Jean Hagen Movies

After two weeks' pre-emption due to the 1976 Winter Olympics, Streets of San Francisco returned to ABC's Thursday schedule with a typically perplaxing case for SFPD detectives Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas). Four judges have been murdered, and in each case an obsolete pamphlet on disbarrment proceedings is found near the body. Halfway through the story, the audience discovers that the culprit is the demented son of a disbarred lawyer, who intends to get even with the "bleeding hearts" who ruined his father--but how long will it be before the Law is able to end this bizarre vendetta. Jean Hagen, best remembered as the screechy-voiced movie queen in Singin' in the Rain, makes one of her final appearances in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ray Milland both starred in and directed the morose, minimalist sci-fier Panic in the Year Zero! (original title: Panic in Year Zero!). En route from Los Angeles to a vacation in the mountains, Harry Baldwin (Milland), his wife, Ann (Jean Hagen), and his teen-aged children, Rick (Frankie Avalon) and Karen (Mary Mitchell), are appalled to see a mushroom cloud forming over the L.A. skyline. With the highways clogged by panicking motorists, Milland and his family decide to head to the shelter of their fishing spot, there to wait until more news about the nuclear disaster is available. Everywhere they drive, however, the family is confronted by rampaging looters, heavily armed survivalists, and doped-up motorcycle punks. Attempting to remain calm and collected in the face of Armageddon, Milland ends up as violent and animalistic as everyone else. Though it avoids proselytizing for the most part, Panic in the Year Zero! does fall back on the old reliable "The Beginning" fadeout title. The most powerful aspect of the film is the "normalcy" of Milland's family: we are made to feel throughout that what happens to them could very well happen to us, and how then would we react? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of only two theatrical features by television director Vincent J. Donahue, Sunrise at Campobello is a biography of President Franklin D. Roosevelt that attempts to illustrate the statesman's courageous battle against infantile paralysis and his political foes. While in the prime of his life, Roosevelt (Ralph Bellamy) is stricken with a debilitating illness that threatens to end his career. Fortunately, his wife, Eleanor (Greer Garson), faithfully helps him regain his strength and become one of America's most influential and beloved Commanders in Chief. Hume Cronyn also stars as F.D.R.'s political strategist Louis Howe, who forms a successful triumvirate with the Roosevelts. For her performance, Greer Garson received a Best Actress nomination at the 1961 Academy Awards. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Released from prison, criminal Joe Kedzie (Steven Hill) makes a beeline to an abandoned mine shaft in the desert, where he has hidden 100,000 dollars in stolen money. Hot on Joe's heels are his two cohorts, Maxie (Steve Brodie) and Madge, (Jean Hagen), who hope to claim their share of the dough -- or to knock Joe off and keep it all. There's double-crossing aplenty amongst the unholy trio throughout the rest of the episode, with only one conspirator remaining alive at the end...albeit no luckier nor richer than before. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Lou Gehrig Story stars Wendell Corey as the legendary New York Yankees first baseman. With only an hour at its disposal, the play is compelled to concentrate almost exclusively on Gehrig's losing battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The highlight of the drama is Lou's emotional farewell to his Yankee Stadium fans, which occurred July 4, 1939. Interestingly, close ups of Corey are matched up with stock footage of the real Gehrig during this climactic scene. Jean Hagen co-stars as Gehrig's supportive wife Eleanor. Originally presented live on the TV anthology Climax (the broadcast ran overtime, eliminating the closing credits-which would have billed Darren McGavin in the minor role of a hotheaded Yankee player), The Lou Gehrig Story is currently widely available in kinescope form. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Red Skelton does his best with the situation-comedy trappings of Half a Hero. A sort of poor man's Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, the story concerns one Ben Dobson (Skelton), whose wife Martha (Jean Hagen) talks him into leaving the big city and moving into a suburban housing development. Unfortunately, Ben doesn't make enough money to support his new life style, but Martha refuses to consider moving back downtown. When Ben's boss tells him to write a magazine article about the disadvantages of suburbia, Ben seizes upon the opportunity, hoping to teach his wife a lesson, and then, suddenly and improbably, our hero has a change of heart. Domestic comedy was not Red Skelton's forte, but he manages to extract a few laughs with the material at hand. Much funnier within the film's context is Kathleen Freeman as a "welcome wagon" lady and Willard Waterman as an unctuous real estate broker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Make Room for Daddy was the first modern family sitcom, although, to see it at any time since the 1960s, one would think that it was hopelessly dated. In fact, it was the most important 1950s sitcom after I Love Lucy -- and has a production history closely connected to that show -- and it spawned more than a decade's worth of hit sitcoms in its wake. Danny Thomas was the star and co-owner of the production company behind it, along with actor-turned-producer/director Sheldon Leonard. The series itself was based on Thomas' experiences as a standup comedian and father, trying to juggle a career and his responsibilities as a husband and parent. The series' original title, Make Room for Daddy, came from a phrase that Mrs. Thomas used to use on their oldest daughter, Marlo, who often slept in the master bedroom when Danny Thomas was out of town performing, reminding her to move back her own room, telling her "We must make room for daddy." As it went on the air in the fall of 1953 on ABC, Thomas portrayed Danny Williams, a New York-based standup comic and nightclub singer married to Margaret (Jean Hagen), with two children, daughter Terry (Sherry Jackson) and son Rusty (Rusty Hamer). Louise Beavers played their housekeeper, Louise; Horace McMahon played Danny's agent, Phil Arnold; Mary Wickes played Liz O'Neal, Danny's publicist; and Hans Conried played Danny's uncle Tonoose, the patriarch of Danny's Lebanese family back in Toledo, OH. Jean Hagen wanted to leave the series after three seasons and was written out of the show by having her character die of an illness.

During the 1956-1957 season (by which time the series had been renamed The Danny Thomas Show, which was what most people called it anyway), the series introduced Marjorie Lord as Kathy O'Hara, a nurse who takes care of a seriously ill Rusty; a romance was written in, and Danny Williams proposed marriage at the end of the season. The couple were married, and Kathy's daughter by a previous marriage, Linda (Angela Cartwright), joined the Williams clan as the youngest member. The following season, the series moved to CBS and opened with the Las Vegas honeymoon of Danny and Kathy, with their three children in tow. Other characters came and went, including Sid Melton as Charlie Halper, an excitable family friend and the owner of the Copa Club, where Danny was often booked, Pat Carroll and Charlie's wife Bunny, and Penny Parker, who took over the role of Terry after 1960. The series ran until 1964, and there were more than a few notable guest stars and cameo appearances, including Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy, Bill Dana, and comedy legend Joey Faye, among numerous others. Annette Funicello was also a regular on the series during the 1959 season. The theme song for the run of the show was a big band version of "Londonderry Air," also known as "Danny Boy." ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The tougher postwar screen image of James Stewart is given a good workout in the fact-based Carbine Williams. In 1952, the world at large knew Marsh Williams as the developer of the US Army's M-1 carbine rifle. The film builds up to this event by detailing Williams' previous existence as a bootlegger and embittered prison inmate, sentenced to 30 years at hard labor for killing a revenue agent. After enduring the rigors of chain-gang life and solitary confinement, Williams (Stewart) gets his mind off his troubles by dreaming up a new type of automatic-gun piston. He is encouraged in this endeavor by prison warden H. T. Peoples (Wendell Corey), previously Williams' bitterest enemy. As Williams continues to develop his innovative weaponry notions, his wife Maggie (Jean Hagen) and Warden Peoples try to overcome penal bureaucracy to win a pardon for Williams. Some TV prints of Carbine Williams have been colorized by computer; despite this artistically offensive practice, the strong dramatic and human values of the story still shine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ray Milland plays a happily married college professor whose wife and child perish in a fire. Despondent, Milland loses himself in drink, despite the efforts of his friends and fellow faculty members. He is on the verge of suicide before he is salvaged the love of Nancy Davis (who off-screen was busy becoming Nancy Reagan). Virtually plotless, Night into Morning is held together by the performance of Ray Milland and by the incisive direction of radio veteran Fletcher Markle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Farley Granger plays a casually larcenous New York City mailman who steals a shipment of money. Granger's excitement over this windfall turns to terror when he discovers that the money was part of a transaction between gangsters. Harassed by both crooks and cops, Granger lives to regret his impulsive theft--especially when it is tied in with a murder. The story is wrapped up in spectacular fashion with a climactic car chase. Farley Granger's costar in Side Street is Cathy O'Donnell; both were on loan to MGM from Samuel Goldwyn, and both were banking on their previous successful teaming in RKO's They Live By Night. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Asphalt Jungle is a brilliantly conceived and executed anatomy of a crime -- or, as director John Huston and scripter Ben Maddow put it, "a left-handed form of human endeavor." Recently paroled master criminal Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe), with funding from crooked attorney Emmerich (Louis Calhern), gathers several crooks together in Cincinnati for a Big Caper. Among those involved are Dix (Sterling Hayden), an impoverished hood who sees the upcoming jewel heist as a means to finance his dream of owning a horse farm. Hunch-backed cafe owner (James Whitmore) is hired on to be the driver for the heist; professional safecracker Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso) assembles the tools of his trade; and a bookie (Marc Lawrence) acts as Emmerich's go-between. The robbery is pulled off successfully, but an alert night watchman shoots Ciavelli. Corrupt cop (Barry Kelley), angry that his "patsy" (Lawrence) didn't let him in on the caper, beats the bookie into confessing and fingering the other criminals involved. From this point on, the meticulously planned crime falls apart with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. Way down on the cast list is Marilyn Monroe in her star-making bit as Emmerich's sexy "niece"; whenever The Asphalt Jungle would be reissued, Monroe would figure prominently in the print ads as one of the stars. The Asphalt Jungle was based on a novel by the prolific W.R. Burnett, who also wrote Little Caesar and Saint Johnson (the fictionalized life story of Wyatt Earp). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide