Erford Gage Movies
Erford Gage was one of the more promising young stage actors in the Northeast of the late '30s and one of the best young players signed by RKO during the early '40s.Born in Massachusetts in 1912, he entered performing as a drummer and part-time singer with the Brookfield, MA, Summer Dance band in the late '20s, before he drifted into acting, starting out in juvenile roles in the early '30s. From 1932 onward, he was employed almost continuously on stage throughout the eastern United States. He kept busy through the Great Depression and eventually joined the Federal Theatre Project of the government's Works Progress Administration. Among the productions in which he appeared through the Federal Theatre in the late '30s were: Prologue to Glory, in which he portrayed a young Abraham Lincoln; Shakespeare's Coriolanus; George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion; and Clyde Fitch's comedy of late 19th century New York, Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, in which Gage played Captain Jinks (the play included in its cast future star John Randolph). He also directed in summer stock at Kennebunkport, ME, and in 1940 had his own stock comedy, which did a season at the Copley Theatre in Boston. Gage's last major stage work was in Maurice Evans' Broadway production of Macbeth, after which he went out to Hollywood and signed a contract with RKO.
Gage appeared in supporting roles in various movies spread among different genres, beginning with the wartime thriller Seven Miles From Alcatraz and the topical drama Hitler's Children, both directed by Edward Dmytryk. Sandwiched in between these and such enduring box-office hits as H.C. Potter's Mr. Lucky (starring Cary Grant) were a number of very successful B-pictures, among them the comedy Adventures of a Rookie, in which Gage played against type, as a tough sergeant (which he reprised in a sequel Rookies In Burma); the exciting mystery thriller The Falcon Strikes Back; and the topical morale-boosting drama Gangway for Tomorrow. Gage's best single film role, however, was as Jason Hoag in producer Val Lewton's psychological suspense thriller The Seventh Victim. Portraying a poet who has lost his muse and seems content to live quietly, unproductively, in Greenwich Village, Gage imparts a subtle but profound sense of hurt to the character's every nuance, which rises nearer to the surface in the scene where he confronts Tom Conway's glib psychiatrist at a party (they joust verbally while a Brahms piano piece plays softly in the background) and when he shows young ingenue Kim Hunter his apartment, where he would like to work, hoping he has found a companion but instead finding himself rejected. Gage worked in another Falcon movie and played an uncredited role in Days of Glory, Jacques Tourneur's patriotic tribute to the Soviet struggle against the Nazis, before closing out his career in Curse of the Cat People, another Val Lewton production. He left RKO to join the armed forces in 1943. Gage served in the Pacific and his promising career was cut short when he was killed in fighting on Iwo Jima in March 1945, one of more than 8000 Americans who lost their lives in the fighting. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1944
Like Song of Russia and Mission to Moscow before it, Days of Glory is a paean to the courage and resourcefulness of the Soviet Union during WW2 (this was long before the Russians became the stock villains in Hollywood films!) Producer Casey Robinson took a gamble with the project, casting the leading roles with movie newcomers. Heading the cast is Broadway actor Gregory Peck as Vladimir, the leader of a band of Soviet guerilla fighters. Tamara Toumanova, former premier ballerina of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, costars as Nina, whose love for Vladimir is surpassed by her love for Mother Russia (Toumanova was at the time the wife of producer Robinson). The actors speak in long, lyrical monologues about freedom, sacrifice and the indomitability of the human spirit: fascinating at first, the excess verbiage begins to wear on the viewer after three or four reels. In traditional underground-movie fashion, hero and heroine are obliged to give up their own lives for the sake of their countrymen, in a reasonably spectacular climactic battle sequence. Budgeted at nearly a million dollars, Days of Glory lost heavily at the box-office, though critics and audiences alike were in agreement that Gregory Peck had some potential as a screen presence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tamara Toumanova, Gregory Peck, (more)
- 1944
- NR
Officially a sequel to Val Lewton's psychological-horror classic Cat People (1942), Curse of the Cat People is in fact an engrossing and oftimes charming fantasy, told from a child's point of view. Six-year-old Ann Carter plays Amy Reed, the lonely daughter of eternally preoccupied Oliver Reed (Kent Smith). Amy's vivid imagination and inability to get along with her schoolmates leads Oliver to worry that the girl will start exhibiting the psychopathic tendencies of his long-deceased first wife Irena (Simone Simon), the obsessive "Cat Woman" in the earlier film. Oliver's second wife Alice (Jane Randolph) and Amy's sympathetic schoolteacher (Eve March) try to help, but Amy prefers the company of elderly Julia Farren (Julia Dean), a harmlessly crazy ex-actress who lives in a forbidding mansion with her neurotic daughter Barbara (Elizabeth Russell). Insanely jealous of Amy, Barbara ultimately tries to do the girl harm, but she is thwarted in this effort by the ghost of Irena, Amy's self-appointed guardian angel. Advertised as a horror picture, Curse of the Cat People has only one genuine "shock" scene; otherwise, the most frightening moment in the film is Julia Farren's spirited rendition of "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." Saddled with a lurid title, producer Lewton and screenwriter DeWitt Bodeen chose to offer a fascinating glimpse into the wonderfully boundless realm of a child's imagination, and in this respect the film is an unqualified success. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Simon, Kent Smith, (more)
- 1943
In this follow-up to the successful Adventures of a Rookie, Wally Brown and Alan Carney, RKO Radio's hastily-teamed "answer" to Abbott and Costello, further mess up military protocol. Cast as Jerry Miles and Mike Strager (the character names they'd bear in all their RKO vehicles), our heroes march off to Burma, where they and their sergeant (Erford Gage) are captured by the Japanese. Jerry and Mike manage to make their escape via a stolen jeep and a "borrowed" elephant, ending up rolling across the battlefield in a Japanese tank. For those not interested in comedy, the screenwriters contrived to include the decorative Joan Barclay and Clare Carleton as a pair of stranded American showgirls. Rookies in Burma represented the final RKO effort by staff-producer Bert Gilroy, who'd been with the company since 1932. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wally Brown, Alan Carney, (more)
- 1943
In this entry, the detective must find two missing industrialists. They and $100,000 suddenly vanished while flying in a passenger plane. It does not take long for the supersleuth to discover that their disappearance is part of a conspiracy against the government. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, (more)
- 1943
For his first directorial assignment at RKO Radio, Edward Dmytryk was handed the mile-a-minute topical meller Seven Miles From Alcatraz. James Craig and Frank Jenks star as cynical Alcatraz inmates Champ and Jimbo, who manage to escape from the "rock" and then take refuge in the lighthouse maintained by Captain Porter (George Cleveland) and his pretty daughter Anne (Bonita Granville). Though concerned only about their own plight at first, Champ and Jimbo alter their getaway plans to foil a nest of Nazi spies who are using the lighthouse as their rendezvous. As Jimbo explains it, "We may be rats, but we're American rats!", which may be why he and Champ are granted a happier denoument than most Alcatraz escapees. Among the Nazis is a slim and youthful John Banner, two decades removed from his duties as cuddly Sergeant Schultz in TV's Hogan's Heroes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Craig, Bonita Granville, (more)
- 1943
Wally Brown and Alan Carney, RKO's prefab "answer" to Universal's Abbott and Costello, made their joint starring debut in Adventures of a Rookie. The boys play a couple of GIs on leave, who attend a party at a girls' boarding house. The fun begins when the house is quarantined during a scarlet fever epidemic, forcing our heroes to stay with their lovely hostesses indefinitely. Typical of the humor level is the following exchange: "My stomach's too fat." "Why don't you diet?" "But I like it this color." Primitive though it may have been, Adventures of a Rookie posted a $198,000 profit for RKO, leading to a three-year series of low-budget, lowbrow Brown & Carney vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wally Brown, Alan Carney, (more)
- 1943
John Garfield was borrowed from Warner Bros. by RKO Radio for the tense espionage melodrama The Fallen Sparrow. Garfield is cast as Kit, an idealistic Spanish Civil War veteran who survives two torturous years in a fascist prison. Upon returning to New York, Kit is pounced upon by Nazi agents, who hope to learn the valuable secrets that Kit would not reveal to his captors during his ordeal. Among the methods of persuasion utilized by the Nazis is the beautiful Toni (Maureen O'Hara in a masterpiece of against-type casting). But Kit is made of stronger stuff than the spies are used to, and eventually he is able to beat them at their own game. Walter Slezak costars as the mellifluous-but-deadly Dr. Skaas. The Fallen Sparrow was based on the best-selling novel by Dorothy B. Hughes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Garfield, Maureen O'Hara, (more)
- 1943
Tom Conway makes his second appearance as amateur sleuth Tom Lawrence, aka "The Falcon", in RKO Radio's The Falcon Strikes Back. Framed for the theft of valuable war bonds, Lawrence hides out at a country resort. Here he discovers that Mia Bruger (Rita Corday), who engineered the frame, has been murdered by persons unknown. Snooping around a bit, Lawrence uncovers an insidious and widespred war-bond racket. The revelation of the murderer's identity will come as a jolt to fans of old 2-reel comedies. Atmospherically directed by Edward Dmytryk (who obviously had his eye on bigger projects), The Falcon Strikes Back costars Harriet Hilliard, better known to TV fans as Mrs. Ozzie Nelson. As a bonus, there's a plug for Walt Disney, who was then releasing his product through RKO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, (more)
- 1943
- NR
Producer Val Lewton once more utilized leftover Magnificent Ambersons sets for his psychological horror piece The Seventh Victim. Kim Hunter arrives in New York's Greenwich Village in search of her errant sister Jean Brooks. Gradually, the naive Hunter is drawn into a strange netherworld of Satan worshippers. The story is a bit too complex for its own good (especially with only a 71-minute running time to play with), but editor-turned-director Mark Robson and screenwriters Dewitt Bodeen and Charles O'Neal keep the thrills and shudders coming at a satisfying pace. Lewton regular Tom Conway offers his usual polished performance, while veteran character actresses Isabel Jewell and Evelyn Brent look appropriately gaunt and possessed in the "cult" sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Hunter, Tom Conway, (more)
- 1943
- NR
One of Cary Grant's most financially successful 1940s vehicles, Mr. Lucky finds Grant atypically cast as a shifty, out-for-number-one gambler. Having dodged the draft by adopting the identity of a dead man, Grant sets his sights on purchasing a fancy gambling ship. To raise the necessary funds, he pretends to be working hand in glove with the American War Relief society. Once he meets Laraine Day, however, Grant is seized by an uncontrollable bout of honesty. It takes him awhile, but he finally does the right thing. The film is framed in flashback, as old seaman Charles Bickford explains why a tearful Laraine Day waits at the dock each evening for a certain ship to come in. Also in the cast is Paul Stewart as a cold-eyed but nonetheless semi-comic hoodlum, and Kay Johnson and Gladys Cooper as elegant but gullible society women. The best aspect of this breezy comedy-drama is Grant's cockney propensity for "rhyming slang," a running gag better heard than described. Mr. Lucky was later adapted into a TV series in 1959, with John Vivyan in the Cary Grant part and with Blake Edwards at the production controls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Laraine Day, (more)
- 1943
In this drama, set at a WW II munitions plant, the lives of five workers are chronicled. Their stories are told via flashback. Though they all ride together to work everyday, and they think they know each other very well, the stories they tell show them otherwise. The group of workers is made up of: a fighter for the French underground who came to America to help her countrymen back home; a race-car driver who, while racing, sustained serious injuries that rendered him unfit for military service; a disillusioned "Miss America"; a prison warden who was ordered to execute his own brother; and a hobo who decided to do something to help his country. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margo, John Carradine, (more)
- 1942
This modestly produced film version of Gregor Ziemmer's book Education for Death surprised everyone at RKO--and in the film industry--by becoming one the biggest hits of 1943. The "children" invoked in the title are borne on behalf of Adolf Hitler; according to the film, it is standard operating procedure in Nazi Germany for young girls to willingly submit to being impregnated by Aryan men (with or without the benefit of clergy) in order to sustain the "Master Race." Those who refuse are ticketed for sterilization, or worse. One of the holdouts is Bonita Granville, a German girl raised and educated in America whose taste of democracy has made her utterly resistant to Nazism. In the film's key scene, the near-naked Bonita is publicly flogged for her defiance, whereupon Bonita's lover, "good Nazi" Tim Holt, suddenly has an awakening of conscience and stops the whipping. This act of courage results in the executions of both Holt and Granville, but they willingly go to their deaths rather than accede to Hitler's demands. It is true enough that many people flocked to see Hitler's Children because of the sensational, censor-provoking aspects of the film, but equal numbers of filmgoers and critics also recognized the above-average artistic contributions of director Edward Dmytryk and scriptwriter Emmet Lavery (both of whom received substantial cash bonuses for their work on this film). Hitler's Children was the second biggest moneymaker of RKO's 1943-44 season, only slightly behind the Cary Grant vehicle Mr. Lucky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Holt, Bonita Granville, (more)
