Ruth Warrick Movies
A 1941 RKO radio press book claimed that actress Ruth Warrick first came to New York as the winner of something called the "Miss Jubelesta" contest, carrying a live turkey into Mayor LaGuardia's office. It's a safe bet Warrick, a former radio singer and model, would rather be remembered for her first Hollywood accomplishment, which was certainly no turkey: the role of Emily Monroe Norton, Mrs. Kane number one, in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941). Much too reserved and aristocratic for standard leading lady roles, Warrick was seen to better advantage in character parts. Since 1970, Ruth Warrick has starred as a snooty, status-conscious doctor's wife on the ABC daytime drama All My Children; Warrick alluded to this long-running character in the title of her 1980 autobiography, The Confessions of Phoebe Tyler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Arch of Triumph is a complicated war romance directed by Lewis Milestone. Dr. Ravic (Charles Boyer) is a refugee physician practicing medicine illegally in Paris under a false name. He saves Joan Madou (Ingrid Bergman) from committing suicide after the sudden death of her lover. He gets her a job singing at the nightclub where his only friend, Boris Morosov (Louis Calhern), is the doorman. Joan falls in love with Ravic, but he is deported and she finds herself the mistress of wealthy Alex (Stephan Bekassy). Meanwhile, Ravic seeks revenge against a Nazi officer (Charles Laughton) and war is declared between France and Germany. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Bekassy, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1950
As indicated by the title, Beauty on Parade is largely an excuse to display beautiful, well-proportioned young women in the latest swimming attire. That's okay for the men in the audience, but the ladies needed a plot to hold their attention, so here goes. Future All My Children-star Ruth Warrick plays aging beauty queen Marian Medford, who attempts to vicariously regain her past glories through her pretty daughter Kay (Lola Albright). Marian's relentless promotion of her daughter on the beauty-contest circuit has an injurious effect on Kay's romantic life, not to mention her own marriage to Jeffrey Woodstock (John Ridgely). "B"-picture "regular" Robert Hutton co-stars as a journalist who follows the beauty contestants from pageant to pageant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hutton, Ruth Warrick, (more)
- 1944
Pearl S. Buck's novel China Sky is boiled down to a wartime romantic triangle, courtesy of commercial-minded RKO. Randolph Scott and Ruth Warrick play American doctors in a remote Chinese village. The relationship is platonic, but Scott's spiteful wife Ellen Drew suspects hanky-panky. Despite these turgid soap-opera events, World War II has to be fought, and fought it is thanks to guerilla leader Anthony Quinn and insidious Japanese POW Richard Loo, who tries to win half-Japanese doctor Philip Ahn over to the Rising Sun. Halfway down the cast as "the goat" is Chinese juvenile actor Ducky Louie, who enjoyed a brief 1940s stardom in such films as China's Little Devils (1945) and Black Gold (1947), reteaming with Anthony Quinn in the latter film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Ruth Warrick, (more)
Orson Welles first feature film -- which he directed, produced, and co-wrote, as well as playing the title role -- proved to be his most important and influential work, a ground-breaking drama loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst which is frequently cited as the finest American film ever made. Aging newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) dies in his sprawling Florida estate after uttering a single, enigmatic final word -- "Rosebud" -- and newsreel producer Rawlston (Phil Van Zandt) sends reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) out with the assignment of uncovering the meaning behind the great man's dying thought. As Thompson interviews Kane's friends, family, and associates, we learn the facts of Kane's eventful and ultimately tragic life: his abandonment by his parents (Agnes Moorehead and Harry Shannon) after he becomes the heir to a silver mine; his angry conflicts with his guardian, master financier Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris); his impulsive decision that "it would be fun to run a newspaper" with the help of school chum Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) and loyal assistant Mr. Bernstein (Everett Sloane); his rise from scandal sheet publisher to the owner of America's largest and most influential newspaper chain; his marriage to socially prominent Emily Norton (Ruth Warrick), whose uncle is the President of the United States; Kane's ambitious bid for public office, which is dashed along with his marriage when his opponent, corrupt political boss Jim Gettys (Ray Collins), reveals that Kane is having an affair with aspiring vocalist Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore); Kane's vain attempts to promote second wife Alexander as an opera star; and his final, self-imposed exile to a massive and never-completed pleasure palace called Xanadu. While Citizen Kane was a film full of distinguished debuts -- along with Welles, it was the first feature for Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead, and Ruth Warrick -- the only Academy Award it received was for Best Original Screenplay, for which Welles shared credit with veteran screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, (more)
Daisy Kenyon stars Joan Crawford as the eponymous heroine, a Manhattan commercial artist. Daisy is torn between two men: a handsome, married attorney (Dana Andrews) and an unmarried Henry Fonda. Deciding to do the "right thing", Daisy marries Fonda, but carries a torch for the dashing Andrews. When the lawyer divorces his wife, he calls upon Daisy and tries to win her back. She is very nearly won over, but her husband isn't about to give up so easily. Both men argue over Daisy, who is so distraught by the experience that she nearly has a fatal automobile accident. In the end, Daisy realizes that she truly loves Fonda, and gives Andrews his walking papers. Daisy Kenyon is given a contemporary slant with a subplot about child abuse (in a Joan Crawford film!); and, in one scene set at New York's Stork Club, several celebrities (Walter Winchell, Leonard Lyons, John Garfield) make unbilled cameo appearances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Crawford, Art Baker, (more)
- 1985
Downbeat, morbid, and dark, this well-wrought suspense drama stars Farley Granger as Doug Andrews, a chief medical investigator with a not-so magnificent obsession. In 1970 the body of a four-year-old boy was found in the woods and his killers were never brought to justice. The examiner joins forces with a local policeman as they try to track down the identity of the boy and his murderer, but they get nowhere and the case is dropped. Spurred on by the need to exorcise his own demons after the drowning death of his own daughter, Andrews carries the deathmask of the four-year old with him and never gives up on the case. This engaging drama is based on a true story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Farley Granger, Lee Bryant, (more)
- 1947
Allan Dwan directs the family-oriented drama Driftwood, starring nine-year-old Natalie Wood. Orphan Jenny Hollingsworth (Wood) is found in a rural small town in Nevada that is ravaged by Rocky Mountain fever. She meets the local doctor, Steve Webster (Dean Jagger), who is working on a research project. Steve plans on leaving the girl with his girlfriend, Susan Moore (Ruth Warrick), while he goes to San Francisco to do research. However, enny's dog attacks a little boy and gets taken away by Sheriff Bolton (James Bell). Jenny develops Rocky Mountain fever from the dog and gets deathly ill. Also starring Walter Brennan as Murph, Charlotte Greenwood as Mathilda, and Jerome Cowan as Mayor Snyder. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Brennan, James Bell, (more)
- 1943
The 80-star cast of Forever and a Day would certainly not have been feasible had not most of the actors and production people turned over their salaries to British war relief -- a point driven home during the lengthy opening credits by an unseen narrator. The true star of the film is a stately old manor house in London, built in 1804 by a British admiral (C. Aubrey Smith) and blitzed in 1940 by one Adolf Hitler. Through the portals of this house pass a vast array of Britons, from high-born to low. The earliest scenes involve gay blade Lt. William Trimble (Ray Milland), wronged country-girl Susan (Anna Neagle), and wicked landowner Ambrose Pomfret (Claude Rains). We move on to a comic interlude involving dotty Mr. Simpson (Reginald Owen), eternally drunken butler Bellamy (Charles Laughton), and cockney plumbers Mr. Dabb (Cedric Hardwicke) and Wilkins (Buster Keaton). Maidservant Jenny (Ida Lupino) takes over the plot during the Boer War era, while the World War I sequence finds the house converted into a way-station for soldiers (including Robert Cummings) and anxious families (including Roland Young and Gladys Cooper). Finally we arrive in 1940, with American Gates Pomfret (Kent Smith) and lady-of-the-house Lesley Trimble (Ruth Warrick) surveying the bombed-out manor, and exulting over the fact that the portrait of the home's founder, Adm. Eustace Trimble (Smith), has remained intact -- symbolic proof of England's durability in its darkest hours. The huge cast includes Dame May Whitty, Edward Everett Horton, Wendy Barrie, Merle Oberon, Nigel Bruce, Richard Haydn, Donald Crisp, and a host of others -- some appearing in sizeable roles, others (like Arthur Treacher and Patric Knowles) willingly accepting one-scene bits, simply to participate in the undertaking. Seven directors and 21 writers were also swept up in the project. Forever and a Day was supposed to have been withdrawn from circulation after the war and its prints destroyed so that no one could profit from what was supposed to have been an act of industry charity. Happily for future generations, prints have survived and are now safely preserved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, (more)
A Guest in the House is an involving psychological melodrama, well directed and acted, concerning a young woman's obsessive love. Evelyn (Anne Baxter), an emotionally vulnerable and unstable woman, stays at the home of her doctor Dan Proctor (Scott McKay). There she meets and falls in love with his brother, Douglas (Ralph Bellamy), who is happily married to Ann (Ruth Warrick). Evelyn then sets forth to break up the happy marriage and win the love of Douglas -- with tragic results. A Guest in the House directed by John Brahm, aided by Andre De Toth and Lewis Milestone, who are uncredited, is a sensitive, well-acted melodrama. Baxter gives a fine performance as the unstable young woman, who cannot overcome her obsessions. The fine musical score, composed by Werner Janssen, was nominated for an Academy Award. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Baxter, Ralph Bellamy, (more)
- 1968
Released theatrically overseas, How to Steal the World was comprised of two episodes from the American TV series Man from U.N.C.L.E. U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Ilya Kuriakin (David McCallum) investigate when fellow agent Barry Sullivan and European general Leslie Nielsen disappear. Shortly afterward, five of the world's top scientists are mysteriously abducted. The trail leads to the Himalayas, where Sullivan has set himself up as potential world dictator, hoping to use the combined talents of the scientists to build a device that will spread mind-controlling gas throughout the planet. How to Steal the World was originally telecast in two weekly installments as the "The Seven Wonders of the World Affair"--the final two episodes of Man From U.N.C.L.E., which had been cancelled by NBC to make way for Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1942
- NR
Orson Welles had planned to produce, direct and star in RKO's Journey Into Fear, but prior commitments compelled him to vacate the director's chair in favor of Norman Foster. Joseph Cotten, who starred as an American gunnery engineer up to his armpits in international intrigue, adapted the screenplay from the novel by Eric Ambler. Targeted for extermination by the Gestapo, Cotten secretly books passage on a steamer bound from Turkey to Batumi. His fellow passengers include dancer Dolores Del Rio and her gigolo partner Jack Durant; talkative Frenchwoman Agnes Moorehead and her browbeaten husband Frank Readick; German archaeologist Eustace Wyatt; and a secretive, obese, thick-spectacled gent, played by Orson Welles' business partner Jack Moss. From the outset, it is no secret that Moss is a Nazi assassin. The question: who are his contacts, and how long will it be before Cotten is forced into a showdown? The very complex storyline was made even more so by RKO's decision to pare the film down to 69 minutes; several resultant plot gaps had to be bridged by an ongoing offscreen narration, presented in the form of a letter written by Cotten to his worried wife Ruth Warrick. As one can see, virtually the entire roster of Welles' Mercury Theatre troupe is involved in Journey into Fear. Welles himself plays colorful Turkish police officer Colonel Haki, while Everett Sloane, Hans Conried and Edgar Barrier essay significant smaller roles. Director Norman Foster so slavishly imitates the patented Wellesian visual style (following Welles' pre-production "storyboards" dictating choice of camera angle, lighting etc.) that many historians have assumed that Welles himself directed the picture. Remade for Canadian TV in 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten, Dolores Del Rio, (more)
- 1950
Fred Astaire and Betty Hutton make a surprisingly copacetic screen team in Let's Dance. Hutton plays a more sedate role than usual as war widow Kitty McNeil. Not wishing to have her young son Richard (Gregory Moffatt) grow up in the stiff and stuffy environs of her Boston in-laws' mansion, Kitty sneaks off with the kid and resumes her prewar show-business career. She is reunited with her USO dancing partner Donald Elwood (Astaire), who hopes to give up performing in favor of the business world. Inevitably, Kitty and Donald resume their old act, while, equally inevitably, Kitty's Bostonite grandmother-in-law Serena Everett (Lucille Watson) sets the legal wheels in motion to gain custody of little Richard. Fred Astaire manages to match Betty Hutton's patented raucousness during the hillbilly musical number "Oh, Them Dudes", though he is given the opportunity to do the sort of dancing he does best--notably a brilliant routine atop and around a piano. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Betty Hutton, (more)
- 1949
Make Believe Ballroom is a feature-length derivation of the popular LA-based radio series of the same name. Hosted by Martin Block and then by Al Jarvis, the original Ballroom was a combination disc-jockey program and quiz show. Jarvis plays himself in the film version, introducing such musical artists as Frankie Laine, the King Cole Trio,Jack Smith, Kay Starr, Charlie Barnet, Jimmy Dorsey, Jan Garber, Gene Krupa and Pee Wee Hunt. The barely relevant plot concerns two carhops, Gene Thomas (Jerome Courtland) and Josie Marlow (Virginia Welles), who participate in the question-and-answer portion of the radio series. Though competitors on the air, Gene and Josie eventually fall in love. The supporting cast is filled with such stock Columbia players as Sid Tomack, Adele Jergens, and Vernon Dent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerome Courtland, Ruth Warrick, (more)
- 1944
The year is 1942: Mr. Winkle (Edward G. Robinson), a mild-mannered bank clerk, decides to quit his job and open a fix-it shop in his garage. Winkle's wife Amy (Ruth Warrick) disapproves of this, and orders her husband to move into his little shop. Tired of being browbeaten, Winkle is delighted when his draft notice shows up. Fitted for a uniform, Winkle has the wind taken out of his sails in basic training, but soon finds that army life agrees with him; when given a chance to go home when the draft age is lowered to 38, he refuses to do so. Transferred to the South Pacific, Winkle instinctively performs a conspicuous act of bravery. He returns home a much-decorated hero, but he's too shy to partake in the ceremonies in his honor, opting instead to return to his shop, and to his now-loving wife Amy. A tailor-made Edward G. Robinson vehicle, Mr. Winkle Goes to War was adapted by Waldo Salt, George Corey and Louis Solomon from a novel by Theodore Pratt. Watch for Robert Mitchum, Hugh Beaumont and Miss Jeff Donnell in unbilled bits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Warrick, (more)
- 1941
The studio concocted the film as a showcase for its 9-year-old discovery Joan Carroll, here cast as precocious Bridget Potter. Little Bridget has been willingly "kidnapped" by secretary Linda Norton (Ruth Warrick), who hopes that the girl's disappearance will precipitate a reunion between Bridget's divorcing parents (John Miljan, Marjorie Gateson). Instead, Linda's well-intentioned crime results in a film-length slapstick chase, largely involving two rival newspaper reporters (Eve Arden and Edmond O'Brien). Obliging Young Lady was directed by Richard Wallace, who as a former employee of Hal Roach Studios was well-grounded in this sort of frenetic farce. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Carroll, Edmond O'Brien, (more)
Produced and distributed by legendary road-show entrepreneur Kroger Babb, One Too Many details the tragedy of alcoholism. Ruth Warrick stars as concert pianist Helen Mason, who destroys her life and career through drinking. Helen is finally saved from herself when she joins Alcoholics Anonymous. When originally released to theaters, One Too Many was screened in tandem with a live appearance by an ostensible expert on alcoholism, who delivered a cautionary lecture, then distributed pamphlets. Most Kroger Babb productions were shoddily put together: One Too Many is an exception, boasting a talented cast, competent direction (Erle C. Kenton) and reasonably attractive production values. As a bonus, the film features several guest stars, ranging from dancer Louis da Pron to Hollywood makeup artist Ern Westmore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Warrick, Richard Travis, (more)
- 1946
Pat O'Brien makes the casual acquaintance of fellow American Ruth Warrick while on vacation in Mexico City. What Warrick doesn't know is that O'Brien is a treasury agent, out to get expatriate counterfeiters Alan Hale and Edgar Buchanan. What O'Brien doesn't know is that Warrick is also out to get Hale, whom she holds responsible for her father's death. After a lengthy period of cross purposes, hero and heroine team up to catch the crooks. Perilous Holiday puts Pat O'Brien through his standard paces, and provides an offbeat role for the usually aristocratic Ruth Warrick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Ruth Warrick, (more)
- 1964
Slim and svelte Dianne Adler (Mary Ann Mobley), a hometown girlfriend of Della Street (Barbara Hale), has launched a career as a model. Harrison Boring (Paul Gilbert) hands Dianne the most unusual assignment of her career: For 200 dollars per week, she is to gain a great deal of weight! It seems that Boring is promoting a line of clothes for full-figured women, and he needs a hefty model with "name" value. What Della can't understand is why Dianne would have signed a contract which forfeits 50% of everything she makes over her regular salary to the enterprising Boring. It's a good thing that Della brings this to the attention of her boss Perry Mason (Raymond Burr)--who ends up defending Dianne on a murder charge when Boring is killed. This episode is based on a 1962 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1943
Best described as "cute," Petticoat Larceny was intended as a showcase for RKO Radio's latest juvenile discovery, 11-year-old Joan Carroll. The story concerns a bratty radio star (Carroll) who wants to inject some blood-and-thunder plotlines and gangster lingo into her broadcasts. To this end, she arranges to be "kidnapped" by a trio of dimwitted burglars, played by Tom Kennedy, Jimmy Conlin and Vince Barnett. When a genuine kidnapper spoils the plan, it's up to the handsome fiancé (Walter Reed) of the girl's aunt (Ruth Warrick) to come to the rescue. This is the sort of film that Late Late Show aficionados never seem to see in its entirety: they usually doze off in the first reel and wake up at fadeout time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Warrick, Joan Carroll, (more)
- 1985
In this drama, set twenty years after the original saga, a woman comes to the tumultuous New England village to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her mother and discovers that the town's most respected citizens have been keeping a series of dark, disturbing secrets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Told via flashback by a saloon keeper to a census taker in a tiny Texas town, this brutal, adult-oriented western offers the tale of a drifter who settles down to marry a woman he doesn't love so he can get at her inheritance. When that is exposed, the drifter flees and does not return for eleven years. He rides back into town with a fortune that he earned while hunting buffalo. The town's crooked banker and two thugs ride out to greet him. Thinking that the only way the reprobate could have gotten so much money is from rustling cows, they engineer a brutal reception that results in his being branded with a big "T." Naturally, the drifter passes out during his painful ordeal and when he finally comes to and learns the truth about the situation immediately gallops off to get his bloody revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chuck Connors, Michael Rennie, (more)
- 1954
Poor Roogie Rigsby. He's the new boy in town and is the butt of all the local kids' jokes. The meanies won't even let him join their baseball games. But then a strange, magical thing happens when the ghost of a late, great Brooklyn Dodger descends and gives him a bump on the arm that results in Roogie's ability to pitch better than anyone in the world. With such amazing speed, strength and accuracy it isn't long before little Roogie is pitching for the Dodgers alongside such greats as Campanella, Erskine, Loes and Russ Meyer. It's a boy's dream come true, but his mother can't help but worry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Warrick, Olive Blakeney, (more)
- 1950
Hugh Beaumont and Ruth Warrick star in this drama about a bank president and his wife, and their earnest attempt to find out just where their marriage went wrong during a time of deep personal crisis. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
