James Gleason Movies

The ultra-sentimental I'll See You in My Dreams is based on the life and work of composer Gus Kahn. The story is told from the point of view of Kahn' wife Grace, who was still alive when the film was made (Kahn died some ten years earlier). Danny Thomas stars as the prolific tunesmith, whose fortunes take an upswing in 1908 when he meets and falls in love with Grace LeBoy (Doris Day, who receives top billing, not to mention most of the best musical numbers). Kahn's career ascends to spectacular heights via such hits as "Pretty Baby", "My Buddy", "Toot Toot Tootsie" and "Making Whoopee", only to go into eclipse when he loses his savings in the 1929 stock-market crash. Convinced that he's lost his touch and that he's sacrificed true happiness to the evil goddess success, Kahn is ultimately gratified by the love and recognition of his peers. Among the famous personages imitated in I'll See You In My Dreams are Kahn's writing partner Walter Donaldson (Frank Lovejoy) and producers Sam Harris (Jim Backus) and Flo Ziegfeld (William Forrest). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Cagney plays a once great newspaper reporter ruined by liquor. Thanks to the help of reformed alcoholic James Gleason, Cagney pulls himself out of the gutter and restores his journalistic reputation. Because of his own redemption, Cagney is asked by his editor to straighten out the editor's nephew (Gig Young), a drunken wastrel. The task is made dicey by the fact that the nephew's wife (Phyllis Thaxter) is Cagney's former girlfriend. The nephew's involvement in gangsters results in the death of Cagney's old friend Gleason, but Cagney swallows his rage, vanquishes the crooks, and puts the nephew on the right track. Come Fill the Cup was a little too melodramatic to succeed as an anti-alcohol tract, but it was well acted throughout, especially by Gig Young, who received an Oscar nomination for his efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Obviously inspired by the success of Red Skelton's The Fuller Brush Man, The Yellow Cab Man stars Skelton as a Rube Goldberg-type inventor who can't seem to stay out of trouble. He also can't hold down a job, either, much to the consternation of girl friend Gloria De Haven. Through the auspices of cab driver James Gleason, Red is hired by the Yellow Cab company, nearly losing his job on the very first day when he gets mixed up in a chaotic wedding reception (in her last feature film appearance, Polly Moran is screamingly funny as the bride's mother). It's all over for Red when he attempts to demonstrate his latest invention, break-proof glass-resulting in a bad bop on the noggin for boss Paul Harvey. Our hero redeems himself by capturing a gang of crooks (among them Walter Slezak and Ray Collins) in an elaborate slapstick finale involving a revolving model home, a hypodermic-shooting toaster, a helium-filled balloon, and a Tarzan-like swing from the rafters of an empty warehouse. Halfway through The Yellow Cab Man, there's an amusing precursor to the "LSD Trip" films of the 1960s, as a drug-benumbed Red Skelton experiences a series of surrealistic dreams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Anxious to remain active in the 1950s, director Frank Capra wanted to prove to Paramount Pictures that he could deliver an "A" picture on a modest budget. To that end, Capra bought the rights of his 1934 film Broadway Bill from Columbia, and remade it under the title Riding High. He then hired many of the supporting actors who'd appeared in Broadway Bill -- including Clarence Muse, Douglass Dumbrille, Ward Bond, Charles Lane and Frankie Darro -- so he could match up his newly shot scenes with stock footage from the earlier film. Capra even kept the musical costs down by having star Bing Crosby sing such public-domain favorites as "Camptown Races" (though there is one delightful original song, "We Ought to Bake a Sunshine Camera" performed without dubbing by Crosby, Muse, and leading-lady Colleen Gray). Crosby steps into the old Warner Baxter role as Dan Brooks, scion of a wealthy family who prefers hanging around racetracks to the responsibilities of his family business. Scheduled for a "proper" marriage to Margaret Higgins (Frances Gifford), the snooty daughter of millionaire J. L. Higgins (Charles Bickford), Dan infinitely prefers the company of Margaret's younger sister Alice (Coleen Gray), who loves horses as much as he. Hoping to declare his financial independence, he pins his future on a racehorse named Broadway Bill. Though not in the same league as Capra's earlier classics, Riding High is lots of fun. It is especially enjoyable for film buffs, thanks to Capra's decision to fill the picture with uncredited celebrity cameo appearances -- including Oliver Hardy, minus Stan Laurel, as an apoplectic horse player. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Sidney directs this pleasant romantic comedy concerning mayoral love. During a convention of mayors in San Francisco, Clarissa Standish (Loretta Young), the mayor of a small town in Maine, meets Steve Fisk (Clark Gable), the down-to-earth leader of a tiny northern California community. During the rowdy proceedings of the convention, the two find themselves pushed together frequently, with the typical result -- they fall in love. After the convention, the two head back to Steve's town, where crooked local politician Les Taggart (Raymond Burr) is squaring off against Fisk in a mayoral election. With the help of Clarissa, Steve gears up for his reelection bid. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Lucille Ball is Miss Grant, an efficient but naïve secretary hired by William Holden. Ostensibly a legit real estate salesman, Holden is actually the brains of a bookie ring. It takes forever for Ball to tumble to what's going on, but when she does she settles matters in the same fashion as her later I Love Lucy character would--by adopting a disguise and a line of snappy patter. The chastened Holden marries Ball and agrees to devote his life to running an honest real-estate firm on behalf of the deserving homeless. Among the contributors to the success of Miss Grant Takes Richmond are producer S. Sylvan Simon, director Lloyd Bacon and scenarist Frank Tashlin, all of whom would later team up again for the zany Lucille Ball vehicle The Fuller Brush Girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In 1947, Variety Clubs International, a showbiz charitable organization, was responsible for the frothy musical Variety Girl. The organization's 1949 film effort, Monogram's Bad Boy, is a bit on the grimmer side, but not too much so. Most of the film was lensed at the VCI's Boys Club Ranch at Copperas Cove TX. In his first starring role (and second film appearance), war hero Audie Murphy plays Danny Lester, the "bad boy" of the title. A delinquent with a long rap sheet, Danny is sent to the Ranch in hopes that he can be rehabilitated. This seems to be a hopeless goal until ranch head Marshall Brown (Lloyd Nolan) digs into Danny's past to find a reason for the boy's ungovernable behavior. Jane Wyatt as Brown's wife, James Gleason as his assistant, and a coterie of talented juvenile actors lend sensitivity and credibility to this refreshingly unsentimental yarn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western comedy, a milquetoast gunsmith from the East Coast goes to Arsenic City, Arizona because he has heard that everybody their carries guns. His trip West is an exercise in misfortune. Everything that could go wrong on the journey, does. At least he meets a pretty woman, also en route to Arsenic City. She goes there in search of her late father's gold mine. They fall in love and work together to find her father's killer and reclaim the mine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Betty Grable and Dan Dailey play a couple of small-time vaudevillians, at least until Dailey gets a big Broadway break. Success swells his head to cataclysmic dimensions; he becomes an alcoholic, loses his stardom and winds up in the drunk ward. Grable divorces Dailey to marry rancher Richard Arlen, but Dailey's old pal Jack Oakie tries to rehabilitate the fallen star. Oakie's mission seems hopeless until Grable rejoins the act, and everything is patched up...at least professionally. If the plot of When My Baby Smiles at Me seems familiar, perhaps you've seen the previous two versions of the George Manker Watters/Arthur Hopkins play Burlesque: The Dance of Life (1929) and Swing High, Swing Low. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This John Wayne adventure is set in South America's rugged Andes Mountains. The Duke has been assigned by a powerful US mining magnate to build a railroad to his newest mines. The two men lock horns over the route the railroad will take. The cost-conscious, people-insensitive industrialist wants to take the shortest route, right through the mountain. But building the tunnel will be extremely dangerous. Wayne wants to do it more safely and build a bridge. Eventually, the engineer is forced to acquiesce with his boss. Later the engineer meets and falls in love with a pretty young woman who turns out to be his hated boss's daughter and this only makes matters worse. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When Episcopalian bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) prays for divine guidance in his efforts to raise the necessary funds for a new cathedral, his prayers are answered in the form of a handsome, personable guardian angel named Dudley (Cary Grant). Establishing himself as a Yuletide guest in the Brougham home, Dudley arouses the ire of Henry, who, unaware that his visitor is from Up Above, assumes that Dudley has designs on the bishop's wife Julia (Loretta Young). Eventually, the lives of both Henry and Julia are agreeably altered by the presence of the affable angel: He regains the "common touch" he'd almost lost, while she realizes anew how much she truly loves her husband. Adapted by Robert E. Sherwood and Robert Bercovicci from a novel by Robert Nathan, The Bishop's Wife was remade in 1996 as The Preacher's Wife, with Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston and Courtney B. Vance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Barbara Hale landed her first A-picture starring role in the engaging romantic comedy Lady Luck. Hale is cast as Mary Audrey, the descendant of a long line of professional gamblers. Haughtily turning up her nose at the "family business," Mary spends most of her time keeping her poker-happy grandfather William (Frank Morgan) from losing his shirt. In spite of herself, Mary falls in love with another gambler, Larry Scott (Robert Young), but only after he promises to reform. Naturally he doesn't, compelling Mary to leave him on their honeymoon, thereby setting the stage for all the comic complications to follow. By film's end, Mary herself has caught the gambling bug, forcing Grandpa William and husband Larry to straighten her out! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide