Alice Talton Movies

In this thriller, a man confesses to the murder of his business partner's wife, his former lover, after her body is finally found. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This anthology film tells three stories of love involving the passengers of an ocean liner at sea. In the first, "The Jealous Lover," James Mason plays Charles Coudray, a well-known ballet director. When someone asks Coudray why he staged his masterpiece, "Astarte," only once, he tells the story of Paula Woodward (Moira Shearer), a superb dancer he found practicing in his theater. He was awestruck by her technique and her beauty, but he discovered that she had a secret -- due to a cardiac condition, she has been forbidden to dance too strenuously, as it could tax her heart and eventually kill her. Charles urges Paula to perform for him, so he may use her movements to choreograph his next great work; she agrees, but the exertion proves too much for her and she dies. He arranges for the work she inspired to be performed only once, in hopes that she will somehow see it from on high. In the second segment, "Mademoiselle," Tommy (Ricky Nelson) is a 12-year-old boy travelling with his French governess and tutor (Leslie Caron); she's tired of spending her days watching over a child, and he'd like to get away from Teacher for a while. Mrs. Pennicott (Ethel Barrymore), a older woman who happens to be a witch, hears Tommy wishing he could be a grown-up, and she grants his request: suddenly Tommy is a grown man (played by Farley Granger), but only for the next four hours. The Governess meets the mysterious stranger Tommy has become, and soon they fall in love. In the final segment, "Equilibrium," Kirk Douglas plays Pierre Narval, a high-wire artist who retired from performing after his partner died while performing a trapeze act, an accident Pierre blames on himself. He begins to reconsider his decision when he saves the life of Nina (Pier Angeli), a woman who attempted to drown herself; her husband died in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, and she feels she is to blame for his death. Their shared fatalism equals fearlessness in Pierre's eyes, and he teaches Nina the art of the trapeze; however, when he begins to fall in love with her, he's no longer so certain that he wants her to risk her life. "The Jealous Lover" and "Equilibrium" were directed by Gottfried Reinhardt, while "Mademoiselle" was directed by Vincente Minnelli. ~ Mark Deming, 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

Ranger of Cherokee Strip stars Republic horse-opera hero Monte Hale. This time, Steve Howard (Hale) comes to the aid of Joe Bearclaws (Douglas Kennedy), a patriotic Cherokee tribesman who tries to halt the exploitation of his people by unscrupulous cattlemen. The villains manage to frame Joe for murder, but the Indian escapes from jail. Assigned to track down Joe and return him to prison, Howard instead champions the Cherokee's cause and endeavors to bring the true culprits to justice. Roy Barcroft does his usual scowling-badman bit, while George Meeker turns in an interesting portrayal as a ham actor who figures prominently in the murder plot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray), Lt. Tim Griffin (Regis Toomey), and Lt. Swede Larson (Louis Jean Heydt) are longtime US Navy flying buddies, about to be transferred to different posts when Larson suffers a blackout during high-altitude maneuvers and cracks up. Navy doctor Douglas Lee (Errol Flynn) insists on trying to save him with an immediate operation, and the mortally injured pilot dies on the table. This sets the stage for a long, lingering, and bitter hatred between Blake and Lee -- which is only exacerbated when Lee chooses to become a flight surgeon so he can help to find a solution to the problem of high altitude blackout. Lee is assigned to medical research with Lt. Cdr. Lance Rogers (Ralph Bellamy), a flight surgeon whose dedication to high-altitude research has left him unfit for further flying. Their work proceeds through small triumphs and terrible tragedy, and Lee and Blake keep crossing paths, unwillingly -- they not only don't like each other personally, but end up competing for the attentions of the same woman (Alexis Smith) at one point. But they're forced to work together for the good of the service, even after Lee grounds Tim Griffin as medically unfit to keep flying. A fresh tragedy shows Blake that Lee has always been looking out for the best interests of the pilots, and they begin working together in earnest, at last. Blake pushes his piloting skills to their limit and beyond, and he soon finds a purpose and dedication that he's never known before -- and then he learns that he may have to be grounded because of his own deteriorating medical condition. While Lee frets over having to give the news to his friend, the only question for Blake is whether he will be able to see the final test of Lee's high-altitude pressure suit through to the end. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide