Walter Clinton Movies

Marjorie Morgenstern (Natalie Wood) is an 18-year-old, middle-class, Jewish girl from New York who wants nothing more than to be an actress, despite the hopes and wishes of her parents (Everett Sloane and Claire Trevor) that she graduate from college, marry, and settle down to have a family. At the urging of her more worldly friend Marsha Zelenko (Carolyn Jones), she takes a job at an upstate camp, and, one night when sneaking onto the grounds of a neighboring resort, meets and falls wildly in love with the entertainment director, Noel Airman (Gene Kelly). A Lothario with a gift of song as well as dance, Airman romances Marjorie and tries to teach her something of theater, suggesting that she change her name to Marjorie Morningstar, which she does. He intends to enjoy her company for the summer, until her aging uncle Samson (Ed Wynn), who is also working at the resort, tells him of the family's concerns for the girl. Noel and Marjorie end up linked romantically, despite their best efforts to stay away from each other. Marjorie gives up a potential romance with a slightly older, successful doctor (Martin Balsam) and resists the honest entreaties of Airman's assistant, Wally Wronken (Martin Milner), and tries to get Airman to straighten up and fly right; she can't get her own acting career off the ground, but she owns Airman's heart. Instead of biding his time at writing a musical that he's been working at for four years, and spending his summers working in the Catskills, Noel tries to work in the advertising world -- he also finds himself just as troubled by the stable family life and religious life that Marjorie comes from as he is attracted to her personally. He is also bitterly disturbed by the fact that his one-time assistant Wally Wronken is now a successful Broadway playwright, the darling of critics and audiences, with backers eager to sign checks to produce his work. Unable to pursue a life in business, or remain faithful to Marjorie, he reaches a crisis point from which only she can rescue him -- together they try to build a life and he tries to finish his long-gestating masterpiece, which proves a disaster when it gets to Broadway. Noel abandons Marjorie, and when she goes to find him, Wally warns her off, explaining that Noel has to return to a place where he can feel successful, like the Catskills resort where they met, where he can be the big fish in the tiny pond. Her marriage over and her girlish ideals behind her, she sees Noel back in his element, wowing young acting students with his skills, and finally turns to the one man who has loved her for precisely who she is all along, Wally. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Irene Dunne made her final film appearance in the frothy fantasy It Grows on Trees. Looking at least two decades younger than her 52 years, Dunne plays Polly Baxter, the ebullient wife of Phil Baxter (Dean Jagger). Miracle of miracles, two of the trees in Polly's backyard garden begin sprouting paper currency! Assuming that it's genuine mazumah, Polly goes on a spending spree, and also pays off the long-standing mortgage on the house. The money-yielding trees soon become a nationwide sensation, drawing thousands of interested parties to the Baxters' tiny backyard. A major setback is inevitable, but the manner in which the dilemma is solved is both clever and logical. When it isn't concentrating on the plot proper, It Grows on Trees offers some amusing jibes at the U.S. Treasury Department, the IRS, and small-town pretentiousness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This musical comedy stars William Powell as Emery Slade, who was once a major film star but lately isn't getting much work. Arrogantly determined to climb back to the top, Slade convinces studio chief Melville Crossman (Adolphe Menjou) to give him the male lead in the film version of a Broadway musical. However, Crossman's offer comes with a catch: Emery has to persuade the show's female lead to appear in the movie. Slade heads to New York to seal the deal, but instead he discovers a gifted young unknown named Julie Clark (Betsy Drake) and decides she's perfect for the role. Crossman is not too enthusiastic about this news, and neither is publicist Bill Davis (Mark Stevens), who is given his pink slip along with Slade. However, Slade is determined to make a career for Julie in Hollywood, though it's not until later that he realizes why he feels so strongly about her. Movie buffs will get a kick out of Menjou's performance, closely modeled on 20th Century Fox boss Darryl F. Zanuck. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

To dim-bulb accountants find themselves working for a bookie in this comedy. Their jobs and their lives are placed in jeopardy when they accidently fumble $50,000 worth of the bookie's cash over to the secretary who wastes no time in spending $44,000 of it in less than 8 hours. The bookkeepers are given 36 hours to get all of the money back by their infuriated boss. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide