Barbara Lawrence Movies

Future film superstar James Coburn appears as slimy entrepreneur Donald Fletcher, who purchases a highly respected publishing house and converts its output to slezy tabloids and nudie magazines. Unable to legally prevent Fletcher from inflicting further damage, editor Edmond Aitken (Philip Abbott), whose family once owned the publishing firm, may be driven to desperation. Ultimately, Fletcher is murdered--but it is Aitken's wife Alyce (Sara Shane), rather than her husband, who is charged with the crime because she was being blackmailed by Fletcher with nude photos taken during her modelling career. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) prepares to clear Alyce and ferret out the genuine culprit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jockey Billy Pearson, who skyrocketed to fame by winning big-time on the 1950s TV game show The $64,000 Question, is appropriately cast in this episode--not as a game-show winner, but as a jockey named Tic Barton. Banned from the track after losing a fixed race, Tic confronts the man who arranged the fix, racketeer Johnny Starr (Don Durant), knocking him down in the process. Naturally, when Johnny turns up dead, Tic is charged with the crime. Representing Tic in court, Perry (Raymond Burr) finds that the case against his client may be insurmountable--especially when it is revealed that the jockey's avaricious wife Gloria (Barbara Lawrence) was having an affair with the dead man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A alien satellite enters close orbit around the Earth and releases a projectile that takes over the body and mind of Dr. Hubbell Eliot (John Emery), the director of Lab Central, America's top astrophysics research facility. Even as Elliot is falling victim to the invaders, Lab Central scientist Dr. Leslie Gaskell (Jeff Morrow) and his colleagues, Vera Hunter (Barbara Lawrence) and Dr. Arnie Culver (George O'Hanlon), have begun tracking the object -- not certain what it is -- and determine that it is going to hit the Earth in less than 24 hours. An attempt to destroy it with nuclear warheads fails, and the vehicle comes down off the coast of Mexico. While Eliot tries to resist the invaders' control and is hospitalized in a state of collapse, Gaskell, Vera, and Culver fly to the site of the landing, where the submerged craft emits a powerful energy pulse that spreads across the surface of the ocean and toward the beach. When it clears, there stands on the beach a huge metallic object -- a towering robot, inadvertently christened "Kronos" by Gaskell, in a relative moment of whimsy. Hundreds of feet tall and possessing immense power, Kronos proceeds to rampage across the countryside, destroying everything in its path as it seeks out and absorbs all sources of electrical and atomic energy. Back at Lab Central, Eliot temporarily breaks free of the aliens' control, long enough to tell Gaskell of the robot's purpose and mission -- Kronos is a accumulator, sent to Earth by a race whose own planet is depleted of energy, and it will continue to grow stronger unless someone can find a way of reversing the process; worse yet, if Kronos isn't destroyed, other accumulators will be sent to drain the Earth of all its energy. The robot advances relentlessly, growing in destructive power as it moves up the coast, and not even a hydrogen bomb can slow it down. Finally, as it heads toward an H-bomb depository and prepares to destroy the city of Los Angeles in its path, Gaskell devises a possible method of stopping Kronos, based on an untested, untried scientific theory. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

A tall horseman (Jock Mahoney) rides into the small town of Arborville, deserted except for redheaded Jody (Luana Patten), who's uncomfortable about it. Outside town, the rider finds all the townspeople working on an oil rig on a small ranch. They're led by Cal Moore (Charles McGraw), and include brothers Aaron (Claude Akins) and Adam Grant (Lee Van Cleef). The stranger asks a few questions, rousing the ire of the hot-tempered brothers, who toss him into a pool of oil. Glossy black but unconcerned, the stranger ambles out and rides back to town. Jody helps him clean up, so he tells her he has come to meet an old Indian who lived on the property where the oil well now is; he's clearly surprised when she refers to the old man, now missing, as Joe Dakota. Meanwhile, the townspeople gather, and we learn that Cal is a newcomer to town, an oil expert who decided to cast his lot with Arborville. We also learn that something happened to the old Indian, and that the townspeople were involved. The townspeople later are horrified when the stranger announces that he owns the land where the oil well is, and that his name is Joe Dakota.

Later, Jody comes to see Joe at the ranch, and reveals that the old man was her friend; she often came out to visit him. Joe tells her that the old man, whom he'd known well some years before, had simply borrowed his name. Jody says that the last time she'd visited the old Indian, he'd been drunk and had attacked (but not raped) her. Egged on by Cal, the townspeople had lynched him. The next day, Joe hangs a noose on the Arborville town sign, and puts a cross on the old man's grave. He explains that he was a captain in the infantry, and the old man was the finest scout he'd ever known. Everyone gathers at the oil well, where Joe explains that it was Cal who had attacked Jody, framing the old man for the crime to get the town to lynch him. He and Cal have a fight, but the townspeople, ashamed of what they've done, side with Joe.

Universal-International turned out quite a number of well-down, medium-budget westerns in the late 1950s, often starring Audie Murphy. This time, however, the lead is former stuntman Jock Mahoney, whom the studio was trying to groom as a star; his easy-going but very masculine personality made him ideal for roles such as this. The movie, co-written by Perry Mason's "Hamilton Burger," (William Talman), seems to owe something to Bad Day at Black Rock, but the plot works well in this context, too. There are good small details, like a wine store instead of a saloon, the town's beloved water trough, and the stranger's midnight shave. Richard H. Bartlett's direction is as low-key as the movie -- scarcely a shot is fired, and few wear guns -- and as likable. Joe Dakota is "just another movie," but it's a very good example of its long-gone kind. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1943 Broadway musical was considered revolutionary for a multitude of reasons, not least of which were the play's intricate integration of song and storyline, and the simplicity and austerity of its production design. The 1955 film version of Oklahoma! retains the songs (except for Lonely Room and It's a Scandal!, which are usually cut from most stage presentations anyway) and the story, but the simplicity is sacrificed to the spectacle of Technicolor, Todd-AO, and Stereophonic Sound. The story can be boiled down to a single sentence: a girl must decide between the two suitors who want to take her to a social. In her movie debut, 19-year-old Shirley Jones plays Laurie, an Oklahoma farm gal who is courted by boisterous cowboy Curley (Gordon MacRae) and by menacing, obsessive farm hand Jud Frye (Rod Steiger). Fearing that Jud will do something terrible to Curley, Laurie accepts Jud's invitation to the box social. But it's Curley who rescues Laurie from Jud's unwanted advances, and in so doing wins her hand. On the eve of their wedding, Laurie and Curley are menaced by the drunken Jud. During a fight with Curley, Jud falls on his own knife and is killed (this sudden-death motif was curiously commonplace in the Rodgers and Hammerstein ouevre). The local deputy insists that Curley be arrested and stand trial, but he is outvoted by Curley's friends, and the newlyweds are permitted to ride off on their honeymoon. Counterpointing the serious elements of the story is a comic subplot involving innocently promiscuous Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame), her erstwhile sweetheart Will Parker (Gene Nelson) and lascivious travelling salesman Ali Hakim (Eddie Albert). None of the Broadway cast of Oklahoma! was engaged for the film version, though Charlotte Greenwood is finally able to essay the role of Auntie Eller that had been written for her but she'd been unable to play back in 1943. The evergreen songs include Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin', Surrey with the Fringe on Top, People Will Say We're In Love, I Cain't Say No, and the rousing title song. Two versions of Oklahoma! currently exist: the Todd-AO version, filmed on 65-millimeter stock, and the simultaneously shot CinemaScope version, shipped out to the theaters not equipped for the wider-screen Todd-AO process. Both versions have been issued in "letterbox" form on laser disc, and the subtle differences in performance style and camera angles in each and every scene are quite fascinating. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

Paris Model is quickie producer Albert Zugsmith's answer to such multistoried films as Tales of Manhattan. Linking the four stories presented herein is a Paris-original gown, "Nude at Midnight." The gown is first purchased by "good bad girl" Gogo Montaine (Eva Gabor), who hopes to impress her date for the evening, the Maharajah of Kim-Kepore (Tom Conway, who happened to be Gabor's brother-in-law at the time, a fact that wasn't ignored in the film's publicity). Next, the gown is illegally copied in the U.S., leading to a major social gaffe involving secretary Betty Barnes (Paulette Goddard), her boss Edgar Blevins (Leif Erickson) and Blevins' wife Cora (Gloria Christian). Next, Marion Parmelee (Marilyn Maxwell) wears the gown to coerce her husband's boss (Cecil Kellaway) into giving hubby a promotion. And finally, Marta Jensen (Barbara Lawrence) dons the gown in hopes that her erstwhile beau Charlie Johnson (Robert Hutton) will pop the question. Tom Conway makes a return appearance in this final sequence, as does 1930s comedy favorite El Brendel and Hollywood restaurateur Prince Michael Romanoff. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An actress who once knew the heights of fame is forced to confronts the depths of defeat in this show business drama. Margaret Elliot (Bette Davis) was once one of Hollywood's great stars, but as she edges into her 50's, both her career and her life have reached an unfortunate crossroads. Margaret hasn't worked for several years, her marriage has fallen apart, her former husband has custody of her daughter Gretchen (Natalie Wood), and she's running short of money. Margaret's agent Harry Stone (Warner Anderson) can't get her a part, and isn't willing to lend her the money to pay her bills. When they learn that Margaret is all but penniless, her sister (Fay Baker) and brother-in-law (David Alpert) turn their back on her, and Margaret's landlady (Katherine Warren) is threatening to evict her. Depressed and desperate, Margaret goes on a drinking binge, and ends up in jail on a drunk driving charge. No one comes to her aid but Jim Johannson (Sterling Hayden), an former actor who worked with Margaret years ago and has long been in love with her. Jim urges Margaret to leave Hollywood behind, and offers to care for her if she'll have him, but when Margaret's pleas to Harry finally result in an audition with producer Joe Morrison (Minor Watson), she holds on to the desperate hope she may have one more chance at regaining her stardom. Bette Davis's performance in The Star earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, but she lost to Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba -- a role that had been first offered to Davis. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Personally supervised by Howard R. Hughes, the RKO Technicolor musical Two Tickets to Broadway stars Janet Leigh as a small-town girl who hopes to make it big in the Big Apple. Moving into a Manhattan boarding house populated by such showbiz hopefuls as Ann Miller, Tony Martin, Gloria De Haven and Barbara Lawrence, Leigh aspires to appear on the popular TV variety program hosted by bandleader Bob Crosby. Two-bit agent Eddie Bracken promises to make her dreams come true, even though he doesn't know Crosby from Adam. Along the way, Leigh falls for Martin, though the course of true love seldom runs smooth--in fact, at one point it threatens to run all the way back to Leigh's home town. Injecting their time-honored routines into the proceedings are veteran vaudevillians Joe Smith and Charlie Dale, playing a couple of stagestruck deli owners (their roles were originally slated for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, but Laurel's illness precluded any film work). Despite the creative input of choreographer Busby Berkeley, the film's best number is the simplest: Let's Make Comparisons, wherein Bob Crosby explains why he's not his brother Bing. Seemingly a surefire box-office hit, Two Tickets to Broadway inexplicably posted a loss of $1,150,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The same studio that brought forth Father Was a Fullback was responsible for Mother is a Freshman. Loretta Young stars as Abbigail Abbott, the widowed mother of coed Susan Abbott (Betty Lynn). In order to legally validate Susan's scholarship fund (a legacy of her late grandmother), Abigail enrolls in the university as a freshman. Here she is wooed by Professor Richard Michaels (Van Johnson)--much to Susan's dismay, since she'd set her cap for the professor herself. Rudy Vallee reprises the "stuffy middle-aged suitor" characterization he'd essayed in such previous comedies as The Palm Beach Story and Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. Mother is a Freshman afforded audiences the opportunity of glimpsing 20th Century-Fox's familiar "college campus" sets in full Technicolor (these standing sets were also seen in black & white in such 1949 releases as Mr. Belvedere Goes to College and It Happens Every Spring). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Thieves' Highway is set in San Francisco and the surrounding countryside. Richard Conte plays Nick Garcos, an American GI who returns from WWII to find that his father Yanko (Morris Carnovsky), a produce trucker, has lost the use of both legs because of a fight with crooked truck driver Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). Nick is a clean-cut guy who was set on marrying his sweetheart Polly Faber (Barbara Lawrence). Instead, Nick gets embroiled in his father's feud with Mike, buying a truck and falling deeper into racketeering. He delivers a truckload of apples to Mike as part of a scheme to expose his cheating. A prostitute, Rica (Valentina Cortesa), tells Nick that Mike has his own plot to trap him. Nick and Rica help Mike's henchmen learn that Mike has also been cheating them, and Nick eventually gets his revenge. But Nick has permanently lost Polly because of his involvement with the gangsters and his change in personality from a good guy to a more sinister businessman. Director Jules Dassin was blacklisted from Hollywood for supposed communist sympathies after making this 1949 picture, but he went on to have success with more caper movies while in exile in France. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Charles Winninger plays the head of a vaudevillian family who, when jobs become scarce, takes a humble factory job. He dreams of sustaining a show-biz dynasty with his grown children, but none of them show any real interest in trodding the boards. Realizing that the golden days are past, Winninger allows his children to follow their own desires. Give My Regards to Broadway is a regulation 20th Century-Fox Technicolor musical, with all the story elements falling into place precisely when the audience expects them to. The film comes to life during the song and dance sequences featuring Winninger and top-billed Dan Dailey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide