Lew Hearn Movies
- 1954
The inspirational story of the famed basketball tricksters The Harlem Globetrotters is chronicled in this drama. The Trotters began in the 1920s when a manager catches a group of talented players on the basketball court. He becomes obsessed with getting these young black men the recognition he feels they deserve. He gathers them together as a team and they begin barnstorming a series of small towns. The film's climax takes on overtones of the Civil Rights Movement when it depicts a major game between them and an all-white team of champions. The Globetrotters beat the tar out of their opponents. One of the main storylines concerns the friendship between Saperstein and his wife, and player Inman Jackson and his wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dane Clark, Patricia Breslin, (more)
- 1947
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now is the heavily laundered musical biopic of sentimental songwriter Joe E. Howard. As played by Mark Stevens (whose singing voice was dubbed by Buddy Clark), Howard is a humble 19th century organ salesman who rises to Broadway fame as the composer of maudlin ballads like "What's the Use of Dreaming" and jaunty ditties like "Hello My Baby". Along the way, he enjoys several romantic interludes, but it is fresh-faced American chorine Katie (top-billed June Haver) who lands Howard as her hubby. In real life, Joe E. Howard, who lived well into his eighties, was married several times; he was also a notorious "lifter" who regularly claimed credit for songs he never wrote (including this film's title tune!) But producer George Jessel chooses not to let the facts get in the way of a good story, maintaining a policy established by his earlier The Dolly Sisters and sustained through such subsequent musical life stories as Oh, You Beautiful Doll The I Don't Care Girl. Singer/dancer/director Gene Nelson makes his screen debut as Tommy Yale. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lenore Aubert, Truman Bradley, (more)
- 1946
Writer/director Ben Hecht brings "art" to the artless environs of Republic Pictures in the one-of-a-kind melodrama Spectre of the Rose. The film is set in the rarefied world of the Ballet, featuring a curious blend of ballet artists and veteran Hollywood character actors. Ivan Kirov plays Andre Sanine, a dancer who goes insane every time he hears the music for "Spectre de la Rose". Ballerina Haidi (Violet Kessen), convinced that she can cure Andre of his mental aberration, marries him, despite rumors that he has murdered his first wife. All goes well until Andre is once more compelled to perform "Spectre de la Rose"?and then??Ivan Kirov and Violet Kessen are far more accomplished as dancers than as actors, though Kirov is slightly better than his costar. More at home in the histrionics deparment are Judith Anderson as a patroness of the arts, Michael Chekhov as an apoplectic dance impresario, and Lionel Stander as a Greenwich village poet--all quite adept at mouthing Ben Hecht's eloquent witticisms, of which there are dozens. Spectre of the Rose clearly wasn't designed to please everyone; lovers of the ballet and Hecht aficionados will probably best appreciate the film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Judith Anderson, Michael Chekhov, (more)
- 1943
Though Wendy Barrie never quite achieved stardom in A pictures, she could always count on top billing in Hollywood's B product. In PRC's Follies Girl, Barrie plays dress designer Anne Merriday, who becomes the object of middle-aged millionaire J. B. Hamlin's (J.C. Nugent) affections. To save his dad from throwing his life away on a supposed golddigger, Hamlin's son, Army private Jerry Hamlin (Gordon Oliver), begins courting Anne-and, of course, falls genuinely in love with her himself. Meanwhile, the rogueish J.B. tries to mount a Broadway burlesque show, with costumes designed by Our Heroine. The titular "Follies Girl" is burlesque queen Francine La Rue (Doris Nolan), who never strips when singing will do (worse luck for the male moviegoers of the era!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wendy Barrie, Doris Nolan, (more)
International Crime is the second of two Grand National programmers inspired by the popular "Shadow" pulp novels by Maxwell Grant. Rod La Rocque plays Lamont Cranston, famed criminologist and (in this film at least) radio crime reporter. This time around Cranston does not "cloud men's minds" hypnotically to become the invisible Shadow: he remains fully visible from beginning to end, with nary a clouded mind in sight. In attempting to solve the murder of a wealthy financier, Cranston exposes a gang of foreign saboteurs. Based on the story "The Fox Hound" by Ted Tinsley (not Maxwell Grant, as the credits claim), International Crime includes several of the supporting characters from the "Shadow" pulps. However, the heroine (Astrid Allwyn) is Phoebe Lane, not Margot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rod La Rocque, Astrid Allwyn, (more)
- 1930
Silent-screen comedian Harry Langdon was the darling of the critics in 1927, but his career quickly lost momentum, and by the time talkies came in, Langdon was considered a has-been, reduced to starring in 2-reelers for comedy producer Hal Roach. In 1930, he made a feature-film comeback bid in a brace of unsuccessful films, the first which was Universal's See America Thirst. Harry and Slim Summerville play Wally and Slim, a couple of dumb lummoxes who are mistaken for underworld hit men by prohibition gangster Spumoni (played by Capone look-alike Stanley Fields). Sent to wipe out a rival gang, our heroes end up dangling precariously from the mouth of a WWI cannon, perched atop a high-rise apartment. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon, George "Slim" Summerville, (more)
- 1930
This is the original German-language version of the early-talkie Warner Bros. drama The Royal Box. Based on the Alexandre Dumas stageplay Kean, the plot concentrates on famed 19th-century British thespian Edmund Kean and his clandestine romance with Countess Toerek, the paramour of the Prince of Wales. The near-surrealist conclusion finds Kean going crazy during a performance of Hamlet, revealing his secret affair with the Countess for all to hear -- including the Prince. Alexander Moissi stars as Kean, with Camilla Horn as his true love Alice, Elsa Ersi as the Countess, and William F. Schoeller as the Prince; also on hand in a bit part is the great Sig Rumann. The simultaneously-filmed English version of The Royal Box was briefly released to television in the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Camilla Horn, Lew Hearn, (more)
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