Gerald Pierce Movies
The Lady From Shanghai, a complex, involving puzzle-within-a-puzzle mystery story, is a showcase for Orson Welles, showing his singular talents and sensibilities as few other films have. The story is superficially simple: a seaman Michael O'Hara (Welles) is hired as a crew member on the yacht of the wealthy Banister (Everett Sloane). His beautiful but mysterious wife Elsa (Rita Hayworth) has met O'Hara earlier, when he saved her from a mugging. What ensues is a complicated and bizarre pattern of deception, fraud and murder, with O'Hara finding himself implicated in a murder, despite his innocence. The film is best remembered for its final sequence when the plot comes to a literally smashing climax in the famous "hall of mirrors" sequence, with Elsa and Banister shooting it out amidst shards of shattering glass. Orson Welles, who produced, directed, wrote and starred in the film, is sometimes self-indulgent in his use of visual tricks and techniques, which at times sacrifice plot for visual brilliance, but he pulls it together in the end to produce a stunning, difficult film. Rita Hayworth gives one of her best performances as the deceptive, seductive temptress, hard-edged and cynical. The film confounds, unsettles and disorients the viewer, very much as Welles intended to do. While not an easy film, it is well worth the attention required to follow it, and Welles offers no easy solutions or any false happy endings to his tour-de-force mystery. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, (more)
- 1946
Charmless films like The Bride Wore Boots helped to kill the postwar revival of the "screwball comedy" genre almost before it began. Here's the deal: Breeding-farm owner Sally (Barbara Stanwyck) loves horses. Novelist Jeff (Robert Cummings) hates horses, but loves Sally. Jeff and Sally marry, only to break up over their equestrian differences. They spend the rest of the film trying to get back together again, despite such hurdles as flirtatious Southern belle Mary Lou Medford (Diana Lynn) and charming "other man" Lance Gale (Patric Knowles). Is it any surprise that the film ends with a Big Race, and that horse-hating Jeff is astride the winning steed? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Cummings, (more)
- 1945
This WW II drama is the first to deal with the fateful atomic bomb attack on Japan. Originally, the film centered on the acquisition of a new kind of gun, but as it was in production during the time the Bomb was dropped, the producers were quick to change the story to suit the times. It tells the story of a straight-arrow American pilot who was raised in Japan and is asked to return there to get a captured scientist to garner valuable information about the A-bomb. The pilot, Major Ross, realizes that he will not survive the mission, but as he has just lost his lover, he cares little for life. Before he goes, his face is surgically altered so he looks Japanese and he then infiltrates the camp where the scientist is being held. There he finds his girl friend, an army nurse, who has also been captured. Unfortunately, she has fallen in love with a fellow inmate. The determined Major Ross remains focused and completes his mission, but not before encountering considerable danger at the hands of enemy officers. The end of the film features actual newsreel footage of nuclear bombings from Pathe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Hale, Richard Loo, (more)
- 1944
In this musical comedy, a pair of small-potatoes performers try to make it to the big-time after winning an amateur talent contest. Though this leads them to a few professional gigs, something is missing from their act and they are not popular. Believing a little cash will boost their career, the girl heads for Washington, D.C. to see if her wealthy daddy will help them. En route she is mistaken for the wife of a well-known pilot and ends up in his suite having to pretend she is his spouse. When the pilot meets her, romantic sparks fly. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Shirley, Dennis Day, (more)
- 1943
Flight for Freedom was an "a clef" version of the Amelia Earhart story. Rosalind Russell plays the Earhart-like aviatrix Tonie Carter, who spends the early part of the film fighting against the aviation industry's prejudice against woman pilots. Tonie establishes a reputation as "the Lady Lindbergh", setting flight records on a near-weekly basis. Along the way, she falls in love with an agreeable flying ace (Fred MacMurray), much to the dismay of her conservative flight instructor (Herbert Marshall). The film's ending expands on speculation regarding Amelia Earhart's disappearance during a 1937 flight; Tonie Carter flies off on a secret mission to aid the Pacific war effort, then vanishes before completing her task. Flight for Freedom was produced for RKO by Floyd Odlum, whose wife Jacqueline Cochran was herself a renowned aviatrix. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1943
A romantic triangle between two best friends and a beautiful woman provides the basis of this romantic comedy. The girl in question is the niece of the head of the law firm the men work for. She likes both of the men, but one of them she considers more of a brother. This one is very manipulative and endeavors to thwart the romantic efforts of his friend by hiring the man's ex-girl friend, a singer, to distract him. It works and the manipulator gets the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately, by that time he is dismayed to discover that he has actually fallen in love with the singer. Songs include: "Cae, Cae" (John Latouche, Pedro Barrios, Roberto Martins), "Do I Know What I'm Doing?," "Closer and Closer," and "Ain't You Got No Time for Love?." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Dolenz, David Bruce, (more)
Aircraft plant worker Robert Cummings is accused of sabotaging his factory and causing the death of a co-worker. Actually, Cummings is the fall guy for a clever ring of Nazi spies, headed by above-suspicion American philanthropist Otto Kruger. Our hero goes on a cross-country chase after genuine saboteur Norman Lloyd, all the while pursued himself by the police. Along the way, he acquires a reluctant "travelling companion" in the form of Priscilla Lane, who at first despises Cummings and intends to turn him over to the authorities at the first opportunity, but who gradually comes to realize that the boy is innocent. Alfred Hitchcock intended Saboteur to be the American equivalent to his British The 39 Steps, employing such details as the solid-citizen villain, the handcuffed hero, the unwilling blonde heroine, and any number of stopovers with a variety of offbeat characters (a travelling "freak" show, a compassionate blind man, a grizzled old prospector who turns out to be one of the spies, etc.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, (more)
- 1942
In this drama, an ex-vaudevillian dancer opens up a dance band agency and help street kids at the same time by hiring them to help out. Unfortunately, the local gang of hood's leader resists his attempts. More trouble ensues when the dancer helps a convict gain parole by hiring him. It later turns out that the ex-con is only interested in trying to use the agency as a front for extortion. Songs include the Oscar nominated "When There's a Breeze on Lake Louise," "Your Face Looks Familiar," "Heavenly, Isn't He?" "Let's Forget It," "You're Bad For Me," and "A Million Miles From Manhattan." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Murphy, Anne Shirley, (more)
- 1942
A college student's passion for swinging music leads him to found his own band. When he starts spending more time playing music than studying, his father, a prominent hotelier, steps in and sends the lad to a dude ranch in Arizona. Undeterred, the boy brings the band with him. Once there, he encounters a pretty girl. Unfortunately, her father owns a rival hotel chain. Fortunately, after much singing, dancing and misunderstanding, the two young people finally manage to fall in love. Though only an hour long, the film is packed with 16 popular songs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Healy, Richard Davies, (more)
- 1942
Each of Bob Hope's "My Favorite" films (My Favorite Blonde, My Favorite Brunette, My Favorite Spy) was, by accident or design, a parody of a dead-serious movie genre. 1942's My Favorite Blonde, for example, was a takeoff of Alfred Hitchcock in general and Hitchcock's 39 Steps in particular. Two-bit vaudeville entertainer Hope gets mixed up with gorgeous blonde British-spy Madeline Carroll. The "maguffin" (Hitchcock's nickname for "gimmick") which ties the two stars together is a ring which contains the microfilmed plans for a revolutionary new bomber. Hope and Carroll are forced to take it on the lam when Hope is framed for murder by Nazi-agents Gale Sondergaard, George Zucco et. al. Highlights include Hope eluding capture by impersonating a famed psychologist (watch for Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as Hope's most contentious "patient"). Madeline Carroll also got several opportunities to shine comedically, especially when she lapsed into cloying baby talk while posing as Hope's wife. Bob Hope was hesitant to work with My Favorite Blonde director Sidney Lanfield, having heard of Lanfield's reputation as an on-set dictator. However, the two got along so swimmingly that they would collaborate on such future top-notch Hope farces as Let's Face It (1943) and The Lemon Drop Kid (1951). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Madeleine Carroll, (more)
- 1942
This remake of the 1934 WW I melodrama Madame Spy has been updated to the WW II era. Once again accepting a role unworthy of her talents, Constance Bennett stars as Joan Bannister, the wife of globe-trotting war correspondent David Bannister (Don Porter). Returning to the US, Bannister becomes suspicious when Joan begins keeping company with known Nazi functionaries, notably the sinister Mr. Peter (John Litel). Suspecting that his own wife may be the elusive "Madame Spy" wanted by American authorities, Bannister is in for quite a few surprises before the film's six reels expend themselves. The film's climax, in a deserted farm house, evokes memories of Hitchcock's better-known espionager Foreign Correspondent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Constance Bennett, Don Porter, (more)
Robert Montgomery plays saxophone-playing boxer Joe Pendleton, who insists upon piloting his own plane, much to the consternation of his manager Max Corkle (James Gleason). Just before a championship bout, Joe's plane crashes. When he revives, he finds he has been whisked away to Heaven by the overanxious Messenger #7013. Checking with the man in charge, one Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains), Pendleton discovers that he isn't scheduled to die for another 50 years. Joe heads back to earth, only to learn to his chagrin that his body has been cremated. Mr. Jordan is obliged to find Joe a new body; the "candidate" is a business mogul named Farnsworth, who is in the process of being murdered in his bath by his wife (Rita Johnson) and her lover (John Emery). Joe takes over Farnsworth's body, astonishing the murderers by emerging from the bathroom, very much alive (while Joe still looks like Joe to himself and the audience, he looks like Farnsworth to everyone else). Still desirous of winning the upcoming championship, Joe begins to whip Farnsworth's body into shape, even hiring Max Corkle to manage him. It takes some doing, but Joe convinces Max that he is indeed Joe and not Farnsworth (their scenes together are priceless, far better seen than described). Meanwhile, Joe has fallen in love with Bette Logan (Evelyn Keyes), a woman whose father had been ruined by the real Farnsworth. For her sake, he pays back millions of dollars that the crooked Farnsworth had finagled out of his investors. This prompts Mrs. Farnsworth and her lover to kill "Farnsworth" again, and once more Joe Pendleton is without a body. How Mr. Jordan arranges for Joe to win the championship, expose the murderers and walk off arm and arm with Bette is a bit too complex to detail here. Here Comes Mr. Jordan is one of the most consistently clever romantic comedies of the 1940s, and richly deserving of the Oscars won by screenwriters Sidney Buchman, Seton I. Miller and Harry Segall. A sequel, Down to Earth, was filmed in 1947, with Roland Culver as Mr. Jordan; and in 1978, the original Jordan was remade by Warren Beatty as Heaven Can Wait. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, (more)
- 1941
Ball of Fire is a delightful retelling (by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett) of the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" legend -- though strictly for grownups. Gary Cooper is the youngest of eight bookish professors authoring an encyclopedia. They find a perfect "research associate" in the curvaceous form of stripteaser Barbara Stanwyck, who (chastely) hides on the professors' domicile to escape her gangster boyfriend (Dana Andrews). As Stanwyck interprets various slang expression, she and the professors grow quite fond of one another; she brings out their sentimental sides, while they revive her essential decency. Naturally, Cooper is the one most smitten, though he hides his true feelings until the inevitable clinch. When gangster Andrews and his torpedo Dan Duryea show up to claim Stanwyck (Andrews wants to marry her so she can't testify against him), the professors save the day and it is Cooper who ends up with the beautiful Stanwyck. For the record, two of the "ancient" professors are Richard Haydn and O.Z. Whitehead, still in their mid-thirties (the others are S.Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Oscar Homolka, Leonid Kinskey and Aubrey Mather). Producer Sam Goldwyn later remade Ball of Fire as a Danny Kaye musical, A Song is Born (1948). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, (more)
- 1940
In this drama, a despondent fellow contemplates suicide after he is abandoned by his last girlfriend. To ensure that his poor sister will receive maximum benefits from his life insurance policy, he hires a hitman to assassinate him. Unfortunately, he meets a new girl and changes his mind. Unfortunately, the killer, whom the hero has never met, doesn't know this. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
