Paul McGrath Movies

The first of Allen Drury "all names changed to protect the guilty" political novels, Advise and Consent was brought to the screen by producer/director Otto Preminger. The film hinges upon the appointment of Robert Leffingwell (Henry Fonda) to Secretary of State. Leffingwell has been hand-picked by the President (Franchot Tone), meaning that there'll be a battle on the Senate floor between adherents of and opponents to the current administration. Among the participants are veteran Dixiecrat Charles Laughton, freshman Senator Don Murray and powerseeker George Grizzard. Burgess Meredith also shows up as a man who is brought into the Senate to "prove" that Leffingwell is a communist. To neutralize Murray, Grizzard threatens to dredge up a homosexual incident in Murray's past, which results in the latter's suicide. Advise and Consent is a slow and old-fashioned film, coming to life only when Laughton and Grizzard are on screen--and in the climax, in which the fate of Leffingwell's appointment is left in the hands of acting President Lew Ayres. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Irregularly scheduled on NBC from 1954 through 1957, Producers' Showcase was a series of lavish, full-color 90 minute specials, bringing the best of Broadway to the 21 inch screen. The series' May 28, 1956 presentation was an adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Bloomer Girl, which originally played for 654 performances during the 1944-45. Composer Harold Arlen and lyricist E.Y. Harburg were clearly under the influence of Oklahoma when they concocted this "integrated" musical (in every sense of the word), wherein the songs flowed naturally from the story and the characters, a relatively new concept back then. Originally starring Celeste Holm, David Brooks, Joan McCracken and Dooley Wilson ("Sam" of Casablanca fame), the show was set in the town of Cicero Falls, New York in the waning months of the American Civil War. The heroine, Evelina Applegate (here played by Barbara Cook, twixt and tween her Broadway stints in Candide and The Music Man, is the daughter of the town's richest man, a manufacturer of women's hoop skirts. Rebelling against the notion of marrying the man of her dad's choosing, Evelina gravitates to her freewheeling aunt, Dolly Bloomer (Carmen Mathews), a pioneering Feminist whose insistence upon wearing the undergarments bearing her name ("bloomers", that is), strikes a blow against the "confinement" represented by the mounds of petticoats usually worn by the proper ladies of the period. In addition to donning her own pair of liberating bloomers, Evalina also joins Dolly in her abolitionist activities, helping slaves escape to the freedom by way of the Underground Railroad. The songs include "Right as the Rain", "When the Boys Come Home", "Got a Song", "Never Was Born", "Evalina", and "The Eagle and Me", a showstopper performed by the previously enslaved Pompey (Roy Spearman). Because Bloomer Girl was never filmed by Hollywood, this Producer's Showcase version is the only known visual record of the popular musical--if, indeed, any kinescopes exist outside of private collections. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wily Honolulu detective Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is summoned when Miss Nodbury (Ethel Gryffies), an elderly eccentric, is murdered just before taking part in a seafaring treasure hunt. Chan deduces that the old lady died of fright, brought on by the apparent visitation of the ghost of her ancestor, a notorious pirate. Suspecting that the ghost was actually one of Miss Nodbury's enemies in disguise, Chan tags along on the treasure hunt to pinpoint the real killer. Meanwhile, Number Two Son Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yung) seeks out suspects on the waterfront, only to be constantly dunked in the briny by a wild-eyed but essentially harmless lunatic (Milton Parsons). A lesser Charlie Chan entry, Dead Men Tell is redeemed by its atmospheric harbor scenes, a specialty of director Harry Lachman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this B- romance, an innocent young man endeavors to find his fortune in the Big Apple and ends up finding a dog instead. Fortunately, the furry fellow belongs to a successful businessman's daughter who convinces her daddy into giving the newcomer a job. When the earnest young man discovers errors in company files, he tells the boss, gets a promotion and a fiancee-- the boss's daughter, of course. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Seven years after helping to rescue RKO Radio from bankruptcy as the heroine of King Kong, Fay Wray returned to the studio as star of the modest programmer Wildcat Bus. Wray is cast as Ted Dawson, whose father Charlie (Oscar O'Shea) runs a lucrative bus line. Before long, however, the Dawsons' livelihood is threatened by a wildcat bussing firm that isn't above sabotaging its competition. Charles Lang plays impoverished playboy Jerry Walters, who unwittingly goes to work for the crooked bus firm before switching allegiance to the Dawsons. The sight of the beauteous Fay Wray dressed as a garage mechanic is the principal redeeming factor of Wildcat Bus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide