Ben Lessy Movies

Buddy Buddy

R  1981

As if in some way Billy Wilder sensed that Buddy Buddy would ultimately turn out to be his final feature film, Wilder lets loose scatter-shot stingers at a wide range of...

The Love Machine

R  1971

Based on the novel The Love Machine, by Jacqueline Susann, this movie concerns the machinations, in the boardroom and in the bedroom, of a group of people--from the chairman...

The Fastest Guitar Alive

1968

The must-be-seen-to-be-believed Fastest Guitar Alive offers singer Roy Orbison in his one and only movie starring role. Orbison plays Johnny Banner, a Confederate Spy who...

Petticoat Junction: Shoplifter at the Shady Rest

1967

With the jailhouse closed while Sheriff Crandall (Barry Kelly) is on vacation, erstwhile Justice of the Peace and game warden Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) brings kleptomaniac...

The Last of the Secret Agents?

1966

Two tourists, portrayed by the comic duo Marty Allen and Steve Rossi, are talked into working for the good guys to keep art thieves from stealing the Venus di Milo at the...

That Darn Cat

G  1965

Though overlong even for a Hayley Mills vehicle, That Darn Cat is an expert blend of laughs and suspense. The eponymous feline is D.C., a Siamese belonging to sisters Hayley...

That Funny Feeling

1965

In this romantic comedy, an aspiring actress pays her bills by working as a maid for various households. One of her employers is a wealthy and prominent publisher. After...

I'd Rather Be Rich

1964

Maurice Chevalier plays Philip Dulaine, a supposedly dying millionaire, while Sandra Dee co-stars as Cynthia, the elderly man's granddaughter. To allow Dulaine to die happy,...

Pajama Party

1964

Out of the beaches and into the boudoirs go Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello and the rest of the gang in Pajama Party. Actually, the whole megillah is as innocent as a...

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

G  1963

With this all-star Cinerama epic, producer/director Stanley Kramer vowed to make "the comedy that would end all comedies." The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused...

Gypsy

1962

This Stephen Sondheim/Jules Styne/Arthur Laurents musical comedy Gypsy had been a Broadway smash with Ethel Merman in the lead. Based on the autobiography of...

Just for You

1952

Just for You is based very loosely on Stephen Vincent Benet's Famous. Widowed Broadway producer Jordan Blake (Bing Crosby) is too busy with work to pay much...

Purple Heart Diary

1951

Singer Frances Langford stars as herself in Purple Heart Diary. The film is a reenactment of Langford's USO tours during WW II, as reported in the singer's newspaper...

The Jackie Robinson Story

1950

Despite its lack of production values and box-office "names," The Jackie Robinson Story is one of the best and most convincing baseball biopics ever filmed. Brooklyn Dodgers...

The Pirate

1948

When Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne appeared in S. N. Behrmann's The Pirate on Broadway, there were no musical numbers whatsoever. But with Gene Kelly and Judy...

Dark Delusion

1947

After 15 entries, MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series came to a quiet end with Dark Delusion. Although Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore), crusty chief surgeon at Blair...

Her Highness and the Bellboy

1945

This tender but fluffy romantic comedy centers on the romantic travails of a beautiful European princesss who goes to New York to find the newspaper reporter she fell for when he...

Music for Millions

1944

Musical producer Joe Pasternak moved from Universal to MGM in the early 1940s, taking his pet director Henry Koster (the two men had teamed to make a star of Deanna...

Youth on Parade

1943

In this musical, a gang of college students decide to play a little trick by creating the perfect student. The fictional gal has everything a university would ever want. The...

Thousands Cheer

1943

Storywise, Thousands Cheer is thin stuff indeed. Insouciant PFC Eddy Marsh (Gene Kelly) wants to put on a Big Show for his fellow serviceman. Along the way, Eddy falls in love...