Sharon Lee Movies

John Byrum wrote and directed this loosely based biographical tale of Beat author Jack Kerouac and Neal and Carolyn Cassady. John Heard stars as Jack Kerouac, and the film chronicles the Beat lifestyle that shaped the literary and social forces brewing and overflowing in Kerouac's imagination, resulting in the publication of Kerouac's seminal novel On the Road. Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek play the Cassadys, enmeshed in a love-hate relationship that forms the backbone of the film. Kerouac drifts in and out of their lives as the Cassadys take up residence in San Francisco. Ray Sharkey is also on hand as the manic Ira, a thinly veiled character based on Alan Ginsberg. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Chicago Confidential may not have been the best of the late-1950s "expose" films, but it certainly boasted one of the most impressive casts. Based on the factual best-seller by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer, the film stars Brian Keith as a State Attorney who vows to bring corrupt Chicago union officials to justice. It turns out that the union crooks are in cahoots with a gambling syndicate, conspiring to frame uncooperative union leader Dick Foran for murder. With the considerable assistance of his coworker-fiancee Beverly Garland, Keith strives to prove Foran's innocence and punish the genuine miscreants. Crucial to the plotline is nightclub comedian Buddy Lewis, cast as an impressionist who helps to frame the troublesome Foran; also in the cast are such crime-flick perennials as Elisha Cook Jr., Paul Langton, Douglas Kennedy, Jack Lambert, John Indrisano, Phyllis Coates, and Thomas B. Henry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this production from Benedict Bogeaus and RKO Radio, Robert Ryan stars as a fugitive from justice who hides out in the Far Eastern teak plantation managed by Barbara Stanwyck. As the two fall in love, Stanwyck comes to believe in Ryan's innocence. Upon the arrival of doggedly determined security officer David Farrer, Ryan and Stanwyck escape into the treacherous Burmese jungles. Like many of Bogeaus's productions of the 1950s, Escape to Burma was directed by Allan Dwan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Secrets of a Model was an "exploitation" picture, designed for theatre-by-theatre distribution and a quick financial turnover. Sharon Lee heads the cast as Rita Wilson, a country girl who comes to the big city in hopes of becoming a model. To make ends meet, she takes a job at a carhop, providing the opportunity for a brief but tantalizing sequence in which Rita and her coworkers strip to their undies before donning their uniforms. While on duty, Rita is ardently wooed by handsome milkman Bob Grey (Julien Madison) and by shifty-looking Jack Thorndyke (Harold Daniels), whom the audience pegs as a villain because he wears a mustache. Jack promises to find a modelling job for Rita, but this is merely a come-on to trap her in his boudoir. In the nick of time, Bob breaks down the bedroom door, trounces Thorndike and rescues Rita from a fate worse than death (though the scene is nebulously directed, suggesting that perhaps Rita has been deflowered by the caddish Thorndike). It's hard to tell whether the producers were taking this thing seriously or not: in its own way, Secrets of a Model is as ineptly hilarious as that granddaddy of exploitationers, Reefer Madness. Incidentally, leading lady Sharon Lee later changed her name to Cheryl Walker, and under this monicker was one of the leading players of the 1943 morale-booster Star Door Canteen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide