King Mojave Movies

Pat (Katharine Hepburn), a college phys-ed instructor, enters into professional competition as a golf and tennis player. Mike (Spencer Tracy), a likeable but unscrupulous sports promoter, first attempts to bribe Pat to lose, but later becomes her manager. Pat performs brilliantly until her insufferable fiance Collier West (William Ching) shows up; West always manages to make Pat so nervous that she can't win to save her life. At long last, West walks out, having found Pat in a compromising situation with Mike. Though she'd previously kept her distance from Mike, Pat suddenly realizes that she's fallen in love with him and--after a few crooked gamblers are disposed of--Pat and Mike become partners on a permanent basis. Pat & Mike reunited Tracy and Hepburn with their favorite director, George Cukor, and their favorite scenarists, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Watch for real-life golf and tennis champs Gussie Moran, Babe Didrickson Zaharias, Don Budge, Alice Marble, Frank Parker, Betty Hicks, Helen Dettweilerand Beverly Hanson as "themselves" -- and also keep an eye out for ex-ballplayer Chuck Connors, making his acting debut as a highway patrolman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pretty stewardess Marcy Lewis (Jane Wyman) must choose between Three Guys Named Mike in this frothy MGM concoction. There's Mike Lawrence (Van Johnson), a science student who moonlights as a bartender. There's Mike Tracy (Barry Sullivan), a wheeler-dealer ad executive. And finally, there's Mike Jamison (Howard Keel), a handsome airline pilot. Marcy's love life is counterpointed with her ever-increasing expertise on her job; the more self-assured she becomes, the more she changes her views about men. It wouldn't be cricket to reveal which "Mike" Marcy finally chooses, though the order of billing is something of a giveaway. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this 20th-century western, hero Gene Autry uses his old-fashioned horse and six-shooter to foil the plans of cattle rustlers who ply their trade via airplanes, refrigerated trucks and shortwave radios. Songs include: "The West Ain't What It Used to Be?", "I Picked up the Trail When I Found You", "Heebie, Jeebie Blues" (sung by Smiley Burnette) and "Defective Detective from Brooklyn" (also by Burnette). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Riff-Raff begins riff-raffing when boastful fisherman Dutch (Spencer Tracy) marries down-to-earth cannery worker Hattie (Jean Harlow). Their happiness is marred by Dutch's egomania, which results in the loss of his job and the alienation of his friends. Eventually he deserts Hattie, but she remains in love with him, even going to jail on a theft charge after trying to supply him with money. Reels and reels later, Dutch makes up for his past misdeeds by foiling a plot to sabotage a huge fishing vessel. Unfortunately, his reunion with Hattie is delayed when she tries to break out of prison, earning her an extended sentence, but he magnanimously promises to wait for her. Hard to believe that so sensible a heroine would put up with so much from a guy who's frankly not worth the trouble, but the chemistry between Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow compensates for the film's Grand Canyon-sized logic holes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Flamboyant, egomaniacal theatrical impresario Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) transforms chorus girl Mildred Plotka (Carole Lombard) into leading lady Lily Garland, the toast of Broadway. Once she's ascended to stardom, Mildred/Lily cannot abide Jaffe's obsessive control of her life and career. When he hires a private detective (Edgar Kennedy) to keep tabs on her, it's the last straw. Lily whisks herself off to Hollywood, where she quickly becomes a top movie star. Months pass: without his "creation" to star in his productions, Jaffe goes bankrupt. With his faithful stooges O'Malley (Roscoe Karns) and Webb (Walter Connolly) in tow, Jaffe boards the Twentieth Century Limited, one step ahead of his creditors. By an incredible coincidence, Lily is also on the Twentieth Century, accompanied by her stuffy fiance George Smith (Ralph Forbes). With near-maniacal glee, Jaffe undertakes the herculean task of signing Lily to star in his upcoming spectacular staging of "The Passion Play". Now the laughs, which have been erupting at safe intervals for the past 45 minutes, really begin to cascade, with Oscar, Lily, and a wide variety of eccentrics chasing each other around the Twentieth Century as it speeds its way from Chicago to New York. Based on the Broadway play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, Twentieth Century is "screwball comedy" at its screwiest. Director Howard Hawks once claimed that he was the first to treat his romantic leads like comedians: whether he was or not, it is true than Barrymore and Lombard deliver two of the funniest performances of the 1930s. Nearly 50 years after the release of Twentieth Century, the property was revived as a Broadway musical, On the 20th Century, starring Kevin Kline and Madeline Kahn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide