Leigh Jason Movies

Running an action-packed 67 minutes, Okinawa is an expert combo of wartime newsreel footage and studio re-enactments. The plot concerns the gun crew of a destroyer, engaged in the torturous allied invasion of Okinawa, which cost more American and Japanese lives than any previous Pacific-Theater battle. Pat O'Brien does his usual as the ship's commander, while other stock types are essayed by Cameron Mitchell, Richard Denning, Rhys Williams, Richard Benedict and James Dobson. Curiously, Okinawa was co-written by Leonard Stern, a man more closely associated with TV comedy than two-fisted war epics, and directed by Leigh Jason, who generally piloted musical shorts and features. Actor-producer Alvy Moore (who later played county agent Hank Kimball on TV's Green Acres) shows up in a bit role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If Eagle-Lion's Out of the Blue looks more like a slick Warner Bros. product at times, it's because the film was peopled by former Warners personnel, both in front of and behind the cameras. George Brent and Carole Landis play the Earthleighs, tenants in a roomy Greenwich Village apartment. When Mr. Earthleigh isn't being nagged by his domineering bride, he's enmeshed in a feud with his neighbor, loose-living artist David (Turhan Bey). During his wife's absence, Earthleigh makes the mistake of inviting Olive (Ann Dvorak), a glamorous interior decorator who's somewhat the worse for drink, to his apartment. When Olive passes out on his floor, Earthleigh assumes that she's dead-and in the course of subsequent events, so does everyone else. Adding to the general zaniness is Deborah (Virginia Mayo), one of David's sexier models, who weaves in and out of the proceedings at the most inopportune moments, and a huge, cantankerous canine named Rabelais. Despite some formidable competition, the comedy honors in Out of the Blue are won hands-down by Ann Dvorak, in a truly offbeat performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Meet Me on Broadway is a pocket Columbia musical about aspiring performers and a shoestring production (though the dialogue is careful to include a reference to Columbia's Cover Girl, just to prove that the studio was capable of an "A" product). Fred Brady plays an overbearing director who has been blackballed by Broadway and must settle for staging country-club charity events. Marjorie Reynolds plays the daughter of the country club's owner, who helps Brady mount his Big Comeback Show--which has the ancillary effect of making stars of the whole cast. Jinx Falkenberg is the show's leading lady, while Spring Byington and Gene Lockhart are around as stuffy society types who un-stuff themselves by film's end. Among the performers are the dance team of Gloria Patrice and Nita Bieber, who enjoyed a better showcase in the concurrently filmed Columbia "Three Stooges" short Rhythm and Weep (46). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his final starring film, bandleader Kay Kyser is cast as bandleader Kay Kyser. Picking up where Kyser's previous RKO Radio film Around the World left off, Columbia's Carolina Blues finds Kay and his band returning to America after a worldwide USO tour. Phineas J. Carver (Victor Moore), the woebegone "black sheep"scion of a powerful family of industrialists, poses as one of his wealthier relatives to persuade Kyser to perform at a defense plant. When Kyser's regular vocalist Georgia Carroll quits the band to get married, Carver's talented daughter Julie (Ann Miller) steps in as replacement. Naturally, Julie is a hit, and equally naturally, she lands Kyser as a husband. Outside of the expected musical numbers (which, in addtion to Kyser's aggregation, feature such artists as The Step Brothers and the Nicholas Brothers) Carolina Blues is highlighted by the bravura performance of Victor Moore, who essays five roles in all. Ironically, singer Georgia Carroll did retire from show business in real life to get married-to Kay Kyser! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Faith, Hope and Charity motivate the wacky storyline of Columbia's Three Girls About Town--or to be more exact, gorgeous sisters Faith, Hope and Charity Banner, played respectively by Binnie Barnes, Joan Blondell and Janet Blair. Faith and Hope are gainfully employed as New York hotel hostesses, whose job it is to entertain wealthy out-of-town conventioneers (but no hanky panky, if you please!) They've remained in this profession in order to afford the expensive private-school education of their sister Charity, who shows up in the Big Apple in pursuit of her own career, or a wealthy husband, or both. Charity's arrival coincides with several big-time conventions, one of which is being covered by Faith's newspaper-reporter boyfriend Tommy Hopkins (John Howard). Things get dicey when the three girls discover a corpse in one of the hotel rooms. Certain that they'll be blamed for the death (or at the very least fired from their jobs!), the sisters conspire with Tommy to hide the body from the cops. Trouble is, the body just won't stay hidden, not even when our heroines try to dispose of the awkward stiff in one of the coffins brought into the hotel for an undertaker's convention. Blessed with a generous supply of belly-laughs and an unending stream of familiar character actors, Three Girls About Town sustains a proper level of zaniness right up to the cop-out finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The real-life marriage between Dick Powell and Joan Blondell was already on the rocks when they costarred in Model Wife. The story is "Working Girl Plot No. 6": Blondell's employer frowns upon married women working. She's married to Powell. The marriage must remain secret. The boss has a "thing" for Blondell. So does every other man. Powell fumes. Complications. Movie ends happily. And that's Model Wife, the second and last of the Powell/Blondell vehicles of the 1940s (the other film was titled, significantly, I Want a Divorce). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in a tiny midwestern town, this sentimental drama centers on the rivalry between two life-long acquaintances whose early friendship falls apart when they woo the same woman. She makes her choice and marries the one who eventually takes over the town bank. Meanwhile the other man becomes a shopkeeper and marries another. One couple has a daughter and the other a son. The offspring grow up and of course they fall in love. In the midst of the romance, the banker gets accused of double-dealing his customers and a panic ensues. To make it worse, the young couple break up because the man would rather go to medical school than get married. The storekeeper causes the ultimate ruination of the bank when he withdraws $33,000. It doesn't get better from there. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Wise Girl is a medium-level screwball comedy with faintly serious undertones. Miriam Hopkins plays an heiress whose millions can't help her gain custody of her two nieces from their stubborn widowed father (Ray Milland), an impoverished Greenwich Village artist. Hoping to win the widower over without revealing her identity, the heiress disguises herself as a penniless "Bohemian" and infiltrates the Village's artists' colony. When he finds out he's been duped, the man stubbornly insists upon remaining in jail rather than hand over custody of his daughters to the headstrong heiress (yes, that's perennial Laurel & Hardy foil James Finlayson as the friendly jailer). It all turns out for the best when hero and heroine realize they're in love with each other. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Love on a Bet is a lightweight programmer from the "Get Rich Quick Wallingford" school of comedy. Gene Raymond stars as Michael, a fresh young sprout who needs $15,000 to produce a Broadway play. His rich uncle Carlton (William Collier Jr.) agrees to pony up the money, but only on the condition that Michael leave New York City in nothing but his underwear and show up in Los Angeles 10 days later in a new suit, with a hundred dollars, and a sweetheart -- which happens to be the plotline of the play that Michael wants to produce! As he embarks upon his hitchhiking "tour" of the U.S., Michael is given a lift by wisecracking Charlotte (Helen Broderick) and her pretty niece Paula (Wendy Barrie). At this point, everyone in the audience will know how Love on a Bet ends up, but getting there is all the fun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Newlywed Carolyn Martin (Barbara Stanwyck) has been raised to expect the finer things in life, but these are things that can't be provided by her working-stiff husband Michael (Gene Raymond). Hoping to supplement the family coffers, Carolyn offers to take a job, but the chauvinistic Michael won't hear of it, insisting that the couple live on his measly 35 dollars per week, causing no end of trouble when wifey overextends her bank account. When millionaire Hugh McKenzie (Robert Young) enters her life, Carolyn is sorely tempted to walk out on her husband -- and, as indicated by the film's title, she does. Ultimately, however, money flies out the door when love flies back in the window. Counterpointing the marital travails of our hero and heroine is the contentious union between Mattie and Paul Dodson (Helen Broderick and Ned Sparks), who've learned to be happy while miserable. Black comic actor Willie Best is prominently billed in The Bride Walks Out, but his role was cut down to a mere walk-on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sentimental drama, a race-car driver falls for a lovely lady reporter. Together, they begin caring for a crippled little orphan who lost his father during a racing accident. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide