Kate Lawson Movies

Ginger Rogers ended her 23-year association with RKO Radio with the indifferent musical comedy western The First Travelling Saleslady. Ginger and Broadway favorite Carol Channing (whose only starring film this was) play a pair of corset salespersons who head westward in 1897 to hawk their wares. Finding a limited market for corsets, the ladies switch to selling barbed wire, which rests not at all well with cattle baron James Arness. Rescuing Ginger and Carol from Arness' hired guns are horseless-carriage inventor Barry Nelson and callow young cowpoke Clint Eastwood. Whenever asked about First Travelling Saleslady in later years, Carol Channing would blithely refer to it as "the picture that killed RKO"; she wasn't too far wrong in this assessment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Since someone had already used the title The Bride Wore Boots, it follows that there'd eventually be a film called The Groom Wore Spurs. Jack Carson stars as movie cowboy hero Ben Castle, who in "real life" is exactly the opposite of his screen image. When Castle gets into a scrape in Las Vegas, he is bailed out by lady lawyer Abigail Furnival (Ginger Rogers). Despite Castle's many faults, Abigail can't help falling in love with the big lug. Once they've entered into a marriage of convenience (a plot device better seen than described), Abigail sets about to force Castle to truly become the virtuous, hard-riding, sweet-singing character he plays on screen. The film is bogged down with an unnecessary murder-mystery subplot, which is happily disposed of during a climactic slapstick chase. The Groom Wore Spurs was produced independently by Fidelity Pictures and released by Universal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Ryan plays Jim Wilson, a tough police detective embittered by years of dealing with low-life urban scum, in Nicholas Ray's moving film noir. After severely beating several suspects, Jim is assigned to a case far from the city to find the killer of a young girl. Joining the manhunt, in snow-covered terrain, Wilson finds himself paired with the victim's father, Walter Brent (Ward Bond), who plans to shoot the killer himself. When the two men come upon a cabin occupied by Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman who is also the killer's sister, Wilson's life is changed forever. Mary, a generous and loving person who has cared for her mentally ill brother Danny (Sumner Williams) since the death of their parents, convinces Wilson to protect Danny from Brent. Wilson also promises to get help for Danny if he surrenders to him. Inspired by Mary's courage and recognizing Brent's rage as the mirror image of his own, Wilson gains the insight to free himself from his own blindness. The film includes a memorable score by Alfred Hitchcock favorite Bernard Herrmann. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide

Those westerns produced by the team of star Randolph Scott and producer Harry Joe Brown tended to be several notches above the norm, and The Nevadan is no exception. Scott is cast as U.S. marshal Andrew Barkeley, who goes undercover in a federal pen to get a line on $250,000 in stolen money. Barkeley arranges for chief suspect Tom Tanner (Forrest Tucker) to escape from jail, the better to trail Tanner to the hiding place for the loot. If it were that easy, of course, the film would be over in 15 minutes. Complicating matters is avaricious rancher Edward Galt (George Macready), who also covets the stolen cash. Dorothy Malone adds "heart interest" as Galt's daughter. The chase and fistfight scenes are well-integrated into the suspenseful screenplay. The director was Gordon Douglas, an efficient craftsman who nonetheless wasn't nearly as skilled as Randy Scott's future collaborator Budd Boetticher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After Ray Milland turned down the leading role in Bride of Vengeance, Paramount contractee John Lund stepped into the role of Alfonso D'Este, second husband of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia. The ruthlessly ambitious Lucrezia is played by Paulette Goddard, who seems ill at ease in the role. MacDonald Carey is better suited to his assignment as Cesar Borgia, the real villain of the piece. The plot proper gets under way when Lucrezia seeks revenge for her first husband's murder. The supporting cast is an odd lot, especially Billy Gilbert as Beppo, a wandering minstrel. A far better recreation of the Borgia "regime" was offered in the like-vintage Prince of Foxes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Victor Fleming's final film features Ingrid Bergman as a vivid and luminous Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French peasant girl who led the French in battle against the invading English, becoming a national hero. When she was captured, tortured, and ultimately executed by the English, she was made a Catholic saint. Bergman's Joan is a strong and spiritual figure who proves her devotion to the Dauphin (Jose Ferrer), later to become the King of France. Joan is compelling as she wins an alliance with the Governor of Vaucouleurs and the courtiers at Chinon, leads her army in the Battle of Orleans, is betrayed by the Burgundians, and edicts that "our strength is in our faith." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Perhaps it's just as well that Columbia elected to film Prosper Merimee's Carmen without Georges Bizet's music: after all, Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford weren't exactly Leontyne Price and Robert Merrill. The Loves of Carmen is a reasonably faithful rehash of Merimee's story of the tempestuous gypsy cigarette-factory worker Carmen (Hayworth) and the devastating effect she has on the men in her life. Assigned to arrest Carmen after a street brawl, handsome military officer Don Jose (Ford) falls in love with her instead, renouncing his virginal sweetheart and falling in with Carmen's smuggler cronies. So smitten is Don Jose that he doesn't realize until it's too late that the amoral Carmen is foredoomed to destroy herself and her lovers. Highlights include a knife duel between Don Jose and Carmen's common-law husband Garcia (Victor Jory) and the fatal final confrontation stemming from Carmen's flirtation with bullfighter Lucas (John Baragrey). Dazzling Technicolor photography is the principal asset of this entertaining but uneven star vehicle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most ambitious productions ever turned out by Monogram studios, Song of My Heart represented the directorial debut of screenwriter Benjamin Glazer. The film unfolds the life story of Peter Ilytich Tschaikovsky, with Swedish actor Frank Sundstrom in the title role. Avoiding the sensualism and sensationalism of Ken Russell's later Tschaikovsky biopic The Music Lovers (wisely, given the censorial limits of 1947), Glazer's film tastefully concentrates on the Russian composer's romantic relationship with his patroness Amalya (Audrey Long). Though he achieves great professional success on the concert stage, Tschaikovsky finds personal happiness and contentment only when he is on the verge of death. The huge cast includes such diverse personalities as Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Mikhail Rasumny, Gale Sherwood, Jimmie Dodd, and even veteran western heavy Lane Chandler. Deemed too good to be released with the Monogram imprimatur, Song of My Heart was handled by the studio's "prestige" division, Allied Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Technicolor retelling of the Gaston Leroux "grand guignol" classic The Phantom of the Opera has a little more opera than phantom, but that's because the stars are soprano Susannah Foster and tenor Nelson Eddy. Claude Rains carries the acting honors on his shoulders, playing a pathetic orchestra violinist who worships aspiring opera-singer Foster from afar. The girl is unaware that Rains has secretly been financing her music lessons with instructor Leo Carrillo. When he runs out of money, Rains attempts to sell the concerto that he's been working on all his life. Mistakenly believing that his precious concerto has been stolen from him, Rains attacks and kills the music publisher he holds responsible. Terrified, the publisher's mistress throws a pan full of acid into Rains' face. Rains runs screaming into the night, and is not heard from for the next reel or so. Soon afterward, the Paris Opera house is plagued by a series of mysterious accidents. The managers are informed via letter that the "accidents" will continue if Foster is not immediately promoted to leading roles. Only after reigning diva Jane Farrar is drugged into incapacitation is Foster given her big break. Farrar accuses Foster's boyfriend, police inspector Nelson Eddy, of doping her in order to advance Foster's career. Farrar is later strangled, and Eddy is accused of the crime. The culprit is, of course, Rains, who now poses as the masked-and-caped "phantom". Maniacally determined that no one will impede Foster's success, Rains causes a huge chandelier to crash down on the opera audience when Foster fails to appear onstage (she'd been kept from performing by police-chief Edgar Barrier, who hoped in this manner to flush The Phantom out of hiding). A chase through the catacombs below the opera house ensues, with Rains holding Foster prisoner. When Rains briefly lets down his guard, the tremulous Foster removes his mask. It's "yecccch," all right, but nowhere near as frightening as the unmasking scene in the silent Lon Chaney version of Phantom of the Opera. The same can be said for the rest of this 1943 remake, though in fairness it appears as though the film wasn't really designed to scare anyone, but instead to serve as a suspense yarn with musical interludes. Hume Cronyn makes his second film appearance in Phantom in a microscopic role. The huge sets designed for this picture were hastily reused for the 1944 Universal melodrama The Climax, starring Boris Karloff and (again) Susannah Foster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Another of Universal's "pocket" musicals, Rhythm of the Islands is set in the South Seas, presumably far away from the shooting war. The nonsensical plotline finds hero Tommy (Allan Jones) posing as a native chief. Joan Holton (Jane Frazee), daughter of a millionaire (Ernest Truex), falls in love with Tommy, unaware that he's a charlatan. Tommy and his beachcomber pal Eddie (Andy Devine) encouraged Joan's attentions in order to close a big-business deal with her father; eventually, however, Tommy falls in love with the girl for real, and confesses his sham. The producers managed to pack five songs into the 60-minute running time, not to mention a couple of specialty numbers performed by The Step Brothers and The Horton Dancers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romance, a hospital nurse marries a West Point football hero. She soon gets pregnant, but this doesn't stop her from annulling the marriage so as not to interfere with her husband's military career. Though she keeps it a secret, her plan is to marry him again after he graduates from the academy, which forbids students to marry. She doesn't tell a soul about her pregnancy either. Trouble ensues when an enamored intern learns that she has a baby girl. He too keeps mum until her husband graduates. Unfortunately, by that time, he is no longer interested in marrying her, so she ends up marrying the intern instead and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a devoted, caring physician leaves his home and moves to Alaska to escape arrest after he performs euthanasia upon his terminally ill father. In the ever-snowy reaches of northernmost Alaska, the doctor begins administering to the poverty-stricken Inuit. While he has willingly exiled himself there and cares about the people, his new nurse is another story. She hates the outpost and holds the people there in contempt. She does not try to understand their lifestyle and therefore, considers them disgusting. Unbeknownst to the good doctor, he is being hunted by a detective determined to return him to the lower 48 to stand trial for the mercy killing of his father. Unfortunately, the gumshoe is caught in a blizzard and is blinded by the snow. The doctor saves his life. The grateful detective, seeing the doctor's good work, decides that he never saw him and returns home empty handed. Meanwhile, the nurse gets a grip on her ethnocentrism and decides to stay to be with the doctor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Warner Bros.' Girls on Probation was, and is, a potboiler, redeemed slightly by its cast. The fascinating, underused Jane Bryan stars as innocent young Connie Heath, who is falsely accused of theft by witchy Gloria Adams (Susan Hayward). Though Gloria withdraws her charge, the insurance company continues to persecute poor Connie, resulting in a charge of grand larceny. Championing her cause is crusading attorney Neil Dillon (Ronald Reagan), who gets Gloria off with probation. Alas, she resumes her friendship with "fast girl" Hilda Engstrom (Sheila Bromley), who was responsible for getting Connie into trouble in the first place. And there's still 30 minutes to go! Girls on Probation received plenty of airplay in the 1980s during the Reagan presidency then enjoyed a second life as a late-night mainstay of the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide