Jean Acker Movies

The Young Man with Ideas in this MGM production is idealistic lawyer Maxwell Webster (Glenn Ford). Too self-effacing for his own good, Webster vegetates in Montana with his wife Julie (Ruth Roman) and children for nearly 10 years before starting life anew in California. Living penuriously while studying for his California bar exam, Webster tries out several moneymaking schemes, most of which come acropper. Along the way, he inadvertently gets involved with a bookie ring, culminating in a climactic courtroom scene wherein Webster defends himself -- and surprise, he doesn't have a fool for a client. In typical Hollywood fashion, the script requires the talented Ruth Roman to express jealousy when a brace of lovely females played by Nina Foch and Denise Darcel briefly set their caps for the ingenuous Glenn Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A pair of top 20th Century Fox contractees were loaned to Paramount as stars of The Mating Season. Gene Tierney plays globe-trotting socialite Maggie Carleton, while Thelma Ritter is cast as Ellen McNulty, the hash-slinging mother of Maggie's husband, Val (John Lund). Perceiving that her son is embarrassed by his lower-class origins, Ellen poses as a maid when she attends Maggie and Val's wedding reception. Even after Val expresses displeasure at this deception, Ellen refuses to reveal her true identity, leading to a series of funny and poignant consequences. Miriam Hopkins co-stars as Ellen's blue-blooded mother, whose third-act arrival heralds the film's inevitable "moment of truth." Rest assured, The Mating Season is never dull. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As Alfred Hitchcock's classic psychothriller opens, the staff of a posh mental asylum eagerly awaits the arrival of the new director. When the man in question shows up, it turns out to be handsome psychiatrist John Ballantine (Gregory Peck). But something's wrong, here: Ballantine seems much too young for so important a position; his answers to the staff's questions are vague and detached; and he seems unusually distressed by the parallel marks, left by a fork, on a white tablecloth. Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman) comes to the conclusion that Ballantine is not the new director, but a profoundly disturbed amnesiac--and, possibly, the murderer of the real director. But is she correct in her inferences? Scriptwriters Angus MacPhail and Ben Hecht soon add to this the complication that Constance begins to fall in love with John. Director Hitchcock tapped surrealist artist Salvador Dali to design the visually arresting dream sequences in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The studio concocted the film as a showcase for its 9-year-old discovery Joan Carroll, here cast as precocious Bridget Potter. Little Bridget has been willingly "kidnapped" by secretary Linda Norton (Ruth Warrick), who hopes that the girl's disappearance will precipitate a reunion between Bridget's divorcing parents (John Miljan, Marjorie Gateson). Instead, Linda's well-intentioned crime results in a film-length slapstick chase, largely involving two rival newspaper reporters (Eve Arden and Edmond O'Brien). Obliging Young Lady was directed by Richard Wallace, who as a former employee of Hal Roach Studios was well-grounded in this sort of frenetic farce. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Leo McCarey was supposed to both produce and direct My Favorite Wife, but an illness forced him to relinquish the director's chair to Garson Kanin, who did a splendid job. This hilarious retread of the old "Enoch Arden" legend stars Irene Dunne as Ellen, who returns home to her husband Nick (Cary Grant) and children Tim (Ann Shoemaker) and Chinch (Mary Lou Harrington) after being marooned on a desert island for seven years. Thing of it is, Ellen has been declared legally dead, and Nick has taken unto himself a second wife, the bitchy Bianca (Gail Patrick). Upon discovering that Ellen is still alive, Nick is on the verge of a tender reunion-until it discovers that she spent those seven lost years in the company of handsome Mr. Barkett (Randolph Scott). The superb supporting cast includes Granville Bates as a flummoxed judge, Chester Clute as a meek shoe salesman whom Ellen tries to pass off as Barkett, and Donald MacBride as a beetle-browed honeymoon-hotel clerk. My Favorite Wife was remade in 1963 as Move Over Darling, in which Irene Dunne and Cary Grant were replaced by Doris Day and James Garner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this polished soap opera from MGM, Robert Taylor plays Chris Claybourne, a dedicated scientist researching a possible cure for spotted fever. However, Chris has a dark side; he has a weakness for gambling and has fallen into debt with a gangster named Fish Eye (Joseph Calleia). While visiting a casino, Chris meets Rita Wilson (Barbara Stanwyck), a gambler's shill who does some modeling on the side. Chris and Rita quickly fall in love, and when Chris is due to leave for South America on a research expedition, Rita begs him to stay with her. However, Fish Eye has been leaning on Chris for his money, and when he asks his brother Tom (John Eldridge) for a loan to pay off the debt, he agrees under one condition -- that Chris leave for South America right away, and without Rita. When Chris ships out, Rita believes that he left her behind because he didn't care for her, and to hurt him, she marries Tom and takes Chris's IOU. However, by the time Chris returns, Rita's marriage with Tom is in tatters and she's desperate to win back Chris's affection. In real life, Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck were an item while shooting His Brother's Wife, and they married three years later. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Nest was based on Les Noces d'Argent, a play by Paul Geraldy. Having sacrificed all for her children, staid Mrs. Hamilton (Pauline Frederick) is aghast when her daughter Susan (Ruth Dwyer) marries an insufferable social-climber. Even worse, Mrs. Hamilton's son Martin (Reginald Sheffield) opts for a life of crime. In hopes of forgetting her domestic difficulties, Mrs. Hamilton heads to Paris, where she undergoes a glamor treatment and emerges as the most beautiful and desirable woman in Europe. In this incarnation, she finds happiness by marrying Richard Elliot (Holmes Herbert), the executor of her late husband's estate. Out of love for his new wife, Elliot takes on the daunting task of "reforming" her two wayward children. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When inventor Otto Trueman (J.P. Lockney) claims to have created a machine which makes artificial rubber, young promoter Robert Gardner (T. Roy Barnes) thinks he's found a great get-rich-quick scheme. He mails hundreds of thousands of letters touting this invention and searching for investors until it is discovered that the machine doesn't do what Trueman says it does. The postal authorities get involved, and Gardner's friend, Billy Noble (Lloyd T. Whitlock) suggests that he play crazy to avoid arrest. He does, and in the meantime Trueman sells his contraption for a million dollars. Trueman, Gardner and Noble split the profits and then find out that the machine makes a fantastic paving block. This picture was a weak adaptation of the stage play by Max Marcin, which also starred Barnes. There is a 1945 film with the same title that was based on a different play -- also with the same name. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This second of seven film versions of the old theatrical chestnut Brewster's Millions starred Roscoe Arbuckle, better known to his fans as Fatty. The rotund comedian plays a young lawyer who inherits a vast fortune. But in order to claim his legacy, he must spend a million dollars within a set time period. Adapted by Walter Woods from the play by Winchell Smith and Byron Ongley (which in turn was based on a novel by George Barr McCutcheon), Brewster's Millions had "box office hit" written all over it, and might have been as much were it not for the sex scandal that destroyed Arbuckle's career. The most recent incarnation of Brewster's Millions was lensed in 1985, with Richard Pryor in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For some mysterious reason, producer Adolph Zukor decided to set the slapstick aside for Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's first full-length feature. Instead, he cast him in this Western comedy-drama, with an emphasis on the drama. In addition, Arbuckle's role of sheriff "Slim" Hoover was a secondary one, in spite of his star billing. The sheriff figures very little in the plot, which involves Dick Lane (Irving Cummings), a prospector given up for lost and his sweetheart, Echo Allen (Mabel Julienne Scott), who decides she loves Jack Payson (Tom Forman) anyhow. Dick's gold dust has been taken by Buck McKee (a villainous Wallace Beery, who stole the show), and McKee left him in the desert to die. Dick's brother Buddy gets tangled up in McKee's affairs and a hold up they commit is pinned on Payson. Eventually Slim rounds up the U.S. Cavalry and captures the bad guys. Lane is located, but he is mortally wounded, and Echo and Payson are happily married. The final shot shows Arbuckle, alone, saying, "Nobody loves a fat man." Nobody loved this picture, and it was a disappointment to his fans. A couple of interesting notes -- Arbuckle's longtime pal and former collaborator, Buster Keaton, stopped by to play an Indian extra. Also, the picture was based on a stage play by Edmund Day and during its long theatrical run the sheriff was played by Macklyn Arbuckle -- no relation to Roscoe. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

George Walsh plays Reginald Jones, a man who was born on Friday the thirteenth, has thirteen letters in his name, and suffers a lot of bad luck. After losing big in the stock market, he finds out he's inherited a fortune from his aunt -- providing he attends her funeral. But on the way there, he gets mixed up in a badger game and misses it. Reginald's disgusted uncle (Joe Smiley) throws him out and he goes to work on a sailing vessel, which turns out to be run by a gang of crooks, headed by Captain Zero (William Frederick). Along for the trek are an old professor (Henry Holland) and Helen, his daughter (Florence Dixon). The gang plans to hold the professor for ransom, but Reginald foils this scheme with his fists flying. For once in his life, things go right, and he saves the professor and gets the girl. Even the clever subtitles by Ralph Spence couldn't save this silly story. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In this suspensful crime drama, a member of a counterfeiting gang causes all sorts of trouble when he gives a bogus bill to his daughter. She uses it to purchase a dress and eventually it returns to the Treasury Department in the nation's capital where it is taken to the head of the Secret Service. Realizing that it is a fake, he calls in renowned detective William G. Burns who, of course, bring the crooks to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide