Alexander Steinert Movies

Tonight we Sing is the life story of legendary impresario Sol Hurok, impersonated herein by David Wayne. A lover of the arts, young immigrant Hurok despairs when he realizes he has no musical or artistic talents. Thus it is that, despite great personal and financial sacrifice, Hurok devotes his life to discovering and nurturing other performers and bringing them to Broadway. Among his more celebrated protégés are Russian opera-singer Feodor Chaliapin (Ezio Pinza) and violinist Eugene Ysaye (Isaac Stern). Other notables making guest appearances are singer Jan Peerce and Roberta Peters and ballerina Tamara Toumanova. Anne Bancroft co-stars as Hurok's gentle, patient wife Emma. Based on the autobiography by Sol Horuk (co-written with Ruth Goode), Tonight We Sing was produced for 20th Century-Fox by George Jessel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Can it be that June Allyson is Too Young to Kiss in this bit of MGM fluff? Well, not really. Pianist Cynthia Potter (Allyson) is well into her 20s, but she's posing as a 14-year-old musical prodigy. It's part of her desperate effort to become a client of highly selective concert-promoter Eric Wainwright (Van Johnson), who is only hiring "young" performers. Wainwright falls for Cynthia's subterfuge, building a huge promotional campaign predicated upon his new protégé's "youth." He even adopts a fatherly attitude towards Cynthia, who would prefer that their relationship be a bit more intimate. Though it may seem to be a rehash of the 1943 comedy The Major and the Minor, Too Young to Kiss remains fresh and funny throughout, thanks to the script-writing know-how of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Ironically, Allyson was thirty-four when this film was shot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Running a mere 56 minutes, Little Iodine was the first of five "streamliners" produced by Comet Productions, a company formed by Mary Pickford, her husband Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and former Columbia exec Ralph Cohn. Based on the comic strip by Jimmy Hatlo, the film stars Jo Ann Marlowe as Iodine, the bratty daughter of Henry and Cora Tremble (Hobart Cavanaugh, Irene Ryan). The story gets under way when Iodine mistakenly believes that Mrs. Tremble is romantically involved with French professor Simkins (Leon Belasco). Iodine's misbegotten efforts to break up the nonexistent affair causes friction between her father and his bombastic boss Mr. Bigdome (Emory Parnell), but the little darling comes to the rescue at fadeout time. Thanks to legal entanglements, Little Iodine has never been released to television, but that's no great loss. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This bargain-basement sequel is unusual in that it completely contradicts the conclusions drawn by its predecessor, Bela Lugosi's 1941 horror film The Devil Bat. It all begins with Nina, the daughter of the notorious Dr. Paul Carruthers, the crazed, vengeful scientist who allegedly created a species of giant killer bats that would attack and kill anyone wearing a certain scent. Nina has been plagued with terrifying recurring nightmares featuring giant bats. Thinking she, like her father, may have more than a few in her belfry, Nina goes to see a psychiatrist who uses her psychosis for his own evil ends by framing her for the murder of his wife. Fortunately, by the story's end she not only proves her own innocence, she also clears her father's name and proves that he was really just misunderstood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide