Paul Valentine Movies
A remake of Jacques Tourneur's noir classic Out of the Past (1947), in this version a labyrinthine web of corruption touches on the world of pro football. When an injury-riddled body causes pro football player Terry Brogan (Jeff Bridges) to be cut by his team, Jake Wise (James Woods), a shady gambler friend, hires him to locate his spoiled, erratic girlfriend Jessie (Rachel Ward). Terry's attempt to glean Jessie's whereabouts from the girl's coldly aristocratic mother (Jane Greer) leads to a lucrative counteroffer to keep Jessie away from Jake if he finds her. After refusing, Terry heads for scenic Cozumel, where he eventually runs down the stunning young woman. A mutual attraction quickly develops and the pair are less than eager to return to California. Painfully, Terry tells Jessie about his involvement in a betting scandal which has put him under Jake's control. Meanwhile Jake, who is angered by the delay, senses that something is going on, and sends Terry's conditioning coach, Sully (Alex Karras), to find the couple. When he finally locates them, sweatily making love in a Mayan temple, tragedy ensues, spinning the ill-fated Terry into a world of boundless deceit and corruption. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rachel Ward, Jeff Bridges, (more)
- 1984
- R
Yet another teen romance and hijinks movie for the pre-pubescent, this film is set in the mid-1950s and involves two rival California high schools whose bands are in serious competition. Other than that plot device, there is a telephone hotline to teen love run by J.D. (Michael Winslow) and the usual collection of teenage gags and pranks. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greg Bradford, Mary Beth Evans, (more)
- 1983
After the mysterious death of seven-year-old Christopher Reano, Quincy (Jack Klugman) checks into reports that a foster group home called Green Springs is endangering its charges with brutal treatment and unsanitary conditions. Pediatrician Dr. Curtis (played by former Leave It to Beaver cotar Tony Dow) hopes that Quincy will help him close Green Springs down: trouble is, the youngsters will then be shipped off to a reformatory that is even worse. It is up to Quincy's psychologist wife Elaine (Anita Gillette) to come up with a radical--but compassionate--solution to the problem. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
- R
Adapted by John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion from Dunne's novel, True Confessions uses the still-unsolved "Black Dahlia" murder as the foundation for a devastating attack on big-city corruption -- in which it appears that many of the perpetrators wear clerical collars. In, 1948 Los Angeles detective Tom Spellacy (Robert Duvall) is assigned to investigate the death of a priest, who apparently suffered a heart attack while being serviced by a prostitute. Meanwhile, Tom's brother, young Catholic monsignor Des Spellacy (Robert De Niro), is reluctantly currying favor with crooked contractor Jack Amsterdam (Charles Durning), the better to finance an expansion of Des' church. The unifying factor between Tom and Des, beyond their sibling relationship, turns out to be the grisly murder of a hooker. The key words in the labyrinthine proceedings are power, ambition, and hypocrisy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, (more)
Adapted from Dennis Potter's landmark British TV miniseries and relocated to the United States during the Depression, Pennies from Heaven dramatizes how popular songs both shaped and reflected the thoughts of people living through economic (and emotional) hardship. Arthur Parker (Steve Martin) is a sheet music salesman who believes that he can spot a hit a mile away and wants to open his own store. But he can't get a bank loan and his wife Joan (Jessica Harper), who has savings left to her by her father, refuses to give him the money. Also, while Arthur has a fierce sexual appetite, Joan generally refuses his advances. While on the road, Arthur meets Eileen (Bernadette Peters), a shy schoolteacher as desperate for affection as Arthur is hungry for sex. They begin an affair, which leads to tragedy for both. Punctuating the drama of Pennies from Heaven are elaborate musical numbers in which the characters lip-synch to popular songs of the day, which at once lift their hopes and reflect their fears. Arthur's buoyant tap number to "My Baby Said Yes" and Eileen's saucy rendition of "Love is Good for Anything That Ails You" are reflections of their needs for money and love, and their pas de deux on "Let's Face the Music and Dance" is at once an escape and an acknowledgement of their hopelessness. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, (more)
- 1981
- PG
The Man who Saw Tomorrow is none other than Michel de Nostradamus, the French doctor who lived in the 16th century but supposedly saw far ahead into the 20th century and beyond. This documentary is an attempt to bring home the interpretation of some of his predictions using historical footage, newsreels, interviews, and dramatized scenes. The film is narrated by Orson Welles -- shown sitting in a small, nondescript office, with the voice of Nostradamus provided by Philip L. Clarke. Predictions noted in the documentary include Napoleon's career, the coming of Hitler, and of Franco, and events across the sea: the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy, and a supposed nuclear attack on New York City in 1999, among other dire events. If equal time had been given to scholars to refute the glib interpretations by illustrating how abstruse and confusing the original 16th-century French quatrains really are, the documentary might have achieved more balance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip L. Clarke
- 1981
- R
Gene Hackman plays a disgruntled suburbanite who manages the Ultra-Sav, an all-night drugstore. He hates his job, hates his debts and responsibilities, and isn't overly fond of his wife (Diane Ladd) and son (Dennis Quaid). Partly as a form of protest, Hackman enters into an affair with Barbra Streisand, one of his wife's distant relatives (don't ask how she's related - it takes Hackman about thirty seconds to explain it to another character). Streisand doesn't belong in this picture at all, but she can be forgiven her acting excesses because she wasn't the first choice for the role anyway (Lisa Eichhorn dropped out just before shooting began). The best moments in All Night Long involve the steady stream of oddballs and losers who trickle into Hackman's establishment. There is also a cute Apocalypse Now parody involving a battery-operated toy helicopter. The principal attraction of All Night Long is Gene Hackman playing an endearingly recognizable modern type. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Barbra Streisand, (more)
Long before trading her Park Avenue apartment for a ramshackle farm on Green Acres, Eva Gabor shed her Saks' Fifth Avenue duds for a South Seas sarong in Love Island. Gabor plays Sarna, a Balinese beauty, courted by stranded Navy pilot Lt. Richard Tabor (Paul Valentine). Bad guy Jaraka (Malcolm Beggs) doesn't like this arrangement, so he has Sarna's father arrested on a trumped-up charge. Jaraka then drops a few subtle suggestions that the old man will never survive his incarceration unless Sarna marries him. If nothing else, Love Island offers acres and acres of exposed male and female epidermis, lovingly photographed in Cinecolor. The film was directed by exploitation king Budd Pollard, who a few years earlier had specialized in films aimed at the African American market. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Gabor, Paul Valentine, (more)
- 1952
Something to Live For is the last of director George Stevens' "small" films, before he concentrated full-time on such blockbusters as Shane and Giant. Joan Fontaine plays a popular actress who descends into alcoholism. Ray Milland, in an unofficial extension of his Lost Weekend role, plays a reformed drunkard who comes to Fontaine's rescue. He encourages her to join Alcoholics Anonymous--one of the first times that this organization was given any kind of screen treatment. Milland's concern strains his relationship with his wife (Teresa Wright), who doubts that Ray's interest in Fontaine is merely humanitarian. But Milland refuses to endanger his marriage no matter how strong his feelings towards Fontaine--nor how much the audience wants him to. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Fontaine, Ray Milland, (more)
It had been said that the Pine-Thomas production unit never lost money for Paramount Pictures. Even without major star names to carry the box-office weight, Pine-Thomas' Special Agent managed to post a tidy profit. William Eythe stars as Johnny Douglas, an operative of the combined railroads' special-agent division. While encamped in a small California town, Douglas takes on the villainous Devereaux brothers (George Reeves and Paul Valentine), who pull off a big-time payroll train heist. Heroine Lucille Peters, whose father is killed in the robbery, is played by Laura Elliot, who later portrayed the bespectacled murder victim in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train--and who, as Kasey Rogers, went on to appear as Mrs. Larry Tate on TV's Bewitched. Most of Special Agent is filmed on location, adding authenticity to the melodramatic goings-on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Reeves, Laura Elliot, (more)
House of Strangers is the first of three film versions of Jerome Weidman's I'll Never Go Home Any More, each of which was scripted by Philip Yordan. Edward G. Robinson plays a Giannini-like Italian-American banker, Gino Monetti, who runs roughshod over his four grown sons. The ruthless Gino engages in several illegal activities to build up his business, and is arrested as a result. Though the sons have always been fully aware of their father's questionable business practices, they refuse to help him stay out of prison; led by oldest son Joe (Luther Adler), three of the sons take over the business and kick their father out. Only son Max (Richard Conte) remains loyal to his father, whereupon his three brothers conspire to have Max thrown into prison as well. Max promises the dying Gino that he'll exact vengeance on the treacherous sons; but when he is released, Max hasn't the stomach for revenge, not even after one of his brothers (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) tries to kill him. Max leaves his brothers to stew in their own juices, and heads to California for a new life with his fiancée, Irene Bennett (Susan Hayward). Subsequent film versions of the Jerome Weidman novel included Broken Lance (1954) and The Big Circus (1961). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, (more)
The Marx Brothers' final starring feature Love Happy began life as a solo vehicle for Harpo. The financiers wouldn't go for this, insisting that all three Marx boys appear on screen. Thus, Chico was hastily written into the proceedings, while Groucho made what amounted to a guest appearance as narrator and last-minute problem solver. The story concerns a group of aspiring actors who are putting together a musical review called "Love Happy." Harpo, the troupe's mascot, keeps the actors from starving by cleverly filching canned goods from a local grocer. On one such excursion, he accidentally gets hold of a sardine can containing a fortune in stolen diamonds. This makes Harpo the target of icy adventuress Madame Egilichi (Ilona Massey) and her henchmen (Melville Cooper, Raymond Burr, Bruce Gordon). When he isn't fending off the villains, Harpo is making life a little brighter for "Love Happy"'s leading lady Maggie (Vera-Ellen). Chico shows up sporadically as Faustino the Great, an itinerant musician, while Groucho plays private eye Sam Grunion, who does the best he can with some pretty weak dialogue. Groucho's best scene is his one-minute confrontation with a gorgeous blonde client, played by a decidedly pre-stardom Marilyn Monroe. Most of the comedy routines in Love Happy are either underwritten or underdeveloped, save for the spectacular finale, wherein Harpo evades the villains by climbing over, under and around neon advertisement signs for such products as Fisk Tires, Mobilgas and Kool Cigarettes. The fact that Ben Hecht wrote the original story upon which Love Happy was based caused the film to be banned in Great Britain, due to Hecht's improvident comments about the British occupation of Palestine. Though dyed-in-the-wool Marx Brothers fans tend to dislike Love Happy, the film manages to deliver quite a few solid laughs when seen today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, (more)
Out of the Past is so perfect a film noir that it is considered practically a textbook example of the genre. In his first starring role (it had previously been offered to John Garfield and Dick Powell), Robert Mitchum plays Jeff Bailey, the friendly but secretive proprietor of a mountain-village gas station. As Jeff's worshipful deaf-mute attendant (Dick Moore) looks on in curious fascination, an unsavory character named Joe (Paul Valentine) pulls up to the station, obviously looking for the owner. Jeff is all too aware of Joe's identity; he's been dreading this moment for quite some time, knowing full well that it will mean the end of his semi-idyllic existence, not to mention his engagement to local girl Ann (Virginia Huston). In a lengthy flashback, the audience is apprised of the reasons behind Jeff's discomfort. Several years earlier, he'd been a private detective, hired by gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) to find his mistress Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer), who shot him and ran off with $40,000. Jeff traces Kathie to Mexico, but when he meets her he falls in love and willingly becomes involved in an increasingly complicated web of double-crosses, blackmail, and murder. The flashback over, Jeff agrees to meet Whit face to face in Lake Tahoe. Surprisingly, Whit apparently bears no malice, and even offers Jeff an opportunity to square himself by retrieving Whit's tax records from mob attorney Eels (Ken Niles). Even more surprisingly, Kathie has returned to Whit on her own volition. When Jeff is taken to Eels' apartment by the beautiful Meta Carson (Rhonda Fleming), he quickly figures out that he has been set up and tries to clue Eels into the plot, but Eels is later found murdered, and Jeff is accused of the crime. Worse yet, Whit has forced Kathie to sign an affadavit that also pins another murder on him. Crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses abound for the next few reels, culminating in disaster for the oh-so-clever Whit, who has fatally underestimated the deceitful (and icewater-veined) Kathie. And in the end, it is Jeff who must resort to drastic measures to force Kathie to pay the price for her cold-hearted treachery. Out of the Past was remade in 1984 as Against All Odds, with Jane Greer cast as the mother of her original character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, (more)
