Frederick Hazlitt Brennan Movies

For all its state-of-the-art special effects, Always is essentially a remake of the 1943 Spencer Tracy-Irene Dunne fantasy vehicle A Guy Named Joe--minus the wartime context. Richard Dreyfuss stars as a reckless fire-fighting pilot who is killed in what was to have been his final mission. Ascending to Heaven, Dreyfuss is introduced to businesslike angel Audrey Hepburn (playing the equivalent of the Lionel Barrymore role in A Guy Named Joe). Hepburn instructs the spectral Dreyfuss to pass on his aviation knowhow to his young successor, Brad Johnson. Our ghostly hero also smoothes the course of romance for his earthly girl friend Holly Hunter, who after several months' worth of grieving has fallen in love with Johnson. John Goodman injects a dose of comedy relief as Dreyfuss' faithful buddy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

During the early days of East Indian independence in 1947, a native rebellion threatens a hotel full of Britishers, Europeans and Americans. Gunrunner Alan Ladd could care less about anything other than his own neck. Ladd runs up against the resistance of a pacifist Indian leader (Charles Boyer), who hopes to quell the factional disturbances. Falling in love with Deborah Kerr, blind daughter of missionary Cecil Kellaway, Ladd decides to forego mercenary involvement in India's internal affairs and to shepherd the stranded non-Indians to safety. Paramount was overproducing again in 1951, so Thunder in the East didn't go into release until 1953, at which time its story was outdated enough to result in utter indifference from the paying public. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The unique comic talents of Groucho Marx, William Bendix and Marie Wilson are hardly exploited to their fullest in RKO's A Girl in Every Port. Groucho and Bendix play Benny Linn and Tim Dunnevan, respectively, a couple of scheming sailors who embark upon one get-rich-quick scheme after another. This time around, our heroes use a small inheritance to purchase two horses, one for racing purposes and one to be sold at a tidy profit. After a series of bizarre complications, both horses are pitted against each other in a crucial race which could spell either triumph or ruin for the two goofy gobs. Wilson co-stars as a birdbrained carhop who owns one of the horses coveted by Linn and Dunnevan. No stone is left unturned so far as wheezy comedy routines are concerned: writer-director Chester Erskine even manages to revive the old chestnut wherein the sailors sneak both horses on board their ship. The likeable supporting cast includes Don DeFore as a disgruntled stable owner, Dee Hartford (who later became Groucho Marx's sister-in-law) as DeFore's financially savvy fiancee, Gene Lockhart as a seedy horse dealer, Hanley Stafford ("Daddy" on radio's Baby Snooks) as the two protagonists' flustered commanding officer, and Teddy Hart as a Runyonesque gangster. A box-office disappointment, A Girl in Every Port ended Groucho Marx's efforts to become a solo screen star; fortunately, he still had TV's You Bet Your Life to fall back on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In one of his first "adult" roles (he made his last Andy Hardy vehicle only a year earlier), Mickey Rooney plays Tommy McCoy, a dancer who performs in a going-nowhere nightclub act with his alcoholic father, Brian (James Dunn). Johnny Martin (Mickey Knox), a lightweight boxing champ who is headlining the show that Tommy and his Dad are currently working, admires Tommy's footwork and tells him that he might have a future in the ring. Tommy gives the fight game a try, and he soon proves he's got the goods as a slugger. Before long, Tommy is fighting Johnny for the lightweight title, and after a hard-fought match, Tommy wins -- and Johnny dies. Now dubbed "Killer" McCoy by the press and boxing fans, a distraught Tommy allows his career to be taken over by Jim Caighn (Brian Donlevy), an unscrupulous manager with a gambling problem. Jim drags Tommy through the dirtiest and most dishonest levels of the fight game, but Jim's daughter Sheila (Ann Blyth) sees Tommy's decent side and tries to rescue him. Killer McCoy was a remake of the 1938 Robert Taylor vehicle The Crowd Roars. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this adventure the young lively daughter of wealthy Virginia parents bridles under the stern tutelage of her new English nanny who insists she forego her tomboy ways and act like a perfectly lady. This nanny runs the household with an iron hand and the little girl is terribly unhappy until she finds a lost German shepherd. While following the wanderer, the girl tumbles into a well. The dog gets help. The girl names him "Wolf" and is delighted to have a new best friend. Naturally, the nanny is terribly upset because the dog is terribly disruptive. One day, the nanny finds out that Wolf is an AWOL Army dog and sees that he is returned. Brokenhearted, the girl runs away to Washington, DC to have a private audience with the secretary of war. Tearfully she tells how her parents neglect her and how lonely she is without wolf. The secretary is moved but explains that Wolf has a more patriotic role to play. The girl understands and returns home filled with pride for Wolf. Things get better at home when her relieved parents fire the hated nanny and start spending more time with her. As an added bonus, the secretary sends the girl a brand new puppy that looks just like wolf. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Opening in England during the middle of World War II, A Guy Named Joe tells the story of Pete Sandidge (Spencer Tracy), a tough, devil-may-care bomber pilot who's amassed an enviable record in combat, mostly by taking chances that give his C.O. (James Gleason) the shakes, much as he and the top brass appreciate the results. Pete lives to fly, but he also appreciates the fairer sex, which for the last couple of years means Dorinda Durston (Irene Dunne), herself a hot-shot air-ferry pilot. She's also worried about the chances he takes, even after Pete and his best friend, Al Yackey (Ward Bond), are transferred to Scotland and switched to flying reconnaissance missions. Pete finally agrees to take a training position back in the States, but he must fly one last mission, to locate a German force threatening an Allied convoy. He and Al do the job and have turned for home when the German fighter cover attacks; Pete's plane is damaged and he's wounded, and after his crew bails out he takes the burning ship down and drops his bomb-load on the main German attack ship (a carrier, which is totally inaccurate) at zero altitude. His plane is caught in the blast and destroyed, and that's where the main body of the movie begins.

Pete arrives in a hereafter that's a pilot's version of heaven, including a five-star general (Lionel Barrymore). He doesn't even appreciate what's happened to him until he meets Dick Rumney (Barry Nelson), a friend and fellow pilot who was previously killed in action. It seems that the powers of the hereafter are contributing to the war effort, sending departed pilots like Pete and Dick to Earth to help guide and help young pilots; Pete himself discovers that he benefited from these efforts in peacetime. Pete ends up at Luke Field near Phoenix, AZ, where he takes on helping Ted Randall (Van Johnson), a young pilot who lacks confidence. By the time he's done, riding along while Ted "solos," Ted is a natural in the air and ends up as the star of his squadron when he become operational in New Guinea -- in a group under the command of Al Yackey -- and ends up taking over command when their own leader is shot down. Pete's like a proud teacher, and also enjoys his unheard ribbing of Al and his ex-C.O. to Rumney, over their promotions, but then Dorinda shows up, and suddenly Pete finds all of his unresolved feelings about her recalled, even as he sees that she's never gotten over losing him. And when, with Al's help, she and Ted meet and seem to fall for each other, Pete's jealousy gets the better of him. It's only when he is made to realize just how important life was to him, and how important the future is for those still living, that he begins to understand that he has to let go of his feelings, and let Dorinda and Ted get on with their lives. But first he has to help Dorinda survive a suicide mission that she's taken over from Ted, attacking a huge and heavily defended Japanese ammo dump. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

A courageous doctor braves a fierce blizzard in the Canadian wilderness to save a remote community from a deadly epidemic. He has come North to visit and ends up stealing a wife from her husband. When the epidemic hits, he and the wife begin their arduous journey. At one point, they are stranded. Fortunately, the husband and a dogsled saves them, but the husband later freezes to death. Happiness ensues because after saving the community, the doctor and the wife are free to pursue their love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Paramount's final "Big Broadcast" musical had perhaps the least exciting musical lineup of the series (Tito Guizar, The Shep Fields Orchestra, and opera singer Kirsten Flagstad are hardly household names today), but a slightly stronger storyline than the others, as well as a top-notch comic cast. This time out, most of the action takes place as sea, as S.B. Bellows (W.C. Fields) shows off his new invention: an ocean liner that can turn radio signals into electricity and part the waves at 100 miles per hour. He challenges another ship to a race while a number of music and comedy acts appear in the ship's showroom. Along with Fields, who performs several classic pool and golf routines, Martha Raye, Dorothy Lamour, and Ben Blue add to the laughs; Bob Hope made his feature debut here, and he even sings his future theme song, "Thanks for the Memories". ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this bedroom farce, a writer rails against marriage and touts the benefits of staying single. He then convinces his friend that only relationships based on struggle and strife are worth having. His friend is married so the writer suggests he start trouble by trying to make her jealous. The naive fellow does so by sleeping with a faded French actress. This is the woman the writer wanted. The philanderer then returns home fully expecting his beloved wife to forgive him with open arms. Things don't turn out that way at all. To make it worse, the writer is also very angry at him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

James Cagney manages to retain his pre-Code cockiness within post-Code limitations in the likeable St. Louis Kid. Cagney and Allen Jenkins, Eddie Kennedy, and Buck Willetts play long-distance truck drivers who get entangled in a battle between a crooked trucking firm and striking milk farmers (a plot thread based on actual events). When one of the dairymen is killed by a hired goon, Eddie is accused of the crime. He breaks out of jail to track down the real killer then has to rescue his girlfriend Ann (Patricia Ellis), who's been kidnapped by henchmen of the truck company. It takes a bit of clever brainwork between Eddie and Buck, but our hero manages to flummox the bad guys and rescue the girl. James Cagney's sheer star power is such that the audience is willing to forgive the fact that, in the early passages of the film, his character is nothing more or less than a "scab." St. Louis Kid is the picture in which Cagney, tired of playing characters who settle differences with their fists, hit upon the novel idea of incapacitating his screen rivals by butting his forehead against theirs, knocking them cold without laying a hand on them! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this military adventure, a Navy lieutenant is stripped of his rank and booted out after he fires at communist ships in China. These circumstances make it almost impossible for him to find a job. He then ends up saving the life of a beautiful young socialite. The girl immediately likes him and when he finally gets a job on a freighter, the plucky lass disobeys her father and stows away to be near her true love. The boat is carrying arms for the Mandarin government, and when the brave former lieutenant saves the shipment from commie raiders, he becomes a hero, regains his rank in the Navy and marries the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Clark Gable went from supporting actor to star in the space of one year with Sporting Blood, adapted from a novel by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan. Gable is top-billed as a gambling house proprietor named Rid Riddell. When the owner of a prize thoroughbred loses heavily in Riddell's establishment, he is forced to give up the horse to the gambler as security. Rid enters the horse in several honest races, then pulls the animal during a crucial race in order to collect big money on the losses; then he plans to dope up the horse to assure future wins. But when the horse loses, the gambler, deeply in debt to mobsters, transfers ownership to one of his female dealers (Madge Evans), and then drops out of the plotline. Clark Gable isn't really the lead in Sporting Blood--actually he's something of a rat--but he's the one whom everybody in the audience remembers long after the final fadeout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a boarding house owner becomes the confidant and advisor to a number of troubled gangsters and racketeers. She has troubles of her own, when her foster son takes the rap for a murder his girlfriend committed. As the young man was an aspiring playwright, his girlfriend tries to get his play produced. She does everything she can to get it done. When her love is finally freed, their happiness is obstructed by a scheming interloper. Fortunately, one of his mother's gangster pals decides to quietly take the double-crosser out of the picture. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide