Harold Kruger Movies
A champion swimmer from Hawaii, Harold Kruger (aka Stubby Kruger) was the featured comedian in Billy Rose's Aquacade in the early '30s and, as such, appeared as himself opposite Olympic gold medal winner Johnny Weissmuller (the future "Tarzan") in The Human Fish, a two-reel comedy directed by Clyde Bruckman. The following year, he was credited as "technical advisor" for You Said a Mouthful, a Joe E. Brown comedy with a distinct aquatic theme, but Kruger's own screen career didn't begin until 1941, when old friends Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson cast him in their anarchic Hellzapoppin' (1941). He continued to pop up in bit roles well into the 1950s, but Kruger never became a featured screen comedian in his own right. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) is a rebellious slave purchased by Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov), owner of a school for gladiators. For the entertainment of corrupt Roman senator Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier), Batiatus' gladiators are to stage a fight to the death. On the night before the event, the enslaved trainees are "rewarded" with female companionship. Spartacus' companion for the evening is Varinia (Jean Simmons), a slave from Brittania. When Spartacus later learns that Varinia has been sold to Crassus, he leads 78 fellow gladiators in revolt. Word of the rebellion spreads like wildfire, and soon Spartacus' army numbers in the hundreds. Escaping to join his cause is Varinia, who has fallen in love with Spartacus, and another of Crassus' house slaves, the sensitive Antoninus (Tony Curtis). The revolt becomes the principal cog in the wheel of a political struggle between Crassus and a more temperate senator named Gracchus (Charles Laughton). Anthony Mann was the original director of Spartacus, eventually replaced by Stanley Kubrick, who'd previously guided Douglas through Paths of Glory. The film received 4 Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Ustinov. A crucial scene between Olivier and Curtis, removed from the 1967 reissue because of its subtle homosexual implications, was restored in 1991, with a newly recorded soundtrack featuring Curtis as his younger self and Anthony Hopkins standing in for the deceased Olivier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, (more)
Henry Fonda returned to films after an eight-year absence in this masterful adaptation of the actor's Broadway hit Mister Roberts. Written and partially directed by Joshua Logan, the film stars Fonda as Lt. Doug Roberts, chief cargo officer of the supply ship "Reluctant." WW2 is in its last few months, and Roberts is itching for combat duty. But the Reluctant's surly, despotic captain (James Cagney), anxious to use Roberts to expedite his own promotion, refuses to sign any of Roberts' transfer requests. Helping to brighten Mister Roberts' humdrum existence are his best friends, Ensign Frank Pulver (Jack Lemmon, in an Oscar-winning performance) and the ship's philosophical doctor (William Powell, in his final film appearance). Most of the laughs are provided by Pulver, officer "in charge of laundry and morale." When he isn't wheeling and dealing to bring a bevy of beautiful nurses on board the Reluctant, Pulver is concocting elaborate schemes to avenge himself against the Captain -- even though he's spent 14 months on the Reluctant without ever meeting his nemesis. The film's highlights include the efforts by Roberts, Pulver, and Doc to mix a bottle of Scotch from Coca-Cola, Iodine, and other vital ingredients; and Mister Roberts' (and later Ensign Pulver's) assertion of manhood by tossing the Captain's precious palm tree overboard. Halfway through shooting, legendary director John Ford was replaced, ostensibly because of illness, by Mervyn LeRoy. One of the finest service comedies ever made, Mister Roberts spawned a less amusing sequel, Ensign Pulver (1964), as well as a 1965 TV sitcom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Fonda, James Cagney, (more)
- 1953
RKO Radio's second 3D production, Devil's Canyon is a combination western and jail-break picture. The scene is Arizona Territorial Prison, wherein 500 desperate men are incarcerated. The inmates become even more desperate when female outlaw Abby Nixon (Virginia Mayo) is likewise locked up. As the prisoners draw up plans to escape, Abby is attracted to handsome but psychotic ringleader Jessie Gorman (Stephen McNally)--and to U.S. marshal Billy Reynolds (Dale Robertson), who is serving time for manslaughter. The climactic bust-out threatens to get out of hand until the marshal calms things down with a Gatling gun. Available for many years only in washed-out black-and-white prints, the original color version of Devil's Canyon was finally telecast over the American Movie Classics cable service in the late 1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Mayo, Dale Robertson, (more)
- 1949
Esther Williams and Red Skelton share equal screen time for once in the MGM Technicolor musical Neptune's Daughter. The title character is, of course, Williams, here cast as Eve Barrett, a bathing-suit manufacturer (and sometimes model). Skelton plays Jack Spratt, the masseur at a fancy polo club, who falls for Eve's sister (Betty Garrett). To prove worthy of her love, Jack poses as dashing Latin polo star Jose O'Rourke (Ricardo Montalban), resulting in a wealth of comic complications. The slapstick setpieces include a hilarious horse-mounting routine and a climactic set-to between Skelton and petty crook Mike Mazurki; there's also a few inspired moments from Mel Blanc, cast as a slow-talking Mexican. While Xavier Cugat is on hand as "himself," the film's musical high point is the Oscar-winning Baby It's Cold Outside, performed first by Williams and Montalban and then by Skelton and Garrett. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Williams, Red Skelton, (more)
- 1946
- NR
Sometimes dismissed as a derivation of Samuel Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives, RKO Radio's superb Till the End of Time was actually based on Niven Busch's novel They Dream of Home, and was completed and released several months before the Goldwyn film. The story concentrates on three ex-marines: Cliff Harper (Guy Madison), Bill Tabeshaw (Robert Mitchum) and Perry Kincheloe (Bill Williams). Harper falls in love with emotionally distraught war widow Pat Ruscomb (Dorothy McGuire); Tabeshaw endures one disappointment after another as he tries to buy his own ranch; and Kincheloe, rendered legless by the war, intends to spend the rest of his life wallowing in self-pity. All three men find a new lease on life when they engage in a cathartic barroom brawl against a bigoted group of self-styled patriots led by hate-spouting Ray Teal (forever typecast as rabid racists during the postwar years). It was this climactic scene, which remains the most memorable aspect of Till the End of Time (outside of its Chopin-inspired theme song) that caused a lot of headaches for producer Dore Schary, screenwriter Allen Rivkin and director Edward Dmytryk during the House Unamerican Activities hearings a few years later: what was accepted as pro-American in 1946 would soon be labelled "Pinko" by the anti-Red zealots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy McGuire, Guy Madison, (more)
- 1942
This drama chronicles the extreme measures taken by a determined young crime reporter to get an interview with a notorious convict. The zealous journalist, also a star quarterback on the town college team, decides to become a convict himself. He gets into the prison, becomes president of the prisoners' union, does his interview, successfully woo's the warden's daughter, and gets out in time to publish his story before anyone else does. His career is off to a tremendous start. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Byrd, Virginia Vale, (more)
- 1942
Produced by silent-film comedian Harold Lloyd, My Favorite Spy is a vehicle for bespectacled bandleader Kay Kyser, who resembles Lloyd more than somewhat. Just before embarking on his honeymoon with new bride Terry (Ellen Drew), Kyser is drafted into the Army. Proving to be a monumentally inefficient soldier, our hero is nonetheless pressed into service by US intelligence officer Major Allen (Moroni Olsen). It seems that Nazi agents have been passing secrets in the nightclub where Kyser's band performs, and Allen wants Kay to act as a counter-espionage agent. To maintain his cover, Kay is discharged from the army in disgrace, and is ordered to noisily make himself a "security risk", so that Nazi chieftan Robinson (Robert Armstrong) will invite Kay to join his spy operation. Trouble is, Kyser must keep his espionage activities secret from everyone-even his wife Terry, who is growing ever more impatient over Kay's unexplained absences from her boudoir. Making matters worse, Kyser is teamed with glamorous blonde secret agent Connie (Jane Wyman), whom Terry understandably suspects of being Kay's clandestine sweetheart. A multitude of slapstick situations follow, culminating in a wild chase through an abandoned theater, with Kay Kyser making like Harold Lloyd to rescue his wife from the Nazis. As directed by Tay Garnett, Kyser's ongoing marital woes seem more pathetic than funny; in addition, his Secret Service cohorts come off as the most sadistic bunch of "good guys" in screen history, bursting with laughter every time Kay's wife throws him out of their apartment. Even so, My Favorite Spy has a few genuine laughs, especially in the final reels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ellen Drew, Jane Wyman, (more)
George Stevens' Talk of the Town is a quick-witted comedy driven by wonderful performances by Cary Grant, Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur. Michael Lightcap (Colman) is a stuffy law professor in line to a Supreme Court appointment, who is spending the summer at the house of schoolteacher Nora Shelley (Arthur). But Lightcap is not the only guest at the house. Shelley has also let Leopold Dilg (Grant)--a man who had recently escaped from prison, where he was serving a sentence for false accusations of immolating a local factory--stay at the house, telling Lightcap that he is a gardener. In addition to striking up a friendship, Lightcap and Dilg also compete for the affections of Shelley. Eventually, the professor learns of Dilg's true identity, finding out that Leopold was framed by a crooked government, led by the foreman of the factory, who supposedly died in the fire. When Dilg is captured by the police, Lightcap comes to his defense, bringing the still-alive foreman out of hiding and, in the process, clearing Leopold of all the charges. Talk of the Town received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Original Story, Best Score, Best Editing, and Best Interior Decoration, yet it lost in all of the categories. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, (more)
- 1942
Ralph Byrd, known far and wide for his movie interpretation of Dick Tracy, trades his civvies for Navy blues in PRC's Duke of the Navy. On furlough with his pal Cookie (played by swimming champion Stubby Kruger), Breezy Duke (Byrd) is mistaken for millionaire candy manufactuer John T. Duke. While in this guise, Breezy is inveigled into joining a treasure hunt-provided, of course, he puts up a great deal of money for an entry fee. Amazingly, Breezy and Cookie manage to unearth a genuine treasure, namely a fortune in diamonds. Director William Beaudine was one of the three credited screenwriters of Duke of the Navy, which was certainly haphazard enough to have been written by a committee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Byrd, Veda Ann Borg, (more)
- 1932
The butt of many a practical joke at the office where he works as a clerk, Joe Holt (Joe E. Brown) is nonetheless determined to prove himself a brilliant inventor. His latest creation is an unsinkable swim suit, which works quite well in theory. In practice, however, it is another matter; Joe can't test out the suit because he can't swim. As the result of a series of dizzying circumstances, Joe is mistaken for a swimming champ (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) also named Joe Holt, and as such he makes the acquaintance of wealthy debutante Alice Brandon (Ginger Rogers). Through the auspices of Alice's father, "our" Joe is entered in the annual swimming marathon from Catalina Island to the California coastline. After taking a few "dry" swimming lessons from a youngster named Sam (Allan "Farina" Hoskins), the nervous Joe dives into the Catalina surf and starts the 22-mile swim. His unsinkable suit is a success, but there's many a slapstick obstacle placed in Joe's path before he can resurface at the finish line, thanks largely to the machinations of rival swimmer Edward Dover (Preston S. Foster). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Ginger Rogers, (more)
