Gene Persson Movies
Today best known as a theatrical producer, Gene Persson has also produced motion pictures and spent 15 years, from the mid-'40s until the dawn of the 1960s, as an actor on television and the big screen. Of Swedish ancestry, Persson was born in Los Angeles, and at age eight began his entertainment career as a child actor on radio and in movies, and later on television. His earliest credit movie appearance was in 1946, at age nine, in Frank Tuttle's postwar drama Swell Guy. Working mostly at Universal over the next few years, he appeared in a string of Ma and Pa Kettle movies and in Nicholas Ray's brilliant film noir On Dangerous Ground, at RKO. He also appeared in numerous television dramatic anthology series, including Studio One, Kraft Theater, and the U.S. Steel Hour. Persson served in the army during the final phase of the Korean War, and it was there, in Special Services, that he got his first real exposure to theater production, which he mastered sufficiently to become a producer during his time in uniform, staging entertainment that was seen all over the Pacific theater. By the time his service ended, he had hosted the first American-produced television show ever broadcast in Korea. Initially on leaving the service, Persson was forced to take work simply for the sake of working, which is how he ended up playing the young male lead in Bert I. Gordon's Earth vs. the Spider -- though he was 23 years old when it was made, Persson was able to pass for a teenager; curiously, it was around this time that he was dating Aneta Corsaut, who had starred in The Blob, another, slightly earlier movie that mixed teenagers and monsters. That same year, Persson also appeared in Paramount's release of The Party Crashers, a somewhat more upscale teen exploitation effort, sort of that studio's answer to Rebel Without a Cause, which had the distinction of being the final film of 1930s screen and stage legend Frances Farmer. In 1959, Persson married Shirley Knight, a very promising and serious stage actress -- he also turned his talents toward theatrical production, first in Los Angeles and later in New York City, where he brought such works as Leroi Jones' The Slave, The Toilet, and Dutchman to off-Broadway stages; the latter, seen by film editor Anthony Harvey while he was in New York, was later adapted to the big-screen by Harvey (with Persson producing), in a scintillating film version starring Al Freeman Jr. and Shirley Knight. Apart from that one credit as a movie producer, Persson has confined most of his activities to the stage in the decades since -- his big hit in that venue was You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which enjoyed a four-and-a-half-year run in New York and years more life on stages in other theaters and on the road (where Persson also directed it), turning Gary Burghoff into an off-Broadway star. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Anthony Harvey directed this adaptation of the controversial allegorical drama by African-American playwright Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones). Lula (Shirley Knight), a slatternly woman with a racist streak, encounters Clay (Al Freeman Jr.), a mild-mannered black man, on a New York subway car. Lula at first attempts to seduce Clay, who is initially resistant, but once he begins to respond in kind, she starts to taunt him viciously, goading him until he explodes into violence. This short feature was at once Harvey's last credit as an editor and first as a director. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Knight, Al Freeman, Jr., (more)
- 1958
A man driving along a lonely back road at night is suddenly startled by what he sees, and is promptly killed by something that crashes through his windshield. The next day, in the nearby town of River Falls, teenagers Carol Flynn (June Kenney) and Mike Simpson (Gene Persson) decide to go looking for her father, who didn't get home last night. They find his wrecked truck and enter a nearby cave to begin searching for him. There they find his blood-covered hat and other signs of human remains and, as they go deeper inside, suddenly get trapped in a huge web -- then they spot its maker, a spider the size of a small house. They manage to escape and alert the county sheriff (Gene Roth), who doesn't take them seriously but does heed the warning of Mr. Kingman (Ed Kemmer), the science teacher at the local high school, to bring a pest-control crew along with his deputies, and a tanker loaded with DDT. They encounter the creature, and, after losing one of their men, dispatch it with the insecticide. Kingman persuades the sheriff to bring the carcass into town so that he can arrange to have it studied, leaving it in storage at the high school recreation room, for lack of anywhere bigger to keep it. As it turns out, the creature isn't dead, just stunned. As the local rock & roll band rehearses, the giant spider comes to bloodthirsty consciousness, breaking out of the building and ravaging the town. Bullets won't hurt it -- as Kingman says, you could punch holes in it all day without hitting a vital spot -- and the town is soon cut off when the telephone lines are knocked down. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Kemmer, Gene Persson, (more)
- 1958
Once again, Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) must stop a violent teenage gang war before hostilities have a chance to begin. The two detectives really have their work cut out for them this time: the agitator behind the turf war is a young Hitler worshipper who wears a Nazi uniform in public and heads a gang called the Storm Troopers! This episode would seem to be the precursor to "The Big Explosion", one of the more memorable offerings from the 1967 Dragnet TV revival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Cocky Twig Webster (Mark Damon) is the leader of a gang of wealthy teenagers who go around crashing - and trashing - parties, just for kicks. And where are Webster's parents during all this antisocial behavior? Well, Twig's mom (Doris Dowling) happens to be the drunken, bleary-eyed center of attention at one of the parties invaded by the gang. At the sight of her son and his friends, Mrs. Webster -- and the rest of the neglectful neighborhood adults -- come to the sudden realization that they'd better start spending a lot more time being "real" parents to their kids. The specter of impending tragedy looms throughout Party Crashers, if for no other reason than the fact that this was the final film for ex-child-actor Bobby Driscoll, who died of a drug overdose in 1968, and for onetime Paramount leading lady Frances Farmer, a recovering alcoholic who'd spent the past 15 years in and out of mental institutions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Damon, Bobby Driscoll, (more)
- 1952
Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair was Number Four in Universal's immensely successful "B"-picture series. It is giving away nothing to reveal that Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride once more assume the title roles. The plot is motivated by Ma's desire to send daughter Rosie (Lori Nelson) to college. To that end, she intends to win a big cash prize at the upcoming county fair. Meanwhile, Pa uses his half of the winnings (which no one, as yet, has really won!) to purchase a race horse. When Mafails to win the money, the Kettles are forced to rely on the horse to save the day during a sweepstakes race. Towards the end of Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair, a close-up of the racing statistics sheet is shown, revealing that one of the owners is "Quinn Martin"--a cute inside joke, inasmuch as Mr. Martin was a prolific scriptwriter and a friend of Ma and Pa Kettle producer Leonard Goldstein. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, (more)
- 1951
- NR
Robert Ryan plays Jim Wilson, a tough police detective embittered by years of dealing with low-life urban scum, in Nicholas Ray's moving film noir. After severely beating several suspects, Jim is assigned to a case far from the city to find the killer of a young girl. Joining the manhunt, in snow-covered terrain, Wilson finds himself paired with the victim's father, Walter Brent (Ward Bond), who plans to shoot the killer himself. When the two men come upon a cabin occupied by Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman who is also the killer's sister, Wilson's life is changed forever. Mary, a generous and loving person who has cared for her mentally ill brother Danny (Sumner Williams) since the death of their parents, convinces Wilson to protect Danny from Brent. Wilson also promises to get help for Danny if he surrenders to him. Inspired by Mary's courage and recognizing Brent's rage as the mirror image of his own, Wilson gains the insight to free himself from his own blindness. The film includes a memorable score by Alfred Hitchcock favorite Bernard Herrmann. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, (more)
- 1950
The second of Universal's "Ma and Pa Kettle" series, Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town stars, as ever, Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride. This time, the Kettles win a letter-writing contest, which offers as first prize an all-expense-paid trip to New York City. Once in Manhattan, the huge Kettle brood raises all sorts of Holy Ned, culminating in an episode involving stolen bank money. Somehow this all ends with a riotous, slapstick-laden square dance. The film's romantic subplot is handled by Richard Long as oldest son Tom Kettle and Meg Randall as his high-society wife Kim. Also carried over from the first Kettle entry are Ray Collins and Barbara Brown as the Kettle's wealthy in-laws. A winner at the box-office, Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town helped pay for many of Universal's "prestige" releases of 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, (more)
Both Van Johnson and Gregory Peck were considered for the role of baseball star Monty Stratton in the 1949 biopic The Stratton Story before settling upon the real Stratton's own first choice, James Stewart. The film covers several years in the 1930s, as Texas farm boy Stratton rises from the minors to the Chicago White Sox. Along the way, Monty marries an Omaha gal named Ethel (June Allyson), who gives him a son. In November 1938, Monty accidentally shoots himself in the leg while on a hunting excursion. When the leg has to be amputated, it looks as though Stratton's pitching career is over. He broods over his bad luck for months before snapping out of his self-pity and learning to walk with his new prosthesis. To prove to himself that he's overcome his handicap, Monty takes a job pitching with the Southern All-Stars. His return to baseball is rough sledding (the other team persistently bunts balls out of his reach), but Monty Stratton is finally able to make a successful comeback. Only occasionally playing fast and loose with the facts (the time-frame of Stratton's real-life return to baseball is telescoped by several years), The Stratton Story was one of the best and most profitable baseball pictures ever turned out by Hollywood. Fans of the game will get an extra kick from the presence in the cast of big-leaguers Bill Dickey and Jimmy Dykes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, June Allyson, (more)
- 1949
The title couple and their enormous brood of bumpkins made their movie debut in the film version of Betty McDonald's humorous book The Egg and I (1947) where they appeared as supporting characters. Audiences found them funny and so the characters got their own long-running series of B movies. Ma and Pa Kettle is the first in that series and centers on the exploits of the impoverished hayseed family after Pa wins a contest by writing a jim-dandy slogan for a tobacco company. The Kettle's prize is a brand new, ultra modern, fully automated home. It's a good thing too, for Ma, Pa and their 15 kids were about to get booted out of their previous wreck of a home. Of course the film is at its funniest when the Kettles are trying to figure out how to operate their fancy new digs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, (more)
- 1946
One of many films of the late 1940s examining the impact of WWII on post-war domestic life in the U.S., The Swell Guy is the story of an unprincipled war correspondent, Jim Duncan (Sonny Tufts). Jim has returned to his hometown following the war and tries to milk his wartime status and pose as a hero. He's actually a corrupt con man who exploits the good graces of his brother Martin (William Gargan) and tries to woo Martin's wife Ann (Ruth Warrick). Jim cheats the townspeople by staging rigged craps games, and he engages in other nefarious schemes that depend on the local citizens' naïve trust in the supposed war hero. Jim finally steals money from the town's charity campaign for war veterans and tries to leave town before his misdeeds catch up to him. But Jim gets a chance for redemption and real heroism when he alone can save his nephew's life. This film was directed by Frank Tuttle and based on the book The Hero by Gilbert Emery. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sonny Tufts, Ann Blyth, (more)
