James Gunn Movies

The feature-film debut of director Zack Snyder, Dawn of the Dead is a modern retelling of George Romero's 1978 horror classic, which was actually the second film in a trilogy that began with Night of the Living Dead and concluded with Day of the Dead. Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames star as two of the last remaining people on an earth that has been ravaged by flesh-eating zombies. After escaping to a shopping mall with a handful of other survivors, they decide that they only way to truly elude the approaching throng of undead is to somehow make their way to an island that is supposedly zombie-free. Jake Weber and Mekhi Phifer also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

New Jersey's leading mutant superhero (unless Jon Bon Jovi counts) rises from the sludge to defend truth, justice, and radioactive waste once again in the third sequel to the 1985 cult sensation The Toxic Avenger. There's trouble brewing in the sleepy town of Tromaville when the Diaper Mafia, a group of inept but dangerous criminals, attempt an armed takeover of Tromaville's School for the Very Special for reasons best not contemplated. With the students held hostage, the Toxic Avenger (David Mattey) is called in to save the day, but a freak accident (as if there were any other kind in this movie) leads to an accident that creates an evil mirror version of Tromaville called Amortville; what's worse, heroic Toxie finds himself trapped in Amortville, while Tromaville is cursed with his wicked counterpart, Noxie. Can Toxie make it back to Tromaville and vanquish the villainous Noxie? Will the Diaper Mafia emerge triumphant? And who knew that the Supreme Being was a foul-mouthed dwarf? Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV boasts one of Troma Team Pictures' typically eccentric supporting casts, including Corey Feldman, Ron Jeremy, Lisa Gaye, Hugh M. Hefner, Al Goldstein, Taylor Mead, Debbie Rochon, and Hank the Angry Dwarf. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In a standard tale of intrigue and foul play, Michel Sauvage (Lambert Wilson) has just gotten away with murder and is now marrying rich heiress Ariane (Ingrid Held) in hopes of taking all she's worth. Unfortunately for Michel, the murder victim's hard-fisted, tippling neighbor Madam Krantz (Danielle Darrieux in a great comic performance) has just blown into Paris with the intention of tracking down the killer. On one hand, Michel has to defend himself from her prying, and on the other, protect his wife's fortune from the increasingly attractive and avaricious Helene, Ariane's half-sister (Dominique Sanda). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Winning a high-stakes poker game, Bart (Jack Kelly) finds himself the owner of the Lucky Lady Saloon in Santa Leora. But when he shows up to claim his prize, he is confronted by the hired guns of Marquessa Luisa de Ruisenor (played byAdele Mara, the wife of Maverick producer-creator Roy Huggins). The Marquessa claims that she owns Santa Leora and everything in it, and she and her family are willing to back up that claim with guns, knives and fists. Rather than cut his losses and leave Santa Leora, Bart sticks around to find out if the Marquessa is the real villain of the piece, or if someone else is pulling the strings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Something of an urbanized, upscale version of Peyton Place, Vincent Sherman's
The Young Philadelphians is a glossy adaptation of Richard Powell's bestselling novel
The Philadelphians that revels in melodrama. The film opens strongly, with a lengthy 1924 prologue. Socialite Kate Lawrence (Diane Brewster) jilts impoverished lover Mike Flannagan (Brian Keith) in favor of wealthy William Lawrence (Adam West). On their wedding night, William drunkenly announces that he's impotent and commits suicide (this scene should fascinate Batman fans). Returning to Mike, Kate has a child by him, Tony. The boy grows up amid an atmosphere of dire poverty, which imparts him with a relentless drive for success. Flash forward to 1952: the out-of-wedlock kid, Tony, has grown up (now played by Paul Newman) and still doesn't know that he was an illegitimate child. Tony attends Princeton Law School, and falls in love with rich girl Joan Dickinson (Barbara Rush). Via the doings of Joan's father, wealthy Gilbert Dickinson (John Williams), Tony ends up taking a cushy job in a law office, at the expense of the relationship. The heartbroken Joan marries Carter Henley (Fred Eisley) on the rebound, who is conveniently killed in Korea. Tony then begins spending a prodigious amount of time with Carol Wharton (Alexis Smith), wife of attorney John Wharton (Otto Kruger), so that she will persuade John to find Tony a better job. Soon it's Tony's turn to fight in Korea; when he returns, the opportunity arises for Tony to redeem himself for his past misdeeds. Watch for Richard "Mel Cooley" Deacon in a bit as a hostile witness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

All I Desire an early exercise in Douglas Sirk Baroque, is set at the turn of the century. Long divorced from her husband Richard Carlson, itinerant actress Barbara Stanwyck returns to her home town to watch her daughter perform in a high school play. Stanwyck decides to turn over a new leaf and devote herself to the daughter she's never known. This she finds next to impossible, thanks to ugly small-town gossip attending her return. The film was obviously building up to an unhappy ending, but producer Ross Hunter intervened, tacking on an unbelievably upbeat denouement. This artistic outrage evidently didn't hurt Hunter's relationship with director Douglas Sirk, inasmuch as the two would continue to successfully collaborate in the future. All I Desire is based on a novel by Carol Brink. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cardsharp Edmond O'Brien gets more than he bargained for when he links up with con artists Lizabeth Scott and Alexander Knox. The trio plot to fleece a wealthy couple out of ten million dollars by having O'Brien pose as the couple's long-lost son. When the husband (Griff Barnett) refuses to change his will, Scott and Knox plan to bump him off. O'Brien may be a crook, but he's no murderer, so he balks at the plan and confesses the scam to the elderly couple--prompting Knox to add O'Brien to his list of potential victims. When Scott decides to pull out of the plan as well, Knox is run out of town, leaving the girl with O'Brien--truly "two of a kind," who'll be able to line up suckers elsewhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Harriet Craig is the third film version of George Kelly's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Craig's Wife. Joan Crawford stars as the title character, a thoroughly selfish woman who prizes her house and her possessions above all else. Harriet Craig is even willing to spoil the business opportunities of her husband Walter (Wendell Corey) to avoid losing her precious home. When her self-involvement causes turbulence in the romantic life of her cousin (K.T. Stevens), and when her husband's eyes are finally opened to his wife's true nature, Harriet Craig is at long last hoist on her own petard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Somehow the titles of the films of hardcase actor Lawrence Tierney seemed to be extensions of the man's personality, as witness such films as The Devil Thumbs a Ride and Born to Kill. In the latter picture, Tierney starts the ball rolling by committing a double murder in a jealous pique. Claire Trevor discovers the bodies, but says nothing to the police; she's leaving town and doesn't want to be impeded. Trevor and Tierney meet and fall in love on the train to San Francisco. Unfortunately, Trevor is married, so Tierney shifts his affections to her sister, Audrey Long (later the wife of director Billy Wilder). He marries Long, though he keeps up his illicit affair with Trevor. When detectives investigating the murders come snooping, they are bought off by Tierney's pal Elisha Cook Jr.--who is then murdered by Tierney, who suspects that Cook is carrying on with Trevor (Cook seldom survived to the end of any of his films). When Tierney finally does face arrest, it's at the instigation of the jealous Trevor, who is shot full of holes for her trouble. Born to Kill was based on James Gunn's novel Deadlier Than the Male. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Barbara Stanwyck shines in her second portrayal of a showgirl in less than two years (the first was in Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire in 1941). In Lady of Burlesque -- which, at times, has a Hawksian edge to the dialogue -- she portrays Dixie Daisy, a striptease artist at a Broadway theater in New York at the end of the 1930s. In the course of fending off the unwanted advances of brash comic Biff Brannigan (Michael O'Shea), with whom she is teamed in several numbers, and staying clear of the dressing room feuds of her fellow dancers -- including a very nasty dispute between Dolly Baxter (Gloria Dickson) and Lolita La Verne (Victoria Faust) -- she finds herself up to her neck in trouble when one of the women is found strangled with her own G-string. The police don't know what to make of it, especially as the victim was already dying of a fatal dose of poison, which means that there are two murderers somewhere in the theater; and when a second woman turns up strangled inside a prop that Dixie was supposed to be hiding in onstage, she looks like a good suspect. Between the backstage comedy-drama, and the songs, dances, and on-stage comic routines, with the police breathing down both their necks at different times, Dixie and Biff manage to solve the mystery and find each other in this briskly paced, funny, yet amazingly gritty comedy-thriller. Lady of Burlesque was allowed to fall out of copyright in 1971, and since then it was seen in substandard editions until the May 2001 DVD release from Image Entertainment. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide