Earl Wilson Movies

This light romantic comedy is set during the November 9th power outage of 1965 that darkened New York and much of the East Coast. Margaret (Doris Day) is a theater actress who storms out on her architect husband, Peter (Patrick O'Neal), when a pretty female reporter spends too much time interviewing him for Margaret's liking. Later, Waldo Zane (Robert Morse), an embezzling business executive, has car trouble while fleeing his company. Margaret's house is nearby, so he sneaks in, and, after taking a drink of her elixir, he falls asleep beside her by mistake. Naturally, her husband soon appears, and comedy ensues in cases of mistaken identity and scheduling mix-ups. Columnist Earl Wilson makes a cameo appearance as does director Hy Averback. Steve Allen plays the radio announcer, Jim Backus a car dealer, and Pat Paulsen deadpans his usual facade in his role as a train conductor. Though this romantic comedy came out a couple years after the infamous New York City-wide blackout, it is based on French playwright Claude Magnier's production Monsieur Masure, which was written in the '50s. The actual power failure resulted in a population explosion exactly nine months later, and over double the average number of kids started school in 1971 as a direct result of the darkness. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this campy melodrama, a high school girl gets involved in the wrong crowd, and though innocent of wrong doing is sent to reform school. Soon after her release, she enters and wins the Miss Colorado contest, making her a contender for the Miss America title. Not long after winning the state pageant, she falls for and secretly marries an ex-convict. Unfortunately, he isn't reformed and is arrested for attempted kidnapping. When that happens, his secret marriage to the woman is exposed and she is publicly disgraced. The woman is distraught and becomes a kooch dancer. Her depression continues and this leads her to buy a gun and try to kill herself. Unfortunately, she fails. Later she tries to rob a drugstore, but ends up in prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Groucho Marx made his first solo film appearance away from his brothers in the musical comedy Copacabana. Groucho plays two-bit theatrical agent Lionel Q. Devereaux, whose favorite client--indeed, his only client--is fireball Brazilian entertainer Carmen Novarro (Carmen Miranda). Hoping for a double commission, Devereaux gets Carmen two different singing jobs at the Copacabana nightclub, through the simple expedient of having Carmen wear a veil and pose as a French chanteuse. Steve Hunt (Steve Cochran), manager of the Copa, falls in love with one of the Carmens, much to the dismay of pretty bookkeeper Anne (Gloria Jean). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide