Alexis Smith

Unhappily married Richard Mason concocts a meticulous scheme to kill his shrewish wife so that he’ll be free to marry her sister.Read More »

Composer George Gershwin is driven by his need to succeed. Unfortunately his drive destroys his romantic relationships with singer Julie Adams, who is desperately in love with him, and aloof socialite Christine Gilbert. Written by Daniel BubbeoRead More »

Plot:
A vicious psychopath murders your fiancé, then rapes you. Do you call the cops, fight back, run like hell? Or do you bond with your tormentor? Events that plunge emotionally fragile Hope Masters (Cheryl Ladd of TV’s Charlie’s Angels) into a living nightmare become more monstrous when, frightened into believing the twisted, self-serving tale her attacker (Sam Elliott) weaves, she comes to view him as a hero. She trusts him, depends on him, lets him become part of her life. And Hope lies for him – a lie that leads to her arrest and trial for her fiancé’s murder. The fact-based A Death in California locks a heartbreakingly vulnerable woman, a manipulative killer and viewers in a bizarre dance of crime, punishment and death. From Warner Brothers!Read More »

Jerry McKibbon is a tough, no nonsense reporter, mentoring special prosecutor John Conroy in routing out corrupt officials in the city, which may even include Conroy’s own police detective father as a suspect.Read More »

Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Though Jack Benny made a cottage industry out of joking about the purported rottenness of his 1945 vehicle Horn Blows at Midnght, the film is in fact a delightful comedy-fantasy-certainly not Benny’s best film, but far from his worst. While dozing off during a radio broadcast, studio musician Athaniel (Benny) dreams he’s a trumpet player in Heaven’s celestial orchestra. At the behest of glamorous angel Elizabeth (Alexis Smith), Athaniel is brought into the lavish chambers of The Chief (Guy Kibbee), who has a job for our hapless hero. Read More »

Quote:
A young painter stumbles upon an assortment of odd characters at an English estate where he has been hired to give art lessons to beautiful Laura Fairlie. Among them are Anne Catherick, a strange young woman dressed in white whom he meets in the forest and who bears a striking resemblance to Laura; cunning Count Fosco, who hopes to obtain an inheritance for nobleman Sir Percival Glyde, whom he plans to have Laura marry; Mr. Fairlie, a hypochondriac who can’t stand to have anyone make the slightest noise; and eccentric Countess Fosco who has her own dark secret. The artist also finds himself drawn to Marion Halcomb, a distant relation to Laura whom the Count also has plans for.Read More »

Synopsis:
In this light drama, Clark Gable once again played his stock-in-trade role of a rogue with a heart of gold. Charlie King (Gable) runs a casino, but, in a business that thrives among the unscrupulous, Charlie takes pride in running an honest game and treating his customers with fairness and respect. However, Charlie’s wife Lon (Alexis Smith) doesn’t care if he runs a fair game — she regards gambling as a dirty and corrupt business, and no matter how honest Charlie may be, he’s still involved in a wicked activity. Charlie’s son Paul (Darryl Hickman) is also against him; when Paul gets in trouble and Charlie bails him out of jail, he refuses to leave with him, instead going home with mother. Charlie invites Paul to see what his casino is like, and Lon agrees that Paul should know just what his father does.
— Mark Deming.Read More »

Plot:
He was a riverboat pilot, reporter, penniless prospector, Civil War dropout, would-be entrepreneur, loving family man, world traveler, pomposity burster and raconteur. It turns out the man who created adventures for Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and a Connecticut Yankee led a mighty adventurous life himself. “Truth is a very valuable thing,” says Fredric March’s Mark Twain. “I believe we should be economical with it.” And that sets the tone for what follows: a lovingly crafted Hollywoodized biopic tracing the immortal humorist’s life from Hannibal boyhood to Big River exploits to global literary lion and more. Riverboat’s a-comin’, hop aboard – with Tom, Huck, Jim and above all, Samuel Langhorne Clemens. From Warner Brothers!Read More »

Plot Synopsis by Paul Brenner:
Humphrey Bogart plays a psychotic killer who disposes of his wives through slow ingestion of poison in The Two Mrs. Carrolls, made in 1945 but shelved for two years because of its similarity to Gaslight. Bogart is Geoffrey Carroll, an artist who paints a portrait of his wife as “The Angel of Death” and then meets Sally Morton (Barbara Stanwyck), with whom he quickly falls in love. In order to get rid of his wife and take up with Sally, Geoffrey slowly poisons his spouse by lacing her nightly glass of warm milk with liberal doses of toxic chemicals. He sends his daughter Beatrice (Ann Carter) away to school and, while the daughter is away, his wife dies. Read More »