Paula Hill Movies
- 1957
The body of a man is found in a Sepulveda hotel, only a few days after he registered. Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) suspect that the dead man had given a phony name to the desk clerk--and that, contrary to evidence of suicide, he was actually murdered. It soon develops that the victim had recently been seen in the company of a flashy blonde, even though he was married to someone else. In addition, it turns out he was telling the truth about being a salesman: trouble is, his merchandise consisted of illegal narcotics. This episode is based on the final Dragnet radio broadcast of September 20, 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are dispatched to a cheap hotel room, where young drug addict Mona Fenton has apparently attempted suicide. Acting upon the possibility that the girl was actually the victim of attempted murder, the two detectives conduct a citywide manhunt for Mona's supplier, identified only as "a guy with a flashy foreign car." And what about the unfortunate girl's hot-tempered boyfriend? This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of January 12, 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Frank Sinatra stars as legendary nightclub comic Joe E. Lewis in this dramatic screen biography. In the 1920s, Lewis was a popular singer in Chicago who could fill any nightclub he chose to play. This doesn't go unnoticed by the mobsters who control many of the city's venues; when they ask Lewis to leave his steady gig and come work for them, he politely but firmly refuses. This does not make Al Capone and his men happy, and they respond by brutally attacking Lewis, cutting his throat and damaging his vocal cords so severely that he can never sing again. Lewis sinks into a deep depression and develops a highly caustic sense of humor, but his friend Austin Mack (Eddie Albert) suggests that he could put his sharp wit to work as a comedian. With little to lose, Lewis tries his hand at comedy, and with the encouragement of famous entertainer Sophie Tucker, Lewis once again rises to stardom as his salty material makes him the talk of late-night spots and burlesque houses everywhere. Along the way, he becomes involved with chorus girl Martha Stewart (Mitzi Gaynor) and wealthy socialite Letty Page (Jeanne Crain); while he marries Martha, he's not able to get Letty out of his thoughts for long. Lewis' romantic conflicts and the pressures of success fan the flames of his already potent taste for alcohol, and soon Lewis becomes a bitter drunk whose addiction to the bottle threatens to send his career (and his life) back into the gutter. The classic Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen number "All the Way" was introduced in The Joker Is Wild, and it won a 1957 Academy Award for Best Song; the film was later re-released as All the Way. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Mitzi Gaynor, (more)
- 1956
In this crime drama, an amiable car salesmen must begin selling stolen vehicles to pay for his sickly baby son's medical expenses. He tries to escape the gangsters who have been strong-arming him. Meanwhile, a policeman is investigating the crooks. When he gets too close, they kill him and frame the car salesman for the death. The salesman and the head mobster have a thrilling, final conflict aboard a speeding roller coaster at an amusement park. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Bromfield, Joi Lansing, (more)
- 1949
Western star William Elliot always insisted that his idol was silent-film cowboy William S. Hart. Elliot's Hellfire, then, can be seen as his tribute to the 1916 Bill Hart classic Hell's Hinges. Elliot plays a hard-bitten frontier gambler whose life is saved by a preacher. When the preacher dies as a result, Elliot vows to mend his ways. He becomes a minister himself, planning to finish constructing a church that his predecessor had started. To finance this project, he hopes to collect the reward on female outlaw Marie Windsor. She resists all attempts to bring her to justice, but after a climactic shoot-out with the rest of the criminal element in town, the wounded Windsor repents her sins and agrees to turn herself in. Hellfire was written by Dorrell and Stuart E. McGowan, who later collaborated on the long-running TV anthology Death Valley Days. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William "Wild Bill" Elliott, Marie Windsor, (more)
- 1947
Produced by Jack Schwartz for low-budget company Screen Guild, this mild Western starring the veteran Richard Arlen was apparently the first entry in a proposed series. Arlen played the title role, here assigned by the army to quell an Indian attack on the powerless settlers. The Indians are accusing Tom Russell (John Dexter) of murdering a member of the tribe, an act, as Buffalo Bill discovers, actually committed by a gang of outlaws hired by investment company owner J.B. Jordon (Frank O'Connor). Buffalo Bill Rides Again was soundly defeated by a low budget and slipshod direction by the veteran Bernard B. Ray. Popular B-Western villain Ted Adams disappeared mysteriously halfway through the film, only to be replaced by Edmund Cobb. Jennifer Holt, the daughter of Arlen contemporary Jack Holt and by far the busiest B-Western heroine of the 1940s, had little to do other than letting herself be kidnapped by evil Gil Patric. Arlen, whose career dated back to the silent era, was perhaps a mite too old and stout by 1946 when this film was produced to become an acceptable B-Western hero. No further Buffalo Bill Westerns were produced by Schwartz. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ted Adams, Richard Arlen, (more)
