Alexander Kirkland Movies

The meteoric popularity of Arthur Godfrey was allegedly the basis of the 1957 drama Face in the Crowd. Andy Griffith makes a spectacular film debut as Lonesome Rhodes, a philosophical country-western singer discovered in a tanktown jail by television talent coordinator Patricia Neal and her assistant Walter Matthau. They decide that Rhodes is worthy of a TV guest spot, the result being that the gangly, aw-shucks entertainer becomes an overnight sensation. As he ascends to stardom, Rhodes attracts fans, sponsors and endorsements by the carload, and soon he is the most powerful and influential entertainer on the airwaves. Beloved by his audience, Rhodes reveals himself to his intimates as a scheming, power-hungry manipulator, with Machiavellian political aspirations. He uses everyone around him, coldly discarding anyone who might impede his climb to the top (one such victim is sexy baton-twirler Lee Remick, likewise making her film debut). Just when it seems that there's no stopping Rhodes' megalomania, his mentor and ex-lover Neal exposes this Idol of Millions as the rat that he is. She arranges to switch on the audio during the closing credits of Rhodes' TV program, allowing the whole nation to hear the grinning, waving Rhodes characterize them as "suckers" and "stupid idiots." Instantly, Rhodes' popularity rating plummets to zero. As he drunkenly wanders around his penthouse apartment, still not fully comprehending what has happened to him, Rhodes is deserted by the very associates who, hours earlier, were willing to ask "how high?" when he yelled "jump". Written by Budd Schulberg, Face in the Crowd was not a success, possibly because it hit so close to home with idol-worshipping TV fans. Its reputation has grown in the intervening years, not only because of its value as a film but because of the novelty of seeing the traditionally easygoing Andy Griffith as so vicious and manipulative a character as Lonesome Rhodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though she certainly didn't need the money, silent film favorite Colleen Moore made a comeback bid during the 1933-34 film season, appearing prominently in four productions. The least prepossessing of these was Columbia's Social Register, in which Moore is cast as good-natured chorus girl Patsy Shaw. Our heroine falls in love with wealthy Charlie Breene (Alexander Kirkland), but his snobbish parents oppose the relationship. To prove Patsy's unworthiness, Charlie's parents invite her to a high-society party. Turning the tables, Patsy wins over the hoity-toity crowd with her down-to-earth ebullience. As a last-ditch effort, Charlie's mother (Pauline Frederick) tries to frame the girl in a compromising position, but at the last moment the old lady relents and accepts the girl as her daughter-in-law. The whole thing was remarkably similar to MGM's The Girl From Missouri, but not so similar as to constitute plagiarism. Humorist Robert Benchley makes a brief but hilarious appearance as "himself." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama a Lower East Side doctor struggles to earn enough money to pay for his son's tuition in a prestigious European medical school. The doctor, who raised the boy alone following his wife's death, dreams that the boy will join his humble practice and help the poor receive proper treatment. Unfortunately, his son has other plan and as soon as he returns with his new degree tells his father that he plans to work on Park Avenue where the real money is so he can impress his high-bred girl friend. Later, the boy gets caught aiding a wounded gangster. To protect his son, the father takes the blame and ends up losing his practice. After the disgraced doc dies of shame, his son feels intense guilt and remorse. This spurs him to leave his girl friend and the high life to resume his father's practice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Calcutta Sweepstakes is the unifying factor of The Devil's Lottery. Among the winners of the sweepstakes are Evelyn (Elissa Landi), the mistress of suave cardsharp Major Hugo Beresford (Paul Cavanaugh), and roughneck ex-boxer Lem Meech (Victor McLaglen), whose mother (Beryl Mercer) insists upon taking charge of McLaglen's winnings lest he squander them. Lord Litchfield (Halliwell Hobbes), the country squire who owns the winning horse, invites the lucky ticket-holders (and their friends, relatives and sweethearts) for a weekend party at his lavish estate. Alas, being in such close proximity to so much wealth and luxury brings out the worst in several of the winners, resulting in heartbreak, betrayal and murder. When the smoke clears, only one of the principal characters is in store for a happy ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remarkably smooth 110-minute adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's marathon eight-hour play, Strange Interlude was advertised as "the picture in which you hear the characters think," a nod to O'Neill's technique of having the characters speak their innermost thoughts out loud between dialogue passages (on-stage, the actors stood stock still while delivering their soliloquies; in the film, their thoughts are heard on the soundtrack). Norma Shearer plays Nina Leeds, who during WWI is talked out of marrying her soldier sweetheart, Gordon Shaw (Robert Young), by her professor father (Henry B. Walthall). When Gordon dies two days before the Armistice, the embittered Nina rebels against her father, escaping his dominance by marrying faithful Sam Evans (Alexander Kirkland). Upon discovering that there is a strain of insanity in the Evans family, Nina, desperate to have children, enters into a romance with Dr. Ned Darrell (Clark Gable). She bears his child, a son named Gordon (Tad Alexander as a child, Robert Young as an adult), assuring Evans that the baby is his. Gordon grows up idolizing Evans and despising Darrell, even though the boy is unaware of the circumstances of his birth or his true parentage. Her love for her son bordering on the obsessive, Nina does everything she can to dominate the boy even into adulthood, trying to scare away her son's fiancée, Madeline (Maureen O'Sullivan), by bringing up the insanity issue. Hoping to make up for past misdeeds, Darrell orders Nina to stop poisoning Madeline's mind against Gordon. By the time Evans suffers a fatal heart attack, Nina and Darrell have lost whatever love they shared between them. Through it all, Charlie Marsden (Ralph Morgan), a family friend who has long harbored an unrequited love for Nina, stands on the sidelines vicariously living his life through Nina and Darrell. Of necessity severely cut due to time and censorial constrictions, Strange Interlude still manages to distill the essence of the O'Neill play in its comparatively brief running time. The film's major flaw can also be found in the original play: though the characters age only 25 years or so in the course of the story, by the film's end they are seen doddering around like nonagenarians. The "speaking one's thoughts" gimmick in Strange Interlude was parodied in such comedy films as Animal Crackers, Me and My Gal, So This Is Africa, and even the Walter Catlett two-reeler Get Along Little Hubby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a woman is blamed for another's suicide and ends up deported to Germany. Just as WW I erupts she marries a German commandant's son to keep from being sent to an alien prison camp. While her husband sells classified information to the British in order to pay her way back to England, she has an affair with another officer, causing her husband to kill himself. The young widow then tears up his note to preserve his honor and leaves Germany in the hope that she will again see her lover. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Renowned American-born London stage star Tallulah Bankhead made her feature sound film debut in this drama based on Donald Ogden Stewart's story New York Lady. Bankhead plays Nancy Courtney, a gold-digging socialite who sets her sights on Norman Cravath (Clive Brook), a wealthy tycoon. Their marriage exasperates Nancy's ex-boyfriend, DeWitt Taylor (Alexander Kirkland), and her rival, Germaine Prentiss (Phoebe Foster). Nancy soon grows tired of the tedium of marriage and returns to making her rounds in nightclubs (some scenes were shot on location in a Harlem club). Nancy finally gets her own job and becomes increasingly independent even after she has a child. But Cravath's fortune is wiped out in the stock market crash. Nancy feels bad for her husband and returns to him, and for the first time they discover true love together, unsullied by the pursuit of material wealth. This film was the first feature directed solely by George Cukor, who would go on to be the champion of "women's pictures" such as The Philadelphia Story. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide