Joseph Anthony Movies

When an older camper takes his naïve young counterparts on a forbidden excursion into the forest, the group quickly discovers that a lingering urban legend has terrifying roots in reality. It's a serine summer day in Upstate New York, and many families have chosen to soak in the sun with a weekend camping excursion. Wisecracking camper Joe knows well the local legend concerning a murderous backwoods hunter named Cappy, and he's determined to have a laugh at the expense of his naïve young counterparts. One day, after Carmine leads his group across the river that marks the camp's boundaries, Joe attempts to convince his fellow campers that Cappy is more than an amusing campfire tale, and that his cabin is actually fairly close by. When the wandering group runs across a cabin in a remote clearing, Joe peers through the window and sees a dead girl sprawled out on the floor. Cappy's son Clem is weeping over her lifeless body. When Clem hears something moving outside, the chase begins. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Horton Foote was the adapting hand behind this superlative black and white filmization of the 1939 William Faulkner story Tomorrow. Framed in flashback, the film explores the personal reasons that semi-literate farmer Robert Duvall is the lone jury holdout in the guilty verdict for a young killer on trial. We learn in a gradually unfolding fashion that the boy is the son of Olga Bellin, a woman with whom Duvall had had an intense personal involvement some twenty years earlier. Foote's script had previously been utilized on a Playhouse 90 TV version of Tomorrow, which starred Sterling Hayden. Universally regarded as the best-ever film adaptation of a Faulkner work, Tomorrow was in danger of vanishing without truly finding its audience, when it was given a well received TV premiere on PBS on December 17, 1984--twelve years after the film was made. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in 1962 but not released in the US until 1966 (with 20 of its 108 minutes removed), Conquered City is an all-star World War II drama financed in Italy and filmed in Greece. An Athens hotel, full of refugees and expatriates of all nationalities, is captured by Allied troops in the closing days of the War. British Major David Niven has been ordered to prevent a cache of weapons hidden in the hotel from falling into the hands of renegade troops. He cannot allow himself to trust anyone--not even the most innocent-looking (or attractive) of guests. Originally titled La Citta Prigioniera. Conquered City was released in English-speaking countries outside the U.S. as Captive City. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John McIntire appears as radio commentator Loren Hall, a character rumored to be based on The Untouchables' rat-a-tat narrator Walter Winchell. Relying heavily on his gangland connections, Hall dispatches several tantalizing bulletins about a mob-connected drug operation which has been robbing pharamacies and hospitals in the Chicago area. Though Elliot Ness Robert Stack has little success persuading Hall to reveal the sources of his information, by episode's end the newsman is forced to realize on his own that no one can "sit on the fence" in the war against crime. All this intrigue is interwoven with the betrayal and murder of gang boss Dino Patrone (Frank Silvera, the kidnapping of Dino's sheltered daughter Carla (Arlene Sax), and a homicidal hoodlum (Joseph Anthony) who happens to be a diabetic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Thornton Wilder's 1938 stage play The Merchant of Yonkers was based on an old British stage farce by John Oxenford (which in turn served as the basis of an Austrian farce by Johann Nestroy). Merchant of Yonkers was a bomb, but Wilder was quite fond of the piece, so he revised it as the considerably more successful The Matchmaker in 1955. The 1958 film version stars Shirley Booth as 19th-century matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi (a character not found in the Oxenford or Nestroy versions; Wilder "borrowed" Dolly from Moliere's The Miser). Dolly is currently trying to arrange a marriage between Yonkers dry-goods merchant Horace Vandergelder (Paul Ford) and hatmaker Irene Molloy (Shirley MacLaine)-though she secretly harbors a desire to march Horace to the altar herself. Meanwhile, Vandergelder's chief clerk Cornelius (Anthony Perkins), celebrating a recent promotion, decides to head to New York for a "good time". Though he's supposed to be minding the store, Cornelius abandons the shop, with fellow-clerk Barnaby (Robert Morse, repeating his stage role) in tow. Inevitably, Cornelius and Barnaby wind up escorting Irene Molloy and her co-worker Minnie Fay (Perry Wilson) to a fancy restaurant, where Horace and Dolly are also dining. As the many plot twists wend their way through the proceedings, the camera occasionally pauses to allow the character to speak directly to the audience, expressing their innermost desires and philosophies; this purely theatrical device works quite well on screen, especially the monologue about honesty delivered by handyman Malachi Stack (played with alcoholic whimsy by Wallace Ford). While the name "Malachi Stack"may not be familiar to you, the other characters-and the basic plot-will be instantly recognizable to fans of Hello Dolly, the 1964 musical comedy version of The Matchmaker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1958 theatrical feature The Left-Handed Gun was adapted from the 1955 Philco Television Playhouse offering The Death of Billy the Kid. Both the film and the TV program boasted the same star (Paul Newman), the same author (Gore Vidal) and the same director (Arthur Penn). Broadcast live, The Death of Billy the Kid adhered to basically the same plot of the later film, with newly appointed New Mexico governor Lew Wallace (Matt Crowley) offering outlaw Billy the Kid amnesty if he'll agree to give up his life of crime. But Billy's friendly enemy, Sheriff Pat Garrett (Frank Overton), suspects that the young gunslinger is constitutionally incapable of staying on the right side of the law. The Freudian and homosexual subtext of The Left-Handed Gun was muted in the earlier TV presentation, but the story still retained its dramatic impact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This fourth entry in MGM's Thin Man series could just as well have been titled "Nick and Nora Charles Go to the Races". Officially retired from sleuthing, Nick Charles (William Powell) does his best to be a dutiful husband to his lovely wife Nora (Myrna Loy) and a good father to his young son Nick Jr. (Dickie Hall). But when murder rears its ugly head at the local race track, Nick is called in by Major Jason I. Sculley (Henry O'Neill), head of the New York athletic commission, to help solve the case. As usual, there is no shortage of suspects: This time the "rogue's gallery" includes high-rolling gamblers Link Stevens (Loring Smith) and Fred Macy (Joseph Anthony); Link's hoity-toity girlfriend Claire Porter (played by legendary acting teacher Stella Adler); two-bit tout "Rainbow" Benny Loomis (Lou Lubin); reporters Whitey Barrow (Paul Kelly) and Paul Clarke (Barry Nelson); and Clarke's sweetheart Molly Ford (Donna Reed). Highlights include a zany episode on a department-store merry-go-round, an outsized brawl at a fancy sea-food restaurant, and the inevitable gathering together of suspects in the offices of police lieutenant Abrams (Sam Levene). The flippant nature of Shadow of the Thin Man can be attributed to screenwriters Irving Brecher and Harry Kurnitz, both longtime friends and associates of comedian Groucho Marx. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Doctor's Diary is told through the eyes of Dr. Dan Norris (John Trent), resident physician in a private hospital. In his search for a cure for spinal meningitis, Norris recklessly runs roughshod over the feelings of his colleagues. The doctor's older, wiser supervisor, Dr. Clem Driscoll (George Bancroft), tries to curb Norris' impatience, pointing out that nothing takes place overnight. Angrily, Norris accuses Driscoll of malpractice and is forced to resign from the clinic -- just when a meningitis epidemic breaks out. Hoping to get back into the hospital lab to complete his experiments, Norris makes his peace with Driscoll -- who, as it turns out, was really on Norris' side all along. For reasons unknown, the filmmakers decided to complicate this perfectly acceptable plotline with a secondary story involving the mentally unstable mother of an ailing violin prodigy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this newspaper farce, an editor loses his voice and his job after he tires of being tormented by the practical jokes of one of two reporters. The joker ends up the new editor. Soon after taking the job, his personality changes dramatically and soon he has become a pompous and excessively harsh taskmaster. His former partner is so disgusted that she decides to leave and marry a stodgy writer of inspirational books. The new editor loves his partner and tries to get her back. When he fails, he begins drinking heavily and wondering what kind of wedding gift he should get her. Knowing that she likes the excitement of police and fire calls, he insures that her wedding will be unforgettable by having fire engines, police cars, and hearses show up to the nuptials. In the end, the editor drives a wagon from the local loony bin into the ceremony and kidnaps her. Romance ensues and eventually the two are married. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When widower Stephen Blake (Melvyn Douglas) and divorcee Edith Farnham (Mary Astor) are the only guests at a snowed-in mountain resort, sports director Snirley (Romaine Callender) and hostess Alma Peabody (Dorothy Stickney) try to promote a romance between Stephen and Edith. However, Stephen's son Tommy (Jackie Moran) and Edith's daughter Brenda (Edith Fellows) think this is a rotten idea and do what they can to prevent them from getting together. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

The creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission would soon render anachronistic such crime melodramas as One Way Ticket. Upon discovering that a prominent banker has absconded with his customers' funds, Jerry (Lloyd Nolan), one of the unlucky depositors, reacts by turning thief. He steals exactly the amount that he'd deposited, whereupon the cops close in and arrest him. Still feeling that he was merely getting back what was due him, Jerry bitterly stews in a jail cell until he's swept up in a prison breakout. The other escapees are killed, but Jerry manages to get away, though from this moment forward he's forced to live the toad-like life of a fugitive. Even his brief marriage to Bonnie (Peggy Conklin), the daughter of kindly prison warden Bourne (Walter Connolly), does little to alleviate Jerry's dilemma, and at the end he realizes that no one can ever truly run away from oneself. There's a great, fleeting moment in One Way Ticket wherein the protagonist calmly and philosophically discovers that his hiding place is surrounded by cops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Barrymore wisely turned down this contrived courtroom melodrama that instead trapped poor Ricardo Cortez. He plays Robert Mitchell, an attorney who runs into his estranged wife Dorothea (Barbara Robbins) and her lover, artist Jerry Hutchins (John Beal), in a department store, the three of them purchasing, respectively, a hat, a coat, and a pair of gloves. All these accoutrements later turn up at Jerry's murder trial, the struggling artist having been accused of killing a former girlfriend (Dorothy Burgess). Dorothea persuades Robert to represent her former lover and the ace attorney not only wins an acquittal but also the love of his no longer estranged wife. Hat, Coat and Glove marked the screen debut of Broadway ingénue Barbara Robbins, whose only feature film it would prove to be. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide