Chester Conklin Movies
A former Barnum circus clown, pint-sized Chester Conklin entered movies at Mack Sennett's Keystone studios in 1913. Sporting a huge mustache to hide his youthful appearance, Conklin was usually cast as "A. Walrus." Legend has it that Conklin helped Keystone novice Charlie Chaplin put together his famous Tramp costume; true or not, it is a fact that Chaplin kept Conklin on year-round payroll for his later productions Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940). After leaving Keystone, Conklin remained a popular comedian at the Fox and Sunshine Studios. In the late 1920s, he was teamed with W.C. Fields for a brief series of feature films at Paramount Pictures. In talkies, Conklin mostly appeared in bits in features and supporting parts in 2-reelers; he also showed up in such nostalgic retrospectives as Hollywood Cavalcade (1939) and The Perils of Pauline (1947). At his lowest professional ebb, in the 1950s, Conklin made ends meet as a department-store Santa. In and out of the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in the 1960s, Conklin fell in love with another patient, 65-year-old June Gunther. The two eloped (she was Chester's fourth wife) and settled in a modest bungalow in Van Nuys. Chester Conklin showed up in a handful of films in the 1960s; his last appearance, playing a character appropriately named Chester, was in 1966's A Big Hand for the Little Lady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1967
A video compilation of cutting-room-floor footage from the works of Charles Chaplin. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. narrates. ~ All Movie Guide
The action in A Big Hand for the Little Lady centers around a high-stake poker game. The participants include some of the wealthiest men in the West (among them Jason Robards Jr., Kevin McCarthy, Charles Bickford and Paul Ford). Into this rarefied atmosphere trudges impoverished farmer Henry Fonda, who despite the protests of his wife Joanne Woodward plunks down his last dollars to join the game. Halfway through the proceedings, Fonda falls ill. With quiet desperation, Woodward sits down daintily at the table and says in a firm voice, "Gentlemen, how do you play this game?" End of story? Not by a long shot! This O. Henry-style shaggy dog story is based on a Dupont Show of the Week TV presentation Big Deal at Laredo. Keep an eye out for two movie veterans in bit parts: silent screen comic Chester Conklin and 1930's leading lady Mae Clarke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, (more)
- 1961
Stars in the Back Yard is an alternate title for filmmaker Hugo Haas' valedictory feature Paradise Alley. Taking a breather from his usual plot (a dirty old man victimized by a sluttish young wife), Haas casts himself as a washed-up Hollywood director. Hoping to prove that people are basically decent at heart, he pretends to film the comings and goings of the residents of a run-down boarding house. Though he has no film in his camera, his subjects don't know that, and their behavior bears out his thesis. A happy ending is brought about when a major movie studio offers to finance Haas' project-and, incidentally, to give him some film to work with. Among the participants in Haas' faux production are veterans Corinne Griffith, Margaret Hamilton, Billy Gilbert, Chester Conklin and Almira Sessions. Completed in 1958, Paradise Alley didn't attain a release until 1962, when it went directly to television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
In this comedy, an awkward TV repairman finds himself falling for an actress who doesn't even know he exists and instead marries a dashing Mexican bullfighter. Unfortunately, he dies the day after their wedding; fortunately, he managed to impregnate her. Unfortunately, she is soon supposed to be starring in a religious epic called The White Virgin on the Nile. To help her, the repairman offers to watch her baby after it is born. Unfortunately, she gives birth to triplets. Later he marries the sister of the actress who bears him quintuplets. Some guys have all the luck. Songs include: "In the Land of La La La", "Dormi, Dormi, Dormi", "The White Virgin of the Nile", "Love is a Lonely Thing" and ""Why Can't He Care for Me?"" ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerry Lewis, Marilyn Maxwell, (more)
- 1955
In 1870s Arizona, Anne LeBeau (Joan Taylor) is caught between two cultures in a conflict that may kill her and her brother Armand (Lance Fuller). They're the children of a white French father and an Apache mother (the daughter of a chief, no less), and they find that they're equally despised by both sides. With a series of raids on the stage-line killing whites, and apparently carried out by the Apaches, there's very little prospect for peace in their lives. Enter Rex Moffet (Lloyd Bridges), sent in by the government to try and settle the situation -- instead of being a militarist, Moffet is a conciliator, much to the outrage of the townspeople, who want all of the Apaches driven out or killed, starting with the LeBeaus. When Moffet starts to fall in love with Anne (and visa versa), he must face the wrath of her embittered brother and the Apaches as well as the whites. It turns out that Armand -- who is college educated, and a lawyer, no less -- is the man leading the attacks, out of his bitterness and anger over the rejection he's faced by the whites all of his life. One thing that Rex has on his side is the truth, that the raids are actually the work of a small band of renegades working in tandem with opportunistic whites from the town. But can he stay alive long enough to uncover the identities of those responsible and prevent an Indian War? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Bridges, Joan Taylor, (more)
- 1955
Notable only for the presence of former silent film great Chester Conklin, this silly sci-fi flick from legendary producer Roger Corman is a murky blend of alien-invasion fare such as It Came from Outer Space and sundry "animals-run-amok" movies. When an invading alien (possessing far less than a million visual organs) touches down in a desert township outside of Indio, California (in a spacecraft that resembles a kitchen appliance), it begins its plan of world domination by controlling the minds of various animals, which subsequently attack the townspeople. The animal attacks are numerous but dull -- except for a scene of homicidal birds that beat Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds by a full five years (not that Hitch had cause for alarm). ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Birch, Lorna Thayer, (more)
A sequel to Bob Hope's 1948 box-office success The Paleface, 1952's Son of Paleface is a superior product in every way, thanks largely to the spirited, creative direction of Frank Tashlin. Hope is cast as Junior Potter, a Harvard-educated dude who heads West to claim the inheritance left him by his gunslinger father. Much to his chagrin, Junior discovers that his dad has left him nothing but debts. To stave off Potter Sr.'s angry creditors, Junior pretends that his father has salted away a fortune somewhere in the hills. This arouses the attention of curvaceous saloon owner Mike (Jane Russell), who doubles as a mysterious masked bandit known as The Torch. Meanwhile, Roy Rogers (playing a federal agent named Roy Rogers) keeps tabs on Junior, hoping that he'll lead him to The Torch and her gang. True to form, ex-cartoonist Tashlin fills the screen with a wealth of inventive sight gags and inside jokes: Cecil B. DeMille shows up as a photographer in one scene, while in another, Hope, about to embark on the film's wild climactic chase sequence, shoos away a couple of vultures wearing bibs, warning them that "You'll make the whole thing look impossible." Our favorite scenes: Hope's Wile E. Coyote-like reaction to a particularly potent drink, and his bedroom scene with Roy Rogers' wonder horse Trigger. And don't forget the film's slightly risque punch line "Let's see them top that on television," (you have to be there). Songs in Son of Paleface include "You Are My Valley of Sunshine," "Four-Legged Friend," "Wing Ding Tonight," "What A Dirty Shame," and a reprise of The Paleface's Oscar-winning "Buttons and Bows," performed by Hope, Russell and Rogers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Jane Russell, (more)
- 1951
Bob Hope is up to his famous nose in danger in this espionage comedy. Second-rate burlesque comic Peanuts White (Hope) is approached by federal agents who think that he's international spy Eric Augustine, to whom Peanuts bears a striking resemblance. When they realize that Peanuts and Eric are two different people, the FBI persuades him to travel to Africa posing as Eric and fetch a batch of microfilm that could prove vital to national security. With reluctance, Peanuts flies to Tangiers and arranges a rendezvous with Lily Dalbray (Hedy Lamarr), Eric's beautiful girlfriend and an agent of shifting alliances herself. However, Lily's superior Karl Brubaker (Francis L. Sullivan) wants the microfilm, and he will stop at nothing to get it. As Peanuts tries to rescue the microfilm, make time with Lily, and avoid Karl, things become even more confused when Eric escapes from hiding and re-enters the picture. Both Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr contribute songs to the soundtrack, though unlike Bob, Hedy's vocals were dubbed in by a studio vocalist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Hedy Lamarr, (more)
Fancy Pants is a musicalized remake of the oft-filmed Harry Leon Wilson story Ruggles of Red Gap, tailored to the talents of "Mr. Robert Hope (formerly Bob)". The basic plotline of the original, that of an English butler entering the service of a rowdy nouveau-riche family from the American West, is retained. The major difference is that main character (Bob Hope) plays a third-rate American actor who only pretends to be a British gentleman's gentleman. Social-climbing American heiress Lucille Ball hires Hope to impress her high-society English acquaintances, then takes him back to her ranch in New Mexico. Though there are many close shaves, Hope manages to convince the wild and woolly westerners that he's a genuine British Lord--even pulling the wool over the eyes of visiting celebrity Teddy Roosevelt (John Alexander). Never as droll as the 1935 Leo McCarey-directed Ruggles of Red Gap, Fancy Pants nonetheless works quite well on its own broad, slapsticky level. If the ending seems abrupt, it may be because the original finale, in which a fleeing Bob Hope and Lucille Ball were to be rescued by surprise guest star Roy Rogers, was abandoned just before the scene was shot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, (more)
- 1950
- NR
In this 1951 comedy Irene Dunne stars as Kay, a Manhattan-based songwriter who marries widowed rodeo cowboy Chris (Fred MacMurray). In the tradition of The Egg and I, Kay suffers a great deal of culture shock when she moves into Chris' western ranch. When she isn't being bedeviled by her new step-children, poor Kay is subjected to bumps and bruises as she tries to become an expert horsewoman. Nothing happens in Never a Dull Moment that isn't thoroughly predictable, though the stars bring a degree of freshness to the proceedings. This film was one of several produced for RKO by Harriet Parsons, daughter of gossip columnist Louella Parsons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1950
Two-bit photographer Howard Duff wins a big newspaper assignment by romancing his lady boss (Peggy Dow). Duff is sent to take a picture of criminal Brian Donlevy, who doesn't like to be captured on celluloid. Donlevy takes a liking to Duff and asks him to frame one of the crook's less cooperative henchmen (Lawrence Tierney). Duff plays both sides of the fence, informing the henchman that his boss had planned to frame him. Shortly afterward, Donlevy is killed by a car bomb, and Duff becomes famous taking a picture of the event. Eventually Duff pulls one double-cross too many and is himself killed by the surly henchman--but not before taking a snapshot of his murderer in the act. Hard to believe, but Howard Duff makes his character in Shakedown somewhat likable, so that the audience is eager to see what sort of scam he'll pull next. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Howard Duff, Brian Donlevy, (more)
- 1950
Fred Astaire and Betty Hutton make a surprisingly copacetic screen team in Let's Dance. Hutton plays a more sedate role than usual as war widow Kitty McNeil. Not wishing to have her young son Richard (Gregory Moffatt) grow up in the stiff and stuffy environs of her Boston in-laws' mansion, Kitty sneaks off with the kid and resumes her prewar show-business career. She is reunited with her USO dancing partner Donald Elwood (Astaire), who hopes to give up performing in favor of the business world. Inevitably, Kitty and Donald resume their old act, while, equally inevitably, Kitty's Bostonite grandmother-in-law Serena Everett (Lucille Watson) sets the legal wheels in motion to gain custody of little Richard. Fred Astaire manages to match Betty Hutton's patented raucousness during the hillbilly musical number "Oh, Them Dudes", though he is given the opportunity to do the sort of dancing he does best--notably a brilliant routine atop and around a piano. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Betty Hutton, (more)
- 1950
The Milkman is a low-key variation of a theme explored in such slapstick festivals as The Fuller Brush Man and The Yellow Cab Man. Donald O'Connor plays Roger Bradley, who hopes to become a top-flight milkman to please his father (Henry O'Neill), the owner of the milk company. Jimmy Durante co-stars as Breezy Albright, the older milkman who teaches Roger the ropes. After several comic set pieces, the plot rears its ugly head in the form of John Carter (Jess Barker), the nephew of rival milk-company proprietress Mrs. Carter (Elizabeth Risdon). Carter has gotten mixed up with a nasty bunch of gamblers, led by Mike Morrel (William Conrad). This leads to an exciting, albeit chucklesome finale wherein Roger, Breezy and ingenue Chris Abbott (Piper Laurie) combine forces to rout the bad guys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald O'Connor, Jimmy Durante, (more)
- 1950
This "Joe Palooka" entry concentrates on Joe's porcine pal Humphrey Pennyworth (played by Robert Coogan, the brother of former child star Jackie Coogan). When soft-hearted pugilist Joe Palooka (Joe Kirkwood Jr.) arrives for a bout in Humphrey's home town, everyone gets sucked into a crooked scheme concocted by duplicitous town mayor Phiffeney (Jack Kirkwood). Nothing is meant to be taken seriously in this one, as indicated by the film's climax, which degenerates into an old-fashioned pie fight. As usual, top billing in Humphrey Takes a Chance is bestowed upon Leon Errol as Joe Palooka's dyspeptic manager Knobby Walsh. Joe's girlfriend Anne Howe is played by Lois Collier, the latest in a long line of actresses to essay this role. Also released as Joe Palooka in Humphrey Takes a Chance}, the film was inspired by the "Joe Palooka" comic strip by Ham Fisher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leon Errol, Joe Kirkwood, Jr., (more)
- 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)
- 1949
Part of the Roy Rogers series, this film focuses on Roy Roger's horse, Trigger, and his infatuation with a handsome palomino mare. When Trigger discovers the mare being beaten by her lowlife owner, he kills him, leaving Rogers to take the blame. However, it seems that Trigger's new girlfriend might be unwittingly involved in some underhanded activity. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, (more)
- 1949
Preston Sturges' final American film was generally conceded to be a disaster in 1949; even star Betty Grable publicly bad-mouthed the finished product. When seen today, Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, while no classic, seems a lot better than it did five decades ago. Grable plays a western dancehall girl named Freddie, who is forced to take it on the lam after accidentally shooting a judge (she'd been aiming at her faithless boyfriend Blackie Jobero, played by Cesar Romero). Arriving in the tiny burg of Bashful Bend, Freddie is mistaken for the schoolmarm whom the town elders have recently hired. Taking advantage of this mistaken-identity situation, Freddie puts the make on wealthy banker Charles Hingelman (Rudy Vallee, a Sturges "regular"), who owns a valuable gold mine. Before the film's 77 minutes are over, Freddie finds herself smack dab in the middle of a shootout between the Good Guys and a family of dimwitted outlaws. As was always the case in a Preston Sturges production, Beautiful Blonde of Bashful Bend is chock full of colorful supporting players, including Hugh Herbert (hilarious as a myopic dentist), El Brendel, Sterling Holloway, and Margaret Hamilton. Also on hand are stalwart Sturges stock company players Porter Hall, Alan Bridge, J. Farrell McDonald, Georgia Caine, Esther Howard, Torben Meyer, Dewey Robinson, and Harry Hayden--many of whom, in keeping with 20th Century-Fox's curious billing policy, are denied on-screen credit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, (more)
- 1948
One of the more popular movie-review paperbacks sums up Paramount's Isn't it Romantic? with a terse "No." There's actually more to the film than that, but not much. Set in Indiana in the 1890s, the story revolves around an diehard Confederate soldier named Major Euclid Cameron (Rolan Culver), who refuses to acknowledge that the South lost the Civil War. Cameron also regards himself as an aristocrat who will never sully his hands with work, which is why he and his family are flat broke. It is up to the Major's three pretty daughters-Candy (Veronica Lake), Susie (Mona Freeman) and Rose (Mary Hatcher)-to make ends meet financially, even if it means marrying for money rather than love. Pearl Bailey transcends the stereotypical role of the Cameron's housekeeper Abigail with her soulful renditions of such forgettable tunes as "I Shoulda Quit When I Was Ahead" (a bit of advice that could have profited the film's producers!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Veronica Lake, Mona Freeman, (more)
- 1947
Bearing little resemblance to reality, this musical biography of 19th century Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov takes liberal poetic license with the truth. Jeanne-Pierre Aumont stars as Nicky, a Naval Academy cadet assigned to a vessel undergoing a world cruise. On shore leave in Morocco, Nicky goes in search of a piano intending to pursue his true passion, music. Accompanied by the ship's singing doctor, Klin (Charles Kullmann), Nicky makes the acquaintance of a cabaret dancer named Cara de Talavera (Yvonne De Carlo). The daughter of a Spanish colonial family that was once prominent but has fallen upon difficult times, Cara now dances in secret as Scheherazade in a revue at the nightclub. Inspired by her, Nicky sets about composing his most famous song for inclusion in a ballet. Although fate conspires to keep Cara and Nicky apart for a time, his piece is a success and is scheduled for a performance at the St. Petersburg Opera House, where none other than Cara turns up as the lead dancer. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvonne De Carlo, Patricia Alphin, (more)
The third of four films bearing the title of The Perils of Pauline, this musical biopic purports to tell the life story of famed silent serial queen Pearl White. Right at the beginning, however, an introductory title informs the audience that what follows is merely "suggested" by incidents in White's life and career. Translation: The film is a fabrication from beginning to end, but an enjoyable one. Played on all four cylinders by Betty Hutton, White is introduced as a frustrated factory worker who aspires to become a dramatic actress. She joins a touring theatrical troupe managed by handsome but pompous Mike (John Lund), but fame and fortune elude her because she's unable to suppress her natural rambunctiousness. In desperation, White takes a job at a movie studio, where she promptly finds herself in the middle of a slapstick pie fight. With the help of bombastic director Mac (William Demarest), top-hatted villain portrayer Timmy (Billy De Wolfe), and imperious dramatics coach Julia (Constance Collier), Pearl soon becomes world-famous as the star of such cliffhanging, tied-to-the-railroad-tracks serials as The Perils of Pauline (hence the title of this film). At the height of her fame, she arranges for her theatrical mentor Mike to get a job as her leading man, forcing him to swallow his pride and admit that he's been in love with her from the moment he met her. A series of clichéd complications contrive to separate White and Mike, but he returns to her arms when she's seriously injured during a Parisian stage performance. A few fairly credible recreations of silent moviemaking techniques aside, The Perils of Pauline is wildly anachronistic and inaccurate (for one thing, Pearl White made most of her serials in New Jersey rather than Hollywood). As a musical comedy, however, the film passes muster, especially during the performance of such Frank Loesser tunes as "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" and "The Sewing Machine." As a bonus, the film rounds up several silent-movie veterans in cameo roles, including William Farnum, Chester Conklin, Jimmy Finlayson, Creighton Hale, Hank Mann -- and Paul Panzer, who played the sneering villain in the original 1914 Perils of Pauline. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Hutton, John Lund, (more)
- 1947
In this comedy, a scatter-brained professor nearly starts a riot when he writes a book claiming that women like to be treated roughly. A paper publishes snippets from the book and later the professor, feeling he was misquoted, begins suing for libel. The paper then sends out a female reporter to dredge up some dirt on the sexist academic. Not only does she do her job and prevent the suit, she and the professor end up falling in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Milland, Teresa Wright, (more)
- 1947
Republic's Springtime in the Sierras bestows upon star Roy Rogers two leading ladies. The first is his usual vis-a-vis Jane Frazee; the second is statuesque Stephanie Bachelor, playing the head of a poaching gang. Bachelor, it seems, has murdered a game warden who happens to be Rogers' closest chum. Rogers, Frazee and even Andy Devine get to sing in this one. Originally running 75 minutes, it was released to TV in a 54-minute version retitled Song of the Sierra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephanie Bachelor, Roy Barcroft, (more)
- 1947
C&W singer Jimmy Wakely would never be Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, but he strove to please. In Song of the Wasteland, Jimmy tries to uphold law and order in a tough frontier town. The villainy was in the grimy hands of Holly Bane, Pierce Lyden, Ted Adams and George Cheseboro, so Wakely had his work cut out for him. On hand for laughs was Lee "Lasses" White, whom one western historian characterized as the unfunniest comic relief in screen history. Director Thomas Carr keeps the action flowing, even during the musical sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1946
With a title like Singin' in the Corn, how could the star be anyone else but rambunctious rustic comedienne Judy Canova. This time, Canova plays Judy McCoy, a carnival mind-reader playing the boonies in the company of her partner Glen Cummings (Allen Jenkins). Judy's travelling days come to an end when she inherits her late uncle's estate. But the will has a proviso: She won't get a penny unless she returns a ghost town to a local singing Indian tribe (That's right, operator, a singing Indian tribe). The villain, Honest John Richards (Alan Bridge), connives to turn the Indians against Judy, but she is rescued by the intervention of her uncle's ghost! Director Del Lord, a graduate of Columbia's comedy 2-reelers, relies heavily on stock footage from earlier films to bring the running time up to 64 minutes: one critic commented that editor Aaron Stell should have been credited as co-director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Canova, Allen Jenkins, (more)
- 1946
Charles Barton took a break from his Abbott and Costello assignments at Universal to direct the second-feature thriller Smooth as Silk. Kent Taylor plays a slick criminal lawyer adept at all sorts of sneaky legalistic tricks. Taylor's girl friend Virginia Grey jilts him for the more honest Milburn Stone. The lawyer hatches a plan to murder Stone, then to use his knowledge of the law to get off scot-free and implicate someone else for the crime. Though running a scant 65 minutes, Smooth as Silk packs a bigger wallop than some of Universal's more ambitious "A" melodramas of the same period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kent Taylor, Virginia Grey, (more)
