John F. Seitz Movies

In this action drama, ranchers and lumberjacks are at loggerheads over the proper usage of the land. When the logging team finds a prime stand, the ranchers beg the loggers not to harvest it because the lack of trees will cause deadly mud slides during the rainy season that will destroy their homes. The battle becomes quite heated as the ranchers and the lumberman begin blowing each other up. In the midst of explosive tempers and fighting, a romance blooms between lovers on each side. Finally the lead forester sees that he is wrong after the head rancher's daughter, the woman he loves, is almost blown to bits. Unfortunately, his partner doesn't and continues to fight until he is shot and killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this adventure, a pilot and a radio commentator crash on an island just off the Australian coast and discover a crazed scientist and his three lovely daughters Venus, Urana, and Mercuria. The girls have never seen a man other than their father. When the commentator realizes that the scientist has been working on atomic experiments, he threatens to expose the scientist. In retaliation, the scientist destroys their airplane. Fortunately, the lovely daughters help them build a raft. Unfortunately, the mad mad scientist sets off a dreadful explosion. The ensuing blast attracts the attention of the Australian authorities. The survivors are soon rescued. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The conflict between duty and conscience is explored in the WWII drama The Deep Six. Alan Ladd stars as Naval gunnery officer Alec Austin, a Quaker whose sincere pacifist sentiments do not sit well with his crew members. When he refuses to fire upon an unidentified plane, the word spreads that Austin cannot be relied upon in battle (never mind that the plane turns out to be one of ours). To prove that he's worthy of command, Austin volunteers for a dangerous mission: the rescue of a group of US pilots on a Japanese-held island. The ubiquitous William Bendix costars as Frenchy Shapiro (!), Austin's Jewish petty officer and severest critic. If the film has a villain, it is Keenan Wynn as ambitious Lt. Commander Edge, who seems to despise anyone who isn't a mainline WASP.The Deep Six was based on a novel by Martin Dibner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Natalie Wood plays what was touted as her first "grown up" role in the tense melodrama A Cry in the Night. Based loosely on the Caryl Chessman case, the film showcases Raymond Burr as a psycho who stalks and attacks young couples on Lover's Lane. Overpowering Wood's boyfriend, Burr kidnaps the girl and locks her up in a seedy one-room apartment. Though he barely lays a hand on her, Wood has every reason to be terrified of her captor, who has a disturbing habit of brutally killing small animals. Meanwhile, Wood's police-captain father Edmond O'Brien brusquely ignores all manner of civil liberties as he and fellow officer Brian Donlevy turn the town inside out in search of the girl and her abductor. Carol Veazie appears as Burr's blowsy, dominating mother, while Mary Lawrence offers an interesting characterization as Wood's plain-Jane sister, who is jealous of all the attention showered on her missing sibling. Cry in the Night is a surprisingly lively offering from the normally uninspired director Frank Tuttle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Packaged and sold as an outdoor actioner, Many Rivers to Cross is as much a comedy as anything else. Robert Taylor stars as 18th century trapper Bushrod Gentry, who is himself entrapped into marriage by the spunky Mary Stuart Cherne (Eleanor Parker). Escaping his marital responsibilities (which were impressed upon him on threat of death), Gentry heads into the North Country, with Mary in hot pursuit. Hero and heroine spend the rest of the picture taking turns rescuing each other from hostile Indians. Some of the humor is predicated upon the wholesale slaughter of the "redskins", and as such is a bit hard to take when seen today. Supporting Taylor and Parker are Victor McLaglen as the heroine's burly father, and TV-stars-to be James Arness (Gunsmoke) and Russell Johnson and Alan Hale Jr. (Gilligan's Island). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hell on Frisco Bay is a slam-bang return to the sort of gangster fare turned out by the yard at Warner Bros. in the 1930s. Alan Ladd plays ex-cop Steve Rollins, who serves five years on a manslaughter rap. Upon his release, Rollins dedicates himself to finding the real killer. He soon learns that the man responsible for the frame-up was Victor Amato (Edward G. Robinson), the crime kingpin who rules the roost on the docks of San Francisco. Hoping to keep the heat off his operation, Amato "invites" Rollins to join his gang. Had Rollins accepted at this point, the film would have been over; instead, he doggedly pursues the gang boss with the help of such allies as cast-off gangster moll Kay Stanley (Fay Wray) and police lieutenant Dan Bianco (William Demarest). Amato is so desperate at one point that he orders the murder of his own nephew; surely a man with this sort of temperament is doomed to a horrible demise, and that's just what happens. Joanne Dru costars as Rollins' estranged wife Marcia, who believes in her husband but doesn't relish the notion of his being shot full of holes by Amato's goons. At the time of the film's release, the critics went overboard in their approval of Edward G. Robinson's full-blooded reprisal of the sort of role which made him famous (Robinson himself hated the part, but needed the work). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The strangest aspect of the low-budget fantasy effort The Rocket Man is the fact that one of its screenwriters was Lenny Bruce. There's nothing scatalogical or even satirical in the film itself, however. Essentially an Andy Hardyesque comedy drama with a peripheral sci-fi slant, the story concerns a lonely orphan boy named Timmy (George "Foghorn" Winslow) who receives a toy ray gun for Christmas. Only it isn't a toy, but the genuine article, dropped off by a friendly spaceman. Whenever Timmy shoots the gun at someone, the rays cause the "victim" to speak nothing but the truth. The gun comes in handy when the villain of the piece (Emory Parnell) tries to evict the orphans. Timmy also uses the weapon to expedite the romance of nominal leads Anne Francis and John Agar. Also appearing in Rocket Man are Spring Byington and Charles Coburn, who'd previously been felicitously teamed in Louisa (1950). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Framed for robbery, 18th century medical student Alan Ladd is sentenced to a New South Wales penal colony. En route to the prison, Ladd is tormented by sadistic ship's captain James Mason, while Mason's beloved Patricia Medina takes a fancy to the new prisoner. Once at the colony, Ladd is befriended by governor Sir Cedric Hardwicke, since the populace is in desperate need of a qualified physician. Mason's efforts to continue persecuting Ladd are foiled when Mason is killed by a group of disgruntled aborigines. Though it sounds a lot like Captain Blood, Botany Bay was based on a novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originating during the science-fiction/Red-Scare boom of the '50s, Invaders From Mars is an entertaining little picture that holds up reasonably well. David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) is a 12-year-old astronomy buff who is stunned to see a flying saucer landing in the sand pit beyond his backyard. His father, George (Leif Erickson), ventures out to look the next morning and mysteriously disappears. David's mother, Mary (Hillary Brooke), worriedly calls police, but they are quickly swallowed up by the sand in the backyard. Later, George and the two cops return, but their personalities are markedly different having been taken over by the Martians. As David tries to find help, everyone around him comes under the frightening zombie-like spell. He finally encounters two believers in Dr. Blake (Helena Carter) and Dr. Kelston (Arthur Franz). Discovering David's shocking story to be true, the doctors call in the military setting up a confrontation that escalates when David and Dr. Blake are taken captive within the Martian craft. The soldiers race to save the pair from the green menace leading to an explosive finale that involves bullets, grenades, TNT, and a spectacular alien ray gun that can melt stone. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide

Joel McCrea plays 19th-century miner Rick Nelson in The San Francisco Story. The year is 1856, and Frisco is a wide-open town. To stem the activities of crooks and con artists, newspaper editor Jim Martin (Onslow Stevens) organizes a group of peace-keeping vigilantes. Nelson, an old friend of Martin's, arrives in the Golden Gate city to help out. The villain of the piece is political boss Andrew Cain (Sidney Blackmer), who regards San Francisco as his own personal fiefdom. When not battling Cain's bought-off flunkies and hulking henchman, Nelson dallies with Cain's erstwhile girlfriend Adelaide McCall (Yvonne DeCarlo). Not so much a western as a historical actioner, The San Francisco Story is tip-top entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Al Goddard, (Alan Ladd) special investigator for the U.S. post office, is assigned to collar two criminals who've murdered a postal detective. Goddard must first locate the only witness to the crime, attractive young nun, Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert). Posing as a crook, Goddard gains the confidence of the murderers' boss Earl Boettiger (Paul Stewart), who has worked out a scheme to defraud the post office of one million dollars. Once they've tumbled to the deception, the crooks take Goddard and the nun prisoner, leading to a fight to the finish in a lonely industrial district. Appointment with Danger tends to draw chuckles rather than shivers nowadays, thanks to the casting of future Dragnet co-stars Jack Webb and Harry Morgan as the murderers -- and as icing to the cake, viewers are treated to a scene in which Webb bumps off Morgan! As a whole, the film, the last of Alan Ladd's series of film noir, is uneven and generally unsuccessful. However, it contains some crisp, tough dialogue and some terrific action sequences which make it worthwhile. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dear Brat was the second sequel to the 1947 comedy hit Dear Ruth (the first sequel, in case you're interested, was Dear Wife). Mona Freeman is back as Miriam Watkins, still minding everyone's business but her own. This time around, Miriam "adopts" a criminal (Lyle Bettger) who claims he wants to go straight. The crook's presence does not sit well with Miriam's politician father (Edward Arnold), nor does it appear that the "lost sheep" has any real intention of reforming. Thanks to Miriam's influence, however, the criminal ends up being as good as his word. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard ranks among the most scathing satires of Hollywood and the cruel fickleness of movie fandom. The story begins at the end as the body of Joe Gillis (William Holden) is fished out of a Hollywood swimming pool. From The Great Beyond, Joe details the circumstances of his untimely demise (originally, the film contained a lengthy prologue wherein the late Mr. Gillis told his tale to his fellow corpses in the city morgue, but this elicited such laughter during the preview that Wilder changed it). Hotly pursued by repo men, impoverished, indebted "boy wonder" screenwriter Gillis ducks into the garage of an apparently abandoned Sunset Boulevard mansion. Wandering into the spooky place, Joe encounters its owner, imperious silent star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Upon learning Joe's profession, Norma inveigles him into helping her with a comeback script that she's been working on for years. Joe realizes that the script is hopeless, but the money is good and he has nowhere else to go. Soon the cynical and opportunistic Joe becomes Norma's kept man. While they continue collaborating, Norma's loyal and protective chauffeur Max Von Mayerling (played by legendary filmmaker Erich von Stroheim) contemptuously watches from a distance. More melodramatic than funny, the screenplay by Wilder and Charles Brackett began life as a comedy about a has-been silent movie actress and the ambitious screenwriter who leeches off her. (Wilder originally offered the film to Mae West, Mary Pickford and Pola Negri. Montgomery Clift was the first choice for the part of opportunistic screenwriter Joe Gillis, but he refused, citing as "disgusting" the notion of a 25-year-old man being kept by a 50-year-old woman.) Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running musical version has served as a tour-de-force for contemporary actresses ranging from Glenn Close to Betty Buckley to Diahann Carroll. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide