Ross Ford Movies

On December 6, 1941, a squadron of nine B-17 bombers takes off for Hickam Field, HI. The crew of the Mary Ann, including two new men, assistant radio man Private Chester (Ray Montgomery) and gunner Sergeant Joe Winocki (John Garfield), assembles for the flight, and in the first 20 minutes, the movie reveals certain things about the crew: the shadowy past of one, the mother of another, and the wife of a third; two of them are good friends with the sister of McMartin (Arthur Kennedy), the bombardier, who lives in Honolulu; the son of the senior member of the crew, Sgt. White (Harry Carey Sr.), is a pilot stationed at Clark Field in the Philippines. Then more characters make entrances: the aircraft commander Quincannon (John Ridgely); Weinberg (George Tobias), a Jewish mechanic from New York; and a man from a farm in the upper Midwest -- they all represent a broad cross-section of America as it saw itself, and the "regular guys" in the Army Air Force as it existed in 1941. The flight proceeds without incident. Winocki, an embittered, washed-out flight school candidate who accidentally killed another pilot, is about to leave the service when the weather report from Hickam Field is interrupted, and the radio man begins picking up transmissions in Japanese. The Mary Ann and the rest of the squadron fly right into the middle of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor unarmed and out of gas, and nearly crack up landing on an emergency field; no sooner do they make repairs than the crew comes under attack, and the plane takes off and makes for Hickam Field, which they find a flaming shambles. They fly on to the Philippines, stopping at Wake Island just long enough to meet a few members of the doomed Marine garrison, taking their company mascot, a dog, with them. At Clark Field, the Mary Ann and her crew finally go into action against the enemy, flying in alone against a Japanese invasion force; Quincannon is mortally wounded in the brief action, which leaves the plane damaged seemingly beyond repair. The remaining crew won't give up the plane, however, even when ordered to abandon and destroy her; they get the bomber off just ahead of the advancing Japanese, and survive to help bring retribution to the invading fleet and the Japanese empire. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Domineering Hermione Carpenter (Isobel Elsom) wants to take a trip to America and then return home to home to England for Christmas, but her henpecked husband Herbert (John Williams) has other ideas. Murdering Hermione, Herbert buries her in the cellar and heads to America on his own. He is smugly certain that, by the time he's back in England, the cement covering Hermione will have hardened and he'll be in the clear. Unfortunately, it turns out that the late Hermione has planned a little homecoming surprise for Herbert. Based on a story by John Collier, "Back for Christmas" had previously been adapted several times on the radio anthology Suspense, most memorably with Peter Lorre in the leading role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The long-running "Blondie" series was slowly heading into the homestretch when Blondie's Reward came out in 1948. After bungling a real-estate transaction, Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) is demoted to office boy by his flustered boss Radcliffe (Jerome Cowan). Nor does Dagwood improve the situation by getting into a fight with the son-in-law of a prospective client. Right on cue, Dag's wife Blondie (Penny Singleton) steps in to solve everything for everyone. Based on the comic strip by Chic Young, Blondie's Reward was scripted by Edward Bernds, who was soon to take over as the series' principal director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A "new" Lassie (once again, a male collie in drag) starred in A Challenge to Lassie, MGM's fourth entry in their series based on characters created by Eric Knight. This time, Lassie is plunked into the plotline of William Ludwig's novel Greyfriars Bobby (remade by Disney under its original title in 1963). In 19th-century Edinburgh, crusty sheepherder Jock Gray (Donald Crisp) rescues a puppy and raises it into a champion sheep dog. When Gray is murdered by rustlers, his faithful collie keeps a night-and-day watch over his late master's grave, despite local laws banning the presence of unleashed canines. The rest of the film is a battle of wills between kindly innkeeper John Traill (Edmund Gwenn) and by-the-book constable Davie (Reginald Owen) over the dog's well-being. A romantic subplot is capably handled by Geraldine Brooks and Ross Ford, both of whom went on to healthy character-actor careers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Montgomery's 1946 film Lady in the Lake attempted to tell the entire story with a "subjective camera": shooting the film from the point of view of the main character, with the camera acting as his "eyes". The first hour or so of Dark Passage does the same thing--and the results are far more successful than anything seen in Montgomery's film. Humphrey Bogart heads the cast as an escaped convict, wrongly accused of his wife's murder. After being forced to beat up a man (Clifton Young) from whom he's hitched a ride, Bogart hides out in the apartment of Lauren Bacall, while recovering from plastic surgery, and tries to set about locating the actual murderer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Just as she had in High Sierra (1941), Ida Lupino enjoys a brief moment of bliss with a man on the run in this highly emotional drama from Warner Bros. She plays Libby, a mountain girl nearly deprived of speech due to her rather hostile environment in general and repressive home life in particular. A true innocent, she falls head-over-heels in love with Barry Burnett (Dane Clark), a member of a prison chain gang building a road through the wilderness. One of those convenient storms endemic to this kind of narrative allows Barry and Libby to escape into the hills but their blissful existence proves of short duration. Deep Valley was filmed on location at Big Sur and Big Bear, CA. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Frisco Tornado stars Allan "Rocky" Lane in his usual guise as a U.S. marshal. The lawman's target this time is a dishonest insurance company which offers protection against bandit raids. Thing of it is, the insurance folks are themselves orchestrating these raids. Eddy Waller once again supplies comedy relief, while Blackjack the horse once again provides locomotion. Allan Lane's leading lady is Martha Hyer, still serving her apprenticeship for the stardom that would be hers within a few short years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of Dodge's finest citizens is shot down in cold blood on Front Street. Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) soon discovers that he himself was the intended target, and that the killing was masterminded by an old enemy. But as the story unfolds, it turns out that there's a third man involved in the conspiracy. One of several episodes directed by frequent John Wayne collaborator Andrew McLaglen, "Spring Term" is based on the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of June 13, 1953. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this war drama, set in New Guinea circa 1943, a squadron of fliers, stationed near Port Moresby must keep the Japanese at bay until a permanent air base can be built. They successfully shoot down 100 Japanese planes without losing one of their own. The men, realizing that they cannot beat the odds forever, begin worrying about which of them will be killed first. Fortunately, a pretty USO entertainer comes to visit, and the men get a welcome respite. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A rapidly maturing Gloria Jean is the star of the Columbia musical Manhattan Angel. She's cast at Madison Avenue copywriter Gloria Cole, at present striving to save a youth center for underprivileged children from being demolished to make way for a factory. Complications arise when Everett H. Burton (Thurston Hall), the elderly and irascible tycoon responsible for the factory project, develops a crush on our heroine. Ross Ford, later steadily employed as a TV and movie character actor, is the film's nominal leading man. Among the songs heard in Manhattan Angel is "I'll Take Romance," one of a handful of hit tunes owned outright by Columbia and thus royalty-free for "B"-movie redeployment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At 49 minutes, Murder on the Waterfront was the shortest-ever Warner Bros. B picture. Alas, brevity is not the soul of wit in this updated remake of 1938's The Invisible Menace. Warren Douglas plays sailor Joe Davis, who while on leave in California gets mixed up with an enemy spy ring. The head Nazi intends to steal a top-secret thermostat. For a while, it looks as though Lt. Commander Holbrook (John Loder) is the villain, but he turns out to be a red herring before the picture is half over. In his efforts to thwart the baddies, Davis is aided and abetted by carnival performer Gloria (Joan Warfield), who wears her skimpy sideshow costume throughout the picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in 1947, Warner Bros. Night Unto Night wasn't released until 1949. Based on a novel by Philip Wylie, the film stars Ronald Reagan as John, a young scientist suffering from epilepsy (In 1951, Reagan would play another epileptic, baseball star Grover Cleveland Alexander, in The Winning Team). Viveca Lindfors co-stars as Ann, who is recovering from the loss of her husband. Both John and Ann head to the coast of Florida for rest and relaxation, and it is here that they fall in love. While John and Ann contend with their individual afflictions and private demons, their mutual friend Shawn (Broderick Crawford) dispenses philosophical advice. The psychological aspect of Night Unto Night seems dated and simplistic when seen today; even so, Reagan and especially Lindfors are convincing in their difficult roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Project Moonbase is a "feature film" cobbled together from several episodes of the unsold TV science fiction series "Ring Around the Moon." Set in the future -- 1970, that is -- the film takes place on a huge space station, where a group of pilots and scientists draw up plans to establish a U.S. military base on the moon. This project is nearly stymied by foreign spy Dr. Wernher (Larry Johns), who is exposed when he cannot answer a few simple questions about the Brooklyn Dodgers (it's that kind of film). The story comes to an abrupt conclusion when female colonel Breiteis (Donna Martell) -- pronounced "Bright Eyes"! -- and male major Moore (Ross Ford) are married on the surface of the moon, with the President of the United States (Ernestine Barrier) presiding via two-way television. Though the sets and special effects are impressive, the storyline is rather infantile. Surprisingly, Project Moonbase was co-scripted by Robert A. Heinlein. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide