Pat O'Malley Movies

With a title like Singin' in the Corn, how could the star be anyone else but rambunctious rustic comedienne Judy Canova. This time, Canova plays Judy McCoy, a carnival mind-reader playing the boonies in the company of her partner Glen Cummings (Allen Jenkins). Judy's travelling days come to an end when she inherits her late uncle's estate. But the will has a proviso: She won't get a penny unless she returns a ghost town to a local singing Indian tribe (That's right, operator, a singing Indian tribe). The villain, Honest John Richards (Alan Bridge), connives to turn the Indians against Judy, but she is rescued by the intervention of her uncle's ghost! Director Del Lord, a graduate of Columbia's comedy 2-reelers, relies heavily on stock footage from earlier films to bring the running time up to 64 minutes: one critic commented that editor Aaron Stell should have been credited as co-director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Technicolor musical biopic stars Argentina-born Dick Haymes as Irish-American composer Ernest R. Ball. Climbing to fame with such sentimental songs as "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" (hence the title), Ball romances a lovely showgirl (June Haver), who in turn catches the eye of a charming underworld character (Anthony Quinn). Monty Woolley does a variation of The Man who Came to Dinner in his role as a roguish Broadway producer. Seldom cluttering up its story with the facts, Irish Eyes are Smiling is chiefly a showcase for the superb singing of Dick Haymes. The film was produced by legendary journalist Damon Runyon, which should surprise several citizens more than somewhat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dismissed by critics as corny and obvious in 1944, this overlong but sincere biopic looks pretty good when seen today, cliches notwithstanding. Fredric March, 47 at the time, convincingly plays American author Sam Clemens, aka Mark Twain, from his early 20s to his death at 75. In typical movie-biography fashion, every single incident that happens in Twain's life is an INSPIRATION: he hears the depth-indication call "Mark Twain" while working on a riverboat and his face lights up; he engages in a jumping-frog contest against Bret Harte (John Carradine) and comes up with his first popular published story; and so on. Alexis Smith is better than usual in the role of Twain's wife Olivia Langdon, even keeping a straight face while Twain courts her in Fluent Quotation ("Everybody talks about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it", he says during a Hollywood-romance cloudburst). Though the script barely touches upon the dark side of Twain's nature, we are not spared his financial reverses (brought about by bad investments and his struggle to publish Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs. The closing sequence, with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn beckoning the spirit of Mark Twain to heaven as Halley's Comet fills the skies, may seem laughable on paper, but works quite well on film; even director Irving Rapper expressed amazement at the effectiveness of this scene! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lee Falk and Ray Moore's famous syndicated comic strip hero came to the screen in this 15 chapter serial produced by Rudolph C. Flotow for Columbia Pictures. Displaying unusually good judgment, the studio cast the still strapping former silent screen cowboy Tom Tyler as Geoffrey Prescott who, like generations of Prescotts before him, battles piracy and crime in Darkest Africa. Dressed in his trademark tights and black mask, The Phantom sallies forth to locate the lost city of Zolos, aided by his lovely fiancée, Diana Palmer (Jeanne Bates) and Ace, the Wonder Dog. The opposition is headed by the nefarious Dr. Bremmer (Kenneth MacDonald), but the good doctor is, in the long run, no match for the masked avenger who, in the final chapter, restores "Peace in the Jungle." One of Columbia's few worthwhile serials, The Phantom was yet another success for the popular and personable Tyler, who had earlier scored in the title role of Republic Pictures' The Adventures of Captain Marvel. Columbia filmed a belated and rather unnecessary sequel, The Adventures of Captain Africa (1949), starring John Hart, a bland actor who later played The Lone Ranger for one season on television when Clayton Moore went on strike. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

More so than most wartime films, Mission to Moscow must be viewed within the context of its times. Requested by President Roosevelt to make a film supportive of America's Russian allies, Warner Bros. turned to the memoirs of Ambassador Joseph H. Davies, who spent several years prior to WWII in the Soviet Union. As played by Walter Huston, Davies is a pillar of incorruptable integrity, reporting the facts "as I saw them" (only in later years was Davies revealed to be something less than a paragon of virtue who was willing to alter opinions for political, personal and financial expedience). Sent to Moscow by FDR as a means of finding out if Russia is a potentially trustworthy ally in case of war, Davies and his family are given the royal treatment by the Commissars, who display the social, technological, agricultural and artistic advances made under the Stalin regime. Invariably, the Russian citizens are shown to be singing, smiling, freedom-loving rugged individuals-in contrast to the Nazis, who are depicted as humorless automatons. In its efforts to present the USSR in the best possible light, the film glosses over the notorious Purge Trials of 1937, presenting the trials as scrupulously fair and the defendants as unabashed traitors to the Soviet cause. At one point, Russia's annexation of Finland in 1939 is "justified" by Davies' explanation that the Soviets merely wanted to protect their tiny neighbor from Nazi domination! It is unfair to label Mission to Moscow as Communistic or even left-wing, since it was merely parroting the official party line vis-a-vis US/Soviet relations in 1943. Even so, screenwriter Howard Koch found it very difficult to get film work after the war because of his contributions to this "Pinko" project (conversely, Jack Warner pulled a Pontius Pilate, washing his hands of the matter by insisting that he was strongarmed into making the film). Seen objectively, Mission to Moscow is top-rank entertainment, superbly and excitingly assembled in the manner typical of Warners and director Michael Curtiz. The huge cast includes Gene Lockhart as Molotov, attorney Dudley Field Malone as Winston Churchill, Maynart Kippen as a benign, pipe-smoking Stalin, Charles Trowbridge as Secretary Cordell Hull, Leigh Whipper as Hailie Selassie, Georges Renavent as Anthony Eden and Alex Chirva as Pierre Laval, along with the more familiar faces of Ann Harding (as Mrs. Davies), George Tobias, Eleanor Parker, Moroni Olsen, Minor Watson, Jerome Cowan, Duncan Renaldo, Mike Mazurki, Frank Faylen, Edward van Sloan, Louis-Jean Heydt, Monte Blue, Robert Shayne and even Sid (sic) Charisse. Original prints of Mission to Moscow include a 6-minute prologue delivered by the real Joseph Davies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Iron Major is the saga of WW1 hero-cum-football coach Frank Cavanaugh, played with his usual no-nonsense professionalism by Pat O'Brien. Leaving home and hearth behind to serve his country in the Great War, Cavanaugh goes on to lead the Dartmouth, Boston College and Fordham football teams to victory. His credo throughout is "Love of God?Love of Country?Love of Family"-inspiriational words indeed in war-torn 1943. Based on the memoirs of Cavanaugh's wife Florence (played in the film by Ruth Warrick), The Iron Major suffers from repetition and overkill. But, as Humphrey Bogart once said in an unrelated interview, "Pat O'Brien was good? Pat was always good." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The tumultuous presidency of 17th-president Andrew Johnson is chronicled in this biopic. The story begins with Johnson's boyhood and covers his early life. During the Civil War, Johnson stays a staunch Unionist and upon Lincoln's reelection in 1864, becomes his Vice President. After Lincoln's assassination, Johnson becomes the President. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Maybe Errol Flynn was never the war hero that he often played, but he was a capable boxer, and Gentleman Jim makes full use of this skill. Flynn stars as Jim Corbett, the 19th-century American pugilist who introduced "scientific" methods to bare-knuckle boxing. Originally an office clerk, Corbett is introduced to the then-illegal sport of fighting when one of the bank executives sponsors the young man's training at the Olympic Club. His arrogance wins Corbett a few enemies, including high-born lady Victoria Ware (Alexis Smith), whose dislike turns to casual affection when she realizes that Corbett is a sincere young fellow who can back up his boasts. What "Gentleman Jim" desires most in life is a match with reigning heavyweight champ John L. Sullivan (Ward Bond). Corbett and Sullivan finally meet in a bout governed by those new Marquis of Queensbury rules that Corbett has helped popularize. Twenty-one epoch-making rounds later, Corbett emerges victorious. At the victory celebration, Sullivan and Corbett graciously exchange mutual words of respect and affection. At this point, Corbett has totally won over the lovely Victoria -- but hasn't quite convinced his brawling brothers that "scientific" boxing is the wave of the future, and the film ends with a typical Raoul Walsh-directed battle royal. More faithful to the facts than most Errol Flynn biopics (but still with enough poetic license to drive historical purists up a wall), Gentleman Jim is broad, boisterous entertainment. Though it looks expensive, the film was made under Warner Bros.' standard pinchpenny restrictions; if you look closely at that moored ship where Corbett has one of his first professional fights, you'll notice that it's a leftover set from the 1940 Errol Flynn swashbuckler The Sea Hawk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A "B" picture with "A" aspirations, Bombay Clipper mostly takes place on a flight from India to San Francisco. Someone has absconded with $4,000,000 worth of diamonds, and that someone may very well be a passenger on the Bombay Clipper. International news correspondent Jim (William Gargan) hopes to solve the mystery for two reasons-to get a big scoop for his paper, and to repair his tattered marriage to long-suffering Frankie (Irene Hervey). Less than five minutes before the end, the jewel thief is revealed, whereupon the culprit tries to take over the plane and dispose of the other passengers. Fat chance! Obviously made on a tight budget, Bombay Clipper is nonetheless beautifully and meticulously photographed by Stanley Cortez, who on the strength of this and other Universal projects was signed by Orson Welles to lens the classic Magnificent Ambersons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dashiel Hammett's The Glass Key, a tale of big-city political corruption, was first filmed in 1935, with Edward Arnold as a duplicitous political boss and George Raft as his loyal lieutenant. This 1942 remake improves on the original, especially in replacing the stolid Raft with the charismatic Alan Ladd. Brian Donlevy essays the role of the boss, who is determined to back reform candidate Moroni Olsen, despite Ladd's gut feeling that this move is a mistake. Ladd knows that Donlevy is doing a political about-face merely to get in solid with Olsen's pretty daughter Veronica Lake. It is Ladd who is left to clean up the mess when crime lord Joseph Calleila murders Olsen's wastrel son Richard Denning and pins the rap on Donlevy. As Ladd struggles to clear Donlevy's name, he falls in love with Lake--when he's not being pummeled about by Calleila's psychopathic henchman William Bendix. Far less complex than the Dashiel Hammett original (and far less damning of the American political system), The Glass Key further increased the box-office pull of Paramount's new team of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Thru Different Eyes is a remake of the 1929 film of the same name. The original was hailed for its creative use of sound and subjective photography; the remake is a standard crime melodrama, elevated slightly by an engaging narrative gimick. In trying to explain how the American judicial system works, district attorney Steve Pettijohn (Frank Craven) harks back to a murder conviction predicated upon circumstantial evidence. Going over the testimony of the witnesses, it was discovered that each account was incorrect in one respect or another. By piecing together all the accounts, it was possible to exonerate the suspect and reveal the guilty party. The story's "prismatic" approach was similar to that adopted by Citizen Kane, which would continue to influence American filmmaking for the rest of the 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the Ben Hecht/Charlie McArthur play Chicago, Roxie Hart is a short-but-sweet satire of highly publicized court trials. Ginger Rogers plays showgirl Roxie Hart, whose no-good husband kills a man and insists that Roxie take the blame, since juries seldom send a woman to the chair. She agrees, figuring that the publicity will be beneficial to her career. Roxie's case is taken by grandstanding attorney Adolphe Menjou, who regards the sacred halls of justice as his own three-ring circus. George Montgomery plays the reporter covering the trial, who falls in love with Roxie and eventually marries her after she dumps her cowardly hubby. Roxie Hart plays fast and loose with legal ethics, but is no less hilarious because of it. Some of the best moments belong to Iris Adrian, as an imprisoned "Bonnie Parker"-type killer who's jealous that Roxie is stealing all the headlines. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the long-running comic strip by Gene Byrne, PRC's Reg'lar Fellers was intended as the first of a series of 6-reel comedies built around the talents of juvenile performers Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and Billy Lee. The plot is set in motion by Hetty Carter (Sarah Padden), a wealthy dowager who hates all kids because of her son's ill-fated marriage. With her boy in jail on a trumped-up charge, Hetty takes out her hostilities on her long-suffering daugther-in-law Caroline (Maren Mayo) and her grandson. Hetty eventually changes her ways thanks to the intervention of "Reg'lar Fellers" Pinhead (Lee), Bump Hudson (Switzer), Jimmy Dugan (Buddy Boles), Aggie Reilly (Janet Dempsey), Skeeter (Jerry Wilson) and Pudd'nhead (Malcolm Hutton), who foils the plans of con artists Ferrell (Don Stowell) and Lubec (Lew Luana) to swindle the old lady. Silent film devotees were gratified to see two old favorites, Marguerite de La Motte and Pat O'Malley, in substantial supporting rolls. Reg'lar Fellers was pleasant enough, but no series was ever forthcoming. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide