Charles Wilson Movies
When actor Charles C. Wilson wasn't portraying a police chief onscreen, he was likely to be cast as a newspaper editor. The definitive Wilson performance in this vein was as Joe Gordon, reporter Clark Gable's apoplectic city editor in the 1934 multi-award winner It Happened One Night. Like many easily typecast actors, Wilson was usually consigned to one-scene (and often one-line) bits, making the sort of instant impression that hundreds of scripted words could not adequately convey. Shortly before his death in 1948, Charles C. Wilson could once more be seen at the editor's desk of a big-city newspaper -- this time as the boss of those erstwhile newshounds the Three Stooges in the two-reel comedy Crime on Their Hands (1948). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi- 1948
Even with a combined I.Q. that's in the negative column, The Three Stooges still manage to outwit a gang of crooks. The bad guys, led by Dapper (Kenneth MacDonald), have stolen the famed Punjab diamond and the heist has hit the front pages. At the newsroom, editor J.L. Cameron warns the Stooges, "This is a tough assignment. Can you cover it?" But he's not talking about the heist -- the Stooges are janitors and he is handing them a mangled chair cushion. They're more than happy to do the job, but would rather be cub reporters. While Cameron is out of the office, a tip comes in regarding the diamond's whereabouts and our boys are on their way. They show up at McGuffy's cafe asking for Dapper and convince everyone in the joint that they're cops. In an upstairs room they find Dapper's moll (Christine McIntyre), who has hidden the diamond in a candy dish. Shemp swallows the gem along with some mints and then the moll finds out the Stooges are reporters. She calls in Dapper and his henchman and everyone tries to get the diamond out of Shemp. Nothing works, so Dapper decides to cut him open. Moe and Larry are stuffed into a closet while their pal is tied down to a table. Luckily there happens to be some tools in the closet, and Moe and Larry saw their way out -- right into a gorilla's cage (why the gorilla is there is completely irrelevant to the story). The gorilla storms into the closet and winds up tossing the crooks around like they're rag dolls. In Shemp, however, the beast finds a kindred spirit. By the time Moe and Larry have gotten help, the crooks are knocked out and Shemp and the gorilla have bonded. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi
The dastardly mayor of this film's title town sets out to provide the local Native Americans with guns and ammunition so that they may pillage a neighboring burg. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charles Starrett, Smiley Burnette, (more)
- 1947
Lucille Ball offers a seminal version of her Lucy Ricardo TV character in Her Husband's Affairs. Ball is cast as Margaret Weldon, the wife of advertising executive William Weldon (Franchot Tone). Though Weldon is successful, Margaret can't help but feel that he'd be more successful if she were to take an active part in his business affairs. The fun really begins when Margaret tries to help Weldon promote a crackpot inventor (Mikhail Rasumny) who's come up with a revolutionary new embalming fluid. As in the previous year's The Hucksters, Madison Avenue and Big Business are targetted for a great deal of derisive ribbing. If only Her Husband's Affairs were as funny as everyone involved seems to think it is. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lucille Ball, Franchot Tone, (more)
- 1946
Bringing Up Father was the first of a series of Monogram comedies based on the popular comic strip by George McManus. Joe Yule (aka Mickey Rooney's father) and Renie Riano star as Jiggs and Maggie, a shanty-Irish couple who suddenly become millionaires. While Jiggs remains his old, loveable self, forever escaping his magnificent mansion in order to enjoy some corned beef & cabbage at Dinty Moore's restaurant, Maggie is nouveau riche to an obnoxious degree. The plot rears its ugly head when Dinty Moore (Tim Ryan) is in danger of losing his diner thanks to the well-meaning but misguided machinations of Moore's architect son Danny (Wallace Chadwell). Jiggs gets into hot water by mistakenly circulating a petition to raze Dinty's eatery, and then must spend the rest of the picture setting things right. Cartoonist George McManus shows up briefly as "himself". ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wallace Chadwell, Joe Devlin, (more)
- 1946
If Republic's skating star Vera Hruba Ralston could go "dramatic", so too could Monogram's skating star Belita. Produced by the enterprising King Brothers, Suspense takes place in an ice-skating emporium owned by Frank Leonard (Albert Dekker). No-good heel Joe Morgan (Barry Sullivan) not only strongarms Leonard into sharing the establishment's profits, but also tries to move in on Leonard's wife Roberta (Belita). The plot thickens when Leonard is apparently killed by Morgan, only to return from the dead! But what really does Morgan in is his own checkered past, as personified by his vengeful ex-sweetheart Ronnie (Bonita Granville, in a truly offbeat characterization). Belita's ice-skating solos (staged by Nick Castle) and Philip Yordan's overly complicated script tend to weigh down the proceedings; still, Suspense deserves to be seen, if for no other reason than its dazzling opening sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Belita, Barry Sullivan, (more)
- 1946
Set at a major newspaper, this crime drama centers on a fellow who returns to newspaper reporting after he bombs as a playwright. Believing his grown son is in danger of marrying a gold digger, the paper's publisher assigns his new reporter to expose her. In order to do so, he cons the gal's maid into letting him into her apartment. There he hides a camera. Later that night, the gold digger is murdered there. Fortunately, the reporter's camera caught the killer in the act. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anne Gwynne, Robert Shayne, (more)
- 1946
Number Three in PRC's "Michael Shayne" B-series was the fair-to-middling Blonde for a Day. Hugh Beaumont stars as Shayne, while his real-life wife Kathryn Adams (no, he wasn't married to Barbara Billingsley) costars as his secretary Phyllis. This time, Shayne gets involved with police reporter Helen Porter (Marjorie Hoshelle), who has in her possession damning evidence against a gambling ring. Since Helen has written several biting attacks on the police force, she turns to Shayne for help when her life is threatened. The climax finds Helen in the clutches of the crooks, forcing Shayne to resort to a clever subterfuge to effect her rescue. Purportedly, Blonde for a Day was based on Brett Halliday's very first "Michael Shayne" story. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hugh Beaumont, Kathryn Adams, (more)
- 1946
In this comedy-mystery, an advertising executive begins looking into a touchy situation involving two brothers who are embezzling from his company. Also involved are two vicious thugs who are pursuing the brothers. When the ad man releases his new campaign, "The Three Springs," the brothers, whose surname is Spring, believe he is attempting to blackmail them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kane Richmond, Stephanie Bachelor, (more)
- 1946
A scrappy gang of street kids, living in New York's lower East Side put aside their juvenile delinquent activities to help a disabled war vet start a chicken ranch in this, the first episode in a trio of low-budget knock-offs of the successful "The Dead End Kids" series. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
The second of Perry Como's two starring vehicles for 20th Century-Fox, If I'm Lucky is an easygoing remake of 1937's Thanks a Million. Como plays the old Dick Powell role as Allan Clark, an entertainer who is maneuvered into politics by conniving manager Wally (Phil Silvers, in the role originated by Fred Allen). It all begins when Clark, hired to appear at a political rally for bibulous gubernatorial candidate Magonnagie (Edgar Buchanan), wins the hearts of the voters. One thing leads to another, and before long Clark himself is on the way to the governor's chair. With a newly acquired set of scruples, the singer-politico publicly reveals that his backers are crooks, but wins the election all the same! Though the satirical edge of Thanks a Million is muted in the remake, the musical numbers by Perry Como and costar Vivian Blaine help to take up the slack. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Perry Como, Harry James, (more)
- 1946
Larceny in Her Heart was the second entry in PRC's revival of the "Michael Shayne" series, with Hugh Beaumont as Brett Halliday's two-fisted sleuth. It all starts when Shayne agrees to track down the stepdaughter (Marie Harmon) of a local bigwig. But when his client's corpse turns up at his doorstep, our hero finds himself reluctantly involved in yet another murder mystery. Along the way, he must fend off femme fatale Phyllis (Cheryl Walker), who may or may not be intimately involved in the killing. He also endures a chilling episode at an alcoholic ward that's straight out of The Lost Weekend, by way of Murder My Sweet. It says in the credits that Larceny in Her Heart is based on a novel by Brett Halliday, though liberties were obviously taken. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hugh Beaumont, Cheryl Walker, (more)
The first "Road" picture in three years (the last was The Road to Morocco), Road to Utopia is set during the Alaskan gold rush. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby play a pair of third-rate San Francisco entertainers, Chester Hooton and Duke Johnson, who are obliged to skip town in a hurry. They book passage on a ship to Alaska, where they run afoul of escaped murderers Sperry (Robert H. Barrat) and McGurk (Nestor Paiva). Through a fluke, Chester and Duke overpower the killers, then get off the ship in Skagway disguised as Sperry and McGurk so that they themselves can evade the authorities. The boys can't understand why everyone is so afraid of them, nor why saloon owner Ace Larson (Douglas Dumbrille) and Larson's moll Kate (Hillary Brooke) are so chummy. It turns out that Sperry and McGurk had stolen a deed to a valuable gold mine before escaping to Alaska. Sal Van Hoyden (Dorothy Lamour) is the rightful owner of that deed, thus she too shows up in Skagway, hoping to extract the document from Chester and Duke. Whenever the plot threatens to become too difficult to follow, narrator Robert Benchley shows up to explain things -- which of course only adds to the confusion. At any rate, the whole affair ends up with Chester, Duke, and Sal running through the snowy wastes, with the villains in hot pursuit. Duke nobly stays behind to fight off the bad guys himself, handing the deed to Chester and Sal and wishing them Godspeed. Flash-forward to 1945: Chester and Sal, both old and wealthy, are reunited with their equally aged pal Duke, who wasn't killed after all. Sal tells Duke that Chester has been a wonderful husband and father. Yes, father...and wait till you see who plays their child ("We adopted him!"). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, (more)
- 1945
Weekend at the Waldorf is an unabashed remake of MGM's 1932 Oscar-winner Grand Hotel: in fact, at several points in the story, the cast makes pointed references to the earlier film. The posh Waldorf Hotel in the heart of New York is the setting for several plots and subplots. Ginger Rogers plays the Garbo counterpart, a successful but severely depressed movie star who wants to be alone. Walter Pigeon steps into John Barrymore's role, sort of; whereas Barrymore was a thief posing as nobility, Pigeon is a war correspondent posing as a thief. Hotel stenographer Lana Turner (originally Joan Crawford) latches onto tycoon Edward Arnold (originally Wallace Beery) in hopes of a life of luxury. And, in the film's biggest adaptation stretch, Van Johnson is cast as a war hero who, about to undergo life-threatening surgery, wants to thoroughly enjoy what may be his last days on earth. It takes a while to figure this out, but Johnson is supposed to be the character played in Grand Hotel by Lionel Barrymore: the meek clerk who, upon discovering that he's dying, blows his life savings on one last fling. On the whole, Weekend at the Waldorf is a lot more light-hearted than Grand Hotel, as indicated by the expository character played by humorist Robert Benchley, not to mention the presence of Xavier Cugat as the Waldorf's orchestra leader. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, (more)
- 1945
In this drama, an amnesiac awakens and finds himself accused of murder. Fortunately, a female cabbie helps prove his innocence. Things look bleak until a bullet wound helps him regain his memory and he can prove he didn't kill anyone. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Conway, Ann Rutherford, (more)
Masterfully directed by Fritz Lang, Scarlet Street is a bleak film in which an ordinary man succumbs first to vice and then to murder. Christopher Cross (Edward G. Robinson) is a lonely man married to a nagging wife. Painting is the only thing that brings him joy. Cross meets Kitty (Joan Bennett) who, believing him to be a famous painter, begins an affair with him. Encouraged by her lover, con man Johnny Prince (Dan Duryea) Kitty persuades Cross to embezzle money from his employer in order to pay for her lavish apartment. In that apartment, happy for the first time in his life, Cross paints Kitty's picture. Johnny then pretends that Kitty painted to portrait, which has won great critical acclaim. Finally realizing he has been manipulated, Cross kills Kitty, loses his job, and because his name has been stolen by Kitty, is unable to paint. He suffers a mental breakdown as the film ends, haunted by guilt. Kitty and Johnny are two of the most amoral and casual villains in the history of film noir, both like predatory animals completely without conscience. Milton Krasner's photography is excellent in its use of stark black-and-white to convey psychological states. Fritz Lang is unparalleled in his ability to convey the desperation of hapless, naïve victims in a cruelly realistic world. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1945
Incendiary Blonde is a highly entertaining if historically suspect biopic of "Queen of the Nightclubs" Texas Guinan. As played (or overplayed) by Betty Hutton, Guinan is a hoydenish Texas gal whose showbiz career gets under way when she joins a Wild West show in 1909. A favorite with male patrons because of her salty vocabulary and what-the-hell attitude, Guinan rises to fame as a Broadway musical-comedy star and movie actress, only to crash-land after an unhappy marriage to her manager Tim Callahan (Bill Goodwin). Taking advantage of Prohibition, Guinan opens the first of several nightclubs, fending off the Feds while welcome her customers with an insouciant "Hello, sucker!" Naturally, Betty Hutton is given several opportunities to sing and dance, which she does with her usual unbridled enthusiasm. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Betty Hutton, Arturo de Cordova, (more)
- 1944
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play janitors for a detective agency who pose as super-sleuths when they're hired to protect inventor Alva P. Hartley (Arthur Space). Moving bag and baggage into Hartley's gadget-laden house, Stan and Ollie must first contend with the inventor's bratty son Egbert (Bobby Blake, aka Robert Blake) and much-married Aunt Sophie (Esther Howard). More problems ensue when Hartley's next door neighbors Charlton (Frank Fenton), Hartman (James Bush), Dutchy (Phil Van Zandt) and Mayme (Veda Ann Borg) reveal themselves as the crooks they really are. Entrusted with Hartley's latest invention, super-bomb called "The Big Noise", Stan and Ollie skeedaddle to Washington, just one step ahead of the criminals. Escaping the villains, the boys take flight in a balky airplane, only to find that they're the targets for Army gunnery practice. Our heroes save themselves-and the day-when they use the bomb to destroy a Japanese submarine. Long regarded as the worst of Laurel & Hardy's feature films, The Big Noise has in recent years been championed by several of the team's fans, not least because the admittedly patchy storyline incorporates several of their classic routines from such earlier 2-reelers as Habeas Corpus, Wrong Again and Berth Marks. Arguably the film's best scene finds Stan and Ollie trying to gorge themselves on a "banquet" consisting of dehydrated food capsules. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Oliver Hardy, Doris Merrick, (more)
- 1944
Musical star Ann Miller plays a Broadway leading lady coaxed into reteaming with Larry Parks, her former producer. Parks is now a lowly Army G.I., anxious to produce a show for the troops--with a 200 dollar budget! This being a wartime musical, Ann Miller succumbs to Patriotism and stars in Parks' threadbare production. This being a Hollywood film, the "inexpensive" revue cost several times as much as any real-life show of this nature. Hey Rookie proved a boon to the Columbia publicity department when Ann Miller set a tap-dance record of 550 taps per minute in her climactic musical number. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ann Miller, Larry Parks, (more)
- 1944
This Technicolor musical biopic stars Argentina-born Dick Haymes as Irish-American composer Ernest R. Ball. Climbing to fame with such sentimental songs as "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" (hence the title), Ball romances a lovely showgirl (June Haver), who in turn catches the eye of a charming underworld character (Anthony Quinn). Monty Woolley does a variation of The Man who Came to Dinner in his role as a roguish Broadway producer. Seldom cluttering up its story with the facts, Irish Eyes are Smiling is chiefly a showcase for the superb singing of Dick Haymes. The film was produced by legendary journalist Damon Runyon, which should surprise several citizens more than somewhat. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Monty Woolley, June Haver, (more)
- 1944
Shadows in the Night was the third entry in Columbia's Crime Doctor series, starring Warner Baxter as crook-turned-criminologist Dr. Robert Ordway. Nina Foch delivers a superb performance as Lois Garland, a beautiful young heiress being driven to insanity and possible suicide. Poor Lois resides in a house seemingly festooned with malevolent ghosts; Ordway suspects that her tormentors are of the human variety. With George Zucco on hand as the sinister Frank Swift, can there be any doubt as to the identity of the perpetrator? Well, actually, there can, but it's best to see the film to find out for sure. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Warner Baxter, Nina Foch, (more)
- 1944
This 91-minute Republic "special" stars Michael O'Shea as Matt Braddock, an aggressive Henry Kaiser-like shipbuilder operating in 1880s California Though his business innovations are brilliant, Braddock's pugnacious attitude loses him the support of the locals when he plans to build a big new shipyard in a small coastal community. Eventually he perseveres, bringing the story to a rousing conclusion. Along the way, however, there's a bit too much emphasis on the hot-and-cold romance between Braddock and the lovely Diana Kennedy (Anne Shirley). Tommy Bond, the former Butch in the "Our Gang" comedies, registers well in a sympathetic supporting role (Bond later noted that this was one of his favorite films). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael O'Shea, Anne Shirley, (more)
- 1944
In this mystery, a detective and his secretary go on vacation and end up solving a murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jane Wyman, Jerome Cowan, (more)
- 1944
In this drama, a piano teacher buys a song-publishing business only to discover that it is on the brink of bankruptcy and is embroiled in a lawsuit over the song: "Kansas City Kitty". Other songs include "Tico Tico", "Nothing Boogie from Nowhere", and "Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes". ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1944
Melodramatic gangster action characterizes this tough and freely fictionalized biography of notorious, murderous Chicago mobster Roger Touhy. Set during Prohibition, it centers on Touhy's rise from small time thug to the city's most powerful bootlegger whose empire is rivaled only by that of Al Capone (who is referred to, but never named in the story). It is his rival who frames Touhy for kidnapping and arranges for him to serve a life-long term in Stateville prison. Determined to be free again, the desperate Touhy and his cellmate Basil "the Owl" Banghart, begin plotting a violent break out. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Preston S. Foster, Victor McLaglen, (more)
- 1943
The Two Senoritas from Chicago are Gloria (Jinx Falkenburg) and Maria (Ann Savage). When their goofy pal Daisy Baker (Joan Davis) passes off a discarded Portuguese play manuscript as her own, producer Rupert Shannon (Emory Parnell) agrees to bankroll the production. With stars in their eyes, Gloria and Maria pretend to be a pair of Portuguese musical comedy stars, thereby winning parts in the new production. The fun begins when the play's original authors sell the same manuscript to a rival producer. The story's for the birds, but Two Senoritas from Chicago is at the very least decorative, with stars Jinx Falkenburg (later a popular TV talk host) and Ann Savage attractively garbed in what one observer has described as Carmen Miranda's leftovers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joan Davis, Jinx Falkenburg, (more)
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