Arthur Franz Movies
Armed with extensive radio and stage credits, Arthur Franz made his first film appearance in 1948's Jungle Patrol. Franz has been prominently featured in a number of "fantastic" films: he played one-third of the title role in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), and had leads in Flight to Mars (1952), Invaders From Mars (1953), and The Atomic Submarine (1960). He has also thrived in military characterizations in films like Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Submarine Command (1951), and The Caine Mutiny (1954). His finest screen portrayal was as the psychopathic "hero" of Stanley Kramer's The Sniper (1952). Arthur Franz flourished as a character actor into the 1980s, retiring from films after appearing in That Championship Season (1982). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1953
Eddie Cantor, beloved "banjo eyed" entertainer who conquered stage, films, radio and television, is given the Hollywood biopic treatment in this largely uninvolving film. Cantor is portrayed by Keefe Brasselle, a minor nightclub performer of the 1950s who couldn't hope to come within shouting distance of Cantor's appeal. The storyline charts Cantor's professional progress, from the lower East Side boyhood to his ascendancy as star of The Ziegfeld Follies. It also chronicles his enduring marriage to wife Ida (Marilyn Erskine). Surprisingly shortchanged in the film was Cantor's humanitarian work (primarily on behalf of the March of Dimes and various Jewish causes); instead, screen time is wasted on Aline MacMahon, as lachrymose as possible in the role of Eddie's grandmother, and Jackie Barnett, giving a gosh-awful performance as Jimmy Durante. At the beginning and end of the film, the real Eddie and Ida Cantor appear, ostensibly to watch the unspooling of The Eddie Cantor Story in a Warner Bros. screening room. At the fade-out, Eddie turns to Ida and says "I've never been so happy in my life." Now that was great acting! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keefe Brasselle, Marilyn Erskine, (more)
Originating during the science-fiction/Red-Scare boom of the '50s, Invaders From Mars is an entertaining little picture that holds up reasonably well. David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) is a 12-year-old astronomy buff who is stunned to see a flying saucer landing in the sand pit beyond his backyard. His father, George (Leif Erickson), ventures out to look the next morning and mysteriously disappears. David's mother, Mary (Hillary Brooke), worriedly calls police, but they are quickly swallowed up by the sand in the backyard. Later, George and the two cops return, but their personalities are markedly different having been taken over by the Martians. As David tries to find help, everyone around him comes under the frightening zombie-like spell. He finally encounters two believers in Dr. Blake (Helena Carter) and Dr. Kelston (Arthur Franz). Discovering David's shocking story to be true, the doctors call in the military setting up a confrontation that escalates when David and Dr. Blake are taken captive within the Martian craft. The soldiers race to save the pair from the green menace leading to an explosive finale that involves bullets, grenades, TNT, and a spectacular alien ray gun that can melt stone. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, (more)
- 1952
In this musical, a determined young woman with stars in her eyes defies her auntie and heads for Hollywood where she gets a messenger job at a major studio in hope of being discovered. Her dreams are soon realized and she is signed to appear in an upcoming film. Her snooty aunt is appalled and outraged until the picture's stars offer to perform at the aunt's charity ball. Songs include: "There's a Rainbow Round My Shoulder" (Dave Dreyer, Billy Rose, Al Jolson), "Bye Bye Blackbird" (Mort Dixon, Ray Henderson), "She's Funny That Way" (Neil Moret, Richard Whiting), "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" (Harry Barris, Ted Koehler, Billy Moll), "The Last Rose of Summer"(Thomas Moore, R.A. Milliken), "Wonderful, Wasn't It?" (Hal David, Don Rodney), "Girl in the Wood" (Neal Stuart, Terry Gilkyson), and "Pink Champagne" (Bob Wright, George Forrest). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frankie Laine, Billy Daniels, (more)
- 1952
The "regeneration" of blacklisted director Edward Dmytryk was expedited when he was hired by producer Stanley Kramer to helm the location-filmed melodrama The Sniper. In the interests of political expediency, Dmytrk was required to direct Adolphe Menjou, one of the most virulent Red-baiters of the HUAC hearings. Shorn of his trademarked mustache, and with his famous expensive wardrobe replaced by a humdrum business suit, Menjou turns in one of his best performances as a world-weary San Francisco detective assigned to track down a mad sniper. From the beginning, the audience knows that the criminal is psycho Eddie Miller (Arthur Franz), who is possessed of the notion that he must kill every beautiful brunette woman who crosses his path. Some audience sympathy is elicited by Miller's pathetic attempts to rid himself of his obsession, but this never gets in the way of the film's suspense. The excellent supporting cast includes Richard Kiley as a police psychiatrist, Marie Windsor as Miller's first victim, and Mabel Paige as the sniper's snoopy landlady. An unbilled Wally Cox shows up briefly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, (more)
- 1952
Bonar Colleano, who spent the war years playing brash Americans in British films, makes his final screen appearance in the Stanley Kramer production Eight Iron Men. Set during WW II, the film follows the exploits of a small Army squadron, billeted in a bombed-out house on the front lines. Tensions mount as the men attempt to save one of their number, who is trapped behind enemy lines and heavily surrounded. Essentially a single-set film (it was based on A Sound of Hunting, a stage play by Harry Brown), Eight Iron Men works better as a character study than a war flick. Colleano dominates the proceedings as a self-styled Lothario, while Arthur Franz, Lee Marvin, Richard Kiley, Nick Dennis, James Griffith, George Cooper and former child-star Dick Moore likewise register well. For no discernible reason, the screenplay manages to include several extra characters, including Mary Castle as "The Girl" in a dream sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bonar Colleano, Arthur Franz, (more)
- 1952
25-year-old Julie Harris convincingly recreates her Broadway role of 12-year-old tomboy Frankie Addams in the 1952 screen version of Carson McCullers' play. Feeling rejected when her older brother goes off on his honeymoon without inviting her along, Frankie runs away from her middle-class southern home. She endures several other adolescent traumas, not least of which is the sudden death of her bespectacled young cousin John Henry (Brandon De Wilde). With the help of warmhearted housekeeper Berenice Sadie Brown (Ethel Waters), Frankie eventually makes an awkward transition to young womanhood. One of several Stanley Kramer productions released by Columbia in the early 1950s, The Member of the Wedding wisely used several of the original Broadway cast members. Co-starring as a drunken soldier who tries to take advantage of the vulnerable Frankie is former child actor Dick Moore, making his last screen appearance. The Member of the Wedding was remade for television in 1983 (and unofficially "reworked" into the 1991 sleeper My Girl). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Harris, Ethel Waters, (more)
- 1951
Strictly Dishonorable is a musicalized version of Preston Sturges' cynical Broadway comedy of the same title, previously filmed sans songs in 1931. Ezio Pinza, fresh from his stage triumph in South Pacific, stars as Augustino Caraffa, an opera star whose amorous adventures are legend. Janet Leigh plays green-as-grass Southern belle Isabelle Perry, Caraffa's biggest fan. To rescue her idol from a vengeful publisher (Hugh Sanders), Isabelle agrees to an "in name only" marriage, hoping that Caraffa will eventually fall in love with her for real. Several romantic complications later, Caraffa finally begins to change his rakish ways. In keeping with Sturges' original scenario, Strictly Dishonorable is set in the late 1920s, allowing for a scene in which Isabelle is amorously inspired by a silent John Gilbert-Greta Garbo picture (accompanied on the Mighty Wurlitzer by organist Kathleen Freeman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ezio Pinza, Janet Leigh, (more)
- 1951
Submarine Command reunites the romantic leads from Sunset Boulevard, William Holden and Nancy Olsen. Holden is cast as Commander White, who during an enemy attack orders that his submarine dive to avoid destruction. Though his action saves his crew, it results in the death of the machine-gunner left topside during the attack. With the exception of vindictive chief torpedo-man Boyer (William Bendix), no one holds White to task for his decision -- save for White himself, who is plagued with guilt and doubt ever afterward. Helping to alleviate White's self-flagellation is his fiancee Carol (Olsen). The thrill-packed climax finds White's submarine engaged in a sabotage action against communist forces off the coast of Korea. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, Nancy Olson, (more)
Flight to Mars is the second American film of the postwar era (after the previous year's Rocketship X-M) to depict a manned space trip to the Red Planet. Leading-man responsibilities are evenly divided between Arthur Franz as brilliant scientist Dr. Jim Barker and Cameron Mitchell as two-fisted reporter Steve Abbott. Both men make the journey to Mars, finding time along the way to battle over the affections of leading lady Virginia Huston. Upon landing on Mars, the earthlings learn that planetary leader, Ikron (Morris Ankrum, a fixture of 1950s sci-fi), intends to conquer the world. Fortunately a group of good Martians are on hand to lend moral and physical support to the heroes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marguerite Chapman, Cameron Mitchell, (more)
- 1951
The best of Universal-International's followups to Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man casts Bud and Lou as mail-order private eyes. The boys champion the cause of boxer Arthur Franz, who has been framed for murder. Utilizing the formula created by Claude Rains in the original Invisible Man (1933), Franz vanishes before Dr. Gavin Muir's astonished eyes. Cloaked by invisibility, Franz talks Bud and Lou into helping him nab the real murderer, gangster Sheldon Leonard. A string of uproarious gags and comic setpieces is highlighted by a boxing-ring finale, wherein Lou, backed up by the invisible Franz, dukes it out with a behemoth prizefighter. A clever special-effects closing gag caps this delightful A&C vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, (more)
- 1950
Dorothy Patrick, Republic Pictures' all-purpose leading lady, heads the cast of Tarnished. Arthur Franz co-stars as Bud Dolliver, who returns to his hometown after a hitch in the Marines. Because of Bud's previous bad reputation, the townsfolk assume that he's been in prison. Despite his protestations, everyone chooses to believe the worst of Dolliver -- everyone, that is, except his childhood sweetheart Lou Dolliver (Patrick). Eventually, a crisis arises which allows Bud to prove himself once and for all. Former "Henry Aldrich" James Lydon is most effective in an sympathetic supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Patrick, Arthur Franz, (more)
- 1950
Three Secrets is a darker variation on a theme first explored in A Letter to Three Wives (1949). There's only one survivor when a private plane crashes in the mountains of California. That survivor is a five-year-old boy, who hovers between life and death. As efforts continue to save the boy, three women -- Susan Chase (Eleanor Parker), Phyllis Horn (Patricia Neal) and Ann Lawrence (Ruth Roman) -- wait in agony. Years earlier, each of the three women had given up a baby son for adoption. Could it be that the little boy on the mountain top is actually the son of one of the three women? And if so, how many painful secrets will be revealed in the next few hours? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, (more)
- 1949
Hoping to shed itself of the onus of its low-budget predecessor PRC Pictures, Eagle-Lion productions occasionally invested in such above-average endeavors as Red Stallion in the Rockies. Color-filmed on location in Colorado, the story revolves around a former circus horse who has escaped to the hills. The stallion poses a threat to local horse ranchers via its habit of "kidnapping" prize mares for his own female entourage. When the ranchers organize and set out to kill the stallion, he is sheltered and protected by circus worker Arthur Franz and Wallace Ford. Only by committing an act of heroism does the stallion receive a stay of execution. Silent-screen star Leatrice Joy makes a rare talkie appearance as the wife of wealthy rancher Ray Collins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Franz, Wallace Ford, (more)
- 1949
The saga of the Hatfield-and-McCoy feud is romanticized in Samuel Goldwyn's Roseanna McCoy. Newcomer Joan Evans stars as the title character, whose elopement with Johnse Hatfield (Farley Granger) serves to further fuel the flames of the deadly mountain feud. The opposing patriarches, Devil Anse Hatfield and Old Randall McCoy, are vividly realized by Charles Bickford and Raymond Massey. In West Virginia and Kentucky, the debate still rages over what started the hostilities, but there's no question that the end result was tragedy for all concerned. In Goldwyn's version, the feud comes to a halt because Roseanna and Johnse demand it; would that real life were this simple and clear-cut. Based on a novel by Alberta Hannum, Roseanna McCoy was released through the distribution channels of RKO Radio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Farley Granger, Joan Evans, (more)
- 1949
Glenn Ford first appeared under the MGM banner in The Doctor and the Girl. Ford stars as Dr. Michael Corday, scion of a highly respected family of physicians. When he marries one of his patients, shopgirl Evelyn Heldon (Janet Leigh), Corday is thrown out of his house by his tradition-bound father (Charles Coburn). Denied a posh Park Avenue practice, Corday becomes a selflessly dedicated general practitioner, while his rebellious sister Fabienne (Gloria de Haven) likewise leaves home and hearth in favor of Greenwich Village bohemianism. Father and son are tearfully reconciled when Fabienne dies as the result of a botched abortion (though her operation is never so identified). Doctor and the Girl is a toned-down, telescoped adaptation of Maxence van der Meersh's best-selling novel Bodies and Souls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Gloria de Haven, (more)
From director Allan Dwan, Sands of Iwo Jima is a drama set during the Second World War and follows John Stryker (John Wayne), a relentlessly tough Marine sergeant as he trains a squad of naïve, rebellious recruits at a New Zealand military station in 1943. Recently left by his wife, Stryker has become exceedingly bitter and tough, leading his contemporaries to question his behavior and his men to dislike him for his harsh training methods. The wisdom of Stryker's ways, however, is demonstrated when they fight in the legendary battle of Iwo Jima. Using footage of real WWII battles, the Sands of Iwo Jima features John Wayne's first Academy Award-nominated performance, though Broderick Crawford ultimately won the 1950 Best Actor prize. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, John Agar, (more)
- 1949
Infused with religious themes, this crime drama is considered a minor example of film noir. Set in Los Angeles, it tells the grim story of vengeful embezzler Nick Cherney, who plots murderous revenge after he is fired from Johnny Torno's freight company. He gets it by killing Johnny's brother Jess, a chaplain who has just returned from the war. Johnny arrives at the hotel room of his brother Jess and finds him dying. Just before Jess expires he tells Johnny that the identity of his killer can be found in his Bible. Though every hotel room has a Bible, the one belonging in his brother's is missing. Though his girl friend, the priest and the police warn against a private investigation, Johnny ignores their advice and goes looking for that Good Book. His girl friend goes along with him. Before they go, they leave Warni Hazard in charge of the freight company. Nick Cherney shows up and takes off after Hazard who flees until finding safety beneath the tires of an enormous trailer. Nick sees him cowering there and in the film's most shocking sequence, coolly kicks one of the jacks holding up the trailer and while Hazard is crushed, Nick calmly takes a drag on his cigarette. Meanwhile, Johnny and his gal finally find the Bible and see that Jess had underlined a couple of verses that seem to suggest that Johnny leave the matter of revenge in God's hands. Johnny pays no heed to the message until the story's grim climax. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Virginia Mayo, (more)
- 1948
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
- Starring:
- Kristine Miller, Arthur Franz, (more)
