Myles Connolly Movies

Modern science provides us with a fascinating glimpse into the ancient world as researchers and archeologists explore the mysteries of the Egyptian mummies. By reconstructing DNA gathered from the pharaohs, contemporary scientists may be able to learn more about human genetics and develop innovative medical treatments for deadly diseases. Could the pharaohs have possessed secrets beyond that of modern man? Christopher Lee narrates a documentary that proves sometimes in order to understand the future, you must first delve into the distant past. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Filled with the kind of Red Scare propaganda that must have delighted members of McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee, this drama chronicles the attempts of two All-American parents to save their son from the temptations of Communism. Unfortunately, they are too late. The arrogant and intellectual young man, a worker in a federal agency, returns home from a long absence spouting pro-Ruskie doctrine and deriding the beliefs of capitalism and US at every opportunity. Enraged at his son's mocking ways, he beans him with the family bible. Things get worse when an FBI agent shows up to tell the horrified parents that their son is an enemy spy. The mother blows a gasket and flies to Washington, DC where her son works to make him swear on the same book that the FBI agent is wrong. The son does so, but its a lie. The mother soon finds this out. She also learns that her treacherous son's girlfriend is a Commie. What's a mother to do? Fortunately, before it is too late, her son realizes the error of his ways and tries to double-cross his Pinko superiors. Unfortunately, it is too late and they shoot him and just before he gaspingly dies upon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he tapes his final confession and gives American youth everywhere a potent message about honor. The star of the film, Walker, best remembered for his gripping portrayal of a psychopath in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, died before production finished and so scenes from that film were spliced into My Son, John. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Here Comes the Groom was the second collaboration between director Frank Capra and star Bing Crosby. Though not as "socially relevant" as previous Capra productions, the film is a thoroughly likeable yarn about a happy-go-lucky newspaperman named Pete (Bing Crosby). In order to legally adopt a brace of war orphans, Pete must marry within a week. His plans to wed his longtime sweetheart Emmadel (Jane Wyman) come acropper when she, tired of waiting for him to pop the question, becomes engaged to wealthy Wilbur Stanley (Franchot Tone). Conspiring with Wilbur's cousin Winifred (Alexis Smith), Pete spends the balance of the film trying to win Emmadel back. From all accounts, the set of Here Comes the Groom was a happy one, the conviviality extending to Alexis Smith's willingness to be on the receiving end of several jokes concerning her height (she seems nearly a head taller than Crosby!). The film's best scene is the Bing Crosby-Jane Wyman duet "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," reportedly filmed in one take without post-dubbing. As a bonus, Here Comes the Groom introduces a bright new singing talent, Anna Maria Alberghetti, and is festooned with uncredited guest stars, ranging from Dorothy Lamour to Louis Armstrong. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An aspiring ballerina begins following a prima ballerina hoping that she will become her replacement. Unfortunately, another dancer is chosen, causing the determined twinkle-toes to cause a little accident to destroy the usurper's career. It works and the hapless ballerina's career is destroyed. In the end, the conniving one atones for her treachery and the two become fast friends. Danny Thomas makes his feature film debut in this musical. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

MGM's Till the Clouds Roll By is the musicalized, and highly fictionalized, life story of beloved composer Jerome Kern, who gave his blessing to the production shortly before his death in 1946. As played by a gray-templed Robert Walker, Kern is a likeable but none too exciting sort who expresses his emotions through his music. Constructed in the form of an extended flashback, the story proper begins at the turn of the century, as Kern tries to peddle his ditties to disinterested Broadway producers. His efforts to interest impresario Charles Frohman (Harry Hayden) go nowhere because Frohman is convinced that the only good music comes from Europe. Obligingly, Kern moves to London, where he meets and falls in love with his future wife Eva (Dorothy Patrick). On the verge of securing work with Frohman, Kern's hopes are dashed when the producer goes down with the Lusitania in 1915. Fortunately, Kern has developed such powerful U.S. contacts as Victor Herbert (Paul Maxey) and Oscar Hammerstein (Paul Langton), enabling him to find success as the composer of several "intimate" musicals for New York's Princess Theater. The film ends where it begins, with Kern's triumph as composer of the Broadway blockbuster Show Boat. Van Heflin weaves in and out of the proceedings as the obligatory best friend/severest critic, a musical arranger named Jim Hessler (purportedly based on longtime Kern associate Paul Sadler). No one in 1946 really cared about the dramatic passages of Till the Clouds Roll By; the film's biggest drawing card was its lineup of all-star MGM talent, performing Kern's most famous numbers. Judy Garland (as Marilyn Miller) sings "Look for the Silver Lining"; Dinah Shore performs "The Last Time I Saw Paris" before a back-projected "Gay Paree"; Kathryn Grayson does a Rita Hayworth imitation with "Long Ago and Far Away"; Virginia O'Brien deadpans "A Fine Romance"; Tony Martin warbles "All the Things You Are"; June Allyson and Ray McDonald team up for the title number; and Frank Sinatra, incongruously dressed in white tuxedo, runs through "Ol' Man River." In addition, other musical contributions are made by Van Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Cyd Charisse, Gower Champion, and Lucille Bremer (cast as Van Heflin's daughter). The film's high point comes at the very beginning with a Reader's Digest edition of Show Boat, featuring Lena Horne, as Julie (the role she was born to play, but never did again on screen), delivering a powerhouse rendition of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." Since lapsing into public domain in 1974, Till the Clouds Roll By has, along with Royal Wedding, become the most readily accessible of all MGM musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

This final "Tarzan" entry from the MGM assembly line is arguably one the least effective of the series, though it certainly has its adherents. It all begins when Boy (Johnny Sheffield), adopted son of Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) and Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan), is kidnapped from the jungle by crooked circus promoters Rand (Charles Bickford) and Shields (Paul Kelly) and spirted off to America. This requires Tarzan and his mate to adopt "civilized" clothes and head to New York City, with the troublesome Cheeta the Chimpanzee along for the ride. There are some amusing moments as Tarzan tries to acclimate himself with the Big Apple, and some less amusing ones as Cheeta gets hold of a powder puff and lays waste to an expensive hotel room. The film's highlight, Tarzan's leap from the Brooklyn Bridge, comes at the film's halfway point, and accordingly things slow down considerably during the final reels. Tarzan's New Adventure works better as a stunt than as an official series entry, but it is still preferable to some of the so-so RKO Radio Tarzan films which were to follow. One racially questionable sequence involving black comedian Mantan Moreland has been understandably removed from some TV prints. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Judging by the number of times it's popped up on TV, Tarzan's Secret Treasure was one of the most popular of the MGM "Tarzan" pictures, though it's hardly the best. This time around, a group of gold hunters invade the domain of Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) and Boy (Johnny Sheffield). Expedition leader Professor Elliot (Reginald Owen) is an honorable man, but his assistants Medford (Tom Conway) and Vandemeer (Philip Dorn) are scoundrels, while the party's aggressively Irish general factotum O'Doul (Barry Fitzgerald) remains an enigma until the final reel. Thinking they've done away with Tarzan, Medford and Vandemeer force Jane and Boy to lead them through the jungle to a hidden gold mine, only to be captured by a hostile tribe which specializes in literally tearing its captives apart (via tastefully gruesome stock footage from 1936's Tarzan Escapes). Will ol' Tarz revive in time to rescue his loved ones from fierce tribesmen and even fiercer crocodiles? Perhaps the "campiest" of MGM's "Tarzan" entries, Tarzan's Secret Treasure is chock full of laughable vignettes, one or two of them intentional. Best line: When Jane asks Boy what he's been doing all day, the plucky youngster, who's just survived a series of hair-raising perils culminating with his nearly being burned at the stake by superstitious natives, replies "Oh, nothing much." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Andrea Leeds, whose career had shifted into hyperdrive after her brilliant performance in Stage Door (1937), stars in the Universal programmer Youth Takes a Fling. Leeds plays Helen Brown, a New York City department-store salesgirl who falls in love with Kansas City truckdriver Joe Meadows (Joel McCrea). Since Joe barely knows that Helen is alive, she resorts to all sorts of feminine trickery to win her man. With Helen's good buddy Jean (Dorothea Kent) and Jean's brash boyfriend Frank (Frank Jenks) helping out, poor Joe doesn't have a chance-not that he's protesting too much by fadeout time. Producer Joe Pasternak lavishes his usual top-drawer production values on Youth Takes a Fling, which might have been more entertaining had it taken a simpler course. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

By 1937, everyone was tired of films about silent stars who couldn't make the transition to talkies (and would be until Singin' in the Rain), but this Columbia comedy-drama still had its moments in spite of gross inaccuracies. Richard Dix is Western star Tim Bart, a screen hero who is adored by children everywhere. All that changes when sound comes in -- outdoor pictures are risky because of sound problems and Bart's screen test proves that he can't possibly play indoorsy society men. On the other hand, his co-star Gloria Gay (Fay Wray) is a natural for glamour. The studio offers to keep Bart on if he will play gangsters and bank robbers, but he refuses to let his young fans down by becoming a bad guy. (All this makes you want to ask, "What about 1930's Academy Award-winning Cimarron, in which Dix was the star?" The writers at Columbia must have had extremely short memories!) Bart's career dries up, while Gloria's flourishes -- at least for a while. With his ranch foreclosed and no work forthcoming, Bart decides to leave Hollywood. But then, Billy (Billy Burrud) shows up on his doorstep -- he's one of the kids Bart visited in a hospital. The boy has no family and begs to stay, so Bart relents. He even throws Billy a party which is attended by all the stars of the day (actually they're the stars' doubles, but Billy never guesses). Gloria also shows up and admits that her career is on the outs, too. The desperate Bart walks into a bank just as it's being robbed. He gets into a shoot-out with the crooks and becomes a real-life hero. With his name in all the papers -- and Westerns once again a popular commodity -- the studio signs him up to a new contact, along with Gloria. Franklin Pangborn does one of his amusing turns in a bit part as a dialog coach. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Just before his brief turn as a "singing cowboy," radio crooner Smith Ballew starred in Paramount's Palm Springs. Filmed on location at the famed California resort community, the story concerns the efforts by near-bankrupt gambler Capt Smyth (Sir Guy Standing) to marry off his daughter Joan (Frances Langford) to wealthy Englishman George Brittel (David Niven). Unfortunately for Smyth, Joan falls in love with Slim (Ballew), who hails from Wyoming and apparently hasn't got a dime. The film can't seem to make up its mind to be a straight comedy or a musical, nor does it seem that anyone concerned cared all that much about the plot. The songs are by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin, who evidently saved their best stuff for Bing Crosby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a doctor and his wife find themselves dreaming of others and thinking about divorce. The wife decides to sow a few oats when she meets a handsome young man. When the doctor finds out about the affair, he is surprised to discover that after 10 years of marriage, he could care less. They begin divorce proceedings, but just before it is finalized, they realize that their love isn't as dead as they had thought, and the relationship is renewed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Overworked and fearing that life is passing her by, eminent plastic surgeon Margaret "Peggy" Simmons (Ann Harding) takes an impromptu trip to California in this lifeless romance from RKO. She meets and falls in love with playboy Bobby Preble (Robert Young), who seems to sustain himself by little more than the ability to party and fly an airplane. Much to the consternation of fellow physician Dr. Heppling (Nils Asther), Peggy accepts Bobby's impulsive proposal. But life among the young elite does not prove as fulfilling as Peggy had hoped for, especially when flighty debutante Lee Joyce (Sari Maritza) reenters the picture. "I let myself forget that I was grown up," our heroine sighs before falling into the arms of the always-accommodating Dr. Heppling. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide