Ron Whelan Movies

At one time the longest-running Broadway musical, My Fair Lady was adapted by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe from the George Bernard Shaw comedy Pygmalion. Outside Covent Garden on a rainy evening in 1912, dishevelled cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) meets linguistic expert Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison). After delivering a musical tirade against "verbal class distinction," Higgins tells his companion Colonel Pickering (Wilfred Hyde-White) that, within six months, he could transform Eliza into a proper lady, simply by teaching her proper English. The next morning, face and hands freshly scrubbed, Eliza presents herself on Higgins' doorstep, offering to pay him to teach her to be a lady. "It's almost irresistable," clucks Higgins. "She's so deliciously low. So horribly dirty." He turns his mission into a sporting proposition, making a bet with Pickering that he can accomplish his six-month miracle to turn Eliza into a lady. This is one of the all-time great movie musicals, featuring classic songs and the legendary performances of Harrison, repeating his stage role after Cary Grant wisely turned down the movie job, and Stanley Holloway as Eliza's dustman father. Julie Andrews originated the role of Eliza on Broadway but producer Jack Warner felt that Andrews, at the time unknown beyond Broadway, wasn't bankable; Hepburn's singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who also dubbed Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961). Andrews instead made Mary Poppins, for which she was given the Best Actress Oscar, beating out Hepburn. The movie, however, won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Harrison, and five other Oscars, and it remains one of the all-time best movie musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This slapstick comedy is a hilarious spoof on "Around The World In 80 Days." The grandson of the celebrated Phinius Fogg makes a bet with his cohorts at the London Explorers Club that he can complete the journey. Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe are the dedicated servants who accompany the explorer along with his pretty girlfriend Amelia (Joan Freeman). The group must earn money to live on along the way as the wager was made with the provision young Fogg bring no money. Curly Joe fights a Sumo wrestler in Japan for prize money. In a hilarious scene, the Stooges observe a Japanese trio of Stooges acting like their American counterparts and walk away shaking their heads in disbelief over the slapstick behavior. The group races against time to complete the journey and collect on the bet. Longtime Stooge associate Emil Sitka appears as a butler in the exclusive blue blooded club. Directed by Moe's son-in-law Norman Maurer, this may be the funniest of all the Stooges films from the 1960s. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This is a routine docudrama on the life of George R. Tweed, a World War II hero played by Jeffrey Hunter. Tweed was trapped on Guam from the day when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and began their Pacific campaign. Tweed manages to survive detection throughout the long war years, and when the time comes for the Allies to invade the island, he is instrumental in signaling information to them from his hidden base on a hilltop. Although the events depicted are based on facts, those facts and the character of Tweed himself are sacrificed at times to the demand for dramatic effects. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Released in the U.S. as Massacre Hill, the Australian Eureka Stockade was one of that country's biggest and most expensive postwar productions (it was nearly two years in the making!) Set during the 19th-century Australian gold rush, the film top-bills Chips Rafferty as boisterous prospector Peter Lallor. The gold bonanza is threatened by the arrival of claim-jumpers, usurpers and government bean-counters. At first, the prospectors intend to use random mob violence to ward off the invaders, but Lallor organizes the group into a strong, united front, as willing to mediate as to bust heads. Future star Peter Finch is eighth-billed as "Humffray." Eureka Stockade was remade years later as a TV miniseries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Popular Australian film star Chips Rafferty made his screen debut in 1940's Ants in His Pants.But you'll have to look hard for Rafferty, for his is a very minor role in this musical comedy-drama. Will Mahoney stars as a small-time carnival worker whose girlfriend's kid sister (Jean Hatton) needs a throat operation. To do this, Mahoney enters the boxing ring, despite his inexpertise in pugilism. Miraculously Mahoney wins the bout, and the little girl is able to belt out the film's closing tune. Ants in His Pants was released in the US as Come Up Smiling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ken G. Hall, Australia's premiere filmmaker of the 1930s, was responsible for the surprisingly elaborate romantic drama Lovers and Luggers. Former Hollywood film favorite Lloyd Hughes plays famed concert pianist Daubenay Carshott (no, really!) who gives up his musical career for the love of the luscious Lorna (Shirley Ann Richards). At Lorna's behest, Carshott heads to Thursday Island and becomes a pearl diver, allowing Hall to indulge in some pretty fancy underwater footage. Therafter, things move at a rapid pace towards a spectacular finale. Lovers and Luggers was freely adapted from a novel by Gurney Slade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Australian comedy, a rancher discovers that his ancestors were royalty. He takes his family to Britain to meet his blue-blooded relatives only to discovers that they are all incorrigible snobs. The British lord they visit makes no effort to hide his contempt for the Aussie rancher, and frequently reprimands him for his unseemly behavior. When the lord and the rancher encounter each other at a relative's grave, they are finally able to settle their differences. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The title might suggest a Richard Arlen/Chester Morris "B" picture of the 1940s. In truth, Tall Timbers was filmed in Australia--New South Wales, to be exact. Two timber companies are engaged in a fierce rivalry over territory and output. The individual woodcutters are likewise at loggerheads (ouch) over money and women. Tall Timbers was directed by Ken G. Hall, one of the few interesting figures to emerge from the off-and-on Australian film industry of the 1930s (see notes on The Silence of Dean Maitland [34]). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide