Patricia Dane Movies

An obviously ailing Humphrey Bogart made his final screen appearance in The Harder They Fall. Adapted from a novel by Budd Schulberg, the film is a thinly disguised a clef account of the Primo Carnera boxing scandal. Bogart is cast as unemployed newspaperman Eddie Willis, who sells his soul down the river when he signs on as press agent for slimy fight manager Nick Benko (Rod Steiger). It is Willis' job to stir up publicity for Benko's newest protégé, Argentinian boxer Toro Moreno (Mike Lane). Benko's boy quickly rises to the top of his profession, though everybody but Toro knows that all the fights have been fixed. Upon learning that Benko intends to bilk Toro of his earnings, Willis regains his integrity, tells the wide-eyed young pugilist the truth, then sits down to write a searing expose of the fight racket. Jan Sterling costars as Willis' estranged wife, while real-life boxers Jersey Joe Walcott and Max Baer are suitably cast as Toro's trainer and ring opponent, respectively. There is also a heartbreaking cameo appearance by ex-fighter Joe Greb, cast as a punchdrunk skid row bum. The Harder They Fall originally went out with two different endings: in one, Eddie Willis demanded that boxing be banned altogether, while in the other, Willis merely insisted that there be a federal investigation of the prizefighting business. The videotape version contains the "harder" denouement, while most TV prints end with the "softer" message. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Joe Palooka, Ham Fisher's famed comic-strip fighter, risks his life to clear the name of his manager in this series entry. In this episode, Palooka is blinded during a fight. Although surgery restores his vision, the doctors strongly caution him not to fight again for at least a year. Meanwhile Knobby Walsh, his manager, begins managing another heavyweight fighter who gets himself mixed up with gamblers. To save his manager's good name, Palooka disregards the doctors' advice and reenters the ring. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In later years, director Vincente Minnelli would dismiss I Dood It as his worst picture, though a more deserving candidate for that "honor" would be Minnelli's valedictory film A Matter of Time. In this remake of Buster Keaton's Spite Marriage, Red Skelton plays pants-presser Joseph Rivington Reynolds, who develops a crush on glamorous stage star Constance Shaw (Eleanor Powell). "Borrowing" a tuxedo from one of his customers, Joe courts Constance backstage and at a fancy nightclub. Jilted by her fiance, the temperamental Constance marries Joe out of spite, leading to a series of silly situations. In the original Spite Marriage, Buster Keaton proved his worth to the heroine by rescuing her from bootleggers: in the remake, Joe saves Constance from a nest of Nazi spies. Some of the routines-notably a scene in which Joe makes a shambles of a Civil War play, and a lengthy bit in which he puts his drunken bride to bed-were lifted directly from Spite Marriage, no surprise considering that Buster Keaton was one of the I Dood It gag writers. Musical highlights are provided by Lena Horne, Hazel Scott and Jimmy Dorsey, while the film's finale is lifted bodily from the 1936 Eleanor Powell musical Born to Dance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this North western, Indians orphan two boys who are then raised by a Mountie. The boys are different as night and day: one wants to be a Mountie; the other is drawn to gambler. During one unprofitable outing the gambler swears vengeance upon the crooked proprietor of the local casino. Years pass, and the gambler returns to town with his friend, now a Mountie. Again he returns to the gambling establishment to play roulette. There he kills two people forcing his life-long friend to arrest him. The gambler resists and a gun battle ensues. The gambler is killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

MGM's Rio Rita is an in-name-only remake of the 1929 RKO Radio musical blockbuster, itself based on the long-running Ziegfeld Broadway extravaganza. Bud Abbott & Lou Costello take over from the original film's Burt Wheeler & Robert Woolsey as the comedy leads, while Kathryn Grayson (in her first picture) and John Carroll replace the 1929 version's Bebe Daniels and John Boles. The original plot about an elusive bandit chieftan called the Kinkajou has been jettisoned in favor of an updated melange involving radio broadcasts and Nazi saboteurs. Abbott and Costello are cast as Doc and Wishy, two pet-store employees stranded in Texas. Hoping to return to New York, our heroes stow away in the trunk of the car owned by radio star Ricardo Montera (John Carroll), only to discover that Ricardo is on his way to his home town near the Hotel Vista del Rio, there to renew his acquaintance with childhood sweetheart Rita Winslow (Kathryn Grayson). Unbeknownst to Rita, her ranch become the headquarters for a nest of German spies, headed by hotel manager Craindall (Tom Conway), who've hidden their miniature shortwave radios in a crate of apples. Thanks to well-meaning Wishy, the message-receiving fruit is ingested by dogs and donkeys, leading to an unending stream of "talking animal" gags. Given jobs on the ranch, Wishy and Doc quickly run afoul of the Nazis, but Wishy saves the day with a bit of uncharacteristic quick thinking involving the local Texas Rangers. Only a few traces of the original Rio Rita remain, including two songs and the classic Wheeler - Woolsey "drunk" routine. The new songs by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg are pleasant if unmemorable, attractively performed by Kathryn Grayson and John Carroll. When all is said and done, the film's greatest strength is Abbott & Costello, making the first of three visits to MGM. Highlights include such verbal exchanges as "Pike's Peak" and "Bet you ten dollars you're not there", and a handful of well-crafted slapstick routines involving an auto turntable, a gigantic washing machine and an elusive time bomb. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Robert Taylor toughened up his image considerably with this gangster movie, which was unusual both in its plot and origins, having come from MGM, which was generally not known for its crime movies. Taylor plays a parolee who is pretending to follow the straight-and-narrow as a hardworking cabbie, but is really the mastermind behind a dog-racing track being built with mob money. Eager works every angle, has a gang that's generally in line, and also has a loyal right-hand man in Jeff Hartnett (Van Heflin, who won an Oscar), his educated assistant, who drinks too much and waxes poetic when he isn't looking after Johnny's interests (and sometimes when he is, too). Eager has only one problem, special prosecutor John Benson Farrell (Edward Arnold) -- who was also the attorney instrumental in sending Eager up -- who has gotten an injunction against the track's opening. But the hood sees an opening when he accidentally crosses paths with a young sociology student, Lisbeth Bard (Lana Turner), who is drawn to him romantically, and then finds out that she's Farrell's step-daughter. After romancing her for a few months, he sets her up in a scam, making her believe that she killed one of Eager's men (Paul Stewart). He "generously" gets her away from the scene and then informs Farrell of what has happened, pointing out that he holds the evidence against Lisbeth. Farrell has no choice but to withdraw the injunction, and the track opens, but problems ensue when rival mobsters decide to try and cut in on Eager and his racket, and he finds out that Lisbeth is so guilt-ridden over her "crime," that she's destroying herself mentally. Eager can't figure out why she feels the way she does or what to do about it, or even if he should do anything to help her, but with Jeff's help, he discovers a nobler side to his nature. Realizing that she really does love him, and knowing it's not possible for the two of them to be together, he goes out in a blaze of glory -- laced with a special irony built into the plot -- solving Lisbeth's problem and also curing her of her love for him, and settling a score or two in the process. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi