Mike Pat Donovan Movies

Union Station is a tense crime thriller in the tradition of The Naked City that unfolds in Los Angeles. William Holden plays railroad worker Lt. William Calhoun. Calhoun goes into action when Lorna Murchison (Allene Roberts), the sightless daughter of millionaire Henry Murchison (Herbert Heyes), is kidnapped by ruthless Joe Beacon (Lyle Bettger). The abduction is witnessed by Joyce Willecombe (Nancy Olson), Murchison's secretary. Using the handful of clues provided by Joyce, Calhoun and his associate, Inspector Donnelly (Barry Fitzgerald) do their best to second-guess the kidnapper. The film's most harrowing scene finds Beacon abandoning the blind and helpless Lorna in a deserted car barn in the deepest recesses of the titular station. Jan Sterling co-stars as Marge, Beacon's conscience-stricken moll. Former cinematographer Rudolph Mate does a nice, neat job as director, seamlessly matching location shots with studio mockups. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With Dallas, Gary Cooper revived his long-dormant association with westerns. Cooper plays ex-Confederate officer Blayde Hollister, who rides into Dallas in search of the men who killed his family and stole his land. Because he is considered to be an outlaw by the authorities, Hollister is compelled to switch identities with U.S. marshal Martin Wetherby (Leif Erickson). This ruse requires Hollister to explain his plan to Wetherby's lady friend, Tonia Robles (Ruth Roman). One by one, Hollister gets rid of the men responsible for the murders of his loved ones. The most formidable of his enemies, Will Marlow (Raymond Massey), proves to be a bit too clever to fall into Hollister's trap...at least until Marlow shows his hand in the final scene. There's more talk than action in Dallas, but Gary Cooper's laconic performance holds the audience's interest throughout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the long running comedy-drama series, the boys get into the world of prizefighting. When one of Slip's pals is killed in the ring, he and the boys plot their revenge against the gangster responsible. They enlist the aid of the late fighter's boozy brother, who was also a fighter. They convince him into entering the ring one last time. He does so despite the gangster's efforts to stop the boys. The fighter wins and his brother's death is avenged. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director Victor Fleming's final film features Ingrid Bergman as a vivid and luminous Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French peasant girl who led the French in battle against the invading English, becoming a national hero. When she was captured, tortured, and ultimately executed by the English, she was made a Catholic saint. Bergman's Joan is a strong and spiritual figure who proves her devotion to the Dauphin (Jose Ferrer), later to become the King of France. Joan is compelling as she wins an alliance with the Governor of Vaucouleurs and the courtiers at Chinon, leads her army in the Battle of Orleans, is betrayed by the Burgundians, and edicts that "our strength is in our faith." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this war movie, set during WW II, a pilot must crash land in the Pacific after he is shot down. As he floats upon the waves, he begins remembering the mythical island of Barbaree that his grandfather used to tell him about. To keep his wounded companion alive, he begins telling his life story. Via flashback, his youth, his love affairs, and his naval enlistment are chronicled. It is one of his lovers that talks her father into organizing a search party to find him. Meanwhile his companion dies. The pilot too, is half-dead by the time they find him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Deadline at Dawn represented not only the sole film directorial effort of Broadway's Harold Clurman, but also the only cinematic collaboration between Clurman and his former Group Theatre associate, screenwriter Clifford Odets. While on shore leave in New York, sailor Alex (Bill Williams) is slipped a doped-up drink by B-girl Edna (Lola Lane). When he awakens, Alex discovers that she has been murdered. Though he believes that he's the killer, our hero is talked into locating the actual miscreant by philosophical cab driver gus (Paul Lukas) and nightclub dancer June (Susan Hayward). Adapted from a novel by Cornell Woolrich, Deadline at Dawn leans towards pretentiousness at times, but is redeemed by the no-nonsense performance by Susan Hayward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Killers uses Ernest Hemingway's short story as a springboard for a complex film noir. Two mysterious men (William Conrad and Charles McGraw) muscle their way into a small town and kill an aging boxer (Burt Lancaster, making his screen debut), who offers no resistance and seems to be welcoming his death. An insurance investigator (Edmond O'Brien) is hired to locate the beneficiary to Lancaster's policy, and in the course of his investigation reopens a long-dormant robbery case. In a series of flashbacks, O'Brien makes the connection between Lancaster and the robbery and tracks down the "brains" behind the operation. He also comes in contact with Lancaster's former girlfriend (Ava Gardner), whose duplicity played a big part in Lancaster's demise -- and his indifferent reaction to it. Siodmak's hard-edged, moody direction of the Oscar-nominated screenplay by Anthony Veiller, makes The Killers one of the definitive films noirs, including what is considered to be one of the greatest opening sequences in movie history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Complete with a final production number filmed in Technicolor, this tuneful musical depicts the highly fictive ups and downs of fabled vaudeville headliners Jack Norworth (1879-1959) and Nora Bayes (1880-1928). After rejecting a partnership with songstress Blanche Mallory (Irene Manning), Norworth (Dennis Morgan) discovers Miss Bayes (Ann Sheridan), who is wasting her considerable vocal talents by working in a honky tonk. Jack convinces the girl to become his partner but Nora's controlling boss, Costello (Robert Shayne), insures that the team is blacklisted everywhere. Despite this setback, the talented husband-and-wife duo finagles an engagement with the 1907 edition of the Ziegfeld Follies and vows the audiences with Jack's newest composition, the lilting "Shine on Harvest Moon." In reality, Norworth met the already famous Bayes at the office of a music publisher and later became one of her five husbands. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Robert Taylor toughened up his image considerably with this gangster movie, which was unusual both in its plot and origins, having come from MGM, which was generally not known for its crime movies. Taylor plays a parolee who is pretending to follow the straight-and-narrow as a hardworking cabbie, but is really the mastermind behind a dog-racing track being built with mob money. Eager works every angle, has a gang that's generally in line, and also has a loyal right-hand man in Jeff Hartnett (Van Heflin, who won an Oscar), his educated assistant, who drinks too much and waxes poetic when he isn't looking after Johnny's interests (and sometimes when he is, too). Eager has only one problem, special prosecutor John Benson Farrell (Edward Arnold) -- who was also the attorney instrumental in sending Eager up -- who has gotten an injunction against the track's opening. But the hood sees an opening when he accidentally crosses paths with a young sociology student, Lisbeth Bard (Lana Turner), who is drawn to him romantically, and then finds out that she's Farrell's step-daughter. After romancing her for a few months, he sets her up in a scam, making her believe that she killed one of Eager's men (Paul Stewart). He "generously" gets her away from the scene and then informs Farrell of what has happened, pointing out that he holds the evidence against Lisbeth. Farrell has no choice but to withdraw the injunction, and the track opens, but problems ensue when rival mobsters decide to try and cut in on Eager and his racket, and he finds out that Lisbeth is so guilt-ridden over her "crime," that she's destroying herself mentally. Eager can't figure out why she feels the way she does or what to do about it, or even if he should do anything to help her, but with Jeff's help, he discovers a nobler side to his nature. Realizing that she really does love him, and knowing it's not possible for the two of them to be together, he goes out in a blaze of glory -- laced with a special irony built into the plot -- solving Lisbeth's problem and also curing her of her love for him, and settling a score or two in the process. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Gail Patrick plays a young woman framed for murder. Luckily the newsman on the courtroom beat is ace photographer Lew Ayres. He senses Patrick is innocent (the fact that she's a knockout has something to do with this) and vows to track down the guilty party. The Least Likely Suspect spills the beans just as Ayres clicks his shutter. Paramount Pictures used to dash off two or three B mysteries like Murder with Pictures before breakfast, but they were never less than supremely entertaining. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide