Mamie van Doren Movies

This rodeo songfest finds Jackie (Mamie Van Doren) in love with Kelly (Jeff Richards) as they perform on the traveling rodeo circuit. Cool Man (Arthur Hunnicutt) is the likeable rodeo veteran. Jackie carries the torch for Kelly, who plays hard to get. Kelly plans to leave his bronco busting life behind before injuries and age catch up with him. Liz (Carol Ohmart) is a rich divorcee with eyes for Kelly. Van Doren sings five songs, and Tex Williams plays himself singing "Song Of The Rodeo". Johnny Olenn sings the title track and "You Lovable You". ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Forbidden bears traces of several earlier film noirs, with Tony Curtis filling the shoes vacated by the likes of Alan Ladd, Dick Powell and Robert Mitchum. Curtis acquits himself very nicely as a small-time hood sent to Macao by gangster Lyle Bettger to locate Joanne Dru, the widow of another gangster. It will not spoil the film to reveal here that Curtis and Dru fall in love as he escorts her back. Nor is there any surprise in the revelation that hero and heroine decide to dodge Bettger once they learn that they've both been set up for extermination. Forbidden was directed by Rudolph Mate, a former cinematographer who could probably find long, looming shadows in the Sahara Desert at high noon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Another horny-teen epic from Galaxy International, Free Ride asks us to identify with jerky preppie Gary Hershberger. Anxious to impress a sexy but monumentally stupid young woman, Hershberger claims that a snazzy red sports car that has just pulled up to a singles bar is his. He "borrows" the car and takes the girl for a joyride, little knowing that the back seat contains a quarter of a million dollars of mob money. Connect the dots and you'll figure out the rest of the story. All Free Ride really has going for it is the campy presence of 1950s sex-bomb Mamie Van Doren and a handful of raunchy verbal gags. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This generically-titled crime caper stars Mamie Van Doren as Vegas nightclub singer Vi Victor and Lee Van Cleef as her gangster husband Mike Bennett. While Mike is stuck in prison, Vi has an affair with his former cellmate Chuck Wheeler (Gerald Mohr), who masterminds a $2 million armored car heist. Mike busts out of jail and claims the ill-gotten gains for himself. He also reclaims Vi, whose fidelity can be easily bought. Practically every member of the cast is dead by the final fade-out; it wouldn't be sporting to reveal here who survives. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Producer Albert Zugsmith serves up another all-star exposé with High School Confidential. Delivering a superb performance under the circumstances, Russ Tamblyn heads the cast as "typical" high schooler Tony Baker. Usually seen in the company of his voluptuous "aunt" Gwen Dulaine (the truly impressive Mamie Van Doren), Tony convinces one and all that he's looking for kicks of the controlled-substance kind. In truth, however, our hero is really an undercover narcotics agent named Mike Wilson, bound and determined to smash the operation of drug lord Mr. A. (Jackie Coogan). The once-in-a-lifetime cast includes such worthies as John Drew Barrymore (Drew Barrymore's daddy), Ray Anthony (then married to Mamie Van Doren), Charles Chaplin Jr., Michael Landon, and Jerry Lee Lewis as "himself." This updated Reefer Madness is not to be missed! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If Jet Pilot seems hopelessly out of date today, imagine how filmgoers in 1957 reacted when this relic from 1949 was taken off the shelf. Many, many years in the making due to the maniacal tinkering by producer Howard Hughes (who reportedly lost $4 million on it - a massive sum back then), the film was deemed unreleasable upon completion; only when Universal-International took over distribution of a handful of RKO Radio productions did it finally see the light of day. John Wayne stars as an air force colonel stationed in an Alaskan outpost only 40 miles or so from the Soviet Union. Wayne is put in charge of Russian jet pilot Janet Leigh, who claims that she wants to defect. Actually, Leigh is a Communist spy, but thanks to Wayne's affectionate attentions she is won over to the side of Democracy. Thus it is that Leigh rescues the Duke when he is kidnapped and nearly brainwashed by her Commie comrades. Jet Pilot was eventually bought back from U-I by Hughes for his personal collection; not only did he buy into the propagandistic plotline, but he was also enthralled by the aerial scenes, some of which were staged by legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager. The 1949 production date for a number of sequences explains not only why so many of the actors look young for 1957, but the existence of several supporting cast members who had died in the interim (such as Jack Overman and Richard Rober). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the earliest examples of the hot rod/juvenile delinquency flick, Running Wild featured William Campbell as a rookie cop infiltrating a gang of teenagers that are stealing cars for Ken Osanger (Keenan Wynn), a nasty type who uses a gas station as a front for his nefarious purposes. Going undercover as a teenage rebel, Ralph Barclay (Campbell) not only saves pretty Leta Novak (Kathleen Case) from being ravaged by Osanger, but wins the love of voluptuous Irma Bean (Mamie van Doren), the former girlfriend of teenage gang leader Scotty Cluett (Jan Merlin). John Saxon, Walter Coy, and teen flick regular Kenny Miller also appeared in this highly exploitative crime drama from Universal directed by character actor Abner Biberman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Three lifelong cheaters wise up in this gross-out college comedy, which marks the second feature role for Rushmore star Jason Schwartzman. It's the last semester of senior year for roomies Dave (Devon Sawa), Sam (Jason Segel), and Jeff (Michael C. Maronna), a trio of twenty-somethings whose enthusiasm for higher learning is matched only by their enthusiasm for root canals performed without the aid of anesthesia. As such, their entire collegiate existence has been an elaborate series of cons and scams designed to plagiarize essays, skip midterms, and covertly manipulate bell curves. When deranged geek Ethan (Schwartzman) -- who harbors a psychotic fixation for a flaxen-haired co-ed named Angela (James King) -- gets wind of their scheming, he blackmails Dave and the gang into contriving a date between him and his crush. But as Dave cozies up to Angela, he realizes that no amount of scheming can hide the fact that he's the one that's truly in love. Slackers went by a number of working titles while in production at the ill-fated upstart Destination Films; when Destination went belly-up, the film sat on the shelf for over a year before being picked up for release by Sony's Screen Gems division. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Hard-boiled, self-educated newspaper editor Clark Gable turns down an opportunity to lecture before a night-school journalism class, publicly ridiculing the notion that the art of news writing can be taught. Gable's publisher, sensing a good story, orders the recalcitrant editor to appear at the lecture. Upon entering the classroom, Gable overhears journalism teacher Doris Day, the daughter of a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, condemn Gable's attitude towards higher education. Intrigued by the lovely Day, Gable enrolls in her class under an assumed name. He quickly goes to the head of the class (after all, he's had more experience than all the other students combined), then begins a campaign to romance Day. But there's a fly in the ointment: Day's fiance Gig Young, who gives an Oscar-calibre performance as a smug know-all. Likewise stealing every scene she's in is Mamie Van Doren, playing an exotic dancer who's set her sights on Gable. Fay and Michael Kanin's sprightly screenplay for Teacher's Pet manages to steer clear of any and all potential cliches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set within the popular bohemian coffee houses of the late '50s where beatniks gathered to recite poetry and perform, this sensationalistic detective drama centers upon the attempts of an insensitive police detective to catch an arrogant serial rapist, a rich young man who believes himself mentally superior and therefore beyond the law. His favorite victims are married women. When he learns that the detective is after him, the rapist targets the cop's wife. Later the poor wife discovers she's pregnant and cannot be sure who fathered her child. The film is alternatively titled This Rebel Age. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Lust and corruption destroy the career of a prominent senator in this super-sleazy political drama. He is involved with at least three different women, one of whom he inadvertently impregnates during a big party. Another of the senator's women takes the girl to a back-alley abortionist who violates the poor woman. Eventually the Senator asks one of the women to marry him, but later as he is watching a skin-flick he realizes that his beloved is the star and he drops dead from heart failure. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Country and western star Ferlin Husky plays a backwoods yokel who inherits a Las Vegas saloon staffed by barmaid Mamie Van Doren. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide