Warren Jackson Movies

In this musical, an ambitious young singer and her band leave their small hometown to head for the Big Apple in hopes of finding fame and fortune. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Another of 20th Century-Fox's Technicolor musical biopics, Oh You Beautiful Doll is allegedly the life story of popular composer Fred Fisher. As played by S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall, Fisher is a serious musician who yearns to write opera rather than tin pan alley hits. Since the aged, portly Sakall couldn't be the romantic lead, he is third-billed in deference to June Haver as Fisher's daughter and Mark Stevens as a slick song plugger. Despite his shame at being popular, Fisher is gratified when his songs are given a classy symphonic arrangement at Aeolian Hall. Among the tunes heard in Oh, You Beautiful Doll are "Chicago," "Dardanella," "Peg o' My Heart" and the title song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Randolph Scott is a single-minded gunman bent on tracking down and killing the white man responsible for an Indian raid on a stagecoach. Scott's fiancee was killed in the raid and a large army payroll was stolen. The villain is George Macready, a "solid citizen" with fingers in several dirty pies. The film's highlight is not the final confrontation with Macready but a brutal fistfight between Scott and minor heavy Forrest Tucker. Filmed in Cinecolor (a pleasing if limited two-color process), Coroner Creek was based on a novel by western specialist Luke Short. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious was produced by David O. Selznick's Vanguard Films, Selznick himself had little to do with the production, which undoubtedly pleased the highly independent Hitchcock. Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, who goes to hell in a handbasket after her father, an accused WWII traitor, commits suicide. American secret agent Devlin (Cary Grant) is ordered to enlist the libidinous Alicia's aid in trapping Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), the head of a Brazilian neo-Nazi group. Openly contemptuous of Alicia despite her loyalty to the American cause, Devlin calmly instructs her to woo and wed Sebastian, so that that good guys will have an "inside woman" to monitor the Nazi chieftain's activities. It is only after Alicia and Sebastian are married that Devlin admits to himself that he's fallen in love with her. The "MacGuffin" in this case is a cache of uranium ore, hidden somewhere on Sebastian's estate. Upon discovering that his wife is a spy, Sebastian balks at eliminating her until ordered to do so by his virago of a mother (Madame Konstantin). Tension mounts to a fever pitch as Devlin, a day late and several dollars short, strives to rescue Alicia from Sebastian's homicidal designs. Of the several standout sequences, the film's highlight is an extended love scene between Alicia and Devlin, which manages to ignite the screen while still remaining scrupulously within the edicts of the Production Code. In later years, Hitchcock never tired of relating the story of how he and screenwriter Ben Hecht (who was nominated for an Oscar) fell under the scrutiny of the FBI after electing to use uranium as a plot device -- this before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A huge moneymaker for everyone concerned, Notorious remains one of Hitchcock's best espionage melodramas. In 1992, Notorious was remade for cable television; it goes without saying that the original is vastly superior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the last of Universal's "pocket" musicals, Under Western Skies packs a surplus of entertainment value into its brief 57 minutes. Martha O'Driscoll plays Katie, the daughter of travelling showman Willie (Leon Errol). While playing an engagement in a wild-and-wooly Arizona town, Katie runs afoul of a group of bluenoses who harbor a low opinion of show folk. Denied access to the local music hall, the troupe pitches camp at the saloon owned by King Randall (Leo Carrillo). When it turns out the Randall is the head of an outlaw gang, Katie and friends are rescued by shy schoolteacher Tod (Noah Beery Jr.), who happens to be a crack shot! Among the performers in Willie's entourage is the venerable vaudeville team of Al Shaw and Sam Lee, whose routines are older than dirt and just about as funny. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Higher and Higher was advertised by RKO Radio as "The Sinatra Show", and small wonder: In his first major film role, Frank Sinatra was easily the film's biggest box-office draw. Actually, Frankie was a last minute addition to the film, which began as a traditional adaptation of a popular Broadway musical. Repeating his original stage role, Jack Haley plays Mike, the head servant in the household of millionaire Mr. Drake (Leon Errol). When Drake faces bankruptcy, Mike rallies the servants together and cooks up a moneymaking scheme: they'll pass off pretty scullery maid Millie (Michele Morgan) as Drake's daughter, and marry her off to a wealthy bachelor. Complicating matters is Sir Bictor Fitzroy Victor (Victor Borge), an impoverished nobleman who is himself looking for a rich wife. Mike saves the day with a last-minute discovery in the wine cellar, but not before a series of hilarious and tuneful plot twists involving Millie, heiress Katherine (Barbara Hale), and hired help Mickey (Marcy McGuire) and Marty (Mel Torme). Hastily written into the proceedings as Drake's next door neighbor, Sinatra croons several standards-to-be, including "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night" and "This is a Lovely Way to Spend an Evening"; he also is arbitrarily permitted the film's closing shot, emerging from heavenly clouds like the Second Coming of Music. Thanks to the film's enormous box-office take, everybody was happy with Higher and Higher--except Jack Haley, understandably miffed that his onetime starring role was whittled down to a supporting part to allow more screen time for the estimable Mr. Sinatra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this tuneful comedy, a would-be actor and playwright is deeply in debt, and to keep away from his creditors, begins pretending to be his aged uncle. Unfortunately he ends up getting hit by a limousine. The rich woman inside takes the wounded "codger" home to her manhungry old aunt. The actor uses the old woman's desire to con her into financing his "nephew's" play. Things are going well until the actor's real uncle appears. Mayhem and a double wedding ensue. Songs include: "St. Louis Blues" (W.C. Handy, sung by the Delta Rhythm Boys), "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" (Duke Ellington, Bob Russell, sung by the Delta Rhythm Boys), "Liza" (George Gershwin, sung by the Tailor Maids), "That's the Way It Goes" (Milton Rosen, Everett Carter, sung by Mary O'Brien), "You're Driving Me Crazy" (sung by Jan Garber and his Orchestra), "Dark Eyes" (sung by Mary O'Brien, with Jack Teagarden and His Orchestra). Other songs were penned by Walter Donaldson and W.C. Handy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Bob Kane's 1939 Detective Comics superhero The Batman came to the screens in serial form courtesy of Columbia Pictures and producer Rudolph C. Flothow. In time-honored serial fashion, Flothow chose Lewis Wilson for the title role, a relative newcomer, but one with an amazing facial resemblance to the cartoon character. Wilson's athletic ability, however, left a lot to be desired and Douglas Croft, cast as young sidekick Robin, the Boy Wonder, looked too old for his role, especially when doubled by a hairy-legged stunt man. For censorship purposes, the serial Bruce Wayne was not a lone Gotham millionaire crusader but gainfully employed by the Unites States government. Said government is terrorized by evil Dr. Daka (J. Carroll Naish), an emissary from Emperor Hirohito complete with atom-smasher ray guns and a device that turns its wearers into zombies. (The device, placed on the skull of its victim, resembles something from a child's Erector set.) Batman and Robin are aided by lovely Linda Page (Shirley Patterson), whose uncle (Gus Glassmire) becomes one of Dr. Daka's first victims. From the Bat Cave, the three crusaders and Wayne's butler, Alfred (William Austin), venture forth to battle the forces of evil in general and a scenery-chewing Naish in particular -- travelling in a convertible and not the later so familiar batmobile. It takes them 15 chapters and a race through an amusement park to finally destroy the evil Daka and the title of the concluding chapter, "Doom of the Rising Sun," must have brought a ray of hope to a war-weary populace. The Batman was directed by Lambert Hillyer, a veteran who knew something about bats from having previously helmed Dracula's Daughter. The serial was popular enough to merit a sequel, although it would take six more years until Columbia debuted The New Adventures of Batman and Robin (1949). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The first "Mexican Spitfire" entry of 1942, Mexican Spitfire at Sea is set mainly on a Hawaii-bound ocean liner. Combining business with pleasure, vacationing advertsing man Dennis (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) hopes to sign a contract with a wealthy client. Alas, these plans are scotched by the well-meaning idiocies of Dennis' peppery spouse Carmelita (Lupe Velez), and by a whole flock of Dennis' relatives who have invited themselves along for the voyage. Once again, it's up to Dennis' Uncle Matt (Leon Errol) to save the day-which inevitably requires old Matt to disguise himself as his British lookalike Lord Epping. Marion Martin, the blonde bombshell who'd caused so much trouble in the previous series entry Mexican Spitfire's Baby (1941), is seen in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Veteran action and western director Spencer G. Bennet certainly opens this the second of Monogram's eight "Rough Riders" oaters on a suspenseful and unusual note. On a dark and stormy night, a lone rider enters a secluded and seemingly vacant ranch house to find the slain bodies of the occupants and a hastily scribbled note bearing the legend: "Rustlers did this. I recognized Bill Cook with them. Take care of my baby. Mary Gibbs." Although the remainder of The Gunman from Bodie doesn't quite measure up to this suspenseful and evocative opening sequence, it is still a crackerjack little western, well-played by its trio of heroes, Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton. The three "Rough Riders" are special agents assigned to look into a series of rustlings near the small town of Larabie. Working undercover as the notorious titular criminal, Jones discovers that the head of the rustlers is none other than supposedly-solid citizen Robert Frazer, who employs both the local sheriff (Max Waizmann and most of the hands at valuable Circle "B" Ranch. As the pretty owner of the ranch and her handsome foreman, Christine McIntyre and Dave "Tex" O'Brien(who sings "Little Tenderfoot"to the abandoned babe) supply the romantic interest, while Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton perform their assigned, and well-known, roles in their accustomed ways. But The Gunman from Bodie belongs squarely to Buck Jones, who combines strength with sentiment as the undercover agent discovering an abandoned baby in one of the more haunting opening sequences in B-Western history. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this third of RKO's "Mexican Spitfire" series, star Lupe Velez doesn't get any further west than Reno, Nevada. Lupe feels that her straightlaced husband (Donald Woods) is neglecting her, and thus seeks a divorce. Reliable old Uncle Matt (Leon Errol) shows up to straighten things out, which means that for the umpteenth time in this series he'll disguise himself as the veddy British Lord Epping. Before everything straightens itself out, Uncle Matt finds himself in dutch with his own wife. We all know that Lupe and her hubby will get together: otherwise there wouldn't be a fourth "Mexican Spitfire" picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this episode of the western series, the Mesquitters try to stop a ring of silk thieves while dealing with a shady medicine show man and his kids. One of his offspring is a beautiful young woman. The Mesquiteers must hurry to find the thieves as they too are suspects. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide