Lorin Raker Movies

Though filmed through the facilities of Hal Roach Studios and produced by Hal Roach Jr., Tales of Robin Hood was released by Lippert Pictures. Robert Clarke stars as the young Earl of Huntington, who after losing his property and title to the invading Normans heads to Sherwood Forest. Here he gains notoriety and adulation as beneficent outlaw Robin Hood. Mary Hatcher co-stars as Maid Marian, while Sir Guy of Gisborne and the Sheriff of Nottingham are played respectively by Paul Cavanaugh and Tiny Stowe. Robin's Merry Men are portrayed by Wade Crosby (Little John), Ben Welden (Friar Tuck), Robert Bice (Will Scarlet) and Bruce Lester (Alan A-Dale). Reportedly, Tales of Robin Hood was intended as the pilot film for a TV series; indeed, its structure resembles two half-hour TV episodes cobbled together. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fresh from radio and TV, "America's Favorite Family" stars in Here Come the Nelsons. That's right: this harmless little comedy is purely a vehicle for Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky. Since there must be a plot, the scriptwriters contrive to have Harriet uncharacteristically express jealousy over the presence of Ozzie's former schoolmate Barbara Schutzendorf (Barbara Lawrence). Meanwhile, Ozzie seethes when handsome young Charlie Jones (Rock Hudson) pays a bit too much attention to Harriet. To prove that he's still got what it takes, Ozzie competes against Charlie in a rodeo held in honor of the town's centennial (this sort of plot device usually happened to David or Ricky on the TV show). For no reason other than there are extra reels to go, little Ricky is kidnapped by a pair of bank robbers, played by Sheldon Leonard and Ed Max. Here Come the Nelsons was directed by Frederick De Cordova, whose other credits for Universal included such deathless entries as Bedtime for Bonzo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alcoholic Bill Cannon's (Dan Duryea) past sins catch up with him in Chicago Calling. Cannon's daughter Nancy (Melinda Plowman) is seriously injured in an accident while out of town, and his wife Mary (Mary Anderson) has promised to call him back as soon as she learns the result of Nancy's operation. Unfortunately, Cannon's phone service is cut off for nonpayment, forcing him to go begging for the $50 necessary to square his phone bill. Only through the kindness of waitress Peggy (Marsha Jones) and telephone engineer Jim (Ross Elliot) is Cannon able to make the crucial call to his wife. Alas, the operation has proved unsuccessful. Will the impact of this tragedy push Cannon over the brink, or will it inspire him to seek out a new lease on life? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Seaton's 1948 comedy Chicken Every Sunday was based on the play by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein as well as the original memoirs of Rosemary Taylor. Set during the turn of the century on the American frontier, Emily Heffernan (eleste Holm) is the practical wife of foolish would-be businessman Jim Heffernan (Dan Dailey). While Emily struggles to keep the household together by renting out rooms to boarders, Jim wastes the family's earnings on get-rich-quick schemes. Told in flashback, Emily recalls her 20-year marriage before filing for divorce. Emily has had enough and wants to leave, but their friends try to get them back together. Also starring Colleen Townsend, Alan Young, and a ten-year-old Natalie Wood. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Bob Regan (Edmond O'Brien) -- a small-time attorney from the wrong side of the tracks who nonetheless has a lot of dedication -- is representing a vegetable pushcart owner (Tito Vuolo) in a damage suit against multi-millionaire Andrew Colby (Vincent Price). It seems Colby's car wrecked the man's cart, and he and his attorneys have been too busy running the world (or Colby's world) to deal with the case, so Regan barges right into the millionaire's office. Professing to be impressed with Regan's tenacity on behalf of his client, Colby offers to hire him, for a lot more money than he is making or ever stood to make, but not as an attorney -- rather, as a bodyguard/troubleshooter. It seems that Colby's been receiving threats lately, and he likes the way Regan looks after his clients. To aid him in his new job, Colby also secures a gun and permit for his new employee. Regan is so surprised at this whole turn of events in his life that he accepts the offer for the chance to finally get in on some the big money he sees around him. He's given entrée to Colby's upper-crust world, including his huge New York townhouse and all that goes with it, never smelling a rat. This is mostly because, apart from the money he's suddenly earning and traveling in the midst of, he's distracted by the presence of Colby's personal secretary, Noel Faraday (Ella Raines) -- about as pretty, intelligent, and seductive a female as Regan has ever seen, and who seems mutually intrigued by his rather earthy and plain-spoken presence in the Colby organization. Regan is a fresh dose of working-class honesty amid the elegance, affectation, and duplicity that oozes out of Colby's world, and on Regan's side of it he can hardly keep his hands off of her.

However, during Regan's first night on the job, a shot rings out from upstairs and he finds Colby in a struggle with an intruder carrying a gun -- and Regan shoots the man dead. The stranger turns out to be Leopold Kroner (Fritz Leiber), Colby's one-time business associate, who just finished a ten-year stretch for embezzlement of a million dollars. The threats seemed to come from Kroner, and there was a gun in his hand when Regan shot him, but that's not good enough for Lieutenant Damico of the NYPD; it's all a little too convenient that Colby's one-time partner gets himself killed that way, at the hands of some lawyer playing detective whose gun permit barely has the ink dry. Damico makes no secret of his doubts to Regan, or of the fact that he would like nothing more than to pull his friend in on a murder rap just for being a prize chump, mostly because he doesn't like murder and can't really see Regan as being as stupid as he seems. It turns out that he is just about that stupid, and is always a step behind Colby in trying to unravel the mystery of what really happened and how Kroner came to be in the house. Even Noel, for all of her intelligence and education, can't keep ahead of her employer's machinations; even as they dig deeper, more and more evidence gets planted implicating them both in a conspiracy, and before they can spring their trap, Damico is there ready to put the cuffs on both of them. But that's when matters get really interesting, as Damico begins to prove that if Regan isn't half as bright as he ought to be, the police lieutenant is a lot smarter than he looks or his job description calls for. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This story of two young hopefuls who come to Hollywood is merely a thin device to feature almost every star working for Paramount Studios in 1947. Mary Hatcher plays Catherine Brown, a woman of humble origins who arrives in Hollywood, where she meets another wanna-be movie star, Amber La Vonne (Olga San Juan). They work their way through the Paramount studios, trying to impress every important person. Mostly, the film is a cavalcade of songs by various stars that take place at several studio and Hollywood locations, including the famous Brown Derby restaurant. Many of the film's songs were written by Frank Loesser. Dorothy Lamour and Alan Ladd sing "Tallahassee"; Bing Crosby and Bob Hope play golf and sing a duet, "Harmony"; the Original Dixieland Jazz Band plays "Tiger Rag"; and a host of other top performers of the era appear in brief cameos. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Without Reservations has to be the least typical John Wayne picture of the postwar era. Top billing is bestowed upon Claudette Colbert as Kit, a best-selling novelist heading westward to oversee the film version of her latest novel. Taking it upon herself to select the man who should portray the hero of her novel, Kit chooses war hero Rusty (John Wayne), whom she meets during her train trip to Hollywood. Unaware of Kit's true identity, Rusty and his pal Dink (Don DeFore) rail against the factual errors in her book. One thing leads to another, and before long Kit, Rusty and Dink have all been thrown off the train for annoying the other passengers. After a hectic stopover at a New Mexico farm, Kit reveals who she really is to Rusty and Dink, who are understandably put out. All is forgiven in the end, of course, with Kit and Rusty altar-bound at fadeout time. The Hollywood scenes feature such guest celebrities as Cary Grant, Louella Parsons and Jack Benny; and yes, that is an unbilled Raymond Burr as Claudette Colbert's dancing partner. Without Reservations was based on Jane Allen and May Livingston's novel Thanks, God, I'll Take it From Here (too bad they couldn't use that title!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In 1912, John Bunny and Flora Finch starred in the one-reel farce The New Secretary, wherein Bunny's wife hires a homely stenographer to keep her hubby from straying. 33 years later, this old chestnut was reheated for The Men in Her Diary. The cute-as-a-button Peggy Ryan "dresses down" to portray the unattractive secretary--who, unfortunately for her boss, keeps a diary of her imagined love affairs. Everything runs according to expectation in this lively Universal second feature. Men in Her Diary was written by the "odd couple" team of playwright F. Hugh Herbert and Three Stooges gagman Ellwood Ullman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The overcrowding in WWII-era Washington, D.C., provided the concept for this comedy, as well as another film from the previous year, The More the Merrier (1943). Lee Stevens (Fred MacMurray) is an executive from a toy company owned by T.J. Todd (Edward Arnold). In hopes of landing a lucrative wartime production contract, Todd has dispatched Stevens and Jane Rogers (Paulette Goddard), a secretary, to Washington, D.C., for a meeting with a political fat cat. Once there, Jane foolishly cancels their hotel reservations, unaware that the capitol is so jammed that there is nowhere else to stay. She devises a plan -- she and Lee will pose as servants in the home of wealthy Ira Cromwell (Roland Young), where their lodging will be part of their salary. Lee is a disaster as a domestic, and when the very same politician they've come to meet arrives for a formal dinner, disaster looms. Standing Room Only (1944) was the third of five films in which MacMurray and Goddard would appear together. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Robert Paige plays a struggling songwriter who poses as a millionaire cowboy. It's all part of a zany, wacky and nutty scheme to win the hand and heart of Broadway star Frances Langford. Apparently Paige is a fast worker, since the film runs only 54 minutes. If one looks closely, one might deduce that Cowboy in Manhattan has traces of an earlier Universal musical. That it does; the film is a remake of 1937's You're A Sweetheart, which starred Alice Faye and George Murphy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mitchell Leisen utilizes his stylistic pizzazz to enliven this romantic comedy that proves the old adage "opposites attract" -- but only after three or four reels. Claudette Colbert is Katherine Grant, an upper-crust fashion photographer who has a gang of admirers snapping at her heels. When her vindictive editor tries to teach her a lesson for her snobbishness by giving her an assignment photographing lower-class workers digging a tunnel, she falls for Jim Ryan (Fred MacMurray). Ryan is also attracted to her, so when she leaves her camera tripod in the tunnel, Ryan obligingly returns it to her. When Ryan returns to the job site, he is ribbed by his co-workers. Ryan loses his head and gets into a fight and is subsequently suspended from his job. Katherine, feeling guilty about Ryan being suspended from his job (and also looking for an excuse to have him around), hires him as her assistant. But in his new job, Ryan starts to put the make on one of Katherine's flirtatious models, Darlene (June Havoc). Katherine must now find a way to overcome her superior attitude and make her true feelings known to Ryan. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The Andrews Sisters headline this musical. They play the lead act at a popular nightclub. The trouble begins when they hire a few students from a financially foundering dance school for their newest production. One of the dancers, a rich young socialite, desperately wants to be in it too, but her prurient maiden aunts refuse to allow her to disgrace their family by becoming a common chorine. She and the club owner (who must have the aunt's permission because the girl is underage) try to convince them, but it's not easy. Meanwhile the talented girl finds herself falling hopelessly in love with the club bandleader. In desperation, the ingenious club owner has the obliging Andrews dress up as the aunties and sign the consent forms. The real aunts are infuriated when they discover the ruse and in a tizzy rush down to the club. They arrive just in time to catch the girl's performance and a predictably happy ending ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The third of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's starring films, In the Navy was released second; Universal had just made a bundle off Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates, and the studio wanted another "service" comedy put into circulation in a hurry. Abbott and Costello share over-the-title billing with Dick Powell, who plays a popular radio singer. Eager to avoid his screaming fans, Powell enlists in the Navy under an assumed name, hoping to serve his country incognito. Girl reporter Claire Dodd chases after Powell, hoping to secure a photo of the fugitive "idol of millions." So much for the "straight" plot; what are Abbott and Costello up to? Well, Costello plays a ship's cook who wants to impress Patty Andrews of The Andrews Sisters. With his pal Abbott's help, Costello poses as an admiral -- and in so doing nearly destroys the entire American fleet. This climactic sequence ran into trouble when the U.S. Navy decided that it didn't want to be held up to ridicule by showing the bumbling Costello ordering its ships around. To save the climax -- the most expensive portion of the film -- the scriptwriters wrote a new coda, passing off Costello's "admiralty" as a dream sequence. The best Abbott and Costello routines have little if anything to do with the plot: our favorite (indeed, everyone's favorite) is Costello proving to Abbott that 7 X 13 = 28. Those viewers who prefer music to comedy will be thoroughly satisfied by the vocal contributions of Dick Powell and The Andrews Sisters, as well as a lively dance number offered by the Condos Brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide