John Nesbitt Movies
- 1956
Hosted by John Nesbitt (1956-1957) and Frank Baxter (1957-1958), this anthology series aired weekly 30-minute dramas based on true stories. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1945
Though running a mere 15 minutes, Watchtower Over Tomorrow boasts some very impressive credits. Written by Ben Hecht, this paean to the newly-formed United Nations does its best to explain the importance of the organization and the Dubarton Oaks Conference which preceded it. The film is in the form of a subway debate, as gravel-voiced laborer Lionel Stander weighs the pros and cons of the UN with well-dressed intellectual Grant Mitchell. John Nesbitt, producer-host of MGM's "Passing Parade" short-subject series, narrates. Watchtower Over Tomorrow is distinguished by a rare on-camera appearance by then-Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, who presided over the inaugural UN meeting. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lionel Stander, Grant Mitchell, (more)
The Sullivans attempts to find the positives in one of the most tragic chapters of World War II. Edward Ryan, John Campbell, James B. Cardwell, John Alvin and George Offerman Jr. play the Sullivan brothers, sons of an Iowa railroad worker (Thomas Mitchell) and his wife (Selena Royle). The film traces the boys from childhood, maintaining a relatively lighthearted tone until the Sullivans sign up en masse for the navy at the outbreak of the war. Refusing to be separated, the boys are all assigned to the cruiser Juneau--and all are killed when the vessel goes down at Guadalcanal. This appalling incident (which made something of a celebrity of the brothers' grieving father when he went on a nationwide patriotic lecture tour) resulted in the Navy's decision to never again allowed all the enlisted members of one family to serve on the same ship. Even from the vantage point of fifty years, the scene in which the family receives the wire from the war department is impossible to watch with a dry eye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Baxter, Thomas Mitchell, (more)
- 1938
The blue grass of Kentucky was seen in three-strip Technicolor for the first time in this rambling racetrack drama. Sally Goodwin (Loretta Young) falls in love with Jack Dillon (Richard Greene), but the arrangement is complicated by a decades-old feud. Sally's uncle Peter (Walter Brennan, who won his second Academy Award for this appearance) has hated Jack's family ever since sides were chosen up in the Civil War. Jack secretly trains Peter's horse for the Kentucky Derby, causing the old man to nearly withdraw from the event out of pique. All is forgiven when the horse wins, but Brennan dies of the excitement, and his eulogy is read by a member of the family with whom he'd been feuding for nearly 70 years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Richard Greene, (more)
