Ray Hyke Movies

This colorful musical comedy was obviously inspired by the success of Broadway's South Pacific. Army Captain Bill Willoby (William Lundigan) is ordered to make sure that his men do not fraternize with the girls at a South Sea island base. His mission is forgotten when he himself falls in love with Diana Forrester (Jane Greer), the daughter of a local missionary. The fun begins when a native girl (Mitzi Gaynor) is offered to the captain as a goodwill gift by island chieftain Jilouili(!) Naturally, there's a major breakdown in protocol, quite similar to the one found in John Patrick's 1954 Broadway hit Teahouse of the August Moon. Featured in the cast as a woman-hungry lieutenant is Jack Paar, which is why this film got so much TV play in the 1960s. The incidental songs in Down Among the Sheltering Palms were written by Harold Arlen and Ralph Blane. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Cagney signed on to play Captain Flagg in 20th Century Fox's 1952 remake of the 1926 classic What Price Glory after being told that the old property was being converted into a musical. By the time Cagney learned that Fox had no intention of adding songs and dances to the venerable Maxwell Anderson/Laurence Stallings stage piece, it was too late to pull out, so he decided to grin (sometimes) and bear it. Under the direction of John Ford, the potent anti-war message of the original play is blunted, while the drunken rowdiness of Capt. Flagg and his friendly enemy Sergeant Quirt (Dan Dailey) was played for all it was worth and then some. Much of the brawling is over the affections of vivacious barmaid Charmaine, played by Corinne Calvet. Contrasting the rough-hewn hijinks of Flagg, Quirt and their fellow Marines on the fields and in the villages of World War I-era France is the doomed romance between private Robert Wagner and French lass Marisa Pavan. (Why does Wagner get to sing, while Cagney and Dailey do not?) Barry Norton, who played Wagner's role in the original What Price Glory? appears in the remake as a priest. Norton is unbilled, as are such familiar faces as Harry Morgan, Paul Fix, Henry Kulky, and John Ford "regulars" Dan Borzage and Bill Henry. Falling well short of classic status, the Technicolor remake of What Price Glory? is kept alive by the marvelous roughneck rapport between James Cagney and Dan Dailey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this World War II drama, Richard Widmark plays Lt. Cmdr. John Lawrence, a strict navy commander assigned to replace the popular senior officer of a group of underwater demolition divers -- better known as frogmen. Lawrence tightens the discipline of this brave but fiercely independent group of underwater warriors, winning few friends in the process. The unpopular officer proves his worth in front of his men by neutralizing a live torpedo at the risk of his own life. The principal attraction of The Frogmen is its underwater photography, which would have been twice as effective in black-and-white. An intelligent, low-key wartime adventure, The Frogmen is weakened only by the excessive "Brooklynese" comedy of Harvey Lembeck. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If one is a subscriber to cable TV's American Movie Classics, it is virtually impossible to avoid seeing the John Wayne starrer Operation Pacific; judging by the frequency of its showings, the film must be someone's very special favorite down at AMC. Set during WW II, the film casts Wayne as Duke Gifford, two-fisted submarine commander. Patricia Neal co-stars as Mary Stuart, Duke's former wife. Duke's hopes of staging a reconciliation are constantly interrupted by a series of life-threatening circumstances, capped by the rescue of a group of orphans from a Japanese-held island. Featured in the cast are old John Wayne cronies Ward Bond and Jack Pennick, as well as TV's future Jim Bowie, Scott Forbes. Operation Pacific might prove a fascinating companion feature to 1964's In Harm's Way, which reteamed John Wayne and Patricia Neal in another WW II Navy yarn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in British Columbia but filmed in Colorado, Cariboo Trail stars Randolph Scott as a cattle-drive boss from Montana. Crooked Victor Jory and his minions stampede the cattle, causing Scott's partner Bill Williams to lose an arm. Out of a job, Scott gives gold mining a try, but even here he is tormented by Jory. The villain is hoist on his own petard when he tries to stir up the local Indian tribes. Proving that the good guys don't always win, Scott gives up mining and turns to cattle ranching. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A pioneering film about racial tensions, No Way Out stars Richard Widmark as a criminal named Ray Biddle, who despises African-Americans. Sidney Poitier (in his screen debut) is the black doctor, Luther Brooks, assigned to take care of the wounded Ray. Dr. Brooks, hired by the police hospital as part of an overall program to integrate the staff, keeps his temper in check as Ray spouts his racist invective. When Ray's brother, also wounded, dies in the hospital, the blustering bigot holds Dr. Brooks responsible and sends word to his gang to wreak vengeance on the city's black community. But the blacks turn the tables on the whites and fight them off. Ray then breaks out of the hospital with Dr. Brooks as hostage. His plans to kill the doctor are thwarted by Ray's girlfriend (Linda Darnell), who finally becomes fed up with his blind hatred. No Way Out was considered potent stuff in 1950; it was still regarded as a hot potato in 1962, when NBC dropped plans to telecast the film on "Saturday Night at the Movies." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fabled 19th-century clashes between U.S. Marines and the pirates of Tripoli have provided story material for dozens of films. Tripoli stars John Payne as two-fisted marine lieutenant O'Bannon, though top billing is bestowed upon Maureen O'Hara as Countess D'Arneau, who has come to Tripoli hoping to wed a local prince. Also appearing is Howard Da Silva as Captain Demetrios, leader of a band of mercenaries who sell their loyalties to the highest bidder. After a great deal of byplay between the three stars, the action comes thick and fast as the marines and the pirates "have at" each other. Tripoli's strongest selling card is the Technicolor cinematography of James Wong Howe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy", She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is the only one of the three to be lensed in Technicolor. In an Oscar-calibre performance, 42-year old John Wayne plays sixtyish Cavalry Captain Nathan Brittles. In his last days before his compulsory retirement, Brittles must face the possibility of a full-scale attack from the Arapahos, fomented by the recent defeat of Custer and by double-dealing Indian agents. After a series of minor victories and major frustrations, Brittles decides to ride into the Arapaho camp, there to smoke a pipe of peace with his old friend, Chief Pony That Walks (Chief John Big Tree). Before he leaves, he is presented with his retirement present by his troops: a pocket watch, with the inscription "Lest We Forget"(Wayne's playing of this scene, barely holding back tears as he adjusts his spectacles to read the inscription, is one of his finest moments on film). Brittles is able to forestall an Indian attack, just in time for his official retirement. The film really ends here, but there are two more potential climaxes before the words THE END dissolve into view. The patchiness of the Frank Nugent/Lawrence Stallings screenplay (attributal to the fact that it is adapted from two different short stories) prevents She Wore a Yellow Ribbon from reaching the same lofty heights as the Ford/Wayne collaborations Fort Apache (1947) and Rio Grande (1949). The gratuitous offscreen narration of Irving Pichel is also rather distracting. Even so, Wayne's flawless performance, coupled with the supporting contributions of Ford's stock company (John Agar, Harry Carey Jr., Victor McLaglen et al) and the Academy Award-winning photography by Winston C. Hoch, automatically elevates She Wore a Yellow Ribbon to classic status. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paramount's Pine-Thomas production unit was afforded a larger budget than usual for Captain China. The title character, played by John Payne, is a ship's captain whose embittered behavior after losing his lady love seemingly leads to tragedy. Accused of deliberately scuttling his ship during a typhoon, Captain China hopes to clear himself by signing on as a common seaman on a vessel captain by his former first mate Brendensen (Jeffrey Lynn). There's no love lost between the two men, and their mutual animosity is intensified when both fall in love with beautiful passenger Kim Mitchell (Gail Russell). During a second storm, the strengths and weaknesses of both men are brought to the forefront, leading to a satisfactory conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Garfield, in the best performance of his career, portrays Joe Morse, an ambitious attorney who has long since abandoned his scruples in favor of monetary reward. Morse now represents the interests of crime boss Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts), who plans to take over the numbers racket in New York. Morse has devised a way of doing this legally and above-board, with no violence: Tucker's people will bring about the collapse of the illegal numbers racket in the city, using a race track-betting scam that will bankrupt the small-time underworld numbers banks; an investigation will ensue, along with a call for a legal numbers operation in the form of a lottery, which Tucker will control through Morse's machinations. The whole plan hinges on Morse's estranged brother, Leo (Thomas Gomez), a small-time numbers banker who is to be shielded from the collapse, and who will serve as the "legitimate" front for Tucker. Leo is the flaw in the plan, however, because not only can't he stand the sight of Joe, but he is also too honest to participate in the plan -- he doesn't want his employees, all decent people just looking to earn a living, forced into the employ of real gangsters. Joe orchestrates a series of police raids that force Leo into his corner, and Joe's plan seems to be working out, but then the whole enterprise is threatened when a rival mob, run by Tucker's former Prohibition-era partner, Fico (Paul Fix), starts pressuring Leo, trying to get to Joe and Tucker. Fico and his men aren't any different from Tucker's mob, except that they're prepared to start shooting sooner to get what they want. Tucker decides to hang tough and expects everyone, including Leo, to do the same, even when Fico starts sending thugs around to frighten everyone. Soon Joe is beset by problems on three fronts -- he wants his brother out of Tucker's combination and safe; he is trying to romance Leo's bookkeeper (Beatrice Pearson), who is too nice a girl for who he is; and his own well-being is threatened by both Fico and Tucker, and a state investigator who has already tapped the phone of Joe's otherwise respectable partner. All of these threads are pulled together in the final section of the film, which is as violent and disturbing, yet poetic and graceful a resolution as any crime film of the 1940s ever delivered. Force of Evil was star-crossed almost from the start, as many of the people involved, including star John Garfield and director Abraham Polonsky (a writer making his debut behind the camera, with help from assistant director Don Weis in doing the camera set-ups and blocking), were suspect at the time for their leftist political views. Indeed, the company that made Force of Evil, Enterprise Productions, was also in trouble for the leftist leanings of its films in the midst of the Red Scare, and went out of business just as the movie was finished -- dropped by United Artists and picked up by MGM, of all studios, Force of Evil made it into theaters during Christmas week of 1948, not the ideal schedule for something as grim (albeit great) as this film was. As it turned out, it was Polonsky's last chance to direct for more than 20 years, and Garfield's last completely successful film. And a movie that should have been a triumph for all concerned ended up a cult favorite. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

That Lady in Ermine tells two parallel stories, both taking place in the small Mittel-European duchy of Bergamo, but one set in the 19th century and the other in the 16th. In 1861, the Countess Angelina (Betty Grable) and her newlywed husband, Baron Mario, have just entered the bridal chamber when a Hungarian army regiment under the command of Colonel Teglash (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) invades. Mario flees the castle, leaving Angelina to face the invaders, just as her 16th --century ancestor Francesca (also Betty Grable) was forced to protect her turf under similar circumstances. Colonel Teglash is struck by a portrait of Francesca (the lady in ermine of the title), and the resemblance between her and Angelina makes it difficult for him to rule with his customary iron fist. Meanwhile, Francesca haunts the dreams of both Angelina and Teglash. She appears to advise Angelina to pretend interest in the colonel and then kill him, much as she herself did so many years ago. At the same time, Teglash dreams that Francesca/Angelina overcomes the desire to kill him and falls in love with him. The 19th-century couple play out their story against the backdrop of Francesca's own tale, but with the twist that Angelina really does find herself caring for Teglash. Although the direction is credited to Ernst Lubitsch, he died after 8 days of filming; the film was completed by Otto Preminger. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide