Bob Anderson Movies
Some actors and actresses will remain forever tied to a single role; Bob Anderson is one such performer, forever remembered for his portrayal of the young George Bailey (played as an adult by Jimmy Stewart) in Frank Capra's holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946). The scion of a well-respected Hollywood family, Anderson grew up in Southern California and debuted onscreen at age seven in the Shirley Temple outing Young People (1940), then followed it up with similar turns in such features as Tender Comrade (1943), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), and The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945). Life, however, brought about his most beloved portrayal; his memorable scenes were those in which George Bailey prevents the Bedford Falls druggist from making a permanent and fatal error, and subsequently receives a declaration of love from wife-to-be Mary Hatch -- in his deaf ear. In subsequent years, Anderson stepped behind the camera and eked out a successful career in production, rising through the studio ranks from second assistant director to production manager on various projects. Anderson died of melanoma at age 75 in June 2008. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Sharkishly handsome Zachary Scott is right in his element in the Eagle-Lion melodrama Ruthless. Told in flashback, this is the story of the rise and fall of unscrupulous financier Horace Vendig (Scott). Hiding behind a veneer of respectability, Vendig steps on and rolls over anyone who stands in his way, including his lifelong friend Vic Lambdin (Louis Hayward), utilities executive Buck Mansfield (Sydney Greenstreet) and various and sundry women, among them Susan Duane (Martha Vickers) and Christine Mansfield (Lucille Bremer). Poor Diana Lynn is subjected to Vendig's cruelties twice, in the dual role of Martha Burnside and Mallory Flagg. It is a tribute to the acting skills of Zachary Scott that he makes his despicable character somehow likeable and, in the end, rather pathetic. Based on a novel by Dayton Stoddart, Ruthless, like many Eagle-Lion films of its period, was topheavy with loaned-out Warner Bros. contract players. It was also one of the few big-budgeted projects helmed by "cult" director Edgar G. Ulmer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zachary Scott, Joyce Arling, (more)
This is director Frank Capra's classic bittersweet comedy/drama about George Bailey (James Stewart), the eternally-in-debt guiding force of a bank in the typical American small town of Bedford Falls. As the film opens, it's Christmas Eve, 1946, and George, who has long considered himself a failure, faces financial ruin and arrest and is seriously contemplating suicide. High above Bedford Falls, two celestial voices discuss Bailey's dilemma and decide to send down eternally bumbling angel Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers), who after 200 years has yet to earn his wings, to help George out. But first, Clarence is given a crash course on George's life, and the multitude of selfless acts he has performed: rescuing his younger brother from drowning, losing the hearing in his left ear in the process; enduring a beating rather than allow a grieving druggist (H.B. Warner) to deliver poison by mistake to an ailing child; foregoing college and a long-planned trip to Europe to keep the Bailey Building and Loan from letting its Depression-era customers down; and, most important, preventing town despot Potter (Lionel Barrymore) from taking over Bedford Mills and reducing its inhabitants to penury. Along the way, George has married his childhood sweetheart Mary (Donna Reed), who has stuck by him through thick and thin. But even the love of Mary and his children are insufficient when George, faced with an $8000 shortage in his books, becomes a likely candidate for prison thanks to the vengeful Potter. Bitterly, George declares that he wishes that he had never been born, and Clarence, hoping to teach George a lesson, shows him how different life would have been had he in fact never been born. After a nightmarish odyssey through a George Bailey-less Bedford Falls (now a glorified slum called Potterville), wherein none of his friends or family recognize him, George is made to realize how many lives he has touched, and helped, through his existence; and, just as Clarence had planned, George awakens to the fact that, despite all its deprivations, he has truly had a wonderful life. Capra's first production through his newly-formed Liberty Films, It's a Wonderful Life lost money in its original run, when it was percieved as a fairly downbeat view of small-town life. Only after it lapsed into the public domain in 1973 and became a Christmastime TV perennial did it don the mantle of a holiday classic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Donna Reed, (more)
One-time movie song-and-dance man James Dunn won an Academy Award for his "comeback" performance in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Based on the best-selling novel by Betty Smith, the film relates the trials and tribulations of a turn-of-the-century Brooklyn tenement family. The father, Dunn, is a likable but irresponsible alcoholic whose dreams of improving his family's lot are invariably doomed to disappointment. The mother, Dorothy McGuire, is the true head of the household, steadfastly holding the family together no matter what crisis arises. The story is told from the point of view of daughter Peggy Ann Garner, a clear-eyed realist who nonetheless would like to believe in her pie-in-the-sky father, whom she dearly loves. Joan Blondell co-stars as the family's brash, freewheeling aunt, whose means of financial support is a never-ending source of neighborhood gossip. This first film directorial effort of Elia Kazan earned a special Oscar for "Most Promising Juvenile Performer" Peggy Ann Garner. A Tree Grows From Brooklyn was remade for TV in 1974, and also served as the basis of a Broadway musical. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, (more)
- 1945
Fabric designer Harry Quincey (George Sanders) has the unhappy task of caring for his tiresome unmarried sisters, Lettie (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and Hester (Moyna MacGill). When Harry falls in love with Deborah Brown (Ella Raines), Hester is delighted, but Lettie smolders with jealousy. Upset at Lettie 's opposition, Harry would like nothing better than to do her in. Does he? And what has really happened here? When originally presented on Broadway, Thomas Job's play Uncle Harry utilized a complex flashback technique in unfolding its story, which was capped by a grimly ironic ending. Stephen Longstreet's screenplay not only takes a more linear approach, but also radically alters the ending to conform with the censorship strictures then in effect. The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry was one of several Universal film noirs of the 1940s produced by longtime Alfred Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Sanders, Ella Raines, (more)
- 1943
A bit treacly at times, Tender Comrade is nonetheless a fascinating distillation of the American mindset during WW2. Ginger Rogers is at her noblest and most self-sacrificial as Jo, whose husband Chris (Robert Ryan) is off fighting the war. Though pregnant, Jo finds a job at Douglas Aircraft, saving her money by living in a group home with several of her female co-workers. Delivering lines like "Share and share alike, that's democracy", Jo and her friends pool their salaries and divvy up responsibilities, as wait for news from the Front about their husbands and sweethearts. When news arrives that Chris has been killed, Jo delivers an impassioned cheer-up speech to her infant son, which will either leave the viewer in tears or in giggles, depending upon one's frame of mind. The "collectivism" implicit in Tender Comrade (not to mention its politically chancy title!) would later cause a lot of trouble for screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and director Edward Dmytrk during the HUAC "Communist witchhunt" era. In 1943, however, audiences didn't worry about such things, and the film posted a huge profit for RKO Radio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, (more)
"Over the hill" at the tender age of 12, Shirley Temple closed out her 20th Century-Fox contract with the musical seriocomedy Young People. After years of trodding the boards in vaudeville, Wendy Ballantine (Temple) and her adoptive parents Joe (Jack Oakie) and Kit (Charlotte Greenwood retire) to a small town so that the youngster can receive a proper upbringing. Alas, the town is full of Babbitt-like bigots who disapprove of "show people", and who make no secret of their desire that Wendy and her family leave town immediately. But when a dangerous storm arises, the courage of Wendy, Joe and Kit-coupled with their rescue of several stranded children-forces the townsfolk to realign their thinking and welcome the family into their fold. The best moments in Young People occur at the very beginning, wherein Shirley Temple literally grows up before the audience's eyes via filmclips from her earlier starring vehicles (watch how Jack Oakie suddenly turns into James Dunn-from the waist down-in a musical number lifted from 1934's Stand Up and Cheer). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Temple, Jack Oakie, (more)
- 1940
The success of 1938's Kentucky prompted 20th Century-Fox to come up with the similar (though not entirely identical) horse-racing opus Maryland. After her husband (Russell Hicks) is killed during a fox hunt, Maryland matriarch Charlotte Danfield (Fay Bainter) forbids her son Lee (John Payne) from ever riding or even owning a horse. Lee obedient only until he meets lovely Linda Stewart (Brenda Joyce), the daughter of his father's ex-trainer William Stewart (Walter Brennan, doing a virtual reprise of his Kentucky characterization). In concert with Linda, Lee enters his horse in the fabled Maryland Hunt, an annual steeplechase event. The outcome of the race is instrumental in weakening Charlotte Danfield's anti-equestrian stance, but Stewart, alas, isn't around long enough to fully bask in his restored glory. Much of Maryland was filmed on location, gorgeously lensed in Technicolor by George Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Brennan, Fay Bainter, (more)
