Robert Anderson Movies
- 1964
Union Colonel Brackenby (Melvyn Douglas) and his second-in-command, Captain Heath (Glenn Ford), attempt to command a rather inept cavalry unit during the Civil War. General Willoughby (Jim Backus) heads them out West on assignment rather than allowing them to foul things up where it counts. They soon get involved with Martha Lou, a confederate spy (Stella Stevens) posing as a prostitute, and her boss, Jenny (Joan Blondell) as well as a group of renegades and an Indian chief. In spite of their ridiculous slapstick antics, they manage to carry out their mission. This comedy was based on Company of Cowards, a novel by Jack Schaefer. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, (more)
- 1960
Produced and distributed by Moral Re-Armament, this standard musical drama about moral re-armament is an obvious plug that could have benefitted from a broader perspective. Loosely based on the life of Afro-American educator Mary McLeod (played by Muriel Smith), the tale oddly de-emphasizes how she devoted all her considerable energy into her impressive goal of starting a university. Instead, she is shown teaching school in a poor area (the school is on a hillside, no building is involved), and she features in several of the songs that brighten the movie. How the script came to ignore her magnificent achievements to focus on her singing and final quest for personal spiritual growth is probably due to the focus of the producers and funders. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Muriel Smith
- 1959
The mother (Shirley O'Hara) of young cavalryman Henry Carver (Larry Pennell), who has deserted his post and escaped into the Black Hills with his girlfriend Becky (Susan Cabot), hires Paladin to locate her errant son. Following Carver's trail, Paladin comes across several ominous clues that there is more to the situation than a mere missing-persons case. Tipping off the climax of the story is the fact that the events occur around the same time as a rather well-known military skirmish in June of 1876. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
A good girl goes bad in the face of peer pressure in this exploitation outing from the late '50s. The girl is new in town and before her first day of school is over finds herself face-to-face with a scary group of juvenile delinquent girls with dangerously conical breasts, and bad attitudes to spare. They demand she join their group, but she hesitates. Later she asks the nice college boy who jerks sodas at the local malt shop for his opinion. Of course he tells her to stay away, but soon the lure of popularity grows too strong and she joins the gang. She has great fun being a hooliganette. Unfortunately, the fun turns deadly serious when the gangs leader gets killed. Good campy fun. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvonne Lime, Brett Halsey, (more)
- 1958
Adapted by Christopher Knopf from a short story by C.B. Gifford, Joy Ride is a fast-paced pocket variation of the Desperate Hours/Night Holds Terror school of suspense. When middle-aged Mr. Miles (Regis Toomey) picks up a quartet of young-punk hitchhikers, he's only trying to extend the usual courtesies of the road. But the troublemaking foursome (Rad Fulton, Nicholas King, Robert Levin and Jim Bridges) assume that Miles' hospitality is borne of fear, and they decide to take advantage of the situation. The four boys invade Miles' home, trashing the place and causing Mrs. Miles (Ann Doran) to suffer a heart attack. Eventually the law catches up with the four vandals, giving Miles the opportunity for revenge, but he just isn't that sort of guy. One wonders if director Edward Bernds and actress Ann Doran ever shared any on-set anecdotes about their experiences in Columbia's 2-reel comedy unit. Joy Ride as originally released on a double bill with Unwed Mother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rad Fulton, Ann Doran, (more)
- 1958
Buchanan (Randolph Scott) rides alone through Texas, en route to his future home of Mexico. He is sidetracked during a stopover in a lawless border town, where Mexican youth Juan (Manuel Rojas) sits in jail, awaiting trial for the killing of the local bully. It seems that the dead man had several influential relatives who intend to string up poor Juan before justice can be served. Championing the boy's cause, Buchanan methodically sets out to undermine the villains by playing one against the other. As was customary in the Randolph Scott-Budd Boetticher films of the 1950s, Buchanan Ride Alone offers unrelenting tension and innumerable plot twists until its explosive finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Craig Stevens, (more)
- 1958
In this drama, a singer finds herself implicated in the fatal immolation of her husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1958
The Left Handed Gun was adapted by Gore Vidal from his own TV play, The Death of Billy the Kid. 33-year-old Paul Newman stars as 21-year-old William Bonney, the hotheaded gunslinger known as Billy the Kid. Avoiding the usual Hollywood glamourization of this controversial character, Newman portays Bonney pretty much as he was: an illiterate, homicidal cretin. Treated with kindness for the first time in his life by rancher Tunstall (Colin Keith-Johnston), Bonney becomes devoted to the rancher; in fact, it is virtually a love affair. Soon after, however, Tunstall is killed, prompting Bonney to go on a murderous spree. In the end, Bonney must face down the other important father-figure in his life, Pat Garrett (John Dehner). In case anyone should miss the Freudian subtext in The Left Handed Gun, the closeups of Bonney fondling his six-shooter will make things crystal clear. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Lita Milan, (more)
- 1957
Amidst a sea of late-1950s psychological westerns, The Phantom Stagecoach is almost refreshingly old-fashioned. The plot is motivated by an ongoing war between two rival stagecoach firms. Stagecoach owner Joe Patterson (Frank Ferguson) is as honest as the day is long, which is more than can be said for his competitor, Martin Maroon (Hugh Sanders). Using an armored stagecoach, Maroon sabotages Patterson's operation, never leaving behind any evidence that can be traced back to him. Operating undercover, Wells Fargo agent Glen Hayden (William Bishop) tries to put an end to Maroon's skullduggery, and along the way he falls in love with the villain's innocent niece Fran (Kathleen Crowley). Some amusing moments are provided by those grand old troupers Percy Helton and Maudie Prickett, while Richard Webb, TV's Captain Midnight, is cast against type as a reluctant baddie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Bishop, Kathleen Crowley, (more)
- 1957
In this dark drama, a schizophrenic is forced out of his hospital due to overcrowding, and his doctors tell him to avoid stressful situations. He goes to a beachside motel and likes both the area and the owner's daughter. Her father discovers that he is a mental patient and threatens to have him recommitted unless he leaves his daughter alone. The schizophrenic snaps momentarily, killing him, and he and the daughter flee down the beach. He tries to kill her by pushing her into the water, but comes to his senses and rescues her. He ends up turning himself in. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Danton, Colleen Miller, (more)
The John O'Hara/Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Broadway musical Pal Joey created quite a stir during its original theatrical run in 1940. Here we had a heel of a hero who sleeps with a wealthy older woman in order to realize his dream of owning his own nightclub, and who breaks the heart of the girl who truly loves him when she impedes his plans to get ahead. Blossom Time it wasn't. Due to the seamy nature of the plot and the double- and single-entendre song lyrics (especially the original words for "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", which you aren't likely to hear on most mainstream recordings of this tune), Pal Joey could not be faithfully filmed back in the 1940s. Even this 1957 version, made at a time when movie censorship was beginning to relax, was extensively sanitized for public consumption. Ambitious singer/dancer Joey (Frank Sinatra) is still something of a louse, but a redeemable one. The relationship between Joey and his older benefactress Vera Simpson (Rita Hayworth, who was actually a few years younger than Sinatra) is one of implication rather than overt statement. And Joey's true love, chorine Linda English (Kim Novak), is as pure as the driven snow, who vehemently expresses distaste at having to perform a striptease. The Rodgers and Hart songs ("I Could Write a Book" the aforementioned "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered") which seemed so cynical and ironic back in 1940, are given the typically lush, luxurious Hollywood treatment (many of the tunes, notably "There's a Small Hotel", were borrowed from other Rodgers and Hart shows, a not uncommon practice of the time). Pal Joey is nice to look at and consummately performed, but don't expect the bite of the original play, or the John O'Hara short stories which preceded them. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, (more)
- 1957
The literalism of writer-director Richard Brooks serves him well in this meticulously faithful adaptation of the Robert Ruark novel Something of Value. Filmed on location in Africa, this is the story of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, as seen through the eyes of a handful of protagonists. Virtually alone in a sea of racist British colonialism, gentleman farmer Peter McKenzie (Rock Hudson) strives to understand the demands of freedom and equality made by Kenya's black population in particular and his childhood friend Kimani (Sidney Poitier) in particular. Ultimately, however, McKenzie and Kimani find themselves on opposite sides of the fence when the latter aligns himself with the Mau Mau. Without advocating the terrorism of this controversial movement, the screenplay is careful to deal the ongoing iniquities and frustrations that forced men like Kimani to take arms against their white brethren. There were a few theatres in the American south who, feeling that the racial tensions inherent in Something of Value hit too close to home, refused to book this fascinating, thought-provoking, often startlingly brutal film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Dana Wynter, (more)
- 1957
Perhaps the grittiest and grimmest of the Randolph Scott-Budd Boetticher collaborations, The Tall T was adapted by Burt Kennedy from the Elmore Leonard short story The Captive. Scott plays a former ranch foreman who, along with newlyweds Maureen O'Sullivan and John Hubbard, is held hostage at a deserted stagecoach station by ruthless bandit Richard Boone and his henchmen Henry Silva and Skip Homeier. Since we already know that Boone has no qualms about killing a freckle-faced 10 year old boy, we shudder to think of what's in store for Scott and his fellow captives once Boone carries out his plan to rob the next stagecoach. In Boetticher's time-honored Mexican Standoff fashion, Scott bargains with Boone for the life of O'Sullivan, but his efforts are undercut by Hubbard's cowardly treachery. The film's sparse, carefully controlled tension level bursts into full-out bloodshed only minutes before the final fade-out. Curiously, the title The Tall T is never explained at any time; certainly the "T" doesn't refer to Randolph Scott, whose character name is Pat Brennan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, (more)
- 1956
Toy Tiger was a remake of the 1938 Deanna Durbin film Mad About Music. The adolescent girl of the original becomes a preteen boy in the remake, played with an excess of the cutes by Tim Hovey. A student in a private school, Hovey brags to his classmates about the accomplishments of his father. Actually the boy's dad has been dead for years, thus he's up against it when challenged to produce his fictional papa. Jeff Chandler, businessman friend of Hovey's widowed mother (Laraine Day), is coerced into posing as the boy's father. The "see it coming" ending was at least compensated for in Mad About Music by Deanna Durbin's singing. The banality of Toy Tiger is made bearable only by the gritty performance of Jeff Chandler, who lets us know that he knows he's better than his material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Chandler, Laraine Day, (more)
- 1956
Fury at Gunsight Pass is a brief, to-the-point "budget" western, well cast and excitingly staged. David Brian stars as bank robber Whitey Turner, whose outlaw gang takes over a small town. Beating gang leader Dirk Hogan (Neville Brand) to the punch by robbing the town bank ahead of schedule, Turner winds up empty-handed when crooked undertaker Boggs (Percy Helton) swipes the loot. Boggs is killed, whereupon his widow (Katherine Warren) gathers together the money and makes plans to skip town while the Law pursues Turner and Hogan. This is one of those stories in which no one emerges smelling like a rose; the suspense lies not in who will "get it", but how long will it be before someone halfway honest appears on screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Brian, Neville Brand, (more)
- 1955
Introduced by John Wayne, this debut episode of the Gunsmoke TV series finds Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) of Dodge City squaring off against Dan Grat (Paul Richards), a wanted outlaw from Amarillo. Grat has a reputation of killing his victims without saying a word, and Matt is determined to stop the criminal in his tracks before his kills again. But when the smoke clears, Grat remains standing--and it is Matt who is writhing on the ground. This cliché-smashing classic is based on the Gunsmoke radio episode of October 2, 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
At the height of their TV fame, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were contracted by MGM to make two theatrical films. The first of these, The Long, Long Trailer, stars Lucy and Desi as an upwardly mobile couple who decide to buy a trailer so they can live together while his job takes him around the country. Thanks to their naivete in such matters, they end up with a huge, bulky RV that costs five times what they planned. Their "seeing America" trip turns out to be a slapstick disaster, topped by Lucy's foolish decision to hide a heavy rock collection in the trailer; as Desi tries to maneuver a treacherous mountain road, the weighted-down home-on-wheels nearly loses its balance and almost tumbles off a cliff. The story is told in flashback, as Desi 'splains the breakup of his marriage to a motel court manager. Happily, Lucy shows up, goes "Waaaaah" a little, and all is forgiven. Despite the fact that audiences were getting Ball and Arnaz for free each week on television, The Long, Long Trailer was a big hit at the box-office. The film was adapted by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich from a novel by Clinton Twiss, with uncredited assistance from the I Love Lucy writing staff. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, (more)
- 1954
Filmed on location in Utah, The Outlaw Stallion top-bills Phil Carey and Dorothy Patrick, but the star of the proceedings is young Billy Gray. Living on a ranch with his widowed mother (Patrick), Billy makes friends with the white stallion who leads the herd of wild horses living under the ranch's protection. Villain Roy Roberts intends to flout the law by corralling the stallion's herd, then shipping the horses across the border. To accomplish this, Roberts uses a fierce black stallion to lead the herd astray. After a hoof-to-hoof fight between the "good" and "bad" stallions, Roberts resorts to kidnapping Gray and his mother to bring the white horse out in the open--and that's where hero Carey justifies his presence in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Carey, Dorothy Patrick, (more)
- 1953
William "One Take" Beaudine sat in the director's chair for the independently produced Born to the Saddle. Chuck Courtney plays a young horse trainer who goes to work for the truculent Donald Woods. Courtney believes that Woods was responsible for the death of the boy's father, and hopes to exact revenge if his suspicions are confirmed. Instead, the older and younger man become close friends thanks to their mutual love of horses. Featured in the cast is actress Karen Morley, in one of her few screen appearances after being officially blacklisted for her allegedly leftist political beliefs. Adele Buffington adapted the screenplay of Born to the Saddle from a short story by Gordon Young. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1953
An outdoor adventure musical comedy, Take Me to Town features Ann Sheridan as Vermilion O'Toole, a barroom singer with a shady past who has taken refuge in a small timber town in the Pacific Northwest. She's on the run from a federal agent, Ed Daggett (Larry Gates). Just out of town lives Will Hall (Sterling Hayden), a logger and preacher who is widowed and raising three children. The children meet O'Toole and try to hook her up with their father -- because they want a mother to care for them. This arouses the jealousies of Mrs. Stoffer (Phyllis Stanley), a widow who was hoping to snare Hall herself. Hall comes to prefer O'Toole, but she must overcome the resentment of the local townspeople, who think she's a floozy. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Sheridan, Sterling Hayden, (more)
- 1952
Reportedly, there was no love lost between the three stars of Untamed Frontier, and perhaps it was this tension that added so much depth to this otherwise formula-bound western. Joseph Cotten plays Kirk Denbow, the straight-laced son of ruthless cattle-baron Matt Denbow (Minor Watson), while Scott Brady co-stars as Glen Denbow, Kirk's firebrand brother (shades of Duel in the Sun, which also starred Cotten). Waitress Jane Stevens (Shelley Winters) witnesses a murder committed by Glen, then is railroaded into marrying him to prevent her from testifying in court. Inevitably, Jane falls in love with Kirk, the first of several fateful steps which lead to the film's bloody denouement. The late Suzan Ball, whose screen career was so tragically brief, makes her movie debut in Untamed Frontier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten, Shelley Winters, (more)
- 1952
The Lawless Breed is based on the exploits of Texas bad man John Wesley Hardin, played here quite convincingly by Rock Hudson. The film takes the Cecil B. DeMille approach of condemning evil by showing as much evil as the censor will allow. After nearly an hour of unrepentant perfidy, Hardin settles down to marry good woman Julie Adams. In middle age, he determines to steer his son clear of outlawry, resulting in a sentimental but non-maudlin finale. Directed by Raoul Walsh, who had given Rock Hudson his first screen role in Fighter Squadron, Lawless Breed was reportedly instrumental in landing Hudson as starring role in George Stevens' Giant (1956). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Julie Adams, (more)
- 1951
Cardsharp Edmond O'Brien gets more than he bargained for when he links up with con artists Lizabeth Scott and Alexander Knox. The trio plot to fleece a wealthy couple out of ten million dollars by having O'Brien pose as the couple's long-lost son. When the husband (Griff Barnett) refuses to change his will, Scott and Knox plan to bump him off. O'Brien may be a crook, but he's no murderer, so he balks at the plan and confesses the scam to the elderly couple--prompting Knox to add O'Brien to his list of potential victims. When Scott decides to pull out of the plan as well, Knox is run out of town, leaving the girl with O'Brien--truly "two of a kind," who'll be able to line up suckers elsewhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmond O'Brien, Lizabeth Scott, (more)
Previously filmed in 1931 under its original title, Theodore Dreiser's bulky but brilliant novel An American Tragedy was remade in 1951 by George Stevens as A Place in the Sun. Montgomery Clift stars as George Eastman, a handsome and charming but basically aimless young man who goes to work in a factory run by a distant, wealthy relative. Feeling lonely one evening, he has a brief rendezvous with assembly-line worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), but he forgets all about her when he falls for dazzling socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). Alice can't forget about him, though: she is pregnant with his child. Just when George's personal and professional futures seem assured, Alice demands that he marry her or she'll expose him to his society friends. This predicament sets in motion a chain of events that will ultimately include George's arrest and numerous other tragedies, including a vicious cross-examination by a D.A. played by future Perry Mason Raymond Burr. A huge improvement over the 1931 An American Tragedy, directed by Josef von Sternberg, A Place in the Sun softens some of the rough edges of Dreiser's naturalism, most notably in the passages pertaining to George's and Angela's romance. Even those 1951 bobbysoxers who wouldn't have been caught dead poring through the Dreiser original were mesmerized by the loving, near-erotic full facial closeups of Clift and Taylor as they pledge eternal devotion. A Place in the Sun won six Oscars, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, although it lost Best Picture to An American in Paris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, (more)
- 1951
Arthur Kennedy stars as a blinded war veteran struggling to adjust to his affliction in peacetime. He must overcome his pugnacious attitude towards any problem he can't think his way out of--and he must learn to temper his inbred racial prejudices. Peggy Dow plays the woman who loves Kennedy enough to be cruel to him during his bouts of self-pity. Refusing to lapse into sentimentality, Bright Victory, based on the novel by Bayard Kendrick, is one of the best of the "against all odds" films of the 1950s. Arthur Kennedy's performance won him the New York Critics' Circle award, but not the Oscar he so richly deserved. Trivia note: new Universal contractee Rock Hudson receives 18th billing for his bit role as a soldier in this film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Kennedy, Peggy Dow, (more)
