Jean Porter Movies

Humphrey Bogart stars in this improbable tale that marked Gene Tierney's return to the screen after battling mental illness for a number of years. Bogart plays Jim Carmody, an American soldier of fortune who, after crashing his plane in China, takes up with the Chinese warlord General Yang (Lee J. Cobb). Jim becomes Yang's advisor, but after watching one of the General's flunkies brutally kill a priest, Jim decides to leave. Unfortunately, Yang has declared that any deserter will be shot. Disguising himself as the slain priest, Jim sneaks out of the General's headquarters and makes his way to a mountain village where missionaries Beryl (Agnes Moorehead) and David (E.G. Marshall) take him in. Jim still is posing as the priest but his vows of celibacy are challenged when he falls in love with the attractive mission nurse Anne Scott (Gene Tierney). Anne feels ashamed because she is also attracted to him, but Jim writes to the bishop confessing that he is an impostor. At that moment, General Yang arrives, insisting that Jim rejoin his army or else he will burn down the village. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Dick Powell stars in this suspenseful melodrama, directed by Robert Parrish. Rocky Mulloy (Powell) has recently returned from prison, after being pardoned from a life sentence when new evidence clears him from a robbery conviction. Delong (Richard Erdman), a crippled Marine veteran who concocted the new evidence that got Mulloy released, thinks that Mulloy will be so grateful that he will cooperate with him and share some of the $100,000 Mulloy supposedly has hidden somewhere from the robbery. But Mulloy has other ideas -- instead he wants the use his pardon as a chance to bring the real guilty parties involved in the crime to justice and to help out a needy friend who is still in the penitentiary. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The 62-minute GI Jane may well be the best of Lippert Studios' "pocket" musicals. TV producer Tim (Tom Neal) is in the midst of staging a special featuring WACS when he receives his induction notice. The shock of the news causes Tim to faint, whereupon he imagines he has been promoted to sergeant and shipped to an all-male desert radar command. Our hero then schemes to transfer the WAC officers to his post. In so doing, he falls in love with the titular "GI Jane" (Jean Porter) and runs afoul of tough-talking WAC lieutenant Adrian (Iris Adrian). Featured in the cast is future Mickey Mouse Club star Jimmy Dodd, performing two of his own compositions. Also on hand is famed Hitler imitator Robert (Bobby) Watson, here cast as a flustered Army colonel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young girl is adopted into a small town family, but instead of finding happiness, she finds her life a living nightmare due to neighbors' constant speculation as to he father's identity. The scuttlebutt is that she is the illegitimate daughter of a prominent lawyer and former resident (Ronald Reagan). The girl (Shirley Temple in her first role as a teen) becomes especially sensitive to the gossip after she hits adolescence. The backbiting gets so bad, that she loses her first boyfriend. Matters become more explosive when the lawyer returns from Washington D.C. and begins a romance with the girl's favorite teacher. He also finds the troubled girl intriguing but does not realize this until the despondent youth attempts to commit suicide. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This Technicolor musical remake of the 1936 comedy classic Libeled Lady isn't quite up to the standards of the original, but on its own terms is quite entertaining. Van Johnson, Esther Williams, Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn expertly assume the roles originally played by William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. Faced with a libel suit from socialite Connie Allenbury (Williams), newspaper editor Warren Haggerty (Wynn) cooks up a plan to beat Connie at her own game. To do this, he must rely upon the romantic chicanery of ex-employee Bill Stevens Chandler (Johnson), with Haggerty's fiancee Gladys Benton (Ball) caught in the middle. The comedy high point of the original Libeled Lady, in which William Powell is forced to demonstrate his (non-existent) prowess as a fisherman, is ably repeated in Easy to Wed when Van Johnson must prove his skills at duck-hunting. The songs aren't anything special, but Lucille Ball's superb comic performance is worth the admission price in itself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This aquatic musical is set at a mountain resort in the beautiful Sierra Nevadas where a heroic Army Air Corpsman has come for a vacation. There he falls in love with the lovely swimming instructor, who is unfortunately newly married to a rather stodgy businessman. The mayhem begins when her new husband is called to Washington on urgent business. Songs include: "Please Don't Say No, Say Maybe," "I Should Care," "Lonely Night," "Vive L'Amour," "Schubert's Serenade" and "The Thrill Of A Romance." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans still weren't man and wife when they costarred in Republic's San Fernando Valley. As always, Rogers is cast as a cowboy who happens to be named Roy Rogers; Evans, on the other hand, plays feisty femme ranchowner Dale Kenyon. At the behest of Dale's grandfather (Andrew Tombes), Roy does the "Taming of the Shrew" bit, taking a job as ranch cook so he can woo and win the volatile Miss Kenyon. He also takes time out to capture a couple of bank robbers who'd earlier relieved him of his life savings. Many of the film's best scenes belong to hoydenish Jean Porter, cast as Dale's bratty kid sister: Ms. Porter would later retire from films to marry director Edward Dmytryk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

College boy Andy continues his studies in this comedy. Well, at least he should be studying. Unfortunately, he seems to be more interested in the pretty co-eds, especially the rambunctious Wilde twins. They cause poor Andy so much trouble that he begins plotting to drop out of school. Fortunately, Judge Hardy arrives at the last minute and gives his boy a good talking-to and sets things to right. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Fall In was the fourth of Hal Roach's 1940s comedies revolving around the misadventures of Doubleday, an army recruit blessed--or cursed--with a photographic memory. This time, Doubleday (William Tracy) and his pal Sgt. Ames (Joe Sawyer) crash a fancy fund-raising dinner. They redeem themselves by capturing a Nazi spy, who poses as a super-patriot named Arnold Benedict (!) A zany sequence at a gambling table and a wild climactic free-for-all highlight this above-average entry. A Hal Roach "Streamliner" designed for the lower half of double bills, Fall In clocked in at a swift 48 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this charming episodic comedy, a giddy group of adolescent girls form a movie-star fan club. Their favorite pastime is collecting the autographs of major stars. Led by their determined president, the gals stalk the streets and train stations of New York in search of big-name stars. Their expeditions are frequently successful, and during the film they garner the John Hancocks of such stars as Lana Turner, Greer Garson, William Powell, Walter Pidgeon, and Robert Taylor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Music, gangster melodrama, and snappy newspaper comedy is blended into the usual Western shenanigans in this unusual Gene Autry vehicle filmed on-location at the Russell Ranch near Agoura Hills, CA. Autry, as always, plays himself, a singing star, with Smiley Burnette and Joe Strauch Jr. as sidekicks Frog and Tadpole Millhouse. The trio is visiting Pop Harrison's (Forrest Taylor) Wyoming dude ranch, where Pop's wastrel son, Tex (James Seay), is in trouble with the law. Tex is involved with one Mr. Crowley (George Gordon), who really a gangster named Luigi. Recognized by newspaper reporters Clem (Fay McKenzie) and Hack (Chick Chandler), Crowley and his men indulges in a bit of skullduggery and are the obvious suspects when Pop Harrison is shot. But as Gene discovers, the gangsters are merely red herrings, the real culprit being a person much closer to home. In between detective work and romancing the girl reporter, Autry finds time enough to warble six songs, including Irving Berlin's then very topical "Any Bonds Today?," the official anthem of U.S. Defense Bond campaign. Despite good performances by Fay McKenzie, the daughter of veteran B-Western personality Robert McKenzie, and the always welcome Chick Chandler, Home in Wyomin' was not wholly appreciated by Autry's legion of fans who wanted their star straight up. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The illustrious National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan provides the backdrop for this musical that chronicles the ups and downs of overseeing such an establishment. The story centers on a young burlesque singer who is discovered and taken to the camp. At first the uncultured girl rebels against the many rules of the camp, but eventually she settles down and sets to work. Trouble for the camp ensues when a negative newspaper article is published and the backers for the camp withdraw their support. To save the place, the young singer stages a benefit performance. She has by then become an opera diva and succeeds in saving the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide