Sid Tomack Movies

Future film superstar James Coburn appears as slimy entrepreneur Donald Fletcher, who purchases a highly respected publishing house and converts its output to slezy tabloids and nudie magazines. Unable to legally prevent Fletcher from inflicting further damage, editor Edmond Aitken (Philip Abbott), whose family once owned the publishing firm, may be driven to desperation. Ultimately, Fletcher is murdered--but it is Aitken's wife Alyce (Sara Shane), rather than her husband, who is charged with the crime because she was being blackmailed by Fletcher with nude photos taken during her modelling career. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) prepares to clear Alyce and ferret out the genuine culprit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Just outside the small town of Pauley, a Native American woman is attacked by two riders on horseback, raped, and killed. Her husband, Matt Morgan (Kirk Douglas), the town marshal, has only two clues to their identity, a fancy saddle with the initials "C.B." that one of the men left behind, and the fact that his wife cut one of the two men deep across the cheek with a buggy whip. Morgan traces the saddle to Craig Belden (Anthony Quinn), an old friend and now a wealthy rancher in the town of Gun Hill, but he knows Belden well enough to know that he couldn't have had anything to do with attacking his wife. Morgan's arrival with Belden's saddle sets off ugly rumblings in Gun Hill, and when he confronts the rancher, he discovers that it was his son Rick (Earl Holliman) who had his horse and the saddle, and rode out with a cowhand friend of his, Lee (Brian G. Hutton) -- but they claim their horses were stolen. Belden tries to convince Morgan, and wants to believe himself that whoever stole the horses must have killed his wife, but when Morgan mentions the cut that one of the killers will have on his face, they both know the truth. He vows to take Rick and Lee back to Pauley to stand trial, while Belden swears he'll do anything it takes to protect his son. Belden is virtually all the law there is in Gun Hill -- the sheriff (Walter Sande) won't help Morgan serve his arrest warrants on the two men, or even let him use the jail to hold them until the last train that night; there's not a working man, a shopkeeper, or even a prostitute in the whole town that will go against the rancher, and Belden's foreman Beero (Brad Dexter) and his men will strongarm anyone who might start feeling brave. Only Linda (Carolyn Jones), a woman who has been both romanced and abused by Belden, will lift a finger on Morgan's behalf. The marshal is nothing if not resourceful, however, and Rick Belden is also too stupid for his own good, and manages to fall into Morgan's hands in short order. Very quickly, a standoff ensues, with Morgan holding Rick in one of Belden's buildings against virtually the entire town, while the deadline -- the last train out of Gun Hill that night -- approaches. People die and a chunk of Belden's holdings are destroyed, but Morgan is about to get Rick onto the train and off to trial when suddenly, one sudden act of violence destroys father and son in a matter of seconds. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Too Much, Too Soon was adapted from the warts-and-all autobiography of actress Diana Barrymore, the troubled daughter of "great profile" John Barrymore. As played by Dorothy Malone, Diana is a basically decent young lady who suffers mightily from lack of parental love. Her famous father, played with boozy bravado by Errol Flynn, is the soul of graciousness and affection when sober, but a human monster when drunk -- which is often. Her poetess mother, Michael Strange (Neva Patterson), is too preoccupied by her bitterness against Barrymore to pay much attention to Diana. Striking out on her own as an actress, Diana vainly seeks personal happiness with several husbands: actor Vincent Bryant (actually Bramwell Fletcher), played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr.; jealous, possessive tennis player John Howard (Ray Danton); and another actor, alcoholic Robert Wilcox (Ed Kemmer). Unable to find satisfaction in her work or her private life, Diana follows family "tradition" by turning to liquor; this leads to extended sanitarium stays and innumerable suicide attempts. It is suggested at the end of the film that she is on the road to recovery, thanks in part to her biographer Gerold Frank (Robert Ellenstein); the sad truth is that two years after the release of Too Much, Too Soon, Diana Barrymore killed herself at the age of 39. This filmed version of Diana's tragic life seldom rises above soap-opera level, save for Errol Flynn's knowing performance of his old friend and drinking companion John Barrymore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The greedy relatives of wealthy Daniel Reed (Edgar Stehli) want to have him committed to a mental institution, using as evidence the fact that he has been issuing $20,000 checks to strangers. Perry is hired by Reed's girlfriend Millie Foster (Kitty Kelly) to prevent the old man from being put away. Before long, however, Perry is defending Reed on a murder charge--and the victim is the recipient of all those checks, a slimy blackmailer named Maury Lewis (King Calder). In the course of events, Perry is amazed that each and every one of his legal moves has been anticipated by DA Hamilton Burger (William Talman); can it be that Burger has ordered Mason's office to be bugged? This final episode of Perry Mason's first season is based on a 1939 novel by series creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For reasons unknown, the change-of-pace Bob Hope vehicle That Certain Feeling is out of favor with many Hope buffs. Bob plays Francis X. Dignan, the overly neurotic "ghost" for popular comic-strip artist Larry Larkin (George Sanders). When Larkin's syndicate complains that his work isn't as amusing as it once was, he anxiously tries to hire back Dignan, who walked out on his boss over a petty disagreement. Dignan needs the money, but he'd rather do without the aggravation; this won't be easy, since Larkin is on the verge of marrying Dunreath Henry (Eva Marie Saint), Dignan's ex-wife. Enusing complications include the pompous Larkin's efforts to adopt a troublesome young boy (played by future "Beaver" Jerry Mathers) as a publicity stunt, and a wild night of drunken revelry which leads to the rekindling of Dunreath's affection for Dignan. The story comes to a raucous conclusion during a chaotic "Person to Person"-style interview show. Pearl Bailey adds spice to the program as a musical maidservant, while real-life cartoonist Al Capp (no stranger to "ghosts" himself) appears as himself. That Certain Feeling was based on The King of Hearts, a play by Jean Kerr and Eleanor Brooke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The MGM melodrama These Wilder Years marked the first onscreen pairing of Hollywood stars James Cagney and Barbara Stanwyck. Lonely middle-aged businessman Steve Bradford (Cagney) returns to his old town in hopes of finding the son he fathered 20 years earlier. Choosing his career over marriage and family, he got a girl pregnant and she gave the baby up for adoption. He goes to an orphanage ran by Ann Dempster (Barbara Stanwyck) to find out information about his son. They are attracted to each other, but she refuses to release the confidential files that could help him. He hires a lawyer, James Rayburn (Walter Pigeon), and proceeds to sue the adoption agency. Though he loses the case in the climactic courtroom scene, Steve ends up finding his son on his own, but he decides it's too late to forge a relationship. Instead, Ann introduces him to pregnant teenager Suzie (Betty Lou Keim), who needs his help. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Fired by editor Perry White (John Hamilton), disgraced reporter Clark Kent (George Reeves) joins a gang of diamond thieves. Unbeknownst to fellow reporters Lois (Noel Neill) and Jimmy (Jack Larson), Clark's criminal career is but a sham, a scheme cooked up between Kent and White to trap the real crooks and turn them over to the law. Even so, Clark is forced to prove his loyalty to the gang by "eliminating" Lois and Jimmy, binding the hapless duo to a chair which is then set afire! Isn't it about time for Clark to sneak into that closet and change into Superman? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1954 Martin-and-Lewis romp Living It Up is an amusing remake of the 1937 comedy classic Nothing Sacred. More specifically, it is the film version of the Broadway musical Hazel Flagg, which was based on Nothing Sacred. The heroine of the original undergoes a sex change to become feckless Homer Flagg (Jerry Lewis), who is led to believe that he's dying of radiation poisoning. Manhattan newspaperwoman Wally Cook (Janet Leigh), hoping to improve circulation of her paper, convinces her boss, Oliver Stone (Fred Clark), to fete Homer as a hero with an all-expenses-paid trip to the Big Apple. Meanwhile, Homer learns from local doctor Steve (Dean Martin) that he isn't dying at all. But Steve talks Homer into taking advantage of the celebrity treatment bestowed on him by Wally, and a good time is had by all -- until medical specialist Dr. Egelhofer (Sig Rumann) insists upon examining Homer. Highlights include a hilarious bit at Yankee Stadium, and an energetic jitterbug number featuring Jerry Lewis and Sheree North. The handful of songs retained from Hazel Flagg include "Every Street's a Boulevard in Old New York." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Written and directed by Irving Brecher, best known for his weekly TV series Life of Riley and The People's Choice, Somebody Loves Me is the highly fictionalized life story of vaudeville and Broadway star Blossom Seeley (Betty Hutton) and her husband-partner Benny Fields (Ralph Meeker). Unflatteringly, the film depicts Fields as something of an opportunist, who maneuvers Blossom into marriage for the benefit of his own career. Eventually he does penance for his callousness, particularly in a scene wherein Fields is reduced to playing straight for a pair of crummy Burlesque comedians. Meanwhile, Blossom also goes into an eclipse as a "single." The tearful finale is, like the rest of the film, a bit at odds with the truth, but effective nonetheless. Betty Hutton does pretty well as Seeley, even though she looks and sounds nothing like genuine article; Meeker seems uncomfortable, except when lip-synching to the prerecorded voice of Pat Morgan as Benny Fields. Jack Benny makes an amusing cameo appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Personally supervised by Howard R. Hughes, the RKO Technicolor musical Two Tickets to Broadway stars Janet Leigh as a small-town girl who hopes to make it big in the Big Apple. Moving into a Manhattan boarding house populated by such showbiz hopefuls as Ann Miller, Tony Martin, Gloria De Haven and Barbara Lawrence, Leigh aspires to appear on the popular TV variety program hosted by bandleader Bob Crosby. Two-bit agent Eddie Bracken promises to make her dreams come true, even though he doesn't know Crosby from Adam. Along the way, Leigh falls for Martin, though the course of true love seldom runs smooth--in fact, at one point it threatens to run all the way back to Leigh's home town. Injecting their time-honored routines into the proceedings are veteran vaudevillians Joe Smith and Charlie Dale, playing a couple of stagestruck deli owners (their roles were originally slated for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, but Laurel's illness precluded any film work). Despite the creative input of choreographer Busby Berkeley, the film's best number is the simplest: Let's Make Comparisons, wherein Bob Crosby explains why he's not his brother Bing. Seemingly a surefire box-office hit, Two Tickets to Broadway inexplicably posted a loss of $1,150,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joe Palooka in Triple Cross, like its predecessors, was based on Ham Fisher's comic strip Joe Palooka. This time around, soft-hearted boxer Joe Palooka (Joe Kirkwood Jr.), his wife Ann (Cathy Downs) and his manager Knobby Walsh (James Gleason) are kidnapped by a trio of goofy escaped convicts. One of the crooks decides to cash in on Joe's ring prowess by ordering the pugilist to throw a fight, thereby allowing the baddies to collect a huge sum at the betting booth. A surefire indication that this isn't supposed to be taken seriously is the scene wherein the head kidnapper (John Emery) disguises himself as Ann's spinster aunt. Joe Palooka in Triple Cross hit the screens at the same time that the earliest Palooka films were beginning to sprout up on television. Ring announcer Jimmy Wallington makes a last-reel appearance as himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Never Trust a Gambler proves the veracity of its title by offering up a particularly unsavory specimen in the form of Steve Garry (Dane Clark). Vowing that he's sworn off gambling, Steve is taken back by his loving ex-spouse Virginia Merrill (Cathy O'Donnell). In fact, Steve is merely using Virginia as a shield, to avoid testifying as a witness in a San Francisco murder trial. It seems that he's the murderer, and as such is obliged to kill again to cover his tracks. Poor, deluded Virginia doesn't catch on to her former husband's perfidy until it's nearly too late. Never Trust a Gambler is well-stocked with reliable supporting players, including Tom Drake, Jeff Corey, Myrna Dell and especially Rhys Williams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hot on the heels of such Red Skelton slapstick comedies as The Fuller Brush Man and The Yellow Cab Man came The Fuller Brush Girl, starring Lucille Ball in a fascinating dry run for her wacky "Lucy Ricardo" TV character. Unable to hold a job because of her tendency to get into trouble, Sally Elliot (Ball) hires on at the Fuller Brush company as a door-to-door cosmetics salesman. After several misadventures involving obnoxious children and snooty matrons, Sally finds herself in the middle of a murder scheme. With reluctant boyfriend Humphrey (Eddie Albert) in tow, Sally gets mixed up in one hilariously life-threatening situation after another, culminating in a prolonged chase sequence on board a tramp steamer. Highlights include Ball's outrageous striptease scene (to the tune of Rita Hayworth's "Put the Blame on Mame") and a choice cameo by Red Skelton as an all-too-cooperative customer. Most of the sight gags in Fuller Brush Girl were cooked up by former cartoon director Frank Tashlin, who'd also contributed to Fuller Brush Man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide