Allyn Ann McLerie Movies
Gamine-like Canadian singer-dancer Allyn Ann McLerie built her reputation on Broadway, where she made her debut at 16 in the chorus of One Touch of Venus. She rose to stardom playing soubrette roles in such hits as Leonard Bernstein's On the Town and Irving Berlin's Miss Liberty Four years after her tentative movie debut in the 1948 MGM feature Words and Music Ms. McLerie won a Warner Bros. contract when she repeated her Broadway role of Amy Spettigue in the film version of Frank Loesser's Where's Charley? Rapidly outgrowing the wearisome ingenues assigned her by the studio, Allyn temporarily retired in 1954. Resuming her acting, singing and dancing lessons in the mid-1960s, Allyn slowly reemerged as a versatile character actress, popping up in such small but powerful roles as Red Buttons' psychotic dance partner in They Shoot Horses, Don't They (1969) and the "wrong" White House source in All the President's Men (1976). On TV, she played spinsterish secretary Janet Reubner on The Tony Randall Show (1976-78), while on the 1987 critic's darling Days and Nights of Molly Dodd she portrayed Molly's divorced mother. Allyn Ann McLerie has been married twice, to actor/playwright/lyricist Adolph Green and to Broadway leading man George Gaynes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The life stories of Broadway tunesmiths Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are prettified for the screen in MGM's Words and Music. Billed fourth, the colorless Tom Drake plays Rodgers, but never mind that: the film belongs to Mickey Rooney, as the dynamic, self-destructive Lorenz Hart. Understandably, Hart's bisexuality is downplayed. According to MGM, his biggest problem in life is that he was never satisfied with his work. We are, however, especially when those great Rodgers & Hart tunes are performed by the likes of Judy Garland, Janet Leigh, Perry Como, Lena Horne, June Allyson, Cyd Charisse, Betty Garrett, Ann Sothern, Mel Torme, Allyn McLerie, Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen. The musical highlights include Garland's powerhouse rendition of Johnny One-Note, Kelly's Slaughter on 10th Avenue dance solo, Horne's interpretation of Where or When, Allyson's take on Thou Swell, and, best of all, Rooney's premiere performance of I'll Take Manhattan, which he allegedly had just written on the back of an automobile advertisement! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Perry Como, (more)
- 1952
Where's Charley?, Frank Loesser's hit Broadway musical version of Brandon Thomas' evergreen stage farce Charley's Aunt, was brought to the screen in 1952 with most of its original cast intact -- including, thank heaven, star Ray Bolger. In the original Brandon Thomas version, Oxford undergrad Lord Fancourt Babberly was coerced into disguising himself as "Charley's Aunt, from Brazil, where the nuts come from" so that his roommates Charley Wyckeham and Jack Chesney would have a proper escort for their visiting sweethearts Amy Spettigue and Kitty Verdun. In the musical version, Lord Fancourt is eliminated, and Charley plays his own aunt, making innumerable quickie costume changes throughout the proceedings. Complications ensue when three older characters show up: Jack's father Sir Francis Chesney, Amy and Kitty's irascible guardian Stephen Spettigue, and Charley's real aunt Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez. It goes without saying that Ray Bolger plays both Charley and the faux aunt, brilliantly recreating the sidesplitting comic turns that brought down the house on Broadway. Less successful is his re-creation of the audience-participation song "Once in Love With Amy," simply because it's difficult for a film actor to come "out" of the picture and encourage the audience to sing along. The other Loesser songs -- "Make a Miracle," "My Darling" and "New Ashmoleon Marching Society" are more satisfactorily rendered. For the record, the rest of the cast includes Allyn McLerie and Mary Germaine as Amy and Kitty, Robert Shackleton as Jack, Horace Cooper as Spettigue, Howard Marion Crawford as Chesney, and Margaretta Scott as Donna Lucia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Bolger, Allyn Ann McLerie, (more)
Doris Day looks no more like the real Calamity Jane than you or I do, but this 1953 film is intended as a lighthearted musical, not a historical tract. As portrayed by the freckled Ms. Day, Jane is a rootin', tootin' shootin' hoyden in the western town of Deadwood. When she isn't tearing up the town, Jane spends her time cussing out Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel). The plot gets under way when Jane promises the citizens of Deadwood that she can persuade classy Chicago stage star Adelaide Adams (Gale Robbins) to perform at the local opry house. Through a case of mistaken identity, Jane brings Adelaide's maid Katie (Allyn Ann McLerie) back to town. Katie proves to be a success all the same, and out of gratitude promises to make a "lady" out of Jane, who is sweet on handsome Lt. Gilmartin (Philip Carey). When the lieutenant chooses Katie over Jane, our heroine is heartbroken--until she realizes that she has loved Wild Bill Hickok all along, and that the feeling is mutual so far as Hickok is concerned. The peppy musical score by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster includes the Oscar-winning Secret Love, which became a million-selling hit for Doris Day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Day, Howard Keel, (more)
- 1953
The Desert Song is the third film version of the famous Sigmund Romberg/Oscar Hammerstein Jr. stage operetta. Gordon MacRae plays the wimpish American tutor of lovely Kathryn Grayson, the daughter of a military officer stationed in Arabia. Under cover of night, MacRae assumes the identity of the Red Shadow, head of the Riffs, who fights against the oppression of a cruel local potentate (Raymond Massey). Circumstances force MacRae to kidnap Grayson and spirit her away to his desert headquarters, where she eventually sees the wisdom of his mission and falls in love with him. With Grayson's help, the Red Shadow thwarts Massey's plans to massacre all "foreigners" living in his domain. The story was old-fashioned even when Desert Song was first produced in the 1920s, but the songs, including One Alone, The Riff Song and the title tune, still retain their audience appeal. The only serious detriment to the 1953 Desert Song is the comedy relief of Dick Wesson as a wisecracking American reporter, a wearisome carryover from the stage original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathryn Grayson, Gordon MacRae, (more)
- 1954
Warner Bros.' followup to its 3D hit House of Wax, Phantom of the Rue Morgue bears only the slightest resemblance to its alleged inspiration, the Edgar Allan Poe mystery yarn Murders in the Rue Morgue. Karl Malden delivers one of the hammiest performances on record as mad scientist Dr. Marais, who uses a trained gorilla to exact revenge on those who've wronged him. At the top of Marais' hit list are the many beautiful women who've spurned his advances, including such French pastries as Yvonne (Allyn McLerie), Arlette (Veola Vonn) and Camille (Dolores Dorn). Each of these unfortunate ladies have been given bracelets decorated with bells, designed to attract the homicidal ape's attention. Psychology professor Paul Dupin (Steve Forrest) conducts a private investigation of the killings, only to be arrested for the murders himself by the supremely confident (and rather dense) Inspector Bonnard (Claude Dauphin). This leaves Dupin's sweetheart Jeanette (Patricia Medina) virtually defenseless when she is targetted for extermination by Doc Marais. Outside of such incidental pleasures as seeing Merv Griffin play a French medical student, Phantom of the Rue Morgue offers a vast array of unsubtle 3D "shock" effects, which come off as hilarious when the film is shown "flat" (as it always is these days). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karl Malden, Claude Dauphin, (more)
Adapted by Leon Uris from his own novel, the film follows a group of World War II marines, from Basic Training to Battlefield. Major Van Heflin knows that his men are spoiling for a real fight, but must make do with the desultory skirmishes assigned them by the Brass. All this changes with an onslaught of heavy-duty battling in the South Pacific. Aldo Ray plays a tough leatherneck who falls in love with demure Nancy Olson, while James Whitmore, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone and Raymond Massey costar. And watch for young Justus McQueen, cast as private L.Q. Jones; McQueen liked his character name so much that he adopted it as his professional cognomen. Composer Max Steiner's musical score earned him an Oscar nomination. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, (more)
- 1969
- PG
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A total of nine Academy Award nominations went to this wildly acclaimed, allegorical drama set amongst the contestants in a marathon dance contest during the Great Depression. Gig Young stars as Rocky, the obnoxious emcee for a dance marathon that offers prize money of $1,500, a small fortune during hard economic times that brings out the worst in several participants. Among them are Gloria Beatty (Jane Fonda), a malcontent who's partnered with a drifter, Robert Syverton (Michael Sarrazin); a pregnant farm girl (Bonnie Bedelia) and her husband (Bruce Dern); a sailor (Red Buttons); and an aspiring actress (Susannah York). As the marathon winds into a staggering second month, suspicion, doubt and insecurity rages among the competitors and even the decaying and increasingly manipulative Rocky, leading to a shocking crime. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, (more)
Adapted from William Faulkner's final novel, The Reivers top-bills Steve McQueen, but the major character is feisty 11-year-old Lucius McCaslin, played by Mitch Vogel. Growing up in Mississippi in the early 1900s, Lucius finds himself (through a hectic series of circumstances) in a bordello, where he is nearly killed trying to defend the "fast lady" (Sharon Farrell) who has befriended him. He has been brought to the house of ill repute by ne'er-do-well farm hand Boon Hoggenbeck (Steve McQueen), with whom he has been tooling about the countryside in a vintage automobile, together with his very distant African-American relative Ned (Rupert Crosse). This adventure segues into the next, as the three man combine their resources to train a broken-down racehorse. Meanwhile, Vogel's grandfather (Will Geer), who owns the fancy automobile that the "reivers" hope to win back, threatens to reappear at any moment to tan Lucius's bottom. Not exactly as wholesome as a Disney film, The Reivers is nonetheless acceptable family entertainment, with Steve McQueen delivering one of his best and most laid-back performances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve McQueen, Sharon Farrell, (more)
- 1970
- PG
Monte Walsh (Lee Marvin ) and his pal Chet Rollins (Jack Palance) are two over the hill cowboys seeking work in the town of Harmony, Arizona in the final days of the Old West. They take a job at the ranch of Cal Brennan (Jim Davis) and meet an old friend Shorty (Mitch Ryan). Monte goes off to visit old flame Martine (Jean Moreau), a saloon girl suffering from tuberculosis. The ranch closes and Chet marries Mary Eagle (Allyn Ann McLerie), a widow who owns a profitable hardware store. He tries to talk Monte in to giving up his cowboy life and settling down. He asks Martine to marry him, but she declines and cites her deteriorating health as the reason for her refusal. Monte goes on a drinking binge and rides a wild horse through town. He is indignant when a rodeo owner offers him a job. Monte states he would rather spit on himself that resort to such degrading work. Shorty is soon unemployed and guns down local lawman (LeRoy Johnson). Distraught after the death of his beloved Martine, Monte goes after Shorty when he guns down Chet. This film marks the directorial debut for cameraman William A. Fraker. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Marvin, Jeanne Moreau, (more)
- 1970
Perhaps the silliest Bonanza episode ever filmed, "Caution, Easter Bunny Crossing" was written by Larry Markes. This is the one in which Hoss Cartwright dresses up in a huge rabbit costume to entertain a group of orphans at an Easter party. En route to the festivities, Hoss runs afoul of four dimwits from Brooklyn who hope to become wild-west outlaws. The incredible climax finds Hoss foiling the villains not with his six-guns but with an arsenal of pungent easter eggs. Marc Lawrence, Len Lesser, Vic Tayback and Art Metrano play the erstwhile outlaws, while other roles are filled by Allyn Ann McLerie and Sandy Kenyon. The familiar-sounding background music was earlier used as the theme for the classic TV puppet series Kukla, Fran and Ollie. "Caution, Easter Bunny Crossing" originally aired on March 29, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
- 1971
Frequent F.B.I "guest villain" Louis Jourdan returns, this time in the role of enemy spy Henry Dulac. Determined to smash Dulac's espionage ring, Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) goes undercover as another Red agent. Erskine subsquently finds himself caught in the crossfire when two warring spy factions clash over some top-secret tapes. Also in the cast is David Birney, who'd achieve TV stardom one year later in the sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In one of John Wayne's more interesting late Westerns, "The Duke" plays Will Anderson, a crusty veteran cattleman preparing a 400-mile drive to get a herd of steers to market. Shortly before the trip is scheduled to begin, Will's crew quits when they get word of a nearby gold strike. With little time and few alternatives, Will recruits eleven boys, ages nine through 13, and teaches them the basics of herding cattle and riding the range. Bruce Dern plays a memorably foul villain and cattle rustler named Long Hair, while Roscoe Lee Browne portrays Jebediah, the cattle drive cook, and Colleen Dewhurst is Kate, a madam. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, (more)
- 1972
In this rites-of-passage drama, two suburban children, one 12-years old, and the other 14, run away and head for L.A. En route they meet a hunter and his retarded son. They later meet and become friends with a pair of dope smoking hippies who operate a tavern. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1972
William Windom guest stars as Elias Devon, a criminal mastermind whose activities have aroused the attention of the FBI. Thanks to some clever subversion by the Feds, Devon begins to lose control of his gang members. Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) hopes that he can sow enough seeds of suspicion within the gang's ranks to force Devon into betraying himself--but there are few unexpected developments along the way. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Years before Kevin Costner danced with wolves, Robert Redford headed to the mountains to escape civilization in Sydney Pollack's wilderness western. Around 1850, ex-soldier Johnson (Redford) decides that he would rather live alone as a mountain man in Colorado than deal with society's constraints. After a series of setbacks, he meets grizzled mountain veteran Bear Claws (Will Geer), who teaches him how to survive. Jeremiah strives to live as peaceably as possible in the rugged environment, trading with the native Crow tribe, adopting a boy (Josh Albee) after his family is massacred, and even marrying the daughter (Delle Bolton) of a Flathead chief in order to avoid confrontation. He settles into a mountain home with his family, but the U.S. cavalry, complete with a puritanical Reverend, interrupt the idyll to compel Jeremiah to lead them over the mountains and through a Crow burial ground to rescue white settlers. After the Crow kill his family in retaliation, Jeremiah's frenzied moment of payback precipitates a long-running vendetta, turning him into a legendary Indian killer at the expense of his original ideals, on the way to a final moment of grace. Spectacularly shot on location in Utah, the film captures both the appeal and the challenge of the landscape that Jeremiah chooses over civilization. With an unglamorous performance by Redford and a story that questioned white colonialism while mythologizing the man of nature, Jeremiah Johnson appealed to its 1972 audience and became one of the biggest hits of the year. Wavering between heroicizing Jeremiah for surviving and damning him for killing, Jeremiah Johnson took its place among the Vietnam-era cycle of critical westerns, like Arthur Penn's Little Big Man (1970) and Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), that condemned civilization for corrupting the wilderness and preventing individuals from going pacifistically native. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Will Geer, (more)
This is the final sequel to The Magnificent Seven. In this chapter, the lead gunslinger has settled down with a new wife, and has become the marshal of a little town. His peaceful existence is disrupted when a psychotic outlaw rides in, robs the bank, wounds the marshal with his gun, and then rapes and kills his new wife. The marshal is then assigned to save some widowed women from ruthless banditos. To help him, he rallies an eastern journalist and five hardened convicts to ride in and stop them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stefanie Powers, Mariette Hartley, (more)
- 1973
Seeking solitude to write his stories, John-Boy (Richard Thomas) takes a hike into the mountains. But peace and quiet is not on his schedule when he comes across his friend Sarah Simmonds (Sissy Spacek in her second series appearance), who has run away from her husband--and who is very pregnant and very, very ill. This chance meeting occurs not long after an earlier encounter between John-Boy and elderly mountain dweller Granny Ketchum (Frances Williams), who in repayment for a favor had supplied him with a home-made medicinal potion. When Sarah downs the potion, she suddenly goes into labor...and John-Boy is the only person within miles who can help her! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A "Cinderella Liberty" is Navy jargon for a pass that runs out at midnight. Sailor John Baggs, Jr. (James Caan) has such a pass, and intends to make the most of it while his ship is docked in Seattle. He "wins" prostitute Maggie (Marsha Mason) in a pool game, but backs off at a "wham-bam-thank you ma'am" when he finds out that Maggie has a son, an 11-year-old mulatto (Kirk Calloway) -- and that there's another baby on the way. John has so much empathy for Maggie's travails that he marries her. When she loses her baby, however, Maggie feels unable to resign herself to living with John, plagued by both guilt and an unwillingness to be tied down -- thus forcing John to fight for her. Darryl Ponicsan adapted his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
"Gorgeous goyish guy" meets Jewish radical girl in Sydney Pollack's glossy romance. In 1937, frizzy-haired Red co-ed Katie Morosky (Barbra Streisand) briefly captures the attention of preppy jock Hubbell Gardiner (Robert Redford) with her passionate pacifism, while the writing talent beneath his privileged exterior entrances her. Almost eight years later, the two are reunited in New York, when well-coiffed leftist radio worker Katie spies military officer Hubbell snoozing in a nightclub. Through her force of will, and in spite of his smug rich friends, the two opposites fall in love, sparring over Katie's activist zeal and Hubbell's writerly ambivalence after a failed first novel. They head to Hollywood so that Hubbell can write a screenplay for his buddy-turned-producer J.J. (Bradford Dillman). But the House Committee on Un-American Activities' Communist witch hunt in 1947 tears the pair apart, as a pregnant Katie refuses to keep silent about the jailing of the Hollywood Ten, while a faithless Hubbell decides to save his career. When the two meet again at the dawn of the '60s, TV hack Hubbell and A-bomb protestor Katie feel the old pull, but they have to decide if it's worth the grief. Although blacklisted writers had returned to Hollywood -- and won Oscars -- by the early 1970s, the HUAC sections of Arthur Laurents's screenplay were still considered dicey, resulting in substantial cuts; Laurents reportedly blamed star Redford for not fighting them hard enough. Regardless of the edits, and critics' complaints about the film's schlockiness, 1973 audiences went for the well-executed and still politically tinged weepie, turning The Way We Were into one of the most popular films of 1973 and Redford into a major heartthrob. Streisand won an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and the Streisand-sung title tune won for Best Song. Despite the eviscerated politics, The Way We Were poignantly captures the insoluble dilemma of reconciling private desires with public awareness. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, (more)
- 1973
In her first Waltons appearance, future Oscar winner Sissy Spacek) is cast as Sarah, the sheltered daughter of hyper-religious Widow Simmonds (Allyn Ann McLerie). In a desperate attempt to emerge from her shell, Sarah all but throws herself upon John-Boy (Richard Thomas). He gently resists her romantic overtures, whereupon Sarah takes up with a callow "townie" named Theodore Claypool Jr. (Nicholas Hammond]), the son of a wealthy businessman. Ultimately, Sarah and Theodore elope--and both her mother and his father hold John-Boy responsible for this catastrophe! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Betty Smith's best selling novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn inspired an Oscar-winning 1945 film, a play and a Broadway musical; this 1974 73-minute telefilm - a pilot for a weekly series drama -- represents the fourth incarnation. Cliff Robertson plays Johnny Nolan, a bibulous waiter living in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. When Nolan dies, it is up to his widow Katie (Diane Baker) to carve out an existence for herself and her children Francie (Pamelyn Ferdin) and Neely (Michael James Wixted). Ultimately, Katie marries kindly Brooklyn cop McShane (James Olson). Nancy Malone costars as Katie's promiscuous sister Sissy. First telecast March 27, 1974, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn failed to generate high enough ratings for a regular series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Born Innocent, originally telecast September 9, 1974, concerns the plight of a teenaged reform-school inmate, played by Linda Blair in her first important post-Exorcist role. Committed for being a habitual runaway, Blair is, for all her surface toughness, unworldly and naïve. All this changes in the reformatory, with Blair rapidly becoming as hard, callous, and irredeemable as her fellow detentionees. Even upon her probationary release, she shows no sign of being "cured" by her incarceration. The film's most notorious scene -- Blair's rape by broom-handle -- was all the more horrifying because there was no pre-show warning issued by the network. So disturbing was the sequence that it was removed from all subsequent network telecasts of Born Innocent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Among the other interesting features of this French crime drama is a brief consideration of the dire consequences of the legalization of drugs. The Chief (Michel Bouquet) is a drug dealer whose empire ranges beyond the country guilty of legalizing drugs. He has been captured and nearly killed by an American rival and is being kept painfully alive by life-support machinery. The film begins in the future when the Chief is awakened from suspended animation and in flashback recounts his story to the naked woman who has freed him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Bouquet, Roland Dubillard, (more)
- 1974
Several years ago, journalist Jerry Porter (John Carter) conspired with Greg Davidson (Robert Foxworth) in a blackmail scheme, but Porter managed to avoid arrest while allowing Davidson to take the rap. Adding insult to injury, Porter has been lavishly spending the blackmail money while Davidson has been languishing in prison. Now, however Davidson has escaped--and he's thirsting for revenge. A very young Annette O'Toole plays a key role in this thrill-packed episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
"The Mansion" is a huge estate in which vices of all sorts are bought and sold. With the Syndicate holding the Mansion in an iron grip, the police have been unable to shut the place down. Hoping to succeed where his colleagues have failed, Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) gains entrance to the Mansion by posing as a gangster on the lam. Sondra Blake, the then wife of series star Robert Blake, is one of the supporting players in this tension-packed episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Blake, Dana Elcar, (more)
