Daddy Long Legs 1955  N/R, 126 min.
Genre: Musical
Director: Jean Negulesco
Cast: Fred Astaire, Leslie Caron, Terry Moore, Thelma Ritter, Fred Clark, Charlotte Austin, Larry Keating, Kathryn Givney, Ann Codee, Steven Geray
French orphan Julie Andre (Leslie Caron) is supported by her secret benefactor, Jervis Pendleton III (Fred Astaire), who pays for her college education in New England. They meet, fall in love, and the Cinderella story lives on.
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Desiree 1954  N/R, 110 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Henry Koster
Cast: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Merle Oberon, Michael Rennie, Cameron Mitchell, Elizabeth Sellars, Charlotte Austin, Cathleen Nesbitt, Alan Napier, Carolyn Jones
True students of history will cringe at the haphazard treatment of facts in this story about Desiree (Jean Simmons) who is cast off by Napoleon (Marlon Brando) when he chooses Josephine (Merle Oberon) to be his wife and empress.
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The Farmer Takes a Wife 1953  N/R, 80 min.
Genre: Musical
Director: Henry Levin
Cast: Betty Grable, Dale Robertson, Thelma Ritter, John Carroll, Eddie Foy Jr., Charlotte Austin, Kathleen Crowley, Merry Anders, May Wynn, Gwen Verdon
This musical remake of the 1935 version is OK fare, but it drags too much. It is the story of an Erie Canal worker (Dale Robertson) who falls in love and becomes a farmer.
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Frankenstein - 1970 1958  N/R, 83 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller / Sci-Fi
Director: Howard W. Koch
Cast: Boris Karloff, Tom Duggan, Jana Lund, Don "Red" Barry, Charlotte Austin, Norbert Schiller, Rudolph Anders, Irwin Berke, Mike Lane, John Dennis, Franz Roehn, Joe Ploski, Otto Reichow, Jack Kenny
In this story, set in the future (1970), Victor III (Boris Karloff) is the disfigured grandson of Frankenstein who tries to create life in his own unique way–by employing nuclear power! Because he needs money to generate atomic energy, Victor allows a TV crew to shoot a documentary about his grandfather. When they arrive at his German castle, Victor collects rent from them and then uses the money to buy an atomic reactor, which he employs to kill off crewmembers for spare parts for his creature. But, just like in the case of his grandfather, tragedy ensues.
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Gorilla at Large 1954 N/R, 84 min.
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Director: Harmon Jones
Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Anne Bancroft, Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Burr, Peter Whitney, Lee Marvin, Warren Stevens, Charlotte Austin, John Kellogg, Charles Tannen, John McKee, Max Wagner
A series of murders take place at an amusement park, The Garden of Evil, where the main attraction is a huge gorilla. The chief suspect is a gorilla–or is it someone else wearing a gorilla suit?
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How to Be Very, Very Popular 1955 N/R, 89 min.
Genre: Musical
Director: Nunnally Johnson
Cast: Betty Grable, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Sheree North, Fred Clark, Alice Pearce, Orson Bean, Tommy Noonan, Charlotte Austin, Rhys Williams
In this remake of 1934's "She Loves Me Not" and 1942's "True to the Army," two dancers (Betty Grable and Sheree North) witness a Mob killing and then hide out on a college campus. This was Grable's last movie–"musicals" was her thing, but musicals were NOT the thing by the mid-1950s.
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| 1. Daddy Long Legs (1955)
2. Desiree (1954)
3. The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953)
4. Frankenstein - 1970 (1958)
5. Gorilla at Large (1954)
6. How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955)
7. Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (1952)
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