John Houseman Movies

In one of his first roles, Warren Beatty plays a callous, self-involved young man who is idolized by his younger brother Brandon DeWilde. When Beatty and DeWilde's parents Karl Malden and Angela Lansbury take in Eva Marie Saint as a boarder, Beatty makes violent love to the poor (but not entirely unwilling) girl. Saint becomes pregnant, a contingency which brings out the absolute worst in Beatty. When he deserts her, she kills herself. Only at this point does DeWilde (who has worshipped Saint from afar) realize that Beatty has feet of clay. Attempting to kill his older brother, DeWilde relents when he decides that Beatty is more pathetic than evil. Playwright William Inge adapted the screenplay for All Fall Down from a novel by James Leo Herlihy. So dependent is this film on its stark black and white photography that the currently available colorized version is tantamount to sacrilege. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eschewing the Shakespearean original title (it's a quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream), the British Ill Met by Moonlight was released stateside as Night Ambush. This superb Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger concoction is set during World War II on the island of Crete. Dirk Bogarde and David Oxley play Major Paddy Leigh Fermer and Captain Billy Stanley Moss, two British officers whose job it is to kidnap Nazi general Karl Kreipe (Marius Goring) and spirit him off to Cairo. The motive of this mission is to weaken German morale on Crete and to provide hope to the enslaved locals. With the help of a group of resistance fighters, Fermer and Moss manage to trap the general; now they must transport their captive back to their own lines, avoiding German patrols every inch of the way. Originally 104 minutes, Ill Met by Moonlight was cut to 93 minutes by its American distributor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

William Gibson's novel The Cobweb was brought to the screen by MGM with an impressive, hand-picked cast. Richard Widmark plays the head of a posh psychiatric clinic. Widmark's wife Gloria Grahame jockeys for the honor of selecting new drapes for the hospital's library. One wouldn't think that such a trivial decision would spark so much melodrama; but thanks to those drapes, we are allowed to probe the disturbed psyches of martinet business affairs director Lillian Gish, philandering doctor Charles Boyer, lonely activities director Lauren Bacall, and suicidal patient John Kerr. Oscar Levant, who spent most of his life in and out of "little white rooms", is ideally cast as a neurotic musician, while Fay Wray has a superb cameo as Boyer's long-suffering wife. Cobweb served as the screen debuts for both John Kerr and Susan Strasberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a fruitful 15-year association, Greer Garson and MGM parted company with Her Twelve Men. The William Roberts-Laura Z. Hobson screenplay was adapted from Louise Baker's autobiographical novel Miss Baker's Dozen, the title of which pointed out the fact (which the film's title does not) that there are thirteen men in the story. Ms. Garson plays widow Jan Stewart, who after several years of marriage decides to create a new life for herself as a teacher at an exclusive boys' school. It takes her some time to win over her 13 troublesome students, but win them over she does. A more formidable task is to convince stodgy professor Joe Hargrave (Robert Ryan) that her teaching methods are viable; also doubtful of Jan's capability is Richard Y. Oliver (Barry Sullivan), the oil-rich father of her most contentious student (Tim Considine). Featured as another of the parents is Frances Bergen, the real-life wife of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the mother of Murphy Brown star Candice Bergen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed this exquisite version of William Shakespeare's play. Louis Calhern is Julius Caesar, whose conquests have enabled him to rise to the status of Roman dictator. But his ascent to almost God-like status has given pause to influential members of the Roman Senate. Chief among them is Cassius (John Gielgud), who is troubled by Caesar's popularity and dictatorial status. Convinced that Caesar's assassination would be the best thing for Rome, he conspires with Casca (Edmond O'Brien) and the influential Brutus (James Mason) to plot Caesar's murder. Despite dark omens, Caesar walks confidently into the Roman Senate, where he is stabbed to death by the conspirators. His companion Marc Antony (Marlon Brando) is shocked and runs to the corpse of his beloved friend. He agrees to support Brutus while an unruly mob gathers in front of the Senate doors, having heard rumors of Caesar's assassination. Brutus convinces the mob that Caesar's death was for the good of Rome, preventing him from forming a monarchy. Then Antony appears, determined to destroy the conspirators; he delivers a speech that subtly damns the assassins. With the mob against them, the conspirators are forced to flee Rome and Antony organizes an army against them. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This minor MGM feature stars Gig Young, Janice Rule, Keenan Wynn and Richard Anderson as diverse individuals caught up in New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebration. Young is cast in the leading role as a doctor, whose plans for the celebration are altered when punch drunk prizefighter Wynn commits murder. The killing completely changes the course of Young's life, and effects the lives of those closest to him. Though it didn't cost much, Holiday for Sinners suffered the fate of many second features produced during the early TV years and failed to make back its budget. Gig Young would have to wait several years for full stardom--and then usually as comedy relief for bigger stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jane Greer plays a hard-boiled dame so well in The Company She Keeps that the film's outcome remains in doubt right up to the end. Placed in the custody of parole officer Joan (Lizabeth Scott), Diane (Greer) immediately makes a play for Joan's boyfriend, newspaper columnist Larry (Dennis O'Keefe). Despite the nagging belief that Diane is just plain no good, Joan magnanimously tries to smooth the path of true love for the girl and Larry. Despite the engaging performances of the stars and the smooth direction of John Cromwell, The Company She Keeps failed to connect with audiences, and ended up a $315,000 loser. Trivia alert: that lady in the train terminal with the two unruly kids is Dorothy Bridges, the wife of actor Lloyd Bridges. And those two troublesome tots are Dorothy and Lloyd's sons Beau and Jeff! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Perhaps the finest American film from the famed European director Max Ophüls, the film stars Joan Fontaine as a young woman who falls in love with a concert pianist. Set in Vienna in 1900, the story is told in a complex flashback structure as the pianist, Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan), comes upon a letter written to him by Lisa Berndl (Fontaine), a girl who has been in love with him for years. Stefan is in the process of fleeing Vienna on the eve of fighting a duel. As he prepares himself for the nocturnal journey, the letter arrives. It begins, "By the time you read this letter, I may be dead." As Stefan sits back in his study to read this letter, it turns out to be a confession of unrequited love from Lisa. The story flashes backs to when Lisa was 14 years old and Stefan was her neighbor. After following Stefan with a girlish obsession, the romance gets much more serious, and they have a brief encounter. Stefan promises to come back to her after a concert tour, but he never does. Meanwhile, Lisa marries another man when she discovers that she is pregnant with Stefan's child. When she runs into Stefan years later, he doesn't remember her and tries to seduce her. After Stefan reads the letter, he wants to rush to her side, but now poor Lisa is dying from typhus. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Augusta Tucker, the provocatively titled Miss Susie Slagle's is actually a leisurely, sentimental story set in a turn-of-the-century boarding house. The title character, played by Lillian Gish, is the house's landlady, catering exclusively to young doctors and nurses in training. Miss Susie Slagle takes pride in the fact that not one of her boarders has ever failed medical school, but for a while it looks as though this perfect record will be spoiled by Elijah Howe Jr. (Bill Edwards), the seemingly irresponsible son of one of Susie's former tenants (Ray Collins). The bulk of the storyline is carried by med student Pug Prentiss (Sonny Tufts), who carries on a romance with Howe Jr.'s sister Margaretta (Joan Caulfield, in her film-starring debut). Flamboyant comic actor Billy DeWolfe is uncharacteristically restrained as pragmatic third-year student Ben Mead, though the script contrives to allow DeWolfe to do one of his celebrated female-impersonation routines! In true open-ended fashion, the film ends as it begins, with Miss Susie Slagle welcoming another crop of students to her lodgings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Robert Stevenson collaborated with novelist Aldous Huxley and theatrical-producer John Houseman on the screenplay for this 1944 adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's gothic romance Jane Eyre. After several harrowing years in an orphanage, where she was placed by a supercilious relative for exhibiting the forbidden trait of "willfulness," Jane Eyre (Joan Fontaine) secures work as a governess. Her little charge, French-accented Adele (Margaret O'Brien), is pleasant enough. But Jane's employer, the brooding, tormented Edward Rochester (Orson Welles), terrifies the prim young governess. Under Jane's gentle influence, Rochester drops his forbidding veneer, going so far as to propose marriage to Jane. But they are forbidden connubial happiness when it is revealed that Rochester is still married to a gibbering lunatic whom he is forced to keep locked in his attic. Rochester reluctantly sends Jane away, but she returns, only to find that the insane wife has burned down the mansion and rendered Rochester sightless. In the tradition of Victorian romances, this purges Rochester of any previous sins, making him a worthy mate for the loving Jane. The presence of Orson Welles in the cast (he receives top billing), coupled with the dark, Germanic style of the direction and photography, has led some impressionable cineasts to conclude that Welles, and not Stevenson, was the director. To be sure, Welles contributed ideas throughout the filming; also, the script was heavily influenced by the Mercury Theater on the Air radio version of Jane Eyre, on which Welles, John Houseman and musical director Bernard Herrmann all collaborated. But Jane Eyre was made at 20th Century-Fox, a studio disinclined to promote the auteur theory; like most Fox productions, this is a work by committee rather than the product of one man. This in no way detracts from the overall excellence of the film; of all adaptations of Jane Eyre (it had previously been filmed in 1913, 1915 and 1921, and has been remade several times since), this 1943 version is one of the best. Keep an eye out for an uncredited Elizabeth Taylor as the consumptive orphanage friend of young Jane Eyre (played as child by Peggy Ann Gardner). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide