Ray Johnson Movies
- 1988
Windmills of the Gods was adapted for television by John Gay from a best-selling novel by Sidney Sheldon. Jaclyn Smith plays an American college professor, appointed US ambassador to Romania. While attending a peace conference, Jaclyn's life is placed in jeopardy by an all-powerful secret organization. Whom can she trust: American president Michael Moriarty, Rumanian top dog Franco Nero, fellow scholar David Ackroyd, or confrence chairman Ian McKellan? Or none of the above? This wide-ranging romantic adventure was lensed in several exotic locales, from Bucharest to Chile. Originally presented in two parts, Windmills of the Gods debuted February 7, 1988, directly opposite the ratings-busting TV-movie Elvis and Me. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1988
Adapted from a true story and made for the video stores, Dangerous Company concerns convicted criminal Ray Johnson, who spent almost 30 years in prison before rehabilitating himself. ~ John Bush, Rovi
When a retired stock car driver, Brewster Baker (Kenny Rogers), meets up with a group of orphans intent on dismantling his car, he takes them under his wing and sets them to work helping him return to the racing scene. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kenny Rogers, Diane Lane, (more)
- 1950
One of the most oft-revived of the pre-Technicolor Nicholas Ray efforts, Born to Be Bad offers us the spectacle of Joan Fontaine portraying a character described as "a cross between Lucrezia Borgia and Peg O' My Heart". For the benefit of her wealthy husband Zachary Scott and his family, Fontaine adopts a facade of wide-eyed sweetness. Bored with her hubby, she inaugurates a romance with novelist Robert Ryan. All her carefully crafted calculations come acropper when both men discover that she's a bitch among bitches. She might have gotten away with all her machinations, but the censors said uh-uh. Originally slated for filming in 1946, with Henry Fonda scheduled to play the Robert Ryan part, Born to Bad was cancelled, then resurfaced as Bed as Roses in 1948, this time with Barbara Bel Geddes in the Fontaine role. RKO head Howard Hughes' decision to replace Bel Geddes with the more bankable Fontaine was one of the reasons that producer Dore Schary left RKO in favor of MGM. Based on Anne Parrish's novel All Kneeling, Born to be Bad is so overheated at times that it threatens to lapse into self-parody; though this never happens, the film was the basis for one of TV star Carol Burnett's funniest and most devastating movie takeoffs, Raised to be Rotten. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan, (more)
- 1949
Though Humphrey Bogart is the official star of Knock on Any Door, the film is essentially a showcase for Columbia's newest young male discovery John Derek. The first production of Bogart's Santana company, the film casts Bogart as attorney Andrew Morton. A product of the slums, Morton is persuaded to take the case of underprivileged teenager Nick Romano (Derek), who has been arrested on a murder charge. Through flashbacks, Morton demonstrates that Romano is more a victim of society than a natural-born killer. Though this defense strategy does not have the desired result on the jury thanks to the badgering of DA Kernan (George Macready), Morton does manage to arouse sympathy for the plight of those trapped by birth and circumstance in a dead-end existence. As Nick Romano, John Derek would never be better, nor would ever again play a character who struck so responsive a chord with the audience. Nick's oft-repeated credo--"Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse"--became the clarion call for a generation of disenfranchised youth. Director Nicholas Ray would later expand on themes touched upon in Knock on a Any Door in his juvenile delinquent "chef d'oeuvre" Rebel without a Cause. Viewers are advised to watch for future TV personalities Cara Williams and Si Melton in uncredited minor roles. Knock on Any Door spawned a belated sequel in 1960, Let No Man Write My Epitaph. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, John Derek, (more)
- 1940
Richard Dix is his usual strong, silent self in RKO Radio's Men Against the Sky. Dix plays a washed-up pilot who designs a revolutionary new plane. Realizing that he is persona non grata in the aviation industry due to his irresponsibility and alcoholism, Dix allows his sister Wendy Barrie to take credit for the "wonder" plane. Preliminary tests of the aircraft prove disastrous, but Dix establishes the viablity of his design by flying the plane himself, a spectacular act of self-sacrifice that has the salutary effect of restoring his tattered reputation. Among the aircraft seen in Men Against the Sky is the plane used by Howard Huges to establish a new transcontinental record when he flew from California to New Jersey in less than 7 1/2 hours. The film was scripted by Nathaniel West, better known for his trenchant Hollywood novel Day of the Locust. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Dix, Wendy Barrie, (more)
- 1937
Slightly reminiscent of Frank Capra's Platinum Blonde (31), this screwball comedy features those two stalwarts of 1930s comedies: The brash reporter and the giddy heiress. Tyrone Power is the reporter, who makes his living writing about the foibles of the idle rich. His special target is heiress Loretta Young, the daughter of an influential financier (Dudley Digges). Young gets even by announcing her engagement to Power; now it's his turn to have his every movement scrutinized by the Public. Both reporter and heiress connive to embarrass one another, but (as expected) they're headed for the altar at fadeout time. Love is News was remade in 1949 as That Wonderful Urge, with Tyrone Power reprising his role and Gene Tierney in the Loretta Young part. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, (more)
- 1935
A man who has ruined a woman's life attempts to make good on his debt to her (and his conscience) in this sudsy drama based on a best-selling novel by Lloyd C. Douglas. Bobby Merrick (Robert Taylor) is an alcoholic ne'er-do-well whose recklessness causes the death of Dr. Hudson, a respected physician. Helen Hudson (Irene Dunne), the doctor's widow, turns away from Merrick's apology, only to walk into traffic. She's struck by a car and blinded. Shaken by the tragic events, Merrick gives up alcohol and begins studying to become a doctor and right the wrong he's done to Helen. As he begins spending time at the family's estate through a mutual friend, Helen grows fond of his frequent visits, and they begin to fall in love. However, when Helen learns that Merrick is responsible for her husband's death and her own accident, she moves away to a place where he cannot find her. In time, Merrick becomes a gifted eye surgeon, and he learns that he could restore Helen's sight with a delicate and dangerous operation that he has never performed before. Magnificent Obsession was a box-office success that spawned a 1954 remake directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Robert Taylor, (more)
- 1925
More substantial than most of the potboilers produced in the late '20s by Harry J. Brown, The Snob Buster starred former male model Reed Howes as a conceited socialite who returns from the war a true democrat. The new and improved Ted Pendergast cares only for the welfare of fellow veteran Butch McGuire (David Kirby), a pugilist, and Pendergast, Sr. (Wilfred Lucas) promptly has him committed to a sanitarium. Junior quickly escapes, however, and moves in with Butch and his lovely sister Molly (Gloria Grey). A local prize fighter, Kid Lowry (Ray Johnston), goads the newcomer into a grudge match, but Ted is forcibly returned to the sanitarium by his father as the contest is about to start. He escapes once again, and with Molly cheering him on, he wins the big match and, in time, his father's acceptance. One of the best-looking stars of his generation, Reed Howes was no actor in any real sense of the word, and his career descended into bit parts after the changeover to sound. He continued to appear in Westerns and action melodramas until shortly before his death in 1964. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Reed Howes, Wilfred Lucas, (more)
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