William Stack Movies

One of the eerier chillers of its period -- and one of the best ever to come out of Paramount -- Stuart Heisler's Among the Living is a strange and compelling mix of social drama, horror film, and suspense thriller. The story opens with the funeral of Maxim Raden, the patriarch who was pretty much responsible for building up the town that bears the family name, and which has been dominated for decades by the now-idle mill that he owned. Present at the funeral is Dr. Ben Saunders (Harry Carey Sr.), Raden's oldest friend, and the surviving Raden son John (Albert Dekker), who has been away for most of the last 25 years and recently married Elaine (Frances Farmer), a beautiful young woman from New York. John was one of a pair of twin boys; the other, Paul, died in an accident a quarter century ago, just after John was sent away to school. But Saunders and Maxim Raden had a secret between them -- that Paul Raden didn't die, but went dangerously insane, and has kept been alive all of this time, in a hidden room in the decaying Raden mansion, tended to by the doctor and the faithful family servant Pompey (Ernest Whitman). Paul was a victim of abuse by his overbearing father, and suffered brain damage from a beating he received while trying to protect his mother. He has never stopped "hearing" his father's threats or his mother's weeping, and they leave him prone to violent, potentially murderous outbursts of rage. Worse still, the death of his father has agitated him into a state where he is able to escape the mansion. Once freed and relieved of his quarter century of isolation, Paul is at once confused by and delighted with the company of people; he heads to the town and rents a room at a seedy boarding house, where he immediately attracts the attention of the landlady's frisky (and avaricious) daughter Millie (Susan Hayward) with his large bankroll, free-spending habits, and lost-puppy-dog demeanor. Meanwhile, the doctor reveals the truth about Paul to John, who wants to notify the authorities that his brother is loose and potentially dangerous -- but the doctor won't hear of it, fearing that news of the insane son will tarnish the Raden name and the reputation of the clinic that Maxim founded and funded on the doctor's behalf, in return for his covering up the son's existence.
The stakes get raised higher when the coroner reveals that a death the doctor tried to cover up was, in fact, a murder, and then a young woman is found strangled. While John is torn between sympathy for his brother, who never got the help or care he needed, and his feeling of responsibility to the town, the doctor tries to continue the cover-up by posting a 5,000-dollar reward for the capture of the killer. This sets off an orgy of assaults and destruction as the work-starved townspeople, led by Millie's ex-boyfriend Bill Oakley (Gordon Jones), begin rounding up anyone who looks even the least bit suspicious or out of place, trying to get the reward. Millie's greed is also brought to the fore and she persuades her new boyfriend, Paul, to go with her to the one place no one has searched yet -- the Raden mansion. Paul's veneer of calm unravels as he finds himself back in the location of his imprisonment, and in the course of the fight and the chase that ensues, John is caught and accused, by Millie and all of the other witnesses to Paul's outbursts, as the killer. Now it looks like a lynching is in the offing as hundreds of angry, drunken, greedy townspeople gather together to mete out justice -- and John must make them believe that he has a twin who is responsible for the murders. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

A young big game hunter is determined to bag the rare Malayan white tiger his late father wanted in this adventure. At first the locals help him hunt many other animals, but when they learn he really wants the tiger they consider sacred, they decide to bag him instead. Now the hunter finds himself the hunted and must stay alive until hope arrives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Joan Crawford is at her most glamorous (a different outfit and hairdo in each scene!) in the romantic melodrama Chained. Crawford plays Diane Lovering, the mistress of prominent Manhattan businessman Richard Field (Otto Kruger). Though she really isn't in love with him, she feels obligated to marry him when he divorces his wife (Margaret Gateson) for Diane's sake. By the time the divorce is final, Diane has fallen for wealthy South American rancher Mike Bradley (Clark Gable), but, out of loyalty to Field, she abruptly cuts off her relationship with Mike, who does his best to hide his pain. It looks as though both Diane and Mike will continue to suffer stoically until the plot is resolved by the understanding and remarkably generous Field. Clarence Brown's glossy direction helps to make this star vehicle seem more important than it really is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Never mind the title and the musical content: College Scandal is at heart a murder mystery, and a pretty suspenseful one at that. Several mysterious killings have taken place at a co-ed college, and it looks as though there won't be anyone left alive to appear in the annual campus musical. The police, headed by the irascible Chief Magoun (William Frawley) are at a loss to solve the murders, so the students take it upon themselves to play detective. It is college cutie Sally Dunlap (Arline Judge) who discovers that the killing spree is related to the accidental death of a student during a long-ago fraternity hazing. The film's most startling moment occurs when music student Paul Gedney (Johnny Downs) is knocked off while singing his latest composition, ironically titled "In the Middle of a Kiss." College Scandal was remade in 1942 as Sweater Girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The life of merchant seamen is realistically portrayed in this adventure.
The story centers around two sailors who find their friendship tested when both have the opportunity to become captain. Their relationship is further strained when they fall for the same female. They get a chance to prove their seamanship when their ship is assaulted by a terrible storm. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Gone With the Wind boils down to a story about a spoiled Southern girl's hopeless love for a married man. Producer David O. Selznick managed to expand this concept, and Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel, into nearly four hours' worth of screen time, on a then-astronomical 3.7-million-dollar budget, creating what would become one of the most beloved movies of all time. Gone With the Wind opens in April of 1861, at the palatial Southern estate of Tara, where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) hears that her casual beau Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) plans to marry "mealy mouthed" Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). Despite warnings from her father (Thomas Mitchell) and her faithful servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett intends to throw herself at Ashley at an upcoming barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Alone with Ashley, she goes into a fit of histrionics, all of which is witnessed by roguish Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the black sheep of a wealthy Charleston family, who is instantly fascinated by the feisty, thoroughly self-centered Scarlett: "We're bad lots, both of us." The movie's famous action continues from the burning of Atlanta (actually the destruction of a huge wall left over from King Kong) through the now-classic closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Holding its own against stiff competition (many consider 1939 to be the greatest year of the classical Hollywood studios), Gone With the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar). The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be "The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this polished soap opera from MGM, Robert Taylor plays Chris Claybourne, a dedicated scientist researching a possible cure for spotted fever. However, Chris has a dark side; he has a weakness for gambling and has fallen into debt with a gangster named Fish Eye (Joseph Calleia). While visiting a casino, Chris meets Rita Wilson (Barbara Stanwyck), a gambler's shill who does some modeling on the side. Chris and Rita quickly fall in love, and when Chris is due to leave for South America on a research expedition, Rita begs him to stay with her. However, Fish Eye has been leaning on Chris for his money, and when he asks his brother Tom (John Eldridge) for a loan to pay off the debt, he agrees under one condition -- that Chris leave for South America right away, and without Rita. When Chris ships out, Rita believes that he left her behind because he didn't care for her, and to hurt him, she marries Tom and takes Chris's IOU. However, by the time Chris returns, Rita's marriage with Tom is in tatters and she's desperate to win back Chris's affection. In real life, Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck were an item while shooting His Brother's Wife, and they married three years later. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, and William Powell star in this crackling screwball comedy about a cut-throat newspaper editor's scheme to prevent a libel suit that ends up exploding in everybody's face. Tracy plays Warren Haggerty, the managing editor of a newspaper that mistakenly prints a story declaring the rich Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy) has stolen away another woman's husband. Connie retaliates by suing the paper for $5 million. This happens right before Warren is about to marry his fiancee Gladys (Jean Harlow). As he has done several times in the past, Warren delays the wedding in order to stop the libel suit. Warren hires Bill Chandler (William Powell), a former employer who is desperate for a job, to marry Gladys in name only and then court Connie. That way, Gladys can sue Connie for alienation of affections and get Connie to agree to drop her lawsuit if Gladys will drop hers. Bill hops an ocean liner to accompany Connie and her father (Walter Connolly) back to the United States, but along the way Bill and Connie fall in love and Bill tries to convince Gladys to drop her suit so it won't hinder his relationship with Connie. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Based upon the book The Four Marys, by Fanny Heaslip Lea, Man-Proof involves members of the smart and sophisticated set of Manhattan, circa 1938. Mimi Swift (Myrna Loy), the daughter of a successful romance novelist, is having no luck in getting the man she loves. Although she has made her interest very clear to Alan Wythe (Walter Pidgeon), he is more concerned with marrying someone who can support him. Still, Mimi is unprepared for the shock of discovering that Alan is engaged to her wealthy friend Elizabeth Kent (Rosalind Russell) -- and even more unprepared when they want her to suffer through the ceremony firsthand, as a bridesmaid. Ever the lady, Mimi forces herself to attend the wedding and attempts to put up a good front; unfortunately, she takes a little too much advantage of the free flowing champagne, with the result that she lets Alan know that she hasn't given up on him. While Alan and Elizabeth are on their honeymoon, Mimi becomes involved with Jimmy Kilmartin (Franchot Tone), an illustrator at the New York Chronicle. After the honeymooners return, Mimi tries to accept the fact that lan is Elizabeth's, but she just can't and lets Elizabeth know that things will never be the same. For his part, Alan seems to want to have his cake and eat it, too, and indicates to Mimi that perhaps something can be worked out. As they are talking, Elizabeth enters, puts two-and-two together and tells Alan she knows he only married her for her money and suggests they get a divorce. Eventually, Elizabeth takes Alan back and Mimi suddenly realizes that there is more to Jimmy than she had previously observed -- and more than enough to make her happily forget about Alan. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

Maxwell Anderson's blank-verse play Mary of Scotland was adapted for the screen by Dudley Nichols and directed with a surprising paucity of verve by John Ford. Katharine Hepburn, in one of the "icy" roles that would later earn her the onus of "box office poison", stars as Mary Stuart, who serves as the Queen of Scotland until she is jealously put out of the way by her British cousin, Queen Elizabeth I (Florence Eldredge). Sold out by the Scots nobles, Mary is sentenced to the chopping block for treason. Elizabeth is willing to pardon Mary if only the latter will renounce all claims to the British throne, but Mary refuses, marching to her death with head held high (the Mary/Elizabeth confrontation scene was purely the product of Maxwell Anderson's imagination; in real life, the two women never met). RKO contractee Ginger Rogers dearly coveted the role of Queen Elizabeth, but the studio refused to allow her to play so secondary a role. To prove to the RKO executives that she would be ideal for the part, Ginger secretly arranged for a screen test, in which she was convincingly made up as Elizabeth (even to the point of cutting her hair into a high-foreheaded widow's peak). Contemporary reports indicate that Ginger's audition was brilliant; still, RKO would not consider casting her in the part, so the role of Elizabeth went to Florence Eldridge, the wife of Fredric March, who was cast in Mary of Scotland as Mary's fearless protector the Earl of Bothwell. On the whole, Mary of Scotland is a snoozefest, save for the scenes featuring Douglas Walton as Mary's cowardly husband Darnley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clarence Brown directed this heart-tugging piece of Americana, set during the Civil War era. Walter Huston plays a stern family patriarch, a preacher who thrusts his family into poverty in order to set an example for his parishioners. As a result, his son (James Stewart) grows up to resent him. He looks to travel East and go to medical school, but his father's iron-fisted vow of poverty holds him back from education. Defying the father, his mother (Beulah Bondi) sells off part of her dowry to finance her son's education. The young man travels East and becomes so embroiled in his studies he neglects to stay in contact with his family, returning only when he receives news of his father's death. After father's passing, he goes off to war as a doctor, leaving his mother abandoned back home. Having heard nothing from her son since his departure for the Civil War, mother thinks he may have died and contacts President Lincoln (John Carradine) to investigate his whereabouts. Surprisingly, Lincoln responds to the mother's pleas and seeks to find out about the status of her son. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In his only visit to Columbia Pictures, Paramount's resident crooner Bing Crosby stars in a sentimental musical drama. In jail on a trumped-up charge, Crosby meets a condemned prisoner, and promises the doomed man to look after his little girl (Edith Fellows) when he gets out. The girl's grandfather (Donald Meek) is also part of the "deal," and soon the footloose Crosby finds himself with more responsibilities than he cares to handle. Along the way, Bing sings the title song to the girl, to leading lady Madge Evans, and to Us--and never less than superbly. As an added attraction, Pennies From Heaven showcases the matchless talents of Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide