Michael Rennie Movies

This interesting early docu-drama offers a complete chronicle of the history of aviation from prehistoric times through the mid 1930s. Though the film was finished by 1935, it was not released until much later. H.G. Wells assisted on the first drafts of the script. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This Man in Paris was the followup to the successful British comedy-mystery This Man is News. Barry K. Barnes and Valerie Hobson return as Simon and Pat Drake, London's answer to Nick and Nora Charles. The plot gets under way when Simon, star reporter for a London tabloid, is dispatched to Paris to gets the goods on a counterfeiting gang. Despite warnings from editor Macgregor (Alistair Sim) to stay out of the way of the police authorities, Simon and Pat insist upon doing a lot of sleuthing themselves. Inevitably, hero and heroine find themselves at the mercy of the villains, but one is certain that they'll wriggle out of their predicament none the worse for wear. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dangerous Moonlight was the original British title for the wartime drama Suicide Squadron. Anton Walbrook plays a famed Polish composer who refuses to leave his homeland when the Nazis march in. His friends literally have to hoodwink him into leaving so that he will avoid extermination. Still anxious to avenge his countrymen, Walbrook joins a Polish air squadron headquartered in England. The film's romantic angle is personified by Sally Gray, an American newswoman whom Walbrook marries after a whirlwind courtship. The film itself is no better or worse than most others of its kind, but has remained etched in the collective memory of wartime filmgoers thanks to its omnipresent utilization of The Warsaw Concerto on the soundtrack. Financed by RKO Radio pictures, Dangerous Moonlight was distributed by Republic Pictures during the war years, though rights reverted to RKO in 1947. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a groom's constant jealousy creates domestic turmoil for his devoted bride. More trouble comes when he buys a lot of untried material for the lingerie factory where he works as a foreman. The material proves flimsy and he is fired. Things get worse when his overbearing and disapproving mother moves in. Fortunately, the poor bumbler's wife has a keen business sense and is able to turn her husband's failure into a wonderful success. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Tower of Terror is set in a lonely lighthouse on a tiny German-controlled island. Demented lighthouse keeper Kristan (Wilfred Lawson) is terrified that someday, somehow, the world will know that he murdered his wife 16 years earlier. Though he openly discourages visitors, Kristan is forced to play host for an odd assortment of strangers: A British secret agent (Michael Rennie),a German naval officer (John Longden) and a beautiful concentration-camp escapee (Movita). The latter so closely resembles Kristan's late wife that the old man goes completely round the bend, ordering the poor girl to dress in his wife's clothes and ultimately attempting to do her in as well. This juicy slice of Grand Guignol was produced in England by Pathe in 1941 and released in the US by Monogram the following year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, set during the reign of King Charles II, the aristocratic Lady Skelton (Margaret Lockwood) attempts to relieve the tedium of her day-to-day life by secretly acting as a highway robber. Meeting up with the rogue Captain Jerry Jackson (James Mason), the two begin a relationship. When her private and public lives begin to interfere with one another, however, Lady Skelton finds herself caught up in a tangled web of romance, danger, and jealousy. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by J. S. Fletcher, The Root of All Evil casts Phyllis Calvert as a grimly ambitious woman scorned. Jilted by wealthy Albert Grice (Hubert Gregg), farmer's daughter Jeckie Farnish (Calvert) vows to accumulate enough money so as to never again be dependent on any man's attentions. Suing Grice for breach of promise, Jeckie parlays her generous settlement into a sizeable fortune. She increases her riches by linking up with philandering mining-engineer Charles Mortimer (Michael Rennie). Though she and Mortimer accrue millions from oil wells, it simply isn't enough: the hard-hearted Jeckie has decided that she craves true romance after all. The moral of Root of All Evil is obvious from the first scene onward: it is up to Phyllis Calvert and her talented co-stars to wade through a sea of cliches and come up with something worth watching. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Idol of Paris is based on Paiva, Queen of Love, a novel by Alfred Schirokauer. Set in the mid-19th century, the film traces the rags-to-riches story of a girl named Theresa (Beryl Baxter). Sleeping her way to the top, she becomes a highly sought-after Parisian courtesan, one worthy of the attentions of the Emperor Napoleon (Kenneth Kent). But Theresa has no time for the Emperor, not with such virile lovers as Hertz (Michael Rennie) around and about. Despite inherent censorship problems, The Idol of Paris was picked up for American distribution by Warner Bros. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Golden Madonna is a peppy romantic adventure, utilizing its tight budget to the utmost. British actress Phyllis Calvert plays an American girl who inherits an Italian villa. Part of the legacy is "The Golden Madonna", a valuable religious painting. When the painting is stolen, Calvert enlists the aid of English tourist Michael Rennie in tracking down the thieves. The Golden Madonna is a typical "runaway" production of the 1940s: British stars, Hungarian expatriate director, and Spanish/Italian production crew. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Miss Laramie Pilgrim (Yolande Donlan) is an American factory girl. Anxious to see what life is like outside her own backyard, Miss Pilgrim trades places with a British lass. After reels and reels of culture-clash comedy, the heroine comes to the rescue of her new friends and neighbors, who are being exploited by a local land developer. On the verge of his American stardom, Michael Rennie plays Miss Pilgrim's English love interest. Miss Pilgrim's Progress was another of those minor British films that were played to death on American TV in the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Trio was the 1950 follow-up to the successful Somerset Maugham "omnibus" feature Quartet. Maugham himself introduces the three short playlets in this captivating collection. "The Verger" stars James Hayter as a church verger who loses his position when it is discovered that he can neither read nor write. With the help of sympathetic Kathleen Harrison, Hayter becomes a successful tobacconist, a turn of events leading inexorably to the story's beautifully ironic punchline. In "Mister Know-All," Nigel Patrick plays an obnoxious, garrulous passenger on a luxury cruise, who becomes a hero simply by knowing when to shut up. The final story, "Sanitorium," details the touching romance between tuberculosis victims Michael Rennie and Jean Simmons. Like Quartet, this was popular and successful enough to inspire a sequel, 1951's Encore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

All of Washington, D.C., is thrown into a panic when an extraterrestrial spacecraft lands near the White House. Out steps Klaatu (Michael Rennie, in a role intended for Claude Rains), a handsome and soft-spoken interplanetary traveler, whose "bodyguard" is Gort (Lock Martin), a huge robot who spews forth laser-like death rays when danger threatens. After being wounded by an overzealous soldier, Klaatu announces that he has a message of the gravest importance for all humankind, which he will deliver only when all the leaders of all nations will agree to meet with him. World politics being what they are in 1951, Klaatu's demands are turned down and he is ordered to remain in the hospital, where his wounds are being tended. Klaatu escapes, taking refuge in a boarding house, where he poses as one "Mr. Carpenter" (one of the film's many parallels between Klaatu and Christ). There the benign alien gains the confidence of a lovely widow (Patricia Neal) and her son, Bobby (Billy Gray), neither of whom tumble to his other-worldly origins, and seeks out the gentleman whom Bobby regards as "the smartest man in the world" -- an Einstein-like scientist, Dr. Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe). The next day, at precisely 12 o'clock, Klaatu arranges for the world to "stand still" -- he shuts down all electrical power in the world, with the exception of essentials like hospitals and planes in flight. Directed by Robert Wise, who edited Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) for director Orson Welles before going on to direct such major 1960s musicals as West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965), The Day the Earth Stood Still was based on the story Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Desert Fox is a superb filmed biography of German general Erwin Rommel, concentrating on the period between his retreat from North Africa and his government-decreed death. A brilliant tactician, Rommel earns the respect not only of his own men but of the enemy. Unfortunately, Adolph Hitler (Luther Adler), laboring under the delusion that he too is a military genius, demands more of Rommel than he's able to provide. Ordered to stand his ground in Africa to the last man, Rommel realizes that it's more intelligent in the long run to retreat; this incurs Hitler's wrath, but Rommel is a war hero, and as such is virtually "untouchable". Increasingly disgusted by Hitler's behavior, Rommel joins in a plot to assassinate the Fuhrer. The attempt fails, and Rommel's complicity is discovered. He is given a choice: either face a horrible death by torture, or commit suicide, thereby saving his family and his reputation. Rommel opts for the latter; the official story given to the press is that Rommel died heroically of his war wounds. Also appearing in The Desert Fox are Jessica Tandy as Rommel's wife and Leo G. Carroll as an insufferably aristocratic Von Ruhnstedt. The film caused a critical stir in 1951 by providing a tense ten-minute dramatic sequence before the opening credits--a technique that is all but de rigueur today. The Desert Fox was based on the book by Brigadier Desmond Young, who narrates the film and appears as himself in the early scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide