'll be shipped off to China. But William misses the boat (no pun intended) and becomes a fugitive. He and buddy Timothy Haslam (Van Heflin) pair up and ship out to New Zealand, where they found a lumber business. William gets soused one night and writes to the sister he loves, inviting her to join him in marriage - but drunkenly uses the other sister's name by mistake. Marianne, believing he meant to write to her, decides to set off for New Zealand to be with her intended. Meanwhile,
Timothy secretly pines for Marguerite - and that's only the set up for this broadly-scaled melodrama. Reportedly budgeted at $4 million, Green Dolphin Street was based on the somewhat better bestseller by Elizabeth Goudge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lana Turner, Patrick Aherne, (more)
- 1947
Philo Vance, the infuriatingly brilliant amateur detective created by S. S. Van Dine, hadn't been seen on screen for seven years when PRC decided to launch a new "Philo Vance" series in 1947. William Wright plays the title role in the first entry, Philo Vance Returns, while Alan Curtis would take over the role for the remaining two films. This time around, Vance investigates the murder of a much-married playboy. With so many of the victim's former wives and sweethearts still around and about, Vance has quite a selection of suspects to choose from. Without revealing too much, it can be noted that the identity of the actual killer will probably startle fans of MGM's The Wizard of Oz (1939). Like Monogram's Charlie Chan films, Philo Vance Returns is topheavy with clever but somewhat pointless gimmickry, including a poisoned bubble bath. Older prints of this film still carry its TV-reissue title Infamous Crimes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Wright, Terry Austin, (more)
- 1947
The Black Widow is a low-budget, surprisingly entertaining adventure, science-fiction serial produced by Republic Pictures. Steve Colt (Bruce Edwards) and Joyce Winters (Virginia Lindley) battle to save the world from the evil powers of Sombra (Carol Forman), a wicked woman who intends to rule using her psychic powers. This 13-episode series was directed by Fred C. Brannon and Spencer Gordon Bennett. These episodes, released on video, were produced and shown weekly in movie theatres prior to the main features. While not of the same quality as Flash Gordon, The Black Widow is entertaining and amusing and worth viewing for lovers of the genre. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- 1946
Gilbert Roland dominates the action in a colorful performance as the bandit hero the Cisco Kid, this time up against a surprisingly vicious plot by a local doctor to steal land from the local peasants and small ranchers by poisoning them to drive them off, and then reselling the property to absentee European landlords. He finds an unexpected ally in Jeanne DuBois (Ramsay Ames), who starts out as part of the plot but is turned around by Roland's charm and charisma after a few fireworks. The direction is uneven, with William Nigh not quite able to make the flatter parts of the script as entertaining or smooth as they ought to be. Evidently, the producers knew they were in trouble with this downbeat script and took steps to rescue the picture. Seeing the sparks fly in the scenes in the first third of the picture, in which Ames is disguised as a man (which evokes echoes -- albeit very distant -- of Shakespeare's As You Like It) and verbally jousts with Roland, more material was written on the spot for the two of them, depicting a competition that becomes much more heated when her gender is revealed. By her own account, Nigh and Ames were friends, and she was a good sport on this shoot whatever they had her doing, and it's a pity they didn't go further with the rivalry between Roland's and Ames' characters, who might've been the Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones of their era. Roland also wrote some of his own dialogue and poetry for this effort, which seems very hackneyed today, but played just fine for audiences in 1946. (Note: In early TV prints of Beauty And The Bandit, all references to the Cisco Kid and O. Henry in the credits were blacked out, and mentions of the Cisco Kid and "Cisco" in the dialogue awkwardly dubbed over as "Chico" -- one suspects this was because the exclusive TV rights to the Cisco Kid had been sold to another producer for the TV series starring Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1946
Joe Hilton (Warren Douglas), long on looks and ambition but short on ethics, takes immediate advantage when his gambler brother is killed by a rival. Hilton takes over his late brother's operation, quickly and illegally building up a fortune. His friends plead with Hilton to quit the rackets before it's too late, but he pays no attention (and who can blame him?) The story comes to a surprising conclusion, avoiding the usual last-minute-reformation cliché and thereby retaining its integrity throughout. Below the Deadline is proof enough the director William "One Take" Beaudine was much more than a prolific hack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Douglas, Ramsay Ames, (more)
- 1946
There'd already been a "Cisco Kid" B-picture titled The Gay Caballero, so this Monogram "Cisco" entry was released as The Gay Cavalier. No matter: it means the same thing, and the film is the mixture as before. Gilbert Roland stars as Cisco, while Martin Garralaga, usually cast as Pancho, is here seen as a wealthy ranch owner. With his usually roguish aplomb, Cisco saves Garralaga from a gang of thieves, engaging chief villain Tris Coffin in an exciting bit of climactic swordplay. Gay Cavalier represented Gilbert Roland's first "Cisco Kid" endeavor; he would appear in five more before being replaced by Duncan Renaldo in 1947. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gilbert Roland, Martin Garralaga, (more)
- 1945
In this wartime romance, two young newlyweds must reluctantly part when the young man is called to war. He spends the next three years fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific. While there, he learns that his wife has left him and has given away his son--he didn't even know she was pregnant. Quickly he gets the necessary pass and flies home. There a good-hearted judge helps the troubled couple reunite. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Leslie, Robert Hutton, (more)
Joan Crawford won an Academy Award for her bravura portrayal of the titular heroine in Mildred Pierce. The original James M. Cain novel concerned a tawdry waitress who slept her way to financial security so as to provide a rosy future for her beloved daughter, only to be rewarded by having her true love stolen away by that same daughter. Ranald McDougall's screenplay tones down the novel's sexual content, enhancing its film noir value by adding a sordid murder. The film opens with oily lounge lizard Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) being pumped full of bullets. Croaking out the name "Mildred", he collapses and dies. Both the police and the audience are led to believe that the murderer is chain-restaurant entrepreneur Mildred Pierce (Crawford), who takes the time to relate some of her sordid history. As the flashback begins, we see Mildred unhappily married to philandering Bert Pierce (Bruce Bennett). She divorces him, keeping custody of her two beloved daughters, Veda (Ann Blyth) and Kay (Jo Anne Marlowe). To keep oldest daughter Veda in comparative luxury, Mildred ends up taking a waitressing position at a local restaurant. With the help of slimy real estate agent Wally Fay (Jack Carson), she eventually buys her own establishment, which grows into a chain of restaurants throughout Southern California. Meanwhile, Mildred smothers Veda in affection and creature comforts. She goes so far as to enter into a loveless marriage with the wealthy Monty Beragon in order to improve her social standing; Beragon repays the favor by living the life of a layabout playboy, much to Mildred's dismay -- and possible financial ruin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, (more)
- 1944
Paramount Pictures did their patriotic duty with this World War II era musical, with a number of the studio's biggest stars making cameo appearances. Tony West (George Raft), his sister Kitty (Grace McDonald), and their father Nick (Charles Grapewin) tour together as The Three Wests, a failing act just scraping by in the latter days of vaudeville. With job opportunities drying up on the East Coast, Tony persuades the family to take their chances in California, and for once luck is with him. Not long after arriving in Hollywood, Tony is hired as a chorus boy on a musical starring Latin bombshell Vera Zorina (Gloria Vance). Cocky Tony offers Vera some much-needed advice on her dancing. She's intrigued by his confidence, and a romance blooms; soon, the two marry. Tony becomes a major star as Vera's on and off screen dancing partner, but when World War II breaks out, Tony's conscience gets the better of him. Tony is 4-F because of a bad knee, but he's ashamed to admit this, even to Vera, who thinks he's avoiding the service out of cowardice. Vera eventually gives Tony his walking papers, and desperate to show his support of our troops, Tony organizes an all-star U.S.O. revue bringing much needed entertainment to America's fighting men overseas. Follow the Boys also features guest shots by Marlene Dietrich, W.C. Fields (demonstrating trick billiard shots), Orson Welles (doing his magic act), Dinah Shore, The Andrews Sisters, Jeanette MacDonald, Sophie Tucker, Randolph Scott, Lon Chaney Jr., and Maria Montez, among many others. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Vera Zorina, (more)
- 1944
Released by Monogram, A WAVE, a WAC and a Marine was packaged by Biltmore Productions, a partnership consisting of Abbott and Costello's agent Eddie Sherman and Lou Costello's father Sebastian Cristillo. Though Elyse Knox, Sally Eilers and Ann Gillis head the cast, the film is a showcase for nightclub comedian Henny Youngman, here cast as a Hollywood agent named (what else?) Henny. Sent out by his studio to sign up a pair of gorgeous Broadway stars (Ramsay Ames and Marjorie Woodworth) Henny signs the stars' understudies (Knox and Gillis) by mistake. Fortunately, the "substitutes" are every bit as talented as the real stars, and as a result are contracted to appear in a big-budget film, cast as the aforementioned WAVE and WAC (who's the Marine)? Henny Youngman's delivery was as sharp then as it is now, but he was undermined by substandard sound recording. More impressive was the first-time direction of former Universal production assistant Philip Karlstein, who went on to auteur fame as Phil Karlson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elyse Knox, Ramsay Ames, (more)
- 1944
The still very undead mummy experiences insane jealousy in this the third of Universal's Kharis thrillers. Although he was thought to have perished in a fire in The Mummy's Tomb (1942), Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) is once again wreaking havoc in the town of Mapleton, MA. Sent by the High Priest (George Zucco) to retrieve both Kharis and his ancient love interest, the Princess Ananka, from their resting places at New York's Scripps Museum, Yousef Bey (John Carradine) learns that the princess has turned to dust. Her soul, however, seems to have been reincarnated as Amina Mansouri (Ramsay Ames), an Egyptian exchange student studying with Mapleton Egyptologist professor Norman (Frank Reicher). The latter's experiments with brewing tanna leaves turn ugly when Kharis appears. Soon after, Amina's hair develops grey streaks and she experiences strange and unsettling trances, unsettling especially for boyfriend Tom Hervey (Robert Lowery). Investigating Professor Norman's strange death, Inspector Walgreen (Barton MacLane) sets a trap for Kharis, but the crafty mummy escapes with a prostrate Amina. Hiding in an abandoned mineshaft, Kharis, to his distress, learns that Yousef harbors more than a religious interest in the beautiful Amina and promptly kills him. With the reincarnated but rapidly decaying princess in his arms, the mummy, to the horrors of the townspeople in general and Tom in particular, blithely walks into a nearby swamp and slowly sinks into the quagmire. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, (more)
- 1944
In this musical comedy, a vaudevillian father, wanting a better life for his son, fires the youth from their act. The deeply angry young man's devoted and creative gal, a hat-check girl, helps him land a job with a big band. But despite his resulting success, he remains estranged from his heart-broken father, until the girl friend uses her creative writing skills to effect a reunion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grace McDonald, Richard Davies, (more)
The general perception of the Technicolor costume adventure movies that Maria Montez and Jon Hall made for Universal in the early 1940's is that they were pure escapist entertainment, intended to make people forget for an hour or so about the Second World War and the general world situation. And generally that is true about them -- they were mostly no "about" much more than having fun for 90 minutes or so amid pretty sets with lots of action and some pretty women in exotic outfits. But watching Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, one has to wonder if even here the screenwriter, Edmund L. Hartmann, was able to totally get away from the day-to-day reality around him. The opening Mongol invasion of Bagdad and the murder of the old Caliph (Moroni Olsen) while trying to set up a government-in-exile without thinking of the German and Japanese conquests and occupations of various nations that would have been going on at the time; additionally, the fact that the old Caliph is murdered with the help of a traitor in his own noble ranks -- a "quisling" in the term coined during World War II -- wouldn't have been missed by audiences at the time. Further, the screenplay very specifically paints the forty thieves as heroes who have gone from being criminals to an active resistance force against the occupying Mongols -- indeed, at the denouement, their invasion of the palace is greeted as a day of liberation by the people of Bagdad. The movie walks a strange tightrope, casting about veiled topical references of that sort, even as is otherwise sufficiently tongue-in-cheek to cast Andy Devine as a desert bandit. Obviously, Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves was sold as -- and mostly intended as -- light entertainment, but just below that glitzy Technicolor surface were some fascinating allusions to the real world. None of this stops Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves from being immense fun -- it is, even if the "fun" isn't totally escapist in nature -- and it's great to look at as well, even 60 years on; Universal has apparently kept preservation-quality source materials on this and Hall and Montez's other Technicolor costume romps. And this particular entry in that group of movies also contains one very instructive clue to the morays and censorship of the time in one scene, in which the hero meets the heroine bathing at an oasis -- the makers seem to have been forced to insert a particular shot that is there for no other reason then to make it clear that she is not totally naked when he sees her. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Hall, Maria Montez, (more)
- 1943
In this first of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" mysteries, Lon Chaney Jr. plays a neurologist plagued by a faithless wife. He suffers a bout of insanity, blacks out, and loses all track of time. Upon returning to his home, he discovers that his wife has been murdered. Investigating detective J. Carroll Naish is certain that Chaney is the murderer, and tries to browbeat the suspect into a confession. Chaney himself is half-convinced that he is guilty, and in conducting his own investigation learns the truth. All we can say without spoiling the film is that the truth hurts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1943
The Two Senoritas from Chicago are Gloria (Jinx Falkenburg) and Maria (Ann Savage). When their goofy pal Daisy Baker (Joan Davis) passes off a discarded Portuguese play manuscript as her own, producer Rupert Shannon (Emory Parnell) agrees to bankroll the production. With stars in their eyes, Gloria and Maria pretend to be a pair of Portuguese musical comedy stars, thereby winning parts in the new production. The fun begins when the play's original authors sell the same manuscript to a rival producer. The story's for the birds, but Two Senoritas from Chicago is at the very least decorative, with stars Jinx Falkenburg (later a popular TV talk host) and Ann Savage attractively garbed in what one observer has described as Carmen Miranda's leftovers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Davis, Jinx Falkenburg, (more)
