John Hodiak Movies

All but forgotten today, A Stranger in Town serves as an excellent showcase for the dramatic talents of Frank Morgan. The star plays Supreme Court justice John Josephus Grant, who decides to take a break from his hectic schedule by going on a hunting vacation. Travelling incognito, Grant stops over in a small town that turns out to be a hotbed of political corruption. Taking a liking to honest young mayoral candidate Bill Adams (Richard Carlson), Grant uses his legal know-how to help thwart Adams' crooked opponents. Jean Rogers, best-known to film buffs as Dale Arden in the first two "Flash Gordon" serials, is decorative as Grant's secretary, who (of course!) falls in love with the clean-cut Bill Adams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One can only imagine the reaction of arch-conservative MGM head Louis B. Mayer when Song of Russia first tumbled over the spools in the studio projection room. It must be remembered, however, that back in 1944 it was politically expedient for Hollywood to offer hosannas to America's Russian allies, and to gloss over the less-attractive aspects of the Stalin regime. Based on Scorched Earth, a story by Leo Mittler, the film stars Robert Taylor as John Meredith, a famous American symphony conductor who is touring Russia just before the war. Meredith falls in love with Russian lass Nadya Stepanova (Susan Peters), who impresses him with her conviviality and charm: why, she's almost like a typical American girl! In the course of their romance, Meredith and Nadya visit a collective farm, where the peasants sing, dance and smile all day. The lovers marry, only to have their honeymoon abruptly halted when the Nazis invade the Soviet Union. Nadya promptly joins the Resistance, solemnly assembling molotov cocktails and shooting down Germans with her comrades. Just before the Nazis swarm into Nadya's village, the peasants set fire to the place so that Hitlers minions will not be able to plunder its resources. All of this is played out against the music of Tschiakovsky and other Russian composers. During the HUAC investigations in the early 1950s, several of the personnel involved in Song of Russia were required to explain why they'd been involved in so blatantly "pro-communist" a project. Louis B. Mayer blithely explained that he "just wanted to make a picture about Russians, not communists," while star Robert Taylor -- likewise a staunch anti-Red -- insisted that he'd been forced to make the film, and that he'd demanded script deletions throughout productions. In the end, the losers were screenwriters Richard Collins and Paul Jarrico, both of whom ended up on the egregious Hollywood Blacklist, simply for adhering to America's wartime pro-Soviet sentiments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this eighth film in MGM's "Maisie" series, Ann Sothern is back as ever-stranded chorus girl Maisie Revier. As the story opens, Maisie has a steady non-showbiz job as a defense plant riveter (it's wartime, of course); still, she utilizes a two-week vacation to take a singing job in a Reno night spot. This small Nevada town being the Divorce Capital of America, Maisie finds herself involved in the crumbling marriage between a GI (Tom Drake) and his wealthy wife (Ava Gardner). Meanwhile, Maisie's own well-being is threatened by a conniving businessman who has her committed to an asylum when she threatens to squeal about his crooked business practices. Like most "Maisie" pictures, Maisie Goes to Reno suffers from a surfeit of plotting, but is redeemed by the insouciant Ann Sothern. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Seeking a creative challenge after several years' worth of fairly elaborate melodramas, director Alfred Hitchcock stages all of the action in Lifeboat in one tiny boat, adrift in the North Atlantic. The boat holds eight survivors of a Nazi torpedo attack: sophisticated magazine writer/photographer Constance Porter (Tallulah Bankhead), Communist seaman John Kovac (John Hodiak), nurse Alice MacKenzie (Mary Anderson), mild-mannered radio-operator Stan (Hume Cronyn), seriously wounded Brooklynese stoker Gus Smith (William Bendix), insufferable-capitalist Charles Rittenhouse (Henry Hull), black-steward George Spencer (Canada Lee) and half-mad passenger Mrs. Higgins (Heather Angel), who carries the body of her dead baby. This adroitly calculated cross-section of humanity is reduced by one when Mrs. Higgins kills herself. After a day or so of floating aimlessly about, the castaways pick up another passenger, Willy (Walter Slezak), who is a survivor from the German U-boat. At first everyone assumes that Willy cannot speak English, but when the necessity arises he reveals himself to be conversant in several languages and highly intelligent; in fact, he was the U-boat's captain. As the only one on board with any sense of seamanship, Willy steers a course to his mother ship, while the others resign themselves to being prisoners of war. After it becomes necessary to amputate Gus's leg, Willy decides that the burly stoker is excess weight; while the others sleep, he tosses Gus overboard, watching dispassionately as the poor man drowns. When the rest of the passengers discover what he's done, all of them (with one significant exception) violently gang up on Gus, and once more, the lifeboat drifts about sans navigation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Henry King's adaptation of John Hersey's novel is a faithful telling of the story of Major Joppolo (John Hodiak), who is assigned to administrate the Sicilian town of Adano after World War II and attempts to return it to its pre-war tranquility. His initial actions include feeding and clothing the villagers, who have been left starved and destitute by the ravages of the war, and preventing the hanging of its former mayor, a Mussolini supporter, although he makes clear that any hints of Fascism will not be tolerated. Suspicious at first, the villagers finally come to trust Joppolo when he works to reclaim the town bell, stolen from the city hall and a symbol of its identity. Gene Tierney plays the fisherman's daughter that Joppolo falls for, while William Bendix is his compassionate orderly and assistant. A Bell For Adano is a low-key look at the effects of war that builds to a quietly powerful conclusion. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

George Taylor (John Hodiak) is a war veteran suffering from amnesia with only two clues to his past: the bitter letter from a woman who hates him and another mysterious letter signed "Larry Cravat." Taylor goes to Los Angeles to meet Cravat. It turns out that Cravat is wanted for murder and the robbery of $2 million. George becomes involved with a singer, Christy (Nancy Guild) and is chased by mobsters while on a search for the stolen money. There ensue a series of chases, an interesting plot twist and a surprise ending as John learns the true identity of Cravat.Somewhere in the Night is the quintessential "amnesia victim" as protagonist film, somewhat slow, but nevertheless, engrossing and suspenseful. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Agatha Christie and play by Frank Vosper, Love From a Stranger isn't quite as good as the 1937 version of the same property. This time, Sylvia Sidney and John Hodiak play the roles originally filled by Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone. Falling under the romantic spell of charismatic Manuel Cortez (Hodiak), impressionable sweepstakes winner Cecily Harrington (Sidney) marries him after a whirlwind courtship. It doesn't take long for Cecily to figure out that Cortez is a dangerous psychotic, bent on murdering his wife and claiming her fortune. Unable to convince anyone else of Cortez intentions (even though his behavior would, in real life, get him locked away in a minute), Cecily determines to outsmart her husband and catch him in his own trap. Ironically, Frank Vosper never saw either film version of Love From a Stranger, having died under mysterious circumstances in 1937 (too bad Agatha Christie never wrote that story!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On the whole, the films of producer-writer-director Arch Oboler seldom came up to the lofty standards of his radio work, but each of his movie projects had a few meritorious moments. One of the better Oboler film efforts was The Arnelo Affair, produced by MGM in 1946. Frances Gifford delivers what may be her best performance as Anne Parkson, the loving but neglected wife of busy Chicago attorney Ted Parkson (George Murphy). Upon meeting one of Ted's clients, shady nightclub owner Tony Arnelo (John Hodiak), Anne finds herself inexorably drawn to the charismatic Arnelo. He in turn is equally fascinated by Anne, but his fascination deepens into love. Upon realizing that Arnelo is essentially a cold-blooded thug, Anne tries to break off their relationship. But Arnelo has murdered his cast-off mistress Claire Lorrison (Joan Woodbury), and has arranged the evidence so as to implicate Anne in the killing. To Arnelo's way of thinking, if he can't have Ann, no one can-certainly not her scrupulously honest husband, who has gone on record insisting that he'd prosecute any criminal to the fullest extent of the law, even if that criminal was a friend or relative. Told in Arch Oboler's traditional stream-of-consciousness manner, the story comes to a violent but logical conclusion when Arnelo exhumes his own long-suppressed sense of decency. Despite competition from the three stars, and from such reliable supporting players as Eve Arden and Dean Stockwell, The Arnelo Affair is stolen by Warner Anderson as a soft-spoken, philosophical Chicago detective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Command Decision is a stagebound but consummately acted adaptation of William Wister Haines' Broadway play. Clark Gable, starring in the role essayed on Broadway by Paul Kelly, plays Air Force Brigadier General "Casey" Dennis. With time at a premium, Dennis sends waves of bomber squadrons into Germany to knock out the enemy's jet plane factories. Though Dennis seems utterly unconcerned about the fate of his pilots (even his superior officer Walter Pidgeon is appalled by the heavy losses), the audience knows that his duty is exacting a severe emotional toll on him. Thanks to pressure from a misguided US senator, "butcher" Dennis is replaced by the supposedly more humane Brian Donlevy. But Donlevy realizes that Gable's decisions were the correct ones, and he vows to continue his predecessor's "suicide missions". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Spencer Tracy and James Stewart team up for this World War II adventure, based on an supposedly true incident from World War II. Stewart plays John Royer, an ex-newspaper reporter with a backhand knowledge of Malaya, and Tracy plays a criminal named Carnaghan, doing time in Alcatraz for smuggling. They are brought together for an undercover assignment -- to smuggle a large shipment of rubber out of Japanese-held territory in Malaya and deliver the tonnage to awaiting U.S. ships. Carnaghan and Royer plod through the jungles and have to deal with several unscrupulous contacts including a man calling himself The Dutchman (Sydney Greenstreet), a helpful FBI agent named Kellar (John Hodiak), and a sneaky Japanese officer by the name of Colonel Tomura (Richard Loo). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A Lady Without Passport stars Hedy Lamarr in the title role. Lamarr plays Marianne Lorress, a concentration-camp refugee who takes up residence in Cuba while waiting permission to enter the U.S. Immigration agent Pete Karczag (John Hodiak) decides to use Marianne as bait to entrap Palinov (George Macready), the brains of an alien-smuggling ring. Pete eventually falls in love with Marianne, but she despises him for using her--at least until fade-out time. Despite the tattoo on her arm, it is difficult to believe that Hedy Lamarr has survived a Nazi concentration camp; she appears instead to have staged a desperate escape from the MGM makeup department. This aside, A Lady without Passport is an acceptable (and commendably short) crime meller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ambush is a tight, well-paced western, expertly assembled by veteran director Sam Wood, whose last film this was. Robert Taylor stars as an Indian scout, sent to rescue a woman who is somewhere deep in Apache territory. The woman's sister, naturally, goes along for the ride: she is played by Arlene Dahl, then in her considerable prime. Outside of its feminine angle, Ambush is packed with action from first frame to last. Released to theatres at the tail end of 1949, the film was an unqualified success with holiday audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fish-market worker Johnny O'Hara (James Arness) is named as a suspect when his boss -- with whom he had a dispute the previous day -- is shot to death in an apparent robbery. When he's arrested, his family appeals to their old friend James Curtayne (Spencer Tracy), who was once a renowned criminal attorney but is now in civil practice. He resists their entreaties until he realizes that no decent attorney will handle the case properly; his daughter (Diana Lynn) watches with alarm, however, for we soon learn that Curtayne is an alcoholic, and that the major factor in his life that pushed him over the edge was the stress of having someone's life in his hands. He discovers soon enough just how much Johnny's life is in his hands when his client refuses to level with him about his real whereabouts on the night of the murder. He also realizes as the trial starts precisely how rusty he is in the courtroom, and the old stresses return -- and with them, his drinking. Curtayne not only manages to lose the case but destroys his career when he tries to buy off a larcenous prosecution witness. His client facing a death sentence and his own life and career in ruins, he's seemingly hit bottom, but then new evidence surfaces, of a nature that not even the ambitious prosecutor (John Hodiak) can ignore. Recognizing that his client was actually innocent and also acting in his silence -- however stupidly -- from the noblest of motives, Curtayne is willing to redeem himself by putting his own life on the line, confronting a killer who has taken more than one life without any compunction whatsoever, and who has no reason to spill anything.

The People Against O'Hara was a well-made, largely location-shot crime drama set in New York City, but it wouldn't have been nearly so prestigious a movie were it not for the presence of Spencer Tracy in the role of Curtayne. Ironically enough, he only agreed to do the film on the condition that his friend Pat O'Brien, who hadn't been in a major studio release in a couple of years, be given a large role, which he got as the lead detective on the case, and O'Brien and Tracy get a couple of really good scenes together. The film also includes an unbilled appearance by Charles Bronson, who was still working as Charles Buchinski in 1951, and is highlighted by a superb prominent supporting performance by William Campbell, who seems to quietly relish every nuance of his portrayal of a totally slimy character. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide