Maggie Hayes Movies

Leaning heavily on violence to ostensibly deliver a pacifist message, this standard drama by Philip Leacock looks at the problem of teen gangs from a slightly different angle -- these teens are all wealthy. Everything starts off when aerospace engineer Walt Sherill (Alan Ladd) is accosted and severely beaten by a group of young punks. The victimized man decides to hunt down the thugs on his own, at first just for curiosity and then increasingly for vengeance. His actions spark retaliatory measures, and before the credits roll, the body count is elevated by a few more victims in what amounts to nothing more than a blood feud. In the end, justice of the legal and politically correct sort makes a token appearance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

There are three key characters in Anatole Litvak's filmization of Aben Kandel's novel City for Conquest, as opposed to the six or more in the book -- but the real star, to a large extent, is New York City and its entire population. For purposes of the movie, however, the dramatic arc is linked to James Cagney, as honest, unpretentious truck driver Danny Kenny, whose life is involved with two other people -- his kid brother, Ed (Arthur Kennedy), a gifted musician trying to survive in the rough-and-tumble world of New York's Lower East Side, and Peggy Nash (Ann Sheridan), the neighborhood girl from the Lower East Side whom he's loved, one way or another, since he was a kid. Danny is happy doing what he does, driving a truck, but when Ed's scholarship is cut in half, he reluctantly takes an offer of a boxing match to raise the cash he needs, going into the ring under the fighting name "Young Samson." At about the same time, Peggy -- who loves to dance -- has her head turned by Murray Burns (Anthony Quinn), an ambitious but sleazy aspiring professional dancer. Eventually Peggy goes into partnership with Murray and is ultimately driven by her own ambition to leave Danny after she accepts his marriage proposal. By now, he's getting up in the boxing world, and in his bitterness over losing Peggy he accepts a bout for the world's welterweight championship. He's not overmatched as a boxer, but the money involved in this fight is just too big for it to be honest, and Danny is left all but blinded when his opponent's handlers slip resin dust onto his gloves. Danny is left seemingly a shell of a man, though he's content with his lot in life as far as it goes. He doesn't want any special attention or favors from anyone; the only thing he would like, though he's too proud to admit it, would be for Peggy to come back. But by now her dancing career with Murray has fallen apart, and she's too tortured by guilt, over the sequence of events she helped start, to come near Danny. It falls to Ed, who has never given up composing, to express the inexpressibles that each of these characters feels through his music. His first major classical work is a symphony ostensibly about New York City, which he conducts in its premiere at Carnegie Hall; but it's also about Danny and his life, and his dreams. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Margaret Hayes plays the title character in From the Desk of Margaret Tyding. A successful businesswoman, Margaret has reason to believe that someone wants to do her ill. Her suspicions are confirmed when it is discovered that somebody has been slipping her small doses of poison. The chief suspects: Margaret's loving husband and trusted assistant. First telecast in color in the spring of 1958 on TV's Matinee Theater, the 60-minute From the Desk of Margaret Tyding later resurfaced in kinescope form as part of the syndicated series Cameo Theater. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this prison drama, a remake of Caged, House of Women (1950), a pregnant woman is wrongly convicted of armed robbery. She is sentenced to five years in prison. After her child is born, the inmate is allowed to keep it. She then has three years to earn parole. If she does not, the babe will be put up for adoption. When the prison warden finds himself attracted to the woman, he makes her his personal maid. Time passes and he falls in love with her resulting in better treatment for the other prisoners. Three years pass and the woman's parole seems assured until the sadistic warden, not wanting to lose the woman he loves, decrees that she will not be paroled and that all imprisoned mothers will lose custody of their children. This harsh action spawns a bloody revolt amongst the inmates. It is the brave woman that quells the uprising. Later media coverage of the event results in her release. The warden is fired. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ladies Must Live was based on George M. Cohan's play The Hometowners, prievious filmed in 1928. Wayne Morris plays the bumpkinish Lake, who tries to prevent his millionaire pal George (George Reeves) from marrying gold-digging nightclub thrush Pat (Rosemary Lane). As it turns out, however, Pat isn't as mercenary as she seems. In fact, it is through the auspices of Pat's inventor father Halliday (Ferris Taylor) that Lake ends up in the millionaire class himself. This outdated farce served only to keep several of Warner Bros.' young contract players busy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frank Freeman Jr., son of the longtime head of Paramount Pictures, made his debut as producer with the opulent but empty Omar Khayyam. Cornel Wilde stars as the legendary Persian poet, here depicted as not only a philosopher but a scientist, politician and great lover. As the Persians gear up for war against the Byzantines, Omar occupies his time by romancing Sharain (Debra Paget), the favorite wife of the Shah (Raymond Massey). He also does his best to foil a plan by Hasani (Michael Rennie), leader of the Cult of Assassins, to murder the royal family. While many of the characters and events are based on fact, it is difficult to believe the story or the dialogue for more than ten minutes at a stretch. Singer Yma Sumac, then famous for her four-and-a-half octave vocal range, is somehow woven into the proceedings. When Omar Khayyam laid an egg at the box-office, a Hollywood wit, taking into consideration the Southern heritage of Frank Freeman Jr., assessed the results as "A loaf of bread, a bottle of coke and you-all." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) takes the case of self-made millionaire Otto Olney (John Larkin), who wants to sue art critic Colin Durant (John Larkin) for allegedly spreading rumors that the rare Gauguin painting recently purchased by Olney is a forgery. But Durant insists that he had never cast aspersions on Olney--and he offers to produce a witness, Maxine Lindsay (Erin O'Donnell), to prove his assertion. In his efforts to track down the elusive Maxine, Perry ends up in her bathroom--where Colin Durant, dead as a doornail, is taking his last shower! This episode is based on a 1962 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title neatly gives away the ending in RKO Radio's Scattergood Survives a Murder. Guy Kibbee once again stars as storekeeper Scattergood Baines, the sage of the small town of Coldriver. The story gets under way when two reclusive spinsters die under mysterious circumstances. Inasmuch the as the eccentric old ladies have left their fortune to their pet cats, Scattergood suspects that foul play was involved, with the victims' sinister housekeeper (Eily Malyon) high on the suspect list. Aiding and abetting our hero in his easygoing investigation are local newspaper editor John Archer and hotshot gal reporter Margaret Hayes (Archer, incidentally, was the father of present-day leading lady Anne Archer). Scattergood Survives a Murder was the latest in a series of B-pictures inspired by the long-running radio saga Scattergood Baines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In Preston Sturges' classic comedy of Depression-era America, filmmaker John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea), fed up with directing profitable comedies like "Ants in Your Plants of 1939," is consumed with the desire to make a serious social statement in his upcoming film, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" Unable to function in the rarefied atmosphere of Hollywood, Sullivan decides to hit the road, disguised as a tramp, and touch base with the "real" people of America. But Sullivan's studio transforms his odyssey into a publicity stunt, providing the would-be nomad with a luxury van, complete with butler (Robert Greig) and valet (Eric Blore). Advised by his servants that the poor resent having the rich intrude upon them, Sullivan escapes his retinue and continues his travels incognito. En route, he meets a down-and-out failed actress (Veronica Lake). Experiencing firsthand the scroungy existence of real-life hoboes, Sullivan returns to Hollywood full of bleeding-heart fervor. After first arranging for the girl's screen test, he heads for the railyards, intending to improve the lot of the local rail-riders and bindlestiffs by handing out ten thousand dollars in five-dollar bills. Instead, Sullivan is coldcocked by a tramp, who steals Sullivan's clothes and identification. When the tramp is run over by a speeding train, the world at large is convinced that the great John L. Sullivan is dead. Meanwhile, the dazed Sullivan, dressed like a bum with no identification on his person, is arrested and put to work on a brutal Southern chain gang. With its almost Shakespearean combination of uproarious comedy and grim tragedy, Sullivan's Travels is Sturges' masterpiece and one of the finest movies about movies ever made. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set within the popular bohemian coffee houses of the late '50s where beatniks gathered to recite poetry and perform, this sensationalistic detective drama centers upon the attempts of an insensitive police detective to catch an arrogant serial rapist, a rich young man who believes himself mentally superior and therefore beyond the law. His favorite victims are married women. When he learns that the detective is after him, the rapist targets the cop's wife. Later the poor wife discovers she's pregnant and cannot be sure who fathered her child. The film is alternatively titled This Rebel Age. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Case Against Brooklyn was based on an "expose" article by Ed Reid. Darren McGavin plays rookie cop Pete Harris, who goes undercover to help smash a Brooklyn bookie ring. The problem here as that the crooks have been bribing other cops to look the other way. As if Harris wasn't courting enough trouble by going up against his "own", he also falls in love with gambler's widow Lil Polombo (Maggie Hayes), even though he's already married to Jane Harris (Peggy McCay). Daniel B. Ullman's screenplay adheres to the facts as recorded by Ed Reid, right down to the semi-unhappy finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dashiel Hammett's The Glass Key, a tale of big-city political corruption, was first filmed in 1935, with Edward Arnold as a duplicitous political boss and George Raft as his loyal lieutenant. This 1942 remake improves on the original, especially in replacing the stolid Raft with the charismatic Alan Ladd. Brian Donlevy essays the role of the boss, who is determined to back reform candidate Moroni Olsen, despite Ladd's gut feeling that this move is a mistake. Ladd knows that Donlevy is doing a political about-face merely to get in solid with Olsen's pretty daughter Veronica Lake. It is Ladd who is left to clean up the mess when crime lord Joseph Calleila murders Olsen's wastrel son Richard Denning and pins the rap on Donlevy. As Ladd struggles to clear Donlevy's name, he falls in love with Lake--when he's not being pummeled about by Calleila's psychopathic henchman William Bendix. Far less complex than the Dashiel Hammett original (and far less damning of the American political system), The Glass Key further increased the box-office pull of Paramount's new team of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This slightly laundered remake of the 1932 courtroom classic The Mouthpiece stars George Brent as brilliant but unprincipled DA Steve Forbes, a character based on legendary lawyer William Fallon. After railroading an innocent boy into the electric chair, Forbes goes on a bender, then cynically builds up a new practice as a criminal attorney. His underhanded legal tactics cause a rift between Forbes and his idealistic younger brother Johnny (William Lundigan), despite the fact that it was Steve's income that enabled Johnny to finish law school. Angered that his brother has enabled big-time gangster J.B. Roscoe (Richard Barthelmess) to continually elude the law, Johnny turns in damning evidence to the FBI. On Roscoe's orders, Steve frames Johnny on a murder charge, but reforms his ways in the nick of time. Based on a play by Frank J. Collins, The Man Who Talked too Much was remade in 1955 as Illegal, with Edward G. Robinson in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide