Brett King Movies
- 1958
This unique Dragnet episode features real-life nurse's aide Mrs. Mary Bigler, portraying herself in a recreation of a robbery-kidnapping case in which she was a key witness. Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) have managed to capture a prime suspect (Brett King), but of the three witnesses to the crime, only Mrs. Bigler can make a positive identification--of the man's eyes. When the case goes to court, defense attorney Eric Potter (Robert Brubaker) uses a clever ploy in an effort to discredit Mrs. Bigler's testimony; but though the witness may be nervous, she refuses to back down from her story. Contemporary critics singled out Mary Bigler as giving one of the best performances of the 1957-58 season--and what matter that she was a nonprofessional who had never before appeared on camera, and never would again? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are summoned to a bakery where two of the owners have been shot during a holdup. Shortly afterward, the detectives receive a taunting letter from the elusive assailant, who promises to repeat his crime in the near future. Can the bragging perp be stopped before more blood is shed? Featured as the sister of one of the crime victims is statuesque 1950s starlet Greta Thyssen, better known for her appearances in such Three Stooges comedies as Quiz Whizz and Sappy Bullfighters. This final episode of Dragnet's sixth TV season is based on a radio play first heard on September 14, 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) investigate when a young man reports that his wife is missing. The two detectives are certain the woman was murdered--and indeed, her dead body turns up shortly afterward. A discarded button from a Navy pea jacket is the vital clue that leads Friday and Smith to the murderer. This is one of several late-1950s Dragnet episodes featuring Brett King, who after a brief bid for stardom at Columbia Pictures settled into a long and fruitful career as a character actor, specializing in villainy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) chase after a gang of young punks who have pulled off some thirty holdups in the LA area. The best clue the detectives have to go on is that one of gang members has an itchy trigger finger, firing a pistol without point or purpose at the scene of each crime. Thus far, no one has been killed--but there's a first time for everything. This is one of a handful of sixth-season Dragnet episodes written expressly for television, with no previous radio version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Crooked gambler Ben Sissle (Vinton Hayworth) intends to get even with Matt Dillon (James Arness) for exposing him as a cheat. To this end, Sissle callously uses feeble-minded Cooter Smith (Strother Martin) as a dupe in a scheme to force Matt into a fatal gunfight. Cooter is persuaded that the whole thing is a "joke", but no one is laughing in the final scene. Featured as one of Sissle's card-playing victims is a young, pre-Man from UNCLE Robert Vaughn. This episode is based on the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of July 27, 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1954
The title doesn't tell all in Jesse James vs. the Daltons. For one thing, hero Joe Branch (Brett King), is suspected of being Jesse James' son. Not knowing the truth of the situation, Joe joins the Daltons, hoping they'll lead him to Jesse -- but only if rumors are true that the elder James is still alive. Producer Sam Katzman manages to toss in stock footage from several earlier westerns, while director William Castle endeavors to bring coherence to this patchwork affair. The best performance is delivered by James Griffith as the sharkish Bob Dalton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brett King, Barbara Lawrence, (more)
- 1951
Byington, a retired teacher, sells her apartment complex to ex-gangsters who begin kicking out the tenants. Byington tries to help the reformed mobsters, headed by Caruso, to undergo a change of heart. But one of the group, Karnes, still is out to cheat the system. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spring Byington, Anthony Caruso, (more)
The Technicolor adventure epic Flying Leathernecks offers two things that film cultists can never get enough of: star John Wayne and director Nicholas Ray. Filmed at the behest of RKO chieftain Howard R. Hughes, Leathernecks is a paean to the Marine Flying Corps of World War II. Wayne plays Major Dan Kirby, a squadron commander, whose no-nonsense attitude is sharply at odds with the easygoing approach of executive officer Captain Carl Griffin (Robert Ryan). Griffin eventually learns the value of discipline at all costs, while Kirby becomes more humanized as he gets to know his pilots. Jay C. Flippen steals the show as a supply sergeant who "borrows" from other companies to keep his men happy. Though not entirely cliché-free, Flying Leathernecks is one of the more solid war films of the 1950s, and one that has remained readily available in theaters, on TV and in video stores to the present day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Robert Ryan, (more)
- 1951
Singer Frances Langford stars as herself in Purple Heart Diary. The film is a reenactment of Langford's USO tours during WW II, as reported in the singer's newspaper columns for the Hearst syndicate. Also appearing as themselves are two of Langford's fellow troupers, singer Tony Romano and comic pianist Ben Lessy. Since Langford couldn't very well participate in a fictional wartime romance (her actual love life was public domain thanks to the various Hollywood columnists of the era), the love interest is handled by Aline Towne and Brett King, cast respectively as an army nurse and a crippled ex-football jock. The musical sequences in Purple Heart Diary play a lot more credibly than the melodramatic "courage under fire" setpieces. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frances Langford, Judd Holdren, (more)
- 1951
Just before filming All About Eve, Bette Davis starred in the marital melodrama Payment on Demand. Davis plays the wife of Barry Sullivan, who one fine morning demands a divorce. Most of the film is in flashback, recounting the events leading up to the marital schism. After Sullivan takes up with Frances Dee, Davis heads for a Haitian vacation, hoping to spark a few affairs of her own. But after a chance meeting with an old friend (Jane Cowl) who's become hard and cynical since her own divorce, Davis heads back to the States and attempts to patch up her marriage. Director Curtis Bernhardt was particularly proud of the opening scene in Payment on Demand, wherein Barry Sullivan requests a divorce as calmly as if he was ordering breakfast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, Barry Sullivan, (more)
- 1951
- NR
The Racket was based on a play by Bartlett Cormack, first filmed as a silent in 1928. The storyline was updated to include references to Estes Kefauver's Senate Crime Investigating Committee: otherwise, the plot (and much of the dialogue) was lifted bodily from the Cormack play. Racketeer Robert Ryan has managed to get several government and law-enforcement higher-ups in his pocket. But Ryan can't touch the incorruptible police officer Robert Mitchum, who refuses all attempts at bribery. Ryan pulls strings to get Mitchum transferred to a series of undesirable precincts, but Mitchum will not be dissuaded. The battle of wills between cop and criminal comes to a head when mob-connected nightclub singer Lizabeth Scott turns on her former protector Ryan. The Broadway version of The Racket starred Edward G. Robinson as the racketeer; the 1928 film version featured Louis Wolheim in the Robinson role and Thomas Meighan as the upright cop. Both the silent and sound versions of the property were personally produced by Howard R. Hughes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, (more)
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
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Patricia Neal, (more)
- 1951
The Korean conflict was in its eighth month when Columbia rushed through the timely "B" picture A Yank in Korea. The title character is one Andy Smith, played by Lon McAllister. Already a war hero, Andy causes dissention in the ranks because of his reckless bravado. It's up to sergeant Kirby (William "Bill" Phillips) to teach Andy the value of being a team player. Andy proves his true mettle during a climactic raid on a communist ammo dump. Essentially an all-male show, A Yank in Korea offers a smidgen of romantic interest in the form of Andy's wife Peggy, played by Sunny Vickers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lon McCallister, William "Bill" Phillips, (more)
- 1950
Warner Baxter made his final screen appearance in Columbia's State Penitentiary. Baxter plays airplane engineer Roger Manners, falsely accused of embezzling nearly half a million dollars from his company. Sent to prison, Manners escapes, hoping to track down the real culprit, his ex-partner Stanley Brown (Robert Shayne). Meanwhile, Manners' wife Shirley (Karin Booth) makes a play for Brown, hoping to help her husband trap the scoundrel. Onslow Stevens co-stars as government agent Jim Evans, who has a gut feeling that Manners is innocent, but must attempt to recapture him all the same. Though looking old and tired, Warner Baxter rises to the occasion, delivering an assured, convincing performance. Baxter died May 7, 1951, 11 months after the release of State Penitentiary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warner Baxter, Onslow Stevens, (more)
- 1950
In this comedy, a local citizen, miffed by the mayor's new milk tax, buys his own cow. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1950
Farley Granger plays a casually larcenous New York City mailman who steals a shipment of money. Granger's excitement over this windfall turns to terror when he discovers that the money was part of a transaction between gangsters. Harassed by both crooks and cops, Granger lives to regret his impulsive theft--especially when it is tied in with a murder. The story is wrapped up in spectacular fashion with a climactic car chase. Farley Granger's costar in Side Street is Cathy O'Donnell; both were on loan to MGM from Samuel Goldwyn, and both were banking on their previous successful teaming in RKO's They Live By Night. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Farley Granger, Cathy O'Donnell, (more)
Incoming MGM production head Dore Schary ramrodded Battleground into the studio's schedule over the virulent protests of MGM boss Louis Mayer. The result was an award-winning box-office hit, as well as the beginning of the end of Mayer's power. This dramatization of the battles of Bastogne and the Bulge in the waning days of World War II concentrates on a single infantry unit. Van Johnson and John Hodiak are the ostensible stars, but the film is stolen by James Whitmore as the cigar-chomping, battle-stained sergeant. Also appearing is Ian MacDonald as General McAuliffe, whose legendary response to the Nazi's suggestion that the Americans surrender consisted of a single four-letter expletive: "Nuts". Whitmore's final scenes of near-delirium before the relief troops arrive are unforgettable. Battleground tries within MGM limits to be wholly realistic, though it is slightly compromised by the scripters' inability to use Army profanity, and by pointless subplot involving actress Denise Darcel. The film doesn't hold up as well as such wartime efforts as The Story of GI Joe or Walk in the Sun, but in 1949 Battleground was regarded as an important milestone in the field of truthful, de-glamorized combat flicks. Please avoid the colorized version: this is a black-and-white subject if ever there was one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Johnson, John Hodiak, (more)
