Patsy O'Connor Movies

Mickey Rooney, with his kid roles and musicals behind him, went for a major change of image in this harrowing film noir. He gives what many consider to be the best performance of his career as Danny Brady, a well-meaning grease monkey whose life is destroyed in less than a week. Danny finds himself short of cash when he's supposed to take out Vera (Jeanne Cagney), a waitress whom he's just met who works at a hash-house. He borrows 20 dollars from the cash register, planning on paying it back with 20 dollars that a buddy owes him the next day, but the friend doesn't turn up. To get the 20 dollars, he buys a 100-dollar watch on a payment plan and then hocks it for the 20 dollars, but a detective picks up on the purchase and threatens to have him jailed if he doesn't pay the full 100 dollars immediately; desperate to raise the money, he robs a drunken bar patron of his bill-fold. His money problems seemingly behind him, Danny takes Vera out with the extra cash, but gets into a fight with her former boss, Nick (Peter Lorre), who picks up a clue that Danny did the robbery. Nick pressures Danny to provide him with a new car (a hard-to-get commodity in 1950) from the garage where he works, in return for keeping quiet. Danny steals the car and turns it over to Nick, but he and Vera decide to get even by robbing Nick's safe that night -- now they've got 3,600 dollars, which they split. But Danny's boss, Mackey, tells him he knows who stole the car, and wants either the car back or the full value, or he'll turn Danny in to the police. Vera has already blown her share on a mink coat, and he goes back to Mackey with what he has, 1,800 dollars. Mackey takes it and proceeds to call the police. Danny attacks him and leaves him for dead. Danny goes on the run, convinced he's wanted for Mackey's murder. Danny runs into Helen (Barbara Bates), a nice girl that he was dating and then dumped, and they end up fleeing together, hijacking a car and holding an innocent man at gunpoint. Impending tragedy seems to loom up even larger when they cross paths with police officers on a manhunt. Realizing that Helen has been good to him, he ends up on the run alone, with a gun in hand, as the law closes in. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This youthful musical follows the romantic travails of a group of talented high school students and their charismatic high school bandleader. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

There's a joke currently making the rounds amongst underpaid civil servants in the state of Vermont: "Moonlight in Vermont-or starve." Back in 1943, however, Moonlight in Vermont was not only a popular song, but also the title of this 6-reel Universal "B" musical. Gloria Jean plays Gwen Harding, fresh off the farm in Vermont and newly arrived in New York. Aspiring to an acting career, Gwen enrolls in a snooty dramatic school, where she falls in love with student "Slick" Ellis (Ray Malone). Though many of Gwen's fellow would-be thespians treat her rather cruelly, they prove that they're good kids underneath when they show up en masse at her family's farm to help with the harvesting. It's all merely an excuse for Gloria Jean to sing, of course-and what's wrong with that? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alternating effortlessly between comedy and suspense and back again, Too Hot to Handle stars Myrna Loy as a famous aviatrix and Clark Gable as an opportunistic newsreel photographer. Gable and rival shutterbug Walter Pidgeon agree to accompany Loy on her search for her missing brother, sensing a good story and excellent photo op. Their odyssey takes them into the deepest jungles of the Amazon, where Gable's photographic prowess saves everyone's lives when hostile natives attack. Along the way, both Gable and Pidgeon fall in love with Loy. The classic opening sequence in Too Hot to Handle, in which the resourceful Gable fakes a bombing raid for the benefit of his cameras, was allegedly conceived by Buster Keaton, then a free-lance MGM gag man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Chester Morris plays a working stiff unable to provide for his family on his meager salary. He arranges a loan with the seemingly benign Leo Carrillo, but soon learns that he can't keep up with the usurious interest payments. Carrillo's loan company is actually a racket in league with the local crime organization; Morris gets in so deep that he can't get out, and before long his wife and daughter are in dire jeopardy. As was customary at Columbia Pictures, the screenwriters were handed the title I Promise to Pay and then told to fashion a story from it. In this instance, inspiration came from a recent government crackdown on loan sharks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the last Fox releases before the studio's merger with 20th Century, Redheads on Parade stars John Boles and Dixie Lee as washed-up movie star John Bruce and aspiring singer Ginger Blair. The couple is given the opportunity to co-star in a film financed by Augustus Twill (Raymond Walburn), who has a crush on Lee. Not wishing to rock the boat, press agent Peter Mathews (Jack Haley) assures Twill that Ginger is crazy about him, without bothering to consult the girl beforehand. The plot isn't straightened out until the film's premiere, by which time Twill has gone broke and Mathews has had to work overtime to scare up new "angels." Leading lady Dixie Lee was, of course, the real-life Mrs. Bing Crosby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide