Carl Milletaire Movies

This routine crime drama about a mysterious, abandoned yacht is directed by Robert Gottschalk who also wrote the original story. The action begins when three impoverished fishermen working along the California coast come across a yacht with no crew. The only thing they do find on the boat is a corpse, someone who had died of the mumps. The fishermen contact the right authorities and actually end up using the yacht themselves as a charter vessel. The American Coast Guard figures that if they let the men put the yacht to their own use, the real owners will show up sooner or later. They were right. The owners turn out to be some shady characters who carry guns, deal in drugs, and make the fishermen an offer they had better not refuse. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

After she escapes from an asylum for alcoholics, Anne Gilrain (Gloria Talbott) is sent right back by her husband Tom (Liam Sullivan). Sensing that she is being mistreated by her husband, Anne's former boyfriend, comedian Charlie Hatch (Tommy Noonan), vows to "rescue" her. When Tom Gilrain is murdered, Charlie takes the rap for the crime, assuming that Anne is the guilty party--an assumption that proves quite problematic for attorney Perry Mason (Raymond Burr). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "music box" of the title of this low-budget, routine gangster film is a submachine gun, and its owner Larry Shaw (Ronald Foster) is the focus of attention. Larry has as little concern for morality or human life as an exterminator does for cockroaches, and so he is able to climb up the ladder of organized crime with little difficulty. The setting is New York in the 1920s, when mobsters become both rich and famous and eventually dead because of Prohibition. For inexplicable reasons, Larry is married to a decent woman (Luana Patten) who one day has had enough of her husband's activities and rebels in a most significant way. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

While having lunch at the Plaza Hotel in New York, advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) has the bad luck to call for a messenger just as a page goes out for a "George Kaplan." From that moment, Thornhill finds that he has stepped into a nightmare -- he is quietly abducted by a pair of armed men out of the hotel's famous Oak Room and transported to a Long Island estate; there, he is interrogated by a mysterious man (James Mason) who, believing that Roger is George Kaplan, demands to know what he knows about his business and how he has come to acquire this knowledge. Roger, who knows nothing about who any of these people are, can do nothing but deny that he is Kaplan or that he knows what they're talking about. Finally, his captors force a bottle of bourbon into Roger and put him behind the wheel of a car on a dangerous downhill stretch. Through sheer luck and the intervention of a police patrol car and its driver (John Beradino), Roger survives the ride and evades his captors, and is booked for drunk driving. He's unable to persuade the court, the county detectives, or even his own mother (Jesse Royce Landis) of the truth of his story, however -- Thornhill returns with them to the mansion where he was held, only to find any incriminating evidence cleaned up and to learn that the owner of the house is a diplomat, Lester Townsend (Philip Ober), assigned to the United Nations. He backtracks to the hotel to find the room of the real George Kaplan, only to discover that no one at the hotel has ever actually seen the man. With his kidnappers once again pursuing him, Thornhill decides to confront Townsend at the United Nations, only to discover that he knows nothing of the events on Long Island, or his house being occupied -- but before he can learn more, Townsend gets a knife in his back in full view of 50 witnesses who believe that Roger did it. Now on the run from a murder charge, complete with a photograph of him holding the weapon plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the country, Thornhill tries to escape via train -- there he meets the cooly beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who twice hides him from the police, once spontaneously and a second time in a more calculated rendezvous in her compartment that gets the two of them together romantically, at least for the night. By the next day, he's off following a clue to a remote rural highway, where he is attacked by an armed crop-dusting plane, one of the most famous scenes in Hitchcock's entire film output. Thornhill barely survives, but he does manage to learn that his mysterious tormentor/interrogator is named Phillip Vandamm, and that he goes under the cover of being an art dealer and importer/exporter, and that Eve is in bed with him in every sense of the phrase -- or is she? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This is a routine, sometimes unintentionally funny drama about a man whose moral backbone straightens up as he sets his sights on capturing a gangster -- his own boss. Richard Widmark is Ralph Anderson, the petty criminal who returns to his hometown with his mob boss Victor Massonetti (Lee J. Cobb). Massonetti is running from the law and waiting for a plane to come and take him away to safety. His henchmen make the mistake of killing Ralph's father (Carl Benton Reid), who just happens to be the sheriff. That act turns Ralph around, and the plot thickens as he plans to capture Massonetti and his men in spite of the hindrance of his alcoholic brother (Earl Holliman) and the amorous attentions of his sister-in-law (Tina Louise). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, a middle-aged husband is insanely jealous of his trophy wife, a showgirl. The young bride soon becomes romantically involved with one of her husband's employees. Together they conspire to kill the old goat. The treacherous wife then leaves her late husband's estate to his twin brother, an ex-con recently released from prison. In an interesting plot twist, it is discovered that the lovers actually murdered the twin brother, not the husband. The husband then begins exacting his revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

One of the best of Elvis Presley's pre-Army films, Jailhouse Rock offers us the sensual, "dangerous" Elvis that had won the hearts of the kids and earned the animosity of their elders. Presley plays a young buck who accidentally kills a man while protecting the honor of a woman. Thrown into prison, Elvis strikes up a friendship with visionary fellow-con Mickey Shaughnessy. Shaughnessy suggests that Elvis perform in the upcoming prison show. Ol' swivel-hips scores a hit, and decides to stay in showbiz after his release. Together with pretty Judy Tyler (the former Princess Summerfall Winterspring on Howdy Doody, who would die in a horrible traffic accident shortly after completing this film), Elvis sets up his own record company. Alas, success goes to his head, and soon Elvis plans to ditch Tyler in favor of signing with a big-time label. Shaughnessy shows up long enough to punch out Elvis for his disloyalty; as a result, Elvis' vocal chords are damaged and he is unable to sing. Deserted by his flunkeys and hangers-on, Elvis learns the value of friendship and fidelity when Tyler and Shaughnessy stay by his side in his darkest hours. His voice restored, Elvis climbs back up the charts--but this time, he's a much nicer fellow, and a lot more committed to Tyler. Usually the musical numbers in a Presley picture (this one has a doozy, complete with chorus boys dressed as convicts!) are more compelling than the plot. Jailhouse Rock is a perfect balance of song and story from beginning to end; seldom would Elvis be so well showcased in the future. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

New York Confidential is based on the Jack Lait-Lee Mortimer bestseller of the same name. Richard Conte plays Nick Magellan, a "torpedo" for Manhattan crime boss Charlie Lupo (Broderick Crawford). Pleased with Magellan's work, Charlie promotes him to the topmost rungs of the Syndicate. He regrets this act of largesse when the powers-that-be demand that Lupo be rubbed out. . .by good old Magellan. The most fascinating aspect of New York Confidential is that there isn't a sympathetic character in the bunch; even Anne Bancroft as Lupo's maladjusted daughter is a bit on the obnoxious side. The original Lait-Mortimer book was later adapted into a 1958 TV series, starring Lee Tracy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tony Curtis was by 1955 an accomplished enough actor to get through the costumed derring-do of The Purple Mask minus the awkwardness he'd displayed in his earlier swashbucklers. Curtis is cast as Rene, a foppish 18th century French nobleman who doubles as the Purple Mask, a Royalist supporter who kidnaps officers of the Republic and ransoms them back to Napoleon (Stefan Bekassy) for a hefty fee. Managing to elude Napoleon's minions through most of the picture, Rene gives himself up only when the love of his life, the beautiful Laurette (Colleen Miller), is placed in danger. Even when facing the guillotine, however, Rene has a few tricks up his lacey, perfumed sleeve. The Purple Mask was based on La Chevalier au Masque, a play by Paul Armont and Jean Manouissi. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the 1950s, historical spectaculars set in the Far or Middle East became the repository for exploitive tales of eroticism, pure lust, and concupiscent freedom. The "decadence" of previous times gave American filmmakers an excuse to satisfy viewers' libidinal and voyeuristic desires. All this holds true for The Adventure of Haji Baba, a racy, sex-soaked oasis of a film. John Derek stars as an Persian barber given a mission to escort the beautiful princess Fakzia across a desert to her wedding. Haji bets a friend that he will have succeeded in seducing her by the trip's end and the games begin. The two, elegant in their self-assurance, trade barbs and entendres until they're captured by robbers who are in turn captured by a group of renegade Amazons. The Amazons are all former harem girls who have taken to highway robbery and kidnapping to extract a measure of justice from the society that imprisoned them. Haji convinces the leader of the Amazons to let him live and she does as long as he can perform sexually. This buys him enough time to plan an escape with Fakzia and finally cross the desert. Haji, of course, collects on his bet. Redolent with offscreen hints of prodigious debauchery, The Adventures of Haji Baba is a unique, and unexpected, product of '50s cinema. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide

A rare foray into straight action-adventure by comedy director Edward Bernds, Hot News stars Stanley Clements as ex-pugilist Mark Miller. Now working as a sports columnist at the newspaper run by Al Bragg (James Flavin), Miller takes it upon himself to expose the fight-fixing racket masterminded by gambler Rizzo (Ted De Corsia). Naturally, this puts Miller at the top of Rizzo's hit list, but one feels that virtue will triumph when the film's 61 minutes have run their course. Myron Healey, usually cast as a villain, essays the relatively sympathetic role of a boxer victimized by the ruthless Rizzo. Stanley Clements' leading lady is Gloria Henry, six years removed from her TV stint as Dennis the Menace's mom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The famed Bal Tabarin cabaret in Paris is the gathering spot for this swiftly paced crime melodrama. It all begins when singer Judy Allen (Muriel Lawrence) scampers away to the City of Light to escape the clutches of the villains who murdered her boss. The bad guys not only want to silence Judy, but also want to retrieve the cache of jewels that she has hidden somewhere. She takes a singing job at the Bal Tabarin, where head crook Joe Goheen (Steve Brodie) inevitably comes calling one evening. Three new songs are performed in the course of events, as are several terpsichorean routines by the fetchingly underdressed "French Can Can Girls" (that's how they're billed). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The film traces Naples-born Caruso's ascension from adolescent choir singer to the uppermost ranks of the opera world. Caruso is brought to America, getting off to a bad start by inadvertently insulting the impresario (Carl Benton Reid) responsible for his Metropolitan debut. This complication has a happy outcome when Caruso marries his benefactor's daughter (Ann Blyth). Refusing to spare himself or to hold back his talents from his fans, Caruso's health fails him, and he dies in 1921 at the age of 47. Featuring no fewer than 27 musical numbers, Great Caruso also stars Mario Lanza as Caruso, as well as such operatic superstars as Dorothy Kirsten and Jarmila Novotna. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide