Josephine Hutchinson Movies
After making her first film appearance at age 13, Josephine Hutchinson attended the Cornish School of Music and Drama. A leading Broadway actress of the late 1920s, Hutchinson was most closely associated with the title role in Eva Le Gailliene's Civic Repertory Company production of Alice in Wonderland. Her impeccable credentials notwithstanding, Hutchinson's earliest movie publicity emphasized the fact that hers was the longest name of any movie leading lady. She spent most of her first filmmaking decade at Warner Bros., acting opposite Dick Powell, Pat O'Brien, and, in The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), Paul Muni. At Universal, she played the wife of Basil Rathbone in The Son of Frankenstein (1939), an experience she cherished primarily because of the warm camaraderie between her co-stars Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Lionel Atwill. Josephine Hutchinson worked steadily in films and television into the 1970s, most often playing firm, forceful elderly women. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideSet in the early 1900s, Adventure in Baltimore is a romantic comedy about the woman's suffrage movement. Shirley Temple plays a student at an exclusive girl's school who "sees the light" and begins campaigning for women's rights. This doesn't sit well with her minister father (Robert Young) nor with Temple's boyfriend (John Agar, then married to Temple). Eventually, Temple's dad is won over to his daughter's point of view, and delivers an impassioned sermon on tolerance and individual rights for the edification of the hidebound townspeople. Like most of Shirley Temple's "grown up" films, Adventure in Baltimore was a disappointment at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Young, Shirley Temple, (more)
Adapted by Horton Foote from his own play The Travelling Lady, Baby the Rain Must Fall stars Steve McQueen as a troube-prone country singer and Lee Remick as his estranged wife. Released on parole after serving time for knifing a man, McQueen returns to Remick and their young daughter Kimberly Block. When he proves incapable of supporting his family, McQueen's violent nature erupts once more, with catastrophic results. Don Murray costars as a compassionate sheriff who tries to keep McQueen from straying off course. Though it seems to go on forever when seen today, Baby the Rain Must Fall was praised effusively by the critics in 1965 as a welcome change of pace for action star Steve McQueen; The film would make an interesting companion feature for the strikingly similar Horton Foote project Tender Mercies (1983). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Remick, Steve McQueen, (more)
Carol Lawson plays Etta, an unwed mother determined to carve out a decent life for her son Scott (Michael-James Wixted). When she learns she is dying, Etta asks her long-estranged parents to look after Scott-but her stern and merciless father Zac (Will Geer) is unwilling to do so. Josephine Hutchinson rounds out the supporting cast as Etta's mother Martha. David Rose's evocative musical score won him an Emmy Award. Originally shown on November 8, 1970, "The Love Child" was written and directed by Bonanza star Michael Landon, who in 1985 reworked the story as "A Child of God," an episode of his later series Highway to Heaven. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
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)
Having inherited a huge cattle ranch from his late father, Will Keough (Fred MacMurray) wants nothing more than to tend to his work and live in peace, but this is made impossible by the tense situation in his own household. Will's two younger brothers, Bless (Jeffrey Hunter) and Hade (Dean Stockwell), are as different as night and day: Convinced that he was responsible for the death of his father, Bless refuses to use a gun, and is thus branded a coward; conversely, Hade is wild and reckless, literally an accident waiting to happen. Exacerbating the situation is the brothers' grim and merciless mother (Josephine Hutchinson), who has instilled most of Bless' guilt feelings, and Will's sweetheart Aud Niven (Janice Rule), who finds herself drawn to the sensitive Bless. Ultimately, there will have to be a showdown...but who among the Keogh siblings will survive? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred MacMurray, Jeffrey Hunter, (more)
Josephine Hutchinson is a beautiful heiress bored by her stifling lifestyle. She bolts her family mansion on New Years' Eve and heads for a boisterous nightclub, where she meets blue-collar worker Dick Powell. Hutchinson pretends to be poor, and soon she and Powell are pitching woo. Powell has ambitions to go into business for himself, so Josephine secretly pulls strings to help him get ahead. But when Powell finds out, he renounces the girl and breaks up the relationship. Hutchinson returns to a loveless engagement with a society type, but her father has grown fond of Powell and arranges a reconciliation. Happiness Ahead isn't exactly a musical, though Dick Powell does sing the title song during the opening credits and later introduces the Warner Bros. cartoon perennial "Pop Goes Your Heart." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Powell, Frank McHugh, (more)
In this drama, two childhood sweethearts endure the first pains of adult love. The young lady is beginning to feel frustrated because her beau has been spending too much time building gliders. When his uncle is visited by a cute, and flirtatious older friend, the precocious lass begins dating him. She is soon to discover that the sophisticated gent has much more than the innocent pleasures of dating upon his mind. Oh my! ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Cooper, Jane Withers, (more)
In this drama, the big city wife of a small town doctor learns a valuable lesson as she struggles to adapt to rural life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Josephine Hutchinson, (more)
With her 80th birthday approaching, Miss Amy Hearn (Josephine Hutchinson) begins to brood over her mortality, especially after the death of a close friend. She also frets over the possibility that her family has forgotten all about her. With the help of the Ingalls family, Miss Amy fakes her own death and transforms her birthday party into a wake -- just to make sure that her loved ones will show up. Series co-star Victor French directed this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, (more)
Though completed in 1950, Love Is Better Than Ever was held back from release until 1952, due in great part to the "political undesirability" of star Larry Parks, whose career was effectively ruined after he humbled himself before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Parks plays Broadway talent agent Jud Parker, who takes a fancy to small-town dance teacher Anastacia Macaboy (Elizabeth Taylor). Parker wines and dines Anastacia during her visit to New York for the purposes of seduction. But the girl assumes that his intentions are honorable, and sends word of her "impending" engagement to her hometown newspaper. With his reputation on the line, Parker agrees to confirm the engagement if asked, with the understanding that he doesn't really mean it. Rest assured that by fade-out time, he will mean it. Gene Kelly makes an unbilled cameo appearance in Love Is Better Than Ever, which also features such reliables as Ann Doran, Kathleen Freeman, and Dick Wessel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry Parks, Elizabeth Taylor, (more)
Packaged and sold as an outdoor actioner, Many Rivers to Cross is as much a comedy as anything else. Robert Taylor stars as 18th century trapper Bushrod Gentry, who is himself entrapped into marriage by the spunky Mary Stuart Cherne (Eleanor Parker). Escaping his marital responsibilities (which were impressed upon him on threat of death), Gentry heads into the North Country, with Mary in hot pursuit. Hero and heroine spend the rest of the picture taking turns rescuing each other from hostile Indians. Some of the humor is predicated upon the wholesale slaughter of the "redskins", and as such is a bit hard to take when seen today. Supporting Taylor and Parker are Victor McLaglen as the heroine's burly father, and TV-stars-to be James Arness (Gunsmoke) and Russell Johnson and Alan Hale Jr. (Gilligan's Island). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, (more)
The fate that brings lovers together can easily tear them apart as can be seen in this sentimental tragedy that centers on an ordinary-looking secretary's (Jane Wyman) lonely life. Other than working and spending some free time with a spinster (Eileen Heckart), who is her best friend, the woman devotes most of her time attempting to cheer up her deeply depressed, eternally grieving mother, who has never recovered from her husband's leaving her. One day the secretary is in Central Park when a cloudburst occurs and she ends up meeting a handsome young soldier from Tennessee (Van Johnson). Although they couldn't be more different, they fall deeply in love. Unfortunately, he goes overseas and gets killed. The poor secretary nearly falls apart both mentally and physically. She seems near death when one day she is walking near St. Patrick's Cathedral when a second miracle occurs, giving her the will to live again. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Wyman, Van Johnson, (more)
In this depressing drama, even though she is an adult, the eldest daughter of a hillbilly clan headed by a brutal patriarch still must endure his vicious beatings. Finally her mother and other friends counsel her to leave the hills. She does and ends up in New York where she enrolls in nursing classes. While studying, she also meets the dashing young attorney who helped convict her father of a shooting several months before. After graduating, she returns home to assist a doctor in a free clinic. Unfortunately, her father will not let her back into the family home, which causes her no pain at all. When the ruthless father begins attempting to sell off her younger sister as a child bride, the nurse comes to her aide. A fight ensues between father and daughter culminating in the father's accidental death. Her beau defends her in court, but she is sentenced to 25 years in prison anyway. Unfortunately, the locals are angered by the killing and decide to get their own revenge and lynch her. Fortunately, the lawyer saves her and bundles her on a plane and gets her away from there. This film is adapted from a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josephine Hutchinson, George Brent, (more)
Adapted from the novel by Howard Spring, My Son My Son stars Brian Aherne as a self-made success determined to give his son the lavish upbringing he himself was denied. Not surprisingly, the son (Louis Hayward) grows up spoiled rotten, causing grief and pain to everyone who loves him. The limit comes when the boy tries to steal his father's lady friend (Madeline Carroll). When World War I breaks out, the son displays the noble streak that he has hidden so long by dying a hero's death. Its uplifting ending at odds with the darker denouement of the original novel, My Son My Son is high-class soap opera made workable by the multilevelled performances of Brian Aherne and Louis Hayward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Carroll, Brian Aherne, (more)
Henry Hathaway's film is based on a character from Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers, who, in turn, based it on cowboy actor Ken Maynard. Set in the West of the 1890s, the film opens with the torture and murder of the parents of Max Sand (Steve McQueen) by a trio of gunslingers seemingly motivated by their hostility toward the mixed nature of the marriage, since the wife is a Native American. Swearing revenge, the young cowhand enlists the help of itinerant gunsmith Jonas Cord Brian Keith, who teaches him how to shoot while counseling against revenge. Nonetheless, Sand doggedly scours one town after the other before finally running up against one of the murderers, Jesse Coe (Martin Landau). He finally kills Coe in a vicious knife fight, but is severely wounded himself and has to be nursed back to health by Neesa (Janet Margolin), a young Kiowa woman. He next heads for Louisiana where another of the murderous trio, Bill Bowdre (Arthur Kennedy), is serving a prison sentence in a remote swamp. In order to get close to the man, Sand stages a robbery, and is soon among the prison inmates. This was the only film on which McQueen worked with Landau, the only other person admitted to the Actor's Studio out of thousands of applicants in 1957. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, (more)
While having lunch at the Plaza Hotel in New York, advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) has the bad luck to call for a messenger just as a page goes out for a "George Kaplan." From that moment, Thornhill finds that he has stepped into a nightmare -- he is quietly abducted by a pair of armed men out of the hotel's famous Oak Room and transported to a Long Island estate; there, he is interrogated by a mysterious man (James Mason) who, believing that Roger is George Kaplan, demands to know what he knows about his business and how he has come to acquire this knowledge. Roger, who knows nothing about who any of these people are, can do nothing but deny that he is Kaplan or that he knows what they're talking about. Finally, his captors force a bottle of bourbon into Roger and put him behind the wheel of a car on a dangerous downhill stretch. Through sheer luck and the intervention of a police patrol car and its driver (John Beradino), Roger survives the ride and evades his captors, and is booked for drunk driving. He's unable to persuade the court, the county detectives, or even his own mother (Jesse Royce Landis) of the truth of his story, however -- Thornhill returns with them to the mansion where he was held, only to find any incriminating evidence cleaned up and to learn that the owner of the house is a diplomat, Lester Townsend (Philip Ober), assigned to the United Nations. He backtracks to the hotel to find the room of the real George Kaplan, only to discover that no one at the hotel has ever actually seen the man. With his kidnappers once again pursuing him, Thornhill decides to confront Townsend at the United Nations, only to discover that he knows nothing of the events on Long Island, or his house being occupied -- but before he can learn more, Townsend gets a knife in his back in full view of 50 witnesses who believe that Roger did it. Now on the run from a murder charge, complete with a photograph of him holding the weapon plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the country, Thornhill tries to escape via train -- there he meets the cooly beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who twice hides him from the police, once spontaneously and a second time in a more calculated rendezvous in her compartment that gets the two of them together romantically, at least for the night. By the next day, he's off following a clue to a remote rural highway, where he is attacked by an armed crop-dusting plane, one of the most famous scenes in Hitchcock's entire film output. Thornhill barely survives, but he does manage to learn that his mysterious tormentor/interrogator is named Phillip Vandamm, and that he goes under the cover of being an art dealer and importer/exporter, and that Eve is in bed with him in every sense of the phrase -- or is she? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, (more)
This drama about corporate treachery was based on the best-selling novel by Alice Tisdale Hobart. Stephen Chase (Pat O'Brien) is a salesman and inventor with an American oil company who is sent to China to reach that nation's untapped market. While Stephen is often told that his company looks after their own and he's selflessly devoted to his job, it becomes evident with time that they're treating him with disrespect. After his fiancée leaves him, Stephen marries a woman he's only just met, Hester (Josephine Hutchinson), because he's already arranged to bring a wife to China. Stephen has designed a new kerosene lamp for the Chinese market, but his rival Swaley (William B. Davidson) is given credit for the product. When Stephen is transferred to another part of China, he accepts even though his wife is expecting a baby; the physical toll of the journey causes Hester to lose the child. Stephen and Hester become close to another American couple, Don and Alice Wellman (John Eldredge and Jean Muir), but when Stephen is ordered to fire Don, he unhesitatingly agrees. After communist forces nationalize the oil firm's holdings, Stephen risks his life to protect $15,000 in company funds. But when he is released from the hospital, Stephen learns that instead of being rewarded, he's been demoted -- and another man was promoted in his place. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Josephine Hutchinson, (more)
Summoned to a small California mountain community by his client Iris McKay (Enid James), detective Paul Drake (William Hopper) is prompty arrested for the crime of being clean-shaven; it seems that it is "Pioneer Week", and every male in town is required to wear a false beard! Once this matter is cleared up, Paul gets down to business, attempting to locate nearly $34,000 that had been embezzled from the local bank by its former president Fred Swan (Russ Conway), who has returned to town after being released from prison. Paul ultimately finds the money--and also Swan's dead body. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) arrives on the scene to defend poor Iris on a murder charge. Watch for a pre-Batman Adam West in the supporting cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Corning Company employee Susan Fisher (Kathie Browne) begins to suspect there's skullduggery afoot involving one of the company's holdings, the supposedly played-out Mojave Monarch Mine. Things get curiouser and curiouser when a woman claiming to be company owner Amelia Corning shows up, grabs two huge satchels of money, and then disappears--only to be followed by another woman, who insists that SHE is Amelia Corning. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is brought into the case when Paul Drake (William Hopper) is arrested while investigating the highly suspicious goings-on. Ultimately, the Mojave Mine's foreman Ken Lowry (Michael Harvey) is murdered, and Perry must defend the primary suspect--which brings us full-circle to Susan Fisher again! This episode is based on a novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
There's no shortage of suspects when vitriolic society columnist Mary K. Davis (Marian Seldes) is murdered. Even so, the police charge the dead woman's nurse Leona Walsh (Josephine Hutchinson) with the crime...mainly because Leona has given a full confession to DA Hamilton Burger (William Talman). Inasmuch as Leona's lawyer is Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), she is of course not guilty, but Perry has a tough time proving it--and to make matters worse, Burger intends to discredit Mason in court by calling his secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale) to the stand to testify that her boss has tampered with the evidence! This episode is based on a 1957 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
On probation for car theft, young Jimmy Morrow (Peter Miles) tries his best to "go straight", only to be accused of stealing a priceless Spanish cross. Worse still, Jimmy is charged with the murder of the relic's owner, Curtis Runyan (Donald Randolph). Out of sympathy for Jimmy's beleagured parents, Perry (Raymond Burr) agrees to handle the boy's defense. (Trivia note: Peter Miles is the brother of actress Gigi Perreau, who'd played Perry's client in the first-season episode "The Case of the Desperate Daughter".) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A young married couple struggle with their personal problems and their union and the forthcoming birth oftheir unwanted child in this grim domestic drama. Much of the story centers on the husband, a former high school basketball star who is unable to leave the glory days behind and fashion a future for himself and his wife. Though pregnant, the wife is constantly drunk and the two constantly bicker. One night, they have row and the husband takes off to stay with his now-impoverished former coach thereby setting the stage for further turmoil and tragedy. The plot for Rabbit, Run is based on a John Updike novel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Caan, Anjanette Comer, (more)
Jennifer Jones offers a virtual reprise of her sultry performance in Duel in the Sun as the titular heroine of Ruby Gentry. Born into a poor-white-trash Southern family, Ruby intends to improve her lot by marrying into wealth. Her casual beau Boake Tackman (Charlton Heston) considers Ruby unfit for marriage, but prosperous businessman Jim Gentry (Karl Malden) is eager and willing to make her his wife. Gentry dies in an accident, and the consensus of opinion is that he was killed by the covetous Ruby. For some reason, this turns Boake on, and he renews his torrid romance with the widow Gentry. Ruby's crazed brother, Jewel (James Anderson), puts an end to this affair with a shotgun, provoking a violent response from Ruby and a "Lady or the Tiger" ending. Produced independently by director King Vidor and Joseph Bernhard, Ruby Gentry was released in the U.S. by 20th Century Fox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jones, Charlton Heston, (more)
In this musical drama, a popular rock star leads a successful and happy life while his grandfather, a stern, traditional preacherman admonishes the lad for his sinful existence. The young man is filled with guilt and after the old reverend dies, becomes a preacher himself. But try as he might, he simply cannot bring his heart into his words. A wise aunt counsels him and tells him that his talent came from God and that he should use it. Songs include: "Rock of Ages," "Sing, Boy, Sing," "Gonna Talk with My Lord," "Who Baby?" "Crazy 'Cause I Love You," "Bundle of Dreams," "Your Daddy Wants to Do Right," "Just a Little Bit More," "That's All I Want from You," "People in Love," "Soda-Pop Song," "Would I Love You." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Sands, Lili Gentle, (more)


















