Country: USA
Year: 1951
Duration: 84'
In 1946, war veteran Jim returns to his wife, with whom he has purchased an apartment building in New York. Jim hopes to resume his writing career, but problems with the building force him to take care of the tenants. Among them is Charley, an affable sixty-year-old involved in a series of mysterious business dealings. The truth eventually comes to light: Charley is a con man who seduces wealthy widows and swindles them out of their money, drawing Jim into his schemes as well. After both men are arrested, they write a memoir together that becomes a bestseller. An amusing comedy scripted by I. A. L. Diamond, who would later collaborate with Billy Wilder on such masterpieces as Some Like It Hot and The Apartment. Marilyn Monroe plays another war veteran and the protagonist’s former comrade-in-arms.
Biography
film director
Joseph M. Newman
(Logan, Utah, 1909–Simi Valley, California, 2006) began working as a messenger at MGM and later worked his way up, first as an assistant director and then as a director of short films. Beginning in the 1940s, both before and after the war, in which he served as a major, he directed his first adventure films. A filmmaker of largely routine productions, he found some success in the science-fiction genre (This Island Earth) and the western (The Gunfight at Dodge City), in which he demonstrated imagination and a fair degree of fluency. For television, he directed popular series such as The Twilight Zone, The Great Adventure, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and The Big Valley.
FILMOGRAFIA
Man’s Greatest Friend (id., 1938), The Story of Alfred Nobel (id., 1939), Money to Loan (cortometraggio, 1939), The Story That Couldn’t Be Printed (id., 1939), Maintain the Right (id., 1940), Know Your Money (id., 1940), Women in Hiding (id., 1940), Cat College (id., 1940), Buyer Beware (id., 1940), Respect the Law (id., 1941), Coffins on Wheels (id., 1941), Triumph Without Drums (id., 1941), Don’t Talk (id., 1942), Vendetta (id., 1942), Northwest Rangers (id., 1942), The Luckiest Guy in the World (id., 1947), The Amazing Mr. Nordill (id., 1947), Jungle Patrol (id., 1948), Abandoned (La tratta degli innocenti, 1949), The Great Dan Patch (id., 1949), I’ll Get You for This (Il covo dei gangsters, 1950), 711 Ocean Drive (Mondo equivoco, 1950), The Guy Who Came Back (id., 1951), Love Nest (Le memorie di un dongiovanni, 1951), Red Skies of Montana (Duello nella foresta, 1952), The Outcasts of Poker Flat (I banditi di Poker Flat, 1952), Pony Soldier (L’ultima freccia, 1952), Dangerous Crossing (Traversata pericolosa, 1953), The Human Jungle (Giungla umana, 1954), This Island Earth (Cittadino dello spazio, 1955), Kiss of Fire (Bacio di fuoco, 1955), Flight to Hong Kong (I trafficanti di Hong Kong, 1956), Death in Small Doses (id., 1957), War of the Planets (cortometraggio, 1958), Fort Massacre (Il forte del massacro, 1958), The Gunfight at Dodge City (Duello alla pistola, 1959), The Big Circus (Il grande circo, 1959), Tarzan, the Ape Man (Tarzan, l’uomo scimmia, 1960), The Lawbreakers (Anche i gangster muoiono, 1960), Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (id., 1960), King of the Roaring 20’s - The Story of Arnold Rothstein (Il padrone di New York, 1961), Twenty Plus Two (id., 1961), A Thunder of Drums (I trecento di Fort Canby, 1961), The George Raft Story (Testa o croce, 1961).
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Joseph M. Newman. STORY: from the novel by Scott Corbett. SCREENPLAY: I.A.L. Diamond. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Lloyd Ahern Sr. EDITING: J. Watson Webb Jr. SPECIAL EFFECTS: Fred Sersen. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Thomas Little, Bruce MacDonald. ART DIRECTION: George Patrick, Lyle R. Wheeler. COSTUME DESIGN: Renié. MAKE-UP: Ben Nye. MUSIC: Cyril J. Mockridge. CAST: June Haver, William Lundigan, Frank Fay, Leatrice Joy, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Paar, Martha Wentworth, Henry Kulky, Joe Ploski, Leo Cleary, R. A. Montgomery. PRODUCER: Jules Buck for 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. CONTACT: Park Circus www.parkcircus.com
