Dorothy Granger Movies

In this western, a young man tries to walk the straight and narrow, but he is impeded by his past. The trouble begins when the young fellow flees his family's Texas dirt farm and becomes an outlaw. He is advised by one of the desperadoes to return home. The boy does, and with hard work, makes the farm successful. Harvest time rolls around. He is just about to celebrate when the outlaws ride up and force him to help them pull a local bank job. He refuses and kills the gang leader and his brother. Meanwhile, the boy's past is revealed to the town banker. Seeing that he truly has gone straight, the banker forgives him. The boy marries and lives with his lovely bride upon his land. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Though Frank Capra wrote the original story treatment for MGM's Westward the Women, he was too busy to direct the film, and handed the reigns instead to his former Liberty Films partner William A. Wellman. This stark, no-nonsense outdoor drama stars Robert Taylor as a trail guide named Buck, who in 1851 is hired by California settler Roy Whitman (John McIntyre) to head a wagon train full of mail-order brides from Chicago to the West Coast. Though Buck spares the brides nothing in describing the hardships they're about to face, most of the ladies agree to undertake the journey. Starting out with 104 women, Buck leads the expedition through some of the most treacherous territory in the West. Several of the women die en route, killed off by the elements, Indian attacks, and sundry unexpected mishaps. Most of the male travellers likewise fall victim to disaster, save for Buck and his courageous Japanese cook Ito (Henry Nakamura). Even when the wagon train reaches its destination, the story is far, far from over. Though second-billed Denise Darcel is the most prominent of the women, the large cast generally works as an ensemble, with everyone pitching together for the common good, just as their real-life counterparts had done back in the 1850s. Throughout, the film abruptly (and effectively) switches moods, veering precipitously from raucous comedy to profound tragedy (some of the deaths occur so suddenly that they can still elicit gasps from the audience). An expertly assembled and reasonably realistic saga, Westward the Women is one story that needs to be told in black-and-white; the currently available colorized version should be avoided like the plague. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The "B"-picture unit at 20th Century-Fox was slowly being phased out when Miss Mink of 1949 was produced. Lois Collier heads the cast as Alice Forrester, an office clerk who wins a $10,000 mink coat in a radio contest. This windfall proves disastrous to Lois' husband Joe (Jimmy Lydon), who goes deeply into debt so that his wife can live in the style in which she has suddenly become accustomed. Horror of horrors, the mink is stolen, the first of several setbacks for poor Alice and Joe. The mess is straightened out--sort of--in a wild courtroom finale. Veteran supporting players Richard Lane, Dorothy Granger, Paul Guilfoyle and Iris Adrian add a little salt and pepper to the more sugary passages. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bob Hope's Technicolor western spoof The Paleface was one of the comedian's biggest box-office hits. Hope plays Painless Potter, a hopelessly inept dentist who heads west to seek his fortune. Meanwhile, buxom female outlaw Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) is engaged in undercover work on behalf of the government, in the hopes of earning a pardon for her past crimes. Jane is on the lookout for notorious gun-runner Robert Armstrong. To put up an innocent front, Jane marries the befuddled Potter, then keeps the criminals at bay by convincing everyone that Potter is a rootin'-tootin' gunslinger (actually, it's Jane who's been doing all the shooting). Armstrong, who has been selling guns to the Indians, arranges for Jane to be captured by the scalp-hungry tribesmen, but Potter comes to the rescue. Somewhere along the way, Bob Hope and Jane Russell get to sing the Oscar-winning Jay Livingston/Ray Evans tune "Buttons and Bows". There are many hilarious moments in The Paleface, but screenwriter Frank Tashlin felt that director Norman Z. McLeod failed to get the full comic value out of his material. To prove his point, Tashlin directed the side-splitting sequel, Son of Paleface (1952), which once more teamed Hope and Russell. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The year is 1908 and the setting Jericho, Kansas, a veritable cesspool of sin and vice. Dave Connors is a politically ambitious lawyer married to Belle, the town lush, and is in love with beautiful colleague Julia Norman. Matters are worsened when Algeria Wedge, his best friend's wife, makes a pass at him. When Dave rejects her advances, she retaliates by printing vile things about him in the town paper. This effectively destroys his political career and causes him to leave town. Algeria then successfully helps to launch her husband's career so she can remain in town and cause even more trouble. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this wartime drama, an American officer is accused of secretly working as an SS man. Though all evidence is against the officer, one Army prosecutor is not convinced of the man's guilt and begins working to prove his innocence. He is assisted by a beautiful woman who knows the defendant is innocent. Along the way the lawyer and the woman must endure constant assaults and accusations of treachery, but in the end they prevail. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Screen Guild's Killer Dill trods a comedy path previously taken by such films as Mr. Lemon of Orange and The Whole Town's Talking. Stuart Erwin stars as Johnny Dill, milquetoast door-to-door salesman who happens to be the exact double of a notorious Prohibition gangster. When the bad guy murders a rival, poor Dill is really in a pickle. Our hero finds himself stuck between the forces of good, represented by crusading attorney Allen (Frank Albertson), and the minions of evil, played by such veteran movie heavies as Mike Mazurki, Anthony Warde and Ben Welden. Erwin's well-thought-out performance helps to cover the gaping story holes and logic gaps. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

James Thurber wasn't too happy with the Sam Goldwyn film adaptation of his 1939 short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but the Technicolor musical comedy proved to be a cash cow at the box office. Danny Kaye stars as Walter, a milquetoast proofreader for a magazine publishing firm. Walter is constitutionally incapable of standing up for himself, which is why his mother (Fay Bainter) has been able to arrange a frightful marriage between her son and the beautiful but overbearing Gertrude Griswold (Ann Rutherford). As he muses over the lurid covers of the magazines put out by his firm, Walter retreats into his fantasy world, where he is heroic, poised, self-assured, and the master of his fate. Glancing at the cover of a western periodical, Walter fancies himself the two-gun "Perth Amboy Kid"; a war magazine prompts Walter to envision himself as a fearless RAF pilot; and so on. Throughout all his imaginary adventures, a gorgeous mystery woman weaves in an out of the proceedings. Imagine Walter's surprise when his dream girl shows up in the flesh in the person of Rosalind van Horn (Virginia Mayo). The girl is being pursued by a gang of jewel thieves headed by Dr. Hugo Hollingshead (Boris Karloff), a clever psychiatrist who manages to convince Walter that he's simply imagining things again, and that Rosalind never existed. At long last, Walter vows to live his life in the "now" rather than in the recesses of his mind: he rescues Rosalind from the gang's clutches, tells his mother and Gertrude where to get off, and fast-talks his way into a better position with the publishing firm. Substituting the usual Danny Kaye zaniness for James Thurber's whimsy, Secret Life of Walter Mitty works best during the production numbers, especially Kaye's signature tune "Anatole of Paris." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After a beauty parlor makeover, a housewife (Dorothy Granger), has a chance encounter with her husband's identical twin brother. Because she's never met the twin brother, she mistakes his behavior for infidelity by her husband and begins plotting divorce. Leon Errol plays the twins in this routine comedy short. ~ Richard Gilliam, Rovi

The Runaround is a game attempt to return to the "screwball comedy" genre so popular in the 1930s. Rival detectives Kildane (Rod Cameron) and Prentice (Broderick Crawford) are hired simultaneously by millionaire Norman Hampton (Samuel J. Hinds). Their client informs the two gumshoes that he has a daughter named Penelope (Ella Raines) who has run off to get married, and he wants her back. After a chase extended from New York to San Francisco, Kildane manages to get the better of Prentice and catches with to Penelope. The two antagonists then embark on a riotous cross-country tug-of-war, with poor Penelope in the middle. Only upon returning to New York with Penelope does Kildane discover that he's been deliberately sent on the wrong track by Hampton, whose interest in the heroine-who isn't all that she seems--is anything but paternal. Throughout The Runaround, Ella Raines seems far too intelligent to be involved in the silly goings-on, and thoroughly undeserving of the rather rough treatment afforded her by her two leading men. Even so, the film is a pleasant diversion, with a satisfying (if not altogether logical) conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With an ingenious script by Roy Chanslor, this modest, but imaginative film noir is notable for the strong performance by lead actor Dan Duryea Alcoholic musician Martin Blair (Duryea) becomes the prime suspect when his cheating wife is murdered, until it is determined that he was "sleeping one off" at the time of the killing. Another man (John Phillips), who was being blackmailed by the murdered woman, is sent to prison for the crime. The condemned man's wife (June Vincent) believes in her husband's innocence and sets about to prove it, enlisting the aid of Blair, who has flashes of memory about the night of the crime. Recalling that he saw a stranger leave his wife's apartment, Blair endeavors to track down this stranger. The real murderer is revealed in the film's last moments...to everyone's surprise, including the guilty party! Black Angel was based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich. Normally assigned to villainous roles, Dan Duryea gives a surprisingly impressive performance as an affectingly romantic character and is by far the most interesting and sympathetic character in the film. His performance makes the plot twist at the end, both startling and believable. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this western, a dreamy young woman, tired of her boring life and job travels to an abandoned town where her grandmother had been a notorious dancehall queen. There she imagines scenes from her illustrious grandma's life. The dream takes up most of the picture and during it, the gal meets many fascinating characters. One of those characters is a clean-cut, handsome cowboy. Romance ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi