Tom Brown Movies

And Sudden Death was inspired by a Reader's Digest article by Theodore Reeves, which later became one of the magazine's most oft-reprinted essays. The original was a Grand Guignol affair, cataloguing in grisly detail the consequences of reckless driving. The film version avoids this approach, opting instead for a plotline closely resembling Cecil B. DeMille's Manslaughter. Randolph Scott heads the cast as dedicated motor policeman James Knox, who sees to it that Betty Winslow (Frances Drake) is sent to jail for vehicular homicide. But there's something about the case that's not quite right, so Knox conducts an investigation of his own. Sure enough, he finally discovers that Betty was actually taking the rap for her alcoholic younger brother Jackie (Tom Brown). Only by making the supreme sacrifice is Jackie able to absolve himself of his sins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Former child actress Dawn O'Day changed her professional name for Anne of Green Gables, assuming the moniker of her character in the film, Anne Shirley. This first of three RKO films based on the novels of L. M. Montgomery finds young, orphaned, hoydenish Anne arriving at a Canadian household. Though it's an uphill climb, Anne eventually melts the hearts of her truculent foster parents O.P. Heggie and Helen Westley. Despite the unwarranted scrutiny of local gossip Sara Haden, Anne finds true love with stalwart Tom Brown. Anne of Green Gables proved successful enough to warrant a sequel, produced six years later and also starring Anne Shirley: 1940's Anne of Windy Poplars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It was once said of actor Barton MacLane that he never spoke when shouting would do. Cast as the title character in Big Town Czar, MacLane is afforded plenty of opportunity for shouting, which he seizes with a vengeance. Working his way up from the tenements, Phil Carey (MacLane) is truly king of the the underworld. Not altogether evil, however, Carey uses a goodly portion of his ill-gotten gains to finance the college education of his beloved younger brother Danny (Tom Brown). But when Danny drops out of school to join the mob himself, Phil is aghast, having hoped to shield the kid from the exigencies of criminal life. It gets worse when Danny is killed during a gang war, which leads inexorably to Phil's own demise. According to the credits, Big Town Czar was based on a story by newspaper columnist Ed Sullivan, who appears in the film as himself (and he never once says "Rilly big shew"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After serving with a notable lack of distinction in WW2, Corporal Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott) and Private Herbie Brown (Lou Costello) return to the US. Unbeknownst to their sourpussed sergeant Collins (Nat Pendleton), Slicker and Herbie have smuggled cute little war orphan Evie (Beverly Simmons) past the immigration authorities. In their efforts to find a decent home for Evie, our heroes return to the prewar "jobs" as sidewalk salesmen, then make a disastrous attempt to collect their GI bonus money. They also struggle to save Evie from deportation, hiding her from the prying eyes of the ubiquitous Collins, who has likewise returned to his civilian job as a police officer. The climax finds Herbie participating in a big-money midget-car race, feverishly dodging pedestrians and motorists as he tries to escape the authorities. The film also includes a romantic subplot involving Tom Brown and Joan Fulton (later known as Joan Shawlee). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Gavin stars as Santa Fe marshal Ben Cutter, whose homecoming is blighted when he finds his town has been taken over by a Mexican bandit gang. Accompanied by two of the less frightened townsfolk--a small boy (Manuel Padila Jr.) and the boy's mother (Marisa Pavan)--Cutter sets out to rid the town of the interlopers. This TV movie was the pilot for a weekly series, slated for a CBS timeslot. Half a dozen scripts were prepared before the network decided to turn thumbs down. Cutter's Trail was originally telecast in a 90 minute slot, then expanded to two hours for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are summoned to the home of wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Moran (Tom Brown, Virginia Carroll), whose 13-year-old daughter Bunny (Frances Karath) has disappeared. All evidence suggests that the girl has been kidnapped, especially since her dog has been found beaten to death in her room--and most especially when a suspect (Robert Jordan) makes several pointed comments suggesting that he knows Bunny's whereabouts. When the girl turns up safe and sound, she insists that she was indeed kidnapped; trouble is, she changes her story every time she is questioned, leading Friday to suspect that she's holding something back. This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of July 6, 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this boxing drama, an ex-champ finds himself working as a doorman at a nightclub. His son aspires to a high caliber career on Wall Street; he is getting ready to marry a banker's daughter. When not working at the club, the boxer trains a welterweight with championship potential. Later the son gets caught embezzling funds. To help him pay it back the boxer asks that his trainee throw his next fight while he bets everything on the opponent. The young fighter refuses to take a dive and wins the fight. Fortunately, the ex-champ's assistant knew this and bet even more money on their protegee. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Fireman Save My Child started out as an Abbott and Costello picture, but then Lou Costello became ill with rheumatic fever. Or Costello turned down the script. Or the team decided to film Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde instead. Whatever the reason, when the film was finally released, Hugh O'Brian and Buddy Hackett were playing the roles originally intended for Bud and Lou (A and C can still be seen in some long-shots, however). Set in San Francisco in the early 1900s, the film casts Hugh and Buddy as a pair of bumbling firemen. Buddy invents a new fire-extingushing device, which the bad guys attempt to steal. Naturally, the film affords plenty of opportunity for slapstick chase sequences, and even allows Buddy Hackett time to do a potted version of his "inferiority complex" monologue. Top-billed over O'Brian and Hackett is the zany musical aggregation of Spike Jones and His City Slickers, who likewise are given several opportunities to shine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After several appearances as a "good girl," little Jane Withers returns to her patented screen brattiness in Gentle Julia. Based on a novel by Booth Tarkington, the film stars Withers as Florence Atwater, precocious kid-sister of flirtatious Julia Atwater (Marsha Hunt). After spending most of the film bedeviling Julia's hometown sweetheart Noble Dill (Tom Brown), Florence shows that she's really a good kid underneath it all by saving her sister from an unfortunate marriage to phoney-baloney city-slicker Mr. Crum (George Meeker). The film's comic high point is a fancy lawn party, which Florence sabotages by releasing a frightening array of bugs, mice and snakes. Gentle Julia represents Jane Withers' second co-starring appearance with her male counterpart, diminutive screen menace Jackie Searl (the two young actors, neither one of which were as nasty in real life as they could be on screen, got along splendidly). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The original radio version of Gunsmoke was in its third year on the air when the TV version made its CBS network bow on September 10, 1955. Replacing radio's William Conrad as Matt Dillon was tall-in-the-saddle James Arness, whose chief claim to fame at that time was his portrayal of the title role in the 1951 sci-fi thriller The Thing. Arness was a protégé of film superstar John Wayne, who in a good-luck gesture appeared on camera at the beginning of the opening episode, "Matt Gets It"--which like virtually all of the episodes seen during Season One was adapted from one of the original radio scripts. No sooner had this first episode gotten under way that Gunsmoke staked out its claim as TV's first "adult" western with a startling sequence in which hero Matt Dillon was shot down and nearly killed by the heavy of the piece! During its earliest episodes, the series boasts a different opening sequence than the familiar one in which Matt Dillon and an unknown assailant square off for a showdown in Dodge City's deserted Main Street. These initial episodes find Matt philosophically wandering around the town's cemetery "Boot Hill", as he introduces the story at hand via offscreen narration. Also, Milburn Stone's Doc Adams is younger and less cantankerous than he'd been in later years, while Amanda Blake's Miss Kitty is flashier and more flirtatious with Matt Dillon (Their relationship would always remain ambiguous, though it was clear from the "body language" of the two characters in the first season that they might have had something going on in the off-hours). Only deputy Chester, played by Dennis Weaver, is fully formed from the outset, though Chester's famous limp is a bit inconsistent--and, in at least one episode, he doesn't limp at all! Evidently in hopes of luring viewers away from NBC's high-rated The George Gobel Show, the producers of Gunsmoke stuffed the series' first season with no fewer than 39 first-run episodes,which were spread out over a nine-month period with but a handful of reruns. Appearing in several of these episodes are a number of actors who'd worked on the radio Gunsmoke, including John Dehner, Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, Jeanne Bates and Lawrence Dobkin; and in the episode "The Pest Hole", Howard McNear, "Doc Adams" in the radio version, is seen as hotel keeper Mr. Bradley. Also seen on Gunsmoke's maiden season are such stars in the making as Charles Bronson, Claude Akins, William Hopper, Sebastian Cabot and DeForest Kelley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Often referred to as an imitation of Warner's legendary prison drama I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), RKO's stirring Hell's Highway was actually released a few months earlier. The two films were in production at the same time, but RKO was determined to beat the competition (which also included Universal's Laughter in Hell, 1933) and not a few corners were cut. All three films were set in a generic Southern state (read Georgia) and depicted a horrid penal system more akin to the Middle Ages than the supposedly enlightened 1930s. In Hell's Highway, the chain gang prisoners wear uniforms with a large target printed on the back and the torture instrument du jour is a so-called sweatbox, in constant operation so that unscrupulous contractor Billings (Oscar Apfel) may construct his "Liberty Highway" on time and under budget. When a prisoner dies from exposure in the dreaded contraption, Duke Ellis (Richard Dix) concocts a plan to escape. The escape comes to an abrupt halt with the sudden arrival of his kid brother, Johnny (Tom Brown). The latter ends up in the sweatbox, but Duke has the kid transferred to office duty by using a bit of blackmail. There is a climactic prison riot, during which Duke is killed after saving his brother once again. Or at least that was what a preview audience saw. The death of the film's hero proved so shocking that RKO hastily filmed an alternative ending and Hell's Highway, as it survives today, concludes with Billings being charged with murder (the sweatbox situation) and Duke asked to testify against him. Typical of pre-code Hollywood, Hell's Highway features an openly gay prisoner (who bats his eyes at the prison guards), several scenes of torture, an appearance of near equality between black and white inmates, a bible-quoting polygamist (Charles Middleton), a wife-murdering guard (Warner Richmond), and, for added verisimilitude, a handicapped character who, when mortally wounded during the riot, signs his farewell to this world. Hell's Highway may not have enjoyed the status of I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, but it remains a powerful indictment of the Georgian penal system of 1931 and a fine, well-acted film in its own right. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The comic effusions of Hugh "woo woo" Herbert helps to keep this otherwise forgettable farce afloat. It all begins when Bob Wade (Tom Brown) and Rosalie Brown (Peggy Moran), are conned into buying a run-down vaudeville agency. Upon taking charge of the failing enterprise, they find they have a partner named Hubert (Herbert),who's likewise been victimized by con artists. Pooling their wits and resources, the three suckers put some life back into their agency by promoting variety acts for department-store window displays. A stupid misunderstanding nearly breaks up the budding romance between Bob and Rosalie, but helpful Hubert patches things up in his own inimitable fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide