Paul Maxey Movies

This is the second of four consecutive episodes in which Perry Mason appears only briefly, while a "guest" lawyer handles the case at hand (Raymond Burr was at the time recovering from minor surgery). Michael Rennie stars as erudite law professor Edward Lindley, one of Perry's best friends and severest critics. Though he has never handled a murder case--and indeed, regards most defense attorneys with the utmost disdain--Lindley agrees to help one of his students, Janice Norland (Patricia Manning), who claims to have killed blackmailing dance instructor Raul Perez (Carlos Romero). But when Lindley accompanies Janice to the scene of the crime, the body has disappeared! Ultimately, however, Janice is charged with Perez' murder, with circumstantial evidence provided by a candid camera which the dead man used for his extortion racket. Making things even dicier is the possibility that Janice's own mother Maureen (played by Patrice Wymore, former wife of movie superstar Errol Flynn), is the guilty party!. Excluded from the original Perry Mason syndicated rerun package in 1966, this episode remained unseen until it was telecast on cable TV in the mid-1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Well-made considering its six-day shooting schedule, this "B"-grade cops 'n robbers drama by Jack Leewood features Gene Nelson as Dan, an ingenious thief living on the edge at the moment. Dan has just cheated a mobster out of some stock in order to use it as collateral on a loan -- and now he has to save himself by replacing the stock with the money its worth. In order to do that, he figures out a complex scheme to steal some diamonds from a display case in a museum, use them to get an insurance sum, and put the real diamonds back before his fake substitutes are found. He co-opts a few people to help him on this plot, and the action begins. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A pre-superstardom Charles Bronson plays a US marshal in Showdown at Boot Hill. Tracking down a wanted murderer to a small town, Bronson kills him in a shootout. It develops that the dead man, whose criminal past was unknown to his fellow townsfolk, was a popular and highly respected member of the community. The decedent's friends refuse to identify the body, thereby denying Bronson the opportunity of collecting the reward money. At first angered by this, Bronson is gradually won over to the townspeoples' point of view. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cooked up by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, It's Always Fair Weather could well have been titled On the Town Ten Years Later. Like 1949's On the Town (also a Comden/Green collaboration), this MGM musical follows the exploits of three servicemen buddies, played by Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd. The difference here is that the threesome has just been discharged from service. The boys agree to get together again exactly ten years after their parting. Flash-forward to 1955: Kelly, who'd dreamed of being a show biz entrepreneur, is a small-time boxing promoter, heavily in debt to the Mob; Dailey has abandoned his plans of becoming an artist in favor of a stuffy, grey-flannel existence as an ad executive; and Kidd, who'd aspired to being a master chef, is running a modest diner. On behalf of TV-personality Dolores Gray, network-staffer Cyd Charisse contrives to reunite the three men on a This is Your Life style TV special, but all three are hostile to the notion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

On the eve of his execution, killer Edward G. Robinson busts out of prison with the help of his girlfriend (Jean Parker) and a crook posing as a reporter (Warren Stevens). Robinson takes along five hostages, including the daughter of the murdered head guard (Sylvia Findley), a real reporter (Jack Kelly), and a priest (Milburn Stone). Escaping with Robinson is a murderous bank robber (Peter Graves), who is wounded while evading the law. The bleeding robber heads for the safety deposit box where he keeps his ill-gotten gains, allowing the Law to follow the trail of blood to Robinson's hideout. Robinson threatens to kill his hostages if he's not given safe passage, then murders the priest just to prove his point. Appalled at this action, the bank robber kills Robinson, allows the surviving hostages to escape, and gives himself up. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Randolph Scott makes his 3-D debut in the stereoscopic western Stranger Wore a Gun. This time, Scott plays Jeff Travis, a former spy for Quantrill's Raiders. When he heads to Arizona to start life anew, Travis finds that his reputation has preceded him: crooked Jules Mourret (George Macready) hires him to monitor a series of gold shipments, in preparation for a major robbery. Eventually, Travis falls in love with Shelby Conroy (Joan Weldon), daughter of freight-line operator Jason Conroy (Pierre Watkin), and decides to turn honest. That won't be easy: in addition to the surly Mourret, Travis must deal with such formidable movie heavies as Alfonso Bedoya, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. Also on hand is Claire Trevor, in a soft-pedalled variation of her role in John Ford's Stagecoach. Stranger Wore a Gun was directed by Andre DeToth, whose previous foray into 3D had been the box-office smash House of Wax. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lana Turner stars in this musical/romantic comedy amalgam from director Mervyn Leroy. Turner plays Nora Taylor, a wealthy heiress who finds herself seeing a psychiatrist because she can't decide whether she is loved for herself or her money. When her rich boyfriend (John Lund) takes off for Brazil, Nora tags along with him, hinting that the trip will improve their relationship. But once in Brazil, her boyfriend seems more interested in business dealings than love. As she waits around for her disinterested suitor, she meets a handsome Latin millionaire (Ricardo Montalban), and his charm makes her fall for him immediately. While this relationship is coalescing, Nora's boyfriend is beginning to notice her vivacious secretary Anne Kellwood (Jean Hagen). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

This anthology film tells three stories of love involving the passengers of an ocean liner at sea. In the first, "The Jealous Lover," James Mason plays Charles Coudray, a well-known ballet director. When someone asks Coudray why he staged his masterpiece, "Astarte," only once, he tells the story of Paula Woodward (Moira Shearer), a superb dancer he found practicing in his theater. He was awestruck by her technique and her beauty, but he discovered that she had a secret -- due to a cardiac condition, she has been forbidden to dance too strenuously, as it could tax her heart and eventually kill her. Charles urges Paula to perform for him, so he may use her movements to choreograph his next great work; she agrees, but the exertion proves too much for her and she dies. He arranges for the work she inspired to be performed only once, in hopes that she will somehow see it from on high. In the second segment, "Mademoiselle," Tommy (Ricky Nelson) is a 12-year-old boy travelling with his French governess and tutor (Leslie Caron); she's tired of spending her days watching over a child, and he'd like to get away from Teacher for a while. Mrs. Pennicott (Ethel Barrymore), a older woman who happens to be a witch, hears Tommy wishing he could be a grown-up, and she grants his request: suddenly Tommy is a grown man (played by Farley Granger), but only for the next four hours. The Governess meets the mysterious stranger Tommy has become, and soon they fall in love. In the final segment, "Equilibrium," Kirk Douglas plays Pierre Narval, a high-wire artist who retired from performing after his partner died while performing a trapeze act, an accident Pierre blames on himself. He begins to reconsider his decision when he saves the life of Nina (Pier Angeli), a woman who attempted to drown herself; her husband died in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, and she feels she is to blame for his death. Their shared fatalism equals fearlessness in Pierre's eyes, and he teaches Nina the art of the trapeze; however, when he begins to fall in love with her, he's no longer so certain that he wants her to risk her life. "The Jealous Lover" and "Equilibrium" were directed by Gottfried Reinhardt, while "Mademoiselle" was directed by Vincente Minnelli. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Howard Hawks hoped to capture the screwball comic fervor of his 1938 film Bringing Up Baby with his 1952 comedy Monkey Business. As in the earlier film, Cary Grant stars as an absent-minded professor involved in a research project. This time he's a chemist seeking a "fountain of youth" formula that will revitalize middle-agers both mentally and physically. Though Grant's own laboratory experiments yield little fruit, a lab monkey, let loose from its cage, mixes a few random chemicals and comes up with just the formula Grant is looking for. This mixture is inadvertently dumped in the lab's water supply; the fun begins when staid, uptight Grant drinks some of the "bitter" water, then begins cutting up like a teenager. A harmless afternoon on the town with luscious secretary Marilyn Monroe rouses the ire of Grant's wife Ginger Rogers, but her behavior is even more infantile when she falls under the spell of the youth formula. Everyone remembers the best line in Monkey Business: foxy-grandpa research supervisor Charles Coburn hands the curvacious Monroe a letter and says "Get someone to type this". Even better is his next line: after Monroe sashays out of the room, Coburn turns to Grant and, with eyes atwinkle, murmurs "Anyone can type." Likewise amusing is Monkey Business's pre-credits gag, wherein Cary Grant opens a door and is about to step forward when director Hawks, off-camera, admonishes "Not yet, Cary." Among the co-conspirators on Monkey Business's carefree script are Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer and I.A.L. Diamond, with an original story by Harry Segall (Here Comes Mr. Jordan) as their source. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Something to Live For is the last of director George Stevens' "small" films, before he concentrated full-time on such blockbusters as Shane and Giant. Joan Fontaine plays a popular actress who descends into alcoholism. Ray Milland, in an unofficial extension of his Lost Weekend role, plays a reformed drunkard who comes to Fontaine's rescue. He encourages her to join Alcoholics Anonymous--one of the first times that this organization was given any kind of screen treatment. Milland's concern strains his relationship with his wife (Teresa Wright), who doubts that Ray's interest in Fontaine is merely humanitarian. But Milland refuses to endanger his marriage no matter how strong his feelings towards Fontaine--nor how much the audience wants him to. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

She's Working Her Way Through College is a completely depoliticized remake of the liberal-minded comedy The Male Animal (1942). Virginia Mayo plays an exotic dancer, Angela Gardner, who decides to improve her mind; she enrolls in a college where Professor John Palmer (Ronald Reagan) teaches English. In between Angela's lively musical numbers, the film concentrates on an old rivalry between the bookish Palmer and onetime college football jock Shep Slade (Don DeFore, who'd played a bit in The Male Animal). When the college trustees oppose Angela's presence on campus, Palmer staunchly defends her right to an education. In the original Male Animal, the climactic scene involved a controversial public reading of a letter by anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti; in She's Working Her Way Through College, Palmer stands up at a public assembly to convince the populace that exotic dancers have the same rights as anyone else. Of course, Ronald Reagan could take a political stance if he wanted to...but not in this film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Stars and Stripes Forever is the highly fanciful filmed biography of "march king" John Philip Sousa. Clifton Webb does a fine job as Sousa, while Ruth Hussey is equally good in the less-demanding role of Sousa's wife. The problem faced by screenwriter Lamar Trotti (who adapted the film from Sousa's autobiography Marching Along) was that, outside of Sousa's early travails in organizing his own band after leaving the Marine Corps, there just wasn't much drama in the great composer's life. Thus, a secondary (and wholly fictional) romance involving young musician Willie (Robert Wagner) and ex-chorus girl Lily (Debra Paget) is given special emphasis. Willie invents the Sousaphone on behalf of his mentor, and upon returning from the Spanish American War minus one of his legs, Willie makes an inspirational solo appearance with the Sousa band. The best scenes include Sousa's ongoing efforts to break free from the "march king" onus and write romantic ballads, and Lily's high-kicking rendition of the music-hall ballad "Father's Got 'Em." When first telecast on NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies in 1962, Stars and Stripes Forever was accompanied by a short newsreel clip of the real John Philip Sousa in action. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi