Lee Phelps Movies

The Beautiful Cheat was one of the last B pictures produced by Universal studios before its merger with International Productions. The title character, played by Bonita Granville, is the secretary at a boys' reformatory. Sociology professor Noah Beery Jr. shows up to study the juvenile-delinquent mindset. Not surprisingly, he ends up taking a post-grad course in amour from the winsome Ms. Granville. The supporting cast includes such reliables as Irene Ryan, Milburn Stone, and Tommy Bond (the immortal "Butch" from the Little Rascals flicks). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Frank Borzage and star Ginger Rogers both came acropper in the lavish but dull historical biopic Magnificent Doll. The usually ebullient Rogers seems encased in wax as Dolly Madison, first lady of the United States in the early 19th century. The story begins as young Washington socialite Dolly Payne, previously and unhappily wed to one John Todd (Horace McNally), can't make up her mind romantically between idealistic politician James Madison (Burgess Meredith) and firebrand Aaron Burr (David Niven). Burr solves that problem when he flees the country after killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, leaving the field clear for Madison. What should have been the film's highlight, Dolly's rescue of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution during the 1812 burning of Washington, is treated as a throwaway. Told in flashback, the film ends just before Madison's ascendancy to the White House, with Dolly chastely charming the current chief executive Thomas Jefferson (Grandon Rhodes). Magnificent Doll is anything but . ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

MGM's first "Maisie" entry in two years, Up Goes Maisie once more stars Ann Sothern as eternally stranded showgirl Maisie Revere. Our heroine manages to secure a job as secretary to inventor Joseph Morton (George Murphy), who has developed a revolutionary new helicopter. A rival aircraft manufacturer tries to discredit and/or steal Morton's invention, but Maisie comes to the rescue. The entire film seems to be building up to the inevitable moment wherein Maisie herself takes over the copter controls and embarks on a wild ride high over Manhattan. The process work in this climactic sequences is unusually good for an MGM production, providing an exciting wrap-up to an otherwise pedestrian project. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Teenaged Junior (Scotty Beckett) gets into trouble when he tries to bring a gun to school. To explain why he's packing a rod, Beckett fabricates a story involving his parents Bill (Dennis O'Keefe) and Constance (Helen Walker). To hear Junior tell it, once upon a time Bill was a telephone lineman who made the chance acquaintance of the eloping Constance. Both parties were forcibly detained by fleeing criminal Carter (Tom Powers), who shepherded hero and heroine to the home of Petrucie (Charles Judels). Here Bill overpowered Carter, winning Constance's love in the process. His tale told, Junior explains that he's carrying a gun to arrest his principal-who happens to be Carter! As a result of the boy's prevarications, his parents and the principal end up in jail, but are rescued when Junior solves the 15-year-old mystery that prompted his incredible tale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical, a chorus of convicts conspires to get a paroled crooner chucked back in the clink. Songs include: "Time Will Tell," "Now And Always," "Round The Bend," and "How Lovely." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A middle-aged Clark Gable returned from active duty in World War II to star in this MGM release that was heavily advertised as his big comeback. Gable is Harry Patterson, the bosun mate on a merchant marine vessel, a tough sailor and fighter with the proverbial girl in every port. But while in a San Francisco library, looking up a book on the human soul for his sidekick Mudgin (Thomas Mitchell), who thinks his soul has departed his body, Harry meets librarian Emily Sears (Greer Garson), whom he woos, marries, and leaves to sail off on another freighter. When he returns, Emily has retreated to an old farm to await the birth of their child. Harry continues to resent staying in one place, but he ultimately changes his tune when his baby's life hangs in the balance. Garson and Joan Blondell, playing her outspoken best friend, are both terrific, and Gable gives a less heroic performance that's a thoughtful change for him, although critics at the time were less than charitable. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a barge captain with an Electra complex marries two women. He married the first because she laughed like his late mother. He married the other because she cooks like his mom. He soon finds himself in over his head. A good friend helps extricate him by devising an ingenious plot. The captain is to be blamed for a murder. He can then escape his wives by pretending to be sent to prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Arsenic and Old Lace is director Frank Capra's spin on the classic Joseph Kesselring stage comedy, which concerns the sweet old Brewster sisters (Josephine Hull, Jean Adair), beloved in their genteel Brooklyn neighborhood for their many charitable acts. One charity which the ladies don't advertise is their ongoing effort to permit lonely bachelors to die with smiles on their faces--by serving said bachelors elderberry wine spiked with arsenic. When the sisters' drama-critic nephew Mortimer (Cary Grant) stumbles onto their secret, he is understandably put out--especially since he has just married the lovely Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane). Given the homicidal tendencies of his aunts, the sinister activities of his escaped-convict older brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) and the disruptive behavior of younger brother Teddy (John Alexander)--who is convinced that he's really Theodore Roosevelt, and runs around the house yelling "CHAAAAARGGGE"--Mortimer isn't keen on starting a family with his new bride. "Insanity runs in my family," he explains. "It practically gallops." Further complications ensue when the murderous Jonathan Brewster arrives home, with his snivelling accomplice Dr. Einstein (Peter Lorre) in tow. When Jonathan learns that his darling aunts have killed twelve men, he is incensed--they're challenging his own record of murders. Though the movie rights for Arsenic and Old Lace were set up so that the film could not be released until 1944, director Capra shot the film quickly and inexpensively in 1941, so that his family could subsist on his $100,000 salary while he was serving in World War II. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marjorie Main's first solo starring vehicle for MGM finds the formidable character actress cast as a tough-but-tender female outlaw. Living on her tumbledown ranch in Oklahoma territory, Annie Goss (Main) shelters her desperado sons (Henry Morgan, Paul Langton) from the authorities. While planning to pull up stakes and return to Missouri, the Goss family befriends marshal Lloyd Richland (James Craig), who suspects that Annie's offspring are responsible for a recent train robbery, but is hesitant to arrest them because he believes that their motivations were noble. Likewise befriended by Gentle Annie and her brood is a stranded waitress named Mary Lingen (Donna Reed), with whom Richland falls in love. If the film can be said to have a villain, it is surly Sheriff Tatum (Barton MacLane), who unlike the soft-hearted Richland is determined to uphold the letter of the law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Margaret O'Brien, MGM's newest child sensation, was given her first starring vehicle with Lost Angel. O'Brien plays Alpha, who has been groomed to be a genius by a trio of well-meaning but misguided professors (Philip Merivale, Henry O'Neill and Donald Meek). Taking pity on the reluctant prodigy, police reporter Mike Regan (James Craig) takes it upon himself to "deprogram" Alpha and transform her into a normal, healthy child. In an effort to inflate this B picture into "A" proportions by increasing the running time, the scriptwriters contrive a silly subplot involving a gang of Runyonesque gangsters (headed by the ineluctable Keenan Wynn). Margaret O'Brien's appeal may be elusive to modern viewers, but she was a proven audience favorite back in 1944. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wally Brown and Alan Carney, RKO's own Abbott and Costello ripoffs, star in the comedy western The Girl Rush. As usual, Brown is cast as fast-talking Jerry Miles and Carney plays slow-witted Mike Strager. This time, Jerry and Mike are travelling showmen, stranded in San Francisco when the 1849 gold strike at Sutter's Mill commandeers all available transportation. Making the best of things, our heroes decide to stage a girl-filled musical revue for the entertainment-hungry miners. They also promise that the girls will prove to be excellent wives for the prospectors. Only one problem: where are the girls? This slapped-together effort would be utterly unmemorable were it not for the presence of Robert Mitchum, cast as a clever outlaw who at one point in the film disguises himself as a mail-order bride! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This 67-minute farce stars Dennis O'Keefe as a music publisher sued for plagiarism by a pair of scraggly songwriters. Louise Allbritton is the lady lawyer bringing litigation against O'Keefe, who has promoted the song in question into a hit for his tempestuous singer girlfriend (Mary Beth Hughes). Just as in the much-later George Harrison/ "My Sweet Lord" case, it seems that O'Keefe had rejected the song when it was first offered him, remembered the tune subconsciously, and commissioned it to be written by one of his staffers. As O'Keefe simultaneously battles and woos Allbritton, he and the other cast members repeatedly become embroiled in public brawls, and end up day after day in court, facing the same long-suffering judge (Oscar O'Shea). In fact, the plot never does completely resolve itself, and in the last scene the poor judge is once again wearily passing sentence on the leading characters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide