Marie Wilson Movies

A man and his young daughter face almost impossible odds as they struggle to help an injured horse return to the racetrack in this family-friendly drama. Ben Crane (Kurt Russell) is a horse trainer whose career has gone into a bit of a slump, and after years as his own boss, he's signed on to work for Palmer (David Morse), a breeder whose wealth and success has given him a certain degree of arrogance. While Ben has learned to keep his mouth shut around his boss, he forgets himself when one of his favorite horses, Sonador, breaks its leg during an important race. Palmer insists that the horse should be put down on the spot, but Ben doesn't have the heart to kill the animal, especially since his young daughter, Cale (Dakota Fanning), is in the stands watching. Ben and Palmer have harsh words with one another, and Ben is fired, but is allowed to take Sonador with him when he leaves. Ben has a hard time convincing anyone that the injured horse has any potential, especially his father, Pop (Kris Kristofferson), a fellow trainer who rarely sees eye to eye with his son. But Cale loves the horse, and Ben believes that Sonador can make a comeback with the right care, and together with stable men Balon (Luis Guzman) and Manolin (Freddy Rodriguez), he sets out to put the filly on the road to recovery. As its subtitle suggests, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story was based on the story of Mariah's Storm, a filly who broke a leg during a race in 1993, but a year later came back to win the Arlington Heights Oaks, and in 1995 won the Turfway Breeder's Cup. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this comedy, a common chemist lives up to his lineage (he's a direct descendant of Dr. Jekyll), and creates a concoction which changes him into a suave jewel thief. After pulling off a caper, the thief becomes his original self and then helps bring in a gang of robbers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Future "Master of Disaster" Irwin Allen produced this curious but inarguably fascinating adaptation of Henrik Willem Van Loon's best- selling historical volume. A Celestial Tribunal has been convened to decide the fate of the Earth after the invention of nuclear weapons, with The Devil (Vincent Price) and The Spirit of Man (Ronald Colman) debating if humankind should be allowed to continue or be exterminated once and for all. Both men present examples of human behavior at its best and worst, including Dennis Hopper as Napoleon, Hedy Lamarr as Joan of Arc, Virginia Mayo as Cleopatra, Peter Lorre as Nero, Edward Everett Horton as Sir Walter Raleigh, and Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, and Chico Marx as, respectively, Peter Minuit, Sir Isaac Newton, and a monk (yes, the producers had the daring and vision to cast the Marx Brothers without having them play any scenes together). The Story of Mankind proved to be the last film for both Ronald Colman and Hedy Lamarr; it was also the last time the three Marx Brothers appeared in the same film, though the individual Marxes appeared in a few films following this. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The unique comic talents of Groucho Marx, William Bendix and Marie Wilson are hardly exploited to their fullest in RKO's A Girl in Every Port. Groucho and Bendix play Benny Linn and Tim Dunnevan, respectively, a couple of scheming sailors who embark upon one get-rich-quick scheme after another. This time around, our heroes use a small inheritance to purchase two horses, one for racing purposes and one to be sold at a tidy profit. After a series of bizarre complications, both horses are pitted against each other in a crucial race which could spell either triumph or ruin for the two goofy gobs. Wilson co-stars as a birdbrained carhop who owns one of the horses coveted by Linn and Dunnevan. No stone is left unturned so far as wheezy comedy routines are concerned: writer-director Chester Erskine even manages to revive the old chestnut wherein the sailors sneak both horses on board their ship. The likeable supporting cast includes Don DeFore as a disgruntled stable owner, Dee Hartford (who later became Groucho Marx's sister-in-law) as DeFore's financially savvy fiancee, Gene Lockhart as a seedy horse dealer, Hanley Stafford ("Daddy" on radio's Baby Snooks) as the two protagonists' flustered commanding officer, and Teddy Hart as a Runyonesque gangster. A box-office disappointment, A Girl in Every Port ended Groucho Marx's efforts to become a solo screen star; fortunately, he still had TV's You Bet Your Life to fall back on. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

My Friend Irma was supposed to be a straightforward adaptation of the popular radio sitcom of the same name. The film's focus therefore was supposed to be on air-headed Irma Peterson (Marie Wilson), her levelheaded roommate, Jane Stacy (Diana Lynn, taking over from the radio series' Cathy Lewis), and their various romantic misadventures. But the audience tended to ignore Irma, Jane, and the others in favor of two movie newcomers: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, cast respectively as would-be singer Steve Laird and dumb-dumb restaurant employee Seymour. Having risen to the top of the heap in the nightclub world, Martin and Lewis were discovered for films by producer Hal Wallis, who decided to test the boys out in secondary roles in an established property. Wallis felt that while Martin had potential as a singing star, Lewis was hopelessly inept as an actor. As the whole world knows by now, it was Lewis who ended up as the team's main attraction with his own inimitable brand of wacko humor. Even as early as Irma, Lewis manages to dominate every scene he's in, often by sheer force of will. Pretty soon, the viewer has forgotten the gossamer-thin plot (Irma's Runyonesque boyfriend, Al, played by John Lund, tries to promote Dino into stardom) and is waiting anxiously to get back to Jerry. When time came for the 1950 sequel, My Friend Irma Goes West, virtually the entire plot revolved around Martin and Lewis, with the official "stars" relegated to supporting roles. Like Marie Wilson, several of the My Friend Irma cast members were holdovers from the radio series, including Hans Conried as Professor Kropotkin. Felix Bressart had originally been slated to play Kropotkin on film, but when he died during shooting, Conried was brought in to complete his scenes (Bressart can still be glimpsed in a few medium and long shots). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, a novelist visits a local nightclub to do some research for her upcoming novel. Her husband, away on a business trip, knows nothing of her shenanigans. While in the club, the novelist sees her boss out with a stripper. To help her husband's flagging career, the writer begins blackmailing her employer into promoting him. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

With The Outlaw still being withheld from general release, Young Widow represented the first time that most filmgoers ever saw Jane Russell on the screen. Unfortunately, she was hardly at her best in this lachrymose tale of a woman named Joan Kenwood, who can't get over her husband's death in WW II. A journalist by profession, Joan is reminded in large ways and small of her late husband during every one of her assignments. Sympathetic ex-soldier Jim Cameron (Louis Hayward) follows Joan around throughout the picture, hoping against hope that she'll eventually forget her husband and pay some attention to him. Featured in the supporting cast is Faith Domergue, who like Jane Russell was a well-endowed Howard R. Hughes "discovery." Young Widow was based on the four-hanky novel by Clarissa Fairchild Cushman. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Musical producer Joe Pasternak moved from Universal to MGM in the early 1940s, taking his pet director Henry Koster (the two men had teamed to make a star of Deanna Durbin) with him. The Pasternak/Koster collaboration Music for Millions features child star Margaret O'Brien as a Durbin-like Miss Fix-it, who tries to help her pregnant older sister (June Allyson), who in turn is pining away for her GI husband. As it happens, the older girl is a cellist in Jose Iturbi's orchestra; thus, in keeping with the formula established by Pasternak's One Hundred Men and a Girl, many of the plot threads are knotted together in a series of concert recitals. The highlight of Music for Millions features Jimmy Durante, giving a stirring rendition of his famed nightclub piece "Umbriago." The film won an Academy Award nomination for screenwriter Myles Connelly, plus a special Oscar for moppet Margaret O'Brien. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this WW II musical, a group of lovely college co-eds, realizing that there is a shortage of single young men, decide to begin rationing their dates so that all of them can have some fun. This is beneficial for the campus wimp who suddenly finds himself the hottest property on campus. Romantic and musical mayhem ensues. Songs include: "Love Is This" (Jerry Seelen, Lester Lee, sung by Johnston, Lee), "Ooh-Ah-Oh," "Look What You Did to Me" (Seelen, Lee), "How Did It Happen?" (Seelen, Lee) and "Louise" (Leo Robin, Richard A. Whiting). ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Columbia Pictures evidently felt that ex-boxer "Slapsy" Maxie Rosenbloom was the funniest man on earth, despite the fact that he consistently proved otherwise in vehicles like Harvard, Here I Come. This little masterpiece finds Rosenbloom, playing himself, receiving an award from the satirical Harvard Lampoon for his well-known stupidity. Instead of being enrage, Slapsie Maxie is delighted by the "honor", and promptly tries to enroll at the ivy-league university. Upon arriving on campus, our punchy hero is pounced upon by a group of eccentric scientists led by Professor Alvin (Byron Foulger), who is convinced that Rosenbloom is the "missing link" that science has long been searching for. The professors subsidize Maxie's education, which seems to consist exclusively of fraternity hazings and product endorsements! Though a zaftig Yvonne de Carlo shows up in several publicity stills for Harvard, Here I Come, she is nowhere to be seen in the film itself; instead, the leading-lady duties were handled by Marie Wilson, whose character comes across as even dumber than Maxie Rosenbloom, if such a thing is possible. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

If Selznick could make a Gone With the Wind, reasoned Paramount Pictures in 1941, anyone can. Paramount's own spin on Scarlet and Rhett was Virginia, starring British actress Madeleine Carroll as Southern belle Charlotte Dunterry. A first a showgirl, Charlotte arrives in Fairville, Virginia to take charge of her family plantation. Intending to sell the estate for a quick turnover, Charlotte is dissuaded when she falls in love with impoverished local aristocrat Stonewall Elliot (Fred MacMurray). Though devoted to Elliot, she must find a way to keep herself solvent, and to that she enters into a loveless marriage with wealthy northerner Norman Williams (Sterling Hayden). The rest of the story finds Charlotte wavering between Elliot and Williams, while the audience settles in for a good long nap. As in Gone with the Wind, Virginia is distinguished by the performance of one of its black supporting players, namely Leigh Whipper as an elderly ex-slave who returns to Fairville to die (he doesn't sing "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny", but one can hear it anyway). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Flying Blind was the third of William Pine and William Thomas' independent productions for Paramount release. The cast includes such Pine-Thomas "regulars" as Richard Arlen and Jean Parker, and like its two predecessors dealt with the more dramatic aspects of aviation. Arlen plays Jim Clark, operator of a honeymoon air service which shuttles between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The plot shifts into melodramatic gear when Clark is forced to deal with a gang of foreign spies, determined to steal a new transformer designed for American fighter planes. A wild and largely impossible airborne chase brings this one to a rousing conclusion. For the record, Jean Parker plays Clark's secretary Shirley Brooks, who not-so-secretly hopes that her boss will fly her to Vegas for matrimonial purposes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi