Queenie Smith Movies

As he did in his screenplay for Silver Streak (1974), writer/director Colin Higgins mixes life-and-death melodrama with broad slapstick in Foul Play. Goldie Hawn stars as Gloria Mundy, a recent divorcée whose attempts to start life anew in San Francisco are bollixed up when she is inadvertently swept up in an assassination plot against the Pope. Offering sometimes dubious aid and comfort to Gloria is bumbling federal agent Tony Carlson (Chevy Chase). The film's comedy ranges from the farcical seduction efforts by musician Stanley Tibbets (Dudley Moore) to the zany, gag-filled car-chase finale. Foul Play features character actors Rachel Roberts and Eugene Roche as villains, Burgess Meredith as a martial arts-happy landlord, and Billy Barty as a long-suffering religious bookseller. It also packs in a memorable "throwaway" gag involving a profane Scrabble game played by sweet little old ladies Queenie Smith and Hope Summers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Seriously wounded at the battle of Shiloh 12 years earlier, former army bugler Granville Whipple (Richard Mulligan) returns to his home town of Walnut Grove and to the house of his mother, Mrs. Whipple (Queenie Smith). Frustrated in his efforts to forget his past and become a music teacher, Granville is unable to divest himself of his haunting memories. Thus, he begins taking morphine -- and quickly becomes a hopeless addict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of Little House on the Prairie's second season, the main customer of Charles Ingalls' (Michael Landon) employer goes bankrupt. Denied two months' back wages, Charles and his wife, Mary (Karen Grassle), are forced to take several jobs to pay their mounting bills. Meanwhile, the Ingalls' daughters, Laura (Melissa Gilbert) and Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson), take over all the household chores. Despite the family's trials and tribulations, Charles Ingalls is in his own way the "richest" man in the community. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Day of the Locust is anything but a cheerful, light look at Hollywood in the '30s. It recreates both the town as well as the filmmaking world around which much of the town revolved with devastating accuracy. The movie tells the twin tales of talentless wannabe actress Faye Greener (Karen Black) and Homer Simpson (Donald Sutherland), a lovelorn accountant who couldn't care less about movies. Around this framework, a huge and intricate social network is tellingly revealed, until the film's gruesome and tragic ending. Not for those who prefer to hang onto their illusions about the glory days of Hollywood, The Day of the Locust, based on the novel by Nathanael West, is a must-see for serious film buffs. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The Waltons attend the annual County Fair, where each family member hopes to win a prize. At the same time, Olivia's former beau Oscar Cockrell (Peter Donat) shows up at the fair in hopes of advancing his political career. Comparing Oscar's affluence with his own family's lack of same, John-Boy (Richard Thomas) asks himself how different his life would have been if Olivia (Michael Learned) had accepted Oscar's proposal. Meanwhile, a "special ingredient" in Olivia's cake has a curious effect on the contest judges! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Film star Lylah Clare is dead, but her legend lives on. Movie-producer Barney Sheean (Ernest Borgnine) hires Elsa Brinkmann (Kim Novak), the living image of the late Lylah, to star in a film based on Ms. Clare's life. Barney hires director Lewis Zarkan (Peter Finch), Lylah's former husband, to transform the talentless Elsa into a facsimile of the deceased screen queen. Elsa not only learns to imitate Lylah but, at crucial junctures, becomes the dead woman. While restaging the accident that killed Lylah, the obsessed Zarkan deliberately drives Elsa to her doom -- and in so doing reveals his complicity in the death of his wife. The film ends with Lylah's onetime housekeeper (Rosella Falk), gun in hand, lying in wait for Zarkan to return home while her TV blasts forth a grotesque (and possibly symbolic) dog-food commercial. A trash masterpiece, Legend of Lylah Claire works so hard at vilifying the Old Hollywood (there's even a vicious Hedda Hopper caricature) that it's a wonder the actors could keep a straight face. The film was based on a 1962 Dupont Show of the Week TV drama co-written by Wild in the Streets creator Robert Thom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With the help of her new neighbor Joan, Lucy tries to line up her handsome acquaintance Brad Collins (Keith Andes) as her date for a fancy dress ball. But there's a slight snag: it seems that there is a Mrs. Collins....Cast as Joan Brenner, veteran actress Joan Blondell makes her first Lucy Show appearance as a possible replacement for the departed Vivian Vance. Unfortunately, Blondell found it impossible to get along with Lucille Ball and quit after two episodes. (Ironically, Joan's sister Gloria Blondell appeared on several episodes of I Love Lucy with apparently no problems at all.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ernest Lehman drew upon his experiences as a Broadway press agent to write the devastating a clef short story "Tell Me About Tomorrow." This in turn was adapted by Lehman and Clifford Odets into the sharp-edged, penetrating feature film Sweet Smell of Success. Burt Lancaster stars as J. J. Hunsecker, a Walter Winchell-style columnist who wields his power like a club, steamrolling friends and enemies alike. Tony Curtis co-stars as Sidney Falco, a sycophantic press agent who'd sell his grandmother to get an item into Hunsecker's popular newspaper column. Hunsecker enlists Falco's aid in ruining the reputation of jazz guitarist Steve Dallas (Martin Milner), who has had the temerity to court Hunsecker's sister Susan (Susan Harrison). Falco contrives to plant marijuana on Dallas, then summons corrupt, sadistic NYPD officer Harry Kello (Emile Meyer), who owes Hunsecker several favors, to arrest the innocent singer. The real Walter Winchell, no longer as powerful as he'd been in the 1940s but still a man to be reckoned with, went after Ernest Lehman with both barrels upon the release of Sweet Smell of Success. Winchell was not so much offended by the unflattering portrait of himself as by the dredging up of an unpleasant domestic incident from his past. While Success was not a success at the box office, it is now regarded as a model of street-smart cinematic cynicism. The electric performances of the stars are matched by the taut direction of Alex MacKendrick, the driving jazz score of Elmer Bernstein, and the evocative nocturnal camerawork of James Wong Howe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

You Can't Run Away From It is a musical remake of Frank Capra's Oscar-winning classic It Happened One Night, complete with same-named characters and word-for-word scene reconstructions. It all begins when spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (June Allyson) is literally kidnapped from the altar by her wealthy father (Charles Bickford). Escaping from her daddy's yacht with only a handful of clothes and minimal finances, Ellie hops a bus, intending to travel cross-country to be reunited with her fortune-hunting husband. Reporter Peter Warne (Jack Lemmon), sensing a swell newspaper story, tags along. Though Peter and Ellie aren't terribly fond of one another (that's putting it mildly!), by the end of their journey they've fallen in love -- but there are still several last-minute complications before a happy ending can be reached. Most of the musical numbers in the remake are awkwardly inserted during the more famous scenes from the Capra original: the "Walls of Jericho," the impromptu singalong on the bus, the hitchhiking bit, etc. Benefiting from the breezy performances of Jack Lemmon and June Allyson, You Can't Run Away From It is easy to take, but hardly within shouting distance of the original film's brilliance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

My Sister Eileen is a Technicolor, musicalized remake of the 1942 comedy of the same name. It is not, however, the film version of the 1949 Broadway musical Wonderful Town, which was also based on the 1942 film. Adapted from the short stories of Ruth McKinney, the film stars Betty Garrett as aspiring writer Ruth Sherwood, and Janet Leigh as her gorgeous sister Eileen. Moving from Ohio to New York, the girls take up residence in a basement apartment, which seems to be a gathering place for every eccentric character in the Big Apple. Ruth tries to get her stories published, but handsome editor Bob Baker (Jack Lemmon) doesn't buy anything until Ruth stops trafficking in fiction and begins writing about her own experiences. Most of those experiences are predicated on the misadventures of would-be actress Eileen, who has an uncanny knack for attracting strange men--not to mention a whole heap of trouble. Dancer/choreographers Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall costar as a timid soda jerk and wise-guy reporter, respectively, but their "roles" are merely excuses for a steady stream of flashy musical numbers, penned by Jule Styne and Leo Robin. Even Jack Lemmon gets to sing in this sprightly film, which compares quite favorably to all the My Sister Eileen adaptations which went before and were still to come. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Since its lapse into public domain in 1978, First Legion has joined Love Affair and Algiers as the most readily available of Charles Boyer's films. Boyer plays Fr. Marc Arnoux, the head of St. Gregory's seminary, who can never quite shake the feeling that he shouldn't have given up his career as an attorney. His fellow Jesuit priests likewise occasionally question their calling, especially crotchety Msgr. Michael Carey (William Demarest). One by one, however, the priests are won over by various "miracles" visited upon them. Barbara Rush co-stars as a crippled girl who indirectly benefits from the priests' renewed faith. The First Legion was produced and directed with surprising restraint by Douglas Sirk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Prisoners in Petticoats is a misleadingly innocuous title for this girls-behind-bars melodrama. It all begins when innocent cocktail pianist Joan Grey (Valentine Perkins) is implicated in a crime committed by her gangster boss (Anthony Caruso). Rather than reveal her true identity, thereby humiliating her highly respected father (Alex Gerry), Joan tells the police nothing, and is sent to prison as a consequence. Oddly, the most exploitable angle of this film, i.e. Joan's misadventures behind bars, is downplayed in the second half of the film, which is primarily devoted to the investigation conducted by special investigator Mark Hampton (Robert Rockwell). Veteran musical comedy performer Queenie Smith steals the show as an elderly convict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Caged, considered the best woman's prison film ever made, represents a union between realistic socially conscious drama and the more stylized world of film noir. Marie, (Eleanor Parker), is sentenced to prison for helping her husband in a small robbery. The prison is run by the sadistic matron Evelyn (Hope Emerson) who is secure in her position due to corrupt political influence. The film shows Marie's slow disillusionment with society and her eventual decision to become a prostitute in order to gain parole after observing her friend and fellow inmate Kitty (Betty Garde) lose her sanity and murder their oppressor Evelyn. With this uncompromisingly pessimistic statement on human nature, John Cromwell reaches his peak as a director. Under his expert direction, Eleanor Parker gives the best performance of her career and creates a convincing metamorphosis from a innocent young girl to a hardened criminal. Her performance is nuanced, low-keyed and emotionally charged. Equally impressive is Cromwell's visual realization of the claustrophobia of prison life, aided by the high-contrast photography of Carl Guthrie. This excellent, grim drama is uncompromising in its refusal to sentimentalize the plight of Marie as a victim or to absolve her of her role in her fate, nor does it absolve society as it shows the results of desperation and brutalization on human dignity. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide