Gary Owen Movies
A bachelor sets out to win the love of a women he lost 50 years previous. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1949
Though Humphrey Bogart is the official star of Knock on Any Door, the film is essentially a showcase for Columbia's newest young male discovery John Derek. The first production of Bogart's Santana company, the film casts Bogart as attorney Andrew Morton. A product of the slums, Morton is persuaded to take the case of underprivileged teenager Nick Romano (Derek), who has been arrested on a murder charge. Through flashbacks, Morton demonstrates that Romano is more a victim of society than a natural-born killer. Though this defense strategy does not have the desired result on the jury thanks to the badgering of DA Kernan (George Macready), Morton does manage to arouse sympathy for the plight of those trapped by birth and circumstance in a dead-end existence. As Nick Romano, John Derek would never be better, nor would ever again play a character who struck so responsive a chord with the audience. Nick's oft-repeated credo--"Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse"--became the clarion call for a generation of disenfranchised youth. Director Nicholas Ray would later expand on themes touched upon in Knock on a Any Door in his juvenile delinquent "chef d'oeuvre" Rebel without a Cause. Viewers are advised to watch for future TV personalities Cara Williams and Si Melton in uncredited minor roles. Knock on Any Door spawned a belated sequel in 1960, Let No Man Write My Epitaph. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, John Derek, (more)
In their third film together, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn created one of the box-office sensations of 1945, a sparklingly witty wartime comedy about a marriage entered on the theory that love only gums up a relationship. Invited by a drunken Quintin Ladd (Keenan Wynn), devoted scientist Patrick Jamieson (Tracy) moves into the Washington mansion belonging to Ladd's cousin Mrs. Jamie Rowan (Hepburn), a widow, who, it soon appears, shares Pat's distaste of romantic love. Highly interested in the scientist's attempt to develop a high-altitude oxygen helmet for the war department, and tired of being hit on by men, an emboldened Jamie proposes marriage to Pat, insisting that theirs should be a union uncomplicated by love. Pat readily agrees and the two settle into a seemingly well-functioning life of shared passion for the oxygen experiments. But when Pat's former girlfriend turns up, Jamie discovers that she has fallen in love with her husband after all and attempts to win him back. The ploy, however, seems to backfire -- or does it? Originally written for Katharine Hepburn by her frequent collaborator Philip Barry, Without Love had enjoyed a moderately successful run on Broadway from 1942-1943 with Elliott Nugent as the scientist. The much more successful screen version became the final film of MGM contract director Harold S. Bouquet, who died of cancer soon after. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, (more)
- 1945
A middle-aged Clark Gable returned from active duty in World War II to star in this MGM release that was heavily advertised as his big comeback. Gable is Harry Patterson, the bosun mate on a merchant marine vessel, a tough sailor and fighter with the proverbial girl in every port. But while in a San Francisco library, looking up a book on the human soul for his sidekick Mudgin (Thomas Mitchell), who thinks his soul has departed his body, Harry meets librarian Emily Sears (Greer Garson), whom he woos, marries, and leaves to sail off on another freighter. When he returns, Emily has retreated to an old farm to await the birth of their child. Harry continues to resent staying in one place, but he ultimately changes his tune when his baby's life hangs in the balance. Garson and Joan Blondell, playing her outspoken best friend, are both terrific, and Gable gives a less heroic performance that's a thoughtful change for him, although critics at the time were less than charitable. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Greer Garson, (more)
