Ken Carpenter Movies
Frank Capra's classic comedy-drama established James Stewart as a lead actor in one of his finest (and most archetypal) roles. The film opens as a succession of reporters shout into telephones announcing the death of Senator Samuel Foley. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), the state's senior senator, puts in a call to Governor Hubert "Happy" Hopper (Guy Kibbee) reporting the news. Hopper then calls powerful media magnate Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who controls the state -- along with the lawmakers. Taylor orders Hopper to appoint an interim senator to fill out Foley's term; Taylor has proposed a pork barrel bill to finance an unneeded dam at Willet Creek, so he warns Hopper he wants a senator who "can't ask any questions or talk out of turn." After having a number of his appointees rejected, at the suggestion of his children Hopper nominates local hero Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), leader of the state's Boy Rangers group. Smith is an innocent, wide-eyed idealist who quotes Jefferson and Lincoln and idolizes Paine, who had known his crusading editor father. In Washington, after a humiliating introduction to the press corps, Smith threatens to resign, but Paine encourages him to stay and work on a bill for a national boy's camp. With the help of his cynical secretary Clarissa Sanders (Jean Arthur), Smith prepares to introduce his boy's camp bill to the Senate. But when he proposes to build the camp on the Willets Creek site, Taylor and Paine force him to drop the measure. Smith discovers Taylor and Paine want the Willets Creek site for graft and he attempts to expose them, but Paine deflects Smith's charges by accusing Smith of stealing money from the boy rangers. Defeated, Smith is ready to depart Washington, but Saunders, whose patriotic zeal has been renewed by Smith, exhorts him to stay and fight. Smith returns to the Senate chamber and, while Taylor musters the media forces in his state to destroy him, Smith engages in a climactic filibuster to speak his piece: "I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before and I got stopped colder than a mackerel. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not gonna leave this body until I do get them said." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Jean Arthur, (more)
- 1940
Billy Wilder was among the screenwriters of this easy-to-take Bing Crosby musical. Basil Rathbone dominates the proceedings as Oliver Courtney, a popular composer whose most successful tunes were actually ghost-written by musician Bob Summers (Crosby) and lyricist Cherry Lane (Mary Martin). Unaware of each other's existence at first, Bob and Cherry eventually discover that they've been duped by the pompous Courtney. They decide to break away from their employer and team up on their own, but the powerful Courtney manages to block their professional efforts. Ultimately, hero and heroine emerge triumphant, and Courtney is forced to help them get started on the road to success lest he be exposed as a charlatan. Piano prodigy Oscar Levant essays his first full-out comedy role as Courtney's sarcastic assistant, taking time out to poke fun at his own real-life phobias (in his memoirs, Levant recalled that he spent many a pleasant afternoon listening to the middle-aged Basil Rathbone discuss his digestive problems in vivid and eloquent detail!) None of the seven original songs in Rhythm on the River grew up to be hits, but the title tune did manage to get generous airplay thanks to Bing Crosby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, (more)
The second Bing Crosby/Bob Hope "Road" picture casts Crosby as a penny-ante sideshow promoter and Hope as Crosby's only client, "Fearless Frazier." Under Crosby's tutelage, Hope has been shot from a cannon, zapped in an electric chair and nearly strangled by an octopus. Now they're practically broke and stranded on the African coast. Crosby spends the last of their money to spring helpless Dorothy Lamour from a native slave market. Actually, Lamour and her pal Una Merkel are scamming Crosby and Hope to finance a safari across Africa, so that Lamour can link up with her wealthy fiance in Zanzibar. En route through the deepest, darkest jungle, both Hope and Crosby fall in love with Lamour. But when they find out they're being taken for chumps, the boys leave the safari and strike out on their own. Captured by cannibals, the boys try and fail to win their freedom by having Hope wrestle a particularly grumpy gorilla. Making their escape after teaching the natives their time-honored "Patty Cake" routine, they head for Zanzibar. Once again, Crosby spends his ready money to spring Lamour from her captured-by-slavers con game, obliging Hope, Crosby, Lamour and Merkel to try to earn passage money home by staging a "sawing the lady in half" routine for the locals. Crosby: "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Hope: "If I don't, one of us is going back half fare." Like the earlier Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar sticks too closely to the script and plot to allow those inveterate adlibbers Hope and Crosby free reign. Still, there are some choice moments: our favorite bit occurs when Crosby comments to Lamour on the artificiality of movie musicals--whereupon the sound of an orchestra pops up out of nowhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, (more)
- 1941
Fred MacMurray is a breezy New York street photographer; Mary Martin is a small town girl hoping to make her fortune in the Big Apple. Fred and Mary meet, bicker, fall in love, fall out of love, fall in love again, and so it goes. The main story is occasionally leavened by subplots involving such indispensable supporting players as Lynne Overman, Akim Tamiroff, Cecil Kellaway, Eric Blore and Iris Adrian. Robert Preston is the second lead who loses Mary Martin to Fred MacMurray, though Preston and Martin would re-team on Broadway 25 years later in the musical I Do, I Do. Instantly capturing the audience's attention with a remarkable opening "single take" which establishes the personalities of several apartment dwellers, New York Town is a diverting and agreeable Paramount romantic comedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, (more)
- 1942
Like Harmon of Michigan and Smith of Minnesota, Columbia's Spirit of Stanford is built around the talents of a real-life college football star, in this instance all-American quarterback Frankie Albert. The story is cut from a familiar cloth, with Albert's arrogance getting him into all sorts of trouble before he gets his head on straight. At first intending to quit school before graduation to go professional, our hero relents at the last moment when his roomate falls ill just before the Big Game. The climax is well worth the wait, with Albert performing admirably and convincingly on the football field against a formidable lineup of genuine college athletes. Columbia contractee Marguerite Chapman is the love interest, while another Stanford gridiron great, Ernie Nevers, shows up in a cameo role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frankie Albert, Marguerite Chapman, (more)
- 1943
In his book on "screwball" comedies, the late William K. Everson described What a Woman as "indistinguishable from a dozen other big-business comedies, but a pleasant and zany time-killer." Once again, Rosalind Russell is cast as a high-pressure female executive, in this instance liteary agent Carol Ainsley. Having landed the motion picture rights for a best-selling novel, Carol begins looking for an appropriately handsome leading man for the film version. She decides that the novelist himself-an unassuming fellow named Michael Cobb (Willard Parker in his starring film debut) would be the ideal star for the film. Unfortunately, Cobb has never performed any of the heroice deeds of his fictional protagonist, so it's up to Carol to reshape him in the image of his literary alter ego. Meanwhile, magazine writer Henry Pepper (Brian Aherne), who has fallen in love with Carol while interviewing her, looks askance at her efforts to "build up" the unprepossessing Cobb. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, (more)
- 1943
The wartime leading-man shortage obliged Republic Pictures to star draft-proof supporting player Frank Albertson in Mystery Broadcast. Albertson plays detective-fiction writer Michael Jerome, who carries on a friendly rivalry with radio scrivener Jan Cornell (Ruth Terry). Jan works for an "unsolved mysteries" series which is in the ratings doldrums. To boost listenership, she begins offering solutions to the unsolved crimes on the air, and this leads to the reopening of a long-dormant murder case-and also to a rash of new murders. Pooling their talents, Michael and Jan try to solve the case at hand, with startling results. Among the suspects in Mystery Broadcast are two former film luminaries, Nils Asther and Wynne Gibson, both on the comeback trail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ruth Terry, Frank Albertson, (more)
- 1943
True to Life stars Dick Powell as a radio writer in search of saleable material. He comes up with a weekly sitcom about a typical American family. To soak up inspiration, he hangs around the household of waitress Mary Martin and her parents (Ernest Truex, Mabel Paige), transcribing their conversations for use on the air. When Mary listens to the radio and discovers that Powell's attentions towards her are strictly professional, she runs to the arms of Franchot Tone. But Powell convinces her that his ardor is genuine--while musical fans are disappointed that only one song has been sung in the whole of True to Life. Devotees of two-reel comedies will note the presence of veteran second bananas Billy Bletcher and Bud Jamison as two of the "family members" in Dick Powell's radio series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Martin, Franchot Tone, (more)
"He sold his soul for rock-n-roll," read the tagline for Brian De Palma's satirical Phantom of the Opera for the '70s rock scene. After hearing Winslow Leach (William Finley) perform a song from his Faust rock opera, Phil Spector-ish impresario Swan (Paul Williams) decides that Winslow's opera would be the perfect debut attraction for his new rock palace, the Paradise. Swan steals the music and has Winslow imprisoned -- but not before Winslow meets aspiring songbird Phoenix (Jessica Harper). Jumping prison, Winslow breaks into Swan's Death Records factory to ruin the recordings, but a record press accident grossly disfigures him. Winslow then sneaks into the Paradise to sabotage Swan's show, disguising himself as the Phantom. Swan, however, cuts a deal with the Phantom to finish his cantata; he promises that Phoenix will sing it but then reneges, hiring prissy glam rocker Beef (Gerritt Graham). Determined to have Phoenix sing, the Phantom soon discovers just how far Swan will go to give the people what they want. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Williams, William Finley, (more)
- 1989
This particularly bizarre horror variant on Joe Dante's Gremlins (1985) was directed by newcomer Jeff Mandel. The ridiculous plot concerns the efforts of a group of Nazis to set the stage for a Fourth Reich by mating one of Santa Claus' elves with a pretty teenaged waitress (Julie Austin). The cast is peppered with former television stars, including Deanna Lund of Land of the Giants as Austin's mother (she kills cats and has a nude scene) and Dan Haggerty of The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams as a drunken department-store Santa who used to be a detective. Even better is Haggerty's predecessor, a cocaine fiend who gets castrated by the Nazi elves. Mandel went on to co-direct Robo-C.H.I.C. (1989), which was almost as bad. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Haggerty, Julie Austin, (more)
In this wilderness adventure a cartographer and his son head into the wilds to make some maps. They are accompanied by the father's pet eagle. The trouble begins when his son is kidnapped by the villainous One-Eye Hatchett who sells the lad to an Indian village. With the help of his eagle, the father manages to retrieve his son. He and the boy are also befriended by a young Indian girl who ends up following them when a dream tells the father to head West. The film was shot on location in the Oregon wilderness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A sleazy nightclub owner purchases a strange, disturbing sculpture, which he soon discovers contains a mysterious, ornate puzzle box. This box is a legendary object that promises the secrets of ultimate pain and pleasure, but is in fact a gateway to hell. Soon the box's new owner has unleashed the evil Pinhead, a member of a race of supernatural beings known as Cenobites. Pinhead proceeds to murder numerous clubgoers in an attempt to gain power and fully free himself into the earthly realm. He faces unexpected opposition, however, from a television reporter investigating the mysterious club murders. When she discovers the truth behind the enigmatic puzzle box, she realizes that only she can stop the carnage. However, she must not only defeat Pinhead, but his fellow Cenobites, including the barbed-wire-wrapped Barbie and the horrific CD-Head. (Yes, CD-Head does indeed kill people by shooting CDs from his head.) Though this third entry in the Hellraiser series pays lip service to the intricate mythology of the first two films, especially through a series of flashbacks to Pinhead's human past, the film soon reverts to a fairly standard slasher formula. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry Farrell, Doug Bradley, (more)
