Iris Adrian Movies

Producer-director Roger Corman serves up another thinly plotted musicfest in Carnival Rock. Corman regular Susan Cabot stars as Natalie, a singer for an oceanside carnival. Smitten by Natalie, high-stakes gambler Stanley (Brian Hutton) wins the carnival in a poker game so that he can be near the girl. Christy (David J. Stewart), the carnival's ex-owner, is likewise in love with the girl, so he stays on as a baggy-pants burleycue comic. As in most films of this nature, the plot can be blissfully ignored in favor of the musical highlights, which in this case are performed by the likes of The Platters, David Houston, Bob Luman, The Shadows and The Blockbusters. And what would a Roger Corman flick be without Dick Miller in a supporting role? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A car with two men visible in it pulls up to a Los Angeles service station at night, with a single attendant (Dub Taylor) working. As he starts to pump the gas, he doesn't see the third man come around the side until it's too late and he's knocked cold. The trio carries out their robbery but before they can finish, a motorcycle cop rolls up. A gun battle ensues, and one of the robbers is shot, as is the police officer. Now a manhunt is on for the trio, all escapees from San Quentin who were making their way south; the other two give the wounded man enough money to get to the apartment of a former cellmate of one of them, Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson). But Lacey is genuinely trying to go straight and live a clean, honest life with his wife, Ellen (Phyllis Kirk), and wants nothing to do with anyone he knew in prison, or with harboring an escaped prisoner. He's even more unhappy when Dr. Otto Hessler (Jay Novello), another ex-con and a veterinarian, arrives to treat the gunshot victim. But when the hood dies, matters get even more complicated -- Lacey's life becomes a nightmare as the police arrive, led by the hardboiled Det. Sgt. Sims (Sterling Hayden), who doesn't believe that any hood ever goes straight. Sims doesn't believe that Lacey's claim of knowing nothing of the escapees, and is ready to send him back to prison on a parole violation -- even though his parole officer (James Bell) believes him -- when he won't cooperate. And worse still, the other two escapees, Doc Penny (Ted de Corsia) and Ben Hastings (Charles Buchinsky, aka Charles Bronson), force their way into Lacey's home, insisting on hiding out there and threatening Ellen. And as they're now a man short, they want Steve's help on a major heist they're planning -- and will kill Ellen if he doesn't cooperate. Soon Lacey is up to his neck in a daylight bank robbery, timed to the minute, and his wife is at the mercy of a mentally deficient, sexually deviant confederate (Timothy Carey), while the police still seem to be following every trail but the right one. Steve realizes that he is the only one who is going to be able to save himself or his wife from this nightmare, and isn't convinced that he'll get out of it alive -- but by then, between being put on him by Sims and his unwanted companions, he's prepared to die in order to save Ellen. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Frank Webster (John Ireland) is a man on the run. Newly broken out of prison, the former truck driver and convicted murderer takes Connie Adair (Dorothy Malone) hostage at a lonely roadside diner and commandeers her car, a racing job than she intended to drive in a rally. At first Connie is as frightened as any woman should be in such a situation, but she soon sees that Frank is more than a wanted criminal -- he's an innocent man trying to redeem his life, and forced by circumstance to commit acts of violence. Soon the two are on the run together, lovers and fugitives using the cover of the road rally as a dodge so he can get to the border and freedom. Connie tries to convince Frank to take a stand, get the evidence out that framed him, and redeem his honor, as the authorities close in on the fast-driving pair. The second movie ever produced by Roger Corman, The Fast and the Furious marked the first release of Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson and the beginning of their American Releasing Corporation, soon to be renamed American International Pictures. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Ever since slipping into Public Domain, The Big Trees has become one of the most accessible and oft-televised of Kirk Douglas' pictures. Douglas plays an unscrupulous lumberjack who covets the land owned by a religious sect. All that's saving him from being the film's main villain is the fact that there's an even nastier contingent out to claim the sect's territory. His greed tempered by the love of pious Eve Miller, Douglas turns out to be a good guy after all in the film's climax. Watch for Alan Hale Jr. as "Tiny," doubling for his own father, who appears in long-shot in the stock footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Abbott & Costello Show marked the last major commercial success for the comic team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The duo, who had started out in burlesque in the 1930's (and each had long experience in entertainment and performing before they met), had been a veritable fixure on radio since 1938, when they'd appeared on The Kate Smith Hour, which led to work on Broadway and more radio work in 1940, initially on a summer replacement show for Fred Allen, and later with their own shows on NBC and, subsequently, on ABC. It was on the radio show that they assembled the core cast of performers, regulars and bit players, who would later work in their movies and the subsequent television series -- first and foremost among these was Sidney Fields, who would contribute to some of their early movies as a writer and bit-player, but the other important names were Iris Adrian and Elvia Allman, both of whom would later turn up on their television show. Their radio show continued into the start of the 1950's, and overlap with their film career, which began in 1941 -- up thru 1950, the films were immensely popular and profitable. But their film audience had begun to decline with the start of the new decade, and during this same period it became clear that radio had seen its day as the dominant broadcast entertainment medium. The duo began looking at television as the next stop for their careers, and made the jump to the small-screen in 1951, initially as guests on The Colgate Comedy Hour, which was successful enough so that a regular television series seemed a real possibility. That became a reality in 1952 with the first season of The Abbott & Costello Show, which went on the air on CBS in December of that year. Produced by Costello's brother Pat Costello, the rotund little comic had an ownership interest in the program, whereas Bud Abbott, unsure of the future of television, chose instead to take a larger straight salary, with no longterm interest or ownership stake in the show. The show was shot and produced at Hal Roach Studios in Los Angeles, using the same sets that were used (at the very same time period) for the Amos 'n Andy Show. The first season of The Abbott & Costello Show was formatted very loosely, and opened like a stage revue, with the two comic stepping out on stage and addressing the viewing audience, and doing some schtick, which might range anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes -- in the very first show, "The Drug Store", Costello tries to tell a fish-story to the audience in spite of Abbott's constant, brilliantly timed interruptions, which culminate with the little comic stalking off-stage, thwarted and dejected; in the very next scene, in the "story" proper, Costello is walking down a street when a woman approaches him, says, "How dare you remind me of somebody I hate!" and hits him on the head with an umbrella . . . and so it went, in 26 programs done that season in which the barest plot elements often gave way to screamingly funny digressions, leaving any semblance of story arc in the dust. Often scenes and plots were merely set-ups and excuses for the duo to do one of their classic burlesque, vaudeville, or radio routines, of which the most famous was "Who's On First," in which Abbott tries to tell an increasingly frustrated Costello the names of the member of a baseball team ("Who's on first, What's on second, and I Don't Know's on third . . . . ") -- others were "Niagara Falls" (aka "Slowly I Turned"), "Mustard," "Hertz U Drive," "Susquehanna Hat Company" (aka "Bagle Street," aka "Floogle Street," a sketch that veteran comic Joey Faye claimed authorship of), and "Jonah and the Whale." There were literally dozens of such routines, and they were all used liberally in that first season. Indeed, one episode, "Getting A Job", seems to have been assembled from random pieces of footage, without any continuing plot at all and none of the pieces of footage really relating in anyway to those around them -- and it is still immensely funny, mostly because that's the episode that has the "Susquehanna Hat Company" sketch in it. The basic premise of the first season presented Bud Abbott and Lou Costello -- using their own names -- as denizens of a Los Angeles rooming house owned by Sidney Fields (using his own name for his character), who also played other roles in various episodes, including innumerable Fields brothers and cousins, and lawyer Claude Melonhead, among others, and also wrote many of the shows -- the bald-headed Fields was excitable and blustery, and the perfect foil for both comedians. Gordon Jones, an athlete-turned-actor and veteran action film star, played Mike The Cop (aka Mike Kelly), a resident of the same rooming house and the constant nemesis of the two heroes, especially Costello. Joe Kirk, Costello's brother-in-law, played Mr. Bacciagalupe, who always seemed to be in businesses that were relevant to whatever the story-line or sketch required, as well as occasional other characters. And Hillary Brooke, a tall, glamorous, classically-trained actress who'd graced motion pictures for the previous decade, played a character of the same name, who also lived in the rooming house (though in the first episode, her character didn't have a name and didn't know Abbott or Costello) -- one running joke was Costello's crush on Hillary, and his occasional inept efforts to tell her how he felt, which frequently ended up with him stepping on her foot, covering her with water, soot, or some other unpleasant substance, or otherwise offending her. Another regular was Joe Besser, still a few years from joining the Three Stooges, who played Stinky, another resident of the rooming house -- he was surreal, a fat 40-year-old bald man in a Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit, acting like a bad-tempered seven-year-old and always fighting with Costello. And the duo's own resident comic "stooge" and de facto court jester, Bobby Barber, a bald-headed man with huge, expressive eyes and limbs seemingly made of rubber, played a multitude of roles (sometimes as many as three in the same episode!), usually in some slapstick interaction with Costello. The other bit players were Milt Bronson who, in addition to being an on-screen nemesis to Costello, also served as dialogue director for the show; veteran film actress Iris Adrian as a variety of excitable women; Robin Raymond in the same sorts of parts; Minerva Urecal, a veteran stage and screen actress, who was kind of this duo's answer to the Marx Brothers' Margaret Dumont; and Joan Shawlee (who could also play as many as three roles in the same show) as a frequent sharp-tongued female antagonist for Costello (most memorably as an uncooperative telephone operator who drives Costello to distraction as the latter tries to call the number ALexander 4444). And most surreal of all was the presence of Bingo the Chimp, a chimpanzee who was usually seen wearing a miniature version of Lou Costello's familiar checked jacket and derby hat. Jean Yarbrough, who'd made numerous low-budget films at Universal, directed the show. The first season was hugely successful, but following it up proved a problem. The sponsors wanted a more conventional comedy series, and the decision to go in that direction was probably a necessity in any case, as the team had used up most of their best routines in those first 26 shows. For the second season, the concept was changed significantly -- Abbott and Costello still lived at the Fields apartment house, Sidney Fields was still their landlord, and Gordon Jones's Mike the Cop was still there for some shows, but gone were Joe Kirk, Hillary Brooke, Joe Besser, and Bingo. Additionally, the shows were no longer structured to allow the easy inclusion of vaudeville routines, and there was no longer any opening and closing "set up" in which the two would address the audience -- plots were followed from beginning to end, and an extremely annoying laugh-track was utilized (the first season also had a laugh-track, but a much more realistic one -- the second season was filled with grotesque shrieking laughs, often in the wrong spots). For scripts, the second season also fell back on a lot of recycled humor in scripts that seem to have mostly been written by Clyde Bruckman, a gagman from the silent era, who shamelessly repeated bits he'd written for Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton and, more recently, the Three Stooges et al, so closely that scenes were sometimes interchangeable between A&C and the Stooges. It was still a funny show, but not as consistently so by a longshot. It also marked the beginning of the end of the duo's popular culture impact; their new movies were sinking fast in quality and audience, and the reissue of their classic old films, plus the release of the movies they were making and the television series -- which ran to 52 shows -- led to the duo's being seriously over-exposed at the time. By 1955, the year after the series ended production, they were at the tail-end of their careers. The series continued to be popular, however, and actually found a larger audience in syndication -- it proved especially popular in late-afternoon time-slots, where young viewers who'd never seen the duo's earlier movies could discover them for the first time, much as they would do with the Three Stooges when their short films were licensed for broadcast. Costello's family, which inherited his ownership interest in the show following his death in 1959, reaped the benefits from those decades of syndicated telecasts or video and DVD sales. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The Racket was based on a play by Bartlett Cormack, first filmed as a silent in 1928. The storyline was updated to include references to Estes Kefauver's Senate Crime Investigating Committee: otherwise, the plot (and much of the dialogue) was lifted bodily from the Cormack play. Racketeer Robert Ryan has managed to get several government and law-enforcement higher-ups in his pocket. But Ryan can't touch the incorruptible police officer Robert Mitchum, who refuses all attempts at bribery. Ryan pulls strings to get Mitchum transferred to a series of undesirable precincts, but Mitchum will not be dissuaded. The battle of wills between cop and criminal comes to a head when mob-connected nightclub singer Lizabeth Scott turns on her former protector Ryan. The Broadway version of The Racket starred Edward G. Robinson as the racketeer; the 1928 film version featured Louis Wolheim in the Robinson role and Thomas Meighan as the upright cop. Both the silent and sound versions of the property were personally produced by Howard R. Hughes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this action comedy, a bunch of bungling jewel thieves are in such a hurry to flee the site of their latest caper that they leave their loot on the back seat of the cab they used for the getaway. Later they return and torment the driver into revealing where he stashed the stones. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Sideshow was the last starring effort of Don McGuire, who would soon abandon acting in favor of writing, producing and directing. McGuire plays Steve Arthur, an undercover T-Man (or Treasury Agent), hot on the trail of jewel smugglers. He traces the crooks to a travelling carnival, where he takes a job as a barker in order to maintain surveillance without arousing suspicion. Among the suspects are sideshow-entrepreneurs Pierre (John Abbott) and Sam (Ray Walker), "kootch" dancer Dolly (Tracey Roberts), and general helpers "Big Top" (Eddie Quillan) and Johnny (Jimmy Conlin). In the course of the film's 67 minutes, Arthur faces death at the tunnel of love, aboard a roller-coaster ride, and within the walls of a wax museum. Sideshow gets by on the novelty of its surroundings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This hastily assembled "feature" is comprised of several episodes of an early-1950s TV series starring Buster Keaton. One of the most important stepping stones in Keaton's miraculous career comeback was a live (as opposed to film) comedy series titled Life With Buster Keaton, produced in Los Angeles in 1949. For syndication purposes, the series was committed to film, losing most of its hilarious spontaneity in the process. Buster portrays an employee in a sporting-goods store who indulges in Walter Mittyesque daydreams at the drop of a pork-pie hat. The always reliable Iris Adrian proves an excellent foil for the antics of the nimble Mr. Keaton. Misadventures of Buster Keaton was largely written by longtime Keaton crony Clyde Bruckman, who indulges in his usual practice of lifting entire routines from earlier films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jim Davis, better known to contemporary audiences as Josh Ewing, J.R.'s (Larry Hagman) father on Dallas, is the two-fisted star of 1950's Hi-Jacked. Davis plays truck driver Joe Harper, who after his rig is stolen is accused of masterminding the theft himself. To clear his name, Joe sets out on his own to trap the real thieves. What he doesn't know is that one of his own co-workers has been tipping off the crooks whenever the trucking routes are changed. Joe's wife Jean is played by Marsha Jones, who during her child-star days was known as Marcia Mae Jones. Inasmuch as Hi-Jacked was produced by Lippert Films, it is perhaps inevitable that Sid Melton shows up in the supporting cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

My Dream Is Yours is a Technicolor remake of the jaunty 1934 Warner Bros. musical Twenty Million Sweethearts. But there's a significant difference here: whereas in the earlier film singing-waiter Dick Powell was turned into a crooning idol, in the remake it is Doris Day who is catapulted to stardom. Jack Carson (who was reportedly romantically involved with Day during filming) is the hot-shot promoter who makes a celebrity out of Day and lives to regret it, as does she, before the happy ending. The film's highlight is an animated dream sequence courtesy of Warners' cartoon division, directed by Friz Freleng and featuring cameos by Bugs Bunny and Tweety. Edgar Kennedy makes his final screen appearance in the role of Day's flustered uncle. The songs in My Dream Is Yours includes the big hit from Twenty Million Sweethearts, "I'll String Along With You." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Milton Berle was enjoying the first flush of his television success when his musical-comedy movie vehicle Always Leave Them Laughing hit the screens. Though his character name is Kip Cooper, Uncle Miltie more or less plays himself: an ambitious comedian who rises to fame by stealing other performers' material. Surprisingly, Berle seems to delight in painting himself in as unsympathetic a light as possible, though the audience can be assured that he will find redemption before fadeout time. In contrast, Bert Lahr turns in a warm-hearted performance as an ageing burlesque comic who teaches Berle the ropes--whereupon our "hero" repays the favor by wooing Lahr's avaricious young bride Virginia Mayo. Ultimately, it is nice girl Ruth Roman who wins Berle's heart, though she certainly has her work cut out for her. Featured in the cast are such veteran troupers as Grace Hayes(the mother of Peter Lynd Hayes), Julius Tannen and Wally Vernon. But it's Berle's show all the way, and he makes a feast of it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide