Frederic Howard Movies

Based on a play by Fay Kanin, this comedy drama follows a successful congresswoman's emotional journey back to her alma mater. When Agatha Reed (Joan Crawford) is offered an honorary degree at her former college, she is forced to remember the reason she was expelled to begin with. Nearly twenty years prior, Agatha (Crawford) had an affair with Dr. James Merrill (Robert Young), one of her professors. After her departure, Dr. Merrill (Young) slowly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the president of the school. Despite having left under less than desirable circumstances, Agatha is excited to see him and hopes to rekindle their relationship. Meanwhile, newspaper reporter Matt Cole (Frank Lovejoy), not only follow's Agatha to her former university, but unsucessfully proposes marriage. Unfortunately for him, the alumna's eyes are set firmly towards her old flame. However, once Matt (Lovejoy) and Agatha team up in a passionate attempt to update the school's outdated curriculum, she realizes who she truly loves. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Director Douglas Sirk's love of cinematic esoterica was kept in check in the musical comedy Slightly French. Dorothy Lamour stars as Mary O'Leary, a carnival entertainer who's discovered by enterprising director John Gayle (Don Ameche). The plot dictates that Gayle must pass off Mary as an elegant Parisian actress/singer. This slender plotline enables the film to toss off a number of satirical quips about show biz, and to display Lamour in a variety of exotic costumes. The best musical numbers occur during an extended film-within-a-film sequence. Slightly French is buoyed by its expert supporting cast, including Janis Carter, Willard Parker and Adele Jergens. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lucille Ball offers a seminal version of her Lucy Ricardo TV character in Her Husband's Affairs. Ball is cast as Margaret Weldon, the wife of advertising executive William Weldon (Franchot Tone). Though Weldon is successful, Margaret can't help but feel that he'd be more successful if she were to take an active part in his business affairs. The fun really begins when Margaret tries to help Weldon promote a crackpot inventor (Mikhail Rasumny) who's come up with a revolutionary new embalming fluid. As in the previous year's The Hucksters, Madison Avenue and Big Business are targetted for a great deal of derisive ribbing. If only Her Husband's Affairs were as funny as everyone involved seems to think it is. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Sometimes dismissed as a derivation of Samuel Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives, RKO Radio's superb Till the End of Time was actually based on Niven Busch's novel They Dream of Home, and was completed and released several months before the Goldwyn film. The story concentrates on three ex-marines: Cliff Harper (Guy Madison), Bill Tabeshaw (Robert Mitchum) and Perry Kincheloe (Bill Williams). Harper falls in love with emotionally distraught war widow Pat Ruscomb (Dorothy McGuire); Tabeshaw endures one disappointment after another as he tries to buy his own ranch; and Kincheloe, rendered legless by the war, intends to spend the rest of his life wallowing in self-pity. All three men find a new lease on life when they engage in a cathartic barroom brawl against a bigoted group of self-styled patriots led by hate-spouting Ray Teal (forever typecast as rabid racists during the postwar years). It was this climactic scene, which remains the most memorable aspect of Till the End of Time (outside of its Chopin-inspired theme song) that caused a lot of headaches for producer Dore Schary, screenwriter Allen Rivkin and director Edward Dmytryk during the House Unamerican Activities hearings a few years later: what was accepted as pro-American in 1946 would soon be labelled "Pinko" by the anti-Red zealots. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Comprised of 15 episodes from one of Republic Studio's favorite sci-fi serials, this chiller follows the terrifying exploits of a Martian bully who begins badgering and trying to trick a hapless scientist into giving him his plans for a super secret spaceship. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based on Norman Corwin's satirical radio play My Client Curley, Once Upon a Time is an engaging bit of whimsy, completely dominated by the personality of star Cary Grant. It all begins when fly-by-night Broadway producer Jerry Flynn (Grant) learns of a trained caterpillar (!) that dances to the tune of "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby." In short order, Jerry has promoted Curly the Caterpillar to international stardom-and in the process he alienates both Pinky Thompson (Ted Donaldson), the impressionable 9-year-old who owns Curley, and Pinky's attractive older sister Jeanne (Janet Blair). Eventually, Flynn comes to his senses and regains his essential decency-though it's too late to continue capitalizing on Curley, who has turned into a non-dancing butterfly! Full of delightful contemporary references and "cameo appearances" by such celebrities as producer Walt Disney and radio commentator Gabriel Heatter (both played by uncredited impressionists), Once Upon a Time proved an agreeable diversion for wartime audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A witty Norman Krasna script distinguishes this airy romantic comedy. Millionairess Dorothy Hunter (Miriam Hopkins) is tired of finding out that her boyfriends love her for her money, and equally weary of losing eligible beaus who don't want to be considered fortune-hunters. That's why she trades identities with her secretary Sylvia (Fay Wray) before embarking on her next romance with Tony Travers (Joel McCrea). This causes numerous complications not only for Dorothy and Tony but for Sylvia, whose own husband Philip (Reginald Denny) is not the most patient of men. The Richest Girl in the World was remade in 1944 as Bride by Mistake, and in 1955 as the Jane Russell musical The French Line. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The 1932 Tom Mix version of Destry Rides Again bears no more relation to the original Max Brand novel than does the 1939 James Stewart remake. Thanks to his crooked partner (Earle Foxe), Jim Destry (Mix) is thrown into jail. Finally released, he "rides again" to prove his innocence and bring the guilty parties to justice. The action highlights include the hero's leap from a train to his horse and back again (it doesn't look as if doubles were used). Claudia Dell, best known to present-day audiences as Spanky's mother in the "Our Gang" films, is the heroine, while ZaSu Pitts, of all people, supplies the comedy relief. Though Tom Mix expressed displeasure with the film, Destry Rides Again remains one of his best talkies. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Similar in theme to Ambrose Bierce's classic story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," this odd melodrama chronicles the last moments in the life of a man about to be executed in the electric chair, at a maximum security prison loosely modeled on Sing Sing. In the two seconds that it takes for the executioner to pull the switch, convicted murderer John Allen (Edward G. Robinson) flashes back over his life, and the incidents that led him to this tragic state; that flashback forms the bulk of the picture. Allen claims that he is indeed guilty and deserves to die -- though not for the murder of which he is accused. It seems he was an ironworker, and befriended Bud Clark (Preston S. Foster) on the job, who was far more outgoing, optimistic, and well-adjusted than he. One night Allen got drunk, and instantly married Shirley Day (Vivienne Osborne), a woman he met at a dance hall club; meanwhile, Clark discovered the woman's ongoing affair with the club owner, Tony (J. Carrol Naish) and tried to warn Allen. Disinclined to believe this story, Allen punched him in a bitter rage while the men were stationed atop a high structure, knocking Clark off and sending him to his death. Allen then won a great deal of money at the track and used it to repay Tony, from whom Shirley had borrowed cash for food and rent. In the process, however, he discovered the two together and shot and killed Shirley in response to her infidelity. Thus, though he was actually incarcerated and sentenced to death for mariticide, he claims he should be exonerated for this and instead held guilty for the murder of Clark, who didn't deserve to die. This film didn't fare well with critics or viewers, who were used to seeing Robinson play the heavy in action-laden films. It thus quickly faded from view and has never been issued on video, though it occasionally turns up on cable. It packs in a thoroughly bizarre twist in its final act that will not be disclosed here. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

William Shakespeare's classic tragedy Romeo & Juliet is loosely adapted and modernized in director Rowland V. Lee's Guilty Generation. Set in 1930's New York, rival gangster families the Palmero's and the Ricca's play Lee's version of the infamous Montagues and Capulets. The two mobs had once co-existed peacefully, but split after a terrible argument, causing a long-standing and deadly rivalry. Maria Palmero (Constance Cummings), the daughter of gangster Mike Palmero (Leo Carillo), meets and falls in love with a young architect played by (Robert Young). Though Young's character goes by the name of John Smith, his true identity is none other than Marco Ricca--the son of Mike's (Carillo) rival. Due to the war waged by their families, Maria and Marco try to keep their affair and ultimate marriage to one another secret. Unfortunately, Maria's father realizes the two have married and vows to kill Marco, who had earlier killed Maria's brother. Tragically, the Palmero family patriarch is only stopped with a bullet from his own mother's (Emma Dunn) gun. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

The title alone should clue the reader that Numbered Men is a prison picture. Based on the stage play Jail Break, the film is hardly a paragon of credibility: more than one critic noted that the prison depicted herein is more like a country club than a house of corrections. The party-like atmosphere and casual camaraderie between prisoners and guards is spoiled when hard-boiled King Callahan (Ralph Ince) insists upon trying to escape. Before this problem can be resolved, there's the little matter of innocent counterfeiting suspect Bud Leonard (Raymond Hackett), who is finally sprung when the guilty party Bertie Gray (Conrad Nagel) graciously confesses. The film's most (unintentionally) amusing moment finds a prison road gang enjoying a pleasant luncheon in the home of sociable heroine Mary Dane (Bernice Claire). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi