Jane Greer Movies

During the Korean War, Frank Fletcher, late husband of mystery writer Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), was forced to bail out of the "Dixie Damsel", a crippled C97 cargo plane. Now, 36 years later, the wreckage of the "Dixie Damsel" has been found--with the remains of a murdered man inside! An Air Force inquiry is established to determine if Frank Fletcher had committed murder, prompting Jessica to team up with her old friend, retired pilot Lee Goddard (Dale Robertson), to clear her husband's name and find out what really happened. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Billie is a screen version of Ronald Alexander's perennial stage favorite Time Out For Ginger. Patty Duke plays a tomboyish high schooler who excels in athletics but who continues to strike out socially. Jim Backus and Jane Greer perform yeoman service as Duke's parents, who wonder how long it's going to be before their daughter stops trying to be their son. Backus is particularly concerned because he's running for mayor on a platform of "male supremacy" (this is 1965, remember?). From time to time, Duke expresses her frustration in song: her big number finds her holding her gym shoes in one hand, a bottle of perfume in the other. Warren Berlinger also stars as Duke's long-suffering boyfriend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Film noir icon Jane Greer guest-stars as Julia Burnette, a hard-shelled Virginia City saloon owner. Despite Julia's checkered past, Little Joe Cartwright is smitten by her beauty and charm. Ignoring the admonitions of his father and brothers, Joe falls in love with the much older woman. Written by Al C. Ward, "The Julia Bulette Story" first aired on October 17, 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Every so often, the prestigious 1950s CBS anthology Playhouse 90 would digress from its "live" format and offer a sumptuously produced film presentation. One of these was the suspenseful 1958 offering No Time at All, a fascinating precursor to the Airport films of the 1970s. On a routine night flight from Miami to New York, an airliner loaded with passengers is suddenly plunged into darkness due to an electrical failure. Losing contact with the plane, the ground crew in New York worries that all on board may be lost--especially since the weather has turned ugly. In a brilliant dramatic device, the viewer never sees the plane in flight nor its passengers and crew: Instead, the play stays on solid land, concentrating on the reactions of the friends and families of those on board. This Playhouse 90 entry boasts perhaps the most impressive cast ever assembled for the series, among them dramatic actors Bill Lundigan, Jane Greer, Betsy Palmer, Sylvia Sidney and Keenan Wynn; comedians Buster Keaton, Chico Marx (with a Jewish accent), and Harry Einstein (aka "Parkyakarkus", and the father of contemporary comic actors Bob Einstein and Albert Brooks); and musical-comedy favorites Jack Haley (in a rare unsympathetic role) and Cliff Edwards (the voice of Jiminy Cricket in the 1940 cartoon feature Pinocchio). Also seen in the supporting cast is an up-and-coming young player named Charles Bronson, here cast as a sentimental boxer; and "Floyd the Barber" himself, Howard McNear--who, indirectly, is the hero of the piece. Long considered a "lost" film, No Time at All was made available on the home-video market in the early years of the 21st century, complete with the original commercials and a preview of the next week's Playhouse 90. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in Mexico, Run for the Sun was the second official remake of Richard Connell's classic suspense yarn The Most Dangerous Game. This time, Trevor Howard stars as Browne, the wealthy hermit who thrives on hunting down human beings like wild animals. As a means of updating the story, Howard is transformed into a British traitor, hiding in the Mexican jungle with his wartime compatriots, Nazis Van Anders (Peter Van Eyck) and Jan (Carlos Henning). When their plane is forced to land in Browne's domain, Mike Latimer (Richard Widmark) and Katy Conners (Jane Greer) are captured by the villains. Browne offers his captives an hour's head-start to freedom, then sics his hunting dogs on the hapless pair. The rest of the film details the strenuous efforts by Latimer and Conners to escape with their lives. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This colorful musical comedy was obviously inspired by the success of Broadway's South Pacific. Army Captain Bill Willoby (William Lundigan) is ordered to make sure that his men do not fraternize with the girls at a South Sea island base. His mission is forgotten when he himself falls in love with Diana Forrester (Jane Greer), the daughter of a local missionary. The fun begins when a native girl (Mitzi Gaynor) is offered to the captain as a goodwill gift by island chieftain Jilouili(!) Naturally, there's a major breakdown in protocol, quite similar to the one found in John Patrick's 1954 Broadway hit Teahouse of the August Moon. Featured in the cast as a woman-hungry lieutenant is Jack Paar, which is why this film got so much TV play in the 1960s. The incidental songs in Down Among the Sheltering Palms were written by Harold Arlen and Ralph Blane. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Desperate Search is a lower-echelon MGM programmer, elevated by the crisp direction of cult favorite Joseph H. Lewis. Jane Greer plays the mother of two small children who are on board an airliner which crashes. The children survive, but are stranded in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. With the help of forest ranger Keenan Wynn and bush pilot Howard Keel, Greer launches an agonizing all-points search for the missing children. Desperate Search was an entertaining and efficient means for MGM to keep its contract players busy at minimum cost. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gary Cooper stars in this broad naval farce, directed by Henry Hathaway and based upon a John W. Hazard New Yorker magazine story. Cooper plays Lieutenant John Harkness, a wet-behind-the ears naval lieutenant who is given command of his first ship. Unfortunately, not only is Harkness new to commanding a naval vessel, but the crew and his subordinate officers are also new at their jobs. Only two old deck hands know the score. And, while Harkness is trying to figure out naval protocol, he also has to deal with the contraption in the engine room, which turns out to be an elaborate steam engine that powers the ship. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In the RKO swashbuckler Sinbad the Sailor, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. nostalgically emulates his famous father. The first seven voyages of Sinbad have come and gone: now he is on an eighth mission, in search of the island where Alexander the Great allegedly hid his treasure. Participants in the proceedings are the incredibly gorgeous Maureen O'Hara as a feisty princess, Walter Slezak as a duplicitous green-skinned barber, George Tobias and Mike Mazurki as two of Sinbad's faithful seamen, and Anthony Quinn as the villain of villains, who meets a suitably fiery demise. If the plot seems well nigh impossible to follow at times, you can always wallow in the splendiferous Technicolor and the eye-popping stunt work of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (and, it must be admitted, his uncredited stunt double). Budgeted at nearly $3 million, Sinbad the Sailor was one of the few postwar RKO flicks to post a profit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With Tim Holt still in military service and Robert Mitchum promoted to "A" pictures, RKO Radio attempted to create a new B-western star in the form of James Warren, who starred in three sagebrushers over a three-year period. Warren's second RKO effort was Sunset Pass, a remake of an oft-filmed Zane Grey story. The star is cast as Rocky, a railway express officer assigned to break up a train-robbery gang operating on the Arizona border. John Laurenz plays Rocky's Spanish-Irish sidekick Chito Rafferty, a role later assigned to Richard Martin in the Tim Holt series. One of the film's two heroines is played by Jane Greer, who unlike James Warren was destined for bigger things at RKO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dick Tracy, Detective (originally just Dick Tracy) was the first of four RKO Radio B-pictures based on Chester Gould's classic comic strip. Though Ralph Byrd is most closely associated with the role of Tracy, the title character is played herein by Morgan Conway (Byrd would be seen as Tracy in the last two series entries). The jut-jawed detective takes on a vicious criminal named Splitface (Mike Mazurki), who upon escaping from jail vows to murder the jurors who found him guilty and their alternates. He manages to knock off three before the police force figures out what's happening. Galvanized into action, Dick Tracy and his partner Pat Patton (Lyle Latell) track Splitface to a deserted riverboat (a leftover set from the 1945 RKO feature Man Alive) where the villain is holding Tracy's girlfriend Tess Truehart (Anne Jeffreys) and adopted son Junior (Mickey Kuhn) captive. When asked about Dick Tracy Detective in 1990, Anne Jeffreys flatly denied she'd ever played Tess Trueheart until she caught up with the film on videotape. She'd completely forgotten the whole experience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A journalist for a popular travel magazine goes looking for interesting stories in Latin America and finds love instead in this colorful musical. The love angle comes from her fiance who lives there, and from the dashing photographer who accompanies her. Included are many South American acts including flamenco dancers Rosario and Antonio. Songs include: "Ba-Ba-Lu" (Bob Russell, Marguerita Lecuna), "Stars in Your Eyes", "La Morine de Mi Copla" (Gabriel Ruiz, Mort Greene), "Rhumba Matumba" (Bobby Collazo, Greene), "Guadalajara" (Pepe Guizar, Greene), "Negra Leona" (A. Fernandez, Greene), and "Baramba" (Margarita Lecuona, Greene). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A remake of Jacques Tourneur's noir classic Out of the Past (1947), in this version a labyrinthine web of corruption touches on the world of pro football. When an injury-riddled body causes pro football player Terry Brogan (Jeff Bridges) to be cut by his team, Jake Wise (James Woods), a shady gambler friend, hires him to locate his spoiled, erratic girlfriend Jessie (Rachel Ward). Terry's attempt to glean Jessie's whereabouts from the girl's coldly aristocratic mother (Jane Greer) leads to a lucrative counteroffer to keep Jessie away from Jake if he finds her. After refusing, Terry heads for scenic Cozumel, where he eventually runs down the stunning young woman. A mutual attraction quickly develops and the pair are less than eager to return to California. Painfully, Terry tells Jessie about his involvement in a betting scandal which has put him under Jake's control. Meanwhile Jake, who is angered by the delay, senses that something is going on, and sends Terry's conditioning coach, Sully (Alex Karras), to find the couple. When he finally locates them, sweatily making love in a Mayan temple, tragedy ensues, spinning the ill-fated Terry into a world of boundless deceit and corruption. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide