Morris Ankrum Movies

This is the one where Lassie plays a war veteran with amnesia. Actually Lassie isn't even Lassie, but a male collie named Bill (at least he isn't asked to appear "in drag" like all the other cinematic Lassies). Raised from a pup by adolescent Elizabeth Taylor, the doggy hero becomes a sheep collie on rancher Frank Morgan's spread. Lassie--er, Bill--loses his memory when hit by a car. Later on, the dog finds himself in the K-9 corps, where he is trained to kill Japs (Lassie a racist? No, no, not that!) The dog returns home shell-shocked and ready to tear apart anyone who crosses his path. But the love of Elizabeth Taylor conquers all in the lachrymose Technicolor finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A middle-aged Clark Gable returned from active duty in World War II to star in this MGM release that was heavily advertised as his big comeback. Gable is Harry Patterson, the bosun mate on a merchant marine vessel, a tough sailor and fighter with the proverbial girl in every port. But while in a San Francisco library, looking up a book on the human soul for his sidekick Mudgin (Thomas Mitchell), who thinks his soul has departed his body, Harry meets librarian Emily Sears (Greer Garson), whom he woos, marries, and leaves to sail off on another freighter. When he returns, Emily has retreated to an old farm to await the birth of their child. Harry continues to resent staying in one place, but he ultimately changes his tune when his baby's life hangs in the balance. Garson and Joan Blondell, playing her outspoken best friend, are both terrific, and Gable gives a less heroic performance that's a thoughtful change for him, although critics at the time were less than charitable. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

MGM intended Rationing to be an object lesson as well as a comedy, to teach the moviegoers the importance of rationing products during World War II. Wallace Beery plays a small town butcher who comes under fire from the local citizens for attempting to honor the ration system. Beery finds himself swamped in a sea of government red tape, and at times is tempted to sidestep the law, but at the end he does his patriotic duty. Like Laurel and Hardy's MGM feature Air Raid Wardens (43), Rationing tends to sacrifice laughs to get its message across. The Beery film has the added handicap of running about twenty minutes too long. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A con artist heads for the gold fields of Nevada during the 1880s after he is tossed off of San Francisco's Barbary Coast. Once in the state, he poses as an important banker. When he actually does find a gold mine, he is forcibly compelled to divvy up the take with the townsfolk. He doesn't mind going straight until his former buddies (still crooks) show up and try to steal the town payroll. To save the town and the mine, the phony financier becomes a crook himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This fifth entry in MGM's off-and-on "Thin Man" series maintains the high production and story values of the first four. Per the title, retired private detective Nick Charles (William Powell) pays a visit to his home town of Sycamore Springs, with wife Nora (Myrna Loy) in tow. Poor Nick is amusingly browbeaten by his parents (Harry Davenport and Lucile Watson), who wanted their boy to study medicine, is frustrated by the fact that there isn't a good stiff drink to be had in town, and is hilariously defeated by a recalcitrant hammock. In a more serious vein, Nick and Nora become involved in international intrigue while investigating the murder of a local house painter. If the identity of the murderer seems obvious today, it is only because the actor in question has played so many "surprise killers" in other films of this genre. A refreshing change of pace for the usually urbanized "Thin Man" series, The Thin Man Goes Home features such colorful suspects as Gloria DeHaven, Edward Brophy, Lloyd Corrigan, Leon Ames, and, best of all, Ann Revere as a local eccentric named "Crazy Mary". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marjorie Main's first solo starring vehicle for MGM finds the formidable character actress cast as a tough-but-tender female outlaw. Living on her tumbledown ranch in Oklahoma territory, Annie Goss (Main) shelters her desperado sons (Henry Morgan, Paul Langton) from the authorities. While planning to pull up stakes and return to Missouri, the Goss family befriends marshal Lloyd Richland (James Craig), who suspects that Annie's offspring are responsible for a recent train robbery, but is hesitant to arrest them because he believes that their motivations were noble. Likewise befriended by Gentle Annie and her brood is a stranded waitress named Mary Lingen (Donna Reed), with whom Richland falls in love. If the film can be said to have a villain, it is surly Sheriff Tatum (Barton MacLane), who unlike the soft-hearted Richland is determined to uphold the letter of the law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Let's Face It is adapted from the Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the old Norma Mitchell/Russell G. Medcraft stage chestnut The Cradle Snatchers. The basic story of three neglected wives who hire a trio of young men as professional companions is updated for the World War II era: The three young men are now lonely GIs. Bob Hope is the funniest member of the threesome engaged by the wives in order to make their wandering hubbies jealous. He is paired off with vivacious Betty Hutton, both of whom fight a complex situation-comedy plotline in order to find time for their expected specialties. Hope's best moment is a parody of the cigarette-lighting bit from Now, Voyager, in which he winds up with six burning cigarettes in his mouth. The stage version of Let's Face It was essentially a vehicle for Danny Kaye, who of course played the role essayed in the film by Bob Hope. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lois Andrews, best known in 1943 as the ex-wife of comedian Georgie Jessel, plays the title character in this cinemadaptation of Joseph P. McEvoy's popular comic strip Dixie Dugan. Swept up in the war effort, Dixie gets a job as secretary to government official Roger Hudson (James Ellison). Though Roger pursues her romantically, Dixie remains faithful to her defense-plant-worker fiancee Matt Hogan (Eddie Foy Jr.) Both Roger and Matt believe that a woman's place is in the home, but Dixie proves that their chauvinism is out of place during the National Emergency. Lois Andrews' inexperience is modified somewhat by the assured performances of Charlotte Greenwood and Charlie Ruggles as Dixie's parents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In later years, director Vincente Minnelli would dismiss I Dood It as his worst picture, though a more deserving candidate for that "honor" would be Minnelli's valedictory film A Matter of Time. In this remake of Buster Keaton's Spite Marriage, Red Skelton plays pants-presser Joseph Rivington Reynolds, who develops a crush on glamorous stage star Constance Shaw (Eleanor Powell). "Borrowing" a tuxedo from one of his customers, Joe courts Constance backstage and at a fancy nightclub. Jilted by her fiance, the temperamental Constance marries Joe out of spite, leading to a series of silly situations. In the original Spite Marriage, Buster Keaton proved his worth to the heroine by rescuing her from bootleggers: in the remake, Joe saves Constance from a nest of Nazi spies. Some of the routines-notably a scene in which Joe makes a shambles of a Civil War play, and a lengthy bit in which he puts his drunken bride to bed-were lifted directly from Spite Marriage, no surprise considering that Buster Keaton was one of the I Dood It gag writers. Musical highlights are provided by Lena Horne, Hazel Scott and Jimmy Dorsey, while the film's finale is lifted bodily from the 1936 Eleanor Powell musical Born to Dance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Five original cast members of the hit Broadway musical Best Foot Forward appear in this Technicolor MGM screen adaptation. Set at a small town military prep school, the story gets under way when movie star Lucille Ball (played by movie star Lucille Ball) pays a visit to the campus for publicity purposes. Several of the students, led by Bud (Tommy Dix), offer to make Lucille the queen of the upcoming prom. But the plot dictates that Bud and his pals are forced to back off from their offer, and to hide Lucille's presence from the faculty. Cast as a hoydenish blind date, Nancy Walker steals the show with her spirited rendition of "Buckle Down, Winsocki"; but of the five carryovers from the original Broadway production, only June Allyson went on to lasting film stardom. Enhancing the film's box-office appeal was MGM's decision to add Harry James and His Music Makers to the cast: James' performance of "The Two O'Clock Jump" is worth the admission price in itself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tales of Manhattan is a sumptuous multipart film centered around a formal tailcoat. The coat is specially designed for stage actor Charles Boyer, who wears it during a rendezvous with his lady friend (Rita Hayworth). The lady's husband (Thomas Mitchell) shoots Boyer, thus the tailcoat is damaged merchandise and sold at a discount to a bridegroom (Cesar Romero). When the groom's peccadillos catch up to him, the bride (Ginger Rogers) chooses to marry the best man (Henry Fonda) instead, and the coat is shipped off to a second hand store. It is purchased by a would-be composer (Charles Laughton), who wears it the night that he is to conduct his first symphony; alas, the coat is too tight and tears apart, nearly ruining the conductor's debut. Stitched back together, the coat is donated to a skid row mission, wherein the kindly proprietor gives the coat to a down and out drunkard (Edward G. Robinson) so that the shabby gentleman can attend his 25th college reunion. Later on, the coat is stolen by a crook (J. Carroll Naish) in order to gain entrance to a fancy charity ball. The crook holds up the ball and stuffs the loot in the pockets of the coat, but while escaping in an airplane he loses the outer garment. The coat floats down to an impoverished African American shanty community; a farmer (Paul Robeson) decides to distribute the "money from heaven" amongst his needy neighbors. At the end, the tattered coat adorns the shoulders of a scarecrow. Tales of Manhattan is one of the best "portmanteau" dramas turned out by Hollywood; it was directed by French expatriate Julien Duvivier, a past master of the multi-story technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Shepperd, later known as Shepperd Strudwick, stars as the tragic Edgar Allan Poe in this low-budget biopic. Adopted as a child, Poe grows into a directionless adult, disgracing himself and his foster family through his inability (or unwillingness) to conform to the status quo of 19th century Baltimore. Devastated by the loss of his childhood sweetheart, Elmira Royster (Virginia Gilmore), he finds solace in his marriage to his cousin Virginia Clemm (Linda Darnell). Poe's blossoming literary reputation, and the stability of his private life, are ultimately done in by his addiction to alcohol and drugs. Sixty-seven minutes simply isn't enough time to do justice to this fascinating, complex individual, but everyone involved tries hard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bud Abbott & Lou Costello invade the wild west in Ride 'Em Cowboy. The boys play Duke and Willoughby, a couple of rodeo peanut vendors who get mixed up in the travails of western novelist Bob Mitchell (Dick Foran). Ostensibly a true Son of the Frontier, Bob has actually never been west of Brooklyn in his life. To prove that he's got the "right stuff," Bob heads to a dude ranch, where he tries to curry favor with pretty ranchowner's daughter Anne Shaw (Anne Gwynne). Meanwhile, tenderfeet Duke and Willoughby run afoul of a local Indian tribe, whose chief Jake Rainwater (Douglass Dumbrille) demands that Willoughby marry Jake's porcine daughter (Babe London). The obligatory climactic slapstick chase finds Foran teaming up with authentic westerner Alabam (Johnny Mack Brown) to foil a gang of modern-day crooks, while Duke and Willoughby do their best to elude Jake and his war-whooping braves. Not quite as consistently funny as previous Abbot & Costello efforts, Ride 'Em Cowboy suffers from a bit too much directorial interference-especially during the classic "Crazy House" routine, which is weakened by director Arthur Lubin's attempts to make it more "cinematic." Even so, the film is an enjoyable melange of comedy and music, the latter commodity provided by Dick Foran, the Merry Macs, the Hi-Hatters, the Jivin' Jacks and Jills, and even Ella Fitzgerald! Best musical number: "I'll Remember April", brilliantly sung by Foran and gorgeously photographed by John W. Boyle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide