Robert Beatty Movies

This is a routine tale about the vice squad versus pornographer and blackmailer Augie Cortona (Terence Morgan). After the petty criminal gets out of prison, he discovers his old partners in crime are not interested in him anymore, and the prostitution ring he once bossed is controlled by someone else. His solution is to set up a fake photographer's and model's studio during the day that becomes a place where porno photo men can do their work at night, as call girls engage in their trade with unsuspecting customers. The photographs bring in extra lucre through a blackmail scheme -- Cortona makes the hookers' clients pay to keep their activities quiet. As he is building up this racket, a gangland boss is out to get him -- and so is the vice squad. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Tarzan and the Lost Safari is the first MGM-released Tarzan picture since 1942, and the first of the series to be lensed in color. Gordon Scott plays the Lord of the Jungle, herein guiding a group of high-society types through the jungle after their plane has crashed. Since there's no Jane in the film, old Tarz is permitted to extend every courtesy to heroines Gamage Dean (Yolande Donlan) and Diana Penrod (Betta St. John). The villain of the piece is white hunter Tusker Hawkins (Robert Beatty), who intends to turn over two of the safari members to tribal chief Ogonooro (Orlando Martins) in exchange for a fortune in ivory. Unlike earlier Tarzan epics, Tarzan and the Lost Safari was lensed in its entirety in Africa. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Escape from a German POW camp is the goal of the rescourceful Allied prisoners in this war film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Beautiful Hedy Lamarr finds herself faced with a difficult decision when she must choose an appropriate costume for an important masquerade ball in this metaphorical fantasy that unfolds in three parts. To help her decide, she asks a trio of male friends. Their disparate suggestions that she go as either Helen of Troy, the Empress Josephine or Genieve de Brabant, and the reasons behind their choices provide the bulk of the film. Originally, the film was three hours long and purported to present the essence of being a woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Elia Kazan directed this drama inspired by a true story. Karel Cernik (Fredric March) is the leader of a troupe of Czechoslovakian circus performers who have been plying their trade in Eastern Europe for years. When Czechoslovakia falls under Communist rule, the proud and independent Cernik finds that he is no longer free to operate his circus as he sees fit. Many of his performers are conscripted into military service, and his equipment and possessions are declared government property, though the state fails to maintain it properly, or even to give him access to the material to fix it himself. Finally, when Cernik's remaining performers are ordered to insert pro-Communist messages into their acts, he decides that he can take no more and begins making plans to escape to Bavaria during an upcoming tour. Cernik's plans hit a snag, however, when he learns that one of his performers is a spy for the Czech communists, working in collusion with government factotum Fesker (Adolphe Menjou). While politics are making a mess of his professional life, his daughter Tereza (Terry Moore) is complicating matters at home because of her romance with the handsome but unreliable lion tamer Joe Vosdek (Cameron Mitchell), much to the chagrin of both Karel and his wife Zama (Gloria Grahame). The Birnbach Circus troupe, along with a variety of other European carnival performers, appear as themselves in this film, lending the performances a keen authenticity. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Project M7 is the American title for the British The Net. Based on a novel by John Pudney, the film is set in an aviation research station. At the moment, the researchers are working on a revolutionary new aircraft, and competition to be first with the results is fierce. There's little love lost amongst the scientists, but no one expect the personal animosities to result in murder. The killing in question was committed by an enemy spy...but which one of the scientists is the guilty party? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The contentious world of prizefighting provides the setting of this episodic drama that chronicles the lives of five different fighters. Each of the fighters explains their reasons for becoming professional pugilists. One of the fighters, Kid Curtis, ends up dead after a particularly brutal beating. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Wings of Danger was originally released in England as Dead on Course. This early Hammer Studios effort stars Zachary Scott as an airline pilot named Van. When Van's pal Nick Talbot (Robert Beatty) is strong-armed into aiding a gang of smugglers, it's time to take decisive action. Adventure-film veteran John Gilling adapted the screenplay from a novel by Elleston Trevor. Distributed in Great Britain by Exclusive Films, Ltd., Wings of Danger was released in the U.S. by Lippert Pictures. According to some sources, the U.S. version was trimmed by a couple of minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Magic Box was the English film industry's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Its all-star cast generously forsook their usual salaries for the privilege of paying tribute to that unsung pioneer of cinema, William Friese-Greene, here played by Robert Donat. Adapted by Eric Ambler from the controversial biography by Ray Allister, Magic Box contends that Friese-Greene was the true father of motion pictures, and not such upstarts as W. K. L. Dickson and Thomas Edison. Told in flashback, the film details Friese-Greene's tireless experiments with the "moving image," leading inexorably to a series of failures and disappoints, as others hog the credit for the protagonist's discoveries. The huge cast includes such British film luminaries as Joyce Grenfell, Miles Malleson, Michael Redgrave, Eric Portman, Emlyn Williams, Richard Attenborough, Peter Ustinov, Cecil Parker, Kay Walsh, and, best of all, Laurence Olivier as the confused bobby who witnesses Friese-Greene's first motion picture demonstration. ~ 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

Based on a play by Pepine de Felipe, Her Favorite Husband is a British comedy set in Italy. Housewife Jean Kent is bemused by her husband Robert Beatty, who is not quite himself these days. In truth, he is not himself at all: Jean's husband has been replaced by a lookalike gangster who is plotting a big bank robbery. Once she tumbles to the truth, Kent is alternately repulsed and fascinated by her "new" spouse. Not exactly Shakespeare, Her Favorite Husband is a genial romp distinguished by a sizeable supporting cast of familiar British players. The film was released in the U.S. as The Taming of Dorothy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this British drama, an ingenious but impoverished young man is determined to live on a Tahitian island. To achieve his goal, he begins hanging out on a street corner in one of London's most dangerous sections in the hopes of getting the chance to save a wealthy person, who should then generously award him by paying his passage to the South Seas. His plans go somewhat awry when a gorgeous woman swings past. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide