Tamara Geva Movies

Writer/director Ben Hecht brings "art" to the artless environs of Republic Pictures in the one-of-a-kind melodrama Spectre of the Rose. The film is set in the rarefied world of the Ballet, featuring a curious blend of ballet artists and veteran Hollywood character actors. Ivan Kirov plays Andre Sanine, a dancer who goes insane every time he hears the music for "Spectre de la Rose". Ballerina Haidi (Violet Kessen), convinced that she can cure Andre of his mental aberration, marries him, despite rumors that he has murdered his first wife. All goes well until Andre is once more compelled to perform "Spectre de la Rose"?and then??Ivan Kirov and Violet Kessen are far more accomplished as dancers than as actors, though Kirov is slightly better than his costar. More at home in the histrionics deparment are Judith Anderson as a patroness of the arts, Michael Chekhov as an apoplectic dance impresario, and Lionel Stander as a Greenwich village poet--all quite adept at mouthing Ben Hecht's eloquent witticisms, of which there are dozens. Spectre of the Rose clearly wasn't designed to please everyone; lovers of the ballet and Hecht aficionados will probably best appreciate the film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In his last screen appearance, bandleader Glenn Miller plays--are you sitting down?--a bandleader. The film's main plot involves small-town girl Ann Rutherford, who impulsively marries George Montgomery, a trumpeter in the Miller band. Rutherford soon finds that she isn't particularly suited for life on the road, nor is she prepared for the petty jealousies and backstabbings prevalent among the other orchestra wives (Lynn Bari, Carole Landis et. al.) She eventually leaves Montgomery, an event which coincides with the breakup of the band. But both the band and the marriage are salvaged through the benign conspiratorial schemes of Glenn Miller and a repentant Rutherford. Those who aren't interested in the various plots and subplots in Orchestra Wives will be captivated by the endless supply of blue-ribbon tunes, including I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo, At Last, and Serenade in Blue. Guest stars include Tex Beneke, The Modernaires and the Nicholas Brothers. Watch for an uncredited Jackie Gleason as a bass player and Dale Evans as Ann Rutherford's friend in the soda-fountain scene. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, two sisters work as assistants to a magician. The trouble begins when the day before a big show, the magician's psychic quits. In desperation he enlists the aide of one of the assistants. The three end up hired by a woman who is trying to help her wealthy, widowed sister see that her doctor is a charlatan by holding a bogus seance in the widow's creepy mansion. During the ritual, the widow tries to contact her late husband. When the ghost really does appear, the "medium" is shocked; she is more shocked when the spirit tells her he was murdered. The three performers become sleuths, solve the murder, and prove that the physician is a money-grubbing fake. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Apparently, The Night Club was planned as a feature-length adaptation of a popular novel by Katherine Brush. What emerged was a 52-minute crazy quilt, comprised of selected scenes from 24 all-talkie Paramount short subjects, filmed in 1928 by director Robert Florey. This series was intended to spotlight the New York nightclub scene by featuring the biggest "acts" at work before enthusiastic audiences. After a few introductory comments by actor-playwright Donald Ogden Stewart, the film segues into a series of musical specialties, featuring such celebrated performers of the period as Fanny Brice, Anne Pennington, Tamara Geva and Pat Rooney. Also included is a dramatization of the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story "Pusher-in-the-Face," Most critics regarded Night Club as little more than a glorified "trailer," promising much and delivering little. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi