Buddy Swan Movies
- 1952
- NR
This Korean War drama is essentially a vehicle for RKO's top male star Robert Mitchum. He plays war-weary "Colonel Steve," obliged to contend with the North Korean forces while keeping troublesome UN official Linda Day (Ann Blyth) at arm's length. Some authentic Korean combat footage is well-integrated into the story. For all its talk about jet planes, Reds and atomic energy, the film is at base a redressed WW II drama. Good supporting performances are provided Charles McGraw as a tough sergeant and William Talman as a jet pilot. Reportedly budgeted at over two million dollars, One Minute to Zero had trouble making back its cost, despite the box-office pull of Robert Mitchum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Ann Blyth, (more)
- 1950
The sexual dysfunction of a married couple provides the basis of this thought-provoking drama that was originally released in 1950 and was then re-released 11 years later with a prologue tacked on. In the prologue, the couple begin attending a group therapy session helmed by a prominent doctor. Neither the husband and wife are able to enjoy sex. The doctor then tells them a story and this story is the original 1950 film of a sexually repressed and unresponsive bride who ends up trying to kill herself. Fortunately, a psychiatrist helps her to see that her overbearing mother is the cause of her difficulty. This story inspires the first couple to keep working on their problem. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reed Hadley, Margaret Field, (more)
- 1950
Columbia Pictures attempted to duplicate the success of Monogram's "Bowery Boys" pictures with its 1950 programmer Military Academy with That Tenth Avenue Gang. Four tough-but-lovable juvenile delinquents are sent to military school but a tough-but-kindly judge. It is hoped that the school's regimen will straighten out the boys and send them down the right path in life. It does, but there are plenty of twists on that path along the way. Topping the cast in Military Academy is Stanley Clements, who in 1956 would replace "Bowery Boys" star Leo Gorcey. Among the supporting players is Buddy Swan, who in 1941 played young Orson Welles in Citizen Kane. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Clements, Myron Welton, (more)
- 1950
Producer-director Edward L. Cahn's Prominent Pictures produced this low-budget thriller-noir which was then sold outright to RKO. Joyce MacKenzie stars as Laura Mansfield whose father (Franklyn Farnum) is killed in cold blood by smalltime hoodlum turned messenger boy Jackie Wales (Stanley Clements). But the latter has a seemingly ironclad alibi and Laura goes undercover as a nightclub cigarette girl to trap him. Unbeknownst to the heroine, however, Wales is blackmailing Armitage (Albert Dekker), the ruthless nightclub operator who had hired him to murder Mansfield in the first place. But is Armitage the real "Mr. Big" or is someone else pulling the strings? ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joyce MacKenzie, Stanley Clements, (more)
- 1949
In his second-to-last Monogram Western, country & western singer Jimmy Wakely does hardly any singing at all as he and sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) attempt to catch the villain who caused the death of 16-year-old Perry Andrews (Buddy Swan), a student at the Sheriff's Association School. Perry was shot by Marshal Jim Braden (Jack Ingram), who mistook him for a murderous claim jumper. Due to young Perry's suspected involvement in a crime, the foundation supporting his school is threatening to withdraw all funding. To save the school, Wakely and Cannonball tracks down the claim jumper (Nolan Leary) by pretending to be outlaws themselves. A clean-cut veteran of Gene Autry's radio show, Wakely became Monogram's best bid in the Singing Cowboy sweepstakes. His series ran from 1944 to 1949, almost exclusively in the hinterlands. By that late date, B-Westerns were facing stiff competition from television and Wakely left to form his own record label. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1949
Beauty contest winner Patricia Knight's one bid for screen stardom was Columbia's Shockproof. Knight plays Jenny Wright, a convicted murderess paroled in the care of probation officer Griff Marat (Cornel Wilde). What begins as an aloof professional relationship eventually blossoms into romance. The fly in the ointment is shady Harry Wesson (John Baragrey), the gambler who inveigled Jenny into committing murder. The girl is torn between creature comforts offered her by Wesson and the promise of a clean life offered by Griff. This early Douglas Sirk effort contains a smattering of the stylistic touches which distinguished his later work.The screenplay was written by famed director Samuel Fuller, known for his gritty realism and hard-boiled style. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cornel Wilde, Patricia Knight, (more)
- 1949
This cautionary fable was produced by the Protestant Film Commission. The main character is plant-manager Joe Hanson (David Bruce), who manages himself to be free of all forms of racial prejudice. Yet when he feels that his job is being threatened by Jewish co-worker Al Green (Bruce Edwards), Joe can't keep his inbred hostilities to himself. He inadvertently causes Al to be transferred to a less-desirable job, resulting in misery all around. The timely intervention of Joe's minister (James Seay) rights the wrongs caused by careless talk. Featured in the cast of Prejudice as Mrs. Green is none other than Barbara "June Cleaver" Billingsley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Bruce, Mary Marshall, (more)
- 1946
Otto Preminger directed this romantic musical (something of a change of pace for the rather serious-minded director) set in Philadephia in 1876. The upcoming Centennial Exposition is the talk of the town, and sisters Julia (Jeanne Crain) and Edith (Linda Darnell) find themselves romantic rivals when they both fall for Philippe (Cornel Wilde), a suave Frenchman in town for the celebration. Their mother Harriet (Dorothy Gish) might offer more advice if she weren't busy looking after her husband Jesse (Walter Brennan), who is busy tinkering with inventions that he's convinced will make him a rich man. Jerome Kern composed the film's'score and co-wrote several songs, including "Up with the Lark," "The Right Romance," and "All Through the Day." It was the last film work he would complete prior to his death in 1945. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanne Crain, Louis Austin, (more)
- 1946
Producer/director William A. Wellman also co-scripted this biopic devoted to John J. Montgomery (Glenn Ford), the unsung 19th-century innovator of glider design. Montgomery's invention of a gold separator proves lucrative, but he pours its profits into financing his legal battles over patent infringement. The gliders created by Montgomery attract attention but no money, and he begins a relationship with Regina Cleary (Janet Blair), which helps sustain him. But when Montgomery becomes afflicted with vertigo and can no longer fly, he sickens and dies. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Alvarado, Conrad Binyon, (more)
This comedy centers around an inept reporter who wouldn't recognize a hot story if it burned him on the hand. The trouble begins when he is assigned to do a story on a local wine festival. Meanwhile an escaped convict holds the heated interest of the rest of the newspaper employees. The bungler gets involved when he goes to the wrong location and ends up on a bus where someone is killed. He becomes a suspect, and later when he must stop at an inn, he finds his girl friend and a detective there too. At the inn, the proprietor has two priceless jeweled chess pieces that have been attracting a lot of attention from the public, and from the fugitive convict. Mayhem ensues when the crook shows up to claim the chessmen. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Haley, Ann Savage, (more)
- 1944
In this musical, a youthful trombonist is thrilled when he is allowed to play with Benny Goodman's Orchestra. Afterward he becomes insufferably egotistical and tries to start his own swing band. It's his girl friend's idea, and unfortunately he fails. He then returns to his old mill job. Fortunately, he is given another chance to play with Benny and the boys. Musical numbers include: "I'm Making Believe," (Mack Gordon, James V. Monaco), as well as "Chug-Chug-Choo-Choo-Chug," "Hey Bub, Let's Have a Ball," "Ten Days with a Baby" (Gordon, Monaco), "I Found a New Baby" (Jack Palmer, Spencer Williams), "Jersey Bounce" (Robert B. Wright, Bobby Plater, Tiny Bradshaw, Edward Johnson), "Let's Dance" (Fanny Baldridge, Gregory Stone, Joseph Bonine), "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" (Gene Lockhart, Ernest Seitz), "Mozart's Clarinet Quintet" (performed by Goodman and strings), "No Love, No Nothing" (Leo Robin, Harry Warren), "Rachel's Dream" (Benny Goodman), and "I Yi Yi Yi Yi, I Like You Very Much" (Gordon, Warren) ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Benny Goodman Orchestra, Linda Darnell, (more)
The Sullivans attempts to find the positives in one of the most tragic chapters of World War II. Edward Ryan, John Campbell, James B. Cardwell, John Alvin and George Offerman Jr. play the Sullivan brothers, sons of an Iowa railroad worker (Thomas Mitchell) and his wife (Selena Royle). The film traces the boys from childhood, maintaining a relatively lighthearted tone until the Sullivans sign up en masse for the navy at the outbreak of the war. Refusing to be separated, the boys are all assigned to the cruiser Juneau--and all are killed when the vessel goes down at Guadalcanal. This appalling incident (which made something of a celebrity of the brothers' grieving father when he went on a nationwide patriotic lecture tour) resulted in the Navy's decision to never again allowed all the enlisted members of one family to serve on the same ship. Even from the vantage point of fifty years, the scene in which the family receives the wire from the war department is impossible to watch with a dry eye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Baxter, Thomas Mitchell, (more)
Orson Welles first feature film -- which he directed, produced, and co-wrote, as well as playing the title role -- proved to be his most important and influential work, a ground-breaking drama loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst which is frequently cited as the finest American film ever made. Aging newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) dies in his sprawling Florida estate after uttering a single, enigmatic final word -- "Rosebud" -- and newsreel producer Rawlston (Phil Van Zandt) sends reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) out with the assignment of uncovering the meaning behind the great man's dying thought. As Thompson interviews Kane's friends, family, and associates, we learn the facts of Kane's eventful and ultimately tragic life: his abandonment by his parents (Agnes Moorehead and Harry Shannon) after he becomes the heir to a silver mine; his angry conflicts with his guardian, master financier Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris); his impulsive decision that "it would be fun to run a newspaper" with the help of school chum Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) and loyal assistant Mr. Bernstein (Everett Sloane); his rise from scandal sheet publisher to the owner of America's largest and most influential newspaper chain; his marriage to socially prominent Emily Norton (Ruth Warrick), whose uncle is the President of the United States; Kane's ambitious bid for public office, which is dashed along with his marriage when his opponent, corrupt political boss Jim Gettys (Ray Collins), reveals that Kane is having an affair with aspiring vocalist Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore); Kane's vain attempts to promote second wife Alexander as an opera star; and his final, self-imposed exile to a massive and never-completed pleasure palace called Xanadu. While Citizen Kane was a film full of distinguished debuts -- along with Welles, it was the first feature for Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead, and Ruth Warrick -- the only Academy Award it received was for Best Original Screenplay, for which Welles shared credit with veteran screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, (more)
In the late 1930s-early 1940s, Monogram Pictures hoped to create a popular screen team in the form of teenaged thespians Jackie Moran (he was Huck Finn in Selznick's 1938 version of Tom Sawyer) and Marcia Mae Jones (a former child star who'd been in pictures since the silent days). In The Haunted House, Jackie plays a newsboy, while Marcia is cast as the niece of the paper's publisher. There's a killer loose in town, and both police and reporters are baffled. Jackie and Marcia join forces to catch the killer themselves so as to clear their mutual friend of a murder charge. The climax takes place in the haunted house of the title, with thrills and chills abounding. The high slapstick content in The Haunted House can be attributed to screenwriter Monty Collins, a veteran of the Columbia Pictures comedy short subjects unit. The director is Robert McGowan, formerly the guiding hand behind Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies of the 1920s and 1930s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Moran, Marcia Mae Jones, (more)
