Sam Hellman Movies

This second of four film adaptations of Damon Runyon's Little Miss Marker is tailored to the talents of Bob Hope. A shifty Broadway bookie, Sorrowful Jones (Hope) becomes a reluctant foster parent when an anxious gambler leaves behind his little girl Martha Jane (Mary Jane Saunders) as a "marker," or IOU. When the father is killed by mobster Big Steve Holloway (Bruce Cabot), Sorrowful decides to hide Martha Jane from the authorities, lest the poor girl get tossed in an orphanage. Lucille Ball co-stars as Sorrowful's erstwhile girlfriend Gladys, who along with Mary Jane is instrumental in "reforming" the cynical Jones. The climactic scenes, wherein Sorrowful tries to smuggle a horse into a hospital in order to bring the little girl out of a coma, deftly combines slapstick with pathos. A remake of 1934's Little Miss Marker, which starred Shirley Temple in the title role, Sorrowful Jones was itself remade in 1962 as the Tony Curtis vehicle Who's Got the Action; it was filmed again in 1980, once more as Little Miss Marker, with Curtis as the villain and Walter Matthau in the Bob Hope role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of the greatest movie Westerns, John Ford's My Darling Clementine is hardly the most accurate film version of the Wyatt Earp legend, but it is still one of the most entertaining. Henry Fonda stars as former lawman Wyatt Earp, who, after cleaning up Dodge City, arrives in the outskirts of Tombstone with his brothers Morgan (Ward Bond), Virgil (Tim Holt), and James (Don Garner), planning to sell their cattle and settle down as gentlemen farmers. Yet Wyatt, disgusted by crime and cattle rustling, eventually agrees to take the marshalling job until he can gather enough evidence to bring to justice the scurrilous Clanton clan, headed by smooth-talking but shifty-eyed Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan). Almost immediately, Wyatt runs afoul of consumptive, self-hating gambling boss Doc Holliday (Victor Mature, in perhaps his best performance). When Doc's erstwhile sweetheart, Clementine (Cathy Downs) comes to town, Earp is immediately smitten. However, Doc himself is now involved with saloon gal Chihauhua (Linda Darnell). The tensions among Wyatt, Doc, Clementine, and Chihauhua wax and wane throughout most of the film, leading to the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral, with Wyatt and Doc fighting side-by-side against the despicable Clantons. Its powerful storyline and full-blooded characterizations aside, My Darling Clementine is most entertaining during those little "humanizing" moments common to Ford's films, notably Wyatt's impromptu "balancing act" while seated on the porch of the Tombstone hotel, and Wyatt's and Clementine's dance on the occasion of the town's church-raising. Based on Stuart N. Lake's novel Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshall (previously filmed twice by Fox), the screenplay is full of wonderful dialogue, the best of which is the brief, philosophical exchange about women between Earp and Mac the bartender (J. Farrell MacDonald). The movie also features crisp, evocative black-and-white photography by Joseph MacDonald. Producer (Daryl F. Zanuck) was displeased with Ford's original cut and the film went through several re-shoots and re-edits before its general release in November of 1946. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Universal's 1946 The Dark Horse is not a remake of the 1932 Warner Bros. film of the same name, though both deal with a long shot political candidate. The 1946 film stars Phillip Terry as a war veteran, who is persuaded by machine politico Donald MacBride to run for alderman. Ann Savage plays the standard "Jean Arthur" role as the honest government functionary with whom the hero falls in love. Terry finds that disreputable politicians are using his war record to push through some shady legislation, so he renounces these hacks. He wins on the basis of his honesty, making one wish that things worked out this way in Real Life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Complete with a final production number filmed in Technicolor, this tuneful musical depicts the highly fictive ups and downs of fabled vaudeville headliners Jack Norworth (1879-1959) and Nora Bayes (1880-1928). After rejecting a partnership with songstress Blanche Mallory (Irene Manning), Norworth (Dennis Morgan) discovers Miss Bayes (Ann Sheridan), who is wasting her considerable vocal talents by working in a honky tonk. Jack convinces the girl to become his partner but Nora's controlling boss, Costello (Robert Shayne), insures that the team is blacklisted everywhere. Despite this setback, the talented husband-and-wife duo finagles an engagement with the 1907 edition of the Ziegfeld Follies and vows the audiences with Jack's newest composition, the lilting "Shine on Harvest Moon." In reality, Norworth met the already famous Bayes at the office of a music publisher and later became one of her five husbands. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

This slick marital farce features Joel McCrea as T. H. Randall, a race horse owner whose devotion to his work causes a strain in his relationship with wife Valerie (Nancy Kelly). Unable to stand any more neglect, Valerie divorces Randall, even though the audience is well aware that she's still in love with him. Reduced to poverty by his huge alimony payments, Randall cooks up a scheme with lawyer Bill Carter (Roland Young) to marry off Valerie to staid Paul Hunter (Lyle Talbot). But during a weekend party at the home of dowager Ethel (Mary Boland), Randall resents the attentions lavished upon Valerie by rakish young Freddie (Cesar Romero). It doesn't take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out who winds up with whom in the last scene. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Allan Dwan's comedic musical adaptation of the classic Dumas story sticks close to the original tale, yet it augments it with healthy doses of humor and songs. Don Ameche stars as D'Artagnan and the Ritz Brothers play his two other musketeers. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

The second of three films based on the Wyatt Earp biography by Stuart N. Lake, Frontier Marshal stars Randolph Scott as Marshal Earp of Tombstone. Earp and his brothers enforce the law as much by reputation as by gunplay. Occasionally the marshal's efforts are complicated by his "friendly enemy" Doc Halliday (based on Doc Holliday and played by Cesar Romero), a consumptive gunslinger who runs the gambling activities in town. When a murderous outlaw (Joe Sawyer) invades Tombstone and kills Halliday, Earp is moved to action -- and the result is the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. A remake of the 1934 film of the same name, Frontier Marshal was itself remade by John Ford as My Darling Clementine (1946), with Henry Fonda as Earp and Victor Mature as Doc Holliday. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Baroness, daughter of the Hungarian prime minister, is played by Annabella. The Butler, last of a long line of family retainers, is played by William Powell. The butler works for the baroness' father, and the relationship between baroness and butler is outwardly chilly but subliminally affectionate. The butler, something of a political activist, becomes leader of the party opposing the prime minister. The baroness despises her "hired man" for defying her father, but gradually realizes that she is in love with the butler. Steadfastly avoiding any hint of the German expansionism that would ultimately engulf the real-life Hungary, The Baroness and the Butler is fast if forgettable entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This period adventure drama was directed by Tay Garnett and adapted from a story by William Faulkner. The skipper of a slave trading vessel operating along the West African coast in 1860, Captain Jim Lovett (Warner Baxter) is troubled by his flesh-peddling trade. He's marrying the beautiful Nancy Marlowe (Elizabeth Allan) and wants to replace his morally-indefensible business with a more respectable foray into standard goods shipping. So he orders his first mate, Jack Thompson (Wallace Beery) to fire most of the crew and replace them with new hands. However, the ship's swabbies are accustomed to their lucrative line of work and, under the sway of the greedy Lefty (George Sanders), they mutiny, resulting in high seas histrionics and swashbuckling sword fights, with comedy relief provided by Mickey Rooney as Swifty the cabin boy. Lon Chaney, Jr. appears unbilled in the film's opening, where his character is crushed during a ship's launching. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

The real "message to Garcia" was delivered by an American lieutenant to Cuban rebel General Garcia, asking for the General's help in the Spanish-American war. The fact that the lieutenant made his way to Garcia in absolute safety was ignored in 20th Century-Fox's Message to Garcia--which is just as well, since otherwise the movie would have been eight minutes long. In the film version, lieutenant John Boles is guided through the treacherous Cuban jungle by Barbara Stanwyck, doing her best to convince us that she's an Hispanic senorita. Also along for the trip is renegade marine Wallace Beery, who may not be as friendly as he seems. Fighting off Spaniards and spies at every turn, Boles successfully completes his mission. As history, Message to Garcia is about as reliable as the Hearst newspaper dispatches which triggered the Spanish-American war in the first place. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This second of 20th Century-Fox's Dionne Quintuplets vehicles brings back Jean Hersholt as kindly Canadian obstetrician Dr. Dafoe. The good doctor faces none of the professional crises that plagued him in the first Dionne picture The Country Doctor. Instead, a testimonial dinner is arranged for him, where some of the thousands of people Dafoe helped bring into the world have been invited to honor the humble physician. But Dafoe gives as well as takes; sensing that some of those assembled to honor him have acute personal problems, the doctor sets about to solve them. Reunion would be rendered obsolete when the media did a turnaround in the late 1930s and began vilifying the real Dr. Dafoe for his alleged exploitation of the Dionne quints. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

George Ade's turn-of-the-century stage success The County Chairman was retailored as a Will Rogers vehicle in 1935. Set in 1904, the film casts Rogers as Jim Hackler, political-party chairman of Tomahawk County, Wyoming. At rise, Hackler is running for county prosecutor against his old political and romantic rival, crooked Elias Rigby (Berton Churchill). Complications arise when Jim's protégé Ben Harvey (Kent Taylor) falls in love with Rigby's daughter Lucy (Evelyn Venable). Presented with the opportunity to smear Rigby in public by digging up an old scandal, Jim refuses to stoop to his opponent's level -- and miracle of miracles, he wins the election anyway! The film's best moments occur when Will Rogers departs from the script to offer extemporaneous comments on a wide variety of subjects: he even manages to poke gentle fun at Henry Ford, who was hardly a "major player" in 1904! The supporting cast ranges from such Rogers "regulars" as Charles Middleton and Stepin Fetchit (at his most incomprehensible!) to such relative newcomers as 15-year-old Mickey Rooney. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi