Doro Merande Movies

This third film version of the 1928 Ben Hecht/Charlie MacArthur Broadway hit The Front Page was the first one permitted to utilize all the salty profanities in the original play. Director Billy Wilder cast his two favorite leading men, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, as ace reporter Hildy Johnson and ruthless newspaper editor Walter Burns, respectively. The plot of the Hecht/MacArthur play remains intact: Burns pulls every underhanded game in the book to prevent Johnson from leaving his Chicago paper to get married, and in so doing the two journalists uncover a cesspool of political corruption, centered around the planned execution of anarchist Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton). Carol Burnett has an extended cameo as Williams' tart girlfriend, Mollie Malloy. The Front Page was remade for a fourth time in 1988 as Switching Channels. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dr. John Carpenter (Elvis Presley) helps the economically disadvantaged in an inner-city medical clinic. Three nuns are assigned to help out at the facility and are allowed to wear regular clothes instead of the traditional habits. Sister Michelle (Mary Tyler Moore) is the speech therapist who Dr. Carpenter would like to examine personally after hours. Along with the other sisters (Barbara McNair and Jane Elliot), Michelle is subjected to the criticism of the local parish priest (Regis Toomey) in the social experiment of non-traditional dress. Two spinsters even mistake the nuns for prostitutes without their habits. The priest wins out in the end, and the nuns must again don their habits. As the good doctor sings to the ailing children, Sister Michelle is transfixed both by a crucifix hanging on the wall and by Elvis Presley in an ironic and symbolic scene that flashes between the two icons. This was Presley's last studio feature and he welcomed the move from stifling screen images as he returned his focus to live performances and recording for the remainder of his illustrious career. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Otto Preminger directed this star-studded adaptation of K.B. Gliden's novel about racial prejudice and emotional unrest in the Deep South. Henry Warren (Michael Caine) is a land owner obsessed with buying up all available land in a Georgia farming town. However, two parcels of land have escaped his reach, and he's determined to get them. The Scotts, an African-American family, own one of the lots that Henry is after; the matriarch of the family, Rose (Beah Richards), used to work as a servant for the family of Henry's wife, Julie Ann (Jane Fonda), so Henry sends Julie Ann to talk with her. However, not only doesn't Rose agree to sell, she gets so upset that she dies of a heart attack, and soon her headstrong son Reeve (Robert Hooks) is the owner of the land. Reeve refuses all of Henry's offers to sell out, and he even stands up to a racist lynch mob that tries to ransack his farm; when Henry attempts to prove that Reeve holds no legal deed to the property, Vivian Thurlow (Diahann Carroll), the town's black schoolmarm, is able to provide the documentation that the Scotts do indeed own their land. Meanwhile, Henry is also trying to buy some property farmed by Rod McDowell (John Phillip Law) and his wife Lou (Faye Dunnaway), a poor white couple who are Henry's cousins. The McDowell farm adjoins that owned by the Scotts, so Reeve and Rod agree to join forces against Henry, which leads to violent reprisals against them. While set in Georgia, Hurry Sundown was actually shot on location in Louisiana; it was the first film shot in the South with an integrated cast and crew, leading the producers to demand protection from State Troopers after members of the company received death threats. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Dean Martin stars in this once-controversial comedy as Dino, a Las Vegas crooner, alcoholic, and celebrity playboy. Dino requires women like oxygen -- a companionless night leaves him with a headache. Ray Walston is Orville, a provincial piano teacher, aspiring songwriter, and jealous husband. Orville violently obsesses over his wife Zelda's (Felicia Farr) fidelity -- any man she encounters becomes his sworn enemy. When a chance detour brings Dino to Orville's hometown of Climax, NV, it is the perfect opportunity for the piano teacher and his songwriting partner, Barney (Cliff Osmond), to pitch their tunes. Yet, Orville predictably fears the possible combination of Dino's libido with Zelda's childhood crush on the singer. Before the two can meet, Orville deceitfully bullies Zelda out of their house and Barney hires local roadhouse prostitute Polly the Pistol (Kim Novak) to pose as Orville's wife. Zelda turns to drink for solace, ending up at the exact bar where Polly plies her trade and, eventually, in the call girl's empty trailer. By the next morning, Orville is with Polly and Dino (looking for a prostitute) finds his way to Zelda -- and husband, wife, hooker, and Barney will all reap the benefits of infidelity.

As indicated, this picture (which endured numerous complications on its long journey to the screen, including Walston's replacement of ailing star Peter Sellers) drew a great deal of attention upon release, most of it overwhelmingly negative. The Catholic League of Decency gave it a "condemned" rating (the first one applied since the 1956 Baby Doll), the picture was charged with debauchery, and movie theaters across the nation discontinued its run. This bed-trick comedy had America's panties tied in a knot, with many arguing that one could not imagine a story so distasteful. As a reflection on changing mores and standards, though, it was rated GP in 1970 (eventually changed to PG-13 in 1994). ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, Rovi

Tom Tryon plays the title role in this Otto Preminger version of the Henry Morton Robinson novel. In his matriculation from Monsignor to the College of Cardinals, Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon) must undergo several grueling life experiences: standing up to bigots in Georgia, defying Nazis in Austria, and so on. The film boasts cameo appearances by Dorothy Gish, Cecil Kellaway, John Saxon, John Huston, Robert Morse, Burgess Meredith, Raf Vallone, Ossie Davis. Incidentally, Tryon eventually quit acting and became a popular novelist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Any murder mystery featuring a pigeon named Herman can be trusted to offer more mirth than mayhem and that is the case with this upbeat film by director George Marshall. Glenn Ford stars as Elliott Nash, a television playwright married to Nell (Debbie Reynolds), a successful Broadway thespian. Nell had an ignominious moment in her past when she posed for some photos best left in obscurity and now Elliott is being blackmailed by the owner of the photos. Elliot's solution is to carry out a carefully executed murder and then bury the body underneath a gazebo being constructed in the backyard. Although the dastardly deed goes off without a hitch, the body of the blackmailer turns up elsewhere, leaving Elliott to track down who it was he buried under the gazebo. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Mrs. Herman (Doro Merande) is the landlady of actress Mrs. Fenimore (Mary Astor). Both ladies are in dire need of quick money -- and thus, when Mrs. Herman hatches a scheme to murder her wealthy uncle Bill (Russell Collins), Mrs. Fenimore agrees to help her for a share of the inheritance. As things turn out, however, one of the two ladies is a bit quicker on the uptake than the other...and she's the one who ends up with all the cash. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When Otto Preminger was willing to release his drug-addiction drama Man With the Golden Arm without the sanction of a Production Code seal, it proved to be yet another nail in the coffin of that censorial dinosaur. Based on the novel by Nelson Algren, the film stars Frank Sinatra as Frankie Machine, expert card dealer (hence the title). Recently released from prison, Frankie is determined to set his life in order -- and that means divesting himself of his drug habit. He dreams of becoming a jazz drummer, but his greedy wife Eleanor Parker wants him to continue his lucrative gambling activities. Since Parker is confined to a wheelchair as a result of a car accident caused by Frankie, he's in no position to refuse. Only the audience knows that Parker is not crippled, but is faking her invalid status to keep Frankie under her thumb. Gambling boss Robert Strauss wants Frankie to deal at a high-stakes poker game; terrified that he's lost his touch, Frankie asks dope pusher Darren McGavin to supply him with narcotics. When McGavin discovers that Parker is not an invalid, she kills him, and Frankie (who is elsewhere at the time) is accused of the murder. He is willing to go to the cops, but he doesn't want to show up with drugs in his system. So with the help of sympathetic B-girl Kim Novak, Sinatra locks himself up and goes "cold turkey"-a still-harrowing sequence, despite the glut of "doper" films that followed in the wake of this picture. After Parker herself is killed in a suicidal fall, the path is cleared for Frankie to pursue a clean new life with Novak. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Produced by "March of Time" maven Louis de Rochemont, Whistle at Eaton Falls is docudrama concerning a labor dispute in a small New Hampshire town. Union leader Lloyd Bridges is reluctantly promoted to the presidency of Eaton Falls' plastics plant. Now in a management position, Bridges must lay off several of his old friends in order to cut down costs. He tries to do this as painlessly as possible, but his union-boss successor Murray Hamilton public derides Bridges' methods. The potent problems posed by the film are solved in too-slick Hollywood fashion when the plant is saved by a huge government contract and the introduction of cost-efficient machinery. Dorothy Gish makes one of her rare talking-picture appearances as the widow of the plant's former owner in Whistle at Eaton Falls, and if you look closely you'll spot Lloyd Bridges' infant son Jeff in his movie debut. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town is given the Hollywood treatment in this adaptation directed by Sam Wood featuring an evocative score by Aaron Copland and outstanding production design by William Cameron Menzies. Frank Craven is Mr. Morgan, the narrator and our guide through the small town of Grover's Corners in the more innocent American times of 1901, 1904, and 1913. Mr. Morgan chronicles the lives of a handful of Grover's Corners citizens, centering upon Emily Webb (Martha Scott), the daughter of the local newspaper editor (Guy Kibbee), and George Gibbs (William Holden), the son of the local doctor (Thomas Mitchell). Emily and George fall in love and the film details their difficult courtship, marriage, and tragic childbirth. The film was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, losing out to Rebecca. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The 1933 State Fair was the first of three film versions of the Phillip Stong bestseller. Some consider it the best of the three because of its stricter adherence to the source material and the presence of star Will Rogers. Rogers plays Abel Frake, patriarch of a family whose individual members are affected by the upcoming Iowa State Fair in various fascinating ways. Abel hopes to enter his prize hog Blue Boy and win the blue ribbon. His wife Melissa (Louise Dresser) wants to enter her mincemeat in a food competition, his son Wayne (Norman Foster) wants to get even with a carnival sharpster who'd outsmarted him during the last state fair, and daughter Margery (Janet Gaynor) just wants to get out of the house for a little fun. The parents win their prizes (though it looks for a while that Blue Boy will succumb to a serious illness) the children have brief romances (one happy, one cautionary), and everyone goes home a little wiser for the experience. Footnote: Fox studios offered to butcher Blue Boy and sell his meat to Will Rogers, but Rogers declined, noting that he wouldn't feel right eating his costar. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi