Robert Emmett Keane Movies

In this crime drama, mobsters swear to get revenge upon a zealous public prosecutor as he tries to get them put into prison. The desperate mobsters try to stop him by using his innocent daughter in a blackmail scheme. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Lana Turner stars as an ambitious model who seeks her fortune in New York City. She is befriended by over-the-hill cover-girl Ann Dvorak, whose performance carries the story until she commits suicide twenty minutes into the film. Turner promises herself that she won't end up burned out like Dvorak, but as her fame grows, she is inexorably drawn into the hectic social whirl that sealed Dvorak's doom. Enjoying the favors of wealthy Ray Milland, Turner seeks out Milland's wife (Margaret Phillips), hoping to convince the woman to give up her husband. When she meets the crippled Mrs. Milland, Turner is made painfully aware of the length and breadth of the woman's love for her husband. Turner pulls out of the relationship, and we are encouraged to believe that hers will be a much happier and more fulfilling life than that of the unfortunate Ann Dvorak (ironically, in real life Ann Dvorak's final days were relatively contented ones, while Lana Turner spent her twilight years wondering where the looks, the men and the money had gone). Though not so noted in the credits, A Life of Her Own was inspired by The Abiding Vision, a novel by Rebecca West. Bronislau Kaper's musical score was later recycled for the 1951 MGM romantic drama Invitation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a local citizen, miffed by the mayor's new milk tax, buys his own cow. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A remake of Wife, Husband and Friend (1938), Everybody Does It is a frantic satire of the opera world. Businessman Paul Douglas is forced to suffer in silence when his wife (Celeste Holm) decides to become an opera star. Compelled to bankroll a concert for his missus, Douglas meets genuine opera diva Linda Darnell at the concert. While passing the time, Darnell discovers that Douglas in fact has a magnificent singing voice. Partly because he is flattered by Darnell's attentions, and partly to show up his wife, Douglas embarks on his own operatic career. But on the night of his debut, Douglas suffers a severe attack of stage fright, gets "doped up" on medicine in order to survive the performance, and hilariously humiliates himself in front of everyone. Darnell l angrily stalks out of the scene, and the sadder-but-wiser Douglas and Celeste Holm return to each other's arms. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in the 1920s and 1930s, 20th Century-Fox's You're My Everything borrows elements from several true-life showbiz stories, include the rise to fame of Fox's own Shirley Temple. Vaudeville hoofer Timothy O'Connor (Dan Dailey) sweeps proper New England gal Hannah Adams (Anne Baxter) off her feet. Hannah joins O'Connor's act, eventually soaring to popularity as a silent-film star. When talkies come in, Hannah is finished, but her precocious daughter Jane (played by Shirley Temple sound-alike Shari Robinson) becomes America's sweetheart. Musical highlights include the title song, "The Good Ship Lollipop" (featuring Dan Dailey in politically incorrect blackface), and one new number, "I Want to be Teacher's Pet." Featured in the supporting cast are Alan Mowbray as a bombastic director and Buster Keaton in an unbilled guest shot. In his autobiography, Keaton recalled that he came onto the set, dropped a tray full of dishes, performed a pratfall, and collected $1000, without ever knowing what the film was about! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Republic's Trucolor "special" Susanna Pass stars Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, King and Queen of the West. Rogers plays "himself," while Evans is cast as female doctor Kay Parker. The villains this time around are trying to force a fish hatchery owner out of business so they can drill for underwater oil. The film's action content never impedes its musical highlights (and vice versa); among the vocal contributors are Estrelita Rodriguez (who figures prominently in one of the cliff-hanging action setpieces) and Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage. Susanna Pass represented the on-screen reteaming of Rogers and Evans, after several attempts by Republic to link up their Number One cowboy star with other leading ladies. Surprising, Rogers isn't teamed with a comical sidekick, though Estrelita Rodriguez is admittedly pretty funny as a flirtatious senorita. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of Monogram's "Father" series was Henry, the Rainmaker, assembled in a fast seven days. Raymond Walburn stars as Henry Latham, an average family man who is galvanized into entering a mayoral race over the issue of garbage disposal. When incumbent mayor Colton (played by Walburn's lifelong friend Walter Catlett) solves this issue himself, Henry turns his attentions to the current water shortage. His efforts to become a rainmaker prove cataclysmic, to say the least. Henry, the Rainmaker did well enough on the neighborhood-house circuit to warrant a sequel, Leave it to Henry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Allan "Rocky" Lane western offers nothing new under the sun. Lane's fans expected nonstop action, and that's what they got. Our hero is called upon to halt a series of gold-shipment robberies. Someone is supplying the crooks with routing information, enabling them to await the arrival of the stagecoaches, guns in hand. The audience is on to the identity of the "mystery villain" long before Lane, but being able to second-guess the hero was part of the fun back in 1949. Without giving anything away, note that the supporting cast of Navajo Trail Raiders includes Eddy Waller as a coach driver, Barbara Bestar as Waller's pretty daughter, Hal Landon as Barbara's beau, and Robert Emmet Keane as a crusading journalist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, an amiable cowpoke rides into town to help the daughter of a stagecoach operator whose business is being destroyed by a wicked banker and his crooks. Naturally, the villains object to the hero's actions and frame him, but not before they jail him and beat him senseless. Fortunately, the tough saddle-tramp quickly recovers and brings the crooks to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this funny tale of deception and romantic fireworks, a rather prissy New England school marm finally gets a chance to achieve her dream and become a commercial artist when she is hired to illustrate the beloved "Uncle Bump's" latest children's book. She adores Bump's earlier works and is anxious to meet this gentle fellow in New York. Imagine her shock to discover that Bump is actually a boozy, cynical, young man who despises all children. Appalled, she decides to expose him as a fraud. The author's publisher nearly goes bazinga when he thinks of all the money to be lost and so tells the teacher a whopper about how the writer became bitter after his wife died and left him with a troublesome son. This melts the teacher's heart and she decides to help out. But first she wants to speak to the boy. In desperation, the publisher pays a tough, wiseacre urchin to impersonate the nonexistent son. This tough little cookie helps to bring the two opponents closer and love blooms until she learns the truth. Broken-hearted and angry, the teacher returns to New England to marry an old beau. Fortunately, the cagey orphan, who has come to love them both, has a few aces up his sleeve and insures that the two are reunited. A happy family is born and romantic bliss ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Former "Henry Aldrich" James Lydon acquits himself nicely in a serious role in Republic's Out of the Storm. Lydon plays Donald Lewis, a low-paid clerk in a high-profile shipbuilding firm. When the company is robbed in broad daylight, Lewis gathers up $100,000 on his own and skeedaddles, figuring that the lost funds will be attributed to the holdup. Before his girlfriend Ginny (Lois Collier) can persuade him to go straight, the hapless Lewis finds himself hotly pursued by cops and crooks alike. Top-heavy with movie "bad guys" like Marc Lawrence and Roy Barcroft, Out of the Storm is edge-of-the-seat entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The sure-handed starring performance of Warner Baxter and the inventive direction of William Castle help lift The Gentleman From Nowhere out of the ordinary. When Earl Donovan (Baxter) is picked up on a robbery charge, insurance investigator Barton (Luis Van Rooten) can't help but notice that Donovan resembles a criminal who was supposedly killed several years later in a chemical-plant hold-up. Hoping to solve the earlier case, Barton talks Donovan into impersonating the dead criminal. What the investigator doesn't know is that Donovan is the criminal, who's returned to his hometown for a second chance in life -- and hopefully, a reconciliation with his wife Catherine (Fay Baker). It's a surefire premise, and neither Baxter nor Castle let that premise down. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide