Signe Hasso Movies

This wartime weeper could just as well have been titled Stardom for Margaret, inasmuch as it solidified the popularity of that remarkable child actress Margaret O'Brien. While visiting London, American married couple Robert Young and Laraine Day are caught in the middle of the 1940 blitz. Losing her unborn child during the bombing, Day sadly heads back to the U.S., while her journalist husband stays behind to cover late-breaking events. Young makes the acquaintance of O'Brien and Clifford Severn, children orphaned by the blitz. After pulling the shell-shocked O'Brien out of her near-catatonic state, Young decides to adopt both children and take them back to his wife in the States. There are some tense moments as Young tilts at the stepped-up immigration restrictions, but he is finally able to bring his new family home. Journey for Margaret stars Robert Young and Margaret O'Brien would be reunited two decades later on an episode of Young's TV series Marcus Welby MD, in which Ms. O'Brien played a patient suffering from obesity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On the day of his death in 1943, the spirit of Henry Van Cleave (Don Ameche) obligingly heads for the place where so many people had previously told him to go. The immaculately dressed septuagenarian arrives at the outer offices of Hades, where he is greeted by His Excellency (Laird Cregar), the most courteous and gentlemanly Satan in screen history. His Excellency doubts that Van Cleave has sinned enough to qualify for entrance into Hades, but Henry insists that he's led the most wicked of lives, and proceeds to tell his story. Each milestone of Henry's life, it seems, has occurred on one of his birthdays. Upon reaching 15, Henry (played as a teenager by Dickie Moore) naively permits himself to get drunk with and be seduced by his family's French maid (Signe Hasso). At 21, Henry elopes with lovely Martha Strabel (Gene Tierney) stealing her away from her stuffy fiance Albert Van Cleve (Allyn Joslyn), Henry's cousin. At 31, Henry nearly loses Martha when, weary of his harmless extracurricular flirtations, she goes home to her boorish parents (Eugene Pallette and Marjorie Main). Henry's grandpa (Charles Coburn) orders the errant husband not to let so wonderful a girl as Martha get away from him. Henry once more declares his love to Martha, and she can't help but be touched by his boyish sincerity. Twenty years later, Henry, now a faithful and proper husband and father, attempts to charm a beautiful musical-comedy entertainer (Helen Walker) so that she'll forsake his young and impressionable son. But Henry's gay-90s romantic approach is out of touch with the Roaring 20s, and he ends up paying the entertainer a tidy sum to rescue his son--a fact that amuses Henry's understanding wife Martha, who now knows that her husband is hers and hers alone. Ten more years pass: Henry dances a last waltz with Martha, whose loving smile hides the fact that she knows she hasn't much longer to live. Five years later, it is "foxy grandpa" Henry who must be kept in check by his conservative son Jack (Michael Ames). Finally, it is 1943: as he quietly drinks in the loveliness of his night nurse (Doris Merrick), the bedridden Henry contentedly breathes his last. His story told, Henry once again asks to be permitted to enter Hades. But His Excellency, realizing that the only "sin" Henry has truly committed is attempting to live life to the fullest, quietly replies "If you'll forgive me, Mr. Van Cleave, we just don't want your kind down here." While he allows that Henry may have some trouble getting past the Pearly Gates, the wait will be worth it, since his loving wife Martha will be waiting for him. His Excellency cordially escorts Henry to the elevator, giving the operator a one-word instruction: "Up." A charming delight from first frame to last, Heaven Can Wait is another winner from director Ernst Lubitsch, and his first in Technicolor. Samson Raphaelson's screenplay was based on Birthdays, a play by Laslo Bus-Fekete. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The genesis of The Story of Dr. Wassell is said to have been a story told by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to director Cecil B. DeMille. Gary Cooper stars as Corydon M. Wassell, a real-life country doctor from Arkansas who worked as a medical missionary in China in the years prior to WWII. When America enters the war, Dr. Wassell joins the Navy and is shipped to Java. As the Japanese overtake the island, Wassell is placed in charge of the wounded evacuated marines. Ordered to leave the area immediately, the doctor disobeys his commands, staying behind to care for ten seriously wounded men from the USS Marblehead, even as Japanese bombs rain down upon his staff. With the help of other stranded allied troops, Wassell and his wounded make it to Australia, where despite his insubordination he is lauded as a hero. Not as much of a spectacular as earlier DeMille films, The Story of Dr. Wassell concentrates on personalities, with mixed results. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No relation to the later Shelley Fabares song hit of the same name, RKO Radio's Johnny Angel was adapted by Steve Fisher and Frank Gruber from a short story by Charles Gordon Booth. In one of his better performances, George Raft plays sea captain Johnny Angel, who doggedly pursues the no-good rats who murdered his father and swiped a shipment of gold bullion. Along the way, Johnny crosses paths (and words) with Lilah (Claire Trevor), the faithless wife of his boss, and French stowaway Paulette (Signe Hasso), apparently the only witness to the murder-hijacking. Aiding and abetting Johnny is philosophical cab driver Celestial O'Brien, engagingly played by songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Considered a second-echelon effort by RKO, Johnny Angel proved to be a surprise hit, toting up a box-office take of $1,192,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Scandal in Paris is a liberal adaptation of the life story of Eugène François Vidocq, who was French prefect of police during the Napoleonic era. George Sanders stars as Vidocq, who spends most of the film as an aimless rogue willing to lie, cheat, and steal for his own comfort. The women who affect Vidocq's life include a saucy cabaret entertainer (Carole Landis) for whom Vidocq steals, and a good woman (Signe Hasso) for whom he straightens himself out. Fledgling director Douglas Sirk displayed his love of the Baroque (both in decor and characterizations) that would distinguish his later high-budget Universal soap operas. Most prints of A Scandal in Paris bear the film's alternate title, Thieves' Holiday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bearing traces of such earlier hits as My Favorite Blonde and The Ghost Breakers, Where There's Life is one of the best of Bob Hope's postwar vehicles. The inimitable Mr. Hope is cast as New York radio personality Michael Valentine, who's poised to marry his long-time fiancee Hazel O'Brien (Vera Marshe). But destiny takes a hand when, in the far-off kingdom of Barovia, King Hubertus II (William Edmunds) is felled by an assassin's bullet. To avoid a revolution, the King's cabinet hurriedly searches for Hubertus' sole heir -- who, according to all reliable sources, is one Michael Valentine. Gorgeous General Katrina Grimovich (Signe Hasso) is dispatched to New York to bring Valentine back to Barovia, while a group of insurrectionists, headed by Krivoc (George Coulouris) and Stertorius (George Zucco), conspire to kill Valentine before he can ever leave American soil. When Valentine is apprised of his royal lineage, he assumes that he's the victim of a practical joke perpetrated by his announcer Joe Snyder (George Zucco). Once he's convinced that it's no joke, Valentine and Katrina scurry about the streets of Manhattan, dodging potential assassins at every turn -- not to mention keeping out of the way of Hazel's muscle-bound policeman brother Victor (William Bendix), who assumes that Valentine is merely trying to weasel out of his wedding. Full of bright dialogue and hilarious gag situations, Where There's Life is vintage Bob Hope. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The relatively relaxed movie censorship in the postwar years enabled Columbia to produce To the Ends of the Earth, a film which dealt with the previously taboo subject of drug smuggling. T-man Dick Powell is sent to several foreign locales to track down an Opium ring. The villains are subversives (Red? Fascist?) who plan to take over the world by hooking everyone on the "hard stuff." The film is chock full of mysterious European and Oriental types like Vladimir Sokoloff, Ludwig Donath and Fritz Leiber; even leading lady Signe Hasso speaks with an accent, which in 1948 was enough to immediately put her under suspicion. Lending credence to this sprawling adventure yarn is the presence of several actual treasury agents in bit parts, including commissioner Harry J. Anslinger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Swiss actress Signe Hasso, who'd previously toted up several respectable Hollywood credits, improved the international marketability of Die Sonne von St. Moritz (The Sun of St. Moritz). Hasso plays Gertie Selle, the wife of a seriously ill older man. Tending to the husband's needs is Dr. Robert Frank (Karlheinz Boehm, later billed as Karl Boehm), who falls in love with Gertie. When the wife administers a fatal overdose of medicine to her husband, Dr. Frank -- correctly suspecting that she has committed murder -- elects not to report the particulars of the death. This turns out to be a big mistake later on, when Gertie attempts to blackmail the doctor. The crisis seems to end with the death of one of the principals, but in fact it's only the beginning. Die Sonne von St. Moritz is based on a novel by P. O. Hoecker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Suffering from amnesia as the result of an accident, Hoss Cartwright is nursed back to health by an elderly farm couple, Christina (Signe Hasso) and Klaas (Robert Emhardt), who have recently lost their son Hendrick. When Hoss awakens, the couple gently informs him that he is Hendrick, and must remain with them for all time. Their pathetic deception threatens to collapse when Hoss' father Ben arrives at their door, looking for his missing son. Written by William Stuart, "A Stranger Passed This Way" first aired on March 3, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young girl is deeply traumatized after she sees her mother burned to death in a house fire and spends the rest of her youth locked in a mental hospital. By the time she is released, her father has married a nasty woman who only wants his money. Knowing that the recently returned daughter is mentally unstable, the stepmom does all she can to drive the fragile girl over the edge. Unfortunately for the conniving bride, things don't quite turn out as planned. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In A Reflection of Fear a young woman, Marguerite (Sondra Locke), cloistered in a turn-of-the-century Victorian dream-world by her mother, vies for the attention of her visiting dad, Michael (Robert Shaw), both conventionally and sexually, in hopes that she'll get to live with him. Her plans are complicated by a series of murders that may or may not be by Marguerite or her eerie life-size doll Aaron. The perpetrator moves around the estate through secret passageways. The first victims are Marguerite 's mother and grandma. While the investigation is under way, a local boy tries to woo the girl, but whenever he gets too close, the girl lashes out in unpredictable ways. Meanwhile Michael's fiancée, Anne (Sally Kellerman), becomes suspicious of Marguerite and what she understandably sees as Marguerite's creepy competitions for her dad's love. Anne's initial efforts to befriend Michael's daughter turn into exasperation and disgust. As the situation spirals out of control, the long-absent father is forced to confront Marguerite 's twisted personality and upbringing. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide

The Black Bird is a satirical sequel to The Maltese Falcon. George Segal plays Sam Spade Jr., who has inherited his dad's detective agency in a seedy section of San Francisco. The ubiquitous, priceless Maltese Falcon, which eluded Bogart and company in the 1941 film, surfaces once again. This time, Spade's friends and foes include femme fatales Anna and "Decoy Girl" (Stéphane Audran and Connie Kreski), sixtysomething historian Dr. Crippen (Signe Hasso, who looks terrific), and midget villain Litvak (Felix Silla, who played Cousin Itt on the TV series The Addams Family). Gags abound, including a climactic steal from Jaws. Two of the surviving stars of The Maltese Falcon, Lee Patrick and Elisha Cook Jr., recreate their roles in The Black Bird . ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide