Earl Lee Movies
- 1953
Stan Freberg fans are advised to keep an eye open for the obscure Republic musical Geraldine. Freberg plays recording star Billy Weber, a devastating takeoff of "crying tenor" Johnnie Ray. Looking for a new song, Billy chances to hear an old folk tune, rearranged by college music professor Grant Sanborn (John Carroll). Several incredible intrigues later, Billy's star has eclipsed and it is Sanborn who's the new singing heartthrob. Mala Powers, Jose Ferrer's vis-a-vis in Cyrano de Bergerac, is rather overshadowed by the male stars in her nondescript role. The songwriting credits on Geraldine are most impressive, including Freberg, Victor Young, Irwin Koster, and even western comic sidekick Fuzzy Knight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Carroll, Mala Powers, (more)
- 1953
Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon were together again for the last time in Scandal at Scourie. Filmed on location in Canada, the plot concerns a childless Protestant couple, the McChesneys (Garson and Pidgeon), whose lives are profoundly altered by an orphaned Catholic girl named Patsy (Donna Corcoran). Through a series of far-fetched coincidences, Patsy wanders into the McChesney home, immediately capturing the heart of Mrs. McChesney. Mr. McC, a local politician, is a bit harder to win over, but eventually his wife convinces him to adopt the child. This stirs up a tempest in a teapot, as McChesney's political enemies accuse him of using Patsy to win over his Catholic constituents, while one of Patsy's former orphanage classmates spreads a rumor (backed up by circumstantial evidence) that the little girl is a "firebug." Sentimental to a fault, Scandal at Scourie is also undeniably effective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, (more)
- 1952
Estelita Rodriguez, Republic Pictures' own Latin Bombshell, is back in Tropical Heat Wave. Once again, Rodriguez, playing herself, is a new arrival from Cuba who sets the U.S. on its ear with her unbounded enthusiasm. Taking a singing job at her uncle's Manhattan nightclub, Rodriguez is threatened with abduction or worse by mobster Norman James (Grant Withers) unless he is allowed to gain control of the nitery. Professorial criminologist Stratford Carver (Robert Hutton) comes to the heroine's rescue by posing as a hard-bitten hoodlum (though in fact he seems a lot less frightening than Rodriguez!) Like the concurrently produced Judy Canova musicals, Tropical Heat Wave consists of several rambunctious musical numbers, a kidding-on-the-square romance, and a slapstick finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Estelita, Robert Hutton, (more)
- 1952
Assignment - Paris is based on a serialized Saturday Evening Post yarn by Paul and Pauline Gallico. The film stars Dana Andrews as reporter Jimmy Race, assigned to the Paris bureau of the New York Herald Tribune. Race makes the acquaintance of French journalist Jeanne Moray (Marta Toren), who is forced to suppress a white-hot news story about an impending Iron Curtain political conspiracy because she lacks proof. At great risk to himself, Race heads to Budapest to ferret out the facts, sometimes right under the noses of the communist "damage control" experts. George Sanders co-stars as editor Rick Strang, who dispatches Race on his fact-finding mission--partly because of his dedication to truth, and partly because he has designs on the gorgeous Jeanne himself. One of the more palatable anti-Red tracts of its era, Assignment - Paris makes excellent use of authentic Parisian and Hungarian locations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Andrews, Märta Torén, (more)
- 1952
Will Rogers Jr. stars as his own father in this slow, sentimental biopic. The film begins with Rogers' days on his father's ranch in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). We see Will court his future wife, Betty (Jane Wyman), just before he strikes out on his own as a rodeo performer. Attempting to break into vaudeville with a roping act, Will gets nowhere until he starts cracking extemporaneous jokes about current events. Using the newspapers as his "material," Will rises to the pinnacle of show business in the 1910s and '20s as a star comedian in Flo Ziegfeld's Follies. He matures into a devoted family man, a rancher, a film star, an aviation enthusiast, and America's unofficial goodwill ambassador. During the darkest days of the Depression, Rogers works long and hard on behalf of poverty-stricken farmers in his own home state and elsewhere. In 1935, Rogers joins his old pal Wiley Post (Noah Beery Jr.) for an airplane trip to Alaska -- from which he never returns. The Story of Will Rogers sticks to the facts, but the film is surprisingly dull and pedantic considering the director (the usually vigorous Michael Curtiz) and the fascinating subject matter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Jr., Jane Wyman, (more)
One of the most pretentious "apocalypse" films ever made, Five is set in a lavish Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house--owned by Arch Oboler, the film's writer/producer/director. The "five" of the title are the only survivors of a nuclear disaster, all of whom have rather illogically converged in this house. William Phipps, the hero, was left untouched by the explosion because he'd been alone in an Empire State Building elevator! He is the first to arrive at the house, and is joined in quick succession by a pregnant woman (Susan Douglas), a fascistic soldier of fortune (James Anderson), an African American doorman (Charles Lampkin) and a shell-shocked bank clerk (Earl Lee). The clerk mercifully dies of radiation early on, leaving the remaining four to converse at great and boring length on all things philosophical. At long, long last, only the hero and the woman are left alive to do the "Adam and Eve" bit. Though Arch Oboler was one of the greatest radio writers of all time, Five proves that he was in over his head as a filmmaker; the dialogue evokes laughter rather than profound thought, and the plotline has logic holes big enough to drive trucks through. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Phipps, Susan Douglas, (more)
