Meg Randall Movies
A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Meg Randall turned up in Hollywood in the late '40s under the name of Gene Roberts. She signed with Universal in 1949 and, with a new moniker, played ingenues in several above average programmers, including Criss Cross (1949), a near-classic film noir starring Burt Lancaster. She later played Babs Riley in The Life of Riley (1949) and was awarded the regular ingenue role of Kim Parker in four Ma and Pa Kettle comedies. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1957
Former "Henry Aldrich" James Lydon is cast against type as a mean-spirited reform school alumnus in Chain of Evidence. Despite the boy's volatile temper, police lieutenant Bill Elliot is convinced that Lydon is a good kid underneath. Elliot's faith in his fellow man is sorely tested when Lydon is accused of murdering businessman Hugh Sanders at the urging of Sanders' craven wife Tina Carver. With the help of Lydon's girlfriend Claudia Barrett, Elliot follows the chain of evidence in hopes of proving the boy's innocence. This Allied Artists programmer was originally released on a double bill with Dragoon Wells Massacre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Haggerty
- 1957
Last of the Badmen gets started in 1880 Chicago, as detective Dan Barton (George Montgomery) prepares to head westward. Barton intends to round up a gang of stagecoach bandits, whose modus operandi is to spring criminals from jail in return for their services. In order to infiltrate the gang, Barton poses as an incarcerated crook with a huge price on his head. What he doesn't know is that gang leader Hawkins (Douglas Kennedy) invariably kills the bad guys that he's freed from jail in order to collect the reward money. For the most part an ordinary western, Last of the Badmen is elevated by its novel premise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Montgomery, James Best, (more)
Adam Williams is frighteningly effective as the "psycho next door" in Without Warning. Normally a quiet, unobtrusive fellow, Carl Martin (Williams) is pushed over the edge when his blonde wife cheats on him. Thereafter, he uses a pair of garden shears to kill every blonde female with whom he comes in contact. The then-new Los Angeles Freeway provides a thrilling backdrop for the film's pulse-pounding final scenes. Without Warning was produced by Arthur Gardner and Jules Levy and directed by Arnold Laven, the same production team that was responsible for such 1950s and 1960s TV weeklies as The Rifleman, Burke's Law and The Big Valley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Williams, Meg Randall, (more)
- 1951
This third entry in Universal's money-spinning "Ma and Pa Kettle" series once more stars Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as the title characters. This time, the Kettles extend their hospitality to their stuffy Boston in-laws (Ray Collins and Barbara Brown). Trouble brews when the Bostonites offer to raise the Kettles' grandson in a more "suitable" environment--namely, their own. The plot goes off on another tangent when it is presumed that the Kettle farm is rich with uranium. Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm delivers the goods for fans of the series, and even provides a few bright and funny moments for non-fans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, (more)
- 1950
The second of Universal's "Ma and Pa Kettle" series, Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town stars, as ever, Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride. This time, the Kettles win a letter-writing contest, which offers as first prize an all-expense-paid trip to New York City. Once in Manhattan, the huge Kettle brood raises all sorts of Holy Ned, culminating in an episode involving stolen bank money. Somehow this all ends with a riotous, slapstick-laden square dance. The film's romantic subplot is handled by Richard Long as oldest son Tom Kettle and Meg Randall as his high-society wife Kim. Also carried over from the first Kettle entry are Ray Collins and Barbara Brown as the Kettle's wealthy in-laws. A winner at the box-office, Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town helped pay for many of Universal's "prestige" releases of 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, (more)
- 1949
The title couple and their enormous brood of bumpkins made their movie debut in the film version of Betty McDonald's humorous book The Egg and I (1947) where they appeared as supporting characters. Audiences found them funny and so the characters got their own long-running series of B movies. Ma and Pa Kettle is the first in that series and centers on the exploits of the impoverished hayseed family after Pa wins a contest by writing a jim-dandy slogan for a tobacco company. The Kettle's prize is a brand new, ultra modern, fully automated home. It's a good thing too, for Ma, Pa and their 15 kids were about to get booted out of their previous wreck of a home. Of course the film is at its funniest when the Kettles are trying to figure out how to operate their fancy new digs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, (more)
- 1949
Viewers who know Gale Storm only through her chaotic comic performances on TV's My Little Margie and Oh Susanna will be surprised by her subdued dramatic performance in Abandoned. Storm plays Paula Consodine, who comes to Los Angeles in search of her missing sister. Newspaperman Mark Sitko (Dennis O'Keefe), investigating on Paula's behalf, discovers that the sister is dead, a supposed suicide. The whole thing seems a bit fishy to Sitko, and indeed it is: the girl's death was engineered by a black-market adoption racket, headed by one DeCola (Will Kuluva). Paula bravely offers to act as bait to draw the criminals out, a formidable task given the presence of such secondary villains as Raymond Burr and Mike Mazurki. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis O'Keefe, Gale Storm, (more)
- 1949
This comedy is based on the enduring radio series and chronicles the attempts of an airplane riveter to find a better paying, less physically taxing job. Chester A. Riley gets his chance when his employer's son falls in love with Riley's daughter. Wanting to make her father happy, the daughter, who does not really love the boss's son, agrees to be his wife if her father can be promoted to an executive. This happens and the reluctant but honorable young woman prepares to become a bride until Riley finds out and sets things right. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Bendix, James Gleason, (more)
Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) returns home after a few years of knocking around the country following his divorce from good-time girl Anna (Yvonne De Carlo). Getting his old job back driving an armored car, and not even convincing himself that he's making a new start, he also wants his old wife back. When he finds Anna, he quickly learns that she is involved with gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). Nonetheless, they carry on a clandestine affair, with Steve foolishly believing that Anna will return to him. Even after she marries Slim, Steve, with her encouragement, masochistically clings to this doomed obsession. So when Slim catches them together, Steve ad libs plans for an armored car robbery that includes Slim. The two rivals form an uneasy and untrusting collaboration, but Steve and Anna plan to double cross Slim. However, the title of Robert Siodmak's film noir gem is, not incidentally, Criss Cross. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, (more)
