Wade Dumas Movies
- 1961
A scenic, tobacco-road soap opera by director Delmar Daves, known more for his westerns, Parrish features Troy Donahue in the eponymous title role. Parrish's mother Ellen (Claudette Colbert in her last movie role) happens to marry one of two competing tobacco growers in the Connecticut River Valley. Her new husband and Parrish's stepfather Judd Raike (a snarling Karl Malden) drums the tobacco business into Parrish, alienating him in the bargain. The lad is soon romancing three different women: Judd's daughter Paige (Sharon Hugeny), the daughter of Judd's arch-rival, and a wanton woman of the tobacco fields. Now all that remains is for the romance and the rivalry to shake down into the winners and losers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Troy Donahue, Claudette Colbert, (more)
- 1956
Teenage Rebel was the misleadingly lurid title bestowed upon this film version of Edith R. Sommer's Broadway play A Roomful of Roses. Ginger Rogers heads the cast as Nancy Fallon, a divorcee who has trouble communicating with 15-year-old daughter Dodie (Betty Lou Keim). Left in the custody of her father, Dodie feels as though her mother has deserted her. The situation doesn't improve very much when Nancy marries Jay (Michael Rennie), providing her daughter with another excuse for resentment and petulance. The responsibility for resolving this dilemma is laid at the feet of Jay's young son Larry (Rusty Swope). Teenage Rebel represents the film debut of Warren Berlinger, superbly repeating his stage role as one of Keim's school chums. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Michael Rennie, (more)
A pioneering film about racial tensions, No Way Out stars Richard Widmark as a criminal named Ray Biddle, who despises African-Americans. Sidney Poitier (in his screen debut) is the black doctor, Luther Brooks, assigned to take care of the wounded Ray. Dr. Brooks, hired by the police hospital as part of an overall program to integrate the staff, keeps his temper in check as Ray spouts his racist invective. When Ray's brother, also wounded, dies in the hospital, the blustering bigot holds Dr. Brooks responsible and sends word to his gang to wreak vengeance on the city's black community. But the blacks turn the tables on the whites and fight them off. Ray then breaks out of the hospital with Dr. Brooks as hostage. His plans to kill the doctor are thwarted by Ray's girlfriend (Linda Darnell), who finally becomes fed up with his blind hatred. No Way Out was considered potent stuff in 1950; it was still regarded as a hot potato in 1962, when NBC dropped plans to telecast the film on "Saturday Night at the Movies." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, (more)
- 1939
Produced in 1938 at the N.B. Murray dude ranch near Victorville, California, Harlem Rides the Range was the last of three all-black Westerns starring troubadour Herb Jeffries (billed for the occasion Herbert Jeffrey) as cowboy Bob Blake. Blake, on his horse "Stardusk" (!), obtains a job on the ranch belonging to Watson (Spencer Williams of Amos 'n Andy fame). Meanwhile, a neighbor, Dennison (Leonard Christmas), is threatened by Bradley (Clarence Brooks) and his thug Connors (Tom Southern) who want to get their hands of the man's secret radium mine. Leaving Dennison for dead, Bradley schemes to kidnap his daughter Margaret (Artie Young), who is arriving with $6,000 for the mortgage and presumably knows where the secret mine is located. The talkative Connors is killed by his boss, who puts the blame on Blake. Arrested by the sheriff (Wade Dumas), Blake uses his dexterity to break out of jail and arrives just in time to save Margaret from Bradley and his gang. Returning to the Dennison spread, Blake and his sidekick Dusty (Lucius Brooks) find the owner, who has stayed alive by hiding in his underground mine. Jeffries, whose singing was better than his acting, warbled his own I'm a Happy Cowboy (over the opening credits) and Prairie Flower, the latter accompanied by the singing group The Four Tones. Lucius Brooks and Flournoy E. Miller (who wrote his own dialogue) provided the same kind of demeaning comedy that almost all African-Americans were subjected to in the 1930s. Following his brief movie career, Jeffries sang with the Duke Ellington orchestra and ran a nightclub in Paris, France. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
