Theodore Newton Movies

Dime with a Halo was designed in part as a showcase for MGM's new child actor Manuel Padilla, who was featured shortly afterward in the studio's The Young and the Brave (63) and as a regular on the Tarzan TV series. Director Boris Sagal transcends the cold-cash motives of Dime by fashioning a touching Mexican-based comedy centering around five street urchins. The oldest (Roger Mobley) leads the kids in stealing a dime from a church collection box; they bet this "windfall" on a horse race, using the winnings to jointly purchase a sweepstakes ticket. All their dreams of sudden luxury are dashed when they find they're too young to cash the ticket when it hits the jackpot. Manuel Padilla manages to steal focus from his formidable kiddie opposition, but Dime with a Halo didn't quite establish Padilla as the Mickey Rooney of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This poignant episode catalogues the many strange occurences and paranormal phenomena surrounding the death of President Abraham Lincoln in April of 1865. It is well documented that both Lincoln (here played by Barry Atwarter) and his wife Mary Todd (Jeanne Bates) both had premonitions of his violent death. What is less well known is that, throughout the country, thousands of other people bore witness to ominous signs and portents...a blood-red moon, the sounds of sobbing, eerie visions of a distant shore... ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a short story by John Cheever, this episode stars Gary Merrill as suburbanite Cash Bentley, who despite his business success prefers to bask in his past glory as a college hurdling champ. While at a country club dance, Cash accepts a challenge to run a race with another, much younger man. Fearing for her husband's health, Cash's wife Louise (Patricia Breslin) tries to talk him out of the challenge, but he refuses to listen -- an act of stubbornness for which he will soon pay dearly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A suspenseful courtroom drama, The Story on Page One was the second and last film directed by the distinguished American playwright Clifford Odets (who also wrote the screenplay). Jo (Rita Hayworth) and Larry (Gig Young) are lovers accused of murdering Jo's husband. Their trial lawyer, Victor Santini (Anthony Franciosa) has his work cut out for him on two different fronts. For one, he has to overcome his own tendency to hit the bottle, and for another, he has to somehow win this case. As revealed in the beginning, Jo's husband died accidentally. Yet the unpredictability of the courtroom proceedings indicate that a verdict of "not guilty" is going to be anything but automatic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

While enjoying a leisurely ocean cruise in the company of secretary Della (Barbara Hale), Perry (Raymond Burr) is approached by passenger Anna Houser (Lurene Tuttle), who is worried about the wellbeing of her husband Carl (Theodore Newton). Not long afterward, Carl is seen jumping off the ship, an apparent suicide--but when the body is recovered, it turns out that he was shot. Accused of murder, Anna puts her fate in the hands of Perry, who in the course of piecing things together unearths the fact that Carl had once accepted a huge bribe while serving on a jury. And how does that mysterious wheelchair-bound passenger, whose face is completely wrapped in bandages, figure into the story? This episode is based on a 1938 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the best-selling novel by Jessamyn West, Friendly Persuasion is set in Southern Indiana in the early days of the Civil War. Gary Cooper plays Jess Birdwell, patriarch of a Quaker family which does not believe in warfare. Birdwell's son Josh (Anthony Perkins) wishes to adhere to his family's pacifism, but is afraid that if he doesn't sign up for military service, he'll prove to be a coward. Josh joins the Home Guard, which disturbs his mother Eliza (Dorothy McGuire). But Jess Birdwell realizes that his son must follow the dictates of his own conscience. Josh proves his courage to himself when he is wounded during a Rebel raid, while the elder Birdwell is able to stay faithful to his religious calling by not killing a Southern soldier when given both a chance and a good reason to do so. Allegedly, writer Jessamyn West nearly scotched her deal with producer/director William Wyler and distributor Allied Artists when Gary Cooper, taking his fans into consideration, insisted upon including a scene in which he forsakes his pacifism and takes arms against the Rebels. If true, then wiser heads prevailed, since no such scene exists in the final release print. Though uncredited due to his status as a blacklistee, Michael Wilson wrote the screenplay for Friendly Persuasion--and even won an Oscar nomination. Also nominated was the film's chart-busting theme song, "Thee I Love" (by Dmitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster). The story was remade as a 2-hour TV pilot film in 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Thelma Ritter, previously seen as the delightfully ghoulish nurse in Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 theatrical feature Rear Window, is here cast as babysitter Lottie Slocum. When her most recent client, Mrs. Nash, is murdered, Lottie is interviewed by the cops, but she has no vital information. She does, however, claim to know that Mrs. Nash was cheating on her husband (Theodore Newton), but this she tells to everyone except the cops. As it turns out, Lottie doesn't know anything except that she is infatuated with Mr. Nash...and it is this infatuation which proves to be her undoing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Grieving over the death of his fiancé who was killed by a hit-and-run driver, Dana Edwards (Biff McGuire) is approached by a curious gentleman named Hurley (Robert H. Harris). Explaining that he too has lost a loved one in a hit-and-run accident, Hurley offers to help Dana remember the license number of the death car, utilizing a unique form of self-hypnosis. The fact that this method works brilliantly is not nearly as astonishing as Dana's ultimate discovery of Hurley's true identity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a famous book by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., this grueling saga of shipboard oppression is set in the mid-19th century. Charles Stewart (Alan Ladd), the wealthy son of a Boston shipowner, is hijacked by Amazeen (William Bendix), the first mate on a ship bound for California. Francis Thompson (Howard Da Silva) is the tyrannical captain of the Pilgrim who was booted out of the U.S. Navy for mistreating his sailors. Now he wants to set a record sailing time, and he and Amazeen mete out severe punishment for the slightest of infractions. They even deny the men permission to go ashore and pick fruit when they stop in California and pick up the beautiful Maria Dominguez (Esther Fitzgerald). Without fruit, the men develop scurvy and begin to mutiny. Stewart allies himself with the author Dana (Brian Donlevy), whose brother died on one of Captain Thompson's previous voyages. Dana wants to write an expose of Thompson. Stewart steals guns and tries to take over the ship, but Amazeen subdues and imprisons him. The film was shot on a Hollywood set, but with devices on the set that simulate rolling waves so effectively that much of the cast got seasick. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

The Hidden Eye was the second of two MGM films featuring mystery writer Baynard Kendrick's blind detective Duncan McLain. As in Eyes in the Night, sightless sleuth McLain is played by Edward Arnold. This time, our hero tackles a series of murders apparently tied in with an ancient oriental cult. The one clue to the killer's identity is the scent of a rare Oriental perfume. Refusing to jump to conclusions, McLain, accompanied by his faithful seeing-eye dog Friday, meticulously follows the trail of evidence to the Least Likely Suspect. The finale finds the judo-trained McLain taking on his evil adversary; though it's obvious that stunt doubles are used, it's an exciting sequence all the same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this adaptation of author de la Roche's chronicle of the passionate lives of the strange Whiteoaks of Jalna, their beautiful family estate located in souther Ontario. The story begins as a young Whiteoak, a novelist travels to New York where he encounters a charming woman, marries her, and takes her back to Jalna. There she encounters many difficulties as she attempts to adjust to life with his odd family. It does not help that several soap-operatic events transpired while he was gone when his brother married the illegitimate daughter of a despised neighbor. One day a "sexy dame" suddenly shows up on the family porch. Soon she and the novelist are trysting away, but before he can consummate their affair he is killed during a terrible fall. The new widow then realizes that it is a different brother that she loves. They soon marry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An interesting precursor to such films as The Petrified Forest and Bus Stop, Heat Lightning takes place in a remote California-desert gas station-café. Several strange characters pass through the establishment's portals during one fateful 24-hour period, including cad-and-bounder George (Preston S. Foster). Resourceful proprietress Olga (Aline MacMahon) tries to remain detached throughout but is forced to take drastic action when George threatens to seduce and abandon her own sister Myra (Ann Dvorak). Glenda Farrell, one of Warners' most reliable players, is surprisingly wasted in a glorified bit role; even further down the cast list as "Husband and Wife" are 2-reel comedy star Edgar Kennedy and future Oscar winner Jane Darwell (talk about an odd couple!) Heat Lightning was based on a stage play co-scripted by George Abbott. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Produced by Warner Bros. in 1934, A Modern Hero was the only American talkie directed by the great German filmmaker G. W. Pabst. Richard Barthelmess plays Pierre, the bastard son of blowzy, besotted circus performer Mme. Azais (Marjorie Rambeau). Fiercely ambitious, Pierre enters the world of automobile manufacturing, rising to the heights of success by callously using wealthy women to get ahead. After breaking one heart after another, Pierre is finally beaten at his own game by a disgruntled young lady who walks out on him, forcing him to admit that he's an utter flop as a human being. Jean Muir co-stars as Joanna, seduced and abandoned early in the proceedings, while other women crucial to Pierre's ascension are played by Veree Teasdale and Florence Eldredge. Based on a novel by Louis Bromfield, A Modern Hero has been correctly assessed by one of the director's devotees as having "little of Pabst in it." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide