Paul Baratoff Movies
- 1948
The positive public response to such productions as Crossfire and Gentleman's Agreement led to a mini-cycle of postwar anti-prejudice films. One of these was The Vicious Circle, based on a true incident which had previously been dramatized in G. W. Pabst's The Trial. In the late-19th century, an anti-Semitic Hungarian baron (Reinhold Schunzel) foments a pogrom against his country's Jews when a 14-year-old servant girl commits suicide. Falsely accused of subjecting the girl to a ritualistic murder, five Jewish farmers are put on trial for murder. Defying the slings and arrows of public condemnation, defense attorney Karl Nemensch (Conrad Nagel) intends to prove the farmers' innocence -- and to expose anti-Semitism for the poisonous scourge that it truly is. The Vicious Circle was based on The Burning Bush, a play by Herald and Geza Herczeg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Alexander, Sam Bernard, (more)
- 1945
Ernst Lubitsch was the original director for A Royal Scandal, but illness forced him to bow out; his replacement was Otto Preminger, who did his utmost to retain the "Lubitsch touch." Based on a play by Lajos Biro and Melchior Lengyel, the film dwells upon a fictional incident in the life of Russia's Catherine the Great, here played with blue-blooded bawdiness by Tallulah Bankhead. Catherine falls in love with a handsome young army officer (William Eythe), who turns out to be an insurrectionist planning her downfall. At the last moment, Catherine relents, allowing the officer to escape with his true love, lady-in-waiting Anne Baxter. A bit too cute for its own good, Royal Scandal has some choice moments: Most notable are Tallulah Bankhead's pained reaction upon being hailed as "The Mother of All Russias," and supporting actor Grady Sutton's southern-accented reference to the "U-ral Mountains". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Coburn, (more)
Directed by serial specialist Spencer Gordon Bennet, They Raid by Night is a PRC "special" dealing with the activities of the commandos in WWII. Lyle Talbot plays Capt. Robert Owen, the head of a three-man commando squad who parachute into Norway to rescue an Allied general (Paul Baratoff) from a Nazi concentration camp. One of the men is Norwegian-born Von Ritter (Victor Varconi), who is reunited with his former sweetheart Inga (June Duprez). Unbeknownst to our heroes, Inga has turned "Quisling," and tips off the local Nazi commandant as to the commandos' whereabouts. Later on, Von Ritter is captured by the Gestapo and tortured into revealing the plans of his compatriots. Eventually, Owen is able to complete his mission, thanks in no small part to a local Fifth Columnist who decides to switch allegiances at the very last moment. Most of They Raid by Night is enacted in front of a grainy back-projection screen, rendering the story line even more unbelievable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lyle Talbot, June Duprez, (more)
- 1941
Loretta Young is (mis)cast as a prima ballerina, who reaches the top of her profession and marries her demanding instructor (Conrad Veidt). Still, Loretta can't help reminiscing on the past loves in her life. She flashes back to her early days as a circus bareback rider and recalls all her former beaux (including Dean Jagger and John Shepperd, a.k.a. Shepperd Strudwick). Loretta comes to the conclusion that the most important person in her life has been her loving mother (Eugene Leontovich), with whom she has a tear-stained reconciliation. Men in Her Life was based on the novel Ballerina, by Lady Eleanor Smith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Conrad Veidt, (more)
