Madelon Mitchell Movies
- 1956
The "Bridey Murphy" craze of the 1950s was the catalyst for I've Lived Before. Jock Mahoney plays a contemporary pilot who survives a plane crash. Upon awakening, he is under the delusion that he is another airman, who died during the first World War. The authorities pass this insistence off as delirium, until Mahoney starts recounting events and intimacies that only the long-dead pilot would know. Ann Harding portrays the ageing former lover of the soul trapped within Mahoney's body. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jock Mahoney, Leigh Snowden, (more)
- 1952
Self-centered Washington socialite Rosalind Russell joins the WACS in order to be near her boyfriend William Ching, a GI stationed in Paris. Russell is certain that her DC connections will enable her to get out of the service as easily as she got in. Unfortunately for her, Russell's ex-husband Paul Douglas decides to teach her a lesson by pulling a few strings himself. Several of the army-camp scenes are stolen by Marie Wilson as an amply proportioned chorus girl, who's joined the WACS to escape stage-door johnnies. Filmed in part on location at the Women's Army Corps training center at Fort Lee, Virginia, Never Wave at a WAC was produced by Rosalind Russell's husband, Frederick Brisson. The film was released in England as The Private Wore Skirts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Russell, Paul Douglas, (more)
Dependable supporting actor John Litel is top-billed in the independently produced Two Dollar Bettor. Litel plays John Hewitt, a respectable widower who takes the first step on the road to depravation when he makes his first-ever bet at the race track. Consumed by gambling fever, Hewitt is reduced to committing embezzlement to satisfy his urge. Things don't end too well for Our Hero, but redemption of sorts is provided from an unexpected corner. Marie Windsor steals the show in the atypical role of a con artist who is willing to take the hapless Hewitt for everything he's got. Two Dollar Bettor was directed by Edward L. Cahn with his usual ten-day-schedule efficiency. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Litel, Marie Windsor, (more)
- 1951
Gasoline Alley was based on Frank King's popular comic strip of the same name. The strip's central characters, service station owner Walt Wallet (Don Beddoe) and his adopted son Skeezix (James Lydon), take a back seat to newlyweds Corky (Scotty Beckett) and Hope (Susan Morrow). Hoping to establish his independence from his family, Corky opens up his own restaurant, which results in nothing but headaches. The film tries as best it can within 76 minutes to recreate the 30-year continuity of the original comic strip. Director Edward Bernds, a graduate of Columbia's short-subject department, relies upon a couple of his 2-reeler colleagues, Dick Wessel and Gus Schilling, to provide a soupcon of slapstick. Because of legal entanglements, neither Gasoline Alley nor its sequel Corky of Gasoline Alley are available for TV showings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scotty Beckett, Jimmy Lydon, (more)
- 1951
Corky of Gasoline Alley was the second and last Columbia "B"-picture inspired by Frank King's popular comic strip Gasoline Alley. As in the first film, the emphasis is on young gas jockey Corky (Scotty Beckett), who must put up with Elwood Martin (Gordon Jones), the shiftless cousin of Corky's wife Hope (Susan Morrow). One of Elwood's get-rich-quick schemes involves gasoline pills, which all but destroy the service station managed by Walt Wallet (Don Beddoe) and his foster son Skeezix (Jimmy Lydon). When threatened with eviction, Elwood feigns a back injury, forcing everyone to wait on him hand-and-foot until his ruse is discovered. Director Edward Bernds handles his material in the slapsticky manner of his Columbia 2-reelers, which pays off in belly laughs even though this approach isn't altogether faithful to the spirit of the original comic strip. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scotty Beckett, Jimmy Lydon, (more)
