Maxine Gates Movies

Claudia Jennings stars as Karen Walker, a woman who sets her sights for roller derby success. Released a few months after Raquel Welch's Kansas City Bomber, Unholy Rollers gives the Welch film a run for its money, despite its exploitation budget, by adding nudity and lesbianism. After being sexually harassed by her loutish boss at the factory, Karen walks out of her job and tries out for the roller derby. She quickly wins a spot on the team and rises to the top, intent on ignoring the violence and grandstanding and concentrating on winning games. Although her teammates dislike her, Karen becomes a hit with the roller derby fans. But soon, her desire for victory becomes an obsession and she ends up losing not only her cool but also most of her clothes. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

This Three Stooges comedy was the second with Joe Besser in the lineup, and from the beginning it hardly seems like a Stooges film at all. It opens with the boys greeting their girlfriends and both Moe and Larry have their hair slicked back. (They never show their normal hairstyles throughout the rest of the picture.) Joe's girl, who is nearly twice his size (which is really saying something), is called Tiny, and she is distraught because her heirloom diamond ring is missing. The main suspect is Elmo Drake, a fellow employee at the warehouse where the Stooges and their girlfriends work. While on the job, the boys are determined to keep an eye on their co-worker, but that doesn't stop them from screwing things up in the shipping department. Besser actually has some funny parts while trying to wrap a package, and later, when he cleans up a mess of smashed eggs by scrambling them with a blowtorch. But, it's Tiny who finally lets Drake have it, defeating him with her pure heft. She then sweeps her prissy beau, Besser, off his feet and heads for the altar. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

George Stevens' sprawling adaptation of Edna Ferber's best-selling novel successfully walks a fine line between potboiler and serious drama for its 210-minute running time, making it one of the few epics of its era that continues to hold up as engrossing entertainment across the decades. Giant opens circa 1922 in Maryland, where Texas rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict (Rock Hudson) has arrived to buy a stallion called War Winds from its owner, Dr. Horace Lynnton (Paul Fix). But much as Bick loves and knows horses, he finds himself even more transfixed by the doctor's daughter, Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), and after some awkward moments, she has to admit that she's equally drawn to the shy, laconic Texan. They get married and Leslie spends her honeymoon traveling with Jordan to his ranch, Reata, which covers nearly a million acres of Texas. Once there, however, she finds that she has to push her way into her rightful role as mistress of the house, past Bick's sister, Luz (Mercedes McCambridge), who can't accept her brother's marriage or the changes it means in the home they share. Also working around Reata is the laconic ranch hand Jett Rink (James Dean) -- from a family as rooted in Texas as the Benedicts but not nearly as lucky (or "foxy"), Jett is dirt-poor and barely educated at all, and he fairly oozes resentment at Bick for his arrogance, although Luz likes him and for that reason alone Bick is obliged to keep him on. One thing Jett does have in common with his employer is that he is in awe of Leslie's beauty; another is his nearly total contempt for the Mexican-Americans who work for them -- Jett and Bick may have contempt for each other, but either one is just as likely to dismiss the Mexican-Americans around them as a bunch of shiftless "wetbacks." Luz feels so threatened with a loss of power and control that she decides to assert herself with War Winds, yet another "prize" that Bick brought back from Maryland that resists her authority -- then decides to ride the stallion despite being warned that no one but Leslie is wholly safe on him, and spurs him brutally in an effort to break him, which ends up destroying them both in the battle of wills she starts.

After Luz's death, Jett learns that she left him a tiny piece of land for his own, on Reata, which he refuses to sell back to Bick, preferring to keep it for his own and maybe prospect for oil on it. Meanwhile, Leslie and Bick have their own problems -- Leslie can't abide the wretched conditions in which the Mexican families who work on Reata are allowed to live, taking a special interest in Mr. and Mrs. Obregon and their baby, Angel; but Bick doesn't want his wife, or any member of his family, concerning themselves with "those people." Leslie's humanity and her independence push their marriage to the limit, but Bick comes to accept this in his wife, and in four years of marriage they have three handsome children, a boy and two girls, and a loving if occasionally awkward home life. Meanwhile, Jett strikes oil on his land -- which he's named Little Reata -- and in a couple of years he's on his way to becoming the richest man in Texas, getting drilling contracts on all of the land in the area (except Reata) and making more money than the Benedicts ever saw from raising cattle. Bick is almost oblivious to the way Jett grows in power and influence across the years and the state, mostly because he's got his own family to worry about, including a son, Jordan III (Dennis Hopper), who doesn't want to take over the ranch from him, but wants instead to be a doctor; an older daughter, Judy (Fran Bennett), who wants to study animal husbandry and marry a local rancher (Earl Holliman) and start a tiny spread of her own; and a younger daughter, Luz (Carroll Baker), who's just a bit man-crazy and star-struck by the movies.

The American entry into the Second World War and the resulting need for oil forces Bick to go into business with Jett and allow him to drill on Reata, and suddenly the Benedicts are wealthy enough to be part of Jett Rink's circle, which includes the governor of the state and at least one United States senator at his beck and call -- and Luz develops a serious crush on Jett, who likes his women young and is especially attracted to her, as Bick's and Leslie's daughter. Young Jordan marries Juana, a Mexican-American nursing student (Elsa Cardenas), and his father accepts it begrudgingly, with help from Leslie. The war kills Angel Obregon (Sal Mineo), a death that even affects Bick, but the Benedict family gets through it wealthier than ever and grows some more with the birth of Jordan IV to Jordie and Juana. When the family attends a gala opening of Jett Rink Airport, which concludes with a dinner honoring Jett's success, however, young Jordan's wife is humiliated by Jett's racist edicts, and he is beaten up by Jett's men after punching the oil baron. Seeing this, Bick challenges his old rival to the fight that's been brewing for a quarter of a century and wins by default, Jett being too drunk to defend himself or to hit; he's also too drunk to make the grand speech that was to climax the celebration, and he ends up alone in the ballroom. The Benedicts have it out with each other, young Jordan accusing his father of being as much a racist as Jett, and Leslie caught in the middle between her husband and her son. It looks like the Benedicts may lose each other, until an encounter with a racist diner owner forces Bick to stand up and get knocked down (more than once) defending his daughter-in-law and his grandson.

Seen today, Giant seems the least dated of any of James Dean's three starring films, in part because it addresses issues that remain relevant more than 50 years later, and also because it has the best all-around acting and the best script of any of the three. Taken in broader terms, it's even better, with two of the best performances that Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson ever gave, and perhaps the second best of Hudson's whole career (after Seconds) -- the only unfortunate element at modern theatrical screenings is the tendency of younger viewers, who only know him in terms of the revelations late in his life of his being gay, to laugh and snicker at elements of Hudson's characterization; but his work is so good that the titters usually fade after the first 30 minutes or so. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

The Three Stooges are house sitters in this typical two-reel farce, ending up wrecking the house in an attempt to put up a television antenna. Goof on the Roof was a remake of an earlier Columbia short subject, Let Down Your Aerial (1949), which had starred the team of Wally Vernon and Gus Schilling. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

A Woman of Distinction serves as a tailor-made vehicle for Rosalind Russell. The star is cast as Susan Middlecott, a highly respected college dean. As can be expected, Susan is too busy for romance -- at least until handsome professor Alec Stevenson (Ray Milland) enters the picture. At first, the dean and the prof are thrown together by the overzealous machinations of a press agent, and they're none too pleased about it. No matter how hard they try to keep their distance from each other, Susan and Alec constantly find themselves in embarrassing situations in full view of the public. It takes the behind-the-scenes maneuvers of Susan's puckish papa (Edmund Gwenn) to straighten things out. Appearing in unbilled cameos are Lucille Ball as herself, and Ball's future TV cohort Gale Gordon as a railroad ticket agent. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This modern-day "Faust" variation benefits from a superb cast. Thomas Mitchell plays Joseph Foster, an honest judge who wants to become governor. Blocked by corrupt political forces, Foster would practically have to make a deal with the Devil to reach his goal. Enter Nick Beal (Ray Milland), a diabolically handsome gent with a slick line of patter and a smooth, infallible method of getting things done. Failing to recognize his benefactor's true identity (after all, Nick has no horns or cloven hooves) Foster agrees to the deal when Nick assures him that the end result is for the good of the people. To bind the bargain, Nick sends out one of his most trusted associates, Donna Allen (Audrey Totter), to keep Foster in line. When Foster finally realizes that he's sold his soul, there seems to be no way out..but that's when the forces of Good, represented by Foster's wife Martha (Geraldine Wall) and his clergyman friend Thomas Gaylord (George Macready), switch into high gear. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

At 88 minutes, Here Come the Co-Eds is one of the longest of Abbott & Costello's Universal starring vehicles, and though not necessarily the best, it manages to sustain a high comic content throughout. The scene is a financially strapped girl's college, where professional dancer Molly (Martha O'Driscoll) lands a scholarship. Molly's manager-brother Slat (Bud Abbott) has arranged this as a means to publicize his sister's showbiz career, which angers the college's chairman of the board (Charles Dingle), who threatens to foreclose on the school. To keep tabs on Molly and also find ways of raising the mortgage money, Slats and his pal Oliver (Lou Costello) takes jobs as school caretakers, immediately running afoul of ill-tempered groundskeeper Johnson (Lon Chaney Jr.) One of Slats' schemes involves a championship basketball game, in which Oliver, hypnotized into thinking that he's petite female student "Daisy Dimple", effortlessly sinks one basket after another (Costello, a top high school athlete, performed these scenes without the aid of a double). What ultimately saves the college is a concert by Phil Spitalny and his all-girl orchestra, featuring "Evelyn and Her Magic Violin." While the obligatory chase scene in Here Come the Coeds (this time involving a sailboat on wheels!) is a disappointment, several of Abbott & Costello's comic setpieces are hilarious, notably the time-honored "Jonah and the Whale" routine and the "oyster in the chowder" bit. Funniest line: while performing a musical duet with costar Peggy Ryan, Costello sighs "I feel just like Donald O'Connor." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi