Samson Raphaelson Movies

In this tearjerker, a woman, depressed with the course of her life after two failed marriages and a tepid career, decides to return to her hometown and find happiness with her ex-boyfriend. Unfortunately, his cruel and manipulative mother presents a formidable obstacle to their happiness. To prevent them from marrying, she at first fakes a heart attack, but then ends up dying of the real thing. The couple marries anyway, but the husband's happiness is marred by memories of his mother's death. The lonely wife then begins an affair with a French writer. When the husband finds them in a hotel room, the affair ends. It is not long before the despondent woman tries to take her life. Fortunately she fails, and things begin to improve when her husband releases his guilt and begins concentrating on their marriage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A genuine novelty, MGM's Main Street to Broadway offers the modern viewer a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of the 1953 theatrical scene. The main plot concerns aspiring playwright Tony Monaco (Tom Burton), who pins his future on the possibility that Tallulah Bankhead will star in his first Broadway production. Along the way, Tony imagines that Tallulah has fallen in love with him, but faithful girlfriend Mary Craig (Mary Murphy) hangs around to pick up the pieces. Except for an amusing sequence in which Bankhead imagines herself as the sweet ingenue in a domestic comedy, the storyline can be dispensed with. The principal attraction of Main Street to Broadway is its glittering array of Manhattanite guest stars, including Ethel and Lionel Barrymore, Gertrude Berg, Shirley Booth, Helen Hayes, Leo Durocher, Fay Emerson, Joshua Logan, Mary Martin, Lilli Palmer and John Van Druten. In the film's best scene, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein Jr. come up with an "instant song"--the now-forgotten "There's Music in You"--then perform it for the amusement of their friends, with Rodgers on the piano and Hammerstein rendering the vocals! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bing Crosby stars as Paul Merrick, an irresponsible songwriter in Mr. Music. Merrick's improvidence and prodigality has made him persona non grata in show business, so his secretary Katherine Holbrook (Nancy Olson) takes it upon herself to rehabilitate her boss. Meanwhile, producer Alex Conway (Charles Coburn) desperately needs a hit show to survive. Conway takes a chance on Merrick, who then enlists several of Katherine's college-student friends to put on a musical revue. All the group needs now is some money--$300,000, to be exact. Mr. Music is enlivened by several guest-star appearances, including Marge & Gower Champion, Dorothy Kirsten, Peggy Lee, the Merry Macs, and Groucho Marx who performs an amusing vaudeville turn with Crosby. Director Richard Haydn shows up in a pivotal cameo role, billed as "Claude Curdle." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

That Lady in Ermine tells two parallel stories, both taking place in the small Mittel-European duchy of Bergamo, but one set in the 19th century and the other in the 16th. In 1861, the Countess Angelina (Betty Grable) and her newlywed husband, Baron Mario, have just entered the bridal chamber when a Hungarian army regiment under the command of Colonel Teglash (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) invades. Mario flees the castle, leaving Angelina to face the invaders, just as her 16th --century ancestor Francesca (also Betty Grable) was forced to protect her turf under similar circumstances. Colonel Teglash is struck by a portrait of Francesca (the lady in ermine of the title), and the resemblance between her and Angelina makes it difficult for him to rule with his customary iron fist. Meanwhile, Francesca haunts the dreams of both Angelina and Teglash. She appears to advise Angelina to pretend interest in the colonel and then kill him, much as she herself did so many years ago. At the same time, Teglash dreams that Francesca/Angelina overcomes the desire to kill him and falls in love with him. The 19th-century couple play out their story against the backdrop of Francesca's own tale, but with the twist that Angelina really does find herself caring for Teglash. Although the direction is credited to Ernst Lubitsch, he died after 8 days of filming; the film was completed by Otto Preminger. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

If the Perfect Marriage in this romantic comedy were truly perfect, there wouldn't be any story, would there? Outwardly an ideal couple, Maggie and Dale Williams (Loretta Young, David Niven) have grown tired of one another after 10 years. Petty squabbles lead to major battles, exacerbated by the well-meaning interference of friends and relatives. Caught in the middle is Maggie and Dale's daughter Cookie (Nona Griffith), who loves both parents equally and doesn't want to choose between them-which may very well happen if things get any worse. Leonard Spigelgass' screenplay, based on a play by Samson Raphaelson, is a lot closer to real life than most films of the period. Funny though the disagreements between the Williamses may be, there is an underlying pain and harshness to their bickering, which even the reasonably happy ending cannot altogether dissipate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The presence of William Powell as legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld at the beginning of Ziegfeld Follies might lead an impressionable viewer from thinking that this 1946 film is a Technicolor sequel to the 1936 Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld. Not so: this is more in the line of an all-star revue, much like such early talkies as Hollywood Revue of 1929 and Paramount on Parade. We meet a grayed, immaculately garbed Ziegfeld in Paradise (his daily diary entry reads "Another heavenly day"), where he looks down upon the world and muses over the sort of show he'd be putting on were he still alive. Evidently Ziegfeld's shade has something of a celestial conduit to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, since his "dream" show is populated almost exclusively by MGM stars. Vincente Minnelli is given sole directorial credit at the beginning of the film, though many of the individual "acts" were helmed by other hands. The Bunin puppets offer a tableau depicting anxious theatregoers piling into a Broadway theatre, as well as caricatures of Ziegfeld's greatest stars. The opening number, "Meet the Ladies", spotlights a whip-wielding (!) Lucille Ball, a bevy of chorus girls dressed as panthers, and, briefly, Margaret O'Brien. Kathryn Grayson and "The Ziegfeld Girls" perform "There's Beauty Everywhere." Victor Moore and Edward Arnold show up in an impressionistically staged adaptation of the comedy chestnut "Pay the Two Dollars". Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer (a teaming which evidently held high hopes for MGM) dance to the tune of "This Heart is Mine." "Number Please" features Keenan Wynn in an appallingly unfunny rendition of an old comedy sketch (performed far better as "Alexander 2222" in Abbott and Costello's Who Done It?) Lena Horne, strategically placed in the film at a juncture that could be edited out in certain racist communities, sings "Love". Red Skelton stars in the film's comedy highlight, "When Television Comes"-which is actually Skelton's classic "Guzzler's Gin" routine (this sequence was filmed late in 1944, just before Red's entry into the armed services). Astaire and Bremer return for a lively rendition of "Limehouse Blues". Judy Garland, lampooning every Hollywood glamour queen known to man, stops the show with "The Interview". Even better is the the historical one-time-only teaming of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in "The Babbitt and the Bromide". The excellence of these sequence compensate for the mediocrity of "The Sweepstakes Ticket", wherein Fanny Brice screams her way through a dull comedy sketch with Hume Cronyn (originally removed from the US prints of Ziegfeld Follies, this sequence was restored for television). Excised from the final release print (pared down to 110 minutes, from a monumental 273 minutes!) was Judy Garland's rendition of "Liza", a duet featuring Garland and Mickey Rooney, and a "Baby Snooks" sketch featuring Fanny Brice, Hanley Stafford and B. S. Pully. A troubled and attenuated production, Ziegfeld Follies proved worth the effort when the film rang up a $2 million profit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland, stars of the 1940 hit Arise, My Love, were immediately reteamed for Skylark. Adapted from the play by Samson Rafaelson, the film stars Colbert as the wife of a neglectful businessman Milland (her role had been played on Broadway by Gertrude Lawrence). Brian Aherne is a handsome bachelor who hopes to win Colbert away from her husband. At first enjoying her vacation from marriage, Colbert finds she can't keep up with Aherne's peripatetic lifestyle, and returns to Milland. Skylark's comic highlight is a slapstick sequence in which Colbert tries to prepare lunch in a yacht during a storm. The scene was shot in a single take, an accomplishment in which the actress took justifiable pride. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Shop Around the Corner is adapted from the Hungarian play by Nikolaus (Miklos) Laszlo. Budapest gift-shop clerk Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and newly hired shopgirl Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) hate each other almost at first sight. Kralik would prefer the company of the woman with whom he is corresponding by mail but has never met. Novak likewise carries a torch for her male pen pal, whom she also has never laid eyes on. It doesn't take a PhD degree to figure out that Kralik and Novak have been writing letters to each other. The film's many subplots are carried by Frank Morgan as the kindhearted shopkeeper and by Joseph Schildkraut as a backstabbing employee whose comeuppance is sure to result in spontaneous applause from the audience. Directed with comic delicacy by Ernst Lubitsch, this was later remade in 1949 as In the Good Old Summertime, and in 1998 as You've Got Mail. It was also musicalized as the 1963 Broadway production She Loves Me. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Generally considered one of director Ernst Lubitsch's lesser works, Angel stars Marlene Dietrich as Maria, the neglected wife of Sir Frederick Barker (Herbert Marshall), a British diplomat who travels often and seems little concerned with his spouse. Maria has nearly reached her breaking point when she travels to Paris to visit her old friend Anna Dmitrivena (Laura Hope Crews), a Grand Duchess who also operates an exclusive bordello. While in Paris, Maria meets Anthony Halton (Melvyn Douglas), a visitor from America who seems quite taken with her. While Maria enjoys Anthony's attentions, she backs off and retreats to England. Shortly after her return, Maria and Frederick attend the races and she spots Anthony in the crowd. Maria is tempted to continue her romance with Anthony (who now realizes that she's married), while Frederick begins to wonder if his wife might be growing restless. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Dressed to Thrill was a brave but foredoomed attempt to transform Russian musical favorite Tutta Rolf into a Hollywood movie star. Rolf is cast in a dual role, as famed stage singer Nadia Petrova and humble dressmaker Colette DuBois. It hardly takes two reels before the two heroines' identities are switched when Colette impulsively decides to wear a gown created with Nadia in mind. Hero Bill Trent (Clive Brook) looks confused even after he's figured out which girl is which. A remake of a French film of the same name (also directed by Harry Lachman), Dressed to Thrill was adapted by Samson Rafaelson from a play by Albert Savoir. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Samson Raphaelson's stage play, Accent on Youth focuses on a May-December romance. Herbert Marshall (46 years old at the time) is a successful middle-aged playwright; Constance Cummings is his young secretary, who prefers the company of mature men. She sets her cap on marrying the playwright, while he fends off her attentions. By the time Marshall has grown fond enough of Constance to propose, she has changed her mind and fallen for a man her own age. Accent on Youth was remade as Mr. Music (50) and But Not For Me (59), with, respectively, 49-year-old Bing Crosby and 58-year-old Clark Gable as the "elderly" hero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide