Joseph Crehan Movies

The Iron Major is the saga of WW1 hero-cum-football coach Frank Cavanaugh, played with his usual no-nonsense professionalism by Pat O'Brien. Leaving home and hearth behind to serve his country in the Great War, Cavanaugh goes on to lead the Dartmouth, Boston College and Fordham football teams to victory. His credo throughout is "Love of God?Love of Country?Love of Family"-inspiriational words indeed in war-torn 1943. Based on the memoirs of Cavanaugh's wife Florence (played in the film by Ruth Warrick), The Iron Major suffers from repetition and overkill. But, as Humphrey Bogart once said in an unrelated interview, "Pat O'Brien was good? Pat was always good." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tom Brown, an actor who "borrowed" his professional name from 1932's Tom Brown of Culver, finds himself back in the collegiate pool in 1942's Hello Annapolis. Brown and up-and-coming Larry Parks sign up at the titular Naval academy, battling both in and out of uniform over the affections of Jean Parker. This pre-Pearl Harbor comedy has plenty of energy and little in the way of truth, but who wanted 62 minutes' worth of truth on the bottom half of a double bill? Silent movie buffs might want to keep a lookout for veterans Herbert Rawlinson and Mae Busch in the supporting cast. Hello Annapolis is augmented with background footage lensed at the real-life Annapolis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this grim melodrama, Barbara Stanwyck plays the eldest of three wealthy sisters who become orphans when their father dies in France. Threatened with the danger of losing the opulent family home, Big Sister makes a grand sacrifice and secretly marries a real estate developer so she can inherit her aunt's fortune. A few years later, she learns that he is after the family estate and wants to tear it down so she leaves him and tries to stop him. More time passes and the husband ends up taking her to court when he learns that she has borne him a son without telling him. The part of "Gig Young" was played by actor Byron Barr who later assumed the name before he became famous. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy set during WW II, a circus aerialist desires to be closer to her lover, a soldier. When she finds herself chased by gangsters, the woman dresses up as a man and joins the military. Mayhem ensues as she tries to undergo training and keep her sex a secret. The secret is revealed at the end, when the camp puts on a show and the gangsters suddenly appear. Luckily the police arrive at the same time and justice prevails. Songs include: "In the Army," "Need I Speak," "Jitterbug's Lullaby," "Spangles on My Tights," "Wacky for Khaki" (Frank Loesser, Harold Spina), "Swing in Line" (Loesser, Joseph J. Lilley), "Love in Bloom" (Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin), and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" (Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a news editor writes a scandalous expose about a notorious gangster. The gangster then has the gall to sue him for libel and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One of the first big-studio productions to acknowledge America's entry into WW2, 20th Century-Fox's To the Shores of Tripoli was filmed with full the cooperation of the US Marine Corps. John Payne plays Chris Winters, a wealthy, wise-lipped young Marine recruit who learns the true meaning of "Semper Fidelis" the hard way, courtesy of tough-as-nails drill sergeant Dixie Smith (Randolph Scott). Chris also falls in love with Navy nurse Mary Carter (Maureen O'Hara in her first Technicolor appearance), which leaves his poor hometown sweetheart Helene Hunt (Nancy Kelly) in the lurch. By film's end, Chris is one of the Few and the Proud as he and his buddies are shipped off to combat overseas. Portions of To the Shores of Tripoli were filmed in Hawaii just before the Pearl Harbor attack; according to studio publicity, some of the cameramen managed to capture portions of the Japanese raid on film, though none of these scenes seem to have made their way into the final release print. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Murder in the Big House was a remake of the 1936 Warner Bros. programmer Jailbreak. In his first starring role, Van Johnson plays reporter Bert Bell, who wonders how it came to be that death-row inmate Dapper Dan Mallory (Michael Ames) was "accidentally" killed just before his appointment with the electric chair. Digging a little deeper, Bell discovers that Dapper Dan was planning to make a big revelation just before his execution, one which would expose the corrupt political machine for which he worked. With the help of heroine Gladys Wayne (Faye Emerson) and perenially drunken columnist Scoop Connor (George Meeker), Bell contrives to have himself thrown in jail to solve the mystery. Though the film passed unnoticed when first released, Murder in the Big House raked in a pile of cash when it was reissued as Born to Trouble in 1945, by which time Van Johnson had become the hottest male star in the movies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Montgomery plays saxophone-playing boxer Joe Pendleton, who insists upon piloting his own plane, much to the consternation of his manager Max Corkle (James Gleason). Just before a championship bout, Joe's plane crashes. When he revives, he finds he has been whisked away to Heaven by the overanxious Messenger #7013. Checking with the man in charge, one Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains), Pendleton discovers that he isn't scheduled to die for another 50 years. Joe heads back to earth, only to learn to his chagrin that his body has been cremated. Mr. Jordan is obliged to find Joe a new body; the "candidate" is a business mogul named Farnsworth, who is in the process of being murdered in his bath by his wife (Rita Johnson) and her lover (John Emery). Joe takes over Farnsworth's body, astonishing the murderers by emerging from the bathroom, very much alive (while Joe still looks like Joe to himself and the audience, he looks like Farnsworth to everyone else). Still desirous of winning the upcoming championship, Joe begins to whip Farnsworth's body into shape, even hiring Max Corkle to manage him. It takes some doing, but Joe convinces Max that he is indeed Joe and not Farnsworth (their scenes together are priceless, far better seen than described). Meanwhile, Joe has fallen in love with Bette Logan (Evelyn Keyes), a woman whose father had been ruined by the real Farnsworth. For her sake, he pays back millions of dollars that the crooked Farnsworth had finagled out of his investors. This prompts Mrs. Farnsworth and her lover to kill "Farnsworth" again, and once more Joe Pendleton is without a body. How Mr. Jordan arranges for Joe to win the championship, expose the murderers and walk off arm and arm with Bette is a bit too complex to detail here. Here Comes Mr. Jordan is one of the most consistently clever romantic comedies of the 1940s, and richly deserving of the Oscars won by screenwriters Sidney Buchman, Seton I. Miller and Harry Segall. A sequel, Down to Earth, was filmed in 1947, with Roland Culver as Mr. Jordan; and in 1978, the original Jordan was remade by Warren Beatty as Heaven Can Wait. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this medical melodrama, a young MD finds himself in love with a woman who doesn't love him. She is interested in an older, more sophisticated doctor. After she discovers that the older medic has a sleazy side, she decides to go for the younger doctor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Number ten in MGM's heart-warming (and immensely profitable) "Andy Hardy" series was the 1941 entry Life Begins for Andy Hardy. Upon his graduation from high school, Andy (Mickey Rooney) decides to seek his fortune in New York City without benefit of a college education, much to the consternation of his father Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone). Moving to the Big Apple, Andy lands a job in a stockbroker's office, where he falls in love (at least he thinks it's love) with fickle telephone operator Jennitt Hicks (Patricia Dane). Alas, Andy is unable to cope with life in the fast lane, but it takes the combined efforts of his father and his hometown sweetie Betsy Booth (Judy Garland) to convince him of this fact. For reasons that defy logic, each of Judy Garland's four songs in Life Begins for Andy Hardy were cut from the final release print. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With a little extra effort, Washington Melodrama might have passed muster as an A picture. Frank Morgan stars as millionaire philanthropist Calvin Claymore, who comes to Washington in hopes of promoting a Senate bill on behalf of European war relief. Away from his wife (Fay Holden) and daughter Laurie (Ann Rutherford) for the first time in years, Claymore succumbs to tempation and spends a night on the town with chorus girl Mary Morgan (Anne Gwynne). Though nothing of a sexual nature transpires, Claymore finds himself in a compromising-and possibly fatal-position when Mary later turns up murdered. Blackmailed by slimy nightclub emcee Whitney King (Dan Dailey), Claymore is unable to turn to the police, and must stand by helplessly as the trail of clues leads inexorably to himself. Making matters worse, reporter Walt Thorne (Kent Taylor), the principal investigator on the case, has fallen in love with Claymore's daughter Laurie. It's a melodrama, all right, done up in style by MGM and a topnotch cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though history is distorted almost beyond recognition in Warner Bros.' They Died With Their Boots On, audiences in 1941 ate it up like cotton candy. In the gospel according to Warners, General George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) is neither an arrogant fool nor a rabid Indian hater. Instead, he is a flamboyant but brilliant cavalry officer, who during the Civil War defies his superiors' orders and becomes a hero as a result. After a period of forced retirement in the postwar years, Custer is put in charge of the 7th Cavalry in the Dakota Territory. Here he whips this ragtag group into spit-and-polish shape, and also does his best to extend a neighborly hand to the local Indian tribes. Custer even goes so far as to promise Chief Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn) that the white man will never set foot in the sacred Black Hills. Alas, Custer is betrayed by greedy gold prospectors, whipped into a frenzy by scheming (and fictional) land speculator Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy). Forced by circumstances to do battle against Crazy Horse to prevent tribal retaliation, Custer and his command ride towards a rendezvous with destiny at the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. Though some of the historical inaccuracies in the film are real howlers, blame cannot be laid solely at the feet of Warner Bros.; the Custer legend had previously been perpetrated by the general's loyal widow Elizabeth Bacon (played herein by Olivia de Havilland), then eagerly elaborated upon by Eastern news journalists and dime novels. This film represented the final screen pairing of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, a fact that lends poignancy to their classic parting scene. Though an extremely long film, They Died With Their Boots On is never dull, especially during the spectacular Custer's Last Stand finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The brazen audaciousness with which Bryan Foy's B-picture unit at Warner Bros. remade the studio's old properties was seldom more pronounced than in 1941's Here Comes Happiness, a thinly disguised reworking of 1934's Happiness Ahead! The original starred Dick Powell and Josephine Hutchinson; the remake casts Edward Norris as ambitious sandhog Chet Madden and Mildred Coles as poor little rich girl Jessica Vance. Tired of having her every move dictated by her wealthy mother (Marjorie Gateson), Jessica rebels altogether when mama personally selects the girl's future husband. Our heroine escapes to the tenements, assumes a phony name, and falls in love with Chet, who has grandiose plans about his own future. Secretly financing Chet's pet projects, Jessica loses him when he finds out her true identity and disdainfully gives back her money. It's up to Jessica's foxy papa (Russell Hicks), who admires Chet's inborn business acumen, to bring the lovers back together. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide