Robert Sparks Movies

Told in flashback, Affair with a Stranger recounts the deteriorating marriage of playwright Victor Mature and model Jean Simmons. The union is strained by the death of Jean's baby and the pressure of Victor's career. A scheming actress (Monica Lewis) makes a play for Mature, leading Jean to file for divorce. The couple is brought back together by the adoption of a baby (the "stranger" of the title). Affair with a Stranger is unabashed soap opera, made plausible by the sensitive performance of Jean Simmons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lloyd Bacon wrapped up his lengthy directorial career with the innocuous comedy She Couldn't Say No. "She" is a young heiress named Corby (Jean Simmons), who visits the small town of Progress, Arkansas, hoping to repay a good deed. It seems that, when Corby was a child, the villagers had all donated money to pay for her life-saving operation. Now she intends to reward the villagers by anonymously donating all sorts of financial boons and civic improvements. This serves only to stir up resentment against our well-intentioned heroine. Particularly offended is local doctor Robert Mitchum, who rightly sees Corby's beneficence as an invitation for every hustler and con-artist on earth to descend upon Progress. What Doc Mitchum can't foresee (though the audience can) is that he'll fall head over heels in love with Corby before fadeout time. With She Couldn't Say No, Jean Simmons fulfilled her contractual obligations to RKO, freeing her for more prestigious assignments like Desiree and Guys and Dolls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

His Kind of Woman directed by veteran John Farrow, is a convoluted mystery thriller which tries unsuccessfully to combine slapstick comedy with excessive violence, resulting in a film that depends more on stereotypes than on plot development. Nick (Raymond Burr), is a deported gang boss who needs to get back to the United States to run his operation. Dan Miller (Robert Mitchum) is a hard-up guy, who is persuaded, both by a series of beatings and a substantial sum of money, to sell his identity to Nick. Lenore (Jane Russell) a singer, poses as a heiress, trying to marry a millionaire. They all meet up in a resort in Mexico where Nick intends to have plastic surgery to alter his looks. There, a number of double-crosses, shootings, and chases all culminate in an exciting confrontation aboard ship. His Kind of Woman, a Howard Hughes production designed to be a showcase for Jane Russell, is entertaining when viewed as a comedy. As a serious film-noir thriller, it lacks suspense and depth. However, the film has its moments, and Robert Mitchum is in his element as the loner anti-hero. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Joseph Cotten stars in Walk Softly, Stranger as Chris Hale, a fugitive criminal who decides to hide out in a small Midwestern town. Here, Hale makes the acquaintance of Elaine Corelli (Alida Valli), who has had a grudge against the world since being crippled in a skiing accident. While endeavoring to help Elaine come out of her shell, Hale falls in love with her, and vows to mend his own ways. Though not released until 1950, Walk Softly, Stranger was filmed in 1948, a year before Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli were teamed in the more celebrated The Third Man. Future talk-show host Jack Paar appears in a fascinating supporting role as a suburban hubby. Walk Softly, Stranger was the last co-production between RKO and David O. Selznick's Vanguard Films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Dangerous Profession of the title is the bail-bond business. George Raft stars as Kane, a former cop turned professional bail-raiser. When one of his customers, robbery suspect Brackett (Bill Williams), is mysteriously murdered, Kane wants to know why. His reasons are twofold: he has an insatiable curiosity, and he's fallen in love with Brackett's widow Lucy (Ella Raines). As his business partner Farley (Pat O'Brien) looks on in mute bewilderment, Kane risks life and limb to solve the mystery. The plot doesn't always make sense, but in 1949 it was reassuring to see George Raft and Pat O'Brien harking back to their cinematic halcyon days of the 1930s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Out of the Past is so perfect a film noir that it is considered practically a textbook example of the genre. In his first starring role (it had previously been offered to John Garfield and Dick Powell), Robert Mitchum plays Jeff Bailey, the friendly but secretive proprietor of a mountain-village gas station. As Jeff's worshipful deaf-mute attendant (Dick Moore) looks on in curious fascination, an unsavory character named Joe (Paul Valentine) pulls up to the station, obviously looking for the owner. Jeff is all too aware of Joe's identity; he's been dreading this moment for quite some time, knowing full well that it will mean the end of his semi-idyllic existence, not to mention his engagement to local girl Ann (Virginia Huston). In a lengthy flashback, the audience is apprised of the reasons behind Jeff's discomfort. Several years earlier, he'd been a private detective, hired by gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) to find his mistress Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer), who shot him and ran off with $40,000. Jeff traces Kathie to Mexico, but when he meets her he falls in love and willingly becomes involved in an increasingly complicated web of double-crosses, blackmail, and murder. The flashback over, Jeff agrees to meet Whit face to face in Lake Tahoe. Surprisingly, Whit apparently bears no malice, and even offers Jeff an opportunity to square himself by retrieving Whit's tax records from mob attorney Eels (Ken Niles). Even more surprisingly, Kathie has returned to Whit on her own volition. When Jeff is taken to Eels' apartment by the beautiful Meta Carson (Rhonda Fleming), he quickly figures out that he has been set up and tries to clue Eels into the plot, but Eels is later found murdered, and Jeff is accused of the crime. Worse yet, Whit has forced Kathie to sign an affadavit that also pins another murder on him. Crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses abound for the next few reels, culminating in disaster for the oh-so-clever Whit, who has fatally underestimated the deceitful (and icewater-veined) Kathie. And in the end, it is Jeff who must resort to drastic measures to force Kathie to pay the price for her cold-hearted treachery. Out of the Past was remade in 1984 as Against All Odds, with Jane Greer cast as the mother of her original character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Anxious to do her bit for the war effort, Blondie (Penny Singleton) joins the Housewives of America, a home defense league. Husband Dagwood (Arthur Lake) soon finds that Blondie is neglecting her responsibilities at home in favor of her war work; also disgruntled are Dagwood's chauvinistic boss Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale) and a newlywed husband (Stu Erwin) whose wife is never home thanks to the defense league. Following a slapstick denouement at a power plant, in which the husbands are shown the error of their macho attitude, Blondie promises to devote more time to Dagwood--but at the same time delivers a patriotic speech to the women in the audience, exhorting them to align with the "Home Front". Blondie for Victory was twelfth in Columbia's series of comedy films based on Chic Young's popular comic strip Blondie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This lighthearted romantic comedy stars William Holden as working stiff Michael Stewart and Frances Dee as wealthy socialite Candace Goodwin. Falling in love with Michael, Candace agrees to marry him on his terms-namely, that they survive on his salary alone. Inevitably, Candace has trouble adjusting to her new lifestyle and yearns for the luxuries lavished upon her by her family. Meanwhile, Michael begins to suspect that Candace has been keeping company with men from her own social set. It takes the combined efforts of the Stewart and Goodwin families to reunite the quarrelsome couple in the final footage. There's nary an original moment in Meet the Stewarts, but the two leads are so darned atttractive that it doesn't matter at all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An historical entry in Columbia's Blondie series, Blondie's Blessed Event recreates the moment in Chic Young's original comic strip wherein Blondie and Dagwood were blessed with baby daughter Cookie. The first portion of the film involves the tribulations of Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) as he tries to take his wife Blondie (Penny Singleton) and his new daughter (Norma Jean Wayne) home from the hospital. The bulk of the story concerns a get-rich-quick scheme involving Dagwood and an eccentric artist (Hans Conried). There's also a few frantic moments at a convention where Dagwood embarrasses his boss Mr. Dithers (Jonathan Hale). The eleventh of Columbia's "Blondie" B-pictures, Blondie's Blessed Event is one of the best of the batch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Previously brought to the screen as a Marion Davies vehicle in 1927, Russ Westover's long-running comic strip Tillie the Toiler was again cinematized in 1942 with Kay Harris (who looked not at all like the original "Tillie") in the lead. While attending stenographer school, Tillie Jones meets office boy Mac (William Tracy), who falls in love with her at first sight. Though Tillie likes Mac as a friend, she continually throws him over for handsomer men, but ultimately comes to realize that faithful Mac is the one for her (in the original comic strip, she didn't come to this realization until 1959!) Before this happens, however, Tillie manages to bungle one assignment after another, finally saving her job with a fashion show, evidently designed to show of Columbia's 1942 crop of starlets. Diminutive Daphne Pollard, best known for her Mack Sennett starring 2-reelers and her supporting work in Laurel & Hardy comedies, is well cast as Tillie's down-to-earth mother. Intended as the first of a series, Tillie the Toiler never got any farther than this "pilot" entry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Taking a vacation from her "Blondie" movies, Penny Singleton plays an Eastern girl who follows Horace Greeley's advice and heads westward. She arrives in a flea-bitten frontier town where Marshal Glenn Ford is trying to rid the community of the vicious Pecos Pete. Singleton vies with saloon gal Ann Miller over Glenn Ford's affections, and along the way both actresses perform a few musical numbers. In the end, Singleton helps Ford lasso the villain. Go West, Young Lady takes great pains to avoid originality, especially in a knock-down, drag-out fight scene between Penny Singleton and Ann Miller which was clearly inspired by the Marlene Dietrich-Una Merkel battle in Destry Rides Again (39). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Bumstead family-Blondie (Penny Singleton), Dagwood (Arthur Lake) and Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms)-embark on a long-delayed vacation in this series entry. While en route to their out-of-town relatives, the Bumsteads are forced to make an emergency stopover in a small town, where they get mixed up in an elopement. By the time Dagwood is through offering his well-intentioned assistance, the elopers are on the verge of a breakup, but Blondie (per the film's title) manages to smooth things out. Blondie Plays Cupid is distinguished by the appearance of Glenn Ford as flustered groom-to-be Charlie (the bride-to-be is Columbia contractee Luana Walters, who later played the title character's mother in the 1948 serial The Adventures of Superman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide