David Hempstead Movies

The King and Four Queens was the first (and last) project from Clark Gable's own production company, GABCO. Gable stars as Western fugitive Dan Kehoe, who hides out in a small ghost town. Here he whiles away his time with the town's only inhabitants: Ma MacDade (Jo Van Fleet), matriarch of the outlaw McDade family, and the four wives (Eleanor Parker, Jean Willes, Barbara Nichols, and Sara Shane) of Mrs. McDade's gunslinging sons. Three of the four McDade boys are dead; the fourth is expected to return at any minute with the loot from a recent stagecoach robbery. Since no one knows which of the McDades is dead, all four wives make a play for the bemused Kehoe; he in turn responds to their advances, hoping to get a share of the gold. The fur really begins to fly when it turns out that one of the wives is a phony who intends to double-cross the other three and ride off into the sunset with Kehoe. When The King and Four Queens proved a box-office disappointment, Clark Gable gave up the notion of producing his own films and returned to freelancing at the major studios. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In Portrait of Jennie, Joseph Cotten plays an artist, Eben Adams, who is unable to bring any true feeling to his work. While painting in Central Park one morning, Eben makes the acquaintance of a schoolgirl named Jennie (Jennifer Jones), who prattles on about things that happened years ago. Intrigued at her thorough knowledge of the past, Eben is about to converse with her further, but Jennie has vanished. Over the next few months, Eben meets Jennie again and again -- and each time she seems to have aged by several years. He paints her portrait, which turns out to be more full of expression and emotion than anything he's previously done. His curiosity peaked by Jennie's enigmatic nature, Eben uncovers evidence that he has been conversing -- and falling in love -- with the ghost of a girl who died years earlier in a hurricane. On the eve of the hurricane's anniversary, Eben rushes to meet Jennie at the site where she was supposedly killed. As a new storm rages, Jennie vanishes for good, but not before declaring that the love she and Eben have shared will live forever. Rescued from the storm, Eben convinces himself that Jennie was a mere figment of his imagination. Then he notices that he stills clutches her scarf in his hand. He looks at his portrait of Jennie (the only Technicolor shot in this otherwise black-and-white film) and understands what she meant when she said that their love would endure throughout eternity; it will do so through Cotten's art, both the portrait at hand and all future portraits. Based on the novel by Robert Nathan, Portrait of Jennie is one of the most beautifully assembled fantasies ever presented onscreen. Producer David O. Selznick's unerring eye for "rightness" enabled him to select the perfect stars, supporting cast (Lillian Gish, Ethel Barrymore, David Wayne, Cecil Kellaway, et al.), director, cinematographer (Joseph August), and composer (Dimitri Tiomkin, who based his themes on the works of Debussy), and blend everything into one ideally balanced package. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A bit treacly at times, Tender Comrade is nonetheless a fascinating distillation of the American mindset during WW2. Ginger Rogers is at her noblest and most self-sacrificial as Jo, whose husband Chris (Robert Ryan) is off fighting the war. Though pregnant, Jo finds a job at Douglas Aircraft, saving her money by living in a group home with several of her female co-workers. Delivering lines like "Share and share alike, that's democracy", Jo and her friends pool their salaries and divvy up responsibilities, as wait for news from the Front about their husbands and sweethearts. When news arrives that Chris has been killed, Jo delivers an impassioned cheer-up speech to her infant son, which will either leave the viewer in tears or in giggles, depending upon one's frame of mind. The "collectivism" implicit in Tender Comrade (not to mention its politically chancy title!) would later cause a lot of trouble for screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and director Edward Dmytrk during the HUAC "Communist witchhunt" era. In 1943, however, audiences didn't worry about such things, and the film posted a huge profit for RKO Radio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Flight for Freedom was an "a clef" version of the Amelia Earhart story. Rosalind Russell plays the Earhart-like aviatrix Tonie Carter, who spends the early part of the film fighting against the aviation industry's prejudice against woman pilots. Tonie establishes a reputation as "the Lady Lindbergh", setting flight records on a near-weekly basis. Along the way, she falls in love with an agreeable flying ace (Fred MacMurray), much to the dismay of her conservative flight instructor (Herbert Marshall). The film's ending expands on speculation regarding Amelia Earhart's disappearance during a 1937 flight; Tonie Carter flies off on a secret mission to aid the Pacific war effort, then vanishes before completing her task. Flight for Freedom was produced for RKO by Floyd Odlum, whose wife Jacqueline Cochran was herself a renowned aviatrix. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At first glance, we seem to be watching the 1934 Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical The Gay Divorcee, which opens with a montage of Paris nightspots. Suddenly, however, stock footage from that earlier film is cut short, the screen goes dark, and an offscreen radio voice announces the Nazi invasion of France. At this point, the plot of Joan of Paris gets under way. Michèle Morgan plays a Parisian barmaid, Joan, whose patron saint is Joan of Arc. Thus, she considers it her bounden duty to aid Free French pilot Paul Lavallier (Paul Henreid) and his RAF comrades (one of whom is Alan Ladd) in their efforts to escape from occupied France. And if this means that Joan must face death at the hands of slimy Gestapo chief Herr Funk (Laird Cregar), she's eager and willing to make that sacrifice. One of the earliest French Underground dramas, Joan of Paris posted a neat profit for ever-in-the-red RKO Radio Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy/mystery a milquetoast ad man finds his good ideas constantly copped by ambitious coworkers. His boss doesn't even seem to see him. The ad man's wife pushes her husband into confronting his boss during a party. Unfortunately, the timid fellow finds himself accused of murder after a corpse is found in the trunk of his car. He is quickly incarcerated for the crime. Meanwhile his wife begins investigating in an attempt to prove his innocence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, the Ritz Brothers inherit a racehorse but are unable to make money from him because they cannot come up with the $1,000 needed to enter him in the big race. The two get involved with the race anyway when they overhear a group of Russian jockeys conspiring to ruin the race. The brothers then masquerade as the crooked riders and mayhem ensues. Songs include "With You On My Mind," "Why Not String Along With Me?" (Lew Brown, Lew Pollack; sung by Merman), "International Cowboys" (Ray Golden, Sid Kuller, Jule Styne). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This tuneful campus comedy features aging star John Barrymore as a sly, blustery Southern governor with his eye on the Senate (aka Louisiana's Huey Long). He sees opportunity knocking when he learns how desperate his constituents have become to build their miserable state college football team into winners. He figures that if the team wins, so will he. To this end, he surreptitiously recruits a number of burly professional wrestlers to pose as football players. Unfortunately his chief opponent is running a similar racket with a rival university. When the governor's trickery is revealed on the eve of the big game, things look bleak until a quick-thinking coed shows up to save the day. The story is also titled Hold That Girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This drama presents a dim view of life in a small town populated by back-stabbing, narrow-minded, hypocritical and maliciously gossipy bigots who meet at the town general store to spread their vicious lies. The current slander centers upon a young man who has an innocent crush on another man's wife. The constant snickers and asides of the husband's neighbors cause him to believe that his wife really is involved with the young man. Enraged he tries to kill the young man. This near-tragedy does nothing to stop the gossip-mongers from choosing a new victim, whom they hope to drive to suicide so they can spice up their dull lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This drama is a compilation of stories occurring in the Empire State Building with the focus on topics such as bank failures, love scenes and odd clerks. ~ All Movie Guide