Bobby Hyatt Movies

Pinned down by heavy shelling, Saunders (Vic Morrow) is unable to move his men out of their hiding place, even though the Enemy is rapidly descending upon them. Making the situation worse is the fact that Pvt. Billy Nelson (Tom Lowell) has been seriously wounded and is lying near death. The rest of the episode is an unbearably tense game of cat-and-mouse between Americans and Germans, punctuated by horrendous screams. Milwaukee Braves pitcher Warren Spahn appears in an unbilled cameo as a German soldier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Former child actor Dean Stockwell makes his first grown-up appearance in The Careless Years. Stockwell plays a mixed-up high schooler who wishes to marry Natalie Trundy, but the girl's parents (played by John Stephenson and Barbara "June Cleaver" Billingsley) feel the couple should complete school first. Dean and Natalie impulsively run off to elope, while Natalie's anguished parents inaugurate a nationwide search for the wayward kids. Though it is fairly clear that Dean and Natalie have gotten to know each other intimately during their flight, they meekly return home and agree to "wait" until school is out. Careless Years served to introduce promising young actress Natalie Trundy, whose starring career was cut short by an auto accident that kept her off-screen until the late 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Farmer Takes a Wife is a musicalized remake of the 1935 film of the same name. Betty Grable and Dale Robertson star in the roles originally essayed by Janet Gaynor and Henry Fonda. Set in the early 19th century, the plot details the trials and tribulations of those hardy souls who settled along the Erie Canal. Grable plays Molly Larkin, the girlfriend of rough-and-tumble canal-boat captain Jotham Klore (John Carroll). Much to Klore's dismay, she hires mild-mannered farmer Daniel Harrow (Robertson) to work on the boat. Molly and Daniel fall in love and marry, but there's many a heartbreak and letdown before a happy ending can be reached. Though not in any way a "typical" Betty Grable musical, Farmer Takes a Wife was misleadingly advertised as such: one promotional still showed a grinning Grable anachronistically garbed in tight jeans and a bare-midriff blouse! Both versions of The Farmer Takes a Wife were adapted from the stage play by Frank B. Elser and Marc Connelly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not up to the classic 1935 presentation, this is still an excellent adaptation of Victor Hugo's epic novel. The familiar characters of Valjean and Javert and the agonies of injustice are all portrayed convincingly against a backdrop of 18th century France. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

In his second and last Western for Republic Pictures, former bandleader Vaughn Monroe plays a marshal returning to Tombstone with a wanted gun-runner (Victor Jory) when he stumbles upon a woman (Joan Leslie) and a couple of children, apparently the only survivors of an Indian raid on a wagon train. The woman's cowardly husband, a telegrapher (Harry Morgan), had managed to escape and is now helping the gun-runner's siblings (Ian MacDonald and Lee MacGregor) to both free their brother and attack a valuable shipment of silver. When Monroe comes gunning for the bandits, he learns that the supposedly dead husband of the woman he has grown to love is still alive. There is a final shootout and the marshal comes face-to-face with his rival, now a murderer. Learning that her husband is to be tried in Prescott, Leslie loyally leaves to be with him despite the fact that she has fallen in love with Monroe. But, as Monroe's young daughter (Diana Christian) predicts, "she'll be back." In between the action, Monroe finds time to perform "Hound Dog," "Bay at the Moon," "A Man's Best Friend is His Horse," and the ballad "The Man Don't Live Who Can't Die Alone." ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

When I Grow Up is an uncharacteristically modest film from producer Sam Spiegel (during his "S. P. Eagle" years). Bobby Driscoll plays a young boy who feels neglected and misunderstood at home. Preparing to run away, Bobby chances across an old diary once kept by his grandfather (Charley Grapewin). Leafing through the yellowed pages, Bobby discovers that grandpa went through many of the same childhood travails that Bobby is enduring today--and look how well gramps turned out! Armed with a renewed understanding of (and appreciation for) his elders, Bobby decides to stick around for a while and see how things develop. Sadly, such a pat happy ending was not the real-life lot of Bobby Driscoll, who died an alcoholic pauper seventeen years after When I Grow Up was filmed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nick Robey (John Garfield) is a down-on-his-luck two-bit hood, fast on his feet but a little slow on the uptake. His running buddy, Al Molin (Norman Lloyd), does most of the thinking for him, which includes a payroll heist that goes horribly wrong when a cop spots them just as they've slugged the man with the cash. Al is wounded and caught, but Nick manages to get away, shooting the police officer in the process. He remembers Al's last instructions, to act calmly and melt into the crowd, but Nick isn't quite able to do that -- he hides out at a public swimming pool, where he meets Peg Dobbs (Shelley Winters), a nice but shy working girl, and convinces her to let him take her home. Once there, he tries to spend a normal evening, as though he were on a date, while her mother (Selena Royle), father (Wallace Ford), and younger brother (Bobby Hyatt) go out to a movie. But he can't relax, and their return rattles Nick enough so that he pulls his gun and reveals who he is and what he's done. This is one of several miscalculations that Nick makes in the course of holding the family hostage over the next two days. He initially plans on leaving in the morning, but when he discovers that the police officer whom he shot has died, and that they know who he is, he has to stay, letting the Dobbs family go about their business but always keeping at least one of them at home with him as a hostage, to make sure the others don't talk to the police. The family's plight is further complicated by the fact that Peg is truly attracted to him, despite what he's done, and seems willing to risk a great deal to see her family safe and him safely away from their home. She wants to love him, but discovers that someone who can't trust anyone for more than a few seconds at a time -- forget the gun he's always threatening to use -- can't even feel love, much less act on those feelings. Meanwhile, the police dragnet keeps getting tighter, and Peg's father knows he has to act soon to end this situation before the authorities come knocking on his door and Nick starts shooting. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios' best directors, screenwriters and actors; it is narrated by Louis Calhern. Stories are framed by the lecture of a university professor. In one tale a Boston resident becomes angry when the census forgets to record her presence. Another sketch chronicles the achievements of African Americans while still another pays tongue-in-cheek tribute to Texas. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Another interesting effort from independent Enterprise Productions, No Minor Vices stars recent French import Louis Jourdan. Into the staid, conservative lives of pediatrician Perry Ashwell (Dana Andrews) and his wife April (Lilli Palmer) comes the flamboyantly eccentric Greenwich Village artist Otavio Quaglini (Jourdan). Insisting upon sketching the hidden "inner selves" of the Ashwells, Quaglini causes nothing but disharmony and dissension between Perry and April. Conversely, the artist's visit has a positive effect on Ashwell's lovelorn assistants Miss Darlington (Jane Wyatt) and Dr. Sturdivant (Norman Lloyd). No Minor Vices doesn't always work, but it's fun to watch Louis Jourdan plug his way through a role that Burgess Meredith or Hans Conried could have played blindfolded. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this faithful remake of Blind Alley (1939), psychoanalyst Andrew Collins (Lee J. Cobb), his wife, his son, and some friends are taken hostage by escaped murderer Al Walker (William Holden) and his gang, including girlfriend Betty (Nina Foch). Collins, an advocate of rehabilitating criminals through psychiatry, induces his captor to talk about himself through the course of the night. By calmly and methodically piecing together the strands of the killer's unconscious motivation, Collins rids Walker of his literally murderous rage and prevents a massacre. Shrinks who practice in the noir universe are frequently painted as absurdly omnipotent. When not using their power for evil, like Dr. Cross (Vincent Price) in Aubrey Schenck's Shock (1949), they may be capable, like the benign Dr. Collins, of miracle cures. A more complex depiction of an unrealistically powerful, but ambiguously motivated, psychiatrist can be seen in Joseph Losey's The Sleeping Tiger (1954). In that British film, Dr. Clive Esmond (Alexander Knox) cures a criminal in a few short months but destroys his own marriage in the process. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide

An exemplary "Red Ryder" Western, Stagecoach to Denver features Red (Allan Lane), his aunt, the Duchess (Martha Wentworth), and Little Beaver (Bobby Blake) caring for Dickie Ray (Bobby Hyatt), a young child who has broken his back in a stagecoach collision that also took the life of Land Commissioner Felton (Edward Cassidy). Unbeknownst to the people of Elkhorn, stage owner Big Bill Lambert (Roy Barcroft) had arranged the "accident" in order to get rid of the pesky land commissioner who threatened to ruin his plans for controlling all communication between Elkhorn and Denver. Little Dickie requires an operation but Doc Kimball (Tom Chatterton) needs the consent from his nearest relative, Denver resident May Barnes (Marin Sais), whom the boy has never met. Since she is scheduled to arrive on the same stage as the new land commissioner, Taylor (Tom Chatterton), Aunt May poses a problem for Big Bill, who has them both kidnapped and replaced with his own people, Wally (Stanley Price) and Beautiful (Peggy Stewart). The latter feels sorry for little Dickie and is ready to bail but Big Bill forces her to go through with the deception. The boy survives his operation, of course, and Big Bill's treachery is eventually revealed. But Beautiful pays a rather heavy price for her part of the deception when she takes a bullet meant for Bobby. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide