Leslie Brooks Movies

Herbert Heyes, a largely unsung character actor who once played opposite Theda Bara in the silent days, is afforded one of his largest talking-picture assignments in The Cobra Strikes. Heyes is cast as Dr. Damon Cameron, who is murdered shortly after developing a revolutionary new medical instrument. The killer's motives seem obscure at first: what is certain is that several other murders take place before newspaper columnist Mike Kent (Richard Fraser) figures out what's what. A clue: Dr. Damon Cameron has a lookalike brother named Ted (also played by Herbert Heyes). Up-and-coming leading lady Leslie Brooks is hilariously miscast as a Russian novelist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Muller (Paul Henreid), an intelligent, arrogant criminal who has been a medical student and a phony psychoanalyst, believes that people are only interested in themselves and do not notice what is happening around them. Paroled from prison to a boring job, Muller is more interested in a big score, and along with his old cronies robs a crooked gambling joint owned by Rocky Stansyck (Thomas Brown Henry). Although he gets away with the money, some of his men are caught by Stansyck and identify John as the ringleader. On the run from Stansyck's gang, he is mistaken for Dr. Bartok, a psychiatrist also played by Henreid. Curious, Muller goes to the doctor's office, and meets Bartok's secretary and lover, Evelyn Nash (Joan Bennett). Needing to avoid capture, he assumes Bartok's identity, but first must scar his face like the doctor's. Working from a photograph printed from a reversed negative, he applies the scar to the wrong side. Though fooled at first, when Evelyn discovers the truth, she decides to leave, although she is in love with Muller/Bartok. Steve Sekely's Hollow Triumph (aka The Scar) is a film that requires an exceptionally hefty suspension of disbelief in its reliance on coincidence and the literal acceptance of Muller's cynical view of human blindness. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide

Reminiscent of the classic "screwball" comedy-mysteries of the prewar years, Columbia's The Corpse Came C.O.D stars Warner Bros. alumni George Brent and Joan Blondell as rival Hollywood-based reporters Joe Medford and Rosemary Durant. When movie star Mona Harrison (Adele Jergens) receives a dead body in her morning mail, Joe and Rosemary fall over each other trying to solve the mystery and deliver a newspaper story "that'll tear this town wide open." Joe deduces that the dead man was involved with a jewelry-smuggling racket, while Rosemary chases down the stolen gems. Three murders later, the two reporters expose the killer-and though it wouldn't be nice to reveal the killer's identity, it's also worth noting that it won't be much of a surprise, either. Topheavy with comedy at the expense of mystery, The Corpse Came C.O.D. is an entertaining trifle, with the actual Columbia backlot standing in for the movie's fictional film studio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The oft-used title The Man Who Dared was applied to an oft-filmed movie plotline in 1946. George Macready, in a respite from his usual villainous roles, plays a crusading newspaperman who questions the efficacy of "circumstantial evidence." He wants to prove that it's quite possible to railroad an innocent man to the death house, thus force the courts to reassess their procedures. To do this, he allows himself to be arrested as the prime suspect in a murder case--a bold move which backfires on the well-meaning Macready. The Man Who Dared was an impressive first solo effort for director John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Ice Station Zebra et. al.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a play by Leslie Storm, Tonight and Every Night is a musical wartime morale booster in which star Rita Hayworth is but one of a lively ensemble. Set in battle-scarred Britain, the action takes place in a seedy old music hall, which never misses a performance even at the height of the "blitz". Five times a day like clockwork, American-born entertainer Rosalind Bruce (Rita Hayworth) and her British cohorts put on a show for their ever-appreciative audiences. Along the way, a romance develops between Rosalind and RAF pilot Paul Lundy (Lee Bowman). Providing excellent support are Janet Blair as the troupe's plucky ingenue and Broadway alumnus Marc Platt as the entourage's resident eccentric dancer. The individual numbers are inventively staged, with one scene creatively harnessing the Technicolor process in an eye-popping manner seldom seen in 1940s films. All that Tonight and Every Night lacks is a memorable score, though Rita's solo number "Anywhere" enjoyed brief hit-parade popularity. Incidentally, one of the chorus girls is a slim-and-trim Shelley Winters! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Thanks to its Jerome Kern/Ira Gershwin/Yip Harburg score and the luminescence of stars Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly, Cover Girl has taken on a legendary status in recent years. In truth, the film has a banal and predictable premise: a chorus girl (Hayworth) is given a chance for stardom by a wealthy magazine editor (Otto Kruger), who years earlier had been in love with the girl's mother. Offered an opportunity to be a highly-paid cover girl, our heroine would faithfully remain with her tacky nightclub act if only the club manager (Kelly), whom she pines for, would ask her. He loves her too, but doesn't want to stand in her way, so he fakes an argument to send her packing. You don't need a crystal ball to known that the girl and her guy will be reunited for the finale. Phil Silvers, everybody's best friend, and Eve Arden, Kruger's acid-tongued assistant, provide comic relief. The story sags badly at times, but the fans went home happy thanks to the powerhouse musical numbers, including Long Ago and Far Away and Kelly's famous "alter-ego" dance. The film skyrocketed both Hayworth and Kelly to superstardom, and didn't do Silvers any harm, either. Cover Girl is an extraordinarily lavish Technicolor production from the usually parsimonious Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Two Senoritas from Chicago are Gloria (Jinx Falkenburg) and Maria (Ann Savage). When their goofy pal Daisy Baker (Joan Davis) passes off a discarded Portuguese play manuscript as her own, producer Rupert Shannon (Emory Parnell) agrees to bankroll the production. With stars in their eyes, Gloria and Maria pretend to be a pair of Portuguese musical comedy stars, thereby winning parts in the new production. The fun begins when the play's original authors sell the same manuscript to a rival producer. The story's for the birds, but Two Senoritas from Chicago is at the very least decorative, with stars Jinx Falkenburg (later a popular TV talk host) and Ann Savage attractively garbed in what one observer has described as Carmen Miranda's leftovers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a group of women live in a boardinghouse near a prison to await the release of their men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Yankee Doodle Dandy is no more the true-life story of George M. Cohan than The Jolson Story was the unvarnished truth about Al Jolson -- but who the heck cares? Dandy has song, dance, pathos, pageantry, uproarious comedy, and, best of all, James Cagney at his Oscar-winning best. After several failed attempts to bring the life of legendary, flag-waving song-and-dance man Cohan to the screen, Warners scenarist Robert Buckner opted for the anecdotal approach, unifying the film's largely unrelated episodes with a flashback framework. Summoned to the White House by President Roosevelt, the aging Cohan is encouraged to relate the events leading up to this momentous occasion. He recalls his birth on the Fourth of July, 1878; his early years as a cocky child performer in his family's vaudeville act; his decision to go out as a "single"; his sealed-with-a-handshake partnership with writer/producer Sam Harris (Richard Whorf); his first Broadway success, 1903's Little Johnny Jones; his blissful marriage to winsome wife Mary (a fictional amalgam of Cohan's two wives, played by Joan Leslie -- who, incredibly, was only 17 at the time); his patriotic civilian activities during World War I, culminating with his writing of that conflict's unofficial anthem "Over There" (performed by Nora Bayes, as played by Frances Langford); the deaths of his sister, Josie (played by Cagney's real-life sister Jeanne), his mother, Nellie (Rosemary DeCamp), and his father, Jerry (Walter Huston); his abortive attempt to retire; and his triumphant return to Broadway in Rodgers & Hart's I'd Rather Be Right.

His story told, Cohan is surprised -- and profoundly moved -- when FDR presents him with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the first such honor bestowed upon an entertainer. His eyes welling up with tears, Cohan expresses his gratitude by invoking his old vaudeville curtain speech: "My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you." Glossing over such unsavory moments in Cohan's life as his bitter opposition of the formation of Actor's Equity -- not to mention George M.'s intense hatred of FDR! -- Yankee Doodle Dandy offers the George M. Cohan that people in 1942 wanted to see (proof of the pudding was the film's five-million-dollar gross). And besides, the plot and its fabrications were secondary to those marvelous Cohan melodies -- "Give My Regards to Broadway," "Harrigan," "Mary," "You're a Grand Old Flag," "45 Minutes from Broadway," and the title tune -- performed with brio by Cagney (who modifies his own loose-limbed dancing style in order to imitate Cohan's inimitable stiff-legged technique) and the rest of the spirited cast. Beyond its leading players, movie buffs will have a ball spotting the myriad of familiar character actors parading before the screen: S.Z. Sakall, George Tobias, Walter Catlett, George Barbier, Eddie Foy Jr. (playing his own father), Frank Faylen, Minor Watson, Tom Dugan, John Hamilton, and on and on and on. In addition to Cagney, music directors Ray Heindorf and Heinz Roemheld also won Oscars for their efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this espionage caper, a government spy must keep enemy agents from spying upon a defense plant. His work is made easier by his newest invention, a word scrambler which makes it difficult for the enemy agent. The good guy spy then hires a crack team to assist him; among them is the pretty young plant worker he inadvertently got fired. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The 1940 peacetime draft spawned a whole slew of military and naval comedies, the most successful of which was Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates. In this vein, Warners' Navy Blues features several studio contractees (including Ann Sheridan and Jack Carson), a few borrowed comedians (Jack Oakie, Jack Haley, Martha Raye) and a plethora of forgettable musical numbers. The plot: A ship's crew goes on leave in Honolulu, has a high old time, meets a few pretty girls, and heads back to sea. That's all. Modern viewers will get a kick out of spotting Navy Blues supporting actor Jackie Gleason, who must have relished the opportunity of working with his idol Jack Oakie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide