Tetsu Komai Movies

Robert Morley is cast as Mr. Laffler, a gourmet who is anxious to be admitted into a private dining club called Spirro's. Ever since he was allowed to sample the specialty of the house, an exotic dish called "lamb armistran," Laffler has been prepared to move heaven and earth to join the club. Alas, when the curious Laffler sneaks a forbidden peek into the club's kitchen, he learns all too well the meaning of the term "lifetime member." (Trivia note: the androgynous owner of Spirro's is played by Madame Spivy, a popular nightclub entertainer who is also prominently featured in such films as The Manchurian Candidate and Requiem for a Heavyweight). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This war drama is set during the Korean War and follows the exploits of four men and their tank as they fight their battles behind enemy lines. During their many skirmishes, they discuss their past romantic exploits. One of them is currently involved with an Army nurse. The four find themselves in a real bind when the tank breaks down against a cliff. One of the soldiers risks it all to sneak out and retrieve the needed part to fix the tank. It is a dangerous, exciting journey, but he succeeds and saves his buddies. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

One of the less famous Humphrey Bogart films is this 1949 drama about post-war guilt and remembrance. Bogart plays U.S. airman and war hero Joe Barrett. During the war, he believes, his wife Trina (Florence Marly) died in a Japanese concentration camp. But when Barrett returns to Tokyo and the bar named Tokyo Joe that he used to own, he discovers that Trina is not only alive, but she has married Mark Landis (Alexander Knox), an attorney, and they have a seven-year-old daughter Anya (Lora Lee Michel), whom he suspects is really his child. Baron Kimura (Sessue Hayakawa) forces Barrett into running an airborne smuggling operation by threatening to reveal publicly that Trina made wartime radio propaganda broadcasts. The shipment Barrett must fly includes three Japanese war criminals being brought back into the country, and Kimura insures that Barrett will comply by kidnapping Anya and holding her hostage. But the war criminals hijack the plane and are arrested. Barrett then tracks down Kimura and both die in a shoot-out which saves the life of Anya. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

The 161-minute costume drama Green Dolphin Street is set in 1840, on an island off the coast of Newfoundland, (or at least, the MGM backlot facsimile of same). Boiled down to essentials, it's the story of two sisters, blonde Marguerite Patourel (Donna Reed) and brunette
Marianne Patourel (Lana Turner), daughters of the wealthy Octavius Patourel (Edmund Gwenn). The two women meet New Zealander William Ozone (Richard Hart) and both quietly fall in love with him, though he's far more interested in Marguerite. To get William away from her sister, the conniving Marianne encourages the young man to fulfill his dreams by enlisting in H.R.H.'s Navy, whereby he'll be shipped off to China. But William misses the boat (no pun intended) and becomes a fugitive. He and buddy Timothy Haslam (Van Heflin) pair up and ship out to New Zealand, where they found a lumber business. William gets soused one night and writes to the sister he loves, inviting her to join him in marriage - but drunkenly uses the other sister's name by mistake. Marianne, believing he meant to write to her, decides to set off for New Zealand to be with her intended. Meanwhile,
Timothy secretly pines for Marguerite - and that's only the set up for this broadly-scaled melodrama. Reportedly budgeted at $4 million, Green Dolphin Street was based on the somewhat better bestseller by Elizabeth Goudge. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Adventures of Captain Marvel is a 12-episode Republic serial based on the comic book character of the same name. Young Billy Batson (Frank Coghlan Jr.) is part of a scientific expedition in a remote section of Siam. Trapped in an ancient tomb, Billy happens upon an ancient shaman acronymically named Shazam (each letter in his name stands for a famous Greek or Roman god). Because Billy has obeyed the warnings written on the sacred chamber, the old man rewards the boy with the ability to turn into superhero Captain Marvel (Tom Tyler). Billy can make the transformation only by uttering the word "Shazam!"--which explains why the script, for suspense purposes, contrives to have Billy bound and gagged at crucial moments. Young Batson finds that his alter ego comes in handy in determining the identity of "the Scorpion," a member of the expedition who plans to kill his colleagues after learning the secret hiding places of the components of a super-weapon called the Golden Scorpion. A well-above-average Republic entry, The Adventures of Captain Marvel is distinguished by the eye-popping stunt work of David Sharpe and by Captain Marvel's utterly convincing flying scenes, courtesy of special-effects maestros Howard and Theodore Lydecker. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Set during the turn-of-the-century Moro uprising in the Philippines, The Real Glory stars Gary Cooper as an American Marine doctor and David Niven and Broderick Crawford as a pair of rowdy mercenaries. While staving off the insurgent Moros, Cooper must also combat a cholera outbreak. Once this matter is disposed of, Cooper joins Niven and Crawford in attempting to blow up a dam built by the Moros to cut off the American fort's water supply. After all this activity, it's small wonder that Cooper elects to return to private practice in the States with his new bride Andrea Leeds. While The Real Glory never skimps in the action department, the film is somewhat lacking in historical accuracy: the Moros were hardly the bloodthirsty savages depicted herein. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A couple of American soldiers of fortune are hired by the wife of a Chinese general to deliver a priceless diamond to a shopkeeper in Shanghai in this low-budget whodunit from the RKO "B"-unit. Just as the gem reaches its destination all hell breaks lose. When the dust settles, the diamond is gone and Tom Baldwin (Vinton Haworth) and sidekick Joe Dugan (Gordon Jones) are left with a group of highly suspicious witnesses. The entire assembly, including pretty but mysterious Jane Dunn (Constance Worth), then boards a liner headed for San Francisco. After several shipboard murders and the revelation that Jane is a custom agent, the culprit is caught red-handed. A lady detective ought to have made a refreshing change but, sadly, China Passage delivers few surprises and the armchair detective is never truly tested. Usually a supporting player of little merit, Vinton Haworthproves a rather weak-chinned hero and is certainly no match for the ash-blonde Worth, an Australian actress turned Queen of Hollywood B-movies. The rest of the supporting cast perform their assignment in the expected manner, Dick Elliott being the standout as an eternally tipsy traveler. China Passage was directed by Edward Killy, who later helmed the studio's series of Tim Holt B-Westerns. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

"That Man" is Hugh (woo-woo) Herbert, here cast as lovable eccentric Thomas J. Jesse. Befriending apartment-house elevator operator Jimmy Whalen (Tom Brown), Jesse makes it his mission in life to smooth the course of true love for Jimmy and pretty Australian lass Nancy Lee (Mary Maguire). The plot contrives to drag in a cute little baby, whom Nancy is trying to extricate from an orphanage. The connection between heroine and baby is never explained; all that's important is that Jimmy agrees to adopt the kid by fade-out time. The principal set for That Man's Here Again, a lavish apartment hotel (complete with white telephones), seems too elaborate for a mere 60-minute programmer, suggesting that the set was borrowed from one of Warners' prestige productions. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The 1936 comedy-mystery The Princess Comes Across might well have been inspired by a real-life incident during the silent-movie era, in which a crafty San Francisco stenographer hoodwinked the Hollywood elite into believing that she was a Spanish princess. Carole Lombard stars as an alluring Swedish beauty who travels under the name of Princess Olga. Everyone whom she meets en route to America on the steamship Mammoth bows and scrapes to the Princess, while Hollywood anxiously awaits her arrival to star her in a big-budget film. Only the ship's bandleader, King Mantell (Fred MacMurray), refuses to defer to Olga, sensing that she may not be all she claims. Mantell's instincts are right on target: the "Princess" is a brass-nickel phony, a Brooklyn girl named Wanda Nash who has cooked up her royal guise with drama coach Gertrude (Alison Skipworth) as a publicity stunt to crash into movies. Unfortunately, a weaselly blackmailer Darcy (Porter Hall) gloms onto Wanda's true identity and offers to keep quiet in exchange for a huge cash settlment. At the same time, Darcy is attempting to shake down several other passengers on the Mammoth, including King Mantell. Inevitably, Darcy is found murdered in the "Princess"'s stateroom, and Wanda finds herself one of several likely suspects, among them Mantell. A quintet of international detectives, travelling to a convention in America, sets out to solve the mystery, which becomes even more mysterious when one of the detectives also turns up dead. Taking matters in his own hands, Mantell vows to clear Wanda's name, and in the course of things he realizes that he's madly in love with her--but will Wanda give up her hoax, and her future showbiz career, for Mantell's sake? Among the many highlights in this engagingly daffy film is Fred MacMurray's rendition of the enchantingly forgettable song "My Concertina." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this adventure, a wealthy socialite falls in love and decides to stow away on her would-be lover's airplane as it takes off for China where he has been sent on a mission by his father. Unfortunately, the two are captured by revolutionaries; in order to gain their freedom, the man must promise to fly for the Chinese rebels. He does so--most acrobatically. Later he takes care of them for good. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This drama about corporate treachery was based on the best-selling novel by Alice Tisdale Hobart. Stephen Chase (Pat O'Brien) is a salesman and inventor with an American oil company who is sent to China to reach that nation's untapped market. While Stephen is often told that his company looks after their own and he's selflessly devoted to his job, it becomes evident with time that they're treating him with disrespect. After his fiancée leaves him, Stephen marries a woman he's only just met, Hester (Josephine Hutchinson), because he's already arranged to bring a wife to China. Stephen has designed a new kerosene lamp for the Chinese market, but his rival Swaley (William B. Davidson) is given credit for the product. When Stephen is transferred to another part of China, he accepts even though his wife is expecting a baby; the physical toll of the journey causes Hester to lose the child. Stephen and Hester become close to another American couple, Don and Alice Wellman (John Eldredge and Jean Muir), but when Stephen is ordered to fire Don, he unhesitatingly agrees. After communist forces nationalize the oil firm's holdings, Stephen risks his life to protect $15,000 in company funds. But when he is released from the hospital, Stephen learns that instead of being rewarded, he's been demoted -- and another man was promoted in his place. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Cecil B. DeMille's least characteristic sound feature, Four Frightened People is a character study about a quartet of castaways whose fates are permanently altered by spectacular circumstances. Four coastal steamer passengers jump ship when a deadly bubonic plague breaks out. They steal a lifeboat and land on a remote Malayan island. The frightened people are a wealthy, married rubber chemist (Herbert Marshall), a mousy schoolteacher (Claudette Colbert, with requisite eyeglasses), a tough news correspondent (William Gargan) and the supercilious wife of a British official (Mary Boland). As the four adapt themselves to the rigors of jungle life, the lady teacher sheds her glasses and becomes more attractive by the day--and is subsequently fought over by the two men in the party. Their native guide (Leo Carrillo) dead, the castaways are captured by hostile Islanders. The newsman dies, the chemist and the teacher are thrust together in peril, and the official's wife becomes the unofficial queen of the island thanks to her diplomatic skills. Upon rescue, the married chemist nobly parts with the schoolteacher, but eventually escapes his loveless marriage and is reunited with his new love--even as her young pupils look on in adolescent fascination. As entertaining as any of DeMille's "big" pictures, Four Frightened People did disappointing business, prompting DeMille to return to historical spectacles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi