Charlotte Lawrence Movies

Three for the Show is a musical remake of the 1940 comedy Too Many Husbands, which in turn was based on a play by Somerset Maugham. In her next-to-last film, Betty Grable plays Julie, a popular musical comedy stars whose husband Marty (Jack Lemmon) is reported missing in action during WW2. After an appropriate waiting period, Julie makes plans to marry Marty's best friend Vernon (Gower Champion), even though she still carries a torch for her "late" husband. After the wedding, who should show up but Marty, demanding his rights as a husband. At first appalled, Julie eventually begins to enjoy the notion of two husbands. In the original film, the plot was never resolved; in the remake, Marge Champion plays a sidelines character named Gwen, so it's a safe bet that Vernon will lose out to Marty in the Julie sweepstakes. Most of the songs in Three for the Show are old standards, written by such notables as the Gershwin brothers, Gene Austin and Hoagy Carmichael. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Don M. Mankiewicz from his own novel, Trial is a surprisingly timely story of how justice can sometimes be compromised by "special interests". It all begins when Mexican youth Angelo Chavez (Rafael Campos) is placed on trial for the murder of a white teenaged girl. Battling the lynch-mob mentality in and out of the courtroom is relatively inexperienced defense attorney David Blake (Glenn Ford). Believing that anything done on behalf of his client is for the common good, Blake approves the organization of an "Angelo Chavez Society" to pay the boy's court costs and ostensibly see that justice is done in the face of small-town prejudice. Soon, however, Blake discovers that both he and his client are being used as dupes by a Communist lawyer, who hopes that Chavez will be found guilty and executed, thereby creating a martyr for the Red cause. Much was made in 1955 of the fact that the presiding judge is a black man, played by Juano Hernandez. A bit creaky at times, Trial nonetheless still packs a wallop when shown today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) go after a particularly vicious gang of con artists who prey on the grieving relatives of recently deceased servicemen. The crooks' M.O. involves scanning the obituary columns, then persuading the families of dead soldiers to spend huge amounts of money on cheap merchandise which was ostensibly purchased by the decedents (a variation of this scam was later used by door-to-door Bible salesman Ryan O'Neal in the theatrical feature Paper Moon). The final scene finds Joe and Frank catching up with gang leader Betty McGraw (Gloria Saunders) during a party in her apartment. This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of November 23, 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Friday (Jack Webb) and Jacobs (Barney Phillips) put in a lot of long, hard hours to locate the hit-and-run driver who struck down pedestrian Sheila Gordon (Joyce McCluskey). The extra effort seems to have paid off when a man named Ralph Angelo is brought to trial. All that is needed to secure a conviction is the testimony of the fully-recovered Sheila Gordon--but the woman seems to have vanished from the face of the earth! This episode is based on a Dragnet radio program, originally broadcast April 20, 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide