Frank Davis Movies

This third entry in the dumbfoundingly silly "Killer Tomatoes" series continues the low-budget franchise's tradition of bombarding audiences with endless inane sight gags, horror movie in-jokes, and "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" comic asides. This installment finds flamboyant mad scientist Professor Gangrene (an enthusiastically hammy John Astin) up to his old tricks. The madman responsible for the near-annihilation of humanity by the title fruit, Gangrene is currently masquerading as the host of trashy talk show "Talk of the Town," through which he mounts a temporarily successful media campaign restoring the red-stained reputation of the much-maligned tomato. Fortunately for an unwary populace, the professor's plot for world domination is foiled by hard-bitten detective Boyle (Rick Rockwell) and eminent "tomatologist" Dr. Kennedy Johnson (Crystal Carson). Though not as funny as the previous installment, Return of the Killer Tomatoes (which featured a young George Clooney in deadpan mode), this is still a mildly entertaining romp. The pulpy red menace would soon return for yet another sequel, but not before inspiring a silly animated kiddie-TV spinoff. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

John Frankenheimer directs Burt Lancaster in the tense spy thriller The Train. Lancaster plays Labiche, a French railway inspector. Allied forces are threatening to liberate Paris, so Col. Franz von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) is ordered to move the priceless works of art from the Jeu de Paume Museum to the fatherland. The head of the museum (Suzanne Flon) attempts to convince Labiche that he should sabotage the train on which they are transporting the art. Labiche is more focused on destroying a trainload of German weapons. After his friend is killed trying to stop the train with the art, and after a consciousness-raising conversation with a hotel owner (Jeanne Moreau), Labiche resolves to save the antiquities. Lancaster and Frankenheimer had worked together previously on both Birdman of Alcatraz and Seven Days in May. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A meteor crashes somewhere in the West, killing a miner named Cannon (Jim McCullough). The miner's son Charles (Stephen Parker) survives the ordeal, but grows into a hairy, bestial moron, given to killing sheep, cattle and stray humans. Charles is protected by his long-suffering mother Ruth (Anne Gwynne), who does her best to clean up her son's messes. When mercenary waitress Kathy (Gloria Castillo) learns of Charles' existence, she blackmails Ruth to secure her silence. Kathy also goads Charles into killing a few of her own enemies, leading him on by pretending to be in love with him (a BIG mistake!) Originally (and subsequently) titled Meteor Monster, this tacky little sci-fier was originally released on a double bill with The Brain From Planet Arous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Reminiscent of Destry Rides Again, this feature is about peaceable young lawyer Tom Brewster (Will Rogers Jr.), who sets up shop in a rowdy western town. Though perfectly able to wield a six-gun, Brewster refuses to use brawn when brain will do. He is galvanized into action when his old pal Wallace Ford is murdered by the villains. Brewster cleans up the town and wins the heroine (Nancy Olsen) in the bargain. One of two Will Rogers Jr. vehicles produced at Warner Bros. (the other was the life story of Rogers' famous father), The Boy From Oklahoma served as the basis for Warners' later TV series, Sugarfoot. Watch for a supporting appearance by a young and callow Merv Griffin! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Springfield Rifle was Gary Cooper's third western in a row, released not long after the classic High Noon. Cooper plays Union army officer Lex Kearney, who undertakes a covert investigation to find out why the North's supply of horses has suddenly diminished. Because of the top-secret nature of his mission, Kearney is forced to distance himself from everyone he knows, including his wife Erin (Phyllis Thaxter) and son Jamie (Michael Chapin). Heading to a remote cavalry post, he discovers that renegade soldiers have been stealing horses and selling them to the South. Someone at the post has been operating as the thieves' "inside man," and Lex, posing as a dishonorably discharged soldier, aims to ferret out the traitor. Had it not followed directly on the heels of the critical and financial success of High Noon, Springfield Rifle might have fared better with audiences and reviewers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Burt Lancaster stars as Jim Thorpe, the Native American sports whiz whom many consider the greatest athlete of the 20th century. We first see Thorpe as a child on the reservation, highly resistant to the notion of going to school. He proves to be an excellent student, eventually attending the all-Indian college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Still, Thorpe doesn't feel like mixing much with the other students until coach Charles Bickford encourages the lad to go out for the track team. Thorpe finds that he can be more "articulate" as an athlete than as a scholar, and soon excels at all school sports. He also marries his college sweetheart, non-Indian Phyllis Thaxter. After graduation, Thorpe tries to get a coaching job, but is frozen out by the white establishment. Determined to make a name for himself, he enters the 1912 Olympics at Stockholm, where he earns more gold medals than anyone else and is praised as the world's greatest athlete by the King of Sweden. Unfortunately, the fact that Thorpe briefly played semi-professional baseball while attending Carlisle costs him his amateur status--and every one of his medals. Things go from bad to worse for Thorpe after this; his son dies, his marriage disintegrates, and he crawls into a bottle. Thorpe has hit rock bottom when he is reunited with his old coach Bickford, who offers Jim a ticket to the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. It is the first small step on the road to regeneration for Jim Thorpe (alas, real life was not so kind; Thorpe died in near-poverty, and it was not until years after his death that his Olympic medals were restored). Jim Thorpe, All American was directed by Michael Curtiz, who previously had secured small acting roles for the real Thorpe in such films as Knute Rockne: All American (1940). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Boys Town" goes to turn-of-the-century St. Louis in this moving drama that chronicles the love of a determined priest struggling to turn around the lives of a street-wise gang of newsboys living at his homeless shelter. The good father has little money and must use his wits and ability to convince others to help out to supply the little shelter. Much of the story centers on his relationship with a troubled lad who accidentally kills someone. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In providing the "synopsis" for Are Husbands Necessary?, one best-selling film source says merely "And what about this film?" There's more to the story than that, of course--but not much. The film was based on Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, a novel by Frank Davis. Ray Milland and Betty Field play a warring married couple who hope to patch up their differences by adopting a baby. When Milland's ex-flame Patricia Morrison shows up unexpectedly, the fur flies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a story by Vicki Baum (of Grand Hotel) fame, Dance, Girl Dance finds innocent young Judy (Maureen O'Hara) journeying to the Big Apple in hopes of gaining fame as a classical dancer. Instead she ends up as the "stooge" for raucous strip-tease artist Bubbles (Lucille Ball), who attempts to perform ballet before leering, catcalling, unappreciative burlesque audiences. Eventually, Judy and Bubbles both fall for playboy Jimmy Harris (Louis Hayward), a rivalry that culminates in a hair-pulling, eye-scratching cat fight. Eventually, Harris's ex-wife (Virginia Field) reels him back in, and Judy is hired by ballet producer and entrepreneur Steve Adams (Ralph Bellamy). In recent years, Dance, Girl, Dance has been canonized as a feminist manifesto, due to the fact that Dorothy Arzner was the director and because of Maureen O'Hara's climactic burlesque-house speech, in which she lambastes the male spectators for their puerile chauvinism. It should be noted, however, that Arzner became director only after Roy Del Ruth pulled out of the project. Uncertain how to promote the film, RKO Radio elected to sneak it into its first-run houses without fanfare, and the result was a $400,000 loss for the studio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Sam Wood always seemed most comfortable with cozy family-oriented films like Lord Jeff. Freddie Bartholomew plays Geoffrey Braemer, a basically good kid who falls in with bad company. The orphaned Geoffrey is being used as part of jewel-theft scheme masterminded by his so-called aunt Doris Clandon (Gale Sondergaard) and her confederate Hampstead (George Zucco). Left holding the bag when his cohorts skip town, Geoffrey is saved from reform school by kindly Captain Briggs (Charles Coburn), who enrolls the boy in the Russell-Cotes Merchant Marine Training School. At first antagonistic, Geoffrey eventually makes friends with his fellow students, especially Irish boyo Terry O'Mulvaney (Mickey Rooney). A series of misunderstandings brings disgrace upon Geoffrey, but he redeems himself by delivering Doris and Hampstead into the waiting hands of Law-with a little help from his new shipmates, of course. A teenaged Peter Lawford makes his American film debut as Geoffrey's school chum Benny Potter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Devil Is a Sissy deserves an historical footnote as the only film to team three of the biggest child stars of the 1930s: Mickey Rooney, Jackie Cooper and Freddie Bartholomew. Bartholomew is a wealthy young English boy attending a New York "magnet" school, whose students are drawn from all walks of life. He is befriended by slum kid Rooney, son of a recently executed gangster, who in his own roughneck fashion helps Bartholomew to "assimilate" (Translation: He helps him to steal and evade the cops). Cooper is a middle-class gang leader with whom Rooney frequently clashes. Freddie attempts to fit in with his new chums by masterminding a break-in at a Park Avenue townhouse. None too soon, all three boys end up in juvenile court. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Cohens and Kellys in Africa is the fourth in the seemingly endless movie series based on characters created in the 1925 stage play Two Blocks Away. Back again are George Sidney and Charlie Murray as Cohen and Kelly, those two eternally bickering business partners and reluctant in-laws. This time, the Hebraic-Hibernian duo are in the piano-manufacturing business. When a shortage in ivory threatens to close down their operation, our heroes pack up their families and head to Africa in hopes of locating the legendary Elephant's Graveyard. To the surprise of no one, Cohen and Kelly find themselves mixed up with a sheik's harem and a cannibal tribe, with time left over for a miniature-golf game (reprising gags previously seen in The Cohens and Kellys in Scotland). The level of humor can be gauged by the scene in which a swarthy tribal chieftain (Eddie Kane) turns out to be a lower-east-side Jewish merchant in disguise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ten years later, writer and director John Singleton returns to the South Central Los Angeles neighborhoods of his debut film Boyz 'N the Hood (1991). Tyrese Gibson stars as Jody, a jobless 20-year-old African-American man who has fathered two children by two different women, Yvette (Taraji P. Henson) and Peanut (Tamara LaSeon Bass), although he still lives with his 36-year-old mother Juanita (Adrienne-Joi Johnson). As Jody grapples with the increasing pressures of adult responsibility, he also contends with his troubled best friend Sweetpea (Omar Gooding) and new adversary Rodney (Snoop Doggy Dogg). Then there's his mother's live-in boyfriend Marvin (Ving Rhames), a reformed gangsta who agrees with Juanita that her son should grow up, move out, and move on. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide