Suzanne Dalbert Movies
- 1953
U.S. security agent John Ireland suspects that someone is smuggling atomic devices into America. When he makes his report, Ireland is assured by his superiors that nothing untoward is going on. In fact, the higher-ups have had the wool pulled over their eyes by a clever Communist saboteur, who is assembling a super-bomb, with plans to detonate the doomsday weapon somewhere in the States. If we had to have cold-war thrillers, replete with Commie bad guys wearing baggy suits and calling everyone "Comrade", it's too bad that all of these films weren't as entertaining as Columbia's The 49th Man. The original story was written by Ivan Tors, later the producer of such classic TV series as Science Fiction Theater and Sea Hunt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ireland, Richard Denning, (more)
- 1952
Not to be confused with a 1942 20th Century-Fox aviation actioner with the same title, Thunderbirds is a Republic Pictures war flick. John Derek and John Barrymore Jr. play two handsome flyboys with the Oklahoma National Guard who are pressed into service at the outbreak of World War II. They spend most of the war in the Italian campaign, then blast their way into Berlin. By way of a plot complication, Ward Bond shows up as a tough veteran sergeant who turns out to be the long-lost father of hotheaded Barrymore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Derek, John Drew Barrymore, (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)
- 1951
Set during WW II, Target Unknown follows the exploits of a group of American flyers who crash behind enemy lines. Captured by the Germans, the flyers are interrogated separately. The Nazi higher-ups are eventually convinced that they've gleaned enough information to know where and when the next Allied bombing will occur, but the Americans prove to be a step ahead of them. Mark Stevens stars as Air Force captain Jerome Stevens, while Robert Douglas is Col. Von Brock, Steven's German opposite number. The feminine angle is handled by Suzanne Dalbert and Malu Gatica, cast respectively as a loyal Frenchwoman and Nazi sympathizer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Stevens, Alex Nicol, (more)
- 1951
The "bandit" of the title is notorious 18th-century British highwayman Dick Turpin, herein portrayed by Louis Hayward. The lady is the high-born Joyce Greene (Patricia Medina), who becomes Turpin's bride. Motivated by Irish patriotism and revenge against the man who hanged his father, Turpin cuts quite a swath through the British countryside, relieving wealthy passengers of their riches. For his wife's sake, Turpin briefly gives up his life of crime, but not for long. Upon learning that his wife is slated to be hanged as his accomplice, Turpin embarks upon a 200-mile ride from St.Alban's to York, knowing full well that by rescuing his bride, he will forfeit his own life. Well produced (especially for a Columbia costumer of the era), Lady and the Bandit is based on the Alfred Noyes poem Dick Turpin's Ride--and not on Noyes' The Highwayman as claimed by previous sources. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Patricia Medina, (more)
- 1950
Filmed with the full cooperation of the U.S. Army, Breakthrough is a lean, no-nonsense war film set during the 1944 invasion of the continent. Led by Captain Hale (David Brian), a small group of infantrymen march through Normandy. The war-weary foot soldiers resent the presence of 90 Day Wonder lieutenant Joe Mallory (John Agar), but before long he proves his value to the platoon. The supporting characters are the usual aggregation of "types," though for the most part the usual cliches are avoided (so far as can be determined, nobody mentions the Brooklyn Dodgers). The only woman in the cast is Suzanne Dalbert, playing a Normandy villager with whom the GIs briefly dally. Near the beginning of Breakthrough, several scenes of actual combat training are deftly inserted into the dramatized sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Brian, Frank Lovejoy, (more)
- 1950
Mark of the Gorilla was Number Four in Columbia's "Jungle Jim" series. Johnny Weissmuller stars as Jim, who this time around contends with homicidal fortune hunters. At stake is a buried treasure, consisting of ill-gotten Nazi loot. Villain Brandt (Onslow Stevens) hires a couple of thugs to pose as killer gorillas, in hopes of scaring the natives away from the burial site. Believe it or not, this monkey masquerade was played straight, though it's difficult not to giggle when watching the film today. As was customary in the "Jungle Jim" series, Mark of the Gorilla has two leading ladies: Trudy Marshall (the mother of actress Deborah Raffin) as Jungle Jim's assistant, and Suzanne Dalbert as an incognito European queen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Weissmuller, Trudy Marshall, (more)
- 1949
"Suggested" by James Oliver Curwood's novel The Gold Hunters, this low-budget Monogram release was the first film in a series of seven "Northwest" adventures to team former Universal cowboy Kirby Grant and a beautiful white malamute named Chinook. Grant played Bob McDonald, a mountie shot in the leg during a confrontation with a gang of bank robbers. One of the robbers, Jim Blaine (Bill Edwards), was forced into participating by his prospector father Matt (Guy Beach) and is now being held hostage by the gang. With his dying breath, Matt besieges Bob to rescue his son but the injured mountie instead sends his faithful dog, Chinook. The clever pooch manages to free Jim and Bob is nursed back to health by Marie LaRue (Suzanne Dalbert), the daughter of the saloon owner (Dan Seymour). Admitting to holding the loot from the bank heist, Jim then explains that the money was actually owed his father and that banker Dawson (William Forrest) is after the Blaine gold mine. With Chinook's help, Bob, Jim and the Larues set a trap for the villain,, who is consequently caught red-handed attempting to free his henchmen from the local jail. Although famed pulp-writer Curwood's name appears prominently in the credits, B-movie veteran Oliver Drake later admitted that it was he, not Curwood, who conjured up the story. No different from a host of low-budget Westerns despite its potentially colorful locale, Trail of the Yukon was directed by the prolific William Beaudine under the pseudonym of "William X. Crowley." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirby Grant, Suzanne Dalbert, (more)
- 1948
The Accused is a mystery melodrama with a predictable plot involving blackmail, attempted rape and murder. Loretta Young stars as Wilma Tuttle, a prim and proper college professor who unwittingly arouses the libido of student Bill Perry (Douglas Dick). When Perry tries to rape Wilma under cover of darkness, she beats him to death with a tire iron. Appalled by her own rash behavior, she tries to cover up her crime by making it seem as though Perry was killed while diving into the sea from a precipitous cliff. But as she follows the police investigation of Perry's death, Wilma realizes that she'll never be able to escape the prison of her own conscience -- especially when she falls in love with Warren Ford (Robert Cummings), the dead boy's guardian. Wendell Corey delivers the film's best performance as a quietly efficient homicide lieutenant who suspects that Wilma knows more than she's letting on. The Accused was adapted by Ketti Frings from the novel by June Truesdell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Robert Cummings, (more)
When Lucille Fletcher took on the challenge of expanding her classic 30-minute radio suspenser Sorry, Wrong Number into an 89-minute feature film, she opted on the Citizen Kane approach, filling the plotline to the brim with revelatory flashbacks. Barbara Stanwyck stars as bedridden hypochondriac Leona Stevenson, who while trying to make a call from her bedroom telephone gets her wires crossed and inadvertently overhears two men plotting a murder. Anxiously, Leona wades through telephone-company bureaucracy to trace the call, never catching on -- until it's too late -- that the murder being planned is hers. A series of flashbacks details the disintegrating marriage between the wealthy Leona and her weakling husband Henry (Burt Lancaster), and Henry's subsequent disastrous get-rich-quick schemes involving chemist Waldo Evans (Harold Vermilyea) and a surly gangster (William Conrad). It would have been a near-sacrilege to alter the radio play's ironic ending, which fortunately remains intact on film. Sorry Wrong Number was first heard on radio's Suspense series in 1943, with Agnes Moorehead as the harried Mrs. Stevenson (a role she'd repeat several times on radio and on stage). Though disappointed that she wasn't chosen to star in the film version, Moorehead took some satisfaction in the fact that a recording of the original radio program was played constantly on the set to help keep Barbara Stanwyck "in the mood". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, (more)
