Sumner Getchell Movies

Richard Grayson and Margaret Field (the mother of actress Sally Field) play a young married couple beset with woe. They lose their baby, have extreme difficulty adopting another, and end up accused of stealing. They are saved from prison at the finale, but no such reprieve is given the couple's best friend, whose own travails drive her to suicide. Chain of Circumstance was based on an article in True Story magazine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur Broadway comedy Ladies and Gentlemen formed the basis of the Warner Bros. laughspinner Perfect Strangers. The title characters are Terry Scott and David Campbell, played by Ginger Rogers and Dennis Morgan. She's a divorcee, he's a husband and father. Terry and David are thrown together by fate -- or rather, the LA judicial system. While serving as jurors on a murder trial, the two fall in love. Ironically, the woman on trial allegedly killed her husband because he'd asked for a divorce. The seriocomic tension develops on two levels: will juror Isobel Bradford (Margolo Gillmore) be able to sway the others to vote for the death penalty, and will Terry and David continue to pursue their romance at the expense of the happiness of others? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Generous amounts of stock footage from 1950's Fortunes of Captain Blood made its way into the Sam Katzman production Last of the Buccaneers. Paul Henreid plays famed buccaneer Jean Lafitte, who, after being chased out of Louisiana following the Battle of New Orleans, sets up shop on the island of Galveston. The American authorities leave Lafitte alone, so long as he confines his raids to Spanish vessels. But when one of Lafitte's lieutenants attacks an American ship, it's open season on the handsome pirate. Though Karin Booth is the nominal leading lady, second billing in The Last of the Buccaneers is bestowed upon Jack Oakie, who makes the most of the few comic opportunities he is given. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A woman is torn between a comfortable lie and the painful truth in this drama. After she is abandoned by her unfaithful boyfriend Stephen Morely (Lyle Bettger), Helen Ferguson (Barbara Stanwyck) discovers that she's pregnant, and she has no choice but to go home to her family. Shortly after boarding the train, Helen meets Hugh and Patrice Harkness (Richard Denning and Phyllis Thaxter), a recently married couple who are travelling to visit Hugh's parents, who have yet to met his bride. Patrice, who is also with child, strikes up a conversation with Helen, and allows her to try on her beautiful wedding ring. Moments later, the train becomes involved in a terrible accident in which Hugh and Patrice are killed; because she was still wearing Patrice's ring, Helen is mistaken for the late Mrs. Harkness by Hugh's parents (Jane Cowl and Henry O'Neill), and is taken home with them as she recovers and has her baby. Helen begins to feel a part of the family until Stephen arrives, demanding money to keep her true identity a secret. No Man of Her Own was remade in 1996 as the comedy Mrs. Winterbourne. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Top-notch police reporter Lorelei Kilbourne (Hillary Brooke) decides to resign her job when her novel is published, and gives Big Town Illustrated Press editor-in-chief Steve Wilson (Philip Reed) her two-weeks' notice. Lorelei is surprised when Steve hires a replacement that day, Susan Peabody (Ann Gillis), a journalism student who is actually the niece of the newspaper's publisher Amos Peabody (Charles Arnt). Steve discovers that Susan has a gambling habit that she developed in college -- he tries to get to know her better by taking her to the Winners' Club, a crooked private gambling club that's the tip of the iceberg of an illegal gambling operation in Big Town, and is pummeled for his trouble, while the girl is seemingly kidnapped. Peabody gives in to the terms of gambling ring leader Chuck LaRue's (Richard Travis), and Susan turns up a few minutes later. But Steve comes up with a plan to undermine LaRue's operation, while Lorelei decides to look into Susan's background and finds lots of unsavory twists. There are more double- and triple-crosses to follow as the planning on both sides unravels amid overlapping and interlocking schemes, as well as a poker game motif that's about as good as you'll ever see in any B-movie of its time. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Fiercely independent authoress June Cameron (Loretta Young) has no time for men in her life. Chauvinistic medical college professor Timothy Sterling (Ray Milland) has no use for women. So guess who is mistaken for June's husband, and guess who is forced by circumstances to pretend that she's married? The Doctor Takes a Wife maintains its exhausting comic pace until about five minutes before the end, when the scriptwriters are forced to take a breather to tie up all the loose plot ends. The "fantasy" closing gag went over so well that Columbia Pictures utilized variations of it in several subsequent screwball comedies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy/drama, a feisty taxi-dancer (Lana Turner in her first starring role) takes on a sorority full of snooty debutantes after an equally snobbish Ivy Leaguer (Lew Ayres) who goes on a bender, meets her and invites her to his school's annual weekend bash. The next day, the fellow forgets all about the invite. When the party begins, the low-class girl shows up. The fellow then warns her that the catty debutante crowd will gleefully unsheathe their claws and rip her to shreds. The taxi-dancer is not so easily frightened and not only stays, she also stands up to every one of the wicked sorority sisters. She then gets sweet revenge by making herself the most popular girl of the weekend. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This comical campus romance showcases the fancy footwork of All-American basketball player Hank Luisetti while it tells the story of a dean's son who does his very best to become a good student. When he fails, he turns to playing basketball and befriends Luisetti, which makes him quite popular. This doesn't sit well with the dean, who wants academics to be more important than sports. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on the turn-of-the-century dimestore novels of Bert L. Standish (real name: William Patton Gilbert), this slow-moving serial featured husky Donald Briggs in the title role, a Fardale College star athlete who inherits a valuable ring from his father (William P. Carleton). By deciphering an inscription on the ring, Merriwell and his Hollywood friends (played by second generation actors such as House Peters, Jr., Wallace Reid, Jr., Allan Hersholt, and Carlyle Blackwell, Jr.) discover a hidden treasure of gold nuggets worth $30,000. There is opposition from a gang of cutthroats, of course, but Merriwell (who is both "merry" and "well") still manages to win the Big Game for his college. Lending much needed feminine appeal to the proceedings is Jean Rogers, who that same year would skyrocket to fame as Dale Arden in the Flash Gordon serial. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

A man who has ruined a woman's life attempts to make good on his debt to her (and his conscience) in this sudsy drama based on a best-selling novel by Lloyd C. Douglas. Bobby Merrick (Robert Taylor) is an alcoholic ne'er-do-well whose recklessness causes the death of Dr. Hudson, a respected physician. Helen Hudson (Irene Dunne), the doctor's widow, turns away from Merrick's apology, only to walk into traffic. She's struck by a car and blinded. Shaken by the tragic events, Merrick gives up alcohol and begins studying to become a doctor and right the wrong he's done to Helen. As he begins spending time at the family's estate through a mutual friend, Helen grows fond of his frequent visits, and they begin to fall in love. However, when Helen learns that Merrick is responsible for her husband's death and her own accident, she moves away to a place where he cannot find her. In time, Merrick becomes a gifted eye surgeon, and he learns that he could restore Helen's sight with a delicate and dangerous operation that he has never performed before. Magnificent Obsession was a box-office success that spawned a 1954 remake directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

March of the Wooden Soldiers is the 1952 reissue title for Hal Roach's 1934 film version of Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star as Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee, bumbling apprentices to the master toymaker of Toyland. This joyous fairy-tale community is populated by all the colorful Mother Goose characters we know and love; the one sour apple in the barrel is mean old Silas Barnaby (portrayed by Henry Kleinbach, aka Henry Brandon). Barnaby holds the mortgage on the outsized shoe where Widow Peep (Florence Roberts) and her daughter Little Bo Peep (Charlotte Henry) reside, and where Stannie and Ollie pay room and board. Bo Peep will be forced to marry the odious Barnaby if the rent isn't paid, so Stannie and Ollie try to raise the money by asking the toymaker for a raise. But the boys are fired when Stannie messes up an order from Santa Claus: instead of making six hundred toy soldiers one foot high, the dumb Mr. Dum makes one hundred toy soldiers six feet high. The wedding between Barnaby and Bo Peep goes on as planned--except that it's Stannie, disguised as the bride, who ends up walking down the altar. Publicly humiliated, Barnaby vows revenge. He steals one of the Three Little Pigs and places the blame on Bo Peep's boy friend, Tom-Tom the Piper's Son (Felix Knight). The penalty for pignapping is banishment to Bogeyland, a fearsome subterranean world populated by hideous bogeymen (look closely and you'll see the zippers on their costumes!) Stannie and Ollie expose Barnaby's perfidy and rescue Tom-Tom from Bogeyland, whereupon Barnaby rallies the bogeymen and leads an all-out attack on Toyland. Taking refuge in the toy warehouse, Stannie and Ollie activate the 100 6-foot wooden soldiers (a neat bit of stop-motion photography, courtesy of Hal Roach's "fx" wizard Roy Seawright), who vanquish the Bogeymen and save the day. One of the best of all the Laurel and Hardy features, March of the Wooden Soldiers has been a television holiday perennial ever since the cathode tube was invented. Only a handful of Victor Herbert's songs are utilized, but these lilting compositions more than compensate for the omissions (one song, "I Can't Do That Sum", is used as the leitmotif for the clueless Stannie and Ollie). For years available only in the 70-minute reissue version, March of the Wooden Soldiers has recently been fully restored to its full glorious 78 minutes. The parent property Babes in Toyland was remade by Disney in 1961 (with Gene Sheldon and Henry Calvin as Laurel and Hardy wannabes) and for television in 1986, with new songs by Leslie Bricusse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young football hero learns valuable life lessons on the way to becoming a pro in this sports drama. Tommy is a promising player who is working his way through college. He quickly becomes a star on the campus grid-iron, but when he gets entangled in a stock swindle, he nearly destroys his budding career. Fortunately, Tommy smartens up and pays back all of the money he gained when he inadvertently cheated some innocent investors. The USC national championship football team of 1931 appears in the film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide