Elizabeth Russell Movies

This 1953 tear-jerker is the third film version of the Edna Ferber novel So Big. Stepping into the role previously essayed by Colleen Moore and Barbara Stanwyck, Jane Wyman plays Selina, a girl of wealth who comes to a Dutch community outside Chicago as a schoolteacher. Here Selina falls in love with poor but big-hearted truck farmer Pervus DeJong (Sterling Hayden). When Pervus dies, Selina is left a widow with a small son and little else to her name. Through grit and perseverance, Selina single-handedly raises the boy, who grows up to be architect Dirk DeJong (Steve Forrest). Taking a cue from his self-sacrificing mother, Dirk devotes himself to creativity rather than money-grubbing while pursuing his profession. Meticulously produced, So Big is one of the better "saga" soapers of the 1950s, with Jane Wyman repeating her "aging" process from 1951's The Blue Veil. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An earnest rural melodrama set among Norwegian immigrants in Wisconsin, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes is a slightly updated version of George Victor Martin's 1940 novel. Edward G. Robinson stars as Martinius Jacobson, a farmer devoted to his wife Bruna (Agnes Moorehead) and precocious seven-year-old daughter Selma (Margaret O'Brien), whom he lovingly calls "Jente Mi." Along with her freckle-faced five-year-old cousin, Arnold (Jackie "Butch" Jenkins), Selma lives a carefree, joyous life, which is only temporarily clouded by the sudden death of Ingeborg Jensen (Dorothy Morris), an emotionally disturbed young women whose stern father (Charles Middleton) had refused to let her attend school despite the pleas of newly arrived schoolmarm Viola Johnson (Frances Gifford). The latter is quietly falling in love with Nels Halvorson (James Craig), the town newspaper editor, but cannot envision herself as a rural wife. She changes her mind when, inspired by young Selma, the entire town of Fuller Junction come to the aid of Bjorn Bjornson (Morris Carnovsky), who has lost his livestock when lightning struck a newly erected barn. When Selma generously donates her pet calf to the impoverished farmer, the townspeople in general, and Martinius in particular, follow suit, prompting Viola to reconsider her harsh views of country life and retract her letter of resignation to the school board. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Bedlam is one of the costlier psychological-horror efforts from RKO producer Val (Curse of the Cat People) Lewton. Boris Karloff stars as the supervisor of the notorious 18th century British insane asylum St. Mary's of Bethlehem, better known as "Bedlam." Anna Lee, who co-stars as the feisty mistress of a fatuous government official, is appalled by the miserable treatment afforded the Bedlam inmates and insists that reforms be initiated. The crafty, politically connected Karloff responds by having Lee herself incarcerated in the institution: she is a "willful woman", and therefore must be insane. With the help of a few of the more rational patients, Lee stages a mutiny, capturing Karloff and giving him a mock trial. Though they don't truly intend to harm Karloff, he is seriously injured by one of his tormented patients. Assuming that Karloff is dead, the other inmates wall up his body in the cellar--and as the last brick is put in place, we see Karloff's eyes suddenly open! Though it has it moments of genuine terror, Bedlam is as historically accurate as possible, right down to the archaic dialogue passages. For the most part, the film is an indictment against political corruption, with Karloff (in a terrific, multi-faceted performance) alternately bullying and wheedling to save his own behind. Val Lewton (writing under the pseudonym Carlos Keith) based his film on one of the illustrations in Hogarth's "The Rake's Progress," glimpses of which are seen throughout the film as transitional devices. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Summer Storm is a remarkably effective Hollywood filmization of Anton Chekhov's The Shooting Party. Linda Darnell stars as the young and beautiful wife of a middle-aged Russian civil servant (Hugo Haas). Darnell becomes the object of the affections of her husband's employer, a lecherous count (Edward Everett Horton). The girl in turn is enamored of a provincial judge (George Sanders). At first, all flirtations are playful and harmless, but the judge takes Darnell so seriously that he ends up killing her in a jealous rage. Her husband is blamed for the crime, but the Count gets his comeuppance during the 1917 Bolshevik revolution (which didn't figure into the original Chekhov story, inasmuch as the author died in 1904). The big surprise in this is not that it works as well as it does, but that it features comic actor Edward Everett Horton in a straight, almost unsympathetic role, which he underplays beautifully. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" thrillers, Weird Woman stars Lon Chaney Jr. as Norman Reed, a college professor worried about the sanity of his new bride, Paula (Anne Gwynne), who was raised in Hawaii with all manners of superstitions, including voodoo. Jealous of Paula, Norman's former girlfriend, librarian Ilona Carr (Evelyn Ankers), does what she can to ruin the marriage, including suggesting to fellow professor Millard Sawtelle (Ralph Morgan) that Norman is about to expose him as a fraud, and helping moonstruck college girl Margaret Mercer (Lois Collier) obtain a job as Norman's assistant. Margaret's advances quickly become grating to Norman, who summarily throws the girl out of his office, and Sawtelle commits suicide rather than face disgrace. Mrs. Sawtelle (Elizabeth Russell) blames her husband's death on Paula's supposed witchcraft and Margaret's boyfriend, David (Phil Brown), physically attacks Norman. The boy is killed in the ensuing struggle and Norman begins to question his own sanity. Until, that is, he finally puts two and two together and sets a trap for Ilona. Based on the 1943 novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber Jr., Weird Woman was remade twice, as Burn, Witch, Burn (1962) starring Janet Blair and Witches' Brew starring Lana Turner. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this musical, a lovely and ambitious young woman masquerades as the daughter of a formerly beloved stage actress to help launch her Broadway career. She chooses one entertainment columnist in particular. But the starlet's carefully-made plans begin to unravel when a rival columnist learns of her ruse and tries to expose her. Songs include: "Let's March Together" (Saul Chaplin), "I Bumped My Head on a Star" (Cindy Walker), "Honk, Honk" (Roy Jacobs, Gene De Paul), "Timber Timber" (Don Reid, Henry Tobias), "Moon on My Pillow" (Charles, Henry, Elliot Tobias). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

No relation to the 1935 Lon Chaney Jr. vehicle of the same name, Republic's A Scream in the Dark is based on The Morgue is Always Open, a novel by Jerome Odlum. Robert Lowery plays Mike Brooker, a police reporter and amateur sleuth. Mike finds himself up to his neck in danger and intrigue when tracking down an elusive killer. The murders are committed by a stiletto-tipped umbrella, and there is no shortage of suspects. With only 53 minutes' running time, Mike is forced to assemble the clues in record time, with nary a pause for breath or logic. Marie "The Body" McDonald is better than usual as the hero's sweetheart, while Elizabeth Russell, a fixture of Val Lewton's RKO horror films, is suitably sinister as an oft-widowed suspect. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Handed the exploitive title Cat People, RKO producer Val Lewton opted for a thinking man's thriller--a psychological mood piece, more reliant on suspense and suggestion than overt "scare stuff". Simone Simon plays an enigmatic young fashion artist who is curiously affected by the panther cage at the central park zoo. She falls in love with handsome Kent Smith, but loses him to Jane Randolph. After a chance confrontation with a bizarre stranger at a restaurant, Simon becomes obsessed with the notion that she's a Cat Woman--a member of an ancient Serbian tribe that metamorphoses into panthers whenever aroused by jealousy. She begins stalking her rival Randolph, terrifying the latter in the film's most memorable scene, set in an indoor swimming pool at midnight. Psychiatrist Tom Conway scoffs at the Cat Woman legend--until he recoils in horror after kissing Simon. If the film's main set looks familiar, it is because it was built for Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (Lewton later used the same set for his The Seventh Victim). Cat People was remade by director Paul Schrader in 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Despite the typical Monogram drawbacks -- murky photography, stolid staging, ramshackle sets -- The Corpse Vanishes remains one of the more deliciously outrageous horror exercises of the 1940s. Bela Lugosi, as hammy as ever, stars as Dr. Lorenz, a European horticulturist whose octogenarian wife (Elizabeth Russell) needs fluids from the glands of young virgins to remain forever young and beautiful. Jumping to conclusions, the insane medico's rationale seems to be that the best place to find a virgin is at the altar. Consequently, seven young women are in short order poisoned by a mysterious orchid just before their "I do's" and brought in a catatonic state to Dr. Lorenz' mansion in Brookdale. Cub reporter Pat Hunter (Luana Walters) is on to the scheme and visits the Lorenz estate under the pretense of researching an article on orchids. With a typical sound-stage storm brewing up, she agrees to spend the night, and what a night it proves to be. Not only is poor Pat awakened by a visit from Dr. Lorenz' slobbering, hunchbacked helper, Angel (Frank Moran, who stalks her while eating a drumstick), the reporter is also slapped in the face by the disagreeable countess, snubbed by a nasty dwarf (Angelo Rossitto), and nearly suffers the same fate as the poor brides when rescued in the nick of time by an enraged housekeeper (Minerva Urecal) and her boyfriend, Dr. Foster (Tristram Coffin). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Paramount's resident "big mouth" Martha Raye was afforded her first top-billed screen assignment in Hideaway Girl. The script would have us believe that rambunctious heroine Helen (Raye) is a high-society debutante with a fondness for singing. The plot is set in motion by a stolen necklace, apparently stolen by Helen. She's innocent, of course, as is another suspect named Mike (Robert Cummings) whom she pretends to marry to save him from arrest. The meaning of the film's title is clarified in the final scene, wherein Helen hides herself on the yacht of the actual thief (Monroe Owsley). In the tradition of Martha Raye's signature tune "Mister Paganini," Hideaway Girl serves up a forgettable little ditty called "Beethoven, Mendelsohn and Liszt." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Forgotten Faces is the third of four versions of the old chestnut Heliotrope Harry. Herbert Marshall stars as Harry Ashton, a gambler-turned-jailbird saddled with a vindictive ex-wife named Cleo (Gertrude Michael). Seventeen years after the break-up, an impoverished Cleo, now a cheap burlesque performer, searches for her daughter Sally (Jane Rhodes), whom she gave up for adoption. She blackmails Sally's foster parents, threatening to tell the girl that her real mother is a tramp and her real father has just served a long prison term. But Harry, recently paroled, stops Cleo in her tracks by killing her. This grand gesture also costs him his own life, but at least he can shuffle off his mortal coil secure in the knowledge that his daughter will be spared the truth. Director E. A. Dupont is at his Germanic best in Forgotten Faces, which is altogether suitable to the melodramatic nature of the storyline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide