Kitty O'Neil Movies
Expanding on their Saturday Night Live characters, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd star as Jake and Elwood Blues, two white boys with black soul. Sporting cool shades and look-alike suits, Jake and Elwood are dispatched on a "mission from God" by their former teacher, Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman). Said mission is to raise $5000 to save an orphanage. In the course of their zany adventures, the Blues Brothers run afoul of neo-Nazi Henry Gibson, perform the theme from Rawhide before the most unruly bar crowd in written history, and lay waste to hundreds of cars on the streets and freeways of Chicago. In case you aren't swept up in the infectuous nuttiness of the brothers Blue, you might have fun spotting film's legion of guest stars, including James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Steve Lawrence, Twiggy, Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman), Frank Oz, and Steven Spielberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Jeanne Cagney, (more)
A pioneering film about racial tensions, No Way Out stars Richard Widmark as a criminal named Ray Biddle, who despises African-Americans. Sidney Poitier (in his screen debut) is the black doctor, Luther Brooks, assigned to take care of the wounded Ray. Dr. Brooks, hired by the police hospital as part of an overall program to integrate the staff, keeps his temper in check as Ray spouts his racist invective. When Ray's brother, also wounded, dies in the hospital, the blustering bigot holds Dr. Brooks responsible and sends word to his gang to wreak vengeance on the city's black community. But the blacks turn the tables on the whites and fight them off. Ray then breaks out of the hospital with Dr. Brooks as hostage. His plans to kill the doctor are thwarted by Ray's girlfriend (Linda Darnell), who finally becomes fed up with his blind hatred. No Way Out was considered potent stuff in 1950; it was still regarded as a hot potato in 1962, when NBC dropped plans to telecast the film on "Saturday Night at the Movies." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, (more)
When Episcopalian bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) prays for divine guidance in his efforts to raise the necessary funds for a new cathedral, his prayers are answered in the form of a handsome, personable guardian angel named Dudley (Cary Grant). Establishing himself as a Yuletide guest in the Brougham home, Dudley arouses the ire of Henry, who, unaware that his visitor is from Up Above, assumes that Dudley has designs on the bishop's wife Julia (Loretta Young). Eventually, the lives of both Henry and Julia are agreeably altered by the presence of the affable angel: He regains the "common touch" he'd almost lost, while she realizes anew how much she truly loves her husband. Adapted by Robert E. Sherwood and Robert Bercovicci from a novel by Robert Nathan, The Bishop's Wife was remade in 1996 as The Preacher's Wife, with Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston and Courtney B. Vance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Loretta Young, (more)
- 1942
By Monogram standards, the cast of Isle of Missing Men was Academy Award calibre. John Howard and Gilbert Roland head a group of prisoners who try to escape from an island prison colony. Leading lady Helen Gilbert is willing to wait for her beloved Howard, but looks askance when he participates in the breakout. As was customary in such films, several of the more contentious prisoners are redeemed by sacrificing their lives for the sake of others. Alan Mobray, Bradley Page and George Chandler co-star in this adaptation of Gina Kaus and Ladislas Fodor's White Lady, while the direction is in the hands of German pioneer filmmaker Richard Oswald. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1942
Irene Dunne plays a flibbetygibbet socialite who inherits a farm in Arizona. She can't seem to manage either her money or her private life, thus seeks advice from outside sources. Irene falls in love with fledgling Manhattan psychiatrist Patric Knowles, and marries him in the hope that he'll solve all her problems. Lady in a Jam was advertised as one of the most expensive comedies ever made; the studio was banking on the reputations of star Irene Dunne and director Gregory LaCava to draw crowds. But when the film failed (it shifted emotional gears a bit too often for 1942 film fans), both the lady and the gentleman found their careers in "a jam"--from which Dunne recovered but LaCava didn't. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Patric Knowles, (more)
- 1941
Charles Boyer and Margaret Sullavan star in this adaptation of Fannie Hurst's tearjerking novel about a woman who chooses to stand beside a man who cannot marry her. Rae (Margaret Sullavan) is a woman from Ohio who meets a dashing gentleman from out of town, Walter (Charles Boyer). They soon fall for each other, but he's due to leave town shortly. As he's about to leave, he calls her from the ship with a question: there's a minister on board who can marry them. Will she join him? As she dashes to the docks, she meets an old flame, and the delay causes her to miss the boat. Five years later, Rae is in New York City and unexpectedly runs into Walter; assuming that she left him behind intentionally, he married another woman. When he realizes that she still loves him, they begin an affair. Rae is content to live her life as "the other woman" until Walter travels to Europe and neglects to call her when he returns; convinced that their romance is over, Rae goes back to Ohio and agrees to marry Curt (Richard Carlson), who loved her long ago. When Walter discovers that Rae has gone back home, he races to Ohio to reclaim her hand. This was the second film version of Back Street, following a 1932 adaptation starring Irene Dunne and John Boles and preceding a 1961 remake with Susan Hayward and John Gavin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Margaret Sullavan, (more)
- 1941
In this musical comedy, a pregnant disc jockey misses her husband who is fighting overseas. Stressed out by the situation and her job, she decides to take some time off and convinces her twin sister to trade places with her. The switcheroo causes the soldier her husband appointed as her unofficial guardian no end of confusion. Songs include: "Annie Laurie," "Rug Cuttin' Romeo" (sung by Susan Miller), "My Melancholy Baby" (Ernie Burnett, George A. Norton, sung by Frances Langford), "I'm Gonna Swing My Way to Heaven" (Eddie Cherkose, Jacques Press, sung by Langford), "Got Love" (sung by Langford). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Murray, Frances Langford, (more)
- 1940
Teenaged soprano Gloria Jean plays the Little-Miss-Fixit heroine in Universal's Little Bit of Heaven. The most precocious member of an impoverished 10th Avenue family, little Midge (Gloria Jean) makes an impulsive appearance on a "man in the street" radio interview show. Catapulted to stardom, Midge becomes the primary support for her family, all of whom begin behaving atrociously and overspended insanely. The only one who doesn't go over the top is Midge's lovable Grandpa (C. Aubrey Smith), with whom our heroine concocts a scheme (straight out of Shirley Temple!) to teach her relatives a lesson. In the previous Gloria Jean starrer If I Had My Way, Universal featured several former Broadway favorites, including Blanche Ring and Julian Eltinge, in cameo roles: the studio repeats this stunt in Little Bit of Heaven, showcasing such silent-movie greats as Maurice Costello, Noah Beery Sr., Charles Ray, Monte Blue, William Desmond and Pat O'Malley as the heroine's "adopted uncles". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Jean, Robert Stack, (more)
- 1940
Dispensing with the melodramatic excesses of Universal's previous "Invisible Man" films, 1941's The Invisible Woman aims strictly for laughs. Virginia Bruce stars as Kitty Carroll, an outspoken department store model fired from her job by tyrannical Mr. Growley (Charles Lane). Intrigued by an ad in the personal columns requesting the services of an "adventurous woman", Kitty offers her services to eccentric scientist Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore, doing a dead-on impression of his brother Lionel). Much to the dismay of his timorous butler George (Charles Ruggles), his housekeeper Mrs. Jackson (Margaret Hamilton), and his nephew-financier Richard Russell (John Howard), Gibbs has been experimenting with an invisibility formula, and Kitty turns out to be a most willing guinea pig. Cloaked in her new invisibility, our heroine gets even with her old nemesis Growley and sets out for new escapades, while Gibbs and his entourage anxiously search for the girl lest harm befall her. The whole affair ends up in the Mexican refuge of gangster Blackie (Oscar Homolka), who hopes to use Gibbs' formula for his own nefarious purposes. Given the fact that Blackie is saddled with such moronic henchmen as Bill (Ed Brophy) and Frankie (Shemp Howard), he doesn't stand a chance against the resourceful Kitty, who thoughtfully permits the nonplussed Richard into thinking that he's rescuing her. Shakespeare it isn't, but The Invisible Woman is consistently funny and inventive, enhanced by Universal's usual excellent special effects. Future leading lady Maria Montez shows up as one of the models in the early scenes, along with former Warner Bros. star Anne Nagel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Bruce, John Barrymore, (more)
