Evelyn Keyes Movies

A divorced dad and son attempt to build on their newly resurrected relationship by heading back to pop's hometown in up-state Maine. When he gets there, he finds that all the townspeople have turned into 300-year-old vampires. Some say that director Larry Cohen intended the vampire community to be a parody of old-blooded Republicans who so often rule in small-town America. ~ All Movie Guide

Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production anecdotes concerning Todd's efforts to pull the wool over the eyes of local authorities in order to cadge the film's round-the-world location shots--not to mention the wheeling and dealing to convince over forty top celebrities to appear in cameo roles. David Niven heads the huge cast as ultra-precise, supremely punctual Phileas Fogg, who places a 20,000-pound wager with several fellow members of London Reform Club, insisting that he can go around the world in eighty days (this, remember, is 1872). Together with his resourceful valet Passepartout (Cantinflas), Fogg sets out on his world-girdling journey from Paris via balloon. Meanwhile, suspicion grows that Fogg has stolen his 20,000 pounds from Bank of England. Diligent Inspector Fix (Robert Newton) is sent out by the bank's president (Robert Morley) to bring Fogg to justice. Hopscotching around the globe, Fogg pauses in Spain, where Passepartout engages in a comic bullfight (a specialty of Cantinflas). In India, Fogg and Passepartout rescue young widow Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine, in her third film) from being forced into committing suicide so that she may join her late husband. The threesome visit Hong Kong, Japan, San Francisco, and the Wild West. Only hours short of winning his wager, Fogg is arrested by the diligent Inspector Fixx. Though exonerated of the bank robbery charges, he has lost everything--except the love of the winsome Aouda. But salvation is at hand when Passepartout discovers that, by crossing the International Date Line, there's still time to reach the Reform Club. Will they make it? See for yourself. Among the film's 46 guest stars, the most memorable include Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Jose Greco, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, Buster Keaton, John Mills, and Beatrice Lillie. All were paid in barter--Ronald Colman did his brief bit for a new car. Newscaster Edward R. Murrow provides opening narration, and there's a tantalizing clip from Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902). Offering a little something for everyone, Around the World in 80 Days is nothing less than an extravaganza, and it won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Condemned to death for a mercy killing, Dr. John Garth (Karloff) continues to experiment in prison to develop a serum that will put at end to the ageing process. On the eve of his execution, he offers himself as guinea pig for his youth serum, which has recently been mixed with the blood of an executed psychopath. Miraculously, Garth does grow younger before the astonished eyes of kindly prison physician Ralph Howard (Edward Van Sloan). Alas, the serum has murderous side effects, which Howard discovers only as Garth strangles him to death. Pardoned from Death Row thanks to a script contrivance, Garth spends the rest of the film trying to carry on his humanitarian work despite embarrassing lapses into homicidal mania. Many observers regard Before I Hang as the best of Karloff's "Mad Doctor" series for Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After her divorce from director John Huston, actress Evelyn Keyes divided her time between Hollywood and Europe. It was during one of her stopovers in France that Keyes starred in C'Est Arrive a Paris (It Happened in Paris). She is cast as vacationing heiress Pat, who is sick to death of the sightseeing tours arranged by her uncle (Paul Faivre). During one such excursion, she enjoys a romance with Russian prince Vlad (Henri Vidal). What Pat doesn't know is that her prince is a con artist, who is being bankrolled by two confederates in order to woo the girl and gain access to her inheritance. C'est Arrive a Paris was filmed in two versions, English and French; it was the English version which was released to American television in the late 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a gangster finds the woman of his dreams, but before he can have her he must frame her fiance. Meanwhile the Asian lover he dumped plots her revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

There are moments in Columbia's Flight Lieutenant that approach "high camp"; indeed, one is hard pressed to remember if any cliché is left unturned. Pat O'Brien plays air pilot Sam O'Doyle, who is professionally disgraced when he survives a crash in which his co-pilot is killed. He tries to get work elsewhere, but finds that he can't shake the onus of his apparent dereliction of duty (Even the newspapers conspire against him, trumpeting his humilitation in front-page headlines!) Finally O'Doyle escapes to the tropics, leaving his young son in the care of his best friend Sanford (Jonathan Hale). As the years pass, young Danny Doyle (Glenn Ford), an aviator himself, grows to despise his father's memory-especially since he has married Susie Thompson (Evelyn Ankers), the daughter of Sam's unfortunate co-pilot. When WW2 breaks out, Danny is promoted to flight lieutenant, whereupon his father enlists as an Army Air Corps private under Danny's command. The elder Doyle finally redeems himself when he knocks Danny out and takes over a suicidal test-pilot assignment (That darn fool kid-er, darn fool grownup!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gone With the Wind boils down to a story about a spoiled Southern girl's hopeless love for a married man. Producer David O. Selznick managed to expand this concept, and Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel, into nearly four hours' worth of screen time, on a then-astronomical 3.7-million-dollar budget, creating what would become one of the most beloved movies of all time. Gone With the Wind opens in April of 1861, at the palatial Southern estate of Tara, where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) hears that her casual beau Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) plans to marry "mealy mouthed" Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). Despite warnings from her father (Thomas Mitchell) and her faithful servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett intends to throw herself at Ashley at an upcoming barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Alone with Ashley, she goes into a fit of histrionics, all of which is witnessed by roguish Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the black sheep of a wealthy Charleston family, who is instantly fascinated by the feisty, thoroughly self-centered Scarlett: "We're bad lots, both of us." The movie's famous action continues from the burning of Atlanta (actually the destruction of a huge wall left over from King Kong) through the now-classic closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Holding its own against stiff competition (many consider 1939 to be the greatest year of the classical Hollywood studios), Gone With the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar). The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be "The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Montgomery plays saxophone-playing boxer Joe Pendleton, who insists upon piloting his own plane, much to the consternation of his manager Max Corkle (James Gleason). Just before a championship bout, Joe's plane crashes. When he revives, he finds he has been whisked away to Heaven by the overanxious Messenger #7013. Checking with the man in charge, one Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains), Pendleton discovers that he isn't scheduled to die for another 50 years. Joe heads back to earth, only to learn to his chagrin that his body has been cremated. Mr. Jordan is obliged to find Joe a new body; the "candidate" is a business mogul named Farnsworth, who is in the process of being murdered in his bath by his wife (Rita Johnson) and her lover (John Emery). Joe takes over Farnsworth's body, astonishing the murderers by emerging from the bathroom, very much alive (while Joe still looks like Joe to himself and the audience, he looks like Farnsworth to everyone else). Still desirous of winning the upcoming championship, Joe begins to whip Farnsworth's body into shape, even hiring Max Corkle to manage him. It takes some doing, but Joe convinces Max that he is indeed Joe and not Farnsworth (their scenes together are priceless, far better seen than described). Meanwhile, Joe has fallen in love with Bette Logan (Evelyn Keyes), a woman whose father had been ruined by the real Farnsworth. For her sake, he pays back millions of dollars that the crooked Farnsworth had finagled out of his investors. This prompts Mrs. Farnsworth and her lover to kill "Farnsworth" again, and once more Joe Pendleton is without a body. How Mr. Jordan arranges for Joe to win the championship, expose the murderers and walk off arm and arm with Bette is a bit too complex to detail here. Here Comes Mr. Jordan is one of the most consistently clever romantic comedies of the 1940s, and richly deserving of the Oscars won by screenwriters Sidney Buchman, Seton I. Miller and Harry Segall. A sequel, Down to Earth, was filmed in 1947, with Roland Culver as Mr. Jordan; and in 1978, the original Jordan was remade by Warren Beatty as Heaven Can Wait. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this taut, creepy melodrama, a housemaid works as the companion of an aging, retired British actress. One day the maid (Ida Lupino) is visited by her two looney half sisters. The actress finds the slightly mad sisters intolerable and demands that they leave. Unfortunately, the maid realizes that if the sisters are sent away they will end up involuntarily committed to an insane asylum and so the maid kills the actress and lets the sisters stay. Things go well until a suspicious relative shows up and starts to investigate. Nominated for Oscars for Best Interior Decoration and Best Score, Ladies in Retirement is based upon a stage play that was in turn based upon the true story from 1886. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Returning from WW II, gambler Joe Miracle (Glenn Ford) discovers that his partner is dead, his gaming house has been sold, and his fortune has been claimed by others. Forced to steal back money which is rightfully his, Joe takes refuge in a settlement house run by social worker Jenny Jones (Evelyn Keyes). The girl hopes to reform Joe; he plays along, intending to skedaddle when the heat is off. Not unexpectedly, Joe begins to mellow as he learns the satisfaction of doing good for others. Meanwhile, investigative reporter "Early" Byrd (John Ireland) bides his time, hoping to expose Joe as a wanted fugitive and thus attain a big scoop. Two directors were credited for Mr. Soft Touch, though it's hard to discern where one ended and the other began. The film was released in England as House of Settlement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Molly Hagan is cast as Dana Ballard, a former research assistant of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury)--and a pathological liar. When Dana's current employer is killed and she is accused of the crime, she begs Jessica to clear her name. But Jessica can't help wondering if Dana is merely weaving another web of lies...and that, in direct opposition to the standard Murder, She Wrote formula, she is guilty after all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Cabot Cove resident Beverly Garrett is electrocuted in her own bathtub in a locked bathroom, Sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley) is willing to write the tragedy off as an accident; Tupper, you see, is thinking about retirement, and has already hand-picked his successor. But Jessica (Angela Lansbury) can't shake the belief that Beverly was murdered, prompting the long-suffering Tupper to dare Jessica to prove it! Adding to the intrigue is a controversial land sale, a vicious poison-pen campaign that has spread throughout town, and Jessica's mounting frustration over playing hostess to a visiting travel writer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide