Pat Moore Movies

Doc Levy (Roy Scheider) is an American secret agent who has been running interference between the U.S. government and escaped Nazi war criminal Szell (Laurence Olivier). Believing that Doc has stolen a valuable cache of gems, Szell emerges from his South American hiding place and heads for New York. He has Doc killed, then kidnaps Doc's in-the-dark brother, Babe (Dustin Hoffman). Repeating the phrase "Is it safe?" over and over, Szell, a onetime concentration camp dentist, tries to extract information from Babe by performing sadistic "oral surgery" upon him. Babe, who still doesn't know about the gems, escapes, breaking his own self-imposed rule of nonviolence to defend himself against his pursuers and gearing up for sadistic revenge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Narrative takes a back seat to music in this loose remake of Girl Crazy, as Harve Presnell plays a footloose young millionaire who meets perky Connie Francis and hatches a scheme to save her father's failing Nevada ranch by turning it into a resort for people waiting out their quickie Las Vegas divorces. This was an early musical vehicle for then-Broadway star Presnell, who would gain notoriety with film fans years later as a character actor in Fargo, Patch Adams, and Saving Private Ryan. Besides, how often do you get to see a musical that features Louis Armstrong, Liberace, Herman's Hermits, and Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds had been on Paramount Pictures' docket since the silent era, when it was optioned as a potential Cecil B. DeMille production. When Paramount finally got around to a filming the Wells novel, the property was firmly in the hands of special-effects maestro George Pal. Like Orson Welles' infamous 1938 radio adaptation, the film eschews Wells' original Victorian England setting for a contemporary American locale, in this case Southern California. A meteorlike object crash-lands near the small town of Linda Rosa. Among the crowd of curious onlookers is Pacific Tech scientist Gene Barry, who strikes up a friendship with Ann Robinson, the niece of local minister Lewis Martin. Because the meteor is too hot to approach at present, Barry decides to wait a few days to investigate, leaving three townsmen to guard the strange, glowing object. Left alone, the three men decide to approach the meterorite, and are evaporated for their trouble. It turns out that this is no meteorite, but an invading spaceship from the planet Mars. The hideous-looking Martians utilize huge, mushroomlike flying ships, equipped with heat rays, to pursue the helpless earthlings. When the military is called in, the Martians demonstrated their ruthlessness by "zapping" Ann's minister uncle, who'd hoped to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the standoff. As Barry and Ann seek shelter, the Martians go on a destructive rampage. Nothing-not even an atom-bomb blast-can halt the Martian death machines. The film's climax occurs in a besieged Los Angeles, where Barry fights through a crowd of refugees and looters so that he may be reunited with Ann in Earth's last moments of existence. In the end, the Martians are defeated not by science or the military, but by bacteria germs-or, to quote H.G. Wells, "the humblest things that God in his wisdom has put upon the earth." Forty years' worth of progressively improving special effects have not dimmed the brilliance of George Pal's War of the Worlds. Even on television, Pal's Oscar-winning camera trickery is awesome to behold. So indelible an impression has this film made on modern-day sci-fi mavens that, when a 1988 TV version of War of the Worlds was put together, it was conceived as a direct sequel to the 1953 film, rather than a derivation of the Wells novel or the Welles radio production. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1931 under its original title, Theodore Dreiser's bulky but brilliant novel An American Tragedy was remade in 1951 by George Stevens as A Place in the Sun. Montgomery Clift stars as George Eastman, a handsome and charming but basically aimless young man who goes to work in a factory run by a distant, wealthy relative. Feeling lonely one evening, he has a brief rendezvous with assembly-line worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), but he forgets all about her when he falls for dazzling socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). Alice can't forget about him, though: she is pregnant with his child. Just when George's personal and professional futures seem assured, Alice demands that he marry her or she'll expose him to his society friends. This predicament sets in motion a chain of events that will ultimately include George's arrest and numerous other tragedies, including a vicious cross-examination by a D.A. played by future Perry Mason Raymond Burr. A huge improvement over the 1931 An American Tragedy, directed by Josef von Sternberg, A Place in the Sun softens some of the rough edges of Dreiser's naturalism, most notably in the passages pertaining to George's and Angela's romance. Even those 1951 bobbysoxers who wouldn't have been caught dead poring through the Dreiser original were mesmerized by the loving, near-erotic full facial closeups of Clift and Taylor as they pledge eternal devotion. A Place in the Sun won six Oscars, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, although it lost Best Picture to An American in Paris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Holy Wars are given the usual overblown Cecil B. DeMille treatment in The Crusades. It all begins in the 12th-century AD, when Jerusalem falls into the hands of the Saracens, and the Christians are slaughtered or sold into slavery. A holy man known as The Hermit (C. Aubrey Smith) rallies the rulers of England and Europe to launch a Crusade to reclaim Jerusalem in the name of Christianity. Among those embarking upon this massive undertaking is England's King Richard the Lion-Hearted (played as a swaggering roughneck by Henry Wilcoxon), who finances his knights by marrying wealthy French princess Berengaria (Loretta Young) sight unseen. Saladin (Ian Keith), the elegant and well-spoken ruler of the Saracens, attempts to stave off the crusaders by kidnapping Berengaria and holding her hostage. Sensing that he can never win against so formidable a collection of foes, Saladin eventually opens the gates of Jerusalem to all but Richard the Lion-Hearted, with whom he has a personal score to settle. In the film's most memorable scene, the fundamental difference between the boorish Richard and the cultured Saladin is demonstrated when the Saracen ruler delicately cleaves Berengaria's silk scarf in twain with his gleaming sword. It took a great deal of nerve to depict the film's hero as a thuggish brute and the nominal villain as the most sympathetic character in the story, but DeMille gets away with it in The Crusades, and still has time left over to deliver his usual quota of thrills, pageantry, convoluted history and campy dialogue. And yes, that is Ann Sheridan as a Christian captive in the opening scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the era's many ethnic (read: Jewish) comedies, this film starred Alexander Carr, a Broadway actor-playwright who made a career out of playing Lower East Side types. This time around, Carr played Jacob Goodman, a former pants-presser turned umbrella tycoon, whose daughter, Irma (Duane Thompson), falls for the handsome nephew (Raymond Keane) of the Goodman's nouveau riche neighbor, Mr. Applebaum (Snitz Edwards). The boy, however, is soon accused of theft; the crime, as Goodman discovers, is actually committed by Applebaum's no-good son, Joseph (Eddie Phillips. Little Baby Peggy (aka Diana Serra Cary), who earlier starred in her own series of 2-reelers, appeared here as one of the Goodman children. Produced by small-time company Chadwick, April Fool was based on a 1915 play written by Carr and Edgar Allan Woolf. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Dorothy Davenport, the star of this drama, dedicated the film to "the mothers of America, as a protest against the lawlessness devastating our land, and a reminder that the foundation of all law and order lies in that greatest of American institutions -- the home." Davenport felt the necessity to take the high road when it came to moral standards after her husband Wallace Reid died tragically of drug addiction in 1923. Joan Allen (Davenport) has a young son, Bobby (Pat Moore), who runs wild. Bobby's friend, Patsy (Jane Wray), has a jazz-mad mother (Jackie Saunders). The two children grow up to be out-of-control teens (played by Arthur Rankin and Virginia Lee Corbin). While on a joy ride with Patsy, Bobby hits and kills a woman. He is tried and convicted for murder, and Joan pleads to serve her son's term in his place. Then she wakes up and realizes it was all a dream. As a result, she resolves to be a firm disciplinarian to her little boy. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This domestic drama may sound tiresome, but it was considered solid entertainment in 1923. Just before he gets married, Victor Olney (Bryant Washburn) attends a bachelor party where dancer Carmen Joy (Charlotte Stevens) is performing. She is injured, and Olney winds up giving her money to pay for her medical bills. After his wedding to Constance Rives (Mabel Forrest), Olney becomes insanely jealous of all her friends, especially former suitor Clint Mowbray (Wheeler Oakman). Constance is annoyed at her husband's possessiveness, even more so when Mowbray makes it look like Olney and Carmen were having an affair. Constance leaves Olney and nurses Carmen back to health. Olney, meanwhile, gets a lecture from his mother-in-law (Kate Lester) on the proper way to treat a wife. Convinced by her words, Olney learns how to have faith in Constance. She returns to him when Carmen assures her that she was never involved with her husband. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Everybody at Mack Sennett's Keystone studios was expected to do a little bit of everything, which is why bassett-faced comedian Hank Mann both directed and co-starred in the 2-reel laughfest The Village Blacksmith. Burly Tom Kennedy plays the title character, while gawky Polly Moran is cast as the Smithy's sweetie, a laundress. A refined young lady (Vivien Edwards) becomes fascinated by the Smithy's remarkable feats of strength, including his ability to pound nails with his knuckles. The girl succeeds in stealing Kennedy away from Moran, which of course precipitates a climactic confrontation between the two females. Though The Village Blacksmith contained more plot than was usual for Keystone, sight gags and slapstick still predominate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

William Desmond Taylor's final film -- a poorly paced, overly sentimental romance -- only proves that if he had not been the victim of an unsolved murder, his name would likely have faded into the far reaches of silent-cinema history. Although as a human being he apparently had many admirers (one of them was the star of this picture, May McAvoy; another was set designer George Hopkins, who wrote the scenario), his directing skills were rarely more than competent. For some reason, he had the brunette McAvoy wear a blonde wig as Hilda O'Shaunnessy, which detracted from her good looks. Hilda lives in a tenement apartment with her aunt, Mrs. Brady (Carrie Clark Ward), and her crippled younger brother Micky (Pat Moore), and works in a department store where her boss lusts after her. But happiness comes into her life when she meets artist Emery Gray (Walter McGrail). Gray's wife deserted him long ago, leaving him with their daughter Susan (Mary Jane Irving) to raise. While Susan and Micky become playmates, Hilda restores Gray's faith in womanhood. He offers to pay for an operation for Micky and also puts to rout the wicked boss -- who turns out to be the man who stole his wife.
~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In this rather artificial drama, Shirley Mason plays Constance Bailey, a rich girl who refuses to marry her sweetheart, Bruce Von Griff (Alan Forrest), until she has done some good in the world. She finds work as a teacher on New York's Lower East Side, and one day Bruce shows up in a policeman's uniform -- he has joined the force partly to keep an eye on her, and partly because he wants to do some good in the world himself. He keeps proposing to Constance, who keeps turning him down. She helps a little boy (Pat Moore) and his blind sister (Helen Stone). Meanwhile, Bruce is trying to track down a thief (Otto Hoffman). Coincidentally, the same crook attacks Constance, so Bruce gets to save his sweetheart and collar the wanted man at the same time. Eventually Constance figures she's done enough good and accepts Bruce's proposal. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Actress Mignon (Louise Glaum) is the toast of Paris until she marries young American engineer John Stanley (Matt Moore). He is commissioned to go to work in the Sahara desert, and Mignon accompanies him with their baby. But it isn't long before she is lonely and horribly bored. When a wealthy Russian, Baron Alexis (Edwin Stevens), passes through the camp, he offers to take her away to Cairo. She goes with him, and he surrounds her in luxury. Years pass, but the situation does not bring her happiness. One day she takes alms to the beggars' row and sees a filthy dope fiend accompanied by a animated little boy (Pat Moore), whom she recognizes as her husband and son. She takes them back to the palace where she is living. The Baron, enraged by this, tries to throttle her, but her husband kills him. Mignon, Stanley and the boy escape into the desert, where Stanley recovers, regains his memory and learns to forgive the wayward Mignon. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide