Minta Durfee Arbuckle Movies
- 1971
- PG
This film is based on the novel Ratman's Notebooks, by Stephen Gilbert. Bruce Davison is Willard Stiles, a 27-year-old mama's boy whose repressions are bottled up inside and come to the fore in his nervous nail-biting. As one character describes Willard, "Willard is basically an extrovert, but it's all inside." Willard and his possessive invalid mother, Henrietta (Elsa Lanchester), live in thrall to Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine), the man who took over a foundry business after the death of Willard's father. Willard inwardly seethes but mostly stays in his run-down mansion with his mother, making friends with the rats that infest the place -- he even names them, Ben and Socrates. However, when Henrietta dies, things change. Al, in a rage, kills one of Willard's pet rats. Not only that, but Al also fires Willard from his job at the foundry. Losing his patience, Willard meets with his rat friends to exact his revenge for a lifetime of humiliation and neurosis. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
- 1971
- R
In this comedy, Harold Weiss (Richard Benjamin) is a professor at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when a nuclear holocaust seemed imminent. Rather than sit around waiting to die, he decides to drive from Long Island to Los Angeles, taking in such sights as Las Vegas along the way. As he travels, he assumes different momentary identities which he uses--to humorous effect--in his interactions with the people he meets. This story is captured in a number of short sketch-like episodes, as the professor acts out his fantasies with increasing abandon. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1971
- PG
Though it bears more than passing resemblance to his macabre hits Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, this lesser-known outing from screenwriter Henry Farrell takes a more satirical turn, skewering the eccentricities of the Hollywood studio system. The story opens during the advent of talking pictures, where a school for would-be child stars is opened by voice coach Helen Hill (Shelley Winters) and dance instructor Adelle Bruckner (Debbie Reynolds). Haunted by a dark secret -- each of the women's sons was convicted of murder -- Hill and Bruckner are pursued by a cloaked interloper whose incessant snooping leads to a fatal altercation. Suspicion builds between the two until the expected climax, where it is revealed that one of the two women is even more lethal than her homicidal son. Though the film's absurdist tone is a harsh about-face from the deadly deadpan camp of Farrell's Gothic 1960s thrillers, the period flavor is a nice touch, and accomplished director Curtis Harrington frequently achieves the right balance of horror and humor. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters, (more)
- 1968
Faded Hollywood star Katharine Packard (Miriam Hopkins) lives a lonely, secluded life in a sprawling mansion, battling the bottle and struggling to hold on to her eroding sanity. After a drunken reverie leads to a broken leg, her doctor advertises for a live-in nurse to help care for the embittered former actress. An intense, sarcastic young man named Vic (John Garfield, Jr.) arrives to claim the assignment, and is hired despite the concerns of Ms. Packard's secretary (Gale Sondergaard). She's right to suspect the worst, for not only is Vic lying about his medical credentials, he's also a psychopathic killer who preys exclusively on older women. He charms his way into Katharine's good graces, seduces the comely young cook (Virginia Wing) and keeps a secret leather kit full of syringes, butcher knives and scalpels hidden in his room. Katharine thinks she's falling in love and soon Vic is in full control of the household, charging expensive outfits for himself and bringing drug dealers and freaks back for midnight parties. When the elderly screen legend realizes that her young gigolo is dangerous, she mysteriously disappears, but Vic tells the household staff that Katharine is simply isolating herself in her room and doesn't want to be disturbed by anyone but him. As the domestic help start to get wise, they are picked off one by one by this remorseless predator. Also known as The Comeback and Hollywood Horror House. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi
Elvis Presley delivers one of his finest early performances in King Creole. Elvis plays a teenager named Danny Fisher, who is forced to drop out of school to help support his ineffective father (Dean Jagger). Drawn to trouble like a magnet, Danny is saved from a jail term by New Orleans salloonkeeper Charlie Le Grand (Paul Stewart), who gives the boy a job as a singer. It isn't long, however, before local gang boss Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau), a shadowy figure from Danny's criminal past, puts the muscle on the boy, insisting that Danny sing at his establishment. To lure Danny to his side of the fence, Maxie relies upon the seductive charms of his gun moll Ronnie (Carolyn Jones), while Danny's true love Nellie (Dolores Hart) suffers on the sidelines. In addition to the expected musical numbers (which are cleverly integrated into the storyline), the film's highlight is a brief exchange of fisticuffs between Elvis and Walter Matthau. Together with Jailhouse Rock, King Creole is one of the best filmed examples of the untamed, pre-army Elvis Presley. The picture was adapted from Harold Robbins' novel A Stone for Danny Fisher. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, (more)
- 1948
The fifth entry in Columbia Pictures' "Rusty" series, about a boy and his dog, My Dog Rusty returns to the focus of the first three entries, tensions within the Mitchell family between young Danny (Ted Donaldson) and his father Hugh (John Litel). Danny's constant lies, each told for a good purpose but found out at the worst possible time, have already caused stress between father and son, and Hugh's campaign for mayor of Lawtonville doesn't make their relationship any less strained. In order to prove he can handle responsibility, Danny takes a job assisting the new doctor, Antonia Cordell (Mona Barrie). When several of Danny's friends fall ill, Dr. Cordell takes water samples from around town, trying to determine the source of the apparent contamination; but an accident in the lab, caused by Rusty and covered up by Danny, soon results a panic that intrudes on Danny's father's campaign for mayor. And when the truth comes out -- an event with tragic consequences for Danny's good friend Joshua Michael Tucker (Whitford Kane) -- Danny realizes that he has damaged the reputations of both Dr. Cordell and his own father, as well as doing terrible harm to his friend. He feels he has no choice but to leave home, but Rusty won't let the boy run away that easily, and follows him. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ted Donaldson, John Litel, (more)
