Martha Stewart Movies

Arizona adolescents harken to the call of the distant surf and head off for a fun-filled romantic adventure in swinging Malibu. Songs include: "If I Were an Artist," "Surf Party," "Fire Water," "Glory Wave," "Crack-Up" and "Great White Water." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Except for a few later guest-star spots, Dinah Shore ended her film career with Aaron Slick From Punkin Crick. Based on an old stock-company perennial by Walter Benjamin Hare, the film stars Dinah as Josie, a farm gal who is slickered out of her life land by big-city con artists Bill Merrydew (Robert Merrill) and Gladys (Adele Jergens). Unbeknownst to Josie, her farm is rich with oil. Upon finding this out, Josie's neighbor and erstwhile beau Aaron Slick (Alan Young) heads to town to retrieve her holdings. Since the film stars three well-established singers--Dinah Shore, Alan Young, and Robert Merrill--the Hare original has been transformed into a musical (though truth to tell, it isn't exactly on the level of Oklahoma). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A haunting work of stark confessionalism disguised as a taut noir thriller, In a Lonely Place -- Nicholas Ray's bleak, desperate tale of fear and self-loathing in Hollywood -- remains one of the filmmaker's greatest and most deeply resonant features. It stars Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele, a fading screenwriter suffering from creative burnout; hired to adapt a best-selling novel, instead of reading the book itself he asks the hat-check girl (Martha Stewart) at his favorite nightclub to simply tell him the plot. The morning after, the girl is found brutally murdered, and Steele is the police's prime suspect; however, the would-be starlet across the way, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), provides him with a solid alibi, and they soon begin a romance in spite of Gray's lingering concerns that the troubled, violent Steele might just be a killer after all. During production, Ray's real-life marriage to co-star Grahame began to crumble, and his own vulnerability and disillusionment clearly inform the picture; the brooding, bitter Steele -- a role ideally suited to Bogart's wounded romanticism -- is plainly a doppelganger for Ray himself (the site of his first Hollywood apartment is even employed as the set for Steele's home), and the film's unflinching examination of the character's disintegration makes for uniquely compelling viewing. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now is the heavily laundered musical biopic of sentimental songwriter Joe E. Howard. As played by Mark Stevens (whose singing voice was dubbed by Buddy Clark), Howard is a humble 19th century organ salesman who rises to Broadway fame as the composer of maudlin ballads like "What's the Use of Dreaming" and jaunty ditties like "Hello My Baby". Along the way, he enjoys several romantic interludes, but it is fresh-faced American chorine Katie (top-billed June Haver) who lands Howard as her hubby. In real life, Joe E. Howard, who lived well into his eighties, was married several times; he was also a notorious "lifter" who regularly claimed credit for songs he never wrote (including this film's title tune!) But producer George Jessel chooses not to let the facts get in the way of a good story, maintaining a policy established by his earlier The Dolly Sisters and sustained through such subsequent musical life stories as Oh, You Beautiful Doll The I Don't Care Girl. Singer/dancer/director Gene Nelson makes his screen debut as Tommy Yale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, three veteran pilots from WW II decide to start their own air freight business. In order to earn enough money, one of them takes a dangerous job as a test pilot. His very pregnant wife objects, but this does not stop him. Fortunately, another partner scams him and ends up doing the testing himself despite that fact that he was grounded during the war for a strange nerve ailment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, which marks Barbara Stawyck's Hollywood film debut, a woman is taken to an illegal cabaret set aboard a wealthy man's yacht. Her captor, the owner, then locks her in a stateroom. When the cops raid the joint, she is photographed with the wealthy cad. Time passes and the woman ends up marrying her new boss. The cad gets involved with her sister-in-law. Later her new husband and the creep get in a fight over the woman. A shot is fired and the millionaire dies. The police then find the woman locked in her room. To spare her husband, the woman confesses to killing the cad. Her husband refuses to let her take the fall for his crime and she is freed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide