Robert Lynn Movies
- 1959
Perry (Raymond Burr) is startled late one evening to find a beautiful young woman (Joan Tabor) climbing into his office window. She identifies herself as Virginia Colfax, the secretary of Ed Garvin, and insists that she was escaping from Garvin's jealous wife. Investigating, Perry finds that Mr. Garvin actually has two wives, one of whom (K.T. Stevens) is subsequently murdered--and that Virginia Colfax isn't Virginia Colfax after all. Featured in the cast is Thomas B. Henry, who had been Raymond Burr's acting teacher at the Pasadena Playhouse. This episode is based on a 1949 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Originally released as The Return of Dracula (and also known by the irrelevant title The Fantastic Disappearing Man), this interesting vampire variant on Shadow of a Doubt finds the infamous Count (Francis Lederer) leaving his castle digs in Transylvania and departing for the United States after killing an artist and assuming his identity. Passing himself off as a distant relative, he settles in with the Mayberry family in California, where he begins seeking fresh victims. The suspicions of young Rachel Mayberry (Norma Eberhardt) regarding her pale visitor's eerie nocturnal habits prove well-founded after the mysterious death of her best friend, and she soon discovers her own ghastly role in the Count's master plan; her only hope lies with an expatriate police inspector, who may be familiar with the ways of the undead. Played refreshingly straight, this modest Universal production benefits from Lederer's compelling performance as the seductive Count and several unique plot twists (including a blind girl who becomes sighted on turning into a vampire). ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Francis Lederer, Norma Eberhardt, (more)
- 1957
A bizarre western that at times veers dangerously close to outright burlesque, Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend concluded Randolph Scott's long-term contract with Warner Bros. and sat on the shelf for nearly two years before being dumped on the double-bill market in 1957. Scott and two fellow cavalry officers (Gordon Jones and a very young James Garner) have their clothes stolen while skinny-dipping. Offered new apparel by a group of Quakers (or are they Mormons? It is never made quite clear), the threesome go on to prevent James Craig from supplying the territory with faulty guns and ammo. Dani Crayne (the wife of actor David Janssen at the time) seductively warbles {&"Kiss Me Quick") and a young Angie Dickinson lends further femininity to the proceedings. Much of this is strangely watchable, but as a western Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend can never make up its mind whether to play it straight or for comedy. Not too surprisingly, director Richard L. Bare had gotten his start helming the studio's "Joe McDoakes" comedy shorts in the 1940s. A final paradox: There is nary a shoot-out in the entire film. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Angie Dickinson, (more)
An Affair to Remember, director Leo McCarey's scene-for-scene remake of his own 1939 film Love Affair, isn't really an improvement on the original, but it's equally as enjoyable. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, high-profile types both engaged to be married to other people, meet and fall in love during an ocean voyage. To test the depth of their commitment to each other, Grant and Kerr promise that, if they're still in love at the end of six months, they will meet again at the top of the Empire State Building. Clips from An Affair to Remember were used as "reference points" throughout the 1993 romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle, which likewise concluded atop the Empire State Building. Disproving the theory that "Third Time's the Charm," Warren Beatty attempted to remake Affair to Remember, again titled Love Affair, in 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, (more)
- 1956
Claudette Colbert makes a long-overdue entree into the Western genre in Texas Lady. Looking at least a decade younger than her 50 years, Ms. Colbert plays Prudence Webb, who arrives in the wide-open town of Fort Ralston, Texas, to assume control of her late father's newspaper. Her first major print crusade is aimed at gambler Chris Mooney (Barry Sullivan), whom Prudence holds responsible for her dad's suicide (Mooney isn't, but it takes our heroine nearly eight reels to find this out). She then takes aim at a couple of crooked cattle barons (Ray Collins and Walter Sande), who'd like nothing better than to put Prudence out of the way for keeps. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Barry Sullivan, (more)
- 1955
This distaff variation of the Goodbye Mr. Chips theme is based on a novel by Frances Gray Patton. While confined to a sickbed, ageing New England schoolteacher Miss Dove (Jennifer Jones) recalls the many students who passed through her classroom. Among her now-grown-up prize pupils are surgeon Tom Baker (Robert Stack), policeman Bill Holloway (Chuck Connors) and playright Maurice (Jerry Paris), all of whom were able to overcome difficult childhoods and strive for success with the help of Miss Dove. As it turns out, it is Dr. Tom Baker who is to perform the operation that may save the life of his ailing former teacher. A 60-minute TV adaptation of Good Morning Miss Dove, with Phyllis Kirk in the Jennifer Jones role, was seen in 1956 as part of the weekly anthology The 20th Century-Fox Hour. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jones, Robert Stack, (more)
- 1951
To call The Barefoot Mailman episodic would be understating the issue: the film's story stops and starts so often that it appears to be three half-hour TV episodes strung together. No matter, since the premise is workable and the characters appealing. Though Robert Cummings is top-billed as erudite 19th-century con artist Sylvanus Hartley, the title character, Steven Pierton, is played by Jerome Courtland. The film is set in turn-of-the-century Florida, which was then little more than an elongated swamp. It is the responsibility of Steve Pierton to deliver the mail by foot, covering the distance from Palm Beach to Miami. Attempting to elude the northern authorities, Sylvanus Hartley joins Pierton on his treacherous journey. Their travelling companion is Adie Titus (Terry Moore), a hoydenish young lady who disguises herself as a child to avoid unwanted advances. After saving Adie from the clutches of swamp outlaw Theron (John Russell) and his gang, Hartley goes off on a new tangent, bamboozling the local settlers in a highly suspect land-speculation scheme. When Theron and his fellow crooks lay siege upon Miami, Hartley and Pierton, despite their rivalry over the affections of Adie, team up to save the day. Nothing if not unusual, The Barefoot Mailman is based on a novel by Theodore Pratt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Cummings, Terry Moore, (more)
Edmund Gwenn plays Kris Kringle, a bearded old gent who is the living image of Santa Claus. Serving as a last-minute replacement for the drunken Santa who was to have led Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Kringle is offered a job as a Macy's toy-department Santa. Supervisor Maureen O'Hara soon begins having second thoughts about hiring Kris: it's bad enough that he is laboring under the delusion that he's the genuine Saint Nick; but when he begins advising customers to shop elsewhere for toys that they can't find at Macy's, he's gone too far! Amazingly, Mr. Macy (Harry Antrim) considers Kris' shopping tips to be an excellent customer-service "gimmick," and insists that the old fellow keep his job. A resident of a Long Island retirement home, Kris agrees to take a room with lawyer John Payne during the Christmas season. It happens that Payne is sweet on O'Hara, and Kris subliminally hopes he can bring the two together. Kris is also desirous of winning over the divorced O'Hara's little daughter Natalie Wood, who in her few years on earth has lost a lot of the Christmas spirit. Complications ensue when Porter Hall, Macy's nasty in-house psychologist, arranges to have Kris locked up in Bellevue as a lunatic. Payne represents Kris at his sanity hearing, rocking the New York judicial system to its foundations by endeavoring to prove in court that Kris is, indeed, the real Santa Claus! We won't tell you how he does it: suffice to say that there's a joyous ending for Payne and O'Hara, as well as a wonderful faith-affirming denouement for little Natalie Wood. 72-year-old Edmund Gwenn won an Oscar for his portrayal of the "jolly old elf" Kringle; the rest of the cast is populated by such never-fail pros as Gene Lockhart (as the beleaguered sanity-hearing judge), William Frawley (as a crafty political boss), and an unbilled Thelma Ritter and Jack Albertson. Based on the novel by Valentine Davies, Miracle on 34th Street was remade twice: once for TV in 1973, and a second time for a 1994 theatrical release, with Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, (more)
