Susan Odin Movies
- 1971
While starring on the TV western The High Chapparal, Henry Darrow took time off to play a villain on the Mission: Impossible episode "The Blast." Darrow is cast as revolutionary leader Gregory Tolan, whose group has committed several robberies in hopes of financing a revolution against the United States. It is up to the IMF to trick Tolan into revealing the identity of the mastermind behind the revolutionists, a man known only as Mr. Brice.First telecast on January 30, 1971, "Blast" was written by James L. Henderson and Sam Roeca. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Leonard Nimoy, (more)
- 1960
This fast-paced, entertaining drama set in a high school is directed by Paul Wendkos who has a talent for turning teen-oriented movies into hits, as proven just before this release (his 1959 Gidget). The ever-young Dick Clark plays Neil, a new, dedicated history teacher who becomes involved with the lives of his students and always for the better. He also becomes involved with Joan (Victoria Shaw) the attractive secretary in the principal's office. In an era before cocaine, crack, and school shootings would destroy the nation's image of high schools forever, the problems of "delinquents" like Griff (Michael Callan), or Buddy (Warren Berlinger), whose mother is unfaithful, may seem archaic to some audiences. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Clark, Michael Callan, (more)
The Jorgensons are a wealthy family spending the summer on a resort island. Ken (Richard Egan), Helen (Constance Ford) and daughter Molly (Sandra Dee) settle in to a beach house on the island where Ken was a young lifeguard twenty years ago. He rediscovers Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire), with whom he had an earlier affair before she married Bart Hunter (Arthur Kennedy). The Hunter's son Johnny (Troy Donahue) and Molly fall in love, much to the objection of her mother, a cold and cynical woman. When Ken and Sylvia start another torrid affair, the exposure of the liaison leads to the divorce of both married couples. After Johnny and Molly are stranded overnight on a beach, Molly is forced by her heartless mistrusting mother to undergo a physical examination and a pregnancy test. Tests results are negative, but more negative is the mother-daughter relationship. Ken and Sylvia get married and Molly gets pregnant. The newlyweds then compassionately guide unwed couple to marriage. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Egan, Dorothy McGuire, (more)
Perhaps the definitive Douglas Sirk production, Written on the Wind is based on the novel by Robert Wilder. The story revolves around the Hadleys, a wealthy but thoroughly debauched family of Texas oil millionaires. Robert Stack is self-destructive alcoholic Kyle Hadley, while Dorothy Malone won an Oscar for her equally vivid potrayal of Kyle's nymphomaniac sister Marylee. Kyle manages to win beautiful, level-headed advertising executive Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall) away from his best friend, virile Hadley Oil geologist Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), but Lucy soon comes to regret her decision to marry into the hell-on-earth Hadley family. When Lucy becomes pregnant, Kyle assumes that Mitch is the father, leading to a maelstrom of fever-pitch emotionalism and stark tragedy. Before he quite knows what is happening, Mitch is on trial for murder; the one person who can clear him is the craven Marylee, who demands Mitch's sexual favors as the price for her testimony. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, (more)
- 1953
Eddie Cantor, beloved "banjo eyed" entertainer who conquered stage, films, radio and television, is given the Hollywood biopic treatment in this largely uninvolving film. Cantor is portrayed by Keefe Brasselle, a minor nightclub performer of the 1950s who couldn't hope to come within shouting distance of Cantor's appeal. The storyline charts Cantor's professional progress, from the lower East Side boyhood to his ascendancy as star of The Ziegfeld Follies. It also chronicles his enduring marriage to wife Ida (Marilyn Erskine). Surprisingly shortchanged in the film was Cantor's humanitarian work (primarily on behalf of the March of Dimes and various Jewish causes); instead, screen time is wasted on Aline MacMahon, as lachrymose as possible in the role of Eddie's grandmother, and Jackie Barnett, giving a gosh-awful performance as Jimmy Durante. At the beginning and end of the film, the real Eddie and Ida Cantor appear, ostensibly to watch the unspooling of The Eddie Cantor Story in a Warner Bros. screening room. At the fade-out, Eddie turns to Ida and says "I've never been so happy in my life." Now that was great acting! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keefe Brasselle, Marilyn Erskine, (more)
- 1953
Juvenile delinquency is the subject of the misleadingly titled Universal-International potboiler Girls in the Night. Patricia Hardy plays Hannah Haynes, the sister of good-boy-gone-bad Chuck Haynes (Harvey Lembeck). When Chuck ends up facing a murder charge, Hannah takes decisive action. She goes after crime boss Irv Kelleher (Don Gordon), risking life and limb in the process. Top-billed Joyce Holden plays Hannah's best friend, who helps cook up a scheme to entrap Kelleher. Glenda Farrell delivers the film's best performance as Chuck and Hannah's careworn mother. Ironically, Girls in the Night co-star Harvey Lembeck would go on to play one of the most lovable "j.d."s in screen history: Eric Von Zipper in the "Beach Party" series of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joyce Holden, Glenda Farrell, (more)
- 1952
Though Ben Johnson would have to wait until the 1970s before full stardom was bestowed upon him, 1952's Wild Stallion proved that, even at this early stage, Johnson had what it took to carry a picture. Harking back to his pre-movie rodeo days, Johnson plays inveterate horse-lover Dan Light, who spends a lifetime searching for his pet colt, who'd managed to escape when Light's parents were killed by Indians. The colt has grown to a magnificent wild stallion, much coveted by others, including the U.S. Cavalry. The color photography by Harry Neumann is superb, as are the supporting performances by Martha Hyer, Edgar Buchanan and Don Haggerty. The Wild Stallion was produced by Walter Mirisch, who later graduated to such big-budget westerns as Man of the West (1958) and The Magnificent Seven (1960). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Johnson, Edgar Buchanan, (more)
Judy Garland was originally slated to star in MGM's film version of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, but she was forced to pull out of the production due to illness (recently discovered out-takes reveal a gaunt, dazed Garland, obviously incapable of completing her duties). She was replaced by Betty Hutton who, once she overcame the resentment of her co-workers, turned in an excellent performance--perhaps the best of her career. Hutton is of course cast as legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who ascends from dirty-faced backwoods gamin to the uppermost rungs of international stardom. Her mentor is Buffalo Bill, played by Louis Calhern (like Hutton, Calhern was a last-minute replacement: the original Buffalo Bill, Frank Morgan, died before production began). Annie's great rival is arrogant marksman Frank Butler (Howard Keel) with whom she eventually falls in love. She goes so far as to lose an important shooting match to prove her affection--a scene that hardly strikes a blow for feminism, but this is, after all, a 1950 film. Of the stellar supporting cast, J. Carroll Naish stands out as Sitting Bull, whose shrewd business acumen is good for several laughs. Virtually all the Irving Berlin tunes were retained from the Broadway version, including "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "Anything You Can Do", "The Girl That I Marry", "My Defenses are Down", "They Say It's Wonderful" and the rousing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which was later tantalizingly excerpted in MGM's pastiche feature That's Entertainment II. Alas, due to a complicated legal tangle involving the estates of Irving Berlin and librettists Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, Annie Get Your Gun hasn't been shown on television in years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, (more)
