Early TV

 

SUSPENSE:"Dr. Violet"-1949-An engaged couple go to a carny wax museum about murderers. The host Dr. Violet (Hume Cronyn) is an expert on murder. One exhibit isn't finished as the murderer hasn't been caught yet. The police suspect a nutty customer Mousey (Ray Walston). Violet leaves the girl (Anne Francis; 7 years before FORBIDDEN PLANET) alone in the museum and we learn a little more of his background. The ending is kind abrupt and awkward. Also with Frankie Thomas and Mike Kellin. 

Screenwriter Halstead Welles later wrote 3:10 TO YUMA and THE HANGING TREE. Director Robert Stevens later directed 44 episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and the very unusual personality change drama CHANGE OF MIND (1969).

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Foghorn

 

 (imdb)

THE ROCKET MAN-1954-Timmy (George “Foghorn” Winslow), an imaginative little orphan is given a special space gun by a weird looking alien. When he shoots it, it makes moving things stop. It also makes people tell the truth. He's taken in by Amelia Brown (Spring Byington), the local judge and her daughter June (Anne Francis two years before FORBIDDEN PLANET). Amelia wants to put the local corrupt politico Big Bill Watkins (Emory Parnell) in jail. Mayor Ed Johnson (Charles Colburn) is sweet on Amelia but he's in Big Bill's pocket. Enter Tom Baxter (John Agar; in Hugo Haas' BAIT the same year), a parolee sent by a warden to get reformed under the Judge's wing. A couple Bob (future “Bowery Boy” Stanley Clements) and Ludine (Beverly Garland) come to get married, and it turns out Bob is the parolee not Tom. In fact, Tom is actually a lawyer hired by Watkins to close the orphanage. Timmy uses the gun to save the orphanage and help June and Tom fall in love. 

This is a whimsical little love story comedy with a great cast but a so-so script dripping with sentimentality. It was co-written by future comedian Lenny Bruce. 

Director Oscar Rudolph worked mainly in TV but he also made the features TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK (1961) and DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST (1962). He was the father of future director Alan Rudolph. Child actor George Winslow was also known for his earlier in the musical comedy GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953) (also with Charles Coburn) and made his last movie in 1958.

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