Dennis O'Keefe Movies

Follow the Sun is the filmed biography of golf champion Ben Hogan. Glenn Ford, no mean duffer himself, stars as Hogan, here depicted as a single-purposed individual to whom golf is everything. Anne Baxter co-stars as Hogan's supportive wife Valerie, who sticks with him through thick and thin. On the brink of his greatest success, Hogan is seriously injured in an auto accident. His recovery and return to the links provides the dramatic momentum of the film's final reels. Co-starring as themselves in Follow the Suns are such golfing legends as Sam Snead, Jimmy Demaret, and Dr. Cary Middlecoff. An uncredited Harold Blake appears as Ben Hogan at the age of 14. ~ 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

Frank Johnson (Ross Elliott), a window-dresser and struggling artist, accidentally witnesses a mob-related rub-out of a witness (Thomas P. Dillon), while out walking his dog one night -- after being shot at for his trouble, he's approached by the police, who want to put him into protective custody. But before they can do that, he runs out, and it's up to Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith) to find him before the killer does. He approaches Johnson's wife, Eleanor (Ann Sheridan), only to discover that not only were they the most distant -- nearly estranged -- couple he's ever encountered, but that she doesn't want to help find him, or care if he is found. Then she learns that he has a potentially serious heart condition that he never told her about, and that he has no medication -- she decides to try and find him to give him help, dodging the police with help from a pushy reporter named Leggett (Dennis O'Keefe), covering his job and all of his old haunts; and in the process, she discovers a man that she never really bothered to know or understand, one who not only wanted to love her but does love her, despite the way their marriage has gone, and discovers that there may still be a marriage worth saving. But to do that she's got to find him to head off not only a potentially fatal heart seizure but also save him from the killer who, unbeknownst to her, is just a step behind her and has already started covering her trail and murdering potential witnesses. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Viewers who know Gale Storm only through her chaotic comic performances on TV's My Little Margie and Oh Susanna will be surprised by her subdued dramatic performance in Abandoned. Storm plays Paula Consodine, who comes to Los Angeles in search of her missing sister. Newspaperman Mark Sitko (Dennis O'Keefe), investigating on Paula's behalf, discovers that the sister is dead, a supposed suicide. The whole thing seems a bit fishy to Sitko, and indeed it is: the girl's death was engineered by a black-market adoption racket, headed by one DeCola (Will Kuluva). Paula bravely offers to act as bait to draw the criminals out, a formidable task given the presence of such secondary villains as Raymond Burr and Mike Mazurki. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Violent and viscerally sexual, Anthony Mann's muscular low-budget noir tells the tale of a framed gangster's quest for vengeance after he busts out of prison. Once freed, gangster Joe Sullivan Dennis O'Keefe) and his girl friend Pat (Claier Trevor) set off to find the mobster who set him up. The kidnapping of Ann Martin (Marsha Hunt), the social worker who wrote to Joe in prison, leads the fugitive into a romantic triangle of death, passion and tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Filmed almost entirely on location, Walk a Crooked Mile was Columbia Pictures' "answer" to 20th Century-Fox's late-1940s cycle of documentary-style crime dramas. FBI agent Dan O'Hara (Dennis O'Keefe) and Scotland Yard operative Philip Grayson (Louis Hayward) team up to investigate a security leak at a Southern California atomic plant. Their investigation takes them to San Francisco, where a communist spy ring flourishes under the auspices of Igor Braun (Onslow Stevens). With such actors as Raymond Burr and Philip Van Zandt playing the commie agents, it's a wonder that the whole lot of them weren't arrested on sight before the story even began! Louise Allbritton plays the nominal female lead, a suspicious atomic scientist named Toni Neva. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, Madeleine Damien (Hedy Lamarr) is a successful magazine editor with a free-spirited private life, but a number of failed relationships and years of burning the candle at both ends have taken their toll and Madeleine is suicidal and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Caieb (Morris Carnovsky), advises her to find a less stressful and more personally satisfying line of work, so Madeleine leaves the publishing industry and moves to a flat in Greenwich Village, where she pursues a long-standing dream of becoming an artist. Madeleine falls in love with a scientist living in her building, Dr. David Cousins (Dennis O'Keefe), and they plan to marry. However, shortly before they are to wed, David is called out of town and Madeleine decides to visit a nightclub, where she runs into Felix Courtland (John Loder), a jeweler with whom she once had an affair. Felix invites Madeleine back to his apartment, but before long she begins to think better of it and tries to slip out the back before he gets the wrong idea; however, at the same time Jack Garet (William Lundigan), a former employee of Felix, arrives at the front door. Jack stole some jewels from Felix but begs him not to turn him in to the police; a fight breaks out, and Jack kills Felix. Since Madeleine was the last person to be seen with Felix, she is accused of murdering him, and David, not knowing of her stormy personal life before he met her, refuses to have anything to do with her. Hedy Lamarr and John Loder were married when they made this film, though perhaps appropriately given their contentious relationship in Dishonored Lady, they divorced before the year was out. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Columbia's Mr. District Attorney was the second attempt to launch a film series based on the popular radio series of the same name. Adolphe Menjou plays the title role, DA Craig Warren, though top billing is bestowed upon Dennis O'Keefe as Warren's assistant Steve Bennett. Resenting his boss' constructive criticism and presumed interference, Bennett goes astray, ultimately getting mixed up with trouble-prone Marcia Manning (Marguerite Chapman). Warren quickly realizes that Marcia is a no-good, but Bennett refuses to listen. Eventually, two men meet their deaths at Marcia's manicured hands, and by the last reel it looks as though Bennett will be third on her list. A moneyspinner upon its first release, Mr. District Attorney did indeed spawn a brief series, as intended. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Getting Gertie's Garter is an updated adaptation of the venerable stage farce by Wilson Collison and Avery Hopwood. Dennis O'Keefe, newly married to lovely Sheila Ryan, is in a jam. O'Keefe's former girl friend, exotic dancer Marie McDonald, has in her possession an expensive, jeweled garter given to her by O'Keefe in his bachelor days. McDonald intends to show the garter to O'Keefe's suspicious wife, so Our Hero must retrieve the embarrassing accouterment without tipping off the missus. Previously filmed in 1927, Getting Gertie's Garter was one several enjoyable films produced by Edward Small and directed by Allan Dwan, all based on popular stage comedies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Broadway producer Earl Carroll was a Ziegfeld-like entrepreneur who staged lavish revues featuring attractive young ladies. Carroll's annual "Vanities" provided story material for three Hollywood films: Murder at the Vanities (34), A Night at Earl Carroll's (40) and Earl Carroll Vanities (45). This last film was produced by Republic Pictures, a bread-and-butter studio specializing in Westerns and serials; Republic had made musicals before, but few of them were expensive enough to allow for lavish production numbers. Earl Carroll Vanities is likewise rather threadbare, though some of the individual musical highlights aren't bad. The plot, such as it is, concerns financially strapped nightclub owner Eve Arden, who finagles Earl Carroll into staging one of his revues at her club. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a naive, honest young woman falls for a louse who takes her to illicit gambling houses. When one of them is raided and she is there, her angry father throws her out of the house. After that her life takes a real dive until she is able to talk her way into joining a chorus-line at the night club frequented by the creepy boyfriend. Even a job doesn't stop her downward spiral and soon her boyfriend jilts her for her best friend. In the end she shoots them both. More tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The genesis of The Story of Dr. Wassell is said to have been a story told by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to director Cecil B. DeMille. Gary Cooper stars as Corydon M. Wassell, a real-life country doctor from Arkansas who worked as a medical missionary in China in the years prior to WWII. When America enters the war, Dr. Wassell joins the Navy and is shipped to Java. As the Japanese overtake the island, Wassell is placed in charge of the wounded evacuated marines. Ordered to leave the area immediately, the doctor disobeys his commands, staying behind to care for ten seriously wounded men from the USS Marblehead, even as Japanese bombs rain down upon his staff. With the help of other stranded allied troops, Wassell and his wounded make it to Australia, where despite his insubordination he is lauded as a hero. Not as much of a spectacular as earlier DeMille films, The Story of Dr. Wassell concentrates on personalities, with mixed results. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Up in Mabel's Room was one of a mid-1940s series of profitable film revivals of venerable theatrical comedies, all produced by Edward Small and directed by Allan Dwan. Previously filmed in 1925, this rusty-dusty stage perennial was written by Otto Harbach and Willson Collison; Tom Reed was the scenarist hired to bring the play's creaky plot contrivances up to date. The story hinges on the fact that newly-married Gary Ainsworth (Dennis O'Keefe) once gave his former sweetheart Mabel (Gail Patrick) a sexy negligee with his initials embroidered in the lacework. It is Gary's unenviable task to retrieve the incriminating undergarment from Mabel's room before his wife Geraldine (Marjorie Reynolds) gets wise. Most of the film's laughs are generated by Mischa Auer as dour manservant Boris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide