Adrian Morris Movies

While listening to a recording of "Penny Serenade," Julie Gardiner Adams (Irene Dunne) begins reflecting on her past. She recalls her near-impulsive marriage to newspaper reporter Roger Adams (Cary Grant), which begins on a deliriously happy note but turns out to be fraught with tragedy. While honeymooning in Japan, Julie and Roger are trapped in the 1923 earthquake, which results in her miscarriage and subsequent incapability to bear children. Upon their return to America, Roger becomes editor of a small-town newspaper, just scraping by financially. Despite their depleted resources, Julie and Roger want desperately to adopt a child. It seems hopeless until kindly adoption agency head Miss Oliver (Beulah Bondi) helps smooth their path. Alas, their happiness is once more short-lived: their new daughter, Trina (Eva Lee Kuney), succumbs to a sudden illness at the age of six. Reduced to hopelessness, Julie and Roger decide to dissolve their marriage, but Miss Oliver once more comes to the rescue. Sentimental in the extreme, Penny Serenade is also enormously effective, balancing moments of heartbreaking pathos with uproarious laughter. Only director George Stevens could have handled a scene with a copiously weeping Cary Grant without inducing discomfort or embarrassment in the audience. Since lapsing into the public domain in 1968 (though released by Columbia, the film was owned by Stevens' production firm), Penny Serenade has become almost as ubiquitous a cable-TV presence as It's a Wonderful Life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Winfield Sheehan, former head of Fox studios, owned the only Austrian Lippizan horses in the U.S. In 1940, MGM bought the rights to the Felix Salten novel Florian, all about the Lippanzers. When the film was made, the producer was Winfield Sheehan. Coincidence? We don't think so. At any rate, the story, set in the 1880s, tells of how hero (Robert Young) and heroine (Helen Gilbert) are brought together through their love of horses. Just so we don't forget that Florian is set in Austria, Reginald Owen shows up as emperor Franz Josef. For another filmic treatment of the fabulous Lippanzer show horses, we refer you to Disney's The Miracle of the White Stallions (63). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of dirt-poor Dust Bowl migrants by 4-time Oscar-winning director John Ford starred Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, who opens the movie returning to his Oklahoma home after serving jail time for manslaughter. En route, Tom meets family friend Casey (John Carradine), a former preacher who warns Tom that dust storms, crop failures, and new agricultural methods have financially decimated the once prosperous Oklahoma farmland. Upon returning to his family farm, Tom is greeted by his mother (Oscar-winner Jane Darwell), who tells him that the family is packing up for the "promised land" of California. Warned that they shouldn't expect a warm welcome in California--they've already seen the caravan of dispirited farmers, heading back home after striking out at finding work--the Joads push on all the same. Their first stop is a wretched migrant camp, full of starving children and surrounded by armed guards. Further down the road, the Joads drive into an idyllic government camp, with clean lodging, indoor plumbing, and a self-governing clientele. When Tom ultimately bids goodbye to his mother, who asks him where he'll go, he delivers the film's most famous speech: "I'll be all around...Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat...Whenever there's a cop beating a guy, I'll be there...And when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build. I'll be there too." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Pier 13 is a remake of the delightful Spencer Tracy-Joan Bennett vehicle Me and My Gal, which itself was a reworking of a 1922 silent picture. Wisecracking cop Danny Dolan (Lloyd Nolan) takes a liking to self-reliant waterfront waitress Sally Kelly (Lynn Bari), and the feeling is definitely mutual. But when Sally begins behaving strangely, Dolan suspects that she's mixed up with notorious criminal Johnnie Hale (Douglas Fowley). In fact, Sally is merely covering up for her flighty sister Helen (oan Valerie), who has foolishly fallen for Hale and has become deeply involved in the latter's underhanded activities. Things come to a head during a nocturnal warehouse robbery, with Dolan and Hale settling their differences face to face. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Gone With the Wind boils down to a story about a spoiled Southern girl's hopeless love for a married man. Producer David O. Selznick managed to expand this concept, and Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel, into nearly four hours' worth of screen time, on a then-astronomical 3.7-million-dollar budget, creating what would become one of the most beloved movies of all time. Gone With the Wind opens in April of 1861, at the palatial Southern estate of Tara, where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) hears that her casual beau Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) plans to marry "mealy mouthed" Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). Despite warnings from her father (Thomas Mitchell) and her faithful servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett intends to throw herself at Ashley at an upcoming barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Alone with Ashley, she goes into a fit of histrionics, all of which is witnessed by roguish Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the black sheep of a wealthy Charleston family, who is instantly fascinated by the feisty, thoroughly self-centered Scarlett: "We're bad lots, both of us." The movie's famous action continues from the burning of Atlanta (actually the destruction of a huge wall left over from King Kong) through the now-classic closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Holding its own against stiff competition (many consider 1939 to be the greatest year of the classical Hollywood studios), Gone With the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar). The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be "The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This barely-disguised portrait of singer Fanny Brice led to Brice's lawsuit against 20th Century Fox for defamation of character, a case which was settled out of court. Alice Faye plays Rose Sargent, a New York singer of the 1920s who falls for handsome, cocky wheeler-dealer Bart Clinton (Tyrone Power in a role patterned on Brice's troubled real-life paramour Nicky Arnstein). Rose's new romance is much to the dismay of her pal and former partner Ted Cotter (Al Jolson), who doesn't trust the slick, smooth-talking Bart. Eventually, Rose and Bart marry, but as the entertainment careers of Rose and Ted take off, Bart's tendency to get over his head in get-rich-quick schemes evolves into a bona fide criminal career. Rose finally makes the big time, becoming a popular star with the Ziegfeld Follies, and Bart skips town in order to preserve her reputation. However, Bart is nabbed by the authorities and sentenced to five years in jail. Despite the public scandal, Rose and Bart's devotion remained undiminished. Songs include the classics "California, Here I Come", "Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye", "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and the perhaps unwise inclusion of "Funny Lady" Brice's signature song, "My Man". ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

District attorney Walter Pidgeon pursues the conviction of criminals so diligently that word has gone out in the state prison to "get" Pidgeon at the first opportunity. The DA has several enemies on the outside as well, one of whom frames him on a bribery charge. Pidgeon is sentenced to the prison where he has sent so many miscreants in the past. Dodging attempts on his own life, Pidgeon makes several valuable convict friends and manages to clear himself during a climactic jailbreak. 6,000 Enemies runs only 61 minutes--an average of about 100 enemies per minute. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

If I Were King is a delightful costume adventure tale set in 14th century France, during the reign of Louis XI, and inspired by the legend of the rebel poet François Villon, whose exploits were filmed earlier as The Beloved Rogue (1927) with John Barrymore, and later transformed into the musical The Vagabond King on Broadway and onscreen. The movie opens with Paris surrounded by the forces of the Duke of Burgundy, whose armies have laid siege to the city in hopes of starving out King Louis XI (Basil Rathbone, in a riveting performance), a wily, cruel monarch who distrusts all around him -- mostly, however, Burgundy has succeeded in forcing Louis to hunker down and in starving the common people of Paris, whose well-being their king can't be bothered about.

The one man in Paris with the courage to raise a hand to ease the suffering is François Villon (Ronald Colman), a gifted poet and glib orator who understands the common people far better than Louis. We first meet him leading a raid on the king's storehouse for sorely needed food and wine. Pursued by the king's guards, he accidentally crosses paths with Louis himself -- trying to uncover a nest of traitors -- at a tavern, and is captured. Louis would normally have Villon put to death without a second thought, but the rebel poet has done him the service of killing a treasonous officer, and has also piqued the king's interest with his notion of inspiring loyalty rather than fear in his subjects. The king also wishes to show Villon that it isn't always easy, even with all of the power of the crown on one's side, to rule a kingdom, or even the capitol city of a kingdom. Louis appoints Villon to the post of Constable of France, in command of all military and police authorities, and nominally in charge of the army, and leaves it to him to do his job -- with the provision that, at the end of a week in so powerful a position, Villon will, indeed, hang. Villon does a very good job of dispensing justice in a way that makes his followers love the king, and even turns one traitor into a loyalist. He is less successful at getting the titled nobility on his side, or the generals to rally their armies for the task at hand, breaking the siege, and is further distracted from his task by his romantic entanglements, with Ellen Drew as the girl of the streets who loves Villon and Frances Dee as the lady-in-waiting to the queen who has stolen his heart.

Director Frank Lloyd uses the same sure hand that propelled his Oscar-nominated Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) to weave together the telling of this lusty and witty tale (from a clever screenplay by Preston Sturges, who added his own translations of Villon's poetry to the original script); but the real interest for most viewers will reside with the sparks that fly from the performances of Colman and Rathbone as the two equally matched antagonists, each toying with the other's perceived weaknesses (especially their vanity) while, in his way, secretly admiring elements of the other's character. In the end, Sturges' script cleverly interweaves their common interests, Villon realizing that he must save Paris in order to keep from losing his head. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

In this mystery programmer, a prizefighter dies in the midst of a match, but evidence suggests that it was a dose of poison that killed him rather than the violence of the bout. Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre), a detective who also teaches sleuthing to others, is called in to find out who killed the boxer and why. Assisting Mr. Moto is Lee Chan (Keye Luke), the "number one son" from the Charlie Chan series. Mr. Moto's Gamble began as Charlie Chan at Ringside, but after Warner Oland became seriously ill during filming, it was rewritten for the screen's other well-known Asian detective in order to make use of the footage that had already been shot. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Two brothers exchange lifestyles in this drama. The older brother, a gambler, wants to lead a clean, crime-free life while his wiseacre younger brother wants to become a professional gambler. With great hesitation, the older teaches the younger all he knows. The younger brother is a quick study and ends up playing so well that he aces a group of veteran gamblers out of their money. They become convinced that anyone who is that good, must be a cheat. Meanwhile his older brother begins to see that he is too old to change and returns to gambling in time to save his brother. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this screwball comedy, a fresh-out-of-college fellow heads for the gold fields of Alaska to find his fortune. He is gone for a long time. He returns to marry his girl friend and is dismayed to discover that she is no longer interested him. When her mother learns that the fellow has struck it rich, she changes her daughter's mind. Unfortunately, the young man has become enamored of the girl's little sister. Catastrophic sibling rivalry ensues as the women vie for the young man's affection. Meanwhile, the fellow's prospector friend tries to mediate and calm things down. In the end, the young man gets the best woman and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Director Anatole Litvak's first Hollywood film was a remake of his French success L'Equipage, itself based on a novel by Joseph Kessel. Paul Muni stars as Maury, an unorthodox, abrasive WWI fighter-pilot whose skill in the air is compromised by his inability to get along with his colleagues and subordinates. His wife Denise (Miriam Hopkins) loves Maury in her fashion but cheats on him in favor of younger, handsomer flyboy Jean (Louis Hayward). This romantic triangle is settled not in the boudoir but in the air, during a particularly tense "dogfight." Though The Woman I Love often copies L'Equipage scene for scene (even retaining the original musical score by Arthur Honegger and Maurice Thiriet), the ending of the remake is markedly different from that of the original, obviously to appease the more stringent Hollywood censors. The film's title was obviously chosen to cash in on a similar sentiment expressed by Britain's King Edward VII when he abdicated from his throne for the sake of his American wife; perhaps this was why The Woman I Love was retitled The Woman Between in Great Britain. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi