Robert Clarke Movies

Ida Lupino, one of the few major Hollywood actresses to move from the sound stage to the director's chair in the 1940s and 1950s, helmed this story about a mother's obsessive drive to see her daughter succeed. Florence Farley (Sally Forrest) is a young woman with a tremendous gift as a tennis player, and her mother Milly (Claire Trevor) is determined to see Florence make the most of her talents. However, Milly's greatest concern isn't with her daughter's happiness or well-being, but with her own financial success, and when Milly begins interfering with Florence's romance with Gordon McKay (Robert Clarke), the daughter begins to rebel against her mother. Director Lupino and actor Robert Ryan both make cameo appearances as spectators at a tennis match. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This Dumas story was presented by Magnavox Theater and produced by Hal Roach Jr. Helmed by veteran western director Budd Boetticher, at 53 minutes long it is generally considered to be the first full-length made-for-television movie. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

The sexual dysfunction of a married couple provides the basis of this thought-provoking drama that was originally released in 1950 and was then re-released 11 years later with a prologue tacked on. In the prologue, the couple begin attending a group therapy session helmed by a prominent doctor. Neither the husband and wife are able to enjoy sex. The doctor then tells them a story and this story is the original 1950 film of a sexually repressed and unresponsive bride who ends up trying to kill herself. Fortunately, a psychiatrist helps her to see that her overbearing mother is the cause of her difficulty. This story inspires the first couple to keep working on their problem. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In her second film appearance, Marilyn Monroe stars as Peggy Martin, a second-generation showgirl who begins a romance with a rich young man (Randy Brooks), an action that strains her relationship with her mother (Adele Jurgens). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Hoping for a success commensurate with his previous Show Business (1945), comedian Eddie Cantor poured a lot of his own money into the RKO Radio musical If You Knew Susie. Cantor and his Show Business co-star Joan Davis are reteamed herein as ex-vaudevillians Sam and Susie Parker, who retire to a small and rather cloistered New England town. Faced with the snobbery of the local "aristocracy," Sam and Susie come to believe that they aren't worthy of their new neighbors, nor of their own children. All this changes when the Parkers find a document signed by George Washington bestowing $50,000 on one of Sam's forebears! According to the government, Sam and Susie are now owed several billion dollars interest. Sam patriotically refuses to accept the money, thereby becoming a national hero -- but not before a plenitude of comic plot twists involving gangsters Sheldon Leonard and Joe Sawyer. Cast as the Parkers' daughter Marjorie is "newcomer" Margaret Kerry, who'd actually been in films since 1936 as child actress Peggy Lynch. One of the musical highlights in If You Knew Susie is a clip from Show Business, featuring Cantor, Davis, George Murphy and Constance Moore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Befitting his status as a genre star, Boris Karloff earns top billing over leading man Ralph Byrd in RKO's final Dick Tracy caper. The former Frankenstein monster plays an escaped convict masterminding a daring bank robbery. To get in and out of the bank without being noticed, the gang uses an asphyxiating gas that leaves anyone inside momentarily frozen in place. Everyone, that is, except for bank customer Tess Truehart (Anne Gwynne), who is able to contact Dick Tracy (Byrd) from a phone booth in the bank. With little or no clues, Tracy and his man Friday, Pat Patton (Lyle Latell), question the bank customers but none can shed any light on the mysterious goings-on. The disappearance of Dr. A. Tomic (Milton Parsons) and the odd behavior of his associate, Dr. I.M. Learned (June Clayworth), crack the case wide open, however, and Tracy is eventually able to track down both Gruesome and the surprising identity of his boss, L.E. Thal (Edward Ashley). According to some reports, RKO wanted to release Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome as "Dick Tracy Meets Karloff" but that title was vetoed by Karloff himself. The legendary horror star apparently later accepted his own box-office value and a 1949 Universal comedy was released as Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Based on Zane Grey's 1922 novel To the Last Man, filmed previously by Paramount in 1923 and 1934, this fine RKO Western marked the return to his home lot of Tim Holt after a stint in the Army Air Corps. Returning to his Arizona homestead, Marvin Hayden (Holt) lands in the middle of the age-old feud between the Haydens and the Jorths, both families accusing the other of murder. The feud, however, has been engineered by someone else entirely and when the dust settles, Marvin announces his engagement to Ellen Jorth (Martha Hyer). Although both were ostensibly based on Zane Grey novels, Thunder Mountain bears no resemblance to the 1935 George O'Brien oater of the same title. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

With 1947's Desperate, a disturbing, noirish twist on traditional moral values, responsibility, and guilt, director Anthony Mann entered the ranks of class-A directors, though he'd still have to spend a few more years in "B" pictures. In his first important role, Steve Brodie plays newlywed trucker Steve Randall, who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time during a fur robbery. Kidnapping Steve, the criminals, led by Walt Radak (Raymond Burr), threaten to mutilate Mrs. Randall (Audrey Long) unless Steve confesses to a murder committed by Radak's brother during the theft. Pretending to play along with the villains, Steve manages to escape with his wife in tow. The rest of the film is a prolonged chase, with the Randalls pursued by both the crooks and the cops. A surprise ending caps this film noir mini-classic, which is best appreciated when not seen in its computer-colorized version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Elevating Criminal Court above the B-picture norm is the inventive direction by Robert Wise and the better-than-usual performances by all concerned. In a break from his heroic "Falcon" role, Tom Conway stars as Steve Barnes, a criminal attorney known for his unorthodox courtroom tactics. After accidentally killing a crooked nightclub owner, Barnes is stuck on the horns of a dilemma when his sweetheart, cabaret singer Georgia Gale (Martha O'Driscoll), is arrested for the crime The problem: How can Barnes clear Georgia of the murder without implicating himself? As for the solution...well, best not to reveal that here. All that keeps Criminal Court from A-picture status is its 62 minute running time; on the other hand, the film's impact might have been blunted had it been any longer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With Tim Holt still in military service and Robert Mitchum promoted to "A" pictures, RKO Radio attempted to create a new B-western star in the form of James Warren, who starred in three sagebrushers over a three-year period. Warren's second RKO effort was Sunset Pass, a remake of an oft-filmed Zane Grey story. The star is cast as Rocky, a railway express officer assigned to break up a train-robbery gang operating on the Arizona border. John Laurenz plays Rocky's Spanish-Irish sidekick Chito Rafferty, a role later assigned to Richard Martin in the Tim Holt series. One of the film's two heroines is played by Jane Greer, who unlike James Warren was destined for bigger things at RKO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

RKO's prefabricated comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney came to an abrupt end with Genius at Work. A slapsticky remake of 1937's Super Sleuth, the film casts the stars as Jerry and Mike, the stars of a weekly radio "unsolved mysteries" series. Ellen (Anne Jeffreys), the show's head writer, is given invaluable script advice by famed criminologist Marsh (Lionel Atwill). Little do our heroes or heroine realize that Marsh is actually The Cobra, a wily murderer who kills for the thrill of it. When Mike, Jerry and Ellen pay a visit to Marsh's baronial estate, the villain and his faithful servant Stone (a sadly wasted Bela Lugosi) do their best to kill off the troublesome radio sleuths with an abundance of old-dark-house gadgetry. But Mike and Jerry have the last laugh in a tension-filled climax. Though Genius at Work represented the last joint starring appearance of Brown and Carney, the two actors would be reunited as supporting characters in Disney's The Absent Minded Professor (1961). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

RKO Radio's A Game of Death was the first official remake of Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game, given a contemporary WW2 twist. Novelist Rainsford (John Loder) and brother-and-sister shipwreck victims Ellen (Audrey Long) and Robert (Russell Wade) are among the innocents stranded on remote island at the mercy of Nazi madman Krieger (Edgar Barrier). Fancying himself a sportsman, Krieger offers his captives an hour's head start before he begins hunting them down like animals. The by-now-familiar plotline is not as compelling as in the original 1932 version of Most Dangerous Game or the 1956 Mexican-based remake (Run for the Sun), thanks to the pedestrian acting of everyone except Edgar Barrier. Still, Robert Wise imbues the story with plenty of tension, especially in the closing reels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide