Crauford Kent Movies

Pat (Katharine Hepburn), a college phys-ed instructor, enters into professional competition as a golf and tennis player. Mike (Spencer Tracy), a likeable but unscrupulous sports promoter, first attempts to bribe Pat to lose, but later becomes her manager. Pat performs brilliantly until her insufferable fiance Collier West (William Ching) shows up; West always manages to make Pat so nervous that she can't win to save her life. At long last, West walks out, having found Pat in a compromising situation with Mike. Though she'd previously kept her distance from Mike, Pat suddenly realizes that she's fallen in love with him and--after a few crooked gamblers are disposed of--Pat and Mike become partners on a permanent basis. Pat & Mike reunited Tracy and Hepburn with their favorite director, George Cukor, and their favorite scenarists, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Watch for real-life golf and tennis champs Gussie Moran, Babe Didrickson Zaharias, Don Budge, Alice Marble, Frank Parker, Betty Hicks, Helen Dettweilerand Beverly Hanson as "themselves" -- and also keep an eye out for ex-ballplayer Chuck Connors, making his acting debut as a highway patrolman. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Tea for Two is a Technicolor adaptation of the 1924 Broadway musical No No Nanette, previously filmed under its own title in 1929. Doris Day stars as Nanette, a Roaring '20s Jazz Baby with showbiz aspirations. Nanette offers to put up $25,000 if producer Billy DeWolfe will star her in a Broadway show. The girl's wealthy, and stingy uncle S.Z. Sakall agrees to advance her the money, but only on one condition; for the next 24 hours, Nanette must answer "No" to every question. Gordon MacRae co-stars as Nanette's attorney, who worships her from afar and who finally manages to win her hand with a little wager of his own. The songs, culled from several sources and written by hands ranging from Irving Caesar to George Gershwin, include "Crazy Rhythm," "Do Do Do," "I Want to Be Happy," "I Only Have Eyes for You" and the title number. In 1970, the original No No Nanette was successfully revived for Broadway, with veterans Ruby Keeler and Patsy Kelly in the cast. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this improbable romantic drama set in Gay Nineties London, a member of Parliament jeopardizes his career when he falls in love with a music hall dancer. When his stodgy older brother finds out about the affair, he sternly counsels the dancer to jilt her lover, lest she damage his political career. Not wanting to hurt her beloved, she leaves him and goes back to the dancehall. Unfortunately, trouble begins one night when the police mistake her for a hooker. She flees and ends up hiding in the apartment of a concert pianist. He has his own troubles when he is arrested for a murder he did not commit. Only the dancer can prove him innocent, but he doesn't know how to find her. While the police begin a city-wide search for the girl, her true-love decides he loves her more than politics and proposes to her. She joyfully accepts. The next day, a formal announcement and picture of the happy couple appears in the newspaper. The police find and question her, but she, fearful that a scandal could jeopardize her nuptials, denies ever having seen the pianist. His case goes to court and things look bleak until the girl finds her courage and shows up to clear his name. Fortunately, her confession generates a happy ending all around. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Roundly blasted upon its release because of the extreme liberties it takes with the truth, Devotion is better as cinema than as history. Not that it's great cinema, mind you, mainly because the filmmakers opted to replace historical fact with either tired dramatic clichés or wild improbabilities. As an example of the latter, the film posits that Paul Henreid's character, who is a standard-issue film romantic hero (troubled, but understandably so), is the inspiration for two of the most passionate, fiery characters in the canon of English literature. Arthur Kennedy as brother Bramwell is much more passionate and fiery, a fact which tends to further muddle things up. The generic setting is also disappointing; these ladies wrote as they wrote because of where they lived and how they lived, but little of this makes it to the screen. Fortunately, Devotion has Olivia de Havilland and Ida Lupino on hand. De Havilland is quite good, grabbing hold of whatever she can find in the script and milking it for all it's worth. Lupino does even better, often making this standard-issue (at best) writing seem engaging and moving. As indicated, Kennedy also makes things work for him, and Nancy Coleman does what she can with the little she is handed. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score provides plenty of the atmosphere that Curtis Bernhardt's direction often lacks. Ultimately, Devotion's assets, particularly Lupino and de Havilland, manage to squeeze it into the winner's column -- but it's a pretty close call. The film was produced in 1943, hence the presence of Montagu Love, who died that year. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

In this murder mystery, a Scotland Yard inspector investigates the murder of a prominent matron. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The Lodger was the third film version of Mrs. Marie Belloc-Lowndes' classic "Jack the Ripper" novel, and in many eyes it was the best (even allowing for the excellence of the 1925 Alfred Hitchcock adaptation). Laird Cregar stars as the title character, a mysterious, secretive young man who rents a flat in the heart of London's Whitechapel district. The Lodger's arrival coincides with a series of brutal murders, in which the victims are all female stage performers. None of this fazes Kitty (Merle Oberon), the daughter of a "good family" who insists upon pursuing a singing and dancing career. Scotland Yard inspector John Warwick (George Sanders), in love with Kitty, worries about her safety and works day and night to solve the murders. All the while, Kitty draws inexorably closer to The Lodger, who seems to have some sort of vendetta on his mind?..Some slight anachronisms aside (for example, the villain falls off a bridge that hadn't yet been built at the time of the story), The Lodger is pulse-pounding entertainment, with a disturbingly brilliant performance by the late, great Laird Cregar. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Warner Bros.' The Constant Nymph was the third filmization of Margaret Dean's 1924 novel; the first two were filmed in Britain in 1928 and 1933 by producer Michael Balcon. The plot was substantially the same in all three versions: A self-centered European musician (Charles Boyer) is idolized by a young Belgian girl (Joan Fontaine) with a serious heart condition. Though he is fond of the girl, the composer opts for a wealthy marriage to her socialite cousin (Alexis Smith)--and lives to regret the move. Peter Lorre, taking a respite from villainous roles, is quite effective as a philosophical family friend. Composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold's six-minute symphonic tone poem for Constant Nymph was given class-A treatment in a specially recorded RCA Victor orchestration in 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This wartime weeper could just as well have been titled Stardom for Margaret, inasmuch as it solidified the popularity of that remarkable child actress Margaret O'Brien. While visiting London, American married couple Robert Young and Laraine Day are caught in the middle of the 1940 blitz. Losing her unborn child during the bombing, Day sadly heads back to the U.S., while her journalist husband stays behind to cover late-breaking events. Young makes the acquaintance of O'Brien and Clifford Severn, children orphaned by the blitz. After pulling the shell-shocked O'Brien out of her near-catatonic state, Young decides to adopt both children and take them back to his wife in the States. There are some tense moments as Young tilts at the stepped-up immigration restrictions, but he is finally able to bring his new family home. Journey for Margaret stars Robert Young and Margaret O'Brien would be reunited two decades later on an episode of Young's TV series Marcus Welby MD, in which Ms. O'Brien played a patient suffering from obesity. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Made just before America's entry into World War II, Paris Calling is one of the earliest French Underground adventures. When the German march into Paris, a polyglot of French patriots organize to undermine the Nazi occupation troops (represented by Lee J. Cobb, who plays his character with a surprising amount of depth). Elizabeth Bergner plays a French aristocrat who learns that her ex-fiance (Basil Rathbone) is a collaborator; she agrees to help the Underground, even unto killing her former lover. Gale Sondergaard, normally a villain, is sympathetically cast as a blowsy waterfront entertainer whose waterfront dive serves as Resistance headquarters. And how do the neutral Americans figure into all of this? Yankee-doodle-dandy Randolph Scott parachutes into view as a pilot for the RAF. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A remake of Ceiling Zero (1936), International Squadron stars Ronald W. Reagan (in the old James Cagney role) as a hotshot flying who joins the Royal Air Force in England. Reagan refuses to mend his barnstorming ways, and thanks to his recklessness two pilots are killed. The headstrong young flyer redeems himself by going on a suicide bombing mission, from which he never returns. International Squadron costars James Stephenson, a veteran character actor who'd recently achieved prominence thanks to a strong role in the 1940 Bette Davis vehicle The Letter. Unfortunately, Stephenson died shortly afterward, cutting short what might have been a stellar film career. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the 1580s, the Sea Hawks -- the name given to the bold privateers who prowl the oceans taking ships and treasure on behalf the British crown -- are the most dedicated defenders of British interests in the face of the expanding power of Philip of Spain. And Captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn) is the boldest of the Sea Hawks, responsible for capturing and destroying more than 50 Spanish ships and ten Spanish cities. His capture of a Spanish galleon, however, leads to more than he bargained for, in a romance with the ambassador's niece (Brenda Marshall) and the first whiff of a plan to put Spanish spies into the court of Elizabeth I (Flora Robson). Thorpe's boldness leads him to a daring raid on a treasure caravan in Panama which, thanks to treachery within Elizabeth's court, gets him captured and, with his crew, sentenced to the life of a slave aboard a Spanish ship. Meanwhile, Philip of Spain decides to wipe the threat posed by Elizabeth's independence from the sea by conquering the island nation with his armada. Thorpe, though chained to an oar, knows who the traitor at court is and plans to expose him and Philip's plans, but can he and his men break their bonds and get back to England alive in time to thwart the plans for conquest?

The Sea Hawk was the last and most mature of Flynn's swashbuckling adventure films, played with brilliant stylistic flourishes by the star at his most charismatic, and most serious and studied when working with Flora Robson, whom he apparently genuinely respected. Boasting the handsomest, most opulent production values of a Warner Bros. period film to date, The Sea Hawk was made possible in part by a huge new floodable soundstage. Another highlight was the best adventure film score ever written by Erich Wolfgang Korngold; and the script's seriousness was nailed down by various not-so-veiled references not to 16th century Spain but 20th century Nazi Germany. The movie was cut by over 20 minutes for a reissue with The Sea Wolf, and the complete version was lost until a preservation-quality source was found at the British Film Institute. Since then, that 128-minute version -- which actually contains a one-minute patriotic speech by Robson as Elizabeth that was originally left out of U.S. prints, as well as amber tinting in all of the Panamanian sequences -- has become standard. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

South of Suez is where diamond-mine foreman John Gamble (George Brent) plies his trade. When his boss is murdered, Gamble is held for murder, forcing him to take it on the lam. With the reluctant aid of heroine Katherine Sheffield (Brenda Marshall), Gamble endeavors to prove his innocence. He is finally cleared not because of any exceptional detective work, but through the bungling of the actual killer (no, his name will not be revealed here). Strictly B-grade material, South of Suez is a virtual compendium of stock shots from earlier Warner Bros. films. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

While James Stewart was filibustering from his senator's pulpit in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Gene Autry battled congressional bureaucracy in Rovin' Tumbleweeds, which barely could call itself a Western. Gene runs for a congressional seat in order to pass a flood control bill that would save a group of dispossessed ranchers and farmers, the victims of a disastrous storm. But once elected, the hero's best efforts are thwarted by greedy meat packing plant owner Holloway (Douglas Dumbrille), who lobbies against him. With another storm brewing and Autry's only political ally, Senator Nolan (William Farnum), killed in a car accident, all hope seems gone. But when Gene rallies his troops in a climactic battle, even Holloway catches the community spirit and the valley is saved. Taking time out from fighting both political corruption and the elements, Gene, Smiley Burnette, and the Pals of the Golden West perform "Paradise in the Moonlight," "Ole Peaceful River," Rovin' Tumbleweeds," and other favorite selections. Rovin' Tumbleweeds has been restored to its original length by Gene Autry Entertainment. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi