Bob Kortman Movies

Billy Winder directed and co-wrote this bitterly satiric comedy-drama which turns a jaundiced eye towards both the news media and its consumers. Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) is a talented but short-tempered reporter whose fondness for booze and unwillingness to bow to authority has cost him jobs at some of America's most prestigious newspapers. When Tatum's car breaks down in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tatum persuades the editor of the local paper (Porter Hall) to give him a job until he can make enough to get his jalopy running and find a story that will put him back in the good graces of the Big City journals. After a year in Albuquerque, Tatum begins to wonder if a big scoop will ever cross his path, but when he's sent to Los Barios to cover the annual rattlesnake hunt, he lucks into a great human interest story -- Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict), who runs a local diner, motel and curio emporium, is caught in an abandoned mine shaft after a rockslide, which some superstitious locals attribute to an Indian curse. Tatum writes up the story with all the flourish he can muster, and portrays Leo's wife Lorraine (Jan Sterling) as a devoted spouse fearful for her husband's life, even though she can barely stand Leo and is planning to leave him. Tatum's story is picked up by the wire services and he makes friends with local sheriff Kretzer (Ray Teal) to insure he has an inside line on updates on Leo's rescue. When Tatum learns that Leo can be freed in a mere twelve hours, he persuades Kretzer and his men to adopt another rescue method that will take several days, which will generate more copy for Tatum, more press attention for Ketzer's re-election campaign, and more business for Lorraine's diner. Soon Los Barios is the biggest tourist attraction in the state, but as the media circus mounts, Leo begins to fall seriously ill. Also released as The Big Carnival, Ace In The Hole was a major box-office disappointment upon its original release in 1951, even though it was sandwiched between two of Wilder's biggest hits, Sunset Boulevard and Stalag 17. Despite never being released in home video until 2007, Ace In The Hole's bitter tone earned it an enthusiastic cult following, and it's now regarded as one of Wilder's best films of the Fifties. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Sterling Hayden and Forrest Tucker, two of Hollywood's most rugged leading men, head the cast of Paramount's Flaming Feather. Rancher Tex McCloud (Hayden) and cavalry lieutenant Tom Blaine (Tucker) despise each other at first sight. Even so, McCloud and Blaine are forced to work together to seek out and capture an elusive outlaw named Lucky Lee (Victor Jory), who heads a band of renegade Indians. Also involved in the manhunt are vengeful saloon gal Carolina (Arleen Whelan) and marriage-minded Nora Logan (Barbara Rush), each pursuing her own agenda (just like everyone else in the film!) The film's violent outcome is predicated upon the desultory romance between Lucky Lee and dour Indian maiden Turquoise (Carol Thurston). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Set just after the close of the Civil War, a former Confederate officer (Ray Milland) joins a vaudeville target-shooting show to avoid detection by the Union army. Working his way West, he falls in league with a group of Southern copper-miners being harassed as they try to make a living. ~ John Bush, Rovi

This second of four film adaptations of Damon Runyon's Little Miss Marker is tailored to the talents of Bob Hope. A shifty Broadway bookie, Sorrowful Jones (Hope) becomes a reluctant foster parent when an anxious gambler leaves behind his little girl Martha Jane (Mary Jane Saunders) as a "marker," or IOU. When the father is killed by mobster Big Steve Holloway (Bruce Cabot), Sorrowful decides to hide Martha Jane from the authorities, lest the poor girl get tossed in an orphanage. Lucille Ball co-stars as Sorrowful's erstwhile girlfriend Gladys, who along with Mary Jane is instrumental in "reforming" the cynical Jones. The climactic scenes, wherein Sorrowful tries to smuggle a horse into a hospital in order to bring the little girl out of a coma, deftly combines slapstick with pathos. A remake of 1934's Little Miss Marker, which starred Shirley Temple in the title role, Sorrowful Jones was itself remade in 1962 as the Tony Curtis vehicle Who's Got the Action; it was filmed again in 1980, once more as Little Miss Marker, with Curtis as the villain and Walter Matthau in the Bob Hope role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Samson and Delilah is Cecil B. DeMille's characteristically expansive retelling of the events found in the Old Testament passages of Judges 13-16. Victor Mature plays Samson, the superstrong young Danite. Samson aspires to marry Philistine noblewoman Semadar (Angela Lansbury), but she is killed when her people attack Samson as a blood enemy. Seeking revenge, Semadar's younger sister Delilah (Hedy Lamarr) woos Samson in hopes of discovering the secret of his strength, thus enabling her to destroy him. When she learns that his source of his virility is his long hair, Delilah plies Samson with drink, then does gives him the Old Testament equivalent of a buzzcut while he snores away. She delivers the helpless Samson to the Philistines, ordering that he be put to work as a slave. Blinded and humiliated by his enemies, Samson is a sorry shell of his former self. Ultimately, Samson's hair grows back, thus setting the stage for the rousing climax wherein Samson literally brings down the house upon the wayward Philistines. Hedy Lamarr is pretty hopeless as Delilah, but Victor Mature is surprisingly good as Samson, even when mouthing such idiotic lines as "That's all right. It's only a young lion". Even better is George Sanders as The Saran of Gaza, who wisely opts to underplay his florid villainy. The spectacular climax to Samson and Delilah allows us to forget such dubious highlights as Samson's struggle with a distressing phony lion and the tedious cat-and-mouse romantic scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bob Hope's Technicolor western spoof The Paleface was one of the comedian's biggest box-office hits. Hope plays Painless Potter, a hopelessly inept dentist who heads west to seek his fortune. Meanwhile, buxom female outlaw Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) is engaged in undercover work on behalf of the government, in the hopes of earning a pardon for her past crimes. Jane is on the lookout for notorious gun-runner Robert Armstrong. To put up an innocent front, Jane marries the befuddled Potter, then keeps the criminals at bay by convincing everyone that Potter is a rootin'-tootin' gunslinger (actually, it's Jane who's been doing all the shooting). Armstrong, who has been selling guns to the Indians, arranges for Jane to be captured by the scalp-hungry tribesmen, but Potter comes to the rescue. Somewhere along the way, Bob Hope and Jane Russell get to sing the Oscar-winning Jay Livingston/Ray Evans tune "Buttons and Bows". There are many hilarious moments in The Paleface, but screenwriter Frank Tashlin felt that director Norman Z. McLeod failed to get the full comic value out of his material. To prove his point, Tashlin directed the side-splitting sequel, Son of Paleface (1952), which once more teamed Hope and Russell. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this aerial melodrama, four brothers working as stunt pilots for a flying circus leave their jobs to become mail pilots. Because their job requires that they constantly travel, they are advised to not settle down with wives and kids. Still, one pilot falls in love and marries. Unfortunately, the woman dislikes his brothers and constantly worries that he will be killed during a flight. Her fears are not unfounded and much tragedy ensues as the story unfolds. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based on a famous book by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., this grueling saga of shipboard oppression is set in the mid-19th century. Charles Stewart (Alan Ladd), the wealthy son of a Boston shipowner, is hijacked by Amazeen (William Bendix), the first mate on a ship bound for California. Francis Thompson (Howard Da Silva) is the tyrannical captain of the Pilgrim who was booted out of the U.S. Navy for mistreating his sailors. Now he wants to set a record sailing time, and he and Amazeen mete out severe punishment for the slightest of infractions. They even deny the men permission to go ashore and pick fruit when they stop in California and pick up the beautiful Maria Dominguez (Esther Fitzgerald). Without fruit, the men develop scurvy and begin to mutiny. Stewart allies himself with the author Dana (Brian Donlevy), whose brother died on one of Captain Thompson's previous voyages. Dana wants to write an expose of Thompson. Stewart steals guns and tries to take over the ship, but Amazeen subdues and imprisons him. The film was shot on a Hollywood set, but with devices on the set that simulate rolling waves so effectively that much of the cast got seasick. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

The Durango Kid rides again in Columbia's Landrush. As ever, the masked do-gooder, alias Steve Harmon, is played by Charles Starrett. Bringing up the rear in every sense of the word is Harmon's comical sidekick Smiley Burnette. In this outing, Harmon dons his Durango garb to rescue a group of homesteaders from scurrilous villains. Musical relief is provided by Ozie Waters and his Colorado Rangers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this western, the Texas Rangers must stop a range war between sheepherders and cattle ranchers from erupting. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Gary Cooper added "producer" alongside "star" on his resume with this light-hearted Western about a mild-mannered cowboy (Cooper) who drifts into a small town with his sidekick (William Demarest). Naturally, he's mistaken for a notorious highway robber (Dan Duryea), although he can barely handle a gun. His impersonation of the menacing gunman falls apart when his skills are put to the test, and he faces certain doom when challenged by the returning gunman himself. In the end, however, our hero defeats the villain and even ends up with his girl (Loretta Young). A send-up of both Western clichés and Cooper's own heroic persona, Along Came Jones is brisk, amusing entertainment. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

Also known as Boss of Rawhide, this "Texas Rangers" western top-bills Dave O'Brien, James Newill, and Guy Wilkerson. This time, the three Rangers are called upon to solve a series of rangeland murders. The victims were all ranchers, and it looks as though the same gang was responsible for all the killings. Our heroes suspect that the gang leader is a "respectable" citizen-but who is it? Pepping up the proceedings (or slowing them down, depending upon one's point of view) are a couple of songs, adequately warbled by the stars. The leading lady is Nell O'Day, an accomplished horsewoman who should have had a western series of her own. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Western star Don "Red" Barry essays a dual role in Republic's Outlaws of Santa Fe. Actually, the two "characters" are one: Barry plays a reformed bank robber named Bob Hackett, who starts life anew as Bob Conroy. This he does to track down the no-good, dirty skunk who murdered his father. Meanwhile, a rash of bank holdups occur, leading the Law to assume that Hackett/Conroy is up to his old tricks. Wally Vernon supplies the usual comedy relief, while precocious child actress Twinkle Watts is as annoying as she'd been in earlier Barry westerns. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi