Charles Drake Movies

After a five-year absence, the Marx Brothers returned to the screen in the independently-produced effort A Night in Casablanca. Originally conceived as a parody of Casablanca (with character names like "Humphrey Bogus" and "Lowen Behold"), the film emerged as a spoof of wartime melodramas in general. Someone has been methodically murdering the managers of the Hotel Casablanca, and that someone is escaped Nazi war criminal Heinrich Stubel (Sig Ruman). Disguised as a Count Pfefferman, Stubel intends to reclaim the stolen art treasures that he's hidden in a secret room somewhere in the hotel, and the only way he can do this undetected is by bumping off the managers and taking over the hotel himself. The newest manager of Hotel Casablanca is former motel proprietor Ronald Kornblow (Groucho Marx), who, blissfully unaware that he's been hired only because no one else will take the job, immediately takes charge in his own inimitably inept fashion. Corbacchio (Chico Marx), owner of the Yellow Camel company, appoints himself as Kornblow's bodyguard, aided and abetted by Stubel's mute valet Rusty (Harpo Marx). In his efforts to kill Kornblow, Stubel dispatches femme fatale Beatrice Reiner (Lisette Verea) to romance the lecherous manager, leading to a hilarious recreation of a key comedy sequence in the Marxes' earlier A Day at the Races. Arrested on a trumped-up charge, Kornblow, Corbacchio and Rusty escape in time to foil Stubel and his stooges. As in most Marx Brothers epics, A Night in Casablanca includes a tiresome romantic subplot, this time involving disgraced French flyer (Pierre) and his faithful sweetheart Annette (Lois Collier). Though hampered by listless direction and witless one-liners, A Night in Casablanca contains enough hilarity to compensate for its many flaws; some of the best visual gags were conceived by an uncredited Frank Tashlin, including Harpo's legendary "holding up the building" bit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Affectionately Yours offers the spectacle of glamorous Merle Oberon and gorgeous Rita Hayworth jockeying for the best camera positions, virtually pushing male leads Dennis Morgan and Ralph Bellamy right off the screen! Here's the deal: Neglected wife Sue Marberry (Oberon) obtains a quickie Nevada divorce from her globetrotting war-correspondent husband Rick (Morgan). Still in love with Sue, Rick rushes home to win her back, but by now she has found solace in the arms of her new fiancee Owen Wright (Bellamy). To arouse Sue's jealousy, Rick pretends to carry on an affair with female journalist Irene Malcolm (Hayworth), a scheme that backfires when Irene decides she wants Rick for keeps. Of interest is the supporting-cast presence of Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen, two years away from their domestic duties in Gone with the Wind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On December 6, 1941, a squadron of nine B-17 bombers takes off for Hickam Field, HI. The crew of the Mary Ann, including two new men, assistant radio man Private Chester (Ray Montgomery) and gunner Sergeant Joe Winocki (John Garfield), assembles for the flight, and in the first 20 minutes, the movie reveals certain things about the crew: the shadowy past of one, the mother of another, and the wife of a third; two of them are good friends with the sister of McMartin (Arthur Kennedy), the bombardier, who lives in Honolulu; the son of the senior member of the crew, Sgt. White (Harry Carey Sr.), is a pilot stationed at Clark Field in the Philippines. Then more characters make entrances: the aircraft commander Quincannon (John Ridgely); Weinberg (George Tobias), a Jewish mechanic from New York; and a man from a farm in the upper Midwest -- they all represent a broad cross-section of America as it saw itself, and the "regular guys" in the Army Air Force as it existed in 1941. The flight proceeds without incident. Winocki, an embittered, washed-out flight school candidate who accidentally killed another pilot, is about to leave the service when the weather report from Hickam Field is interrupted, and the radio man begins picking up transmissions in Japanese. The Mary Ann and the rest of the squadron fly right into the middle of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor unarmed and out of gas, and nearly crack up landing on an emergency field; no sooner do they make repairs than the crew comes under attack, and the plane takes off and makes for Hickam Field, which they find a flaming shambles. They fly on to the Philippines, stopping at Wake Island just long enough to meet a few members of the doomed Marine garrison, taking their company mascot, a dog, with them. At Clark Field, the Mary Ann and her crew finally go into action against the enemy, flying in alone against a Japanese invasion force; Quincannon is mortally wounded in the brief action, which leaves the plane damaged seemingly beyond repair. The remaining crew won't give up the plane, however, even when ordered to abandon and destroy her; they get the bomber off just ahead of the advancing Japanese, and survive to help bring retribution to the invading fleet and the Japanese empire. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This third film version of the lachrymose Fannie Hurst novel Back Street stars Susan Hayward as Rae Smith the role previously essayed by Irene Dunne (in 1932) and Margaret Sullavan (in 1941). In both earlier films, Rae Smith sacrifices 28 years of her life to her married lover, who can never get a divorce and who compels Rae to squirrel herself away in a shabby back-street apartment. In contrast, Susan Hayward's Rae Smith is a fiercely independent fashion designer, whose fidelity to the very married John Gavin doesn't retard her livelihood in the least. Vera Miles makes a meal of her supporting role as Gavin's shrewish, alcoholic wife. Though cinematographer Stanley Cortez does his utmost, he can't completely hide the fact that Hayward is at least ten years older than her costars, making her seem more of a doting aunt than the "other woman" (the film might have been more effective had Hayward and Miles switched roles). Its plot inconsistencies and logic lapses notwithstanding, Back Street proved to be another hit for producer Ross Hunter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock joined forces in Speed (1994), there was the strikingly similar Warner Bros. B-picture Busses Roar. A gang of Axis spies decide to use a California passenger bus to secretly transport a demolition bomb to a coastal oil field. The bomb is set to go off upon arrival, wiping out the passengers along with the oil deposits. Among those passengers is Army sergeant Ryan, who senses that something's amiss and then races against time to save himself and the others from being blown to smithereens. Another of the hapless commuters is played by Eleanor Parker, making an excellent impression in her first feature film appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Universal's Technicolor program westerns of the 1950s were among the best in the business. Comanche Territory stars MacDonald Carey as famed frontiersman Jim Bowie, who is sent into Comanche country by the government. Bowie's mission is to draw up a treaty allowing the government to mine silver on the Indian's turf. He is accompanied by politician Dan'l Seegar (Will Geer), who intends to renew the government's agreement that white settlers will be barred from setting up camp in the Comanche's land. But saloon owner Katie (Maureen O'Hara) connives to spoil Bowie's and Seegar's peacekeeping mission. Katie's brother Stacey (Charles Drake) is a no-good crook who wants to cheat the Indians out of what's rightfully theirs, which of course will result in all-out war. Falling in love with Bowie, Katie decides to turn honest--but it may be too late. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this wartime drama, a doctor discovers that one of his patients isn't as crazy as he thought, with dangerous consequences for the whole world. Dr. Michael Lewis (John Garfield) is an intern at a hospital where a woman named Jane (Nancy Coleman) is admitted. Jane was injured in a car wreck, and she tells Michael a remarkable story. She claims that she is actually an espionage agent with top-secret information that could help the Allied war effort; the accident occurred while she was trying to escape from Axis spies who will do anything to get her documents. Michael, who is supposed to keep an eye on Jane, thinks she must be delusional, and when psychiatrist Dr. Ingersol (Raymond Massey) arrives with Jane's father, Mr. Goodwin (Moroni Olsen), he signs Jane out in their custody. However, Michael soon discovers that Mr. Goodwin isn't Jane's father at all; he and Ingersol are actually the Nazi spies Jane was fleeing in the accident, and someone must rescue her before it's too late, both for Jane and the Allied war effort. Dangerously They Live was scripted by Marion Parsonnet from her novel, Remember Tomorrow. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray), Lt. Tim Griffin (Regis Toomey), and Lt. Swede Larson (Louis Jean Heydt) are longtime US Navy flying buddies, about to be transferred to different posts when Larson suffers a blackout during high-altitude maneuvers and cracks up. Navy doctor Douglas Lee (Errol Flynn) insists on trying to save him with an immediate operation, and the mortally injured pilot dies on the table. This sets the stage for a long, lingering, and bitter hatred between Blake and Lee -- which is only exacerbated when Lee chooses to become a flight surgeon so he can help to find a solution to the problem of high altitude blackout. Lee is assigned to medical research with Lt. Cdr. Lance Rogers (Ralph Bellamy), a flight surgeon whose dedication to high-altitude research has left him unfit for further flying. Their work proceeds through small triumphs and terrible tragedy, and Lee and Blake keep crossing paths, unwillingly -- they not only don't like each other personally, but end up competing for the attentions of the same woman (Alexis Smith) at one point. But they're forced to work together for the good of the service, even after Lee grounds Tim Griffin as medically unfit to keep flying. A fresh tragedy shows Blake that Lee has always been looking out for the best interests of the pilots, and they begin working together in earnest, at last. Blake pushes his piloting skills to their limit and beyond, and he soon finds a purpose and dedication that he's never known before -- and then he learns that he may have to be grounded because of his own deteriorating medical condition. While Lee frets over having to give the news to his friend, the only question for Blake is whether he will be able to see the final test of Lee's high-altitude pressure suit through to the end. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

F Troop ends its two-year run with an episode featuring Patrice Wymore, the former wife of movie star Errol Flynn. Wymore is cast as Peggy Gray, the sweetheart of Army efficiency expert Major Terrence McConnell (Charles Drake). When McConnell shows up at Fort Courage to claim his bride, the F Troopers immediately leap to the wrong conclusion, assuming that the Colonel is going to close down the fort immediately! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actor Richard Carlson learned how to direct while starring in his popular TV series I Led Three Lives, then extended his directorial expertise to such theatrical second features as Four Guns to the Border. Rory Calhoun, George Nader, and Jay "Tonto" Silverheels play three desperate bank robbers who are halted in their escape by the plight of Colleen Miller and Walter Brennan. Miller and Brennan will be at the mercy of marauding Apaches unless the three desperadoes offer their services. Miller shows her gratitude to Calhoun with a steamy love scene that must have given the censors of 1954 conniptions. Four Guns to the Border ends on a sorrowful note, indicating that Richard Carlson wasn't preoccupied by cliches when occupying the director's chair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hail, Hero! stars Michael Douglas in his screen debut as long-haired college student Carl Dixon. Reversing the usual procedure in late-1960s films, Dixon decides to quit school and enlist in the Army, even though he's already run afoul of the law as a Vietnam protestor. It is our hero's intention to use love, rather than bullets, to combat the Viet Cong. Needless to say, his idealism is no match for the harsher realities of war, but this doesn't stop him from endlessly spouting the sort of agit-prop rhetoric so beloved of filmmakers of the era. In addition to Michael Douglas, co-star Peter Strauss likewise makes his first film appearance in Hail, Hero! Dated in the extreme, the film is saved by the musical score by Gordon Lightfoot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three disparate young men struggle to become Army Air Corps pilots in this rousing drama that earned an Oscar for its excellent aerial special effects. The film is also noted for making Veronica Lake, who previously appeared in films under the name Constance Keane, a star. For added realism, the three male leads, William Holden, Ray Milland and Wayne Morris were placed into the same training program at Randolph Field, Texas (and also Kelly Field, Texas) as real recruits. Lake plays a seductress who pursues Holden while Constance Moore plays a female photographer who comes to shoot a story and ends up falling for Milland. By the time the pilots' rigorous training has finished only one will have proved himself fit to fly. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After accidentally knocking her down with the van, a guilt-ridden Mark (Don Mitchell) befriends an elderly woman named Melissa Babcock (Juanita Moore). It is just possible, however, that the accident was no accident: Ms. Babcock has a reputation for staging phony injuries in order to collect huge insurance settlements. But is the old lady the real villain of the piece? Former Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In regular Chelsea Brown appears as Melissa's daughter Andrea. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide