Paul MacWilliams Movies

Republic's The Unearthly was originally released on a double bill with The Beginning of the End. John Carradine chews the scenery as Professor Conway, who claims to have discovered a gland which enables his patients to live forever. Alas, most of Conway's human experiments are failures, left to scream and gibber in the doctor's cellar. His latest "volunteer", a beautiful neurotic named Grace (Allison Hayes), arouses Conway's libido, and as a result he is hesitant to operate upon her; the same does not apply to another patient (Sally Todd), whom Conway inadvertently transforms into a nonagenarian. Fortunately, a police officer (Myron Healey) posing as an escaped convict manages to put an end to Conway's unearthly experiments. Harry Thomas' makeup work on Dr. Conway's hideously deformed human guinea pigs is the only worthwhile aspect of The Unearthly. Tor Johnson makes another of his appearances as mute monstrosity Lobo. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Will Rogers Jr. stars as his own father in this slow, sentimental biopic. The film begins with Rogers' days on his father's ranch in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). We see Will court his future wife, Betty (Jane Wyman), just before he strikes out on his own as a rodeo performer. Attempting to break into vaudeville with a roping act, Will gets nowhere until he starts cracking extemporaneous jokes about current events. Using the newspapers as his "material," Will rises to the pinnacle of show business in the 1910s and '20s as a star comedian in Flo Ziegfeld's Follies. He matures into a devoted family man, a rancher, a film star, an aviation enthusiast, and America's unofficial goodwill ambassador. During the darkest days of the Depression, Rogers works long and hard on behalf of poverty-stricken farmers in his own home state and elsewhere. In 1935, Rogers joins his old pal Wiley Post (Noah Beery Jr.) for an airplane trip to Alaska -- from which he never returns. The Story of Will Rogers sticks to the facts, but the film is surprisingly dull and pedantic considering the director (the usually vigorous Michael Curtiz) and the fascinating subject matter. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Idealism vs. Practicality is the Disputed Passage in this lavishly mounted soap opera. Based on a novel by Lloyd C. Douglas (The Robe, Magnificent Obsession) the film stars John Howard as young medical student John Wesley Beaven. In the course of his education, Beaven is torn between two philosophies: the cold pragmatism of Dr. Forster (Akim Tamiroff) and the humanistic attitudes of kindly Dr. Cunningham (William Collier Sr.), who of course is author Douglas' alter ego. The crisis within Beaven comes to a head when he must choose between his career and his impending marriage to Audrey Hilton (Dorothy Lamour). A literally explosive climax in war-torn China brings the story to a logical and satisfying solution. Kudos again to director Frank Borzage for bringing warmth and credibility to the most sloppily sentimental of storylines. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi