Cecil Elliott Movies

Paul Newman returns as private detective Lew Harper is this tale of blackmail and murder based on a novel by Ross MacDonald. Iris Devereaux (Joanne Woodward), the wife of a wealthy oilman from Louisiana, hires Harper after she receives a threatening letter. A blackmailer is threatening to tell Iris' husband James (Richard Derr) about a recent extramarital affair; she claims this indiscretion never happened, though she has been unfaithful in the past, and years ago had a brief fling with Harper. Matters become more complicated when Iris' mother-in-law Olivia (Coral Browne) is found murdered. Eventually, Harper traces the blackmail letter to Kilborne (Murray Hamilton), another bayou oil baron, and along the way encounters Schuyler (Melanie Griffith), Iris' young but ripe daughter; Pat Reavis (Andy Robinson), Olivia's former chauffeur and a key suspect in her murder; and Detective Broussard (Tony Franciosa), a police investigator who, like Harper, was once involved with Iris. This was Coral Browne's first film after her marriage to actor Vincent Price in 1974. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

"You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't," warns water baron Noah Cross (John Huston), when smooth cop-turned-private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) starts nosing around Cross's water diversion scheme. That proves to be the ominous lesson of Chinatown, Roman Polanski's critically lauded 1974 revision of 1940s film noir detective movies. In 1930s Los Angeles, "matrimonial work" specialist Gittes is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to tail her husband, Water Department engineer Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling). Gittes photographs him in the company of a young blonde and figures the case is closed, only to discover that the real Mrs. Mulwray had nothing to do with hiring Gittes in the first place. When Hollis turns up dead, Gittes decides to investigate further, encountering a shady old-age home, corrupt bureaucrats, angry orange farmers, and a nostril-slicing thug (Polanski) along the way. By the time he confronts Cross, Evelyn's father and Mulwray's former business partner, Jake thinks he knows everything, but an even more sordid truth awaits him. When circumstances force Jake to return to his old beat in Chinatown, he realizes just how impotent he is against the wealthy, depraved Cross. "Forget it, Jake," his old partner tells him. "It's Chinatown." Reworking the somber underpinnings of detective noir along more pessimistic lines, Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne convey a '70s-inflected critique of capitalist and bureaucratic malevolence in a carefully detailed period piece harkening back to the genre's roots in the 1930s and '40s. Gittes always has a smart comeback like Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but the corruption Gittes finds is too deep for one man to stop. Other noir revisions, such as Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) and Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975), also centered on the detective's inefficacy in an uncertain '70s world, but Chinatown's period sheen renders this dilemma at once contemporary and timeless, pointing to larger implications about the effects of corporate rapaciousness on individuals. Polanski and Towne clashed over Chinatown's ending; Polanski won the fight, but Towne won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Chinatown was nominated for ten other Oscars, including Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes, and Score. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Larry, Moe and Curly Joe work in a pharmacy where a young professor works on a time machine. When the machine is sabotaged by foil Ralph Dimsal (George N. Neise), the Three Stooges, the professor and beautiful Diane (Vicki Trickett) are transported back in time to ancient Greece. The group lands in the middle of a fierce battle between rival armies. Meeting up with the might Hercules, they soon discover their appearance in the battle helped turn the tide in favor of the wrong side. A series of mishaps and a stint as galley slaves plague their efforts to correct historical accuracy. They battle mythological monsters and the evil General Odius (Neise) to set the historical record straight. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Miracle of the Hills is a melodramatic, standard western with two ostensible "enemies" that fuel the plot: a decent town preacher, Scott Macauley (Rex Reason) and an "indecent" former prostitute, Kate Peacock (Betty Lou Gerson). The preacher is on his way to cleaning up his parish and the town but comes up against Peacock, who now owns the main source of employment in the town, a coal mine. In revenge for the way she was treated in the old days, she lords it over the town and her workers. Just as the preacher is mediating the best he can between Peacock and the rest of the community, three young boys get trapped in the mine. (Jay North, just before his Dennis the Menace fame on American TV, plays one of them). Sure enough, it is a potential disaster that galvanizes everyone and erases past battle lines. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A TV telethon is the "gimmick" in Allied Artists' The Big Tipoff. Richard Conte plays two-bit newspaper columnist Johnny Denton, who gains notoreity by printing tips on upcoming gangland activities. Denton heightens his fame by refusing to reveal the source of his information; the audience knows, however, that Denton's tip-off man is crime kingpin Bob Gilmore (Bruce Bennett), who is in the process of staging a phony telethon to scam the public. This plot element is mainly an excuse to offer a series of unrelated variety acts featuring such LA TV personalities as Spade Cooley, April Stevens, Chuy Reyes, and Ginny Jackson. The two male protagonists are given a chance for redemption through the auspices of Sister Joan (Cathy Downs), but an apparent murder muddies the proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With no Lois Lane around, her "Daily Planet" colleagues Perry White (John Hamilton) and Jimmy Olsen (Jack Larson) are the "stars" of this episode. While on a fishing trip in the Louisana bayous, Perry and Jimmy stop over at a rundown hotel where they meet three extremely sinister-looking characters. After attempting to scare off their unwanted guests by pretending that the hotel is haunted, the despicable trio decides to murder Perry and Jimmy--and they might have gotten away with it, too, were it not for the timely arrival of Superman (George Reeves). This disturbingly violent episode pulls no punches, especially when an old lady is pushed downstairs in a wheelchair! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Of the many attempts by Republic Pictures' CEO Herbert J. Yates to turn his lady friend Vera Ralston into a star, Surrender is one of the better efforts. Ralston plays a conscienceless "femme fatale" who works out a complex scheme to secure her financial comfort. The plan, enacted in a western border town, involves bigamy, betrayal, and ultimately murder. She plays one man against another all too well; in the end Vera's perfidy backfires, and she falls victim to her own machinations. Vera Ralston tries hard indeed but the audience can sense that she is basically too nice to be making such mean faces. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Venerable character actor Ferdinand Gottschalk dominates the proceedings in the Universal crime meller Secret of the Chateau. The plot is set in motion by a rare Gutenberg bible, much coveted by a variety of thieves and mountebanks. Chief Inspector Marotte (Gottschalk) is anxious to capture an elusive book bandit named Prahec, whom he's never seen but who could be any one of a number of suspects. Practically everyone in the cast converges on the titular chateau, where two murders occur. Methodically, Marotte sifts through the suspects and fingers the killer, who of course is revealed to be mysterious Prahec. Former silent-screen leading lady Alice White provides several amusing moments as an overly flirtatious suspect. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi