Robert Preston Movies
A vital, virile, exciting Broadway performer, Preston was once called, "the best American actor -- with a voice like golden thunder," by Richard Burton. He decided to become an actor at age 15. After studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, he became a steady, dependable performer in Hollywood films from the late '30s. Preston became well-known after Cecil B. De Mille cast him as Barbara Stanwyck's gambler husband in Union Pacific (1939). He was almost strictly a second-lead actor for 20 years, finally breaking through to lead roles after becoming a star on Broadway. For his Broadway performance (his first in a musical) as ebullient con-artist Harold Hill in The Music Man he won a Tony Award; he repeated the role in the screen version (1962) and it became the work for which he is best known. Preston went on to earn another Tony Award for his performance in the 1966 musical I Do! I Do!, opposite Mary Martin. Another outstanding performance was as Julie Andrews' gay friend Toddie in Blake Edwards' Victor/Victoria (1982), a performance which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1983
Robert Preston seems to be having the time of his life in the made-for-TV September Gun. The "Music Man" is cast as a long-in-tooth gunfighter who forms an uneasy alliance with Catholic nun Patty Duke Astin. The single-minded sister wants to erect a sanctuary for a group of Apache orphans. Preston picks an ideal spot, right in the center of town--the local saloon and "bawdy house"! Sally Kellerman co-stars as Madame Queen (not the same lady who used to be on Amos N Andy) in this harmless western romp, which first aired October 8, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Richard Levinson and William Link serve up another Thinking Man's murder mystery with the made-for-television Rehearsal for Murder. Playwright Robert Preston is on the verge of marrying glamorous film star Lynn Redgrave. But a scant few hours after her Broadway debut, Redgrave is found dead, an apparent suicide. Convinced that Redgrave was murdered, Preston contacts the most likely suspects and assembles them in an empty theatre, ostensibly to read through his latest play. But Preston locks the doors and uses his play as a means to, in the words of Hamlet, "catch the conscience" of the killer. Filmed under the working title Cold Reading, Rehearsal for Murder was the winner of the Edgar Award, a prize bestowed annually by the Mystery Writers of America. It was first broadcast on May 26, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
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Filmed in Vermont, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg is based on one of Mark Twain's more mysoginistic works. Mysterious stranger Robert Preston shows up in Hadleyburg, a town that prides itself upon the honesty and integrity of its leaders. Preston offers $40,000 in gold to the anonymous Hadleyburg citizen who, years earlier, had given Preston a handout and some valuable advice. The stranger sends letters to each of Hadleyburg's nineteen finest families, containing cryptic clues pointing to the identity of the beneficiary of the gold. Before the story is over, it becomes painfully clear that 18 of the town's "nineteeners" are willing to lie and deceive in order to claim the prize. Adapted by Mark Harris (who was compelled to sweat out 40 pages of the original story in order to make it "play" on TV), The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg was first presented in tandem with a dramatization of William Faulkner's Barn Burning on PBS' American Short Story series; the program first aired on March 17, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
The Chisholms was a three-part miniseries adapted by Evan Hunter from his own novel. Covering the years 1842 through 1844, the dramatization follows the westward trek of the Chisholm family. Patriarch Robert Preston is driven from his midwestern homestead by a feud. Starting down the Ohio river, Preston and his family head for the greener pastures of Oregon. In Part Two, a romantic angle is introduced thanks to young lovers Stacey Nelkin and Charles Frank, while the Chisholms' safety is threatened by thieves and hostile lawmen. Several deaths impede the family's progress in Part Three, which brings the pilgrims to Wyoming. Spread out over four weeks (from March 29 through April 19, 1979), this miniseries version of The Chisholms served as the precursor to a weekly TV series, which did without the services of Robert Preston (who was unceremoniously knocked off in the first episode). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
In this different type of gangster farce with a few flaws here and there, Robert Preston is Steve Blair, a superlative con artist whose sidekick Paul Ferris (Tony Randall) is a boozy writer currently working on a cartoon. Steve gets the idea of producing a movie based on Genesis in the Bible and brings Paul into the scheme as a scripter. He finds financial backing in the form of $2,000,000 from gangster Tony Dallas (Walter Matthau) who is none too happy when the final product flops with a resounding crash. Anxious to find a safe spot to hide out, Steve and Paul make their way to a Greek island where Steve is inspired by another brilliant idea for a scam that just might work, knowing full well that the gangster is sure to show up sooner or later. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Tony Randall, (more)
- 1963
A seven year old and his mother cope with his father's death in an auto accident. His grieving mother is in denial, and the rush of well-meaning relatives fails to help the situation. The boy observes the reaction of adults to the death of his father, taking refuge in the world and games of children to escape the sadness. Mary (Jean Simmons) slowly accepts her husband's death and begins to adjust to the devastating loss. The story is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by James Agee. Robert Preston plays the friendly, ill-fated husband whose brother Ralph (Pat Hingle) is the local undertaker in this dramatic tear jerker. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Simmons, Robert Preston, (more)
Filmed in panoramic Cinerama, this star-studded, epic Western adventure is a true cinematic classic. Three legendary directors (Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall) combine their skills to tell the story of three families and their travels from the Erie Canal to California between 1839 and 1889. Spencer Tracy narrates the film, which cost an estimated 15 million dollars to complete. In the first segment, "The Rivers," pioneer Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) sets out to settle in the West with his wife (Agnes Moorehead) and their four children. Along with other settlers and river pirates, they run into mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), who sells animal hides. The Prescotts try to raft down the Ohio River in a raft, but only daughters Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) and Eve (Carroll Baker) survive. Eve and Linus get married, while Lilith continues on. In the second segment, "The Plains," Lilith ends up singing in a saloon in St. Louis, but she really wants to head west in a wagon train led by Roger Morgan (Robert Preston). Along the way, she's accompanied by the roguish gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck), who claims he can protect her. After he saves her life during an Indian attack, they get married and move to San Francisco. In the third segment, "The Civil War," Eve and Linus' son, Zeb (George Peppard), fights for the Union. After he's forced to kill his Confederate friend, he returns home and gives the family farm to his brother. In the fourth segment, "The Railroads," Zeb fights with his railroad boss (Richard Widmark), who wants to cut straight through Indian territory. Zeb's co-worker Jethro (Henry Fonda) refuses to cut through the land, so he quits and moves to the mountains. After the railway camp is destroyed, Zeb heads for the mountains to visit him. In the fifth segment, "The Outlaws," Lilith is an old widow traveling from California to Arizona to stay with her nephew Zeb on his ranch. However, he has to fight a gang of desperadoes first. How the West Was Won garnered three Oscars, for screenplay, film editing, and sound production. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Henry Fonda, (more)
Meredith Wilson's hit 1957 Broadway musical was transferred to the screen in larger-than-life fashion in 1962. Robert Preston repeats his legendary stage performance as fast-talking con man Harold Hill, who goes from town to town selling citizens on starting a "boy's band," then extracts money from them by ordering instruments and uniforms, with the promise that he'll teach the kids how to be musicians. Once he's collected his bankroll, Hill skips town, leaving the kids in the lurch. Looking for new suckers in Iowa, Hill arrives in River City, where he declares that the only way to save the youth of River City from the lure of the poolroom is to organize a boy's band. He charms the mayor's wife Eulalie (Hermione Gingold) into forming a "ladies' dance committee" and sets his sights on winning over local music teacher Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones). Marian rightly considers Hill a fraud, especially when he espouses the "Think System" of learning music: if you think a tune, he claims, you can play it. But Marian becomes Hill's staunchest ally when her young brother Winthrop (Ronny Howard), sullen and withdrawn since the death of his father, exuberantly comes out of his shell at the prospect of joining Hill's band; and Marian's budding romance with the charming but unreliable Hill ultimately brings her out of her own shell as well. Marion Hargrove's script uses most of the original play, with a handful of amusing expansions, especially in the roles played by Gingold and by Buddy Hackett as Hill's comic sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, (more)
- 1960
Robert Preston plays the flip side of his eternally ebullient Professor Harold Hill in Dark at the Top of the Stairs. Preston portrays an early 20th-century harness salesman, fully aware that his product is rapidly becoming obsolete. He tries to compensate for his own lack of self-esteem by cheating on his patient wife Dorothy McGuire; Preston's "other woman" is played by Angela Lansbury. Meanwhile, daughter Shirley Knight falls in love with Jewish boy Lee Kinsolving, who kills himself in the face of relentless bigotry. And McGuire's sister Eve Arden is stuck in a loveless marriage with spineless Frank Overton. Robert Eyer plays the young alter-ego of William Inge, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning play on which this film is based. Eyer's fear of the "dark at the top of the stairs" is meant to be symbolic of the other characters' inner demons, a fact that Inge drives home every three minutes or so. In typical Inge fashion, an unlikely happy ending is reached just before "The End." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Dorothy McGuire, (more)
- 1956
Adapted by Hagar Wilde from his own 1946 Broadway play, this TV version of Made in Heaven offered the once-in-a-lifetime pairing of Imogene Coca and Robert Preston. After several years of marriage, Elsa and Zachary Meredith (Coca, Preston) have a tendency to take each other for granted. All this changes when the couple angrily, and briefly, come to a parting of the ways following a row at a cocktail party. The next morning, Elsa is amazed to discover that she has attracted the attentions of another party guest, suave European Laszlo Vertes (Jacques Bergerac), while Zachary is equally astonished by the attentions lavished upon him by a flashy blonde (Sheila Bond. Peter Lawford serves a host of this frothy Playhouse 90 presentation, which originally aired live from CBS Television Center in Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Victor Mature is in rare form in this otherwise uneven cavalry Western about a trapper who prevents a Little Big Horn-type disaster. Having been robbed of a year's worth of skins by marauding Indians, Jed Cooper (Mature), Gus Hideout (James Whitmore), and Mungo (Pat Hogan) sign on at a nearby fort. Jed, however, falls in love with Corinna (Anne Bancroft), the refined wife of the commanding officer, Colonel Marston (Robert Preston), and when the latter begins to plan an all-out attack on an unruly Indian tribe, he attempts to prevent what, in all likelihood, will be a mass slaughter. Based on a novel by Richard Emery Roberts, The Last Frontier was re-released to television as Savage Wilderness and came complete with a rousing title song performed by Rusty Draper. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Mature, Guy Madison, (more)
- 1955
Bigotry and interracial adoption form the basis of this drama. The trouble begins when an Army captain and his wife adopt a Japanese orphan. Suddenly they find themselves facing unanticipated prejudice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1952
RKO's Face to Face joined the "multistoried film" bandwagon set in motion by the Somerset Maugham omnibus films of the late 1940s. Produced by Huntington Hartford, Face to Face consists of two classic American short stories, each running approximately 45 minutes. Directed by John Brahm, "The Secret Sharer" is adapted from the Joseph Conrad story by Aeneas McKenzie. James Mason stars as a young, inexperienced sea captain who forms a symbiotic relationship with an imperiled sailor (Michael Pate). The second half of the film consists of Stephen Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," adapted by James Agee and directed by Bretaigne Windust. In this story, a frontier sheriff (Robert Preston), returning from his honeymoon with his bride (Marjorie Steele) in tow, must deal with an old and dreaded enemy (Minor Watson). Both the individual components of Face to Face were later reissued as separate films, with additional footage added to pad out the running times. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mason, Gene Lockhart, (more)
- 1951
When I Grow Up is an uncharacteristically modest film from producer Sam Spiegel (during his "S. P. Eagle" years). Bobby Driscoll plays a young boy who feels neglected and misunderstood at home. Preparing to run away, Bobby chances across an old diary once kept by his grandfather (Charley Grapewin). Leafing through the yellowed pages, Bobby discovers that grandpa went through many of the same childhood travails that Bobby is enduring today--and look how well gramps turned out! Armed with a renewed understanding of (and appreciation for) his elders, Bobby decides to stick around for a while and see how things develop. Sadly, such a pat happy ending was not the real-life lot of Bobby Driscoll, who died an alcoholic pauper seventeen years after When I Grow Up was filmed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bobby Driscoll, Robert Preston, (more)
This medium-budget western is also known as My Brother, the Outlaw and Outlaw Brother. Mickey Rooney plays an Eastern dude who heads westward to visit his brother Robert Stack. When ranger Robert Preston informs Rooney that Stack is a wanted outlaw, the Mick refuses to believe it. But when Preston's words prove to be true, Rooney vows to bring Stack to justice himself. Based on a short story by Max Brand, My Outlaw Brother is a somewhat uncharacteristic project for Elliot Nugent, a director usually associated with comedies and romantic dramas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Wanda Hendrix, (more)
- 1951
Teeny-tiny Hammer pictures built its reputation on second-feature melodramas before graduating to gore-encrusted horror epics. Cloudburst is a low-key thriller starring American actor Robert Preston, whose casting assured a certain degree of business in the States. Preston plays a code expert, resettled in England after the war and working at the British Foreign Office. One morning, Preston's wife is struck down and killed by a car driven by escaping criminals. Preston bypasses the efforts of Scotland Yard and pursues the criminals himself, using his codebreaking skills to track down the "big boys" in charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Elizabeth Sellars, (more)
- 1950
Though RKO Radio Pictures was, in 1951, still faithful to the concept of "B" westerns starring Tim Holt, the studio was more than capable of turning out an "A" oater from time to time. Best of the Badmen stars Robert Ryan as a former Union officer who persuades a fictional vigilante group which closely resembles Quantrill's Raiders to lay down their arms and seek out new and honest lives. Ryan is undercut by shifty Pinkerton man Robert Preston, who wants to collect the rewards on the heads of the ex-vigilantes; to that end, he frames Ryan for murder. With the help of Preston's embittered wife Claire Trevor, Ryan escapes and turns outlaw with the men whom he'd earlier convinced to turn honest. Best of the Badmen was produced in Technicolor, enhancing its already potent box-office appeal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor, (more)
Filmed in a two-tone process called Cinecolor, The Sundowners is a compact little western making good use of an old Hollywood chestnut. Robert Preston and Robert Sterling play two brothers who find themselves on opposite sides of the legal fence. Since Sterling rather than Preston has the mustache this time, Sterling's the bad guy. Caught in the crossfire is Preston's son, who is menaced by Sterling. This 1950 version should not be confused with the 1960 Warners film of the same name, which is set on an Australian sheep ranch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Preston, Robert Sterling, (more)
- 1949
Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman whose addiction to gambling all but ruins her life. Stanwyck's husband Robert Preston tries to stand by her side, but even he is driven away by her gambling mania. Stanwyck lies, cheats and steals in order to raise capital for her addiction, descending from comparative wealth to grinding poverty in the process. Eventually she is reduced to gambling for penny-ante stakes in back alleys, before she is rescued by her still-faithful spouse. The Lady Gambles includes an appearance by young Tony Curtis, in the bit role of a helpful bellhop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Preston, (more)
Tulsa was, in 1949, the most elaborate production released to date by the Eagle-Lion corporation-though all evidence, especially the technical credits, suggests that the film was put together at Universal-International, then merely distriibuted by Eagle-Lion (who made a fortune at the box office). The film traces the matriculation of the sleepy Oklahoma village of Tulsa into a major oil center Susan Hayward stars as an amibitious cattleman's daughter who wishes to wreak vengeance on the encroaching oil interests but who becomes a "black gold" mogul herself. Robert Preston costars as a geologist who hopes to rescue his beloved Oklahoma from being utterly devastated by drilling and derricks. This being a late-1940s film, Greed runs a poor second to Good at film's end, with the oilmen and the conservations learning to work together rather than as bitter enemies. While the story is a good one, the true selling angle of Tulsa was its action sequences, notably a fire scene that must have cost as much as all the other Eagle-Lion releases of 1949 combined. Originally lensed in vibrant Techicolor, Tulsa is usually seen today in washed-out, two-color Public Domain prints. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Hayward, Robert Preston, (more)
This fact -based western follows a soft-spoken railroad detective (Alan Ladd) as he brings a murderous ring of robbers to justice and rekindles an old flame. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Ladd, Brenda Marshall, (more)
- 1948
MGM's all-purpose title The Big City was deployed once more for this treacly 1948 drama. To prevent orphaned Midge (Margaret O'Brien) from being sent to an institution, Protestant minister Andrews (Robert Preston), Jewish cantor Feldman (Danny Thomas) and Catholic cop Patrick O'Donnell (George Murphy) jointly "adopt" the girl. Midge grows up in Feldman's home, and all is rosy until O'Donnell, on the verge of marrying funloving "Shoe-Shoe" Bailey (Betty Garrett in her film debut), announces that he wants to take full custody of the child. It's up to Midge herself, with the help of kindly Judge Abercrombie (Edward Arnold), to sort things out. Meanwhile, the Reverend Andrews finds romance in the shapely form of Florence Bartlett (Karin Booth). Though it's hard to forget that Danny Thomas was one of show business' most prominent Catholics, he delivers a convincing performance as the tune-happy Cantor Feldman, at one point foregoing his usual Kol Nidres in favor of a rousing cowboy song! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret O'Brien, Robert Preston, (more)
- 1947
Alan Ladd and Robert Preston star as Joe Madigan and Jim Davis, rival grain harvesters in the Midwest's wheat country. The animosity between Joe and Jim intensifies upon the arrival of duplicitous Fay Rankin (Dorothy Lamour). Choosing Jim, Fay demands that she be supported in the manner in which she is accustomed, leading Jim inexorably into a life of crime. A cathartic fistfight between Joe and Jim results in their undying friendship and the hasty departure of the troublesome Fay. All this, plus seemingly endless shots of wheat-harvesting teams at work. Alan Ladd and Robert Preston were both better served the following year in Whispering Smith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
