George Randall Movies
Curtis Hanson's adaptation of Jennifer Weiner's novel In Her Shoes stars Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz as a pair of very close but very different sisters. Free-wheeling irresponsible Maggie Feller (Diaz) gets through her life thanks to her remarkable looks and her lack of scruples. She constantly goes to her straight-laced, plain-Jane successful lawyer sister Rose (Collette) for financial help. The two sisters have been very close to each other in part because their troubled mother died when they were girls. Right about the same time that Maggie discovers hidden letters that reveal she and Rose have a grandmother, Maggie does something to betray Rose's trust. Maggie sets off for Florida to find the grandmother. A failed workplace romance forces Rose to rethink her career, a career that has been the center of her life. As Rose tentatively begins a new relationship and Maggie gets to know her grandmother (played by Shirley MacLaine), the two learn a dark family secret that helps smooth the path toward reconciliation. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, (more)
Dr. Howard Machen (Kirk Alyn) and his students have been raiding California's Indian graveyards for archeological artifacts, a criminal practice that the university wants him to stop. After being ordered to make a complete inventory of his illegal finds, Machen regretfully withdraws from the latest field trip, but sends a group of students to dig without him. The young people stop at a remote gas station and receive a warning from an old Indian man (George Randall). He tells them to steer clear of Black Tree, where a great battle took place a century ago that returned many braves to the earth. The students find the location and an excavation yields plenty of ancient items, but strange things start happening and soon flaky D.J. (Jo Ann Robinson) is claiming that she senses evil about them. Her suspicions are confirmed when Randy (Richard Hench) is possessed by the spirit of Black Claw, a brutal Indian warrior who was known for dabbling in black magic. One by one the expedition is dispatched with arrows, clubs, and tomahawks and their skulls are peeled clean. Horror cult figures Forrest J. Ackerman and Carroll Borland make cameo appearances as faculty members in Scalps, which was an early film from prolific exploitation director Fred Olen Ray. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Alyn, Carroll Borland, (more)
- 1950
Taking time out from his duties as head of Australia's Embassy Pictures, Tom O. MacCreadle served as director of Into the Straight. The film concentrates on a horse-raiser who becomes involved with the wrong kind of girl. The racing scenes are well done, the dramatic sequences less so. Charles Tingwell, the film's leading man, went on to TV popularity as star of such British action series as Emergency Ward Ten and Homicide. American distribution of Into the Straight was handled by Universal-International, which by and large confined the film to the lower half of double features. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles "Bud" Tingwell, Muriel Steinbeck, (more)
- 1938
As indicated by the title, Harlem on the Prairie was aimed at the "all-colored" theaters which flourished in the 1930s. The star of this musical western is Herb Jeffries, a former vocalist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra who might have been a major film personality in a more equitable world. Though the film takes place in an all-black west, the plot is indistinguishable from the many "white" B westerns of the era. Jeffries plays a heroic vigilante who hopes to purge the territory of the evil influence of big-city gangster Maceo B. Sheffield. Nightclub singer Connie Harris is the ingenue, Spencer Williams Jr. ("Andy" on TV's Amos 'N'Andy) contributes to the plotline as a glib-tongued medicine show huckster, and the comedy team of Mantan Moreland and Flournoy Miller provide the laughs. Very cheaply made, Harlem on the Prairie is nonetheless very watchable, if only because of the imposing presence of Herb Jeffries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herb Jeffries, Mantan Moreland, (more)
