Rose Hobart Movies
The daughter of a cellist with the New York Symphony, Rose Hobart's first brush with the arts was a model for several Woodstock-based artists like George Bellows. Splitting her time with her divorced parents, Hobart was educated in boarding schools all over the country. At 15, she began her stage career as a performer in the Chautaqua tent-show circuit. During the 1920s, she appeared on stage with such notables as Eva Le Gallienne, Noel Coward and Ina Claire; in 1929, she replaced Katharine Hepburn in the first Broadway staging of Death Takes a Holiday. She came to films in 1930, once again as a replacement, this time for Janet Gaynor in Frank Borzage's production of Liliom. Many of her leading lady roles were decorative but colorless (e.g. the "good" girl in 1931's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde); she became a much more fascinating screen presence when she began portraying spiteful other women, castrating wives and subtle villainesses. After 1949's Bride of Vengeance, Rose Hobart was involuntarily retired from films, the victim of the Hollywood blacklist; she spent the rest of her professional life as an acting counselor, and in 1995 -- at the age of 88 -- published her memoirs, A Steady Digression to a Fixed Point. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1998
Assembled by film historian Kevin Brownlow and narrated by actor Kenneth Branagh, this 90-minute special celebrates the classic horror films that emanated from Hollywood's Universal Studios. Beginning with such silent classics as The Phantom of the Opera and The Cat and the Canary, Universal went into full gear in the early '30s, launching such valuable properties as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, and (in the 1940s) The Wolf Man, and making stars of the "twin titans of terror," Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. The studio maintained its horror quota well into the 1950s with its Creature From the Black Lagoon series, but the emphasis in this special is on the pre-1948 scare fests. Highlights include interviews with surviving Universal actors and technicians (Gloria Stuart is particularly amusing), and rare clips from Dracula [Spanish-language version]. Universal Horror made its American TV debut on the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth Branagh, Forrest J. Ackerman, (more)
- 1969
Con artist Carl Beaumont (Steve Ihnat) and nurse Angela Reese (Joanna Moore) have worked out a "perfect" scam: Angela determines which of her female patients has the most money, whereupon Beaumont moves in and swindles the targeted lady out of her savings--then kills her before she can talk. Unfortunately for Beaumont, his most recent victim lived long enough to point FBI Inspector Lew Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in the right direction. But will Erskine be able to move quickly enough to save Beaumont's newest "mark", Sarah Whittaker (Mildred Dunnock), from sharing the same fate as the others? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1968
Surviving an assassination attempt, Mob functionary Vincent Gray (Mark Richman) may be in the right pscyhological frame of mind to give testimony against his bosses in exchange for FBI protection. The problem facing Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) is locating Gray, who has gone deep into hiding somewhere in Milwaukee. Dorothy Provine is especially effective in the role of Gray's unwitting landlady Irene Minnick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1949
After Ray Milland turned down the leading role in Bride of Vengeance, Paramount contractee John Lund stepped into the role of Alfonso D'Este, second husband of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia. The ruthlessly ambitious Lucrezia is played by Paulette Goddard, who seems ill at ease in the role. MacDonald Carey is better suited to his assignment as Cesar Borgia, the real villain of the piece. The plot proper gets under way when Lucrezia seeks revenge for her first husband's murder. The supporting cast is an odd lot, especially Billy Gilbert as Beppo, a wandering minstrel. A far better recreation of the Borgia "regime" was offered in the like-vintage Prince of Foxes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paulette Goddard, John Lund, (more)
- 1948
Not a remake of the 1917 Mabel Normand vehicle of the same name, Mickey was based on Clementine, a novel by Peggy Goodin. The tomboyish title character is played by redheaded Lois Butler, whom Eagle-Lion Studios was trying to build into a major name. During her awkward transition to womanhood, Mickey Kelly takes time out to find an eligible wife for her widowed father George (Bill Goodwyn). Of the two likeliest candidates, bitchy Lydia Matthews (Rose Hobart) seems to have the inside track, but Mickey vastly prefers down-to-earth Louise Williams (Irene Hervey). The best performance is delivered by Skippy Homeier as Hank Evans, the boy who awakens Mickey's own amorous yearnings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lois Butler, Bill Goodwin, (more)
- 1947
When Loretta Young stepped up to accept her Academy Award for The Farmer's Daughter, the ever-youthful leading lady, who'd been in films since 1928, sighed "At long last!" Young is cast as Katie Holstrum, an independently-minded Swedish girl who leaves her family's Minnesota farm to take a domestic job at the Washington DC home of congressman Glenn Morley Joseph Cotten. Katie's outspokeness and Scandanavian common sense immediately endears her to Morley, his mother Ethel Barrymore, and the family's crusty-but-kindly butler Clancy Charles Bickford. Sensing that the political machine backing Morley isn't thoroughly honest, Katie takes an active hand in Washington politics, leading to her own nomination for a congressional seat. The machine-boss villains (depicted rather provocatively as right-wing reactionaries) try to discredit Katie on the eve of the election, but she is rescued by Morley, who of course has fallen in love with her. Adapted from Juurakon Hulda (Hulda, Daughter of Parliament), a Finnish play written by Hella Wuolijoki (using the pen name Juhani Tervapää), which had originally been optioned as a potential vehicle for Ingrid Bergman, The Farmer's Daughter later matriculated into a weekly TV series, with Inger Stevens as Katie and William Windom as Morley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Keith Andes, (more)
- 1947
A visibly uneasy Spencer Tracy plays the title role in this lavish MGM screen version of Sinclair Lewis' 1945 magazine serial. A small-town bachelor judge, Cass Timberlane, takes a personal interest in beautiful stenographer Jinny Marshland (Lana Turner), who appears one day as a witness in his court. They marry after a whirlwind courtship, but Jinny soon finds herself stifled among Cass' country club cronies and their haughty wives. A stillborn baby makes things even worse and the young wife attempts to find solace in amateur theatrics. Thus she is easy prey for suave lawyer Bradd Criley (Zachary Scott), who nevertheless does the decent thing and moves to New York. Jinny convinces her husband to follow, but after halfheartedly attempting to find a practice in the Big City, he discovers that there's no place like home. A terrible car accident that almost costs Jinny her life bring husband and wife together, however, and both discover that they belong in Grand Republic, MN, in general and with each other in particular. MGM apparently had a difficult time finding Spencer Tracy's co-star and at one point attempted to borrow Jennifer Jones from producer David O. Selznick. Vivien Leigh and Virginia Grey were also considered before the role of Jinny finally was awarded to Lana Turner. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner, (more)
- 1947
In this comedy, a scatter-brained professor nearly starts a riot when he writes a book claiming that women like to be treated roughly. A paper publishes snippets from the book and later the professor, feeling he was misquoted, begins suing for libel. The paper then sends out a female reporter to dredge up some dirt on the sexist academic. Not only does she do her job and prevent the suit, she and the professor end up falling in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Milland, Teresa Wright, (more)
- 1946
Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young reprise their roles from the film Claudia, which followed the titular young couple as they dealt with the trials of parenthood. Claudia, a bit wiser than she was in the first film but still charmingly naive and a bit nervous, is struggling with the responsibilities of motherhood when a fortune teller predicts that something horrible will happen to her husband. Since David is soon to travel to the West Coast on business, Claudia tries to persuade him not to go, even though it could mean losing his job. Claudia is next convinced that the baby has contracted a fatal illness, though it turns out to be nothing more than the measles. And jealousy creeps into the relationship when Elizabeth (Mary Astor) starts consulting David on a building project, while Claudia is attracting the uninvited attentions of Phil (John Sutton), who happens to be married. Like its predecessor, Claudia and David was based on a series of short stories by Rose Franken, which also inspired a successful stage play and radio series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, (more)
- 1946
Dana Andrews -- in one of the best performances of his career -- plays Logan Stuart, a bold, ambitious general store and freight company owner based in the mining settlement of Jacksonville, OR, in 1856. He and his best friend, local banker and express company owner George Camrose (Brian Donlevy), share an attraction for young, beautiful Lucy Overmire (Susan Hayward). However, that's all the two men share -- Stuart sees life in the Oregon territory as a challenge, to be worked out and overcome with thought and time, with the opportunity to build something lasting and significant in the process. Camrose only sees the opportunity to get rich fast and live easy, and he's addicted to gambling at the local saloon. What no one knows is that he's been doing his gambling with the gold dust that the miners have left on deposit in his vault -- and he's been losing. He wants to get out of the territory, to someplace like San Francisco, and plans to take Lucy away. Stuart, by contrast, is as much a frontiersman as a businessman, and so much a part of the community and so trusted and liked that he might even be a potential political leader, if he ever had the time and the willingness to settle down and stay put. He finds consolation over his loss of Lucy in an engagement to Caroline Marsh (Patricia Roc), a daughter of an Englishman who came to Oregon only to see her father killed by Indians, who lives with the homesteading family of Ben Dance (Andy Devine) and his wife (Dorothy Peterson) and their children. Out of friendship, and also a little guilt over the fact that he would love to be engaged to Lucy, Stuart gives Camrose the money to get even, but Camrose can't resist one last card game, and not only loses what Stuart gave him, but the gold dust of one miner -- who shows up unexpectedly in town that night, planning on getting his dust the next day. When the man turns up drowned, Camrose is accused of murder; Stuart stands by his friend, but he's found guilty and the miners, led by hot-headed young Johnny Steele (Lloyd Bridges), plan on hanging him, and shooting anyone who tries to get in the way. But before his fate can be settled, an Indian war starts over the killing of a young Native American woman, and the lives of every white settler in and around Jacksonville are suddenly endangered. There's all of that, plus four songs (including "Old Buttermilk Sky") from Hoagy Carmichael (who does a great acting job), all convincingly woven into the drama along with one of the music legend's best acting performances. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Andrews, Ward Bond, (more)
- 1946
Advertised as a typical Universal horror film, The Cat Creeps is more of a crime melodrama, and not a particularly distinguished one at that. Fifth-billed Fred Brady essays the leading role as a reporter named Terry Nichols, who endeavors to prove that a girl's suicide was actually murder. Though dead for nearly 15 years, the girl's soul has apparently manifested itself in a black cat, which functions as an avenging angel throughout the film. Several more murders occur before the villain and his mercenary motivations are revealed. Though blessed with an unusually strong supporting cast, The Cat Creeps is strictly B material, far below Universal's already unexacting standards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noah Beery, Jr., Lois Collier, (more)
- 1945
John Loder plays a prominent London actor, lately starring in a play about a maniacal strangler. When the theatre is bombed by the Nazis, Loder suffers a head injury. Thereafter, he cannot separate fact from fiction, and periodically becomes the strangler that he is playing on stage. Loder's lady love June Duprez puts her own life on the line in attempting to save Loder from himself. The Brighton Strangler benefits from its brisk 67-minute running time, which allows the story to unfold without undue padding or muddled psychological overtones. Interestingly, John Loder's character is triggered into becoming a murderer whenever someone inadvertently recites one of the lines from his play--a dramatic device later utilized to fuller effect in Richard Condon's The Manchurian Candidate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Loder, June Duprez, (more)
- 1945
Filmed some 18 months before its release, Conflict is one of two melodramas in which Humphrey Bogart self-consciously portrayed a wife murderer (the other was The Two Mrs. Carrolls). Bogie plays unhappily married Richard Mason, who concocts a meticulous scheme to kill his shrewish wife, Kathryn (Rose Hobart), so that he'll be free to marry her sister, Evelyn (Alexis Smith). Alas, Mason inadvertently tips his hand to family friend Dr. Mark Hamilton (Sydney Greenstreet). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, (more)
- 1944
Advertised as a pure-and-simple horror film, Soul of a Monster is actually an adroit variation on the "Faust" legend. George Macready plays Dr. George Winson, who is saved from the brink of death by the intervention of his loving wife Ann (Jeanne Bates). In desperation, Ann had offered to make a deal with the devil to keep her husband alive, whereupon an emissary of Satan, a hypnotist named Lilyan Gregg (Rose Hobart) made an appearance. Upon his recovery, the previously kind-hearted Winson turns evil, doing the Devil's work while under Lilyan's diabolical spell. But Ann and her friends are not susceptible to Lilyan's mesmerizing prowess, enabling them to launch a counteroffensive against the Dark Prince. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rose Hobart, George Macready, (more)
- 1944
A beautiful child (14-year-old Jane Powell in her feature film debut) star tires of life in the spotlight and so disguises herself and sneaks off to join a Civilian Conservation Corps camp to work with normal kids. It doesn't take her long to discover that being "normal" isn't easy as it looks. When a crop is in danger of being ruined because there are not enough people to harvest it, the girl employs some of her famous colleagues to lend a hand. Cameo appearances include W.C. Fields, Charley McCarthy and Edgar Bergen and the dancing Condos Brothers. Songs include: "Too Much in Love," "Here It Is Monday," "Delightfully Dangerous," "Hawaiian War Chant" and "Notre Dame." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edgar Bergen, Jane Powell, (more)
- 1943
The 12-episode Universal serial The Adventures of Smilin' Jack is based on the Zack Mosely comic strip of the same name. The title character-minus his trademarked pencil moustache-is played by Tom Brown. Departing radically from the characters and situations of the original funny-paper version, the serial concerns itself with an effort by the Axis powers to find a secret route from India to China known only by the rulers of the (apocryphal) city of Mandon. Sidney Toler, then concurrently starring in the Charlie Chan series, plays a ruthless Asian general, while future Make Room for Daddy star Marjorie Lord is the plucky heroine. The serial's highlight sequence has Our Hero proving his mettle by walking barefoot over a pit of hot coals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1943
In this wartime comedy drama an ultra-macho but aging Marine sergeant does all he can to keep his men intimidated and towing the line while they are stationed in the Philippines at the beginning of WW II. The tough-as-nails jarhead does have a terrible secret though--he has never been involved in actual combat. When his unit heads out for battle in China, the sarge is humiliated because he has not been granted permission to go. He begins drowning his sorrows in a bottle and later gets into a fight with some merchant sailors. As a result he is tossed into the brig until his wife urges him to retire. He reluctantly agrees and tries his hand at civilian life. Later when the Japanese invade the islands, it is the old sergeant who helps the civilian's safely withdraw; unfortunately he dies in the process. His wife also dies. Later their daughter, once a devout pacifist and now a uniformed member of the armed forces, accepts a medal of honor for her courageous father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Lundigan, Wallace Beery, (more)
Set in wartime (WW II), this film finds the fat guy, skinny guy comedy duo not much good at any attempted professions; they can't even enlist in the war effort. None of the services want them. But they do become air raid wardens, at least for a while, until their misadventures continue. They get all boozed up and are kicked off the air raid squad, too! But things get better when they thwart a spy ring and save the day. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1943
This second entry in Columbia's "Crime Doctor" series once again stars Warner Baxter as Dr. Ordway, a former criminal turned criminologist. In this outing, Ordway is called in to analyze the dreams of elderly Patricia Cornwall (Virginia Brissac). It is hoped that this will provide a clue to the long-ago disappearance of Patricia's husband-not to mention $30,000. Naturally, there's at least one person who doesn't want the secret revealed, and that's the person who murdered Cornwall and hid his body in the basement of a popular café. Could the guilty party be Diana Burns (Rose Hobart), widow of Cornwall's former partner, who has just become a murder victim himself? Billed ninth in the cast of Crime Doctor's Strangest Case is young Columbia contractee Lloyd Bridges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1943
In her seventh outing as irrepressible vaudeville entertainer Maisie Revere, Ann Sothern aided the war effort by working the swing shift in an airplane factory. Taking in a seemingly suicidal co-worker, Iris (Jean Rogers), Maisie can only watch as the girl steals her beau, handsome pilot James McLaughlin (James Craig). Promising to be faithful to James, who is going away on a training course, Iris promptly flirts with everyone in pants, much to chaperone Maisie's chagrin. When Maisie catches the selfish Iris in the middle of staging yet another "suicide," the vaudeville trouper turned everyone's favorite riveter threatens to spill the beans to Lieutenant James. In retaliation, Iris accuses Maisie of spying for the Nazis but everything is cleared up before the fadeout. MGM had at first assigned the male lead to newcomer Jim Davis, but he proved too inexperienced and the role eventually went to Craig, the studio's all-purpose Clark Gable lookalike. (As a consolation, Davis played a G.I. instead.) Starlet Jean Rogers, formerly Dale Arden in Flash Gordon (1936), does surprisingly well in her unsympathetic part and, doubled only partially by Jacqueline Wiere, performs a funny acrobatic number with the Wiere Brothers. Sothern leads a rousing chorus of the morale-boosting "There's a Girl Behind the Boy Behind the Gun" and remains her usual delightful self throughout what is one of MGM's better wartime potboilers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Sothern, James Craig, (more)
- 1943
The Mad Ghoul may well be the definitive George Zucco horror melodrama. The star plays Dr. Alfred Morris, a distinguished scientist who obsession with an ancient Egyptian life-preserving process has tipped him over into madness. In love with young concert singer Isabel Lewis (Evelyn Ankers), Morris is extremely jealous of Isabel's boy friend Ted Allison (David Bruce), who happens to be the doctor's lab assistant. Killing two birds with one stone, Morris uses Ted as a guinea pig for his eternal-life experiments. Ted is transformed into a mindless zombie, though he occasionally lapses back into his normal self, with no memory of his zombified state. To stay alive, Ted must maintain a fresh supply of human hearts-and to that end, Morris programs the poor fellow to kill innocent victims and tear their hearts right out of their bodies. When Morris programs Ted to kill Isabel's new beau (Turhan Bey), he goes too far, and becomes a zombie himself. A British film critic wryly summed up The Mad Ghoul thusly: "To be a ghoul must be disconcerting enough, but to be a mad ghoul must be the height of personal embarrassment." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Bruce, Evelyn Ankers, (more)
- 1942
Cesar Romero plays an outwardly tough bookie with the proverbial golden heart. Romero falls in love with Carole Landis, an art shop proprietor who introduces her raffish romeo into the world of fine art. Utilizing his gambling skills, he amasses an impressive collection of valuable paintings, only to discover that there are just as many crooks and phonies in the art world as there are at the race track. At first attempting to cash in on the clever forgeries of a duplicitous painter (J. Carroll Naish), Romero is redeemed by the love of Carole Landis and ends up scamming the scammers. Gentleman at Heart includes a brashly amusing performance by Milton Berle as Cesar Romero's chief flunky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cesar Romero, Carole Landis, (more)
- 1942
On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) realizes that it's time to appoint a new assistant to replace young Dr. Kildare. Gillespie is obliged to choose from three highly qualified candidates: Dr. Randall "Red" Adams (Van Johnson), Dr. Lee Wong How (Keye Luke), and Dr. Dennis Lindsay (played by future director Richard Quine). To test their mettle, he gives all three interns a chance to diagnose a separate delicate case. Though the results aren't quite to Gillespie's liking, the ending is "open" enough to suggest that at least two of the three candidates will be around for the next series entry, Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case. Side note: Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant co-stars Richard Quine and Susan Peters were married in 1943. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, (more)
- 1942
The lachrymose PRC drama Prison Girls was based on the Octavious Roy Cohen short story Gallant Lady, which was also the film's alternate title. In her first starring role in several years, Rose Hobart plays Rosemary Walsh, a woman doctor sentenced to a long jail term for a mercy killing. Escaping from a prison farm, Rosemary takes refuge in the home of general practitioner Steve (Sidney Blackmer). With his help, she manages to start a whole new life for herself. Reviews were generally positive for Prison Girls, but the PRC poverty-row stigma did little to advance the careers of its talented stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1942
Hope Schuyler is a notorious but never-seen astrologer, inextricably linked with blackmail, political graft and murder. Special prosecutor Tom Mason (Joseph Allen Jr.) hopes to ascertain the true identity of Hope Schuyler and to put an end to her (or his) crime spree. Despite the obstacles thrown in his path by vindictive DA Anthony Pierce (Ricardo Cortez), Mason pursues his investigation with the not inconsiderable assistance of his girl friend Diane Rossiter (Mary Howard) and fearless girl reporter Lee Dale (Sheila Ryan). The trail of clues lead to a remote mountain lodge, where the story's pulse-pounding conclusion plays itself out. Who is Hope Schuyler? was based on a novel by Stephen Ransome. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Allen, Jr., Mary Howard, (more)
