John Qualen Movies

16 Fathoms Deep was a curious choice as the first effort from Arthur Lake Productions. Heretofore known best as Dagwood Bumstead in Columbia's Blondie series, Arthur Lake not only elected to produce this remake of the 1934 melodrama of the same name but also to play the film's comedy-relief character, a camera-crazy tourist named Pete. The story concerns a former Navy frogman who takes a job as a sponge fisherman in the Gulf of Mexico. The job proves more hazardous than expected, due to the dirty tactics perpetrated by a rival sponge dealer. Lloyd Bridges, still eight years away from TV's Sea Hunt, stars as the frogman-turned-fisherman, while Lon Chaney Jr., who played the hero in the 1934 version of 16 Fathoms Deep, is here cast as the villain. Filmed in Anscocolor, the 1948 16 Fathoms Deep paid its way, but wasn't successful enough to allow Arthur Lake to quit his day job as Dagwood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The action in A Big Hand for the Little Lady centers around a high-stake poker game. The participants include some of the wealthiest men in the West (among them Jason Robards Jr., Kevin McCarthy, Charles Bickford and Paul Ford). Into this rarefied atmosphere trudges impoverished farmer Henry Fonda, who despite the protests of his wife Joanne Woodward plunks down his last dollars to join the game. Halfway through the proceedings, Fonda falls ill. With quiet desperation, Woodward sits down daintily at the table and says in a firm voice, "Gentlemen, how do you play this game?" End of story? Not by a long shot! This O. Henry-style shaggy dog story is based on a Dupont Show of the Week TV presentation Big Deal at Laredo. Keep an eye out for two movie veterans in bit parts: silent screen comic Chester Conklin and 1930's leading lady Mae Clarke. ~ Hal Erickson, 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 dire need of money for his wife's operation, Mr. Crabtree (John Qualen) accepts a job from a certain Mr. X (played by a decidedly pre-Bonanza Lorne Greene). Crabtree's assignment should he decide to accept it (as if he has any choice) is to murder a blackmailer. Our hero goes along with scheme, taking great pains to make it appear as if the blackmailer has committed suicide -- but just before the murder is to be carried out, Fate takes a hand in matters. The role of the presumed blackmailer is played by Malcolm Atterbury, best remembered as the fellow who notices the crop duster "where there aren't any crops" in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 movie classic North by Northwest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alias a Gentleman is impeccably tailored to the slovenly talents of MGM star Wallace Beery. He's cast as Jim Breeden, an ex-convict who finds himself wealthy overnight when oil is discovered on his property. His first order of business as a man of means is to locate his long-lost daughter. Hoping to get a piece of the financial action, several of Breeden's disreputable buddies try to palm off Elaine Carter (Dorothy Patrick) as his daughter -- and he falls for the ruse hook, line and sinker. Touched by Breeden's efforts to "do right" by her, Elaine comes to love the old soak and refuses to go through with his jailmates' shakedown scheme. They retaliate by kidnapping the girl, forcing Breedin to rely on his prison instincts to affect a rescue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director King Vidor intended An American Romance as the third entry in his "War, Wheat and Steel" trilogy (the War had been covered in The Big Parade, while Wheat was dispensed with in Our Daily Bread). Two years in production, the film cost nearly $3 million-little of which actually shows up on screen due to heavy post-production editing and rearranging of scenes. Brian Donlevy stars as immigrant laborer Steve Dangon, who becomes convinced early on that the only way he'll get anywhere in life is to accumulate huge sums of money. He takes a job in a midwestern steel mill, calculatedly working his way up the ladder from foreman to owner of an auto manufacturing firm. Though he regards himself as a "man of the people", Dangon resists the efforts of his workers to form a union.--even when his son Teddy (Horace McNally) is won over to the workers' point of view. A bitter three-month strike forces Dangon's board of directors to give in to the workers' wishes Disillusioned, Dangon retires from his business, but returns to work determined to switch over to the manufacture of airplanes when WW2 creates a demand for defense products. The "documentary" aspects of the story are far more compelling that the dramatic passages, with Donlevy's performance vacillating from strong to so-so. Minus any real star names (the leading lady is MGM contractee Ann Richards, a graduate of short subjects), An American Romance flopped at the box office, and Vidor in later years tended to dismiss the film as a misfire, severly damaged by studio tampering. The currently available 121-minute version stands up reasonably well, leading one to wonder if the film was not actually improved by MGM's insistence (over Vidor's protests) upon removing 30 minutes from the running time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lively June (Jane Withers), teen-aged daughter of mystery writer Waldo Everett (Jon Qualen), who calls her "Angel," becomes involved in intrigue centering on movie star Pauline Kaye (Sally Blane) and her companion Stivers (Joan Davis). Reporter Nick Moore (Robert Kent), once sweet on Pauline, is convinced that her sudden disappearance is a publicity stunt, which is true -- until gangster Bat Regan (Harold Huber) decides to get involved. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

One of the more prestigious films of its time, John Ford's film adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has a sleek Art Deco look strangely out of tune with its tale of moral struggle. Ronald Colman stars as Martin Arrowsmith, an idealistic young doctor, who, after graduating from medical school, must forego a research position with Dr. Max Gottlieb (A.E. Anson) due to his marriage to nurse Leora Tozer (Helen Hayes). He returns to her rural hometown and establishes a small practice, and in his spare time eventually develops a serum for a deadly cow disease. Based on this work he is able to return to work under Dr. Gottlieb. When Dr. Gustav Sondelius (Richard Bennett), a friend of the researchers, informs them about a plague devouring the West Indies, Arrowsmith decides to travel to the area to test whether the serum he's working on might be effective in combatting it. The white citizens of the area refuse to allow themselves to be the subjects of an experiment, but black Harvard-educated Dr. Oliver Marchand (Clarence Brooks) persuades the island's native population to go along with Arrowsmith's plan. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

Telecast dozens of times on cable television back in the 1980s, Columbia's Babies for Sale was another stepping-stone on Glenn Ford's road to stardom. The story concerns a crooked adoption racket, operating out of a supposedly charitable maternity home. The establishment's staff uses methods of persuasion both subtle and overt to convince the unfortunate mothers-to-be to give up custody of their unborn children, which are then sold to adoptive parents who've had no luck within legal channels. Those expectant mothers who protest against these shady goings-on have a habit of disappearing without a trace. The racket is exposed by crusading reporter Steve Burton (Glenn Ford), with the aid of inquisitive maternity-home inmate Ruth Williams (Rochelle Hudson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like many 1930s Warner Bros. films, Black Fury drew its inspiration from the headlines. The story is adapted from a true-life incident from 1929, wherein a striking Pennsylvania coal miner was beaten to death by three company detectives; this served as the focus for Henry R. Irving's stage play Bohunk as well as Judge M. A. Musmanno's story Jan Volkanik, both of which were woven into Black Fury's screenplay. Using a Polish accent so thick one can cut it with scissors, Paul Muni plays an illiterate miner, happy in his job and his company-town surroundings until his girl Karen Morley deserts him for policeman William Gargan. A disconsolate, drunken Muni stumbles into a labor meeting, where his loud, unthinking outbursts win him the leadership of the new miner's union. When the company locks out the strikers and brings in scabs, the angry miners hold the thick-headed Muni responsible. Fellow miner John Qualen, Muni's best friend, is then killed by a gang of rampaging hired goons. Vowing to "feex" the situation, Muni kidnaps head goon Barton MacLaine and takes him into the bowels of the mine with several sticks of dynamite in tow. Muni threatens to blow himself, MacLaine, and the mine to smithereens unless management comes to terms with the union. Thanks to overwhelming public support, the owners capitulate, and Muni is the hero of the hour. Though it seemed uncompromising in 1935, Black Fury obviously pulls its punches when seen today; for example, it is suggested that the mine owners are guiltless regarding violence against the strikers, laying blame on the hired detectives, who are shown to be in the employ of a crook who plays both sides against the other. Even allowing for this, Black Fury is one of the most powerful of Warners' "social conscience" films. Although the Academy gave Muni a Best Supporting Actor nod for this film, the AMPAS database indicates that it wasn't an "official nomination" - he was a write-in candidate, and came in second. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Edward G. Robinson plays orchid-loving gangster Little John Sarto, who aspires to "real class." During a power struggle with usurping mobster Jack Buck (Humphrey Bogart), Sarto is taken for a one-way ride, but he escapes his would-be assassins and hides out in a monastery overseen by Brother Superior (Donald Crisp). Sarto insists that he'd like to become a monk himself, but in fact he's using the monastery as a hideout, the better to mount his counterattack against Buck. Eventually Sarto's resolve is weakened by the kindness of the monks, and he decides to turn over a new leaf. He sees to it that Buck is brought to justice, and also fixes up his true-blue "moll," Flo Addams (Ann Sothern), with good-hearted Texas rancher Clarence Fletcher (Ralph Bellamy). (News flash! Bellamy gets the girl for once!) Sarto, now known as "Brother Orchid," returns to the monastery for good, declaring that he's finally found the real class. Though Edward G. Robinson didn't want to play another gangster, he agreed to star in Brother Orchid in exchange for being allowed to essay the lead in Warner Bros.' historical drama A Dispatch From Reuter's (1940). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paramount's Pine-Thomas production unit was afforded a larger budget than usual for Captain China. The title character, played by John Payne, is a ship's captain whose embittered behavior after losing his lady love seemingly leads to tragedy. Accused of deliberately scuttling his ship during a typhoon, Captain China hopes to clear himself by signing on as a common seaman on a vessel captain by his former first mate Brendensen (Jeffrey Lynn). There's no love lost between the two men, and their mutual animosity is intensified when both fall in love with beautiful passenger Kim Mitchell (Gail Russell). During a second storm, the strengths and weaknesses of both men are brought to the forefront, leading to a satisfactory conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during the early part of WWII. Despite pressure from the local authorities, notably the crafty Capt. Renault (Claude Rains), Rick's café has become a haven for refugees looking to purchase illicit letters of transit which will allow them to escape to America. One day, to Rick's great surprise, he is approached by the famed rebel Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) and his wife, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), Rick's true love who deserted him when the Nazis invaded Paris. She still wants Victor to escape to America, but now that she's renewed her love for Rick, she wants to stay behind in Casablanca. "You must do the thinking for both of us," she says to Rick. He does, and his plan brings the story to its satisfyingly logical, if not entirely happy, conclusion. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide