Noreen Nash Movies

This second theatrical-feature spin-off of TV's Lone Ranger series stars, as ever, Clayton Moore as the Masked Rider of the Plains and Jay Silverheels as his faithful Indian companion Tonto. This time around, the plot concerns five silver medallions. When placed together, these tiny hunks of silver reveal the location of the titular Lost City of Gold. The owners of three of the medallions have already been killed by the mystery villain; it's up to the Lone Ranger and Tonto to save the other two owners -- Douglas Kennedy and little Noreen Nash -- from harm. Unfortunately, the bloom was (temporarily) off the rose for the Lone Ranger franchise, and Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold ended up in the red. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

George Stevens' sprawling adaptation of Edna Ferber's best-selling novel successfully walks a fine line between potboiler and serious drama for its 210-minute running time, making it one of the few epics of its era that continues to hold up as engrossing entertainment across the decades. Giant opens circa 1922 in Maryland, where Texas rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict (Rock Hudson) has arrived to buy a stallion called War Winds from its owner, Dr. Horace Lynnton (Paul Fix). But much as Bick loves and knows horses, he finds himself even more transfixed by the doctor's daughter, Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), and after some awkward moments, she has to admit that she's equally drawn to the shy, laconic Texan. They get married and Leslie spends her honeymoon traveling with Jordan to his ranch, Reata, which covers nearly a million acres of Texas. Once there, however, she finds that she has to push her way into her rightful role as mistress of the house, past Bick's sister, Luz (Mercedes McCambridge), who can't accept her brother's marriage or the changes it means in the home they share. Also working around Reata is the laconic ranch hand Jett Rink (James Dean) -- from a family as rooted in Texas as the Benedicts but not nearly as lucky (or "foxy"), Jett is dirt-poor and barely educated at all, and he fairly oozes resentment at Bick for his arrogance, although Luz likes him and for that reason alone Bick is obliged to keep him on. One thing Jett does have in common with his employer is that he is in awe of Leslie's beauty; another is his nearly total contempt for the Mexican-Americans who work for them -- Jett and Bick may have contempt for each other, but either one is just as likely to dismiss the Mexican-Americans around them as a bunch of shiftless "wetbacks." Luz feels so threatened with a loss of power and control that she decides to assert herself with War Winds, yet another "prize" that Bick brought back from Maryland that resists her authority -- then decides to ride the stallion despite being warned that no one but Leslie is wholly safe on him, and spurs him brutally in an effort to break him, which ends up destroying them both in the battle of wills she starts.

After Luz's death, Jett learns that she left him a tiny piece of land for his own, on Reata, which he refuses to sell back to Bick, preferring to keep it for his own and maybe prospect for oil on it. Meanwhile, Leslie and Bick have their own problems -- Leslie can't abide the wretched conditions in which the Mexican families who work on Reata are allowed to live, taking a special interest in Mr. and Mrs. Obregon and their baby, Angel; but Bick doesn't want his wife, or any member of his family, concerning themselves with "those people." Leslie's humanity and her independence push their marriage to the limit, but Bick comes to accept this in his wife, and in four years of marriage they have three handsome children, a boy and two girls, and a loving if occasionally awkward home life. Meanwhile, Jett strikes oil on his land -- which he's named Little Reata -- and in a couple of years he's on his way to becoming the richest man in Texas, getting drilling contracts on all of the land in the area (except Reata) and making more money than the Benedicts ever saw from raising cattle. Bick is almost oblivious to the way Jett grows in power and influence across the years and the state, mostly because he's got his own family to worry about, including a son, Jordan III (Dennis Hopper), who doesn't want to take over the ranch from him, but wants instead to be a doctor; an older daughter, Judy (Fran Bennett), who wants to study animal husbandry and marry a local rancher (Earl Holliman) and start a tiny spread of her own; and a younger daughter, Luz (Carroll Baker), who's just a bit man-crazy and star-struck by the movies.

The American entry into the Second World War and the resulting need for oil forces Bick to go into business with Jett and allow him to drill on Reata, and suddenly the Benedicts are wealthy enough to be part of Jett Rink's circle, which includes the governor of the state and at least one United States senator at his beck and call -- and Luz develops a serious crush on Jett, who likes his women young and is especially attracted to her, as Bick's and Leslie's daughter. Young Jordan marries Juana, a Mexican-American nursing student (Elsa Cardenas), and his father accepts it begrudgingly, with help from Leslie. The war kills Angel Obregon (Sal Mineo), a death that even affects Bick, but the Benedict family gets through it wealthier than ever and grows some more with the birth of Jordan IV to Jordie and Juana. When the family attends a gala opening of Jett Rink Airport, which concludes with a dinner honoring Jett's success, however, young Jordan's wife is humiliated by Jett's racist edicts, and he is beaten up by Jett's men after punching the oil baron. Seeing this, Bick challenges his old rival to the fight that's been brewing for a quarter of a century and wins by default, Jett being too drunk to defend himself or to hit; he's also too drunk to make the grand speech that was to climax the celebration, and he ends up alone in the ballroom. The Benedicts have it out with each other, young Jordan accusing his father of being as much a racist as Jett, and Leslie caught in the middle between her husband and her son. It looks like the Benedicts may lose each other, until an encounter with a racist diner owner forces Bick to stand up and get knocked down (more than once) defending his daughter-in-law and his grandson.

Seen today, Giant seems the least dated of any of James Dean's three starring films, in part because it addresses issues that remain relevant more than 50 years later, and also because it has the best all-around acting and the best script of any of the three. Taken in broader terms, it's even better, with two of the best performances that Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson ever gave, and perhaps the second best of Hudson's whole career (after Seconds) -- the only unfortunate element at modern theatrical screenings is the tendency of younger viewers, who only know him in terms of the revelations late in his life of his being gay, to laugh and snicker at elements of Hudson's characterization; but his work is so good that the titters usually fade after the first 30 minutes or so. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Onetime big-league independent producer Walter Wanger had to make do with Monogram Pictures' distribution channels for his low-budgeter Aladdin and His Lamp. Johnny Sands plays the title role, but it's Patricia Medina, as "Jasmine", who is afforded top billing. The traditional story is honored to the letter, with pickpocket Sands using his three wishes to woo and win Medina. The golden-throated John Dehner is a persuasive villain, though he's a tad too young for the assignment. The two-toned Cinecolor process adds a touch of class to this threadbare costumer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

RKO's resident cowboy star Tim Holt made his first 1950 appearance in Storm over Wyoming. Tim and his saddle pal Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin) ride smack dab into the middle of a range war. After preventing a lynching, Our Heroes try to get to the bottom of all the trouble. What we know, but they don't, is that sheep-owner Rawlins (Bill Kennedy) is playing one side against another. Featured in the cast is Richard Powers, who as "Tom Keene" had starred in his own RKO western series in the 1930s. Storm over Wyoming is another directorial feather in the cap of the talented (and underrated) Lesley Selander. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this crime drama a psychiatrist tries to help a psycho patient who loses consciousness after he kills someone. When the doctor provides the patient with a letter that explains his problem, he inadvertently implicates himself in the crimes. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Under the aegis of veteran program-feature producer Bryan Foy, the fledgling Eagle-Lion company made great strides during its first year of existence. Filmed in Cinecolor, The Red Stallion is on the surface a standard yarn about a ranch boy and his beloved horse, replete with a mortgage-on-the-ranch plot wrinkle. With Ted Donaldson as the boy and Jane Darwell as his down-to-earth Grandmother, however, the film is far better acted than many of its ilk. As Joel Curtis (Donaldson) tries to raise his pet foal into a race horse, he faces innumerable obstacles, both financial and natural. In the latter category, there's a particularly suspenseful throughlne involving the enmity between the horse and a wild bear. Though the outcome of The Red Stallion is predictable, what leads up to that outcome is well worth the price of admisison. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A star basketball player is assailed by gangsters who want him to throw the Big Game in this drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Monsieur Beaucaire, Booth Tarkington's novel about an 18th-century French barber who poses as a swashbuckling aristocrat, was the surprising source for this Grade-A Bob Hope comedy. While in the original novel the tonsorial hero pretended to be someone he wasn't by choice, in this 1946 film Hope is coerced into posturing as a nobleman on the threat of death. It's "out of the frying pan" time here, since Hope will be a target for execution the moment he weds a Spanish princess in place of genuine noble Patric Knowles. Bob's actions will prevent a war between Spain and France, but it's likely he won't be around to celebrate the Peace. Hiding his cowardice by cracking wise at every opportunity, Hope manages to save both the day and himself; he even rescues Joseph Schildkraut, the film's nominal villain, from the guillotine. The female contingent is represented by Joan Caulfield as Bob's covetous girl friend, Marjorie Reynolds as a princess, and Hillary Brooke as a haughty schemer (who is given her just desserts in an early slapstick set-piece). Woody Allen has long expressed his affection for Monsieur Beaucaire, an affection made doubly obvious in "homage" fashion by Allen's 1975 costume comedy Love and Death. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Southerner was Jean Renoir's favorite of his American films. Shot on location, the film stars Zachary Scott as a sharecropper who yearns for a place of his own. On a tiny, scraggly patch of land, Scott tries to make a go of things, along with his wife Betty Field, his grandmother Beulah Bondi, and his children Jean Vanderwilt (aka Bunny Sunshine) and Jay Gilpin. Though a proud, independent man, Scott is forced by circumstance to seek help from neighboring farmer J. Carroll Naish, whose life experience have left him bitter and vituperative. The two men become enemies, but are reunited by their mutual love of fishing. Scott suffers a setback when a rainstorm destroys his cotton crop. He is about to go wearily back to working for others (specifically, factory owner Charles Kemper, who also narrates the film) when he is convinced by his never-say-die family to persevere on his own. Director Jean Renoir also wrote the script for The Southerner--in fluent English rather than French, as mental exercise. Told at a leisurely, unhurried pace, the film is the one American Renoir effort that comes closest to his "slice of life" dramas of the 1930s. The Southerner was not a box office hit, but did win the effusive praise of critics, not to mention the Venice Film Festival "best picture" award. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this eighth film in MGM's "Maisie" series, Ann Sothern is back as ever-stranded chorus girl Maisie Revier. As the story opens, Maisie has a steady non-showbiz job as a defense plant riveter (it's wartime, of course); still, she utilizes a two-week vacation to take a singing job in a Reno night spot. This small Nevada town being the Divorce Capital of America, Maisie finds herself involved in the crumbling marriage between a GI (Tom Drake) and his wealthy wife (Ava Gardner). Meanwhile, Maisie's own well-being is threatened by a conniving businessman who has her committed to an asylum when she threatens to squeal about his crooked business practices. Like most "Maisie" pictures, Maisie Goes to Reno suffers from a surfeit of plotting, but is redeemed by the insouciant Ann Sothern. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi