Lewis Wilson Movies
- 1944
Arthur Lake takes a break from his Dagwood Bumstead duties in the "Blondie" series to star as furloughed sailor Marble Head Tomkins in Columbia's Sailor's Holiday. The plot is the old one about an engagement being broken because both male and female have fallen in love with someone else. In this instance, two engaged couples are thus rent asunder, though everything turns out OK by the final reel. Though top billed, Arthur Lake is essentially the comedy relief. He was added to the cast as "name insurance", permitting Columbia to introduce several of their newest contractees-including a young Broadway refugee named Shelley Winters. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Based on Norman Corwin's satirical radio play My Client Curley, Once Upon a Time is an engaging bit of whimsy, completely dominated by the personality of star Cary Grant. It all begins when fly-by-night Broadway producer Jerry Flynn (Grant) learns of a trained caterpillar (!) that dances to the tune of "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby." In short order, Jerry has promoted Curly the Caterpillar to international stardom-and in the process he alienates both Pinky Thompson (Ted Donaldson), the impressionable 9-year-old who owns Curley, and Pinky's attractive older sister Jeanne (Janet Blair). Eventually, Flynn comes to his senses and regains his essential decency-though it's too late to continue capitalizing on Curley, who has turned into a non-dancing butterfly! Full of delightful contemporary references and "cameo appearances" by such celebrities as producer Walt Disney and radio commentator Gabriel Heatter (both played by uncredited impressionists), Once Upon a Time proved an agreeable diversion for wartime audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Janet Blair, (more)
- 1944
An ex-racketeer becomes an undercover for the military in this drama. He keeps his work so secret that his friends become convinced that he is dabbling in illegal activities again. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1943
With Dorothy Arzner in the director's chair, it's no wonder that First Comes Courage has a more feminist slant than most WWII "underground" films. Merle Oberon plays Nicole Larsen, a member of the Norwegian resistance. To obtain important war information, Nicole romances Nazi major Paul Dichter Carl Esmond, enduring the slings and arrows of those villagers unaware of her motives. Her mission is further complicated when she is reunited with British commando Allan Lowell Brian Aherne, with whom she'd had a prewar affair. Forced to choose between love and duty, Nicole makes the only decision possible under the circumstances. First Comes Courage was based on The Commados, a novel by Elliot Arnold. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, (more)
- 1943
Bob Kane's 1939 Detective Comics superhero The Batman came to the screens in serial form courtesy of Columbia Pictures and producer Rudolph C. Flothow. In time-honored serial fashion, Flothow chose Lewis Wilson for the title role, a relative newcomer, but one with an amazing facial resemblance to the cartoon character. Wilson's athletic ability, however, left a lot to be desired and Douglas Croft, cast as young sidekick Robin, the Boy Wonder, looked too old for his role, especially when doubled by a hairy-legged stunt man. For censorship purposes, the serial Bruce Wayne was not a lone Gotham millionaire crusader but gainfully employed by the Unites States government. Said government is terrorized by evil Dr. Daka (J. Carroll Naish), an emissary from Emperor Hirohito complete with atom-smasher ray guns and a device that turns its wearers into zombies. (The device, placed on the skull of its victim, resembles something from a child's Erector set.) Batman and Robin are aided by lovely Linda Page (Shirley Patterson), whose uncle (Gus Glassmire) becomes one of Dr. Daka's first victims. From the Bat Cave, the three crusaders and Wayne's butler, Alfred (William Austin), venture forth to battle the forces of evil in general and a scenery-chewing Naish in particular -- travelling in a convertible and not the later so familiar batmobile. It takes them 15 chapters and a race through an amusement park to finally destroy the evil Daka and the title of the concluding chapter, "Doom of the Rising Sun," must have brought a ray of hope to a war-weary populace. The Batman was directed by Lambert Hillyer, a veteran who knew something about bats from having previously helmed Dracula's Daughter. The serial was popular enough to merit a sequel, although it would take six more years until Columbia debuted The New Adventures of Batman and Robin (1949). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lewis Wilson, Michael Vallon, (more)
- 1943
This flag-waving Columbia programmer concentrates on five young Officer's Candidate School applicants. Each of the protagonists aspires to an officer's commission in the Anti-Artillery Aircraft Command. All the clichéd characterizations are in attendance, from the brash show-off (Tom Neal) to the seen-it-all veteran (Bruce Bennett). Evelyn Keyes is the obligatory romantic lead, while future "Ward Cleaver" Hugh Beaumont shows up as a hard-nosed lieutenant. There's Something About a Soldier was largely filmed on location at the OCS training headquarters of Camp Davis, North Carolina. Excerpts from the film were later reused in Columbia's The Racket Man, which also starred Tom Neal. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Neal, Evelyn Keyes, (more)
- 1943
Substantially, Lupe Velez' Columbia vehicle Redhead from Manhattan was the same as her previous RKO starrers-boisterous, unsubtle, and immensely profitable. La Lupe plays a dual role, as twin sisters named Rita and Elaine. Escaping from a torpedoed ship, Rita shows up in New York, where she takes the place of her Broadway-star sister Elaine, who's having problems with her marriage and needs to make a short but quick getaway. Naturally, neither Elaine's husband (Gerald Mohr) nor Rita's saxophone-player boyfriend (Michael Duane) are aware of the switch. Anyone who can't figure out what happens next should be drummed out of the theater in disgrace. And as always, a little of Lupe Velez goes a long, long way. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lupe Velez, Michael Duane, (more)
- 1941
Intrepid explorers discover a tribe of beautiful amazons amidst a whole lot of stock footage in this low-budget adventure drama. Mr. Kirby Kookalamanza (Morton C. Thompson) and his sidekick Count Sparafucile (Don Orlando) are hiking through an uncharted section of Africa when they encounter Trent (Lewis Wilson), a lost and frightened American with a story to tell. Trent was abducted by the Ulama, a tribe of pale-skinned women who can fight like men but are as attractive as B-movie starlets. Incredulous but curious, Kookalamanza and Sparafucile head out to find the Ulama, but to their displeasure they discover the female warriors really do exist -- and have chosen to sacrifice them to their fire god, leaving Trent and a few defected Ulama warriors to save them from a painful death. The queen of the Ulana tribe is played by Dana Wilson, who would later change her name to Dana Broccoli after marrying Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, the producer behind the wildly popular James Bond films. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1939
This murder mystery poses the dilemma of a vanishing corpse. If there is no body, has there been a murder? ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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