Fritz Feld Movies

Minister Sterling Hayden is able to tend to the needs of his flock, but can do nothing for his alcoholic wife. She kills herself, whereupon the anguished minister turns his back on his calling. He ends up a skid-row derelict and is thrown into the drunk tank. An elderly preacher (Ludwig Donath) takes it upon himself to regenerate the dissipated Hayden. He succeeds with the help of his blind daughter (Viveca Lindfors), who falls in love with the ex-minister. Journey Into Light unfortunately compromises its compelling storyline by moving at a snail's pace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title Missing Women refers to only one woman, who is perfectly visible throughout most of the proceedings. Penny Edwards is cast as young bride Claudia Rankin, who hopes to avenge her husband's death at the hands of car thieves. To achieve this goal, Claudia goes "undercover," posing as a hardened criminal. She manages to infiltrate the stolen-car gang, proving her value by pulling off a couple of heists herself. Inevitably, she gets in over her head, and is about to be rubbed out by the crooks. Will the police, who haven't exactly been on top of things in the previous reels, be able to rescue Claudia in the nick of time? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this wartime espionage comedy, a mentally-ill soldier looks exactly like the notorious enemy spy who has been trying to steal the plans for a highly classified new plane. Mayhem ensues when the bungling GI is assigned to capture this spy. Somehow he manages to succeed. The film is also titled Blown Skyhigh. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Bob Hope is up to his famous nose in danger in this espionage comedy. Second-rate burlesque comic Peanuts White (Hope) is approached by federal agents who think that he's international spy Eric Augustine, to whom Peanuts bears a striking resemblance. When they realize that Peanuts and Eric are two different people, the FBI persuades him to travel to Africa posing as Eric and fetch a batch of microfilm that could prove vital to national security. With reluctance, Peanuts flies to Tangiers and arranges a rendezvous with Lily Dalbray (Hedy Lamarr), Eric's beautiful girlfriend and an agent of shifting alliances herself. However, Lily's superior Karl Brubaker (Francis L. Sullivan) wants the microfilm, and he will stop at nothing to get it. As Peanuts tries to rescue the microfilm, make time with Lily, and avoid Karl, things become even more confused when Eric escapes from hiding and re-enters the picture. Both Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr contribute songs to the soundtrack, though unlike Bob, Hedy's vocals were dubbed in by a studio vocalist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After several supporting and guest appearances, Latino singer-actress Estelita Rodriguez was given her own Republic starring vehicle, Belle of Old Mexico. The plot wasn't new in 1950--for that matter it wasn't new in 1920. Wealthy Kip Artmitage III (Robert Rockwell) honors his late wartime friend's request to look after the friend's "little sister." Surprise! Sis turns out to be all-grown-up Rosita (Estelita), causing no end of difficulty for Armitage, who's engaged to marry the avaricious Deborah (Dorothy Patrick). Most of the film's best moments are delivered by Florence Bates as Deborah's eternally inebriated mother. The 70-minute running time affords Estelita Rodriguez plenty of room to perform four peppery musical numbers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from a play by Honore de Balzac, Lovable Cheat offers a veritable smorgasbord of Hollywood's top character actors. The title character, one Claude Mercadet, is played by Charlie Ruggles. Posing as a wealthy Parisian, Mercadet fleeces friends and casual acquaintances alike. He is forced into this life of crime to keep up appearances, so that his daughter Julie (Peggy Ann Garner) can land herself a rich husband. Iris Adrian enjoys one of her largest film roles as Ruggles' wife; Alan Mowbray is right in his element as an elegant butler; and future financial advisor Richard Ney is ironically cast as an impoverished bank clerk. Also on hand is Buster Keaton, as a nonplused creditor who spends his screen time waiting in vain for his missing business associate Godot (could playwright Samuel Beckett have seen this film?) Not entirely successful, Lovable Cheat is nonetheless a courageous exercise in the offbeat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For their first independently-produced vehicle, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello chose to appear in a remake of the 1939 Universal programmer For Love or Money. Bud and Lou are cast as Ted and Tommy, two bumbling window washers hired by gangster Mike Craig (Joseph Calleila) to collect a $50,000 gambling debt. The boys manage to pick up the money, only to deliver it to the wrong person, a pretty private secretary named Carol (Cathy Downs). Ordered to retrieve the money within 24 hours "or else," Ted and Tommy trace the cash to Carol, who has mistakenly distributed it amongst the entries in a mailing list. As our heroes desperately concoct methods of escaping Craig's wrath, eccentric gambler Julius Caesar McBride (Leon Errol), the man who "never loses," comes to the rescue. Despite its seeming complexity, the plot exists merely as a peg on which to hang several of Abbott and Costello's best routines, including "Bet you 10 dollars you're not here," "Hole in the Wall," "Packing and unpacking," "Getting Arrested," and, best of all, "Mudder and Fodder." Beyond the seven credited actors, the huge unbilled supporting cast includes such reliable laugh-getters as Benny Rubin, Murray Leonard, Elvia Allman, Herb Vigran, Fred Kelsey, James Flavin, Lyle Latell, Isabel Randolph and Paul Maxey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a wealthy heiress marries hastily and realizes her mistake on her honeymoon in New York. Though it is her wedding night, she decides not to consummate the union and so ends up hiding in the room of a fellow whose airplane cargo company is facing financial ruin. He assumes that the frightened girl is poor and homeless and so takes her in. She then overdoses on sleeping pills and cannot wake up. The fellow is forced to take her back to California. The flight back is tumultuous as she, a fugitive criminal, two enamored newlyweds, a cigar smoking chimp, a corpse, and a shipment of lobsters are aboard the plane. Mayhem really ensues when the plane crashes in a farmer's field. By this time, the woman and the fellow have fallen in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hoping for a success commensurate with his previous Show Business (1945), comedian Eddie Cantor poured a lot of his own money into the RKO Radio musical If You Knew Susie. Cantor and his Show Business co-star Joan Davis are reteamed herein as ex-vaudevillians Sam and Susie Parker, who retire to a small and rather cloistered New England town. Faced with the snobbery of the local "aristocracy," Sam and Susie come to believe that they aren't worthy of their new neighbors, nor of their own children. All this changes when the Parkers find a document signed by George Washington bestowing $50,000 on one of Sam's forebears! According to the government, Sam and Susie are now owed several billion dollars interest. Sam patriotically refuses to accept the money, thereby becoming a national hero -- but not before a plenitude of comic plot twists involving gangsters Sheldon Leonard and Joe Sawyer. Cast as the Parkers' daughter Marjorie is "newcomer" Margaret Kerry, who'd actually been in films since 1936 as child actress Peggy Lynch. One of the musical highlights in If You Knew Susie is a clip from Show Business, featuring Cantor, Davis, George Murphy and Constance Moore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Thurber wasn't too happy with the Sam Goldwyn film adaptation of his 1939 short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but the Technicolor musical comedy proved to be a cash cow at the box office. Danny Kaye stars as Walter, a milquetoast proofreader for a magazine publishing firm. Walter is constitutionally incapable of standing up for himself, which is why his mother (Fay Bainter) has been able to arrange a frightful marriage between her son and the beautiful but overbearing Gertrude Griswold (Ann Rutherford). As he muses over the lurid covers of the magazines put out by his firm, Walter retreats into his fantasy world, where he is heroic, poised, self-assured, and the master of his fate. Glancing at the cover of a western periodical, Walter fancies himself the two-gun "Perth Amboy Kid"; a war magazine prompts Walter to envision himself as a fearless RAF pilot; and so on. Throughout all his imaginary adventures, a gorgeous mystery woman weaves in an out of the proceedings. Imagine Walter's surprise when his dream girl shows up in the flesh in the person of Rosalind van Horn (Virginia Mayo). The girl is being pursued by a gang of jewel thieves headed by Dr. Hugo Hollingshead (Boris Karloff), a clever psychiatrist who manages to convince Walter that he's simply imagining things again, and that Rosalind never existed. At long last, Walter vows to live his life in the "now" rather than in the recesses of his mind: he rescues Rosalind from the gang's clutches, tells his mother and Gertrude where to get off, and fast-talks his way into a better position with the publishing firm. Substituting the usual Danny Kaye zaniness for James Thurber's whimsy, Secret Life of Walter Mitty works best during the production numbers, especially Kaye's signature tune "Anatole of Paris." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before he became the foremost purveyor of ultra-realistic melodramas, writer/producer/director Andrew Stone turned out a handful of screwball comedies like Fun on a Weekend. Eddie Bracken stars as P. P. Porterhouse III, who despite his triple-barrelled monicker is flat broke. Long on ideas but short on self-confidence, Porterhouse teams up with Nancy Crane (Priscilla Lane), who has the push and fortitude to turn our heroe's grandiose dreams into reality. Posing as a fabulously wealthy married couple, Porterhouse and Nancy mingle with the rich and famous at a fancy summer resort, ever on the prowl of financial backers. Porterhouse, however, nearly drops the facade when he becomes jealous of the attentions paid to Nancy by suave playboy Van (Tom Conway). Fun on a Weekend cheerfully throws logic to the winds in favor of slapstick and whimsy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Horror films were not Republic Pictures' forte, as one can see while watching the stylish but pedestrian Catman of Paris. Carl Esmond stars as Charles Reigner, an amnesia victim who may or may not be fiendish "Catman" who has been cutting a homicial swath throughout Gay Paree. Essentially a Jeckyll-Hyde story, the film borrows a page from Oscar Wilde's anco 7 Argentina's first 1946 release, Christina stars screen favorite Zully Moreno as the title character. It's the old saw about the country lass who finds herself cast adrift in the Big City. She finds brief happiness in the arms of wealthy Esteban Serador, but he turns out to be a cad and a bounder. To no one's surprise, Moreno is rescued by hometown sweetheart Alberto Closas, who has remained faithful through it all. Very standard stuff, Christina coasts by on the appeal of Zully Moreno, who seems much too intelligent to be mouthing the inane dialogue she is given. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide