Lumsden Hare Movies

In the first episode of Walt Disney's two-part miniseries Moochie of Pop Warner Football, diminutive Moochie Morgan (Kevin Corcoran) has put baseball aside to concentrate on the gridiron. Alas, in order to meet the 60-pound weight requirement to join Pop Warner Football League, Moochie must gain five pounds. Should he fail, he'd be forced to play in the Peewee league -- and their current isn't a team for that league in his small town. Then another crisis develops, this one of a political nature. "The Peewees vs. City Hall" originally aired as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology and was later serialized on the syndicated version of The Mickey Mouse Club. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This routine drama is helped by good acting and well-known stars like Rossano Brazzi as an unfaithful French husband, Deborah Kerr as his faithful English wife, and Maurice Chevalier as the uncle who goes to bat for his nephew's loosely held views of marriage. What does not help the story is the viewpoint that the husband is right and deserves to be forgiven. The setting starts out during World War II when Charles-Edouard (Brazzi), an air force pilot, falls in love with Grace (Kerr), the daughter of an English parliamentarian. The two marry and Grace gives birth to their son Sigi (Martin Stephens) nine months later. Nine years later, Grace discovers that her husband has cultivated a string of paramours when he was a war-zone pilot in Southeast Asia and North Africa. The two argue and split. And while Sigi at first appreciates the added attention he gets during the turmoil, he later has his doubts. Between his actions and Charles-Edouard's uncle, Grace does not stand a chance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This Walt Disney filmization of Esther Forbes' Revolutionary-War novel Johnny Tremain was appropriately released on July 4, 1957. New Disney discovery Hal Stalmaster plays the title character, an apprentice silversmith in 1773 Boston. An on-the-job injury prevents Johnny from finding a job, but he is welcomed with open arms at the headquarters of the Revolution. After standing trial on a trumped-up robbery charge brought about by British sympathizer Jonathan Lyte (Sebastian Cabot), Johnny is set free, whereupon he joins the Sons of Liberty during their execution of the Boston Tea Party. Later on, General Gage (Ralph Clanton), the officer in charge of the colonies, does his best to stem the activities of the Sons of the Liberty without resorting to violence but this becomes a moot point after the battle of Lexington Green. If the storyline of Johnny Tremain seems to be divided into two even halves, it is because the film was originally intended as a two-part installment of the Disneyland TV anthology. As it turned out, the film did receive TV exposure on Walt Disney Presents, divided (as planned) into two segments: "The Boston Tea Party" (first telecast November 21, 1958) and "The Shot That Was Heard Around the World" (December 5, 1958). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Roundly panned when it was first released, this CinemaScope film version of Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman can now be enjoyed on a "high camp" level. George Sanders plays King Richard the Lionhearted, while his arch-foe Saladin is over-acted by Rex Harrison. One of Richard's objectives during the Crusades is to reclaim the Holy Grail from Saladin's Mohammedan hordes. On the home front, Richard must contend with a group of conspirators dedicated to toppling him from his throne. In the middle of all this is the fictional Lady Edith,a British noblewoman played by Virginia Mayo in a manner that can best be described as overbaked. It is Ms. Mayo who delivers the film's classic line "Oh, fight, fight, fight! That's all you ever think of, Dickie Plantagenet!" In his American film debut, Laurence Harvey is as hammy as the rest of the cast as Sir Kenneth, Richard's right-hand man. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This costume drama was based on the historical fiction of Margaret Irwin, which embellishes the facts of the early years of England's eventual Queen Elizabeth I. It's told in flashback style, starting with the horrible day when King Henry VIII (Charles Laughton) sends away the future queen, young Bess (Jean Simmons), and executes her mother, Anne Boleyn (Elaine Stewart). Some years and several wives later, Henry VIII invites Bess to return to the palace to live with Catherine Parr (Deborah Kerr), her new stepmother. When the king dies, Bess' young half-brother, Edward (Rex Thompson), assumes the title of regent. Bess falls in love with the Navy's top admiral, Thomas Seymour (Stewart Granger), but has her brother compel him to marry Catherine. After Catherine dies, Thomas confesses his love to Bess. But his scheming brother Ned (Guy Rolfe) finds out about Thomas' feelings and accuses him of seducing Bess. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

When undercover secret agent Tyrone Power is thwarted in his efforts to obtain a vital document with details of the Russian invasion of Yugoslavia by the death of the courier at the hands of two Russian agents, played by Mario Siletti and Charles Buchinski (aka Charles Bronson), it becomes his duty to go after the murderers and retrieve the papers. With more loops and turnabouts than a snake, the plot has surprises with agents, double agents, mistaken information and is, all in all, a surprisingly exciting spy vehicle. Michael Ansara and Lee Marvin also make brief appearances in this early cold war story. A script with a lot of holes in it is pulled off by the fine performances and tight direction given in this film. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

The Desert Fox is a superb filmed biography of German general Erwin Rommel, concentrating on the period between his retreat from North Africa and his government-decreed death. A brilliant tactician, Rommel earns the respect not only of his own men but of the enemy. Unfortunately, Adolph Hitler (Luther Adler), laboring under the delusion that he too is a military genius, demands more of Rommel than he's able to provide. Ordered to stand his ground in Africa to the last man, Rommel realizes that it's more intelligent in the long run to retreat; this incurs Hitler's wrath, but Rommel is a war hero, and as such is virtually "untouchable". Increasingly disgusted by Hitler's behavior, Rommel joins in a plot to assassinate the Fuhrer. The attempt fails, and Rommel's complicity is discovered. He is given a choice: either face a horrible death by torture, or commit suicide, thereby saving his family and his reputation. Rommel opts for the latter; the official story given to the press is that Rommel died heroically of his war wounds. Also appearing in The Desert Fox are Jessica Tandy as Rommel's wife and Leo G. Carroll as an insufferably aristocratic Von Ruhnstedt. The film caused a critical stir in 1951 by providing a tense ten-minute dramatic sequence before the opening credits--a technique that is all but de rigueur today. The Desert Fox was based on the book by Brigadier Desmond Young, who narrates the film and appears as himself in the early scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though usually associated with westerns, Columbia producer Harry Joe Brown proved to be up to the challenge of producing a satisfactory swashbuckler with Fortunes of Captain Blood. Based loosely on the same Rafael Sabatini novel which served as the inspiration for the 1935 Errol Flynn vehicle Captain Blood, the film stars Louis Hayward as Irish doctor Peter Blood, who is exiled from England after treating the wounds of an enemy to the crown. Blood and several other outcasts turn to piracy, terrorizing merchant vessels of all nationalities. Dogging Captain Blood's trail is the heavy of the piece, the Marquis de Riconete (George Macready). Also appearing are Patricia Medina (Columbia's stock costume-drama heroine) as the marquis' niece, and Alfonso Bedoya (immortalized as the Mexican bandit Gold Hat in Treasure of the Sierra Madre) as a sadistic prison overseer. The battle scenes in Fortunes of Captain Blood would be cannibalized time and again over the next few years by quickie-flick producer Sam Katzman. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though one might have expected friction between MGM's resident "nice lady" Greer Garson and Warner Bros. notorious "bad boy" Errol Flynn, the two got along splendidly during the filming of That Forsyte Woman. Based loosely on The Man of Property, book one of John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga, the film casts Garson as Irene Forsyte, the independently-minded wife of tradition-bound Victorian "man of property" Soames Forsyte (Flynn). Rebelling against her husband's repressed nature and preoccupation with material possessions, Irene falls in love with unconventional architect Philip Bossiney (Robert Young). When he proves to be too free-spirited even for her, Irene moves on to the Forsyte clan's black sheep, Young Jolyon (Walter Pidgeon). Soames makes a belated attempt to win his wife back, but once again proves incapable of warmth, compassion or understanding. The casting-against-type of Garson and Flynn was fascinating, even when the film itself dragged (Flynn in fact was slated to play either Bossiney or Young Jolyon, but insisted upon taking the less characteristic role of Soames). That Forstye Woman was lavishly photographed in color on MGM's standing "British" sets. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this lively adventure, a daring Irish leader tires to keep Napoleon from invading Ireland. The hero, in every way a swashbuckler, journeys to his recently inherited castle where he saves a fair lassie the Viceroy's daughter, from highwaymen. He then gets involved in many exciting and hair-raising exploits as he saves his beloved Erin from an evil conspiracy precipitated by the Viceroy's assistant who is secretly in league with Napoleon. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

MGM's Lassie series was declining in popularity by 1948, so the studio decided to release its latest adventure of the famous collie as Hills of Home, so that non-Lassie fans might be inveigled into entering the theatre. Actually, Hills is one of the best entries in the series, due in no small part to the engaging performance by Edmund Gwenn. Playing a Scottish doctor, Gwenn adopts Lassie, who in this film has an unnatural aversion to water; she'll drink it, but won't swim in it. Gwenn spends most of the film trying to cure Lassie of her fears, but she remains water-shy until Gwenn's life is put in danger and the dog is forced to dive into a raving river. The doctor dies as the result of the ordeal, but not before beneficently passing on Lassie's ownership to romantic leads Janet Leigh and Tom Drake. Lensed in restful Technicolor, Hills of Home was based on Ian McClaren's Doctor of the Old School, which had previously been filmed without Lassie in 1923. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

It Happened in Brooklyn was released at a time when the mere mention of the eponymous New York borough elicited loud laughter and extended applause. Frank Sinatra stars as ex-GI Danny Webson Miller, who makes a sentimental journey to the Brooklyn neighborhood where he grew up. Danny moves in with an old pal, high school janitor Nick Lombardi (Jimmy Durante), then inaugurates a romance with music teacher Anne Fielding. He also resolves to turn stuffy uptowner Jamie Shelgrave (Peter Lawford) into a true "son of Flatbush." The plot thickens when Jamie himself falls for Anne and when Danny tries to secure a scholarship for Anne's prize pupil, Nick's granddaughter Rae (Marcy McGuire). Since MGM was giving Peter Lawford the big build-up, it is Jamie who ultimately wins Anne's heart, but Danny finds consolation with an old "goil friend" (Gloria Grahame). Musical highlights include Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Durante's imitations of one another in "The Song's Gotta Come From the Heart" and Sinatra's rendition of the standard-to-be "Time After Time". ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi