Howard's Movie Corner

An architect Howard Roark(Gary Cooper)has his projects knocked off the table which sets him off leading to a high-profile court case.

A powerful film where liquor rules and ruins...someone realizes decides it isn't worth it.

Drama/Crime?Film Noir
RKO Radio Pictures
Man named Chris Hale(Joseph Cotton) comes to Asden claiming to have grown up there intriguing the townspeople,including Elaine Corelli(Aida Valli).He tries to slick ut his past catches up with him.Cast:Joseph (Chris Hale)),Spring Byington(Mrs. Brentman),Alida Valli(Elaine Corelli),Paul Stewart(Whitey Lake),Jack Parr(Ray Healy)Running time:81 minutes.Director:Robert Stevenson.

Comedy/ Paramount Pictures B/W
Chico,Harpo and Groucho up to their tricks on a ship to America helping two feuding gangs until one gangster kidnaps the other's daughter.The Marx brothers in of their most famous comedies are a bundle of fun.Cast:Chico Marx(Chico),Harpo Marx(Harpo),Groucho(Groucho),Harry Woods(Alky Briggs),Thlma Todd(Lucille Briggs),Ruth Hall(mary Helton).Running time:77 minutes.Black&White.Director:Norman Z.McLeod.

Comedy/Musical/ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer B/W
Groucho,Harpo,Chico and Zeppo cause chaos at the opera when friends of two opera singers become pains in the neck.Classic comedy by some the 1930s best comedians.Cast:Groucho Marx(Otis B. Driftwood),Chico Marx(Fiorello),Harpo Marx(Tomasso),Kitty Carlisle(Rosa),Allan James(Ricardo).Running time:96 minutes.Director:Sam Wood.

Carroll Baker's a postulant in the Napoleonic period in Spain when her life is temporarily interrupted.Captain Micheal Stuart(Roger Moore)and his regiment take refuge at a convent after many of the men are wounded.The nuns treat the wounded and Stuart' eyes meet Teresa's and what follows is he asks her to give up her vows to marry him.She rebuffs him at first but she leaves that decision to Our Lady.Praying for the right thing to do, a miracle transforms when the statue leaves its station.So she reenters the world to find him going through a war torn country meeting Gypsies,soldiers and more.Cast:Carroll Baker(Teresa),Roger Moore(Capt.Micheal Stuart),Isobel Elsom(Mother Superior),Elspeth March(Sister Dominica),Walter Slezak(Flaco)Vittorio Gassman(Guido),,Dennis King(Casmir-El Conde de Altimira),Tom Thatcher(The Duke of Wellington).Running time: .Director:Irving Rapper.

One Jesuit priest's attempt to help criminals get back into society reformed.He in turn takes on the criminal justice system which is not really interested in reforming addicts,thieves or murderers.A fine piece of work looking at what and why most states still have capital punishment.Although "Hoodlum Priest"is not a great movie and the cast is serviceable to a degree,the controversial matter of capital punishment is the strong point in the film.
Father Charles Dismas Clark(Don Murray)hits the streets to save gangsters from their course in life.Where most others turn a blind eye or view the young men as hopeless villains.But when thing go really wrong,Dismas is there for support.Cast:Don Murray(Father Charles Dismas Clark),Larry gates(Louis Rosen),Cindi Wood(Ellen Henley),Keir Dullea(Billy Lee Jackson),Logan Ramsey(George Hale),Don Joslyn(Pio Gentile),Norman Mc Kay(Father Dunne),Walter L. Wiedmer(Father David Michaels).Running time:93 minutes.Director:Irvin Kershner.

Sadly,Carole Lombard's last film.Is this comedy about the Nazis and a plan to assassinate Hitler the idea for Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds"?Joseph Tura(Jack Benny)and wife Maria(Carole Lombard)run a troupe of thespians acting in anti-Nazi plays till the Germans order them to do Shakespeare's Hamlet.More pressing is a spy is on the loose with information to give the Nazis which endanger the Polish Resistance movement.Lieutenant Stanislay Sobinski)starts to fall in love with Maria.Cast:Carole Lombard(Maria Tura),Jack Benny(Joseph Tura),Lionel Atwill(Rawitch),Robert Stack(Lieut.Stanislay Sobinski),Sig Ruman(Col. Ehrhardt),Stanley Ridges(Prof. Siletsky)Felix Bressart(Greenberg),george Lynn(Actor-Adjutnat),Charles Halton(Producer Dobosh),Henry Victor(Gen. Armstrong).Running time:99 minutes.Director:Ernst Lubitsch.Black & white.

Marlon Brando is the town's sheriff in the South and is generally the level-headed person in a period where Blacks better know their place and Robert Redford plays an escaped convict,Bubber Reeves,trying to find his way back to his wife,Anna Reeves(Jane Fonda),living in the small Southern town of Tarl.Meanwhile Val Rogers(E.G. Marshall)appoints level-headed Sheriff Calder(Marlon Brando)to keep order in town teeming with red-necks,such as Edwin Stewart(Robert Duvall),angry that Bubber is on the loose and act as their own authorities keeping the Blacks "in their place" and the women always in second place.
"The Case" is Horton Foote's second script,a mediocre one,as his masterpiece is "To Kill a Mockingbird",a few years before.Its director Arthur Penn does a sympathetic piece,a well-meaning film,though quite muddled film.Brando's character does his best to keep the roughnecks in order,but after they get wind of Bubber's escape and may be in the area all hell breaks lose.Many Southerners at the time were fuming the movie fanned the stereotypes.Even today,some southerners will not be happy with this film.Cast:Marlon Brando(Sheriff Calder),Robert Redford(Bubber Reeves),Jane Fonda(Anna Reeves),Robert Duvall(Edwin Stewart),Janice Rule(Emily Stewart).Running time:135 Minutes.Director:Arthur Penn.

What a comedy,uh?Betty Hutton as Cinderella,a singing Cinderella,is a short that's not short enough.Why?After doing some research,the movie based on fictional characters such as Huck Finn,Ben-Hur,Robinson Crusoe,Captain Kidd taking place on a book shelf is marred by actors parading in black face using Black lingo.Nonetheless,this unfortunate act doesn't mean we cannot learn something from this film when black face in films seem "natural" in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Cast:Betty Hutton(Cinderella),Hal Sherman(Joe Miller),Miriam Grahame(Herself,
Vocalist),Beaus &Bells(Book Characters),Gae Foster Girls(Dancing Ensemble).
Running time time:18 minutes.Black&White.Director:Roy Mack.