Wally Brown Movies
Wally Brown built up his reputation in vaudeville as a fast-talking (albeit low-pressure) monologist. In 1942, Brown decided to settle down in Hollywood with a contract at RKO Radio Pictures, making his movie-debut in Petticoat Larceny (1943). When RKO decided to emulate the success of Universal's Abbott and Costello, the studio teamed Brown with short, stocky Alan Carney for a series of energetic but undistinguished "B" pictures, the first of which was the Buck Privates wannabe Adventures of a Rookie (1943). Brown and Carney used the same character names (Brown played Jerry Miles, while Carney played Mike Strager) in each of their starring films--which is just as well, since the movies are virtually impossible to tell apart. Arguably the team's best film was 1945's Zombies on Broadway. RKO folded Brown and Carney in 1946, after which both actors continued working in films as solo character performers; they would be reunited, after a fashion, in the 1961 Disney film The Absent Minded Professor. Wally Brown spent most of his last decade as a prolific TV guest star; his last performance, telecast posthumously, was an appearance on My Three Sons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1961
Eve Nesbitt (Gloria Talbott) contacts Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to determine the progress of the insurance settlement related to the drowning death of her husband Willard (Les Tremayne). As it happens, however, Willard is only pretending to be dead so that Eve can collect on the policy's "double-indemnity" clause. But when his business partner Lloyd Castle (Edward Binns) cheats Eve out of her share of a gold mine, Willard emerges from hiding--only to be bumped off for real. Accused of murdering her husband, Eve once again puts her fate in Perry's hands. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
One of Disney's most entertaining forays into live-action, this hit family comedy stars Fred MacMurray as a college professor so forgetful that he missed his own wedding twice. He creates an extremely resilient flying rubber, dubbed "Flubber," and manages to make his old Model-T bounce all the way to Washington, DC, where it is mistaken for a UFO, as well as helping the college basketball team win the big game with Flubber-powered sneakers. MacMurray is a lot of fun in the title role, ably supported by a cast including Tommy Kirk, Keenan Wynn and Leon Ames, although the central romance between MacMurray and huffy bride-to-be Nancy Olson gets a bit annoying in its repetitiveness. In all, however, this is one of the best children's films of the '60s, and is highly recommended. A sequel, Son of Flubber, followed, with a remake simply titled Flubber appearing in 1997. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, (more)
- 1961
Con artists Morgan (Wally Brown) and Axe (Dave Willock) flimflam Clementine Hawkins (Beatrice Kay), a former dance-hall girl turned boarding-house keeper, with an elaborate scam involving "The Burma Rarity", a priceless emerald. Inasmuch as Ben Cartwright introduced Clementine to the crooks, he figures it is his responsibility to recover her money. To that end, Ben puts together a "sting" operation-which backfires so spectacularly that Ben may well have to marry Clementine to make amends! Written by N.B. Stone,"The Burma Rarity" originally aired October 22, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, (more)
- 1961
Doctor Wayne Edley (Skip Homeier) has trouble finding colleagues that will back him up when he is accused of malpractice by a disgruntled patient (Frank Cady). But that's nothing compared to the trouble facing the good doctor when he is accused of two murders committed by scalpel. Perry Mason must do some clever "operating" of his own to clear Edley's name. Richard Eastham appears as Prosecutor Parness, temporary substitute for Mason's usual nemesis, DA Hamilton Burger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
In the third episode of Walt Disney's four-part miniseries based on the life of frontiersman Daniel Boone, the Cumberland Gap has been successfully negotiated, and Daniel (Dewey Martin), his family, and a group of settlers are on their way to a permanent settlement in Kentucky. Unfortunately, the little band is attacked by Indian chief Crowfeather (Dean Fredericks), an old enemy of the Boones. Daniel is forced to postpone his westward journey in order to rescue his son from the boy's Indian captors. "The Wilderness Road" originally aired as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
In the concluding episode of Walt Disney's four-part miniseries based on the life of frontiersman Daniel Boone, several members of Boone's wagon train are angered when Daniel (Dewey Martin) orders them to lighten their loads so they can negotiate the mountains and have turned back to North Carolina. Only a tiny band of faithful followers remain with Daniel and his family as they begin the last leg of the arduous journey to Kentucky. Alas, once again the wagoneers are attacked by vengeance-seeking Indian chief Crowfeather (Dean Fredericks), who has a personal score to settle with Daniel. "The Promised Land" originally aired as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
A fast-paced western with a romantic twist, this was one of the last films pairing director Budd Boetticher and popular cowboy hero Randolph Scott before Scott's retirement. John Hayes (Scott) left the Civil War behind him when he took on the job of managing the Overland Stage Lines out of a small Colorado town. Clay Putnam has not forgotten that the Confederacy lost and he plans on robbing Hayes' Overland Stage of one of its gold shipments from California to the North. He wants the gold to stay in the South to revive the Confederate cause. Meanwhile, his wife Norma (Virginia Mayo) complicates matters since she was Hayes' old flame, and Putnam's cronies want the gold for themselves. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randolph Scott, Virginia Mayo, (more)
- 1959
Rather than pay a gambling debt owed to Bret Maverick (James Garner), notorious gunslinger Henry Arnett (a pre-Batman Adam West) skips town when Bret shows up. Impressionable Smoky Vaughn (Gary Vinson) incorrectly assumes that Arnett was afraid of Bret's gun, and spreads the word that there's a new "hero" in town. Unfortunately, while basking in undeserved glory, Bret ends up being framed for murder--in a scheme concocted to frame someone else for the same crime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Director Henry Levin followed up this light romantic comedy with Where the Boys Are and started a beach trend going. This conventional story stars one of his favorite actors Clifton Webb as Robert Dean, the father of two lively teen-age daughters. He and his wife Mary (Jane Wyman) accompany their daughters on a South American junket. Meg (Jill St. John) and Betsy (Carol Lynley the 17-year-old model turned actress) are the teens. Since Robert is a psychiatrist, one would assume he has the inside scoop on the teen years, but as the family make stops in Lima, Sao Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro it is clear that the daughters are winning the day. Handsome young men enter the picture, and it is not long before romance follows right behind. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clifton Webb, Jane Wyman, (more)
- 1958
The Left Handed Gun was adapted by Gore Vidal from his own TV play, The Death of Billy the Kid. 33-year-old Paul Newman stars as 21-year-old William Bonney, the hotheaded gunslinger known as Billy the Kid. Avoiding the usual Hollywood glamourization of this controversial character, Newman portays Bonney pretty much as he was: an illiterate, homicidal cretin. Treated with kindness for the first time in his life by rancher Tunstall (Colin Keith-Johnston), Bonney becomes devoted to the rancher; in fact, it is virtually a love affair. Soon after, however, Tunstall is killed, prompting Bonney to go on a murderous spree. In the end, Bonney must face down the other important father-figure in his life, Pat Garrett (John Dehner). In case anyone should miss the Freudian subtext in The Left Handed Gun, the closeups of Bonney fondling his six-shooter will make things crystal clear. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Lita Milan, (more)
- 1958
Charles Brent (Grant Withers), owner of the building where Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) keeps his offices, is being blackmailed by Arthur Binney (Richard Erdman), who threatens to expose the sordid past of Brent's young wife Anne (Mari Aldon). When Binney turns up dead, Brent takes the rap, believing that Anne is the guilty party. Complicating the situation for Brent's attorney Perry is the fact that Brent's secretary Enid (Barbara Baxley) had earlier attempted suicide when Anne married her boss. This episode is based on a 1956 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
The little-known British melodrama Wink of an Eye was given a brief American distribution by United Artists. Jonathan Kidd plays Atterbury, the apparently mild-mannered owner of a small perfume laboratory. No one suspects that Atterbury plans to murder his harridan of a wife (Jaclynne Greene) and run off to South America with his lovely lab assistant Myrna Duchane (Doris Dowling). Though the audience sees nothing, it is implied that Mrs. Atterbury has been chopped up in little peaces and stored in her husband's freezer. After leading us up the garden path for seven reels, Wink of an Eye offers an amusing twist just before the end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonathan Kidd, Doris Dowling, (more)
- 1957
Frank Sinatra stars as legendary nightclub comic Joe E. Lewis in this dramatic screen biography. In the 1920s, Lewis was a popular singer in Chicago who could fill any nightclub he chose to play. This doesn't go unnoticed by the mobsters who control many of the city's venues; when they ask Lewis to leave his steady gig and come work for them, he politely but firmly refuses. This does not make Al Capone and his men happy, and they respond by brutally attacking Lewis, cutting his throat and damaging his vocal cords so severely that he can never sing again. Lewis sinks into a deep depression and develops a highly caustic sense of humor, but his friend Austin Mack (Eddie Albert) suggests that he could put his sharp wit to work as a comedian. With little to lose, Lewis tries his hand at comedy, and with the encouragement of famous entertainer Sophie Tucker, Lewis once again rises to stardom as his salty material makes him the talk of late-night spots and burlesque houses everywhere. Along the way, he becomes involved with chorus girl Martha Stewart (Mitzi Gaynor) and wealthy socialite Letty Page (Jeanne Crain); while he marries Martha, he's not able to get Letty out of his thoughts for long. Lewis' romantic conflicts and the pressures of success fan the flames of his already potent taste for alcohol, and soon Lewis becomes a bitter drunk whose addiction to the bottle threatens to send his career (and his life) back into the gutter. The classic Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen number "All the Way" was introduced in The Joker Is Wild, and it won a 1957 Academy Award for Best Song; the film was later re-released as All the Way. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Mitzi Gaynor, (more)
- 1957
Untamed Youth is a camp classic, so stupefyingly awful that it's actually festive. The villains are cotton grower Tropp (John Russell) and corrupt female judge Mrs. Steele (Lurene Tuttle), who conspire between them to ship female convicts to work on Tropp's farm for starvation wages. Two of the new arrivals are professional entertainers Penny (Mamie Van Doren) and Janey (Lori Nelson), arrested on trumped-up charges and forced to work off their sentence on the Tropp spread. Salvation arrives in the form of Bob (Don Burnett), Mrs. Steele's son, who intends to expose his mom's eeeevil scheme. Featured in the cast is rock-and-roller Eddie Cochran, who gets to sing one song -- while Mamie Van Doren is permitted four numbers. To repeat examples of the film's howlingly bad dialogue would be to rob the viewer of the perverse pleasure of experiencing Untamed Youth in all its trashy glory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mamie van Doren, Lori Nelson, (more)
- 1956
The fraternal filmmaking team of produced Sigmund Neufeld and director Sam Newfield once again joined forces on The Wild Dakotas. Made some two years after the "official" demise of the "B" western, the film attempts to revive the genre with a new cowboy star, one Will Williams. In keeping with the "adult western" trend of the period, the so-called hero, a wagonmaster, is something of a psychotic. He attempts to foment a war between the settlers and the local Indian tribe. A surprise is in store for the wagonmaster-and the audience. The veteran cast includes Coleen Gray, Jim Davis, John Litel, John Miljan and the indestructible Iron Eyes Cody. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1955
Tyrone Power is a Dutchman, and Susan Hayward is an Irish lass. If you believe that, then the rest of Untamed will go down a lot easier. Power is a Boer calvary commander attempting to bring peace to his South African homeland. He has an affair with Hayward, a married woman whose husband is killed during a Zulu attack. While rescuing the survivors, Power runs afoul of Dutch farmer Richard Egan, who insists that Hayward is his property. Egan turns bandit, targeting the diamond mines. Power is bound and determined to stop Egan--and, it is hoped, to clear the path towards lasting happiness with Hayward. The Untamed is a CinemaScope adaptation of a novel by Helga Moray. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, (more)
- 1955
Based on true police stories, these two episodes of the 1954 series are hosted by Charles Bickford and feature real-life police officers. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
For The High and the Mighty, director William Wellman made a point of using Cinemascope to heighten the dramatic content of a confined screen space -- in this instance, the cockpit of a plane in flight. Copilot Dan Roman (John Wayne) seems a lot more in control of things than Captain John Sullivan (Robert Stack) when the plane loses an engine during a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco. Wellman crosscuts from the tension in the cockpit to the various subplots involving the plane's passengers, among them May Holst (Claire Trevor), Lydia Rice (Laraine Day), Howard Rice (John Howard), Sally McKee (Jan Sterling), Ed Joseph (Phil Harris), and Humphrey Agnew (Sidney Blackmer) (as a character named Humphrey Agnew -- a remarkable prescient cognomen given the future of the U.S. vice presidency!). Adapted by Ernest K. Gann from his best-selling novel, The High and the Mighty was one of the first (and most profitable) entries in the "terror in the sky" genre. Its theme music, written by Dimitri Tiomkin and whistled incessantly by John Wayne in the film, would later become a best-selling hit throughout the world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Claire Trevor, (more)
Based on a story by Paddy Chayefsky, this is the tale of a man who is being forced to retire from his job, at the age of 65, and decides to fight back. Impersonating the head of the company, he sets out to convince them to get rid of their outmoded retirement policy and gives a creditable speech on the dignity of man, gaining national attention. This movie features good performances, but it will probably be remembered more for the bit part played by a young Marilyn Monroe as the boss' secretary. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Monty Woolley, Thelma Ritter, (more)
- 1949
A Christmastime TV perennial, Come to the Stable is the gentle saga of two French nuns (Celeste Holm with accent, Loretta Young without) who come to America in hopes of raising funds for a children's hospital. Travelling to a small New England town presciently named Bethlehem, the nuns befriend eccentric painter Elsa Lanchester, who allows them to use her studio (actually a stable) for their base of operations. Utterly ingenuous when it comes to American mores and customs (they tear up a parking ticket, assuming it to be an advertisement), the sisters raise money in a variety of amusing fashions. One of their "agents" is outwardly tough gambler Mike Mazurki, who gets his equally raffish pals to invest in the hospital. And towards the end, the nuns even play a little professional tennis to raise money. Careful not to overwhelm the viewer with sentiment and religiosity, Come to the Stable (based on a story by Clare Booth Luce) is ideal holiday film fare. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Celeste Holm, (more)
- 1948
In this family farce, an older couple falls in love and decide to marry and embark upon a peaceful honeymoon without the bride's three bratty children. Unfortunately, the way things work out, the whole family ends up tagging along. The little darlings are less than pleased that their widowed mother has remarried and behave as monstrously as possible. Eventually their frustrated step-daddy has his fill and gives each of the brats a well-deserved licking. After a major quarrel, they each return home alone. Meanwhile a sly seductress who has her eye on the husband for a while, and who just happened to be staying at the same hotel, rushes back home and plans a little party designed to further humiliate the bride. Fortunately, a change of heart scuttle's the vixen's plans and happiness ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, (more)
Though Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious was produced by David O. Selznick's Vanguard Films, Selznick himself had little to do with the production, which undoubtedly pleased the highly independent Hitchcock. Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, who goes to hell in a handbasket after her father, an accused WWII traitor, commits suicide. American secret agent Devlin (Cary Grant) is ordered to enlist the libidinous Alicia's aid in trapping Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), the head of a Brazilian neo-Nazi group. Openly contemptuous of Alicia despite her loyalty to the American cause, Devlin calmly instructs her to woo and wed Sebastian, so that that good guys will have an "inside woman" to monitor the Nazi chieftain's activities. It is only after Alicia and Sebastian are married that Devlin admits to himself that he's fallen in love with her. The "MacGuffin" in this case is a cache of uranium ore, hidden somewhere on Sebastian's estate. Upon discovering that his wife is a spy, Sebastian balks at eliminating her until ordered to do so by his virago of a mother (Madame Konstantin). Tension mounts to a fever pitch as Devlin, a day late and several dollars short, strives to rescue Alicia from Sebastian's homicidal designs. Of the several standout sequences, the film's highlight is an extended love scene between Alicia and Devlin, which manages to ignite the screen while still remaining scrupulously within the edicts of the Production Code. In later years, Hitchcock never tired of relating the story of how he and screenwriter Ben Hecht (who was nominated for an Oscar) fell under the scrutiny of the FBI after electing to use uranium as a plot device -- this before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A huge moneymaker for everyone concerned, Notorious remains one of Hitchcock's best espionage melodramas. In 1992, Notorious was remade for cable television; it goes without saying that the original is vastly superior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, (more)
- 1946
In this romantic drama, Bill and Susan Cummings (Mark Stevens and Joan Fontaine), a couple from the Bronx, look back at the early days of their marriage. When they meet in 1938, Bill is working as a machinist, and Susan is a clerk in a bookstore. They fall in love and decide to wed, but it's not long after the honeymoon that Bill is drafted and sent to war. When Bill comes marching home, he finds that it's not easy to find a new job, and economic hardship puts their marriage to the test. The supporting cast includes Harry Morgan and Bobby Driscoll. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Fontaine, Mark Stevens, (more)
- 1946
With Vacation in Reno, RKO contract actress Anne Jeffreys proved herself an accomplished comedienne, a fact verified by her later work on TV's Topper. Jeffreys is cast as Eleanor, the wife of would-be prospector Jack Carroll (Jack Haley). When hubby goes off to find a cache of hidden loot near Reno, Eleanor becomes convinced that he's actually gone to the Nevada city to secure a quickie divorce. She trails him to a dude ranch on the outskirts of Reno, where Jack has somehow gotten mixed up with a gang of thick-witted bank robbers (Morgan Conway, Alan Carney, Iris Adrian). No opportunity for a slapstick setpiece is ignored throughout the film, culminating with the inevitable "wild ride" through the desert. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Haley, Anne Jeffreys, (more)
- 1946
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
- Starring:
- Wally Brown, Alan Carney, (more)
