Jack Moffitt Movies

The African Lion is a high-water mark in Walt Disney's "True Life Adventures" series. Filmed by Alfred and Elma Malotte, the team responsible for Disney's earlier Beaver Valley, this 75-minute documentary focuses not only on lions, lionesses and their cubs, but also such African wildlife as the jackal, the hyena, the rhino, and the vulture. Narrated by Winston Hibler, the story is unfolded in cyclical fashion: the birth of the lion cub, the efforts of the mother lioness to provide food for her children, and the young lion's eventual maturity and independence. One of the film's pluses is the absence of the "cuteness" and gimmickry that often dumbed down these Disney efforts. Nominated for two Academy Awards, The African Lion lost out to a documentary on the life of Helen Keller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Faced with the challenge of writing a screenplay based on the life of fabulously wealthy, fabulously successful composer Cole Porter, one Hollywood wag came up with a potential story angle: "How does the S.O.B. make his second million dollars?" By the time the Porter biopic Night and Day was released, the three-person scriptwriting team still hadn't come up with a compelling storyline, though the film had the decided advantages of star Cary Grant and all that great Porter music. Roughly covering the years 1912 to 1946, the story begins during Porter's undergraduate days at Yale University, where he participated in amateur theatricals under the tutelage of waspish professor Monty Woolley (who plays himself). Though Porter's inherited wealth could have kept him out of WWI, he insists upon signing up as an ambulance driver. While serving in France, he meets nurse Linda Lee (Alexis Smith), who will later become his wife. Focusing his attentions on Broadway and the London stage in the postwar years, Porter pens an unbroken string of hit songs, including "Just One of Those Things," "You're the Top," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Begin the Beguine," and the title number. The composition of this last-named song is one of the film's giddy highlights, as Porter, inspired by the "drip drip drip" of an outsized rainstorm, runs to the piano and cries "I think I've got it!" The film's dramatic conflict arises when Porter is crippled for life in a polo accident. Refusing to have his legs amputated, he makes an inspiring comeback, even prompting a WWI amputee to remark upon his courage! Corny and unreliable as biography, Night and Day is redeemed by the guest appearances of musical luminaries Mary Martin (doing a spirited if disappointingly demure version of her striptease number "My Heart Belongs to Daddy") and Ginny Simms, the latter cast as an ersatz Ethel Merman named Carole Hill. Jane Wyman, seen as Porter's pre-nuptial sweetheart Gracie Harris, also gets to sing and dance, and quite well indeed. Beset with production problems, not least of which was the ongoing animosity between star Grant and director Michael Curtiz, Night and Day managed to finish filming on schedule, and proved to be an audience favorite -- except for those "in the know" Broadwayites who were bemused over the fact that Cole Porter's well-known homosexuality was necessarily weaned from the screenplay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Casablanca-esque spy thriller set during WWII centers on the exploits of the notorious "Flying Dutchman," a fugitive resistance leader from Holland who heads for Lisbon where he hooks up with other members of the underground. One of them is a beautiful young woman, and none of the others trust her because she is married to an important German official. For the resistance leader, real trouble comes when he is framed for the murder of a fellow agent. Still he escapes from prison and hides out with his other colleague while he works to prove that he is innocent and carry out a major secret mission for the resistance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Bucolic lawyer John Wayne takes on big-city corruption in A Man Betrayed. He sets out to prove that an above-suspicion politician (Edward Ellis) is actually a crook. The price of integrity is sweet in this instance, since Wayne happens to be in love with the politician's daughter (Frances Dee). Man Betrayed can be viewed from the vantage point of the 1990s as an attempt by Republic Pictures to broaden the range of its biggest star, John Wayne. That it doesn't quite work is forgotten as the audience luxuriates in the sheer professionalism of the whole endeavor--and besides, the Duke does get to put up his dukes on more than one occasion. Man Betrayed has been released under two alternate titles: Wheel of Fortune for American television, and Citadel of Crime (coincidentally the title of a like-vintage Republic "B" picture) for British audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A big city lawyer returns to his tiny home town to enter the firm of his late father. His father's partner is happy to have him, but the partner's lovely daughter is even happier.. Every one is happy until the young attorney decides to represent the local villain, a ruthless factory owner who cares more for money than his employees. When the abused workers go on strike, the partner drops the factory owner's account, but the young slicker stays with the magnate. This upsets the partner's daughter. Tragedy and chaos follow when gangsters get involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A macho Cossack immigrant to the U.S. goes West and joins a ring of rustlers. Later his son follows him to states and he too begins stealing cows. Not knowing his father very well, the youth is anxious to prove himself a manly man and a friendly rivalry develops until the father is captured and imprisoned. Meanwhile, his son joins the cavalry and secretly engineers a break out. He succeeds and then feels terrible guilt, for it is his unit that has been assigned to bring his father to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this crime thriller, an old, ailing scientist has been robbed of the burglar alarm he invented by his partner, who owns a security company. The scientist invents a superior alarm to provide for his daughter and sells it to the company for royalties, but his partner refuses to sell it. The scientist then invents a device that nullifies his partner's alarms and breaks into stores to prove that it works. He is kidnapped by a gang, who force him to give them the device by kidnapping his daughter. They go on a crime spree, and the scientist escapes and convinces his partner to help him catch the crooks. They rescue his daughter, and the partner pays him in full for all his inventions. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

Gail Patrick plays a young woman framed for murder. Luckily the newsman on the courtroom beat is ace photographer Lew Ayres. He senses Patrick is innocent (the fact that she's a knockout has something to do with this) and vows to track down the guilty party. The Least Likely Suspect spills the beans just as Ayres clicks his shutter. Paramount Pictures used to dash off two or three B mysteries like Murder with Pictures before breakfast, but they were never less than supremely entertaining. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Aerial footage distinguishes this romantic-triangle melodrama set among pilots in a flying circus. Jill (Sally Eilers) loves Jim (Richard Barthelmess), but he insists that fliers shouldn't marry, so the disappointed Jill marries his younger brother Neil (Tom Brown) instead. The resulting tensions disrupt their lives and careers. Bit-part alert: Watch for John Wayne as Neil's co-pilot. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide