Irving Rapper Movies

President Richard Nixon's legal counsellor Charles Colson was tried for several criminal charges relating to the Watergate cover-up, eventually spending some time in prison. This film explores Colson's personal crisis, and the religious convictions which, crossing party boundaries, worked to bring about his conversion from being a cynical politician to becoming a committed Christian. Far from being corrupted in prison, Colson (Dean Jones) became a missionary for his beliefs and worked to reform many of the 'hard cases" he encountered there. After the period covered by the film, it is worthwhile to note that Colson chose a new career for himself following his release from prison -- prison missionary. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Taken from the autobiography of the world's first transsexual, George Jorgensen (John Hansen) is a woman trapped in a man's body who opts for surgery and hormone treatments to make him a woman. Events of his childhood are covered, showing young George preferring dolls over contact sports. Inducted into the Army, the sexually confused George learns to hide his emotions during his military experience. He travels to Denmark where a pioneering team of doctors agree to perform the surgical process for the first time ever. His kindly aunt in Denmark (Joan Tompkins) gives George the name of Christine after her late daughter. Hansen is unconvincing as a woman, and there are several passages in this biographical drama that lead to unintentional hilarity. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This Italian drama tells the story of Christ's crucifixion from the viewpoint of the Roman emperor's procurator in Israel who must try to quell a Jewish revolt. In a bizarre twist, John Drew Barrymore plays both Jesus and Judas in the film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Whatever the "miracle" is in this story, set back in the 19th century, it tends to be buried underneath the multiple romances of the heroine Teresa (Carroll Baker), a woman who leaves the convent to find one specific man. Teresa falls in love with Michael (Roger Moore) a dashing Englishman in the British army that is fighting Napoleon in Spain. She opts for leaving the cloister to find her love. Meanwhile, during her absence, a statue of the Virgin Mary comes to life and takes her place in the convent, hence the "miracle" of the title. Along her journey, Teresa meets and eventually marries a handsome gypsy (Vittorio Gassman) who comes to an unhappy end. Widowed and grieving, young Teresa next becomes enamored of a bullfighter (Gustavo Rojo) whose luck in the ring ends tragically one day. At this point, it would seem the cloister was a better offer, but Teresa continues in her journey to find Michael. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Brave One is a bull named Gitano (or Gypsy). Mexican lad Michael Ray "adopts" Gitano after saving the animal's life during a storm. The friendship between bull and boy is threatened when Gitano's legal owners claim the animal and ship it off to the bullring. Moved by the boy's plight, the President of Mexico signs a "pardon" for Gitano-but not soon enough to prevent the bull's appearance at the Plaze de Mexico at Mexico City, where he faces top matador Fermin Rivera. The Brave One was helmed by Irving Rapper, a man best known for his Bette Davis vehicles at Warner Bros. Based on a true incident, the film earned a "best story" Academy Award for one Robert Rich-who, much to the embarrassment of the Academy (and the delight of civil libertarians) turned out to be blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Long available only in its "flat", black and white TV version, The Brave One was recently restored to its Technicolor and CinemaScope glory by the American Movie Classics cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The film Bad For Each Other, together with stars Charlton Heston and Lizabeth Scott and director Irving Rapper, were originally assembled into a package by producer Hal Wallis for Paramount. Shortly thereafter, however, Wallis found it expedient to sell the whole package to Columbia, though the film still has the "look" of a Paramount "A"-picture. Heston plays poor-but-proud Army doctor Tom Owen, who through the influence of Pittsburgh socialite Helen Curtis (Lizabeth Scott) builds up a posh society practice. Though he's happy with the money and prestige, Dr. Owen is at heart a man of the people, and he'd much prefer tending to the families of the local steel miners. During a moment of extreme crisis, Owen is forced to choose immediately between the life offered him by Helen and the course he knows he should be following. Dianne Foster plays Joan Lasher, the girl Owen left behind when he began pursuing the ice-princess. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bette Davis co-stars with her then-new husband Gary Merrill in the British melodrama Another Man's Poison. Adapted from Leslie Sands' novel Deadlock, the story concerns one Janet Frobisher (Davis), a successful writer of suspense novels. Janet's life is thrown into turmoil when her disreputable long-lost husband, returns after a three-year absence. So as not to destroy her current romantic involvement with Larry (Anthony Steel), the fiancé of her secretary Chris (Barbara Murray), Janet poisons her inconvenient spouse and disposes of the body. At this point, George Bates (Gary Merrill), the dead husband's criminal accomplice, comes calling, demanding "hush money." So that he can keep an eye on Janet, George poses as her husband. Now, Janet is obliged to begin plotting George's demise. A heart-stopping surprise ending tops this nasty but effective little morality play. Another Man's Poison was distributed stateside by RKO Radio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Philip Yordan's stage hit Anna Lucasta posed two problems to Hollywood in 1949. For one thing, the story concerned a prostitute who is exploited by her greedy family. For another, the characters were black, thereby cutting the box-office potential in half in those racially divisive times. In adapting Anna Lucasta to the screen, Yordan and co-scripter Arthur Laurents "laundered" the property for popular consumption. Anna's sexual hijinks are only hinted at, and in fact an impressionable viewer might even get the idea that she's still a virgin when the film comes to an end. And the racial angle was tackled by transforming the characters into Polish-Americans, which enabled Paulette Goddard to assume the leading role. Otherwise, the film differs but little from the play: Thrown out of her house by her drunken father (Oscar Homolka), Anna is welcomed back into the fold only as bait to trap an unmarried, wealthy farmer. Anna squelches her family's avaricious plans by genuinely falling in love with the poor sucker who's been targeted as her husband. Broderick Crawford fares best as Anna's doltish brother-in-law, a characterization deftly combining boorish selfishness and lovable humor. Anna Lucasta was remade with most of its Broadway bite intact in 1958 -- this time with an all-black cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Deception is an operatic rehash of the 1929 film Jealousy. Music teacher Bette Davis--who evidently has a large student pool, judging by the size of her penthouse apartment--is reunited with her cellist lover Paul Henreid, whom she believed to have been killed in the war. Henreid wants to marry Davis, but he is unaware that she has, for the past several years, been the "protege" of composer Claude Rains. Rains agrees to keep quiet about his affair with Davis, but takes sadistic delight in tormenting the woman and working behind the scenes to sabotage Henreid's career. When Rains tells Bette of his plans to publicly humiliate Henreid, she shoots her ex-lover dead. Henreid agrees to stand by Davis no matter what is in store for her. Director Irving Rapper had originally wanted to treat the hoary plot twists of Deception comically, with the three principals walking off together at the end with a "what the hell?" attitude. He was tersely told to stick to the script; after all, people didn't pay to see Bette Davis but to see her suffer. Like the 1929 version of Jealousy, Deception was based on a play by Louis Verneuil. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There's slightly more fancy than fact in this lavish film biography of legendary American composer George Gershwin, but oh! That music! Director Irving Rapper had wanted Tyrone Power to play Gershwin, but Power was still serving in the Marines, so Rapper had to settle for Robert Alda--who isn't bad at all, just a trifle over-enthusiastic. The film traces Gershwin's rise from a "song plugger" for a Manhattan music publishing company to the heights of international fame and fortune. Gershwin's first big hit is "Swanee," introduced on Broadway by Al Jolson (who plays himself, making his first film appearance in six years). In collaboration with his lyricist brother Ira (well played by Herbert Rudley), George pens hit after hit in show after show. Impresario Charles Coburn is happy with this, but George's kindly old music teacher Albert Basserman wants his prize pupil to aspire to something more artistic. Gershwin responds with "Rhapsody in Blue", which debuts at Aeolian Hall in 1924 under the baton of bandleader Paul Whiteman (also playing himself). As his fame and workload grows, George finds he has no time at all for romance; the two (fictional) ladies in his life, both of whom eventually realize that they'll always have to play second fiddle to Gershwin's muse, are musical comedy star Joan Leslie and socialite Alexis Smith. Gershwin continues to compose such masterpieces as "An American in Paris", "Cuban Overture", "Concerto in F" and the 1935 folk opera Porgy and Bess. He will not allow himself to rest on his laurels, ruthlessly pushing himself to top all his previous accomplishments. Finally, the strain proves too great: George Gershwin dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1937, at the age of 39. Featured in the cast as themselves (in addition to those already mentioned) are Gershwin's lifelong friend Oscar Levant, producer George White, and Broadway performers Tom Patricola and Hazel Scott. Morris Carnovsky and Rosemary DeCamp play George's parents, while Julie Bishop is cast as Ira's wife Lee, who is saddled with the film's silliest line: "Ira, promise me that you'll never become a genius." Alternately hokey and inspired, Rhapsody in Blue has weathered the years as one of Hollywood's most solid biopics. And, as a bonus, we are treated to a virtually complete performance (running a full reel) of the title composition. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this grim melodrama, Barbara Stanwyck plays the eldest of three wealthy sisters who become orphans when their father dies in France. Threatened with the danger of losing the opulent family home, Big Sister makes a grand sacrifice and secretly marries a real estate developer so she can inherit her aunt's fortune. A few years later, she learns that he is after the family estate and wants to tear it down so she leaves him and tries to stop him. More time passes and the husband ends up taking her to court when he learns that she has borne him a son without telling him. The part of "Gig Young" was played by actor Byron Barr who later assumed the name before he became famous. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a loyal research psychologist escapes from Budapest after the nature of his work is discovered. He resettles in Scotland and soon resumes his work. His benefactors provide him a female assistant, and at first the stubborn scientist is not pleased. Eventually the two fall in love. Not long after the research is finished, they marry and for a time the two are happy. But then a terrible fire erupts and the assistant/wife dies trying to protect the researcher's valuable notes. The distraught doctor dedicates the rest of his work to her memory and then heads to China to work as a medical missionary. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The second of Paul Muni's biographical films for Warner Bros., the Oscar-winning The Life of Emile Zola is by far the best, even allowing for the dramatic license taken with the material. When first we meet French novelist and essayist Zola, he is starving in a Parisian garret with his painter friend, Paul Cezanne. Each time Zola attempts to write "the truth," he is stymied by governmental censors. Still, he is able to achieve both fame and fortune with the publication of "Nana," an unardorned and best-selling tale of a prostitute (whom we can safely assume was not quite as likeable or attractive as Erin O'Brien-Moore, who plays the novel's "role model"). The lion's share of the film is devoted to Zola's attempts to clear the reputation of Army captain Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut), who has been framed on a charge of treason by his superiors and condemned to Devil's Island. Publishing his famous manifesto "J'accuse," Zola leaves himself wide open for public condemnation and criminal prosecution. Though he delivers a brilliant self-defense in court, Zola is found guilty. Forced to flee to England, he continues railing against the unjust, corrupt military establishment, eventually forcing a retrial and exoneration of Dreyfus. Alas, Zola is killed in a freak accident at home before he can meet the liberated Dreyfus. At his funeral, Emile Zola is eulogized by Anatole France (Morris Carnovsky), who refers to the fallen crusader as "a moment of the conscience of man." For various reasons -- some dramatic, some legal -- the actual facts of "L'affaire Dreyfus" are altered by the Norman Reilly Raine/Heinz Herald/Geza Herczeg screenplay.

The fact that Dreyfus was railroaded because he was Jewish is obscured; in fact, except for a very brief visual reference, the word "Jew" is never mentioned. Only those villains whose names were a matter of public record (Major Dort, Major Esterhazy) are specifically identified. Others are referred to as the Chief of Staff, the Minister of War, etc. to avoid lawsuits from their descendants (remember that the events depicted in the film, most of which take place between 1894 and 1902, were still within living memory in 1937). As for Dreyfus himself, he was not freed and restored to rank in 1902, the year of Zola's death, but in 1906-after being found guilty again in an 1899 retrial (Dreyfus died in 1935, outliving everyone else involved in the case). These historical gaffes can be forgiven in the light of the film's overall message: that a single small, clear voice can fight City Hall. If for nothing else, The Life of Emile Zola deserves classic status due to Paul Muni's towering performance, most notably in the unforgettable summation scene: "By all that I have done for France, by my works -- by all that I have written, I swear to you that Dreyfus is innocent. May all that melt away -- may my name be forgotten, if Dreyfus is not innocent. He is innocent." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide