Arlene Jenkins Movies
- 1950
Lizabeth Scott and Diana Lynn are both effectively cast against type in Paid in Full. Scott plays Jane Langley, the spectacularly self-sacrificial older sister of selfish, reckless Nancy Langley (Lynn). Though she is in love with Bill Prentice (Robert Cummings), Jane gives him up to Nancy. And when Jane accidently causes the death of Nancy's child, she vows to makes amends by the most direct means possible. What follows is within the Production Code guidelines of the era -- but just barely. An unabashed "woman's picture" (that's what they called them back in 1949), Paid in Full doesn't always play well today, since viewers might be tempted to yell "Get real, Lizabeth!" at the screen. Still, it worked beautifully for its original target audience, especially those who'd read the factual Reader's Digest article upon which it was based. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Cummings, Lizabeth Scott, (more)
- 1949
Taken (as far as possible) from the Cole Porter musical comedy of the same name, Red, Hot and Blue stars Betty Hutton as an ambitious chorus girl. Hutton gets a job with a musical comedy bankrolled by gangsters, and is the wrong girl at the wrong place when one of the show's backers (William Talman) is bumped off. She is arrested for suspicion of murder, then is kidnapped by the villains to keep her from spilling the beans. The plot requires that she be rescued by hero Victor Mature, though many disgruntled audience members may have been rooting for the boisterous Hutton to be dumped in the East River. The stage version of Red Hot and Blue starred Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, and Bob Hope. Hutton is no Merman, but she gives her all to the brassy production numbers and the self-absorbed ballads--written not by Cole Porter, whose score was dispensed with, but by Paramount's in-house tunesmith Frank Loesser, who also plays a small role as one of the gangsters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Hutton, Victor Mature, (more)
