Frank Wilcox Movies

Blondie's Anniversary invades territory already mapped out by Columbia's two-reel Hugh Herbert comedies. Blondie (Penny Singleton) finds a valuable watch that has been hidden by hubby Dagwood (Arthur Lake). She assumes that it's a surprise wedding gift, but the truth is that Dagwood has been guarding the watch on behalf of a client who bought the gift for his own wife. The snowballing comedy of errors eventually involves criminals who hope to snatch the watch for themselves. Blondie's Anniversary was the 22nd in Columbia's marathon B-picture series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Van Druten's Broadway hit The Voice of the Turtle was purchased by Warner Bros. as a vehicle for...well, in all likelihood, stars Eleanor Parker and Ronald Reagan were both second choices. Reagan is a returning GI who falls in love with Parker, an ingenuous young actress. Circumstances require the hero and heroine to share the same apartment, though the implications don't get much farther than the knowing wisecracks of supporting player Eve Arden. The original play's stars were Elliott Nugent and the matchless Margaret Sullavan, and both Reagan and Parker seem overwhelmed by the responsibility of filling those shoes. Nothing in The Voice of the Turtle (reissue title: One for the Book) is quite as funny as the film's outtakes, which were widely distributed during the Reagan presidency on the basis of a scene in which an increasingly testy Reagan is unable to zip up his trousers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Without Reservations has to be the least typical John Wayne picture of the postwar era. Top billing is bestowed upon Claudette Colbert as Kit, a best-selling novelist heading westward to oversee the film version of her latest novel. Taking it upon herself to select the man who should portray the hero of her novel, Kit chooses war hero Rusty (John Wayne), whom she meets during her train trip to Hollywood. Unaware of Kit's true identity, Rusty and his pal Dink (Don DeFore) rail against the factual errors in her book. One thing leads to another, and before long Kit, Rusty and Dink have all been thrown off the train for annoying the other passengers. After a hectic stopover at a New Mexico farm, Kit reveals who she really is to Rusty and Dink, who are understandably put out. All is forgiven in the end, of course, with Kit and Rusty altar-bound at fadeout time. The Hollywood scenes feature such guest celebrities as Cary Grant, Louella Parsons and Jack Benny; and yes, that is an unbilled Raymond Burr as Claudette Colbert's dancing partner. Without Reservations was based on Jane Allen and May Livingston's novel Thanks, God, I'll Take it From Here (too bad they couldn't use that title!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inspired by the radio program of the same name, Night Editor features Charles D. Brown as the editor of the New York Star. In flashback, the editor tells the tale of police lieutenant William Gargan, who forsakes his happy home life for the love of no-good society dame Janis Carter. Both Gargan and Carter begin cheating on their respective spouses, and while on a romantic rendezvous the couple witnesses a murder. They can't report the crime without revealing their own infidelities, a dilemma which leads to blackmail, double-crossing and a second murder attempt. A twist ending caps this snappy little 65-minute morality play. The script of Night Editor was based on the story "Inside Story" by Scott Littleton, previously dramatized on the Night Editor radio series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious was produced by David O. Selznick's Vanguard Films, Selznick himself had little to do with the production, which undoubtedly pleased the highly independent Hitchcock. Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, who goes to hell in a handbasket after her father, an accused WWII traitor, commits suicide. American secret agent Devlin (Cary Grant) is ordered to enlist the libidinous Alicia's aid in trapping Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), the head of a Brazilian neo-Nazi group. Openly contemptuous of Alicia despite her loyalty to the American cause, Devlin calmly instructs her to woo and wed Sebastian, so that that good guys will have an "inside woman" to monitor the Nazi chieftain's activities. It is only after Alicia and Sebastian are married that Devlin admits to himself that he's fallen in love with her. The "MacGuffin" in this case is a cache of uranium ore, hidden somewhere on Sebastian's estate. Upon discovering that his wife is a spy, Sebastian balks at eliminating her until ordered to do so by his virago of a mother (Madame Konstantin). Tension mounts to a fever pitch as Devlin, a day late and several dollars short, strives to rescue Alicia from Sebastian's homicidal designs. Of the several standout sequences, the film's highlight is an extended love scene between Alicia and Devlin, which manages to ignite the screen while still remaining scrupulously within the edicts of the Production Code. In later years, Hitchcock never tired of relating the story of how he and screenwriter Ben Hecht (who was nominated for an Oscar) fell under the scrutiny of the FBI after electing to use uranium as a plot device -- this before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A huge moneymaker for everyone concerned, Notorious remains one of Hitchcock's best espionage melodramas. In 1992, Notorious was remade for cable television; it goes without saying that the original is vastly superior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Strange Confession was the fourth in Universal's "Inner Sanctum" B-picture series, all of which starred Lon Chaney Jr. Chaney plays an idealistic writer who allows himself to be used by a politically ambitious publishing mogul (J. Carroll Naish). Not only does the publisher distort the sociological content of Chaney's works for his own purposes, but he also steals the writer's wife (Brenda Joyce). Chaney exacts a grisly revenge and turns himself over to the police. This is a scene-for-scene remake of the 1934 Claude Rains vehicle, The Man who Reclaimed His Head, which in turn was based on a play by Jean Bart. Universal was forced to completely withdraw the remake from theatrical and TV distribution when the studio realized that it no longer controlled the rights to the original Bart play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Four Jills in a Jeep is the (mostly) true story of a four-girl USO team, entertaining American troops overseas. Kay Francis, Martha Raye, Carole Landis and Mitzi Mayfair play "themselves," recreating their recent whirlwind tour of Europe and North Africa. This wisp of a plot takes a back seat to the musical numbers performed by the four stars, by Dick Haymes in his screen debut as a singing GI, and by guest stars Alice Faye, Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda. Phil Silvers, George Jessel, and Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra also pop up to do their usual. Very much a time capsule of the War years, Four Jills in a Jeep was later adapted into a best-selling book, ostensibly written by costar Carole Landis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rainbow Island is a lavish Technicolor confection designed to show off the physical attributes of star Dorothy Lamour. This time Lamour is a white girl raised as native on a tropical isle. Barry Sullivan, Eddie Bracken and Gil Lamb play merchant-marine sailors hiding from Japanese troops on Lamour's island. The storyline may have had dramatic inclinations, but these are forgotten amidst several seductive musical numbers and numerous shots of Dorothy swaying in her patented sarong. Perhaps aware that no one could have taken this film seriously, Ms. Lamour plays her role for laughs, and gets them. Rainbow Island was based on a story by silent screen star Seena Owen, the "Dorothy Lamour" of her time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this bit of WWII propaganda (designed to boost support of America's alliance with Russia against Germany), Kolya (Dana Andrews), Kurin (Walter Huston), Damian (Farley Granger), and Marina (Anne Baxter) are members of a farming collective in the Ukraine known as the North Star. The hard-working but happy members of the North Star find their way of life shattered when Germany, in defiance of previous treaties, storms the nation and begins a brutal occupation. Dr. Otto Von Harden (Erich Von Stroheim) begins gathering children -- who are to be used for blood transfusions and medical experiments. Many of the outraged farmers take to the hills to fight with the anti-Nazi resistance, while those who stay behind bravely destroy precious crops and materiel rather than turn them over to the Nazi war machine. Producer Samuel Goldwyn made The North Star at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (whose son James was an executive at Goldwyn's studio). Ironically, several members of the film's creative team (including screenwriter Lilian Hellman) later found their motivations for making the film questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee, who declared it Communist propaganda. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Action specialist B. Reeves Eason socked Truck Busters through its breathless 58 minutes. Richard Travis plays independent trucker Casey Dorgan, who organizes his fellow drivers against the crooked machinations of crooked trucking executive Bonelli (Don Costello). Things get personal when Casey's brother Jimmy (Charles Lang) is killed in a Bonelli-engineered "accident." Standing helplessly on the sidelines is heroine Eadie Watkins, played by Virginia Christine, later to gain nationwide fame as "Mrs. Olsen" in the Folger's Coffee commercials of the 1960s and 1970s. Truck Busters is a not-too-heavily disguised remake of the 1932 James Cagney-Loretta Young vehicle Taxi. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made in 1942 but released early in 1943, Secret Enemies is a Warner Bros. espionage quickie, putting the studio's second-echelon contractees to good use. Craig Stevens, Faye Emerson and John Ridgely are the leads in this hour-long meller about a Nazi spy ring operating covertly in America. The FBI sniffs out the "secret enemies," striking another blow against Uncle Adolf. Secret Enemies enabled Faye Emerson to step up into "A" pictures and secured a contract extension for reliable utility player John Ridgely. But Craig Stevens was drafted almost immediately after the film's release; unable to regain his lost footing after the war, it would take Stevens until 1958 to establish himself as a full-fledged star on the TV series Peter Gunn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock joined forces in Speed (1994), there was the strikingly similar Warner Bros. B-picture Busses Roar. A gang of Axis spies decide to use a California passenger bus to secretly transport a demolition bomb to a coastal oil field. The bomb is set to go off upon arrival, wiping out the passengers along with the oil deposits. Among those passengers is Army sergeant Ryan, who senses that something's amiss and then races against time to save himself and the others from being blown to smithereens. Another of the hapless commuters is played by Eleanor Parker, making an excellent impression in her first feature film appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Produced by Britain's Teddington Studios on behalf of Warner Bros., The Flying Fortress stars Richard Greene, who had to be furloughed from the Army to participate in this wartime morale-booster. Greene plays millionaire playboy Jim Spence, a carefree aviation enthusiast whose avocation becomes his vocation when the war breaks out. Giving up wine, women and song for the duration (well, at least wine and song), Spence mans the controls of a British "flying fortress" for periodic bombing forays over Berlin. The film's "money scene" finds Spence clambering out of his plane to repair a hole in its side in mid-air-a bit of bravado which, amazingly, is based on a true incident. For unknown reasons, Flying Fortress was heavily edited for its American release, rendering its storyline a tad hard to follow at times. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide