Casey MacGregor Movies
- 1960
Based on author James T. Farrell's trilogy written between 1932 and 1935 and later combined into a one-volume Studs Lonigan book, this less than two-hour film does not quite do justice to the literary whole. Studs (Christopher Knight) is raised on Chicago's infamous South Side, an Irish kid when prejudice against the Irish was still around and hanging tough was the norm in impoverished neighborhoods. Once he leaves grade school behind and enters high school, a world of "wenching," fights, drinking, and wild parties starts to open up. By 1929, Studs is trapped into a marriage he comes to hate and as the decade of the '30s begins, he is still trying to be as tough as he can. But as he learns, no one can out-tough the Great Depression. At times confusing and histrionic and wordy (not to mention censored to fit a 1960s unspoken coda), Studs Lonigan falls short of the pithy, emotional, rugged world of Farrell's Irish hoodlum. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Knight, Frank Gorshin, (more)
- 1956
Ginger Rogers ended her 23-year association with RKO Radio with the indifferent musical comedy western The First Travelling Saleslady. Ginger and Broadway favorite Carol Channing (whose only starring film this was) play a pair of corset salespersons who head westward in 1897 to hawk their wares. Finding a limited market for corsets, the ladies switch to selling barbed wire, which rests not at all well with cattle baron James Arness. Rescuing Ginger and Carol from Arness' hired guns are horseless-carriage inventor Barry Nelson and callow young cowpoke Clint Eastwood. Whenever asked about First Travelling Saleslady in later years, Carol Channing would blithely refer to it as "the picture that killed RKO"; she wasn't too far wrong in this assessment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Barry Nelson, (more)
Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production anecdotes concerning Todd's efforts to pull the wool over the eyes of local authorities in order to cadge the film's round-the-world location shots--not to mention the wheeling and dealing to convince over forty top celebrities to appear in cameo roles. David Niven heads the huge cast as ultra-precise, supremely punctual Phileas Fogg, who places a 20,000-pound wager with several fellow members of London Reform Club, insisting that he can go around the world in eighty days (this, remember, is 1872). Together with his resourceful valet Passepartout (Cantinflas), Fogg sets out on his world-girdling journey from Paris via balloon. Meanwhile, suspicion grows that Fogg has stolen his 20,000 pounds from Bank of England. Diligent Inspector Fix (Robert Newton) is sent out by the bank's president (Robert Morley) to bring Fogg to justice. Hopscotching around the globe, Fogg pauses in Spain, where Passepartout engages in a comic bullfight (a specialty of Cantinflas). In India, Fogg and Passepartout rescue young widow Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine, in her third film) from being forced into committing suicide so that she may join her late husband. The threesome visit Hong Kong, Japan, San Francisco, and the Wild West. Only hours short of winning his wager, Fogg is arrested by the diligent Inspector Fixx. Though exonerated of the bank robbery charges, he has lost everything--except the love of the winsome Aouda. But salvation is at hand when Passepartout discovers that, by crossing the International Date Line, there's still time to reach the Reform Club. Will they make it? See for yourself. Among the film's 46 guest stars, the most memorable include Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Jose Greco, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, Buster Keaton, John Mills, and Beatrice Lillie. All were paid in barter--Ronald Colman did his brief bit for a new car. Newscaster Edward R. Murrow provides opening narration, and there's a tantalizing clip from Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902). Offering a little something for everyone, Around the World in 80 Days is nothing less than an extravaganza, and it won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Niven, Cantinflas, (more)
- 1955
In this deceptively titled and paced Western, Kirk Douglas shines in the hyper-macho role of Dempsey Rae, a good-natured drifter with a mysterious past up from Texas, a top hand with a gun, a horse, or a herd, who can even play the banjo and sing. He rides into a Wyoming town in a freight car, in the company of much younger drifter Jeff Jimson (William Campbell), who knows even less about the West than he does about life. Dempsey gets Jeff out of a few scrapes with the law, and both get hired by the foreman (Jay C. Flippen) of the Triangle Ranch. With 8,000 head, the Triangle is already the largest spread in the territory, but the new owner from back east, Miss Reed Bowman (Jeanne Crain), arrives with plans to move in another 22,000 head onto the open range, threatening to squeeze out the smaller ranches completely. Meanwhile, the other ranchers plan on saving some of the grass for winter feed and fence it off with barbed wire. When Bowman discovers that she can't hold onto Dempsey as either a man or a foreman, she seduces Jeff -- who's too quick to become a man -- to run interference on him, and hires a crew of gunmen led by Steve Miles (Richard Boone) to tear down the wire. A range war is about to break out, and Dempsey, who wants no part of barbed wire and carries the scars to show why, plans on pulling out. But then Miles and his men overplay their hand, and Dempsey throws in with the smaller ranchers. The body count suddenly starts going against Miles, who digs in for a final fight, and now it's Jeff and Bowman who find themselves caught between two unstoppable forces that they've helped unleash. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Crain, (more)
- 1955
In a fleabitten Western town, gunslingers Dell Delaney (Gene Barry) and Red Hillman (Darren McGavin) challenge each other to a shootout. Local cook Maggie Flynn (Ellen Corby) does everything she can to talk the two cowpokes out of their challenge, but they are determined to slap leather the moment a clock on Maggie's mantle strikes the hour. Clearly, what Maggie needs to prevent bloodshed is something spectacular -- for example, a "Sign from God." And that is precisely what Maggie gets. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1948
All of his life, Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark) has been taunted and mistreated by most of the people around him, enduring innumerable beatings and other humiliations as a boy because his father was a murderer who died on the gallows. He finds it not much better as an adult, living with his aunt in the small Virginia town of Woodville -- especially when he is contending for the attentions of young schoolteacher Gilly Johnson (Gail Russell) with his boyhood tormentor Jerry Sykes (Lloyd Bridges), whose bullying and arrogance are made worse (and more galling) by the fact that he's the son of the town banker (and its richest man). Sykes picks a fight with Danny and loses for the first time, but he dies in the process. Knowing how the town thinks of him because of his father, Danny tries to hide the body. But for all of his bitterness over how he's been treated, he can't truly escape the feelings of guilt over what he's done -- nor can he escape his fear of what people will probably think. For a time, his new romance with Gilly distracts him, but he's unable to put it out of his mind for long, especially when he's forced to join his good friend Mose (Rex Ingram) on a raccoon hunt that takes them right to the pond where the body is hidden. Soon the sheriff (Allyn Joslyn) is investigating, and he can't help but confer with the one man in town whose judgment he respects nearly as much as his own -- Danny. And when Danny's deaf-mute friend, Billy (Harry Morgan), unknowingly uncovers a key piece of evidence, Danny is pushed almost to the breaking point. He's driven by his own instincts to run away, and invite almost certain capture or death, but Gilly and the sheriff see this as a chance for Danny not only to free himself of the torment over what he's done but from the past that has haunted him and blighted his life -- if only they can reach him and make him understand. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dane Clark, Gail Russell, (more)
- 1948
The Durango Kid rides again in the person of Charles Starrett in Buckaroo From Powder River. The story concerns the efforts made by Steve Lacey (Starrett) to break up the outlaw family headed by Pop Ryland (Forrest Taylor). Posing as a hired killer, Lacey infiltrates the Ryland gang, rescuing the only "good" member of the family along the way. And when the necessity arises, Lacey dons the mask of the mysterious Durango Kid. The love interest is provided by Eve Miller, the laughs by Smiley Burnette, and the music by the Cass County Boys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Starrett, Smiley Burnette, (more)
- 1947
Despite the producer claiming Border Feud to be a "New PRC Picture," this Western is essentially the same old wheeze that the studio had been trotting out for years. The one where Marshal Cheyenne Davis (Lash LaRue) assumes the identity of a hired gun, The Tiger, whom nobody in town has actually met. The crooked saloon owner, Barton (Bob Duncan), is fanning the flames of a feud between warring mining families in the hopes of grabbing the Blue Girl gold mine for his mystery boss. With the help of the local sheriff -- none other than old friend Fuzzy Q. Jones (Al St. John), whom everybody insists is "quite capable" despite appearances to the contrary -- Cheyenne not only quells the feud but also manages to unmask the brain behind the troubles, the local doctor (Ian Keith). For the record: LaRue cracks his trademark whip twice in Border Feud. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lash LaRue, Al St. John, (more)
- 1947
Eddie Dean and his pal Soapy Jones (Roscoe Ates) are assigned by the U.S. marshal to safeguard the invaluable Mexican Lopez diamond, which Don Lopez (Harry Vejar) insists on displaying on a worthy lady at every festive occasion. Due to a drought, the don and his neighbors are planning to move westward but the gold set aside for the trek is stolen and one of the hands killed by a couple of Chicago gangsters, Barrett (Gregg Barton) and Cory (Jimmy Martin), who are in cahoots with the local cantina proprietor, Avery (Zon Murray). Eddie and Soapy get their hands full not only safeguarding the diamond and tracking down the killers but must also contend with a mysterious Senorita, Maria (Dolores Castle), who may or may not be in league with Barrett. Backed by The Sunshine Boys, Dean takes time out to warble his own and Hal Blair’s ”Cry, Cry, Cry” and ”West to Glory” and Pete Gates’ {“In the Shadow of the Mission”). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Dean, Roscoe Ates, (more)
- 1944
The wild and woolly early days of New York -- when it was still known as New Amsterdam -- provide the backdrop for this period musical-comedy. In 1650, Peter Stuyvesant (Charles Coburn) arrives in New Amsterdam to assume his duties as governor. Stuyvesant is hardly the fun-loving type, and one of his first official acts is to call for the death of Brom Broeck (Nelson Eddy), a newspaper publisher well-known for his fearless exposes of police and government corruption. However, Broeck hasn't done anything that would justify the death penalty, so Stuyvesant waits (without much patience) for Broeck to step out of line. Broeck is romancing a beautiful woman named Tina Tienhoven (Constance Dowling), whose sister Ulda (Shelley Winters) happens to be dating his best friend, Ten Pin (Johnnie "Scat" Davis). After Stuyvesant's men toss Broeck in jail on a trumped-up charge, Stuyvesant sets his sights on winning Tina's affections. However, as Broeck begins to organize his fellow New Amsterdamians in a bid for independence, he tries to convince Stuyvesant that working for justice might do him more good that following his current policies of graft and corruption. Based on a Broadway musical with songs by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson, Knickerbocker Holiday's score was beefed up for its screen incarnation with a number of new tunes by Sammy Cahn and Jules Styne, though the best known song from the stage version remained the best remembered selection from the film, September Song. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nelson Eddy, Charles Coburn, (more)
Affable comic actor Chick Chandler hadn't had a film starring role in years when Seven Doors to Death was produced in 1944, but the wartime leading-man shortage enabled him to secure top billing in this leisurely comedy/mystery. Chandler plays architect Jimmy McMillan, who designs an exclusive shopping center/apartment building with seven entrances. When a burglary-murder occurs in the building, practically every occupant is suspect, since every one had a convenient avenue of entrance. To find the genuine killer-and incidentally, to clear himself of suspicion-Jimmy plays detective, wandering through the building and mentally reconstructing the crime. Other veteran perfomers parading before the cameras include June Clyde, George Meeker, Gregory Gay, and motorcyle-cop-turned-actor Edgar Dearing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chick Chandler, June Clyde, (more)
- 1942
Irene Dunne plays a flibbetygibbet socialite who inherits a farm in Arizona. She can't seem to manage either her money or her private life, thus seeks advice from outside sources. Irene falls in love with fledgling Manhattan psychiatrist Patric Knowles, and marries him in the hope that he'll solve all her problems. Lady in a Jam was advertised as one of the most expensive comedies ever made; the studio was banking on the reputations of star Irene Dunne and director Gregory LaCava to draw crowds. But when the film failed (it shifted emotional gears a bit too often for 1942 film fans), both the lady and the gentleman found their careers in "a jam"--from which Dunne recovered but LaCava didn't. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Patric Knowles, (more)
