Joan Blondell Movies

John Drew Barrymore, Joan Blondell, John Dehner, and Dan Duryea star in this made-for-television remake of the 1950 James Stewart Western about a two brothers who both covet the titular repeating rifle. As the dedicated officer and the crafty ex-con face off to determine who will walk away with rifle in hand, family bonds are violently shattered by the desire for cold steel and hot lead. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this episode from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. series, the two good guy spies must stop a criminal mastermind from altering the course of the Gulf Stream. ~ Sandra Brennan, 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

The Blue-Eyed Horse is an hour-long farce starring Joan Blondell as an inveterate horse player and Ernest Borgnine as her beleaguered husband. The film opens with Borgnine standing before judge Paul Lynde, trying to explain why his wife has disappeared. The police suspect foul play, offering as evidence the strained relationship of the couple and the debts incurred by Blondell's gambling. Only Borgnine knows (or thinks he knows) the incredible truth: wife Blondell has been magically transformed into a horse! The Blue-Eyed Horse was originally telecast on November 23, 1966, on the NBC anthology The Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Kathie Browne makes her third appearance as Adam Cartwright's erstwhile lady friend Laura Dayton. Encouraged by her Aunt Lil (Joan Blondell) to rush Adam into marriage, Laura decides to make her sweetheart jealous by playing up to Adam's cousin Will (Guy Williams). The scheme backfires when Laura and Will fall in love for real. First telecast on May 10, 1964, "The Pressure Game" was written by Don Tait. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Jenny Angel, a novel by Elise Oaks Barber, Angel Baby is a gloves-off study of the faith-healing racket. The title character, played by Salome Jens, is a mute whose speech is ostensibly restored by Bible-thumper George Hamilton. Angel Baby is then exploited on the evangelical circuit by crooked promoter Burt Reynolds (in his feature film debut). She becomes disillusioned, but her faith is restored when she apparently heals a crippled child. Any opportunity to see stage actress Salome Jens in one of her rare movie roles is always to be treasured; in this instance, Ms. Jens is backed up by an equally stellar supporting cast, including Mercedes McCambridge, Joan Blondell, and Henry Jones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A "Shock Theater" perennial since it was first released to television in the early 1960s (stretch-framed to pad out its running time), The Amazing Colossal Man is firmly in the "So Bad It's Good" category. While overseeing the atomic tests in the Nevada desert, Army colonel Glenn Langan is exposed to extensive amounts of radiation. As a result, Langan grows, and grows, and grows, at the rate of ten feet per day. This sudden height gain adversely affects the poor man's mind, and soon he's as mad as a hatter. Looking for all the world like Mr. Clean in a diaper, the Colossal Man goes on a murderous rampage, laying waste to several Las Vegas landmarks before he is killed by army bullets while standing atop the Boulder Dam. The special effects are adequate, but the dialogue is ridiculous-in fact, if we didn't know better, we'd say that the film was intended to be funny. Our favorite bit: the huge hypodermic needle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though his staunchest supporters may disagree, Lizzie is arguably director Hugo Haas' best film. Adapted from Shirley Jackson's The Bird's Nest, the film is a tour de force for Eleanor Parker, who plays the schizophrenic title character. Depending on the circumstances, Lizzie adopts one of three distinct personalities--one is good, one is bad and the third is hopelessly neurotic. Psychiatrist Neal Wright (Richard Boone) tries his best to help Lizzie, but he is undercut by the abusive behavior of the girl's drunken floozy of an aunt (Joan Blondell). Financed by Kirk Douglas' Bryna Productions, Lizzie was overshadowed by the box-office success of the similarly-themed Three Faces of Eve, which was released shortly afterward. Pop crooner Johnny Mathis made his debut as a lounge singer in this film, performing "It's Not for Me To Say." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the Broadway play by Robert Fryer and Lawrence Carr, Desk Set represents the eighth screen teaming of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Hepburn plays the head of a TV network research department; Tracy plays an efficiency expert, hired to modernize Hepburn's operation. When Tracy has a huge computer installed, Hepburn and her co-workers (including Joan Blondell and Sue "Miss Landers" Randall) fear that they're going to lose their jobs. Their suspicions are confirmed when the computer merrily begins issuing pink termination slips. But something is obviously amiss: the computer not only fires the ladies, but also the head of the network--and Tracy, who isn't even on the company payroll! At this point, Tracy explains that the computer was designed to help Hepburn and her staff and not replace them; he also confesses that, given the pink-slip incident, this might not have been such a hot idea. But Hepburn, who has fallen in love with Tracy, is in just the right mood to forgive him--and doesn't need to consult her research files to come up with this decision. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Blue Veil was the single most successful effort from the production team of Jerry Wald and Norman Krasna. Jane Wyman pulls out all the emotional stops as a young Frenchwoman named Louise, who, after losing her husband and child in WW I, devotes the rest of her life to selflessly caring for other people's children. In true "woman's story" fashion, Louise ages and ages beautifully, sacrificing all for the sake of others. On the brink of destitution, she is rescued by her former charges, all nicely grown up and boundlessly grateful. A remake of the French Le Voile Bleu, The Blue Veil was adapted for the American screen by radio's Norman Corwin. The sterling supporting cast includes Charles Laughton as a widowed manufacturer, Joan Blondell as a blowsy actress, Natalie Wood as Blondell's neglected daughter, and Richard Carlson, Audrey Totter, Agnes Moorehead and Don Taylor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This episodic holiday film centers around a rich spinster aunt whose greedy nephew is attempting legal action to take her estate. Before he makes a final decision, a caring judge tells the spinster that she can rally together the three foster children she raised to help her keep the estate, he will delay the nephew's action. Now she must find her three grown boys who have gone in wildly different directions. One is a boozy cowboy involved in a baby racket, another is a deadbeat deeply indebted to the nephew, and the other is a successful owner of a South American cafe on the lam for a con-job he didn't commit. She endures and adventurous journey, but the three do manage to come together on Christmas Eve, save the estate, and give the conniving nephew his due. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Nightmare Alley is the sordid tale of a conniving young man who, in the words of one of the film's supporting characters, ends up low because he aimed so high. Drifter Tyrone Power sweet-talks his way into a job as barker for a rundown carnival. He is fascinated by an illegal side-show attraction called "The Geek," a near-lunatic who bites the heads off live chickens and then is "paid off" with a cheap bottle of rotgut and a warm place to sleep it off. Otherwise, Power's attention is focussed on a beautiful if slightly stupid carnival performer (Coleen Gray) who works in an "electricity" act with an equally dense strongman (Mike Mazurki). Power also befriends an alcoholic mentalist (Ian Keith), who demonstrates how easy it is to fool an audience into thinking that his mind reading is genuine. When the mentalist dies after accidentally drinking wood alcohol, Power works his way into the confidence of the performer's widow (Joan Blondell), who teaches Power all the tricks and code words of the mind-reading racket. Power walks out on Blondell in favor of Cathy Downs, who marries him and becomes his partner in a classy nightclub mentalist act. But Power is dissatisfied with show business, and with the help of a beautiful but shifty psychiatrist (Helen Walker) he convinces several wealthy people that he can communicate with their dead loved ones...for a price. One elderly millionaire (Taylor Holmes) offers Power a fortune if he can conjure up the spirit of the millionaire's dead daughter. Power enlists his wife to impersonate the deceased girl, but at the crucial moment she has an attack of conscience and exposes the fraud. His career ruined, Power goes to the crooked psychiatrist for help, but she laughs in his face and calls the cops. He escapes the law by going on the bum, and before long is a drunken derelict. When he approaches a carnival for work, he is told that there is only one job open...as a "geek." When asked if he wants the job, the defeated Power replies "Mister, I was born for it." Based on a lurid bestseller by William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley was Tyrone Power's attempt to break away from romantic leads in favor of roles with more substance. The picture wasn't a success, but it proved that Power was more than just a pretty face. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide