William Talman Movies
The scion of a wealthy Detroit family, William Talman would later claim that he learned to "champion the underdog" while a member of his Episcopal church boxing team. In his 20s, Talman became an evangelist for the Moral Re-Armament Movement, and later made at stab at studying law. He drifted to New York, where, through the intervention of an actor friend of his father, he began picking up small stage roles. After extensive experience in New York and in the touring company of Of Mice and Men, Talman moved to Hollywood, where in 1949 he played his first important screen role as a gangster in Red, Hot and Blue (1949). At his best when his characters were at their worst, Talman developed into one of Tinseltown's most fearsome screen villains, never more so than when he played a psycho killer who slept with one eye open in the noir classic The Hitchhiker (1955). In 1957, Talman was cast as Hamilton Burger, the perennially losing District Attorney on the popular TV weekly Perry Mason. He remained with the series until March of 1960, when he was arrested for throwing a wild party where vast quantities of illegal substances were consumed. The Perry Mason producers had every intention of firing Talman from the series, but he was reinstated thanks to the loyal intervention of his co-stars -- particularly Raymond Burr, who threatened to quit the show if Talman wasn't given a second chance. William Talman was last seen on TV in a series of anti-smoking public service announcements; these spots were run posthumously, at Talman's request, following his death from lung cancer at the age of 53. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1951
- NR
The Racket was based on a play by Bartlett Cormack, first filmed as a silent in 1928. The storyline was updated to include references to Estes Kefauver's Senate Crime Investigating Committee: otherwise, the plot (and much of the dialogue) was lifted bodily from the Cormack play. Racketeer Robert Ryan has managed to get several government and law-enforcement higher-ups in his pocket. But Ryan can't touch the incorruptible police officer Robert Mitchum, who refuses all attempts at bribery. Ryan pulls strings to get Mitchum transferred to a series of undesirable precincts, but Mitchum will not be dissuaded. The battle of wills between cop and criminal comes to a head when mob-connected nightclub singer Lizabeth Scott turns on her former protector Ryan. The Broadway version of The Racket starred Edward G. Robinson as the racketeer; the 1928 film version featured Louis Wolheim in the Robinson role and Thomas Meighan as the upright cop. Both the silent and sound versions of the property were personally produced by Howard R. Hughes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, (more)
- 1950
If ever there was an actor born to play Billy the Kid, it was the combustible Audie Murphy. In Kid from Texas, Murphy is cast as a relatively benign Billy. Hoping to put down his guns and go straight, the Kid takes a job as a ranchhand. When his kindly boss is murdered, however, all bets are off, and Billy goes on a killing spree. By the time he's reached the age of 21, he's killed 21 men -- and that's when sheriff Pat Garrett (Frank Wilcox) enters the scene. There's no romance to speak of, though Billy does develop a fondness for Irene Kain (Gale Storm), the wife of fair-minded attorney (Albert Dekker). While Kid from Texas scores as a character study (albeit none too accurate), it falls surprisingly short in terms of action content. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audie Murphy, Gale Storm, (more)
- 1950
Some auteur critics feel that director Richard O. Fleischer did his best work while laboring in the "B" mills of RKO Radio. Fleischer's minimalist noir exercise Armored Car Robbery stars William Talman as the chief crook and Charles McGraw as the detective dogging his trail. A shade smarter than his gang underlings, Talman manages to elude capture, and even travels freely about in the company of his flashy lady friend Adele Jergens. But McGraw's persistence eventually pays off. Don McGuire, later a prolific TV producer/director, provides a welcome touch of comic relief as McGraw's rookie-cop assistant. A powerful (and slightly gruesome) climax caps this low-budget gem. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, (more)
- 1949
Taken (as far as possible) from the Cole Porter musical comedy of the same name, Red, Hot and Blue stars Betty Hutton as an ambitious chorus girl. Hutton gets a job with a musical comedy bankrolled by gangsters, and is the wrong girl at the wrong place when one of the show's backers (William Talman) is bumped off. She is arrested for suspicion of murder, then is kidnapped by the villains to keep her from spilling the beans. The plot requires that she be rescued by hero Victor Mature, though many disgruntled audience members may have been rooting for the boisterous Hutton to be dumped in the East River. The stage version of Red Hot and Blue starred Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, and Bob Hope. Hutton is no Merman, but she gives her all to the brassy production numbers and the self-absorbed ballads--written not by Cole Porter, whose score was dispensed with, but by Paramount's in-house tunesmith Frank Loesser, who also plays a small role as one of the gangsters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Hutton, Victor Mature, (more)
- 1949
There's propaganda aplenty in RKO's I Married a Communist, the first of producer Howard R. Hughes' many anti-Red broadsides. Robert Ryan plays shipping executive Brad Collins, whose youthful flirtations with certain left-wing causes have made him ripe for plucking by Commie cell leader Vanning (Thomas Gomez). Threatening to reveal Collins' "pinko" past, Vanning orders the executive to deliberately sabotage the shipping industry in the Frisco Bay area. Other characters essential to the plotline are Collins' wife Nan (Laraine Day), who knows nothing of her husband's politics, and his idealistic brother-in-law Don (John Agar) who spouts Marxist dogma at the drop of a hat. Apparently at a loss as to how to depict communist villainy, the screenwriters hark back on the gangster films of the 1930s, notably in the scene where a hapless stoolie (the inevitable Paul Guilfoyle) is taken for a ride. When the title I Married a Communist proved an audience turn-off during previews, the film was rechristened The Woman on Pier 13. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laraine Day, Robert Ryan, (more)
