New 9/16 WARNER ARCHIVE Release: RATON PASS

New to the Warner Archive Collection • September 16, 2014 • Raton Pass

Gun Against Gun – Peak Against Peak
for the Gap-of-Gold they called RATON PASS

A femme fatale sashays into town and promptly swindles the hacienda out from under the favored scion in this Warner Bros. Western Noir.  Patricia Neal, fresh off The Breaking Point, captivates as the antagonistic embodiment of avarice and amor that propels the action, while Steve Cochran is yet again a superb cinema snake. Dennis Morgan plays the rube that gets taken, and then must re-take the town for its people.

Warner Archive Collection Weekly Newsletter

Warner Bros. • 1951 • B&W • 84 min • Directed by Edwin L. Marin
Starring Dennis Morgan, Patricia Neal, Steve Cochran, Scott Forbes & Dorothy Hart

New 9/9 WARNER ARCHIVE Release: THE DESERT SONG

New to the Warner Archive Collection • September 9, 2014 • The Desert Song

Yes, at long last, the wait is over!  After being out of circulation for over sixty years, a brilliantly restored print of The Desert Song is now available on made-to-order DVD.

As one of the many classic film fans who has been dreaming of the day when this rare release would be announced, I thank you, Warner Archive.  What would we do without you?  It’s hard to believe… ♪ ♫ “our Desert is wait-ing” ♪ ♫ … ready and waiting to be added to our collections.  Most sincerely, Katie—a blissfully happy Morgan fan

Take a famed operetta scored by Sigmund Romberg, update its tale of romance and heroics with the then-current Nazi peril, include a lively cast and imaginative direction, burnish the burning desert sands with rich Technicolor® cinematography and voila! That’s 1943’s The Desert Song. Now add an immaculate film restoration and resolve rights issues that had long kept this work out of circulation and – at last – this widely unseen spectacle can be enjoyed by today’s fans.  Christmas in Connecticut‘s Dennis Morgan stars (and lends his melodic tenor to several tunes) as the elusive El Khobar, a mysterious man of action whose work as a cabaret piano player hides his identity as the leader of a bullet-frenzied fight against the Nazis’ construction of a vital North African railroad. Irene Manning (Yankee Doodle Dandy) plays the strawberry-blonde songstress who catches the hero’s eye.  Warner Archive/Synopsis

Warner Bros. • 1943 • Technicolor • 95 min • Directed by Robert Florey
Starring Dennis Morgan, Irene Manning, Bruce Cabot, Lynne Overman & Faye Emerson

TCM Remembers ELEANOR PARKER on TUESDAY 12/17

Turner Classic Movies will remember one of Dennis Morgan’s best screen partners, Eleanor Parker, with a 14-hour film tribute on Tuesday, December 17th, beginning with The Very Thought of You at 6am (EST).  Click here for more information from TCM.

New 11/19 WARNER ARCHIVE Release: ANNIE LAURIE

New to the Warner Archive Collection • November 19, 2013 • Annie Laurie
Featured in Classic Shorts from the Dream Factory: Volume Two

Following the success of Classic Musical Shorts from the Dream Factory comes this rollicking follow-up volume of mostly musical shorts crafted in the heart of the lion’s den of M-G-M.  Two-reel Technicolor extravaganzas, one-reel earthy Tabloid Musicals, show-stopping M-G-M Revues and more are waiting in the wings in this 3-disc collection of 36 theatrical shorts, featuring performances from vaudeville greats and future celluloid superstars like Shaw and Lee, Jack Benny, Ann Rutherford, Dennis Morgan, Deanna Durbin, Dick Winslow, Arthur Lake and Judy Garland.
Warner Archive/Synopsis

In late 18th century Scotland, Annie Laurie (Ann Rutherford) and William Douglas (Dennis Morgan) love each other, but their clans are on opposite sides of the country’s civil war. Their love is made immortal through the title song of this film.  IMDb/Synopsis

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer • 1936 • B&W • 10 min • Directed by Joseph Sherman
Starring Ann Rutherford, Dennis Morgan (as Stanley Morner) & David Torrence

New 7/2 SONY PICTURES CHOICE Release: URANIUM BOOM

New to the Sony Pictures Choice Collection • July 2, 2013 • Uranium Boom

Available through the Warner Archive Collection

Deep in the badlands of Colorado, ex-lumberjack Brad Collins (Dennis Morgan) and mining engineer Grady Mathews (William Talman) stumble across a large deposit of uranium.  As Grady watches over the treasure, Brad goes into town to claim the land and meets Jean Williams (Patricia Medina).  The two immediately fall in love and get married, but when the couple returns to the site, Grady reveals he was in love with Jean and leaves.  Seeking revenge, he hires a confidence man to take down Brad’s uranium empire. Warner Archive/Synopsis

Clover Productions/Columbia Pictures • 1956 • B&W • 67 min • Directed by William Castle
Starring Dennis Morgan, Patricia Medina, William Talman, Tina Carver & Frank Wilcox

New 3/5 WARNER ARCHIVE Release: CHEYENNE

New to the Warner Archive Collection • March 5, 2013 • Cheyenne

Gambler-on-the-run James Wylie (Dennis Morgan) knows a good deal when he sees one.  So when he’s offered his freedom in exchange for capturing the holdup man known as “the Poet,” Wylie heads to Cheyenne, where the bandit’s said to be forming a gang.  Posing as the outlaw, he meets up with the Poet’s wife (Jane Wyman), who also claims to want him arrested. But when she warns her husband the law’s closing in, the desperado (Bruce Bennett) plans to outwit them both by ditching his bride for a dancehall girl (Janis Paige) and having Wylie lynched in his place. Directed by action ace Raoul Walsh, Cheyenne was co-written by novelist Alan LeMay, author of The Searchers. A superior example of Walsh’s two-fisted style, the film is unjustly forgotten today due to its syndication title being changed to The Wyoming Kid, a move made by Warner Bros. to avoid confusion with its unrelated TV Western series that aired from 1955 to 1963.  Warner Archive/Synopsis

WB • 1947 • B&W • 99 min • Directed by Raoul Walsh
Starring Dennis Morgan, Jane Wyman, Janis Paige, Bruce Bennett & Alan Hale

Cheyenne: Original Theatrical Trailer

New 5/15 WARNER ARCHIVE Release: FLIGHT ANGELS

New to the Warner Archive Collection • May 15, 2012 • Flight Angels

Cleared for takeoff: Flight Angels, an aviation programmer steeped in man-woman attitudes of its time. The story is centered on commercial pilots eager to fly higher (during off-hours, they’re designing a high-altitude plane) and up-in-the-air attendants eager to land a man (exchanges between the femmes in the Stewardess Lounge are exceptionally catty).  Virginia Bruce and Jane Wyman portray two of the title’s Angels.  Dennis Morgan plays the pilot whose eye problems result in him being grounded by his superintendent (Ralph Bellamy) and sent to the classroom to instruct future flight attendants.  He refuses to stay grounded, test-piloting his experimental stratospheric aircraft without authorization.

Wayne Morris, inspired by his role in the film, became a real-life pilot and went on to become a decorated WWII flight hero.  Warner Archive/Synopsis

WB • 1940 • B&W • 74 min • Directed by Lewis Seiler
Starring Virginia Bruce, Dennis Morgan, Wayne Morris, Ralph Bellamy & Jane Wyman

Flight Angels: Original Theatrical Trailer

New WARNER ARCHIVE Release: ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON

New to the Warner Archive Collection • February 7, 2012 • One Sunday Afternoon

One Sunday afternoon in turn-of-the-century New York, Biff Grimes (Dennis Morgan) falls for a luscious strawberry blonde (Janis Paige).  When she throws him over for a shallow glad hander (Don DeFore), Biff marries her sensible friend (Dorothy Malone) and pines for the girl who got away.  Then years later, she comes back to town. Raoul Walsh first filmed this endearing comedy-drama in 1941 as The Strawberry Blonde with James Cagney as Biff, then stepped behind the camera again for a Technicolor® musical remake.  The period-perfect score is by Ralph Blane, who captures in song the timeless charm of romance and the irresistible nostalgia of barbershop quartets, straw boaters and bicycles built for two.
Warner Archive/Synopsis

WB • 1948 • Technicolor • 90 min • Directed by Raoul Walsh
Starring Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, Dorothy Malone & Ben Blue

Welcome to “DENNIS MORGAN: WARNER’S REGULAR GUY”

on WordPress—the first online salute to one of the finest actors of the 1940s.  Here you will find (as it is updated) tons of rare photographs, articles, audio clips, film clips, trailers, and the latest DVD releases.  —K.P. the D.M. fan • November 7th, 2011

TCM’s Robert Osborne on Dennis Morgan