Virginia Mayo Movies

A Song is Born is a musical remake of the 1941 comedy Ball of Fire, with the same producer (Sam Goldwyn) and director (Howard Hawks) at the helm. It will be recalled that the original film, co-scripted by Billy Wilder, was an amusing spin on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," wherein seven pedantic professors, working on a dictionary of slang, "adopted" an authority on the subject, breezy burlesque dancer Sugarpuss O'Shea. In the remake, the septet of scholars are working on an encyclopedia of music, but they're held up on the subject of "swing." When nightclub singer Honey Swanson (Virginia Mayo), escaping from her gangster suitor Tony Crow (Steve Cochran), takes refuge in the professors' home, she offers to introduce them to the world of popular music. This proves to be quite a tuneful undertaking, since two of the professors are played by Danny Kaye and Benny Goodman! The tang and zest of original plotline has been muted to the point of harmlessness, but the film is saved by the presence of Goodman, his fellow bandleaders Charlie Barnet, Tommy Dorsey and Mel Powell, and specialty performers Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton and Buck & Bubbles. A Song is Born was Danny Kaye's final starring vehicle for Sam Goldwyn. ~ 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

Gregory Peck stars as the title character in this swashbuckling saga of the high seas based on C.S. Forester's novel. In 1807, Hornblower is given a special assignment by the British Navy: he is to deliver a supply of weapons to El Supremo (Alec Mango), a Latin American rebel leading an uprising against Spain. However, by the time Hornblower arrives, it is discovered that the political winds have shifted, Spain and England are once again allies, and El Supremo is now the enemy of the British forces. Hornblower and his men are also forced to take on a passenger, Lady Barbara Wellesley (Virginia Mayo), a sister of the Duke of Wellington who is trying to escape an outbreak of yellow fever. When she shows symptoms of the disease, Hornblower tries to nurse her back to health while attempting to organize an attack on the armada he just helped to arm. Upon his return to England, Hornblower parts company with Wellesley (while they were attracted to each other, Hornblower remained loyal to his wife) and is given a new mission to take on Napoleon's naval forces. Captain Horatio Hornblower was originally scheduled to star Errol Flynn, but the role was recast when it was decided he'd grown too old to play the role convincingly (the fact Flynn was in the midst of one of his periodic battles with the brass at Warner Brothers certainly didn't help matters). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Though not acknowledged by contemporary reviewers, Colorado Territory is a westernized remake of the 1941 crime drama High Sierra. Raoul Walsh, director of the earlier film, returns to helm the remake, doing a grand job on both occasions. Joel McCrea stars in the Humphrey Bogart role, playing a veteran outlaw who hopes to pull off one last, spectacular heist. Virginia Mayo portrays the Ida Lupino counterpart, a "bad" dance-hall girl who proves to be the only person who genuinely cares about McCrea's well-being. As in the earlier film, the climax finds McCrea making a futile bid for escape in the mountains, with tragic consequences. High Sierra was good for at least one more remake, the 1955 Jack Palance-Shelley Winters starrer I Died a Thousand Times. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

RKO Radio's second 3D production, Devil's Canyon is a combination western and jail-break picture. The scene is Arizona Territorial Prison, wherein 500 desperate men are incarcerated. The inmates become even more desperate when female outlaw Abby Nixon (Virginia Mayo) is likewise locked up. As the prisoners draw up plans to escape, Abby is attracted to handsome but psychotic ringleader Jessie Gorman (Stephen McNally)--and to U.S. marshal Billy Reynolds (Dale Robertson), who is serving time for manslaughter. The climactic bust-out threatens to get out of hand until the marshal calms things down with a Gatling gun. Available for many years only in washed-out black-and-white prints, the original color version of Devil's Canyon was finally telecast over the American Movie Classics cable service in the late 1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Virginia Mayo is Flaxy Martin in this complicated Warner Bros. melodrama. Flaxy is a bad girl but good company, especially when she's around criminal attorney Walter Colby (Zachary Scott). When Colby begins to have second thoughts about his gangster cohorts, Flaxy arranges a murder frame, forcing the attorney to go on the run. The bulk of the film is a thrill-packed chase teaming Colby with the film's resident Good Girl, Nora Carson (Dorothy Malone). Also figuring into the proceedings is Elisha Cook Jr., playing his usual shifty little creep. Director Richard L. Bare had only recently moved up from the "Joe McDoakes" comedy shorts to features when he guided Flaxy Martin with skill and aplomb. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, an accused killer is able to escape lynchers by trading coats with a dead man he found lying beside the road with an arrow in his back. He soon happens upon a farm. As the farm is under Comanche attack when he arrives, the man immediately saves the life of a woman and her son. He then takes the pair to Fort Dobbs. En route the woman realizes that the coat her hero is wearing belonged to her husband. Thinking the arrow hole in the back was caused by a bullet, the woman immediately accuses the hero of murdering her man. They arrive at the fort only to find it busily preparing for another Comanche raid. The clever hero devises an ingenious plan to defend them using the fifteen-shot repeating rifles brought by a gun trader. His ploy works. The Commandoes are thwarted, his innocence is proven, and the young mother's good name is preserved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This intriguing odd-ball melodrama has supernatural overtones and was especially made for drive-in theaters. The strange tale is set in the notorious Storyville red-light district of New Orleans and begins in the early 1900s as it chronicles the life of a young prostitute and her co-workers. The tale is simultaneously paralleled in a modern-day story featuring the reincarnated forms of the same characters, all of whom are somehow connected with a voodoo curse. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When gold is discovered in the Colorado Territory at the start of the Civil War, Confederate Owen Pentecost (Robert Stack) and Union agent Stephen Kirby (Alex Nicol) battle with each other in a struggle to obtain the most gold to give to their respective armies. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

A onetime pilot, now a convicted killer in the custody of the FBI, is the only hope of an overseas flight carrying a bomb. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a widowed duchess finds herself drawn to leader of a mercenary band. The cavalier leader offers to save her from her avaricious, land-grabbing neighbor, but then suddenly goes to work for him when the neighbor pays a hire price. This enrages the duchess, but fortunately, he comes back when he rescues a bride whose wedding has been invaded by the evil neighbor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

If Eagle-Lion's Out of the Blue looks more like a slick Warner Bros. product at times, it's because the film was peopled by former Warners personnel, both in front of and behind the cameras. George Brent and Carole Landis play the Earthleighs, tenants in a roomy Greenwich Village apartment. When Mr. Earthleigh isn't being nagged by his domineering bride, he's enmeshed in a feud with his neighbor, loose-living artist David (Turhan Bey). During his wife's absence, Earthleigh makes the mistake of inviting Olive (Ann Dvorak), a glamorous interior decorator who's somewhat the worse for drink, to his apartment. When Olive passes out on his floor, Earthleigh assumes that she's dead-and in the course of subsequent events, so does everyone else. Adding to the general zaniness is Deborah (Virginia Mayo), one of David's sexier models, who weaves in and out of the proceedings at the most inopportune moments, and a huge, cantankerous canine named Rabelais. Despite some formidable competition, the comedy honors in Out of the Blue are won hands-down by Ann Dvorak, in a truly offbeat performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Refreshingly, the tropical melodrama Pearl of the South Pacific never takes itself too seriously. Virginia Mayo heads the cast as a phony missionary, in cahoots with crooks Dennis Morgan and David Farrar. The trio intend to make off with a fortune in black pearls, which rests in an underwater shrine guarded by a huge octopus. On the verge of accomplishing the heist, the threesome are attacked by the local natives, who by now have glommed onto Virginia's duplicity. Only two of the three schemers survive the attack, but those two intend to turn over a new leaf once they return to civilization. The lovely legs of leading lady Virginia Mayo are given generous screen time throughout most the proceedings, allowing the viewer to ignore the frequently imbecilic dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide