Richard Day Movies

A woman trying to solve the mystery of a friend's murder finds that she may be the next victim in this suspense story set in turn-of-the-century London. Belle Adair (Peggy Cummins) is a struggling showgirl willing to use her charms to snare an eligible bachelor. When her roommate is murdered, Belle's suspicions turn to Michael Drego (Victor Mature), the wealthy but mysterious gentlemen whom the late woman had been dating. Belle pulls some strings and gets an invitation to dine at the estate that Michael shares with his mother, Lady Sterling (Ethel Barrymore); she learns that Michael has a new fiancée, Audrey (Patricia Medina). When Audrey later dies under suspicious circumstances, Inspector Clinner (Vincent Price) from Scotland Yard is assigned to investigate, and he finds himself protecting Belle when the murderer begins following her trail. Keep an eye peeled for horror movie great George Zucco, who plays Craxton. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Edmund Gwenn plays Kris Kringle, a bearded old gent who is the living image of Santa Claus. Serving as a last-minute replacement for the drunken Santa who was to have led Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Kringle is offered a job as a Macy's toy-department Santa. Supervisor Maureen O'Hara soon begins having second thoughts about hiring Kris: it's bad enough that he is laboring under the delusion that he's the genuine Saint Nick; but when he begins advising customers to shop elsewhere for toys that they can't find at Macy's, he's gone too far! Amazingly, Mr. Macy (Harry Antrim) considers Kris' shopping tips to be an excellent customer-service "gimmick," and insists that the old fellow keep his job. A resident of a Long Island retirement home, Kris agrees to take a room with lawyer John Payne during the Christmas season. It happens that Payne is sweet on O'Hara, and Kris subliminally hopes he can bring the two together. Kris is also desirous of winning over the divorced O'Hara's little daughter Natalie Wood, who in her few years on earth has lost a lot of the Christmas spirit. Complications ensue when Porter Hall, Macy's nasty in-house psychologist, arranges to have Kris locked up in Bellevue as a lunatic. Payne represents Kris at his sanity hearing, rocking the New York judicial system to its foundations by endeavoring to prove in court that Kris is, indeed, the real Santa Claus! We won't tell you how he does it: suffice to say that there's a joyous ending for Payne and O'Hara, as well as a wonderful faith-affirming denouement for little Natalie Wood. 72-year-old Edmund Gwenn won an Oscar for his portrayal of the "jolly old elf" Kringle; the rest of the cast is populated by such never-fail pros as Gene Lockhart (as the beleaguered sanity-hearing judge), William Frawley (as a crafty political boss), and an unbilled Thelma Ritter and Jack Albertson. Based on the novel by Valentine Davies, Miracle on 34th Street was remade twice: once for TV in 1973, and a second time for a 1994 theatrical release, with Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Boomerang, directed by Elia Kazan, is a chilling film noir, the true story about the murder of a priest, the subsequent arrest and trial of a jobless drifter, and the efforts of young state's attorney Henry Harvey (Dana Andrews) to uncover the truth. Closely based on the actual 1924 murder of Fr. Hubert Dahme in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the film was directed by the young Elia Kazan in a highly effective, semi-documentary style. Kazan shot most of the film on location, using high-contrast cinematography and an extremely mobile camera to create a palpable sense of urgency. The screenplay, expertly crafted by Richard Murphy received an Academy Award nomination. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

It is said that producer Sam Goldwyn had a habit of addressing his new star of the 1940s, Danny Kaye, as "Eddie", confusing Kaye with Eddie Cantor. If true, it may be because Kaye's first starring film for Goldwyn, Up in Arms, was a remake of Cantor's Whoopee--which in turn was a musical version of that old theatrical chestnut The Nervous Wreck. Kaye plays Danny Weems, a hopeless hypochondriac who finds himself drafted into the army. While a passenger on an overseas transport ship, Danny is obliged to hide his girl friend Mary Morgan (Constance Dowling), who has stowed away on board, from the authorities. The plot (what there is of it) contrives to have Danny and Mary, together with Virginia (Dinah Shore), who's in love with Danny, and Joe (Dana Andrews), who's in love with Mary, arrive simultaneously on the same South Sea island. After numerous comic and romantic complications, Danny emerges as the hero of the hour by capturing a whole bunch of Japanese soldiers. The film shows signs of post-production tampering-an offscreen narration, an abrupt ending-indicating that, as yet, Sam Goldwyn wasn't quite sure how to package Danny Kaye for the screen. Despite its erratic editing and uneven scenario, Up in Arms contains some priceless moments, including Kaye's rapid-patter songs "The Lobby Number" and "Melody in 4F", both written by Sylvia Fine (Mrs. Kaye) and Max Liebman. There are also a few cute "inside" jokes referring to the illogical nature of the plotline and such esoterica as the out-of-nowhere appearances of the Goldwyn Girls (one of whom was Kaye's future leading lady Virginia Mayo). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A timely film when first released in 1943, Tonight We Raid Calais survives as an entertaining adventure some fifty years later. John Sutton plays a British intelligence officer, sent into occupied France with a small unit to local a German munitions depot. While travelling under cover of darkness, Sutton confronts a French maiden (Annabella) who hates the British and the Germans with equal fervor. She eventually determines which side is the right side and allows Sutton to continue his mission. The officer is captured by the Nazis, but his comrades locate the munitions plant and notify the Allied bombers. The screenplay for Tonight We Raid Calais was written by future blacklistee Waldo Salt, whose liberal stance was politically correct during wartime but considered a "no no" once peace was declared. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a milque-toast bookkeeper buckles under his overbearing girl friend's constant nagging and begins investing his money so he won't have to wait for a raise from his boss. His girl friend pushes him, because she wants to marry him and he refuses to until he has enough money. Luckily he invests wisely and suddenly finds himself with enough cast to buy the company from stingy boss. As soon as he does, the former clerk fires his employer. He eventually decides to hire his employer back, but only if he adheres to one condition. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An utterly enchanting Technicolor filmization of Mary O'Hara's novel, My Friend Flicka is the story of a beautiful colt and the boy (Roddy McDowell) who loves her. The boy's rancher father (Preston S. Foster) isn't keen on the horse that his son chooses to train: Flicka, the offspring of a tempestuous mare that has shown traces of madness. The training of Flicka is an arduous process for both boy and horse, and there are times that it appears that father was right. But by applying both love and perseverance, the boy raises the colt into a magnificent specimen. My Friend Flicka was filmed in the Rocky Mountains on a near-epic scale by director Harold Schuster and cinematographer Dewey Wrigley. The film was popular enough to spawn two theatrical sequels and a 1956 weekly TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The old George M. Cohan theatrical chestnut The Meanest Man in the World was retailored for the screen to accommodate the talents of Jack Benny and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Benny plays small-town lawyer Richard Clark, whose soft-heartedness and sense of justice loses him case after case. Threatened with bankruptcy, Clark is open to the suggestions of his valet Shufro (Rochester), who advises his boss to become cold-blooded and nasty. This he does through a series of subterfuges, including having himself photographed stealing candy from a baby and foreclosing on a little old lady (though he actually hides the old dear in his office, tending to her every need). Not unexpectedly, business picks up tremendously, but Clark's sweetheart Janie (Priscilla Lane) is upset by the "change" in her boyfriend and walk out on him. It's up to Janie's father (Matt Briggs) to tie up loose ends-literally. Despite a brief 57-minute running time (the result of retake problems during production), Meanest Man in the World secured top-of-the-bill bookings thanks to Jack Benny's radio popularity. And yes, that is Tor Johnson in the final shot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Milton Berle starrer Whispering Ghosts was clearly inspired by the Red Skelton comedy-mystery Whistling in the Dark (itself inspired by Bob Hope's The Ghost Breakers). Uncle Miltie is cast as H. H. Van Buren, a radio sleuth who delights in solving real-life mysteries ahead of the official constabulary. At the behest of his sponsor, Van Buren tackles an unsolved case from ten years earlier: the death of an old sea captain. To this end, he visits the ship where the dirty deed took place, accompanied by his nervous valet Euclid (Willie Best, who played much the same role in Ghost Breakers). At first convinced that the ship is haunted, our hero deduces that the "ghosts" are actually a gang of crooks, in search of the treasure left behind by the murdered skipper. The arrival of Elizabeth Woods (Brenda Joyce), the lawful heir to the missing treasure, convinces Van Buren to stick around for a while to solve the decade-old murder and locate the captain's legacy. Why is it that none of Milton Berle's vehicles for 20th Century-Fox--Whispering Ghosts, Over My Dead Body, Margin for Error--have shown up on TV since the 1970s? Now there's a mystery worth solving! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Perhaps unintentionally, the 1942 Technicolor swashbuckler The Black Swan is a bondage fetishist's dream, with hero and heroine Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara taking turns being tied up and imprisoned throughout the film's brisk 85-minute running time. Very loosely adapted by Ben Hecht and Seton I. Miller from a novel by Rafael Sabatini, the film casts Power as rogueish, hot-tempered buccaneer Jamie Waring, who considers the day wasted when he hasn't sacked a Spanish galleon or plundered a rich coastal town. Jamie's partner in crime is pirate king Henry Morgan Laird Cregar, an alliance that comes to an end when Morgan is appointed governor of Jamaica. Disgusted by this defection, Jamie considers joining the scurrilous Redbeard George Sanders, but eventually decides to reform his ways when he falls in love with Margaret Denby Maureen O'Hara, the gorgeous daughter of the former Jamaican governor Lord Denby George Zucco. Before the final obligatory sail into the sunset, however, Margaret is kidnapped and manhandled on a seemingly hourly basis, while Jamie is subjected to even more abuse at the hands of pirates and officials alike. Henry King handles the derring-do in Black Swan with commendable sobriety, leaving the story's tongue-in-cheek elements in the capable hands of the cast and the screenwriters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

20th Century-Fox hoped to make a film star out of Texas A&M football hero John Kimbrough, and to that end placed the gridiron hero in a brace of compact westerns. The first of these was Zane Grey's The Lone Star Ranger, previously filmed by Fox in 1931 with George O'Brien in the lead. Kimbrough plays Texas Ranger Buck Dunne, assigned to round up a gang of bank robbers. The leader of the gang turns out to be the "respectable" Judge Longstreth (Jonathan Hale), making life difficult for Dunne inasmuch as he's in love with Longstreth's niece Barbara (Sheila Ryan). Despite the herculean efforts of director John Tinling, John Kimbrough was consititutionally incapable of delivering a convincing performance in either Lone Star Ranger or its immediate followup Sundown Jim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Man in the Trunk is a variation on the "Topper" theme, with Raymond Walburn carrying the weight of the film as a restless ghost. Ten years before the story proper gets under way, bookie Jim Cheevers (Walburn) is murdered and his body is stuffed in a trunk. When the trunk is opened, all that remains is a pile of bones and only fragmentary clues as to the killer's identity. Young lawyer Dick Burke (George Holmes) hopes to use this flimsy evidence to clear his client, who has been sentenced to the electric chair for Cheevers' killing. With the help of the ghostly Cheevers, Burke manages to win a stay of execution, but the crime isn't solved until the murderer stupidly confesses. 20th Century-Fox contractee Lynne Roberts gets top billing as the nominal heroine, but the picture belongs to Raymond Walburn, who can get more laughs by clearing his throat than most comic actors can get by falling on their keesters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide