Forbes Murray Movies

The "one desire" of ex-gamblers Rock Hudson and Anne Baxter is to escape their shady former lives and settle down to respectability. Rock and Baxter move to a small town, with Hudson's younger brother (Barry Curtis) and an orphaned girl (Natalie Wood) in tow. Julie Adams, daughter of the town banker, set her sights on Hudson and tries to win him away from Baxter. Adams dies in a convenient-to-the-plotline fire, but everybody else lives happily ever after. Conrad Richter's novel Tracey Cromwell was the base for this 1890s soap opera, produced by Ross Hunter with a veneer of class that the material itself lacks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At the time of its release the RKO "B"-western Road Agent raised eyebrows, not because of its violent content, but because of its astonishing lack of violence. Saddle pals Tim (Holt) and Chito (Richard Martin) find out the hard way that usurious Milo Brand (Mauritz Hugo) is charging exorbitant rates to the local ranchers for access to a private road. As a means to thwart the profiteer, Tim and Chito pose as bandits, the better to rob from the rich (Brand) and give to the poor (Everybody Else). The feminine interest is handled by Noreen Nash and Dorothy Patrick, while the very mild villainy is handled by Bob Wilke and Tom Tyler. Road Agent was slightly more successful financially than Tim Holt's first 1952 western Trail Guide, but not enough to elicit cheers at the RKO stockholder's meeting. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in the years following the Civil War, Horizons West stars Robert Ryan as Dan Hammond, one of three Texans who decide to return home after the cessation of hostilities. While his brother Neal (Rock Hudson) and his friend Tiny (James Arness) decide to become ranchers, Dan opts for a more adventurous life out West. Through means both fair and foul (mostly foul), he builds up a veritable empire, defending his turf with legions of hired gunmen. Eventually, the honest Neal is forced to face down his brother Dan, whose megalomania has reached dictatorial dimensions. Julie Adams, still billed as "Julia," plays a self-reliant widow who sets her cap for Dan, who in an earlier scene had gunned down the woman's husband (Raymond Burr)--a characteristically ironic grace-note from director Budd Boetticher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Henry Hathaway directed this high-tension drama about a man teetering on the verge of self-destruction and how his dilemma affects those around him. Robert Cosick (Richard Basehart) is a desperate and despondent young man who has never gotten along with his parents (Robert Keith and Agnes Moorehead) and believes his girlfriend Virginia (Barbara Bel Geddes) no longer loves him. Cosick creeps onto the ledge of a skyscraper in downtown New York and threatens to jump; for the next 14 hours, Dunnigan (Paul Douglas), a policeman who was passing by, tries to talk him down, searching for a way to convince him that life is worth living. A crowd forms on the street below as Dunnigan talks with Cosick; Danny (Jeffrey Hunter) and Ruth (Debra Paget) meet as they watch the grim spectacle and discover how much they have in common. Meanwhile, in a building across the street, a young woman about to sign her divorce papers (Grace Kelly) finds herself wondering if she should give up on her marriage so hastily as she watches Cosick debate about throwing away his life. Fourteen Hours marked Grace Kelly's screen debut; Ossie Davis and Brian Keith also appear in small roles. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Ann Sothern closed out her MGM contract with the Technicolor musical Nancy Goes to Rio. As Frances Elliot, Sothern is billed second to Jane Powell, who plays Nancy Barklay. A popular Broadway star, Frances heads to Rio for R&R before starting her next production. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Frances, her daughter Nancy is hired to appear in her mother's starring vehicle. This would seem to be enough to sustain a plot, but the screenwriters contrive to have Frances mistakenly believe that Nancy is about to become an out-of-wedlock mother. In addition, both ladies vie for the romantic attentions of leading man Paul Berten (Barry Sullivan). Also appearing is Carmen Miranda, just to remind us that the film takes place in Brazil. Producer Joe Pasternak handles the material with the same tastefulness that he'd applied to his Deanna Durbin pictures at Universal: in fact, Nancy Goes to Rio is a remake of Durbin's 1940 vehicle It's a Date. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For some reason, whenever Universal used the word "Gal" in a film's title, Yvonne de Carlo usually headed the cast. In Gal Who Took the West, de Carlo plays Lillian Marlowe, an New York songstress who heads Thataway. She becomes the romantic bone of contention between the feuding O'Hara cousins, Grant (John Russell) and Lee (Scott Brady). The hostilities boil over into an all-out range war, and federal troops are summoned. Can Lillian succeed where other, better-armed negotiators have failed. The lighthearted nature of Gal Who Took the West is underlined by staging the film in flashback, as related by a pair of toothless old codgers (Clem Bevans and Houseley Stevenson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

First came 20th Century-Fox's Mother Was a Freshman; then, a few months later, the same studio's Father Was a Fullback. Fred MacMurray stars as college football coach George Cooper, whose team can't win a game to save its life. George finds some comfort in the arms of his wife Elizabeth (Maureen O'Hara), but his young daughters Connie (Betty Lynn) and Ellen (Natalie Wood) are too concerned with boys to pay their dad any attention. Connie causes no end of trouble for George by printing a highly imaginative article about her various romances. On the verge of losing his job, George is saved by the arrival of football champ Joe Burch (Richard Tyler). Rudy Vallee virtually repeats his stuffy-suitor characterization from Mother is a Freshman in Father Was a Fullback. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The racehorse Seabiscuit really existed, but this is not his true story -- this is a romance and centers on lovely Margaret O'Hara (Shirley Temple), an Irish lass who comes to cheer on her uncle Shawn O'Hara's (Barry Fitzgerald) horse during the big races and ends up falling in love with handsome jockey Ted Knowles (Lon McCallister). He asks for her hand, but she will only marry him if he gives up racing because she is still mourning the death of her brother, who was also a jockey. Ted is torn because he loves her, but he also wants to ride her uncle's horse Seabiscuit to victory. Her uncle convinces him to ride and then engineers matters so that his niece will still marry Ted. The film includes footage of the real Seabiscuit winning two different races during the 1940s. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hot on the heels of Columbia's The Fuller Brush Man, MGM released another Red Skelton gagfest, A Southern Yankee. Set during the Civil War, the film casts Skelton as bumbling bellboy Aubrey Filmore. Yearning to help the Northern cause by becoming an undercover spy, Aubrey succeeds beyond his wildest dreams when circumstances force him to pose as notorious Southern secret agent Major Drumman (George Coulouris), aka "The Grey Spider". Infiltrating rebel territory, our hero does his best (which is none too good) to intercept the Grey Spider's messages and smuggle them to the North. Along the way, he falls in love with pert Southern belle Sallyann Weatherby (Arlene Dahl). Many of the side-splitting gag routines were devised by Buster Keaton, notably the now-famous scene in which Aubrey gingerly walks across the battlefield between Northern and Southern lines carrying a two-sided flag -- the Northern Stars and Stripes on one side, the Southern Stars and Bars on the other -- a strategy that works until the wind suddenly changes! Though Edward Sedgwick is credited with the direction, Red Skelton later revealed that A Southern Yankee was actually directed by S. Sylvan Simon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hypnotism and mind control take center stage in this unusual latter-day "Hopalong Cassidy" series entry produced by its star, William Boyd. Having delivered a herd of cattle for the Cattlemen's Association, Hoppy (Boyd) and California (Andy Clyde) are confronted by a strangely moody Lucky Jenkins (Rand Brooks), who apparently owes money to a crooked gambler, Speed Blaney (James H. Harrison). At first, Hoppy dismisses the situation as a young man's folly but when both Lucky and the gold payment for the cattle vanish into thin air, our hero begins to suspect foul play. But has the hitherto upstanding Lucky turned thief? That question may be best answered by Doc Richards (Earle Hodgins), a typically flamboyant snake oil salesman with a dark side, and his pretty niece Rene (Virginia Belmont). Like most of the "Hopalong Cassidy" Westerns, Silent Conflict was partially filmed on location at Lone Pine. Leading lady Virginia Belmont later enjoyed a brief career in Italian films. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this aerial melodrama, four brothers working as stunt pilots for a flying circus leave their jobs to become mail pilots. Because their job requires that they constantly travel, they are advised to not settle down with wives and kids. Still, one pilot falls in love and marries. Unfortunately, the woman dislikes his brothers and constantly worries that he will be killed during a flight. Her fears are not unfounded and much tragedy ensues as the story unfolds. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Abbott & Costello western spoof The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap is predicated on an actual Montana law of the 19th century, which dictated that if a man killed another in a gun duel, that man was responsible for the care and support of the victim's family. The film gets under way with an introductory title: "MONTANA: Where Men Are Men? With Two Exceptions." Those exceptions are travelling salesmen Duke (Bud Abbott) and Chester (Lou Costello), freshly arrived in the wide-open western town of Wagon Gap. No sooner has Chester reached Main Street than he is falsely arrested for the murder of Hawkins, the town layabout. He and Duke are spared the hangman's noose when the genially corrupt Judge Benbow (George Cleveland) reminds the jury that Chester is now responsible for Hawkins' debts and family. In short order, Chester is moved bag and baggage into the ramshackle home of the rowdy Widow Hawkins (Marjorie Main) and her brood of seven noisy children. Forced to do all the chores around the Widow's home, poor Chester must also put in overtime at Jake Frame's (Gordon Jones) saloon to pay off Hawkins' debts. While the crafty Duke tries to figure out various methods of extricating Chester from his dilemma, the Widow uses all of her wiles to get Chester to propose marriage to her. The plot goes off on a new tangent when it is discovered that none of the town desperadoes are willing to shoot down Chester, lest they inherit the Widow and her brats. Emboldened by his "untouchable" status, Chester swaggers around town striking fear in the hearts of the local menfolk, bosses Duke around for a change, and is even appointed sheriff! Alas, his invulnerability comes to an abrupt end when it turns out that the Hawkins spread is the most valuable property in town, thereby making Widow Hawkins the territory's most eligible bachelorette. The story comes to an uproarious conclusion when Chester and Jake Frame confront each other in a "high noon" gun duel. Incredibly, screenwriters D.D. Beauchamp and William Bowers originally intended The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap as a vehicle for James Stewart! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Warner Bros. musical My Wild Irish Rose purports to tell the life story of popular 19th century balladeer Chauncey Olcott-or at least, the version set down by Olcott's daughter Rita. Starting his career in minstrel shows, Olcott (Dennis Morgan) is given his first break by stage luminary Lillian Russell (Andrea King), who casts him as her Broadway leading man. Though their relationship is platonic so far as Russell is concerned, the newspapers have a field day concocting an imaginary romance, driving a wedge between Olcott and his hometown sweetheart Rose Donovan (Arlene Dahl). No matter what his personal problems, Olcott rises to heretofore unimagined show-biz heights with his sentimental Irish ballads, including "A Little Bit of Heaven", "Mother Macree" and, of course, the title tune. I Love Lucy fans will be amused by the casting of a generously toupeed William Frawley as famed Irish tenor William Scanlan, who after his voice fails him generously passes the torch of celebrity to Olcott. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide