Doris Dudley Movies
A respected stage actress who had appeared opposite John Barrymore in both the original Broadway production and the Chicago version of the comedy My Dear Children, blonde Doris Dudley made infrequent visits to Hollywood, where she was mainly occupied with the welfare of her son, MGM's freckled enfant terrible Jackie "Butch" Jenkins. According to some reports, Dudley refused to renew her popular son's contract when his school work began to suffer. Said the grownup Jenkins: "I never regretted leaving the film business and am very grateful for my mother taking me away from it." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1950
The Secret Fury works best if one is willing to suspend one's disbelief from the outset. Claudette Colbert stars as Ellen, a famed concert pianist who, on the day of her wedding, is accosted by a stranger who insists that she's already married to someone else. Ellen is willing to laugh this off, until the stranger produces witnesses, records and the justice of the piece. Has Ellen lost her mind, or is she merely the victim of an elaborate scam. With the help of fiancé David (Robert Ryan), Our Heroine begins her own investigation -- and ends up accused of murder and shunted off to a mental institution. And the story isn't over yet! Featured in a pivotal role is future I Love Lucy co-star Vivian Vance, who'd previously worked in an L.A. theatre company with Secret Fury-director Mel Ferrer. For reasons best known to himself, Willard Parker, a fairly well-known film actor in 1950, appears unbilled. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Robert Ryan, (more)
- 1943
The Moon and Sixpence, W. Somerset Maugham's account of the life of artist Paul Gauguin, was brought to the screen as a labor of love by writer/director Albert Lewin. George Sanders plays Charles Strickland, a staid London broker who kicks over the traces to become an artist. Strickland pursues his dream to the extent of leaving his family, betraying his friends and associates, and living a life of unending hedonism in Tahiti. An undeniably brilliant painter, Strickland is also a thoroughgoing louse, until he is forced to confront himself on the threshold of death. Herbert Marshall plays the Somerset Maugham character (as he would later in The Razor's Edge), who narrates the story as he attempts to make some sense of Strickland's rakish ways. Director Lewin's obsessive fascination with extraneous exotica -- notably feline statuary and obscure poetry -- is ideally suited to the subject matter of The Moon and Sixpence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Sanders, Herbert Marshall, (more)
In this melodrama, a group of women live in a boardinghouse near a prison to await the release of their men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1936
Based on a novel by Netta Syrett, A Woman Rebels is the story of Pamela Thistlewaite (Katharine Hepburn), whose mission in life is to defy the restrictive and often hypocritical conventions of Victorian England. Refusing to conform to the status quo, Pamela lives alone, reads, and says whatever she wishes, and even -- horrors! -- takes a job. Her romantic dalliance with young Gerald (Van Heflin, in his film debut) results in an illegitimate daughter (Doris Dudley), whom Pamela raises as her niece until she decides it's high time to tell the truth in all matters. Faithful suitor Thomas Lane (Herbert Marshall) offers to make an "honest woman" of her, but Pamela refuses until she can stand on her own two feet financially. Fiercely independent to the last, she becomes the crusading editor of a pioneering pro-feminist magazine and an early champion of Women's Suffrage. It was hoped by RKO Radio that The Woman Rebels would restore the popularity of Katharine Hepburn, which thanks to a series of expensive failures had been flagging for the past two years. Though the film turned out to be a box-office loser (it posted a $220,000 deficit), in retrospect it can be regarded as an artistic triumph -- and a remarkably timely one at that. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katharine Hepburn, Herbert Marshall, (more)
