Mary Beth Hughes Movies

Lily Becker (Hope Hampton) is the musically talented daughter whose mother forces her into a marriage to the son of a wealthy man. Mistreated by the callous husband, she flees to New York to make it in the music business. She gives birth to a child and attempts suicide when she nearly starves to death for lack of work. A sympathetic young songwriter who has been down the same road takes her in and offers her the benefit of his musical experience. Lily becomes a successful opera singer the very night her husband perishes in a train wreck. She also must overcome the tragic death of her beloved baby. Lily overcomes her misfortunes to become a successful singer. After her husband dies, she is free to pursue romance with the young maestro in this routine melodrama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Lana Turner (a mere 19 years old at the time) stars in this lighthearted musical comedy as Patty Marlow, a dancer fighting her way up the show business ladder. Famous hoofer Freddie Tobin (Lee Bowman) is about to start work on a new movie when his dance partner becomes pregnant and drops out of the project. Press agent Joe Drews (Roscoe Karns) dreams up a publicity stunt to find Freddie's new co-star: he'll stage a contest on college campuses to find a dancer among the student body. However, the contest is merely a ruse, and, when Joe and his cronies spot Patty, they realize she is the perfect girl for the job. Now, they have to pass Patty off as a studious co-ed for the sake of the "contest," which has begun to attract the suspicious attention of student journalist Pug Braddock (Richard Carlson). Artie Shaw and his band perform several numbers (Shaw and Turner would marry two years later), and keep an eye peeled for Veronica Lake in a bit part (she was still known as Constance Keane at the time). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on the Clare Booth Luce play of the same name, this MGM comedy is justly famous for its all-female cast and deft direction by George Cukor. The plot centers on a group of gossipy high-society women who spend their days at the beauty salon and haunting fashion shows. The sweet, happily wedded Mary Haines (Norma Shearer) finds her marriage in trouble when shopgirl Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford) gets her hooks into Mary's man. Naturally, this situation becomes the hot talk amongst Mary's catty friends, especially the scandalmonger Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell), who has little room to talk -- she finds herself on a train to Reno and headed for divorce right after Mary. But with a bit of guts and daring, Mary snatches her man right back from Crystal's clutches. Snappy, witty dialogue, much of it courtesy of veteran screenwriter Anita Loos, helps send this film's humor over the top. So do the characterizations -- Crawford is as venomous as they come, and this was Russell's first chance to show what she could do as a comedienne. And don't discount Shearer -- her portrayal of good-girl Mary is never overpowered by these two far-flashier roles. The only part of The Women that misses is the fashion-show sequence. It was shot in color -- an innovative idea in its day -- but now both the concept and clothes are dreary and archaic. Do keep an eye on the supporting players, though, especially Mary Boland as the Countess DeLage. The role was based on a cafe society dame of that era, the Countess DiFrasso, who had a wild affair with Gary Cooper; that romance is satirized here. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Despite the title, the Cisco Kid (Cesar Romero) doesn't feel too lucky at the beginning of this film. It seems that someone else has been committing crimes while passing himself off as Cisco. The scheme was cooked up by a corrupt judge (Willard Robertson), who hopes to drive the settlers off the land and buy it up himself, all the while placing the blame for the reign of terror on the Kid's shoulders. But with the help of his paunchy pal Gordito (Chris-Pin Martin), our hero puts an end to the skullduggery. As a bonus, he finds time for romance in the arms of gorgeous widow Mrs. Lawrence (Evelyn Venable). Mary Beth Hughes has one of her better earlier roles as a brassy dance-hall doxie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This remake of John Ford's classic WW1 drama Four Sons has been updated to the Europe of the late 1930s. At the time of the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, four sons of German-Czech parentage go off in separate ideological directions. Chris (Don Ameche) remains loyal to the concept of a free Czechoslovakia; Karl (Alan Curtis) embraces the Nazi cause; Joseph (Robert Lowery) heads to America; and the youngest, Fritz (George Ernest), is drafted in the German army and is killed during the Polish campaign. The impact of the original film is somewhat muted here, since the political ramifications of WW2 were far more complex than those of WW1, and also because Archie Mayo isn't as good a director as John Ford. By far the best performance of the film is delivered by the great Russian stage actress Eugene Leontovich, making a rare screen performance as the long-suffering mother of the Four Sons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Free, Blonde and 21 was one of a handful of films directed by former leading man Ricardo Cortez. Two of 20th Century-Fox's busiest leading ladies, Mary Beth Hughes and Lynn Bari, head the cast of this soap opera-style yarn about life in a hotel catering to women. Hughes plays Jerry, a duplicitious wench who gets involved with gangsters ends up behind bars, while Bari plays Carol, an honest lass who is rewarded at fadeout time with a happy marriage to millionaire Dr. Mayberry (Henry Wilcoxon). Joan Davis injects a few moments of hilarity as the hotel chambermaid, while Alan Baxter is his usual steely-eyed self as a stickup man. For its original New York run, Free, Blonde and 21 was paired with Fox's The Grapes of Wrath, leading several reviewers to note that both films would have been better off with a single-feature presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The high batting average of 20th Century-Fox's Michael Shayne detective series remained intact with Blue, White and Perfect. Having prevented his sweetheart Merle Garland (Mary Beth Hughes) from marrying a bigamous fortune-hunter (Ivan Lebedeff), Mike Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) offers to marry the girl himself (at long last!) Merle agrees, but only if Mike gets out of the private-eye racket and takes an honest job. Shayne manages to land a job at an aircraft factory, only to discover that he's been hired to protect the company's valuable supply of industrial diamonds. When the gems are stolen during a highly suspicious break-in, Mike follows the trail of clues to a fancy dress shop managed by one Mr. Hagermann (Henry Victor). Sending his fiancee off on a wild goose chase, Mike trails Hagermann to a Honolulu-bound ocean liner, where he renews an acquaintance with former lady friend Helen Shaw (Helene Reynolds) and is introduced to overly effusive young playboy Juan Arturo O'Hara (George Reeves). Detective-movie logic dictates that at least one of these characters is inextricably linked with the elusive Hagermann-who is no mere diamond thief but a very clever German spy. All sorts of serial-like thrills await Shayne before he manages to uncover the "Mister Big" behind the stolen diamond racket (and it's a real surprise to boot!) Like most of Fox's Michael Shayne series entries, Blue White and Perfect was based not on a "Shayne" novel by Bret Halliday, but on a whodunit originally written for another fictional sleuth: In this instance, the source was a novel by Borden Chase. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cesar Romero plays the Cisco Kid, who may be a bandit but is no kidnapper. This being the case, Cisco and his pal Pancho (Chris-Pin Martin) offer to help round up a vicious frontier kidnapping ring. The leaders turn out to be several solid citizens of a western town, but Cisco knows a rat when he smells one. Mary Beth Hughes plays a saloon girl with whom Cisco dallies before deciding upon good-girl Lynne Roberts. Ride on Vaquero was the last of 20th Century-Fox's Cisco Kid B series, and the last to star Cesar Romero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fourth of 20th Century-Fox's "Michael Shayne" mysteries finds private detective Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) anxiously preparing for his long-delayed marriage to showgirl Joanne La Mar (Mary Beth Hughes). Alas, Mike's pre-nuptual tete-a-tete with Joanne is interrupted by the sound of a scream. Rushing into a well-appointed hotel room, Shayne finds Emily the maid (Virginia Brissac) trembling beside the dead bodies of a washed-up Broadway producer and a faded stage actress. Noodling around the room a bit, our hero discovers that both murder victims had participated in a popular musical comedy some 25 years earlier. A souvenir program from that production provides a lengthy list of potential suspects, sending Shayne off on another clue-hunting expedition, while Joanne fusses and fumes in her apartment. Hired by two of the suspects, Phyllis Lathrop (Mae Beatty) and Julian Davis (Henry Daniell), to locate the real murderer, Mike has a high old time confounding police inspector Pierson (William Demarest) and reconstructing the crime with the reluctant aid of janitors Rusty (Ben Carter) and Sam (Mantan Moreland). This time around, however, Mike is just as surprised as the audience when the "mystery killer" is revealed, and for a few anxious moments it looks like curtains for Mr. Shayne. A dizzying blend of comedy and melodrama, Dressed to Kill benefits from a powerhouse supporting cast and the effectively moody cinematography of Glenn MacWilliams. The film was based on The Dead Take No Bows, a "Quinny Hite" mystery written by Richard Burke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This second entry in 20th Century-Fox's "Michael Shayne" series was a remake of the 1932 Fox romantic drama Sleepers East. In the original, the detective character was peripheral, but this changed once Michael Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) was written in as the leading character. Dogged by persistent girl reporter Kay Bentley (Lynn Bari), private detective Shayne tries his best to secretly escort murder-trial witness Helen Carlson (Mary Beth Hughes) by train from Denver to San Francisco. Helen's testimony will free a man falsely accused of murder, which will also effectively destroy the election chances of a machine politician. Thus, Mike has to protect Helen from any and all likely assassins, including hired torpedo Carl Izzard (Don Costello), who manages to inveigle Kay's wishy-washy fiance Tom Linscott (Don Douglas) into his camp. Meanwhile, the incognito Helen strikes up a clandestine relationship with fellow passenger Everett Jason (Louis-Jean Heydt), who is harboring a few secrets of his own. Based on a story by Frederick Nebel (or "Torchy Blaine" fame), Sleepers West is full of chock-full of fascinating characterizations and startling little surprises, and is considered by many to be the best of Fox's "Michael Shayne" installments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If MGM's Red Skelton could make the mystery/comedy Whistling in the Dark, 20th Century-Fox's Milton Berle could show up in the mystery/comedy Over My Dead Body (Berle's reputation for lifting gags from other comics now extended to lifting plot material). Berle plays a mystery writer who forever writes himself into corners and is never able to finish a story. While visiting his wife (Mary Beth Hughes) at the office where she works, Berle overhears several men discussing the suicide of a coworker. Struck with a brilliant notion, Berle decides to confess to the murder of the dead man, certain that he'll be able to wriggle out of the situation and thereby have plenty of material for a story. Alas, it turns out that the deceased gentleman was murdered, and Berle is nearly sent to the chair. In emulation of the Bob Hope/Willie Best combination in The Ghost Breakers Milton Berle is teamed with a "scared" black elevator operator, played by a superb African-American radio and vaudeville comedian named Wonderful Smith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This now-classic indictment of mob rule was a pet project of both star Henry Fonda and director William Wellman, both of whom agreed to work on lesser 20th Century-Fox projects in exchange for this film. After a hard winter on the range, cowboys Gil Carter (Fonda) and Art Croft (Harry Morgan) ride into a fleabitten small town for a drink. Within minutes, they get mixed up in a barroom brawl, which earns them the animosity of the locals. By and by, word reaches town that a local rancher has been killed by rustlers. With the sheriff out of town, a lynch mob is formed under the leadership of Major Tetley (Frank Conroy), a former Confederate officer who hopes to recapture past glories. Worried that they'll be strung up, Carter and Croft reluctantly join the mob and head out of town. In the dark of night, the group comes across three sleeping transients: a farmer named Martin (Dana Andrews), a Mexican (Anthony Quinn), and a senile old man (Francis Ford). The fact that Martin carries no bill of sale written by the so-called murder victim is evidence enough for Tetley to demand that the three men be hanged on the spot. Carter knows that this is a gross miscarriage of justice, but he's helpless to intervene. Resolving himself to his fate, Martin gives Carter a letter to deliver to his wife. The three unfortunates die at the end of the rope, and the mob rides off, only to discover that there never was a murder of any kind. Based on a novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident is not so much a western as a gothic melodrama, with deep, looming shadows and atmospheric underlighting worthy of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Though the film lost a fortune at the box office (a fact that Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck never tired of pointing out to Fonda and Wellman), it gains in stature with each passing year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In their last starring film, The Ritz Brothers play the Three Funny Bunnies, a trio of nightclub comedians. The plot contrives to have our heroes pose as tough Chicago gangsters, which gets them mixed up with genuine hoodlums Tony (George Zucco) and Joey (Jack LaRue), a sexy pickpocket named Flo (Mary Beth Hughes), and a fortune in stolen jewels. With all this going on, who cares about nominal romantic leads Julie Russell (Frances Langford) and Dick Manning (Stuart Crawford)? There are some cute bits during the film's 60 minutes, and a clever closing gag, but all in all Never a Dull Moment seldom lives up to its title. Even so, the film received better reviews than some of the Ritzes' earlier efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide