Russell Rouse

"They didn't kill me; I was dead already," is the statement uttered by Dexter Cornell (Dennis Quaid), an English professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has been poisoned by a slow-acting toxin and who has twenty-four hours to track down his killers before he ceases to exist. Remade from the 1949 Rudolph Mate thriller by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, the co-directors jazz up the old luridness with slap-up doggishness that boosts the intensity-level higher than it deserves to go. Cornell is a burned-out novelist trying to hold on to tenure at the university while seeing his marriage collapse around him. As if that weren't enough, he is receiving amorous come-ons from smart, young student Sydney Fuller (Meg Ryan) and being badgered by another student, Nick Lang (Robert Knepper), to read his brilliant first novel. Not long after Dex demurs to Nick to read his novel, Nick is killed in a fall. Only then does Dex find out that Nick has been having an affair with his wife. Things keep going from bad to worse when, after an all-night drinking binge, Dex discovers that he has been slipped a poison that will kill him within 24 hours. Teaming up with the adoring Sydney, Dex tries to track down the person who poisoned him while dodging the cops, since he happens to be a prime murder suspect. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Career bank robber Peter Churchman Stephen Boyd plans to retire from his life of crime and live the good life in this uninspired crime thriller. He is blackmailed by Angela Tresler Giovanna Ralli into pulling off one last heist of some precious jewels located in the bank in Pamplona, Spain. Peter and three accomplices must steal the jewels during the annual running of the bulls. The festival atmosphere will hopefully allow them to pull off the crime, but the bank is located directly across the street from the local police station. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This drama tells the true story of one of Broadway's most successful madams in the 1920s. It is loosely based on the autobiography of Polly Adler. The story begins when young Polly is seduced and raped at her job by the sweatshop foreman. When her uncle, with whom she lived, learns of the act, he blames her and tosses her out. She then moves into an apartment owned by a racketeer. It is he who encourages her into her "helping" profession when he gives her money for bringing her pals to a gangster party. Soon she is beginning to build up her own clientele. As her business prospers, she begins to choose nicer locations. Her tiny cathouse becomes a haven for sleazy politicos, mobsters, and businessmen. The madame herself has a passionate romance with a young songwriter and she helps his career. He does not know of her vocation and she eventually breaks up with him to keep his reputation intact. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The fabulously successful Pillow Talk was essentially Shop Around the Corner for the 1950s. Playboy composer Rock Hudson and interior-decorator Doris Day are obliged to share a telephone party line. Naturally, their calls overlap at the least opportune times, and just as naturally, this leads to Hudson and Day despising each other without ever having met in person. In a cute but convenient coincidence, Doris' boy friend is Tony Randall, who also happens to be Hudson's best pal. Thus Hudson gets a glimpse at Day, and it's love at first sight. To avoid revealing that he's her telephone rival, Hudson poses as a wealthy Texan and turns the charm on Day. But when he starts pitching woo, Day instantly recognizes all the "make-out" lines Hudson has used on the phone with his other conquests. She gets even by decorating Hudson's apartment in a hideous manner. But Hudson loves her all the same; he "kidnaps" her, carrying her through the streets in her nightgown in full view of everyone, including a laughing cop who refuses to intervene. He praises her horrifying interior decoration job effusively, and at this point Day can't help but give in to his marriage proposal. A bit too arch and cute for modern tastes at times, Pillow Talk is still one of the best of the frothy Doris Day-Rock Hudson vehicles; it made a fortune at the box office and garnered five Oscar nominations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a pacifistic store owner does all he can to avoid association with his father, a notorious gunfighter. One day he gets drunk and shows off his own considerable skills with a pistol. Unfortunately, this attracts the attention of the man who fancies himself the town's fastest draw and he heads to the store for a little confrontation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though Wicked Woman may look like one of those heavy-breathing Hugo Haas-directed melodramas, the film was in fact directed by screenwriter Russell Rouse. The title character, played by Beverly Michaels, is a trashy blonde who swivels into a small California town. Here she weaves her seductive web around a bar owner (Richard Egan), who leaves his alcoholic wife (Evelyn Scott) behind. The two lovers scheme to sell the bar for a profit and dash off to Mexico, but their scheme is foiled by their own perfidy. Wicked Woman represents perhaps the best-ever screen performance of ubiquitous, squeaky-voiced character actor Percy Helton, who deservedly ends up as the recipient of one of the most spectacular slaps in the face in movie history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Well is a modest but generally effective plea for racial tolerance. Based loosely on a real incident, the film tells of the disappearance of a little African-American girl in a small, segregated community. Caucasian Claude Packard (Harry Morgan, the nephew of the town's richest man (Barry Kelley), is the last person seen with the little girl. Sensing a coverup when Morgan is not immediately charged, the black community is on the verge of a riot. But when it's discovered that the little girl has fallen down a well, all racial differences are forgotten as black and white neighbors work shoulder to shoulder to rescue the child. The Well tries very hard to be equitable by 1951 standards, and is heartfelt enough to overcome its occasional lapses into stereotype and condescension. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"I want to report a murder...mine." So begins D.O.A. Told in flashback, the story tells of how vacationing CPA Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien) becomes the recipient of a deadly poison known as iridium. Told by a doctor that he hasn't long to live, Bigelow desperately retraces his movements of the previous 24 hours, trying to locate his murderer. Through the aid of his secretary Paula Gibson (Pamela Britton) (who doesn't know of her employer's imminent demise), Bigelow traces a shipment of iridium to a gang of criminals who've used the poison in the commission of a crime. But for much of the film, it remains unclear why Bigelow himself was targeted. Though we know from the outset that Bigelow isn't long for this world, the film builds up an incredible amount of suspense towards the end, when Bigelow is taken "for a ride" by a psychopath (Neville Brand). with a penchant for pummeling his victims in the belly. DOA was remade in 1988 with Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second of Laurel & Hardy's two MGM starring films, Nothing But Trouble casts Stan and Ollie as, respectively, an unemployed butler and chef. Despite their inherent ineptitude, there's a wartime servant shortage, so the boys are hired by flighty dowager Mrs. Hawkley (Mary Boland), who hopes to impress visiting dignitaries from the kingdom of Orlandia. While purchasing food for Mrs. Hawkley's dinner party, Stan and Ollie meet a likeable child named Chris (David Leland)-who unbeknownst to them is Orlanda's young monarch-in-exile King Christopher. The boy's uncle, Prince Saul (Philip Merivale), intends to assassinate Chris and take (Peter Cookson) into helping her solve the case, despite his protestations and reminders of what happened "last time". It turns out that the killings are tied in with a jewel theft, a fact that comes out during the film's slapsticky finale. Tim Ryan, who also cowrote the script, is back as long-suffering Inspector Clancy, who'd like to arrest Kitty for the murders if only to shut her up for a few minutes. A note of caution: the scared-reaction humor of black porter Jeff (Shelton Brooks) may not play too well with racially-sensitive viewers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide