Hugh Allen Movies

H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds had been on the Paramount Pictures docket since the silent era, when it was optioned as a potential Cecil B. DeMille production. When Paramount finally got around to a filming the Wells novel, the property was firmly in the hands of special-effects maestro George Pal. Like Orson Welles's infamous 1938 radio adaptation, the film eschews Wells's original Victorian England setting for a contemporary American locale, in this case Southern California. A meteorlike object crash-lands near the small town of Linda Rosa. Among the crowd of curious onlookers is Pacific Tech scientist Gene Barry, who strikes up a friendship with Ann Robinson, the niece of local minister Lewis Martin. Because the meteor is too hot to approach at present, Barry decides to wait a few days to investigate, leaving three townsmen to guard the strange, glowing object. Left alone, the three men decide to approach the meterorite, and are evaporated for their trouble. It turns out that this is no meteorite, but an invading spaceship from the planet Mars. The hideous-looking Martians utilize huge, mushroomlike flying ships, equipped with heat rays, to pursue the helpless earthlings. When the military is called in, the Martians demonstrate their ruthlessness by "zapping" Ann's minister uncle, who'd hoped to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the standoff. As Barry and Ann seek shelter, the Martians go on a destructive rampage. Nothing-not even an atom-bomb blast-can halt the Martian death machines. The film's climax occurs in a besieged Los Angeles, where Barry fights through a crowd of refugees and looters so that he may be reunited with Ann in Earth's last moments of existence. In the end, the Martians are defeated not by science or the military, but by bacteria germs-or, to quote H.G. Wells, "the humblest things that God in his wisdom has put upon the earth." Forty years' worth of progressively improving special effects have not dimmed the brilliance of George Pal's War of the Worlds. Even on television, Pal's Oscar-winning camera trickery is awesome to behold. So indelible an impression has this film made on modern-day sci-fi mavens that, when a 1988 TV version of War of the Worlds was put together, it was conceived as a direct sequel to the 1953 film, rather than a derivation of the Wells novel or the Welles radio production. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ned Trumpet (Wallace Beery), the chief pilot of a Navy blimp, is given to weaving accounts of the fighting prowess of his non-existent son. His friendship with widow Maude Weaver (Selena Royle) and her son Jess (Tom Drake) in effect sets him up with a real family. Jess enters the service and goes on to sink an enemy submarine -- from a blimp. Having that real-life feat to brag about, Ned can at last quell all the longtime doubts of his friend Jimmy (James Gleason), and he decides to marry Maude. Bit-Part Alert: Watch for a young Blake Edwards, the future writer/director of 10, S.O.B., and Victor/Victoria, as a flier. ~ Nicole Gagne, Rovi

Warner Oland took time out from his customary screen villainy to play the title character in the sentimental backstage drama Good Time Charley. A small-time provincial actor, Charley has an ego that far outdistances his talent. Meanwhile, his old nemesis John Hartwell (Montague Love), the man indirectly responsible for the death of Charley's wife, has scaled the heights as a top Broadway producer. Spotting Charley's talented daughter Rosita (Helene Costello) in a cheap cabaret revue, Hartwell offers to make her a star. Though he'd prefer that she stay with him, Charley refuses to stand in Rosita's way. By and by, the girl marries Hartwell's son (Hugh Allen), who is disowned by the flint-hearted Hartwell Sr. Out of loyalty, Rosita quits Hartwell's show, only to be blacklisted from show business. When Charley hears about this, he insists that his longtime vaudeville partner Bill (Clyde Cook) give Rosita the money Charley had been saving for a crucial eye operation. Never realizing that her father is going blind, Rosita accepts the money and heads to England, where she and Hartwell Jr. start life anew. Existing stills indicate that the highlight of Good Time Charley was a top-hatted song-and-dance turn featuring Warner Oland and Clyde Cook. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ralph Lewis stars as "Jovial" Joe Ryan, an aging but still vital railroad engineer. Suffering from failing eyesight, Joe is victimized by Bert Allen (George Cheseboro), a younger man who covets both Joe's job and the old man's pretty daughter Grace (Jean Arthur). Reduced to working as a flagman thanks to Bert's chicanery, Joe devotes his spare time to developing a block signal, which will automatically stop a train in case of emergencies. As a result, Joe gets his old job back, his young rival is booted out, and Jean is able to marry the man of her dreams, bridge-builder Jack Milford (Hugh Allen). The Block Signal might be worth seeing if only to watch a very young Jean Arthur in one of her first major roles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi