Lester Sharpe Movies

Paul Newman made his screen debut in the gloriously nonsensical costume epic The Silver Chalice. Freely adapted from a novel by Thomas B. Costain, the film casts Newman as Basil, a first century Greek sculptor who is sold into slavery by his wicked uncle. Transported to Rome, Basil manages to enjoy a measure of freedom when his captors discover his sculpting talents; he also marries another slave, the demure Deborra (Pier Angeli) and dallies with the sensuous Helena (Virginia Mayo), the mercenary partner of court magician Simon (Jack Palance). The plot congeals when Basil is commissioned to create a silver receptacle for the chalice from which Jesus Christ drank at the Last Supper. Lorne Greene, likewise making his screen bow, is all portentous speeches and prophetic observations as the apostle Peter. Of the many silly highlights, the silliest -- and most memorable -- occurs when the unhinged Simon is possessed with the notion that he can fly with the gods (Palance's performance in this episode must be seen to be believed). When The Silver Chalice was first released, poor Paul Newman was roundly panned as a third-rate Brando; one reviewer noted that he "delivers his lines with the emotional fervor of a Putnam Division conductor announcing local stops." No one has been more vocal in the drubbing of Newman's performance than Newman himself. When the film was first aired on TV in Los Angeles in 1961, the actor took out a full-page apology in the trade papers. In recent years, however, Paul Newman has pointed to The Silver Chalice with pride, observing that he was able to overcome a bad beginning and endure as a screen favorite for over four decades. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Carrie is based on Sister Carrie, a novel by Theodore Dreiser. Dreiser's clumsy, unwieldy prose is streamlined into a neat and precise screenplay by Ruth and Augustus Goetz. Jennifer Jones stars as Carrie, who leaves her go-nowhere small town for the wicked metropolis of Chicago. Here she becomes the mistress of brash traveling salesman Charles Drouet (Eddie Albert), then throws him over in favor of erudite restaurant manager George Hurstwood (Laurence Olivier). Obsessed by Carrie, George steals money from his boss to support her in the manner to which he thinks she is accustomed. Left broke and disgraced by the ensuing scandal, Carrie deserts George to become an actress. Years later, the conscience-stricken Carrie tries to regenerate George, who has fallen into bum-hood. If Laurence Olivier seems a surprising casting choice in Carrie, try to imagine what the film would have been like had Cary Grant, Paramount's first choice, accepted the role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The title tells all in Realart's Basketball Fix. Talented young basketball star Johnny Long (Marshall Thompson) allows success to go to his head. To keep on living in the manner to which he is accustomed, Johnny agrees to shave a few points here and there at the behest of gambling boss Mike Taft (William Bishop). Thoroughly disgusted, sportswriter Peter Ferredey (John Ireland), the man who discovered Johnny, prepares to blow the whistle at the risk of his own life. Waiting anxiously on the sidelines throughout is Johnny's girl friend Pat Judd (Vanessa Brown). This otherwise ordinary programmer is distinguished by the excellent cinematography of Stanley Cortez. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Striking while the iron was hot, actor/producer Mikel Conrad registered the title The Flying Saucer for copyright not long after UFOs were allegedly spotted in Washington State. Filmed on location in Alaska, Flying Saucer stars Conrad (who also co-wrote) as a secret agent, dispatched by the government to find out whether or not the UFO reports constitute a threat against American defenses. He goes on a "pub crawl" in Alaska, looking for eyewitnesses to the flying-saucer phenomenon. After a series of slow-moving complications, the agent rounds up a group of Russian spies who've been using the saucer for evil purposes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dana Andrews is brutal metropolitan police detective Dixon, who despises all criminals because his father had been one. When the cops pick up two-bit gambler Ken Paine (Craig Stevens) as a murder suspect, Dixon subjects Paine to the third degree -- and accidentally kills him. In disposing of the body, Dixon inadvertently places the blame for the killing on cab driver Jiggs Taylor (Tom Tully). Having fallen in love with Jigg's daughter, Morgan (Gene Tierney), Dixon tries to clear the cabbie without implicating himself, but ultimately he becomes trapped in a web of his own making; luckily Morgan promises to stand by him. Where the Sidewalk Ends was adapted from a novel by William L. Stuart; its director was Otto Preminger, who'd previously put Andrews and Tierney through their paces in Laura (1944). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Desert Hawk deserves to be seen on the basis of its cast alone. No more believable than any of Universal's other sword-and-sand epics, this one stars Yvonne de Carlo as Princess Shaharazade (sic) and Richard Greene as Omar, aka the Desert Hawk. By day a humble blacksmith, the Desert Hawk spends his evenings battling against the oppresive regime of Prince Murad (George Macready). One of the Hawk's tactics is to trick Shaharazade into marriage, so that he can enlist the aid of the army commanded by the Princess' father. Murad retaliates by kidnapping Shararazade, leading to an exciting climactic rescue. Never mind all that: the real fun in Desert Hawk is spotting the celebrities-to-be in the supporting cast. Playing the villainous Captain Ras is none other than Rock Hudson, while the Desert Hawk's loyal companions Aladdin and Sinbad are played, respectively, by Jackie Gleason and Joe Besser--and surprise, Joe is heavier than Jackie! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The trendy elegance of director Douglas Sirk's later big-budget soap operas is nowhere to be found in Sirk's Atomic-Age melodrama Mystery Submarine. MacDonald Carey stars as Brett Young, a U.S. undercover agent whose job it is to prevent atomic secrets from falling into the wrong hands. Marta Toren co-stars as Madeline Brenner, a woman of mystery who is seemingly in cahoots with enemy agents. The film's "maguffin" consists of the top-secret info stored within the brain cells of scientist Adolph Guernitz (Ludwig Donath). The titular mystery submarine figures into the film's climax, which takes place just off the coast of Mexico. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Howard Hawks directed this classic farce about how love attempts to triumph over military red tape after the close of World War II. Capt. Henri Rochard (Cary Grant) is a French officer who is assigned to put a stop to a black market operation in occupied Germany with the help of Lt. Catherine Gates (Ann Sheridan), an American WAC. While their initial meetings are hardly harmonious, in time Rochard and Gates find that opposites really do attract, and they fall in love. The two decide to get married, which seems simple enough, but the moment Gates receives orders to return to the United States and Rochard wants to join her, they soon discover just how complicated the U.S. Army can make things. While the Army has a strict protocol for dealing with "war brides," there is no similar routine for men who marry female Army personnel, so in order to follow his new wife into the States, Rochard has to disguise himself as a WAC. From this moment on, nearly everything that happens to Rochard is an affront to his dignity and/or his patience, from his inability to share a bunk with his new bride to his discovery that Army regulations prevent him from driving a motorcycle (Gates has to take the handlebars, while her husband is forced to ride in a sidecar). As more than one writer has pointed out, while Grant gives a deft comic performance, it's a bit of a stretch to imagine that he's French (but probably no more than to imagine that anyone would really believe that he's a woman). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

When Republic moved its popular star William Elliot from "B" series westerns to "A" frontier specials, a lot of the fun and excitement was lost in the process. Additionally, Republic seemed reluctant to admit the new Elliot films were westerns, as witness the title Gallant Legion, which could have been mistaken for a Sahara Desert epic. Actually Gallant Legion is one of the better Elliot big-budgeters, with Bill as one of the charter members of the Texas Rangers. The Rangers' task is to prevent greedy landgrabbers from dividing Texas into sections and setting up their own fiefdoms. Elliot's leading lady in Gallant Legion is Adrian Booth, who as "Lorna Gray" had been a Republic serial villainess a few seasons earlier. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of the great onscreen romantic pairings, Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, ended with this romantic adventure film, their fourth cinematic collaboration. In Shanghai after WWII, veteran pilots Larry Briggs (Ladd) and Pete Rocco (Wally Cassell) are dismayed when informed that friend Mike Perry (Douglas Dick) will soon die of a terminal illness. Larry and Pete decide to keep the tragic news from Mike and spend the next weeks showing him a high time. To finance the festivities, they accept an offer of $10,000 from unscrupulous war profiteer Zlex Maris (Morris Carnovsky) in exchange for a flight to Vietnam. When departure time arrives, Maris shows up with the police in hot pursuit, so the buddies take off with his secretary, Susan Neaves (Lake), whose briefcase contains Maris' earnings -- $500,000. En route to Saigon, however, the crew crash-lands in an Asian jungle. As they make their way back to civilization with a detective (Luther Adler) tailing them, Mike develops feelings for Susan, who plays along at Larry's urging. Susan, however, is actually falling for Larry and vice versa. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

In this documentary-inspired thriller, P.J. McNeal (James Stewart) is a reporter who is asked by his editor to look into a potential story: their newspaper has been carrying an ad offering a substantial reward for information regarding the murder of a policeman that occurred eleven years ago. It turns out the ad was placed by a cleaning woman named Tillie Wiecek (Kasia Orzazewski); her son Frank (Richard Conte) was convicted of the crime, but she is thoroughly convinced her son had nothing to do with the killing. McNeal doesn't believe for a moment that Frank could be innocent, but he sees a good human interest story in Tillie and writes a piece that receives a great deal of favorable attention. Brian Kelly (Lee J. Cobb), McNeal's editor, thinks there might be more to this story and asks P.J. to look into the original murder case. To McNeal's surprise, Frank passes a lie detector test in which he proclaims his innocence, and the more he digs into records on the case, the more he finds wrong with the original investigation; some evidence is missing, much is inconclusive, and the reporter begins to wonder if Frank might have been railroaded after all, or if the police might be trying to keep something quiet. Call Northside 777 was based on a true story. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

One of the most ambitious productions ever turned out by Monogram studios, Song of My Heart represented the directorial debut of screenwriter Benjamin Glazer. The film unfolds the life story of Peter Ilytich Tschaikovsky, with Swedish actor Frank Sundstrom in the title role. Avoiding the sensualism and sensationalism of Ken Russell's later Tschaikovsky biopic The Music Lovers (wisely, given the censorial limits of 1947), Glazer's film tastefully concentrates on the Russian composer's romantic relationship with his patroness Amalya (Audrey Long). Though he achieves great professional success on the concert stage, Tschaikovsky finds personal happiness and contentment only when he is on the verge of death. The huge cast includes such diverse personalities as Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Mikhail Rasumny, Gale Sherwood, Jimmie Dodd, and even veteran western heavy Lane Chandler. Deemed too good to be released with the Monogram imprimatur, Song of My Heart was handled by the studio's "prestige" division, Allied Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi