Roger Smith Movies
Born in California, Roger Smith was raised in Nogales, Arizona, where his father ran a clothing manufacturing business. Not too handy around his father's shop, Smith was better suited to performing; he took singing, elocution and dancing lessons while he was still learning to walk and talk, and by age 12 he was a member of an LA-based kiddie musical troupe. While attending the University of Arizona on an athletic scholarship, Smith won several amateur-show prizes as a singer and guitarist, but did not immediately entertain thoughts of making show business his life. During his 30 months' active service in the Naval Reserve, Smith renewed his singing at various public and private functions. At one of these, he met film star James Cagney, who suggested that Smith might try for a career in Hollywood. Signed to a Columbia Pictures contract, Smith appeared in such films as No Time to Be Young (1957) and Operation Madball (1957), and played a small recurring role on the television sitcom Father Knows Best, produced by Columbia's TV subsidiary Screen Gems. The up-and-coming young actor touched bases again with Jimmy Cagney when the latter recommended that Smith be hired to play Creighton Chaney (aka Lon Chaney Jr.) in the Lon Chaney biopic Man of 1000 Faces (1957). On the strength of this film and his work in the subsequent Cagney vehicle Never Steal Anything Small, Smith was engaged by director Morton Da Costa to portray the older Patrick Dennis in Auntie Mame (1959); this, in turn, led to a long-term contract with Warner Bros., and the co-starring role of Jeff Spencer in Warners' TV detective series 77 Sunset Strip. Roger Smith went on to essay the title character in the 1965 weekly TV adaptation of Mister Roberts before retiring from acting in 1967 to manage the career of his second wife, musical star Ann-Margret. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Director Jackie Kong, who later made the cult favorite Blood Diner (1987), directed this terrible monster movie for exploitation pioneer Bill Osco, who stars under the pseudonym "Rexx Coltrane." The plot concerns a mutant child who has become a monster after being exposed to toxic waste in a small Idaho town. Mortimer (Osco) wants to investigate a series of disappearances, only to have his efforts stymied by the town's mayor (José Ferrer), who is worried about the potential economic impact on the local potato industry. This abysmal horror film was made in 1980 and shelved for three years despite a cast which includes Oscar winners Ferrer and Dorothy Malone, Martin Landau, and Kinky Friedman. Other featured performers are Ruth Buzzi, Murray Langston ("The Unknown Comic"), and Kenny Rogers' wife (at the time), Marianne Gordon. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Landau, José Ferrer, (more)
- 1968
Roger Smith plays private eye Richard Rogue in this cinematic revival of the old radio series. Rogue gallantly tries to help would-be suicide Greta Baldwyn. This selfless act enmeshes him in a murder scheme, with himself as the fall guy. The film's chief value is its veteran supporting cast, including Dennis Morgan, Farley Granger, Edgar Bergen, Mala Powers and Brian Donlevy. Never given a theatrical release, Rogue's Gallery premiered as an NBC network movie presentation in 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1964
In this beach movie, a group of teenagers hang out at the Silver Palms everyday after school. Because things can get quite raucous in the club, the protagonist's grandfather wants to shut it down. When the clever kids discover that grandpa used to be a bootlegger, they blackmail him into keeping it open. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Darren, Pamela Tiffin, (more)
- 1959
Only one of three films directed by screenwriter Charles Lederer, known for movies as disparate as The Thing (1951) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), this crime comedy-drama-musical obviously defies categorization. Mixing James Cagney as a gangster out to control a big union, with musical numbers and cute songs is about like mixing onions and vanilla pudding. Jake MacIllaney (Cagney) wants to be elected president of Longshoreman's union 26 and, being a top mob boss, is used to getting his way. He is not past almost any stunt or method of coercion to get votes. Dan Cabot (Roger Smith) is Jake's lawyer, and after Jake meets Cabot's wife Linda (Shirley Jones), he sets his sights on conquering her affections. Disregard the husband, he can be taken care of. Setting this to music introduces some entertaining songs (I'm Sorry -- I Want a Ferrari) but the seriousness of the mobster's immorality and power is hard to reconcile with a perky tune about not stealing the small stuff. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Roger Smith, (more)
- 1958
Before there was Airport and its offspring, there was this aerial disaster film that stars Nancy Davis (later Nancy Reagan) as the devoted wife of an iron-willed sky pilot in charge of the doomed passenger plane. The trouble begins when the pilot realizes he must make an emergency landing in the Atlantic. Each of the diverse passengers has his or her own reaction to the impending disaster and many confessions are heard all around. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on what each person confessed) the water landing goes without a hitch and a US Naval ship is right there to save them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Merrill, Nancy Davis, (more)
Auntie Mame began as a novel by Patrick Dennis (aka Ed Fitzgerald), then was adapted into a long-running Broadway play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. This 1958 film version permits Rosalind Russell to recreate her stage role as Mame Dennis, the flamboyant, devil-may-care aunt of young, impressionable Patrick Dennis. Left in Mame's care when his millionaire father drops dead, young Patrick (Jan Handzlik) is quickly indoctrinated into his aunt's philosophy that "Life is a banquet--and some poor suckers are starving to death." Social-climbing executor Dwight Babcock (Fred Clark) does his best to raise Patrick as a stuffy American aristocrat, but Mame battles Babcock to allow the boy to be as free-spirited as she is. In 1974, Auntie Mame was remade as the filmmusical Mame with Lucille Ball. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker, (more)
- 1957
In this action melodrama, the troubled lives of three young robbers are presented. One of these is a college dropout and draft dodger who plans to rob a supermarket so he can purchase a boat and escape his problems. He enlists the aid of two others: one is an indebted man who is responsible for the high medical bills of a con woman who hurt herself while on a date with him, the other is a pathological liar who cannot cope with his failed marriage and writing career. During the robbery, the dropout gets too wired and kills the manager. They flee, but his cohorts are captured by the cops while he steals a truck and heads screaming down the road for Mexico. A great chase ensues until the truck's brakes fail and he suffers a fatal, fiery crash. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Vaughn, Roger Smith, (more)
One screen legend tips his hat to another as James Cagney portrays horror film icon Lon Chaney in Man of a Thousand Faces. Joseph Pevney's bio-pic takes a somewhat whitewashed view of Chaney's career, but Cagney is nothing short of riveting in the lead. The film begins as Chaney, the son of two deaf parents, is tasting success in vaudeville as a knockabout juggler, mime, and quick-change artist. Chaney meets Cleva Creighton (Dorothy Malone) and hires her as his assistant. They fall in love and marry, but when Chaney reveals his parents are deaf mutes, she recoils in revulsion. When she gives birth to a son, she refuses to look at him, thinking their child will also be deaf. Chaney proves her wrong, but Cleva reveals an underlying psychological affliction that grows in intensity as Chaney's vaudeville success increases. When Chaney becomes a vaudeville star, Cleva walks out on both Chaney and her son. Chaney's son is sent to a home, since after Cleva's departure, he hasn't the money to support him. To get his son back, he travels to Hollywood and takes every bit role available, using his gift for creative disguises to land several roles in one film. Chaney becomes well respected for his talents and his popularity becomes greater, and he eventually becomes a superstar. Along the way, he meets Hazel Bennett (Jane Greer) and they fall in love and marry. But his happiness is shattered when Cleva comes back into his life and demands the return of her son. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Dorothy Malone, (more)
- 1957
In this frantic service comedy, a group of bored-to-tears American GI's stationed at a medical facility in France would like nothing more than to have a big party to let off steam -- except for the possibility of having a big party with some of the nurses they work with. However, it seems that the nurses are officers and the GI's are enlisted men, which means the Army forbids them to socialize, and Capt. Locke (Ernie Kovacs), the camp's Commanding Officer, is not a man to bend the rules. But Private Hogan (Jack Lemmon) is not the sort of guy to let the rules get in the way of a good time, and with the help of Yancy Skibo (Mickey Rooney), a sergeant with a talent for scaring up needed supplies, and Mme. LaFour (Jeanne Manet), a local hotel manager with a soft spot for making money off American servicemen, Hogan hatches a plan to make his dream a reality. Hogan's lady friend, Lt. Betty Bixby (Kathryn Grant), isn't quite as convinced as her beau on the potential success of this scheme. Operation Mad Ball was the first directorial effort from former actor Richard Quine, and afforded Jack Lemmon his first starring role; Blake Edwards also contributed to the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Kathryn Grant, (more)
