Joan Schofield Movies

The Weapon is a loose grouping of elements first seen in the 1951 British melodrama The Yellow Balloon. Jon Whitely plays a young London boy who finds a loaded gun in a blitzed-out building. He fires, accidentally shooting a playmate. Believing he's killed his friend, the boy runs away--leading to a relentlessly suspenseful climax. Though filmed in England, The Weapon was geared from the start for primarily American audiences; its producer was Hollywood's own Hal E. Chester, and its adult stars included Steve Cochran and Lizabeth Scott. The script was written by Fred Freiberger, best known to sci-fi followers as the producer of the original Star Trek's third and final season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Trio was the 1950 follow-up to the successful Somerset Maugham "omnibus" feature Quartet. Maugham himself introduces the three short playlets in this captivating collection. "The Verger" stars James Hayter as a church verger who loses his position when it is discovered that he can neither read nor write. With the help of sympathetic Kathleen Harrison, Hayter becomes a successful tobacconist, a turn of events leading inexorably to the story's beautifully ironic punchline. In "Mister Know-All," Nigel Patrick plays an obnoxious, garrulous passenger on a luxury cruise, who becomes a hero simply by knowing when to shut up. The final story, "Sanitorium," details the touching romance between tuberculosis victims Michael Rennie and Jean Simmons. Like Quartet, this was popular and successful enough to inspire a sequel, 1951's Encore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide