Vance Skarstedt Movies
- 1970
- R
Two gunrunners' hunt for buried treasure in Java is disrupted by the quest for the same woman. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Rennie, Richard Jaeckel, (more)
- 1970
"One Adam-12. One Adam 12". That's the call which summons Officers Reed (Kent McCord) and Malloy (Martin Milner) to a daunting array of tense situations in tonight's episode. The case load ranges from freeing an elderly couple from a wall safe, to pursuing a gang of robbers--a task that finds the two officers joining forces with an elite police helicopter squad. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1965
Long before Bo Derek, actor/director John Derek was playing Svengali with another movie-star wife, Ursula Andress. In Once Before I Die, Derek casts himself as a cavalry major and Andress as his mistress. Both captain and girl are marooned with a group of American marines in the Philippines. When the group is pinned down by Japanese aerial bombardment, Ursula is anxious to escape, and promises to service any man who helps her. The girl's machinations result in the death of practically every member of the group. The ads for Once Before I Die displayed a shot of a fetchingly underdressed Ursula Andress, lying invitingly on her back; alas, the only thing flat on its back was the film itself. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Derek, Ursula Andress, (more)
Fort Santiago in the Philippines, built in 1574, was called "Intramuros, the walled city of Manila." This action feature is centered around Intramuros and the events that occurred there in February of 1945. After Japanese troops were finally showing defeat in Manila, they retreated into the fortress with 10,000 Filipino captives. American Lieutenant Jim Sorenson (Jock Mahoney), whose wife is held inside the fort, is instructed to rescue the prisoners with his guerrilla forces. Lt. Sorenson finds help from a brave Filipino (Fernando Poe Jr.) who managed to escape the fortress himself. Intramuros/The Walls of Hell was a slightly different topic for Filipino director Eddie Romero, known more for his low-budget exploitation and horror pictures. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jock Mahoney, Michael Parsons, (more)
Tom Gregory (Robert Hutton), a Los Angeles-based sports reporter, is flying into L.A. and lands his private plane after a rough descent through some kind of opaque midair disturbance, only to find the airport deserted. He meets Professor Galvin (Robert Burton) and his two daughters, Bonnie (Judee Morton) and Lisa (Susan Hart), who tell him that the city has been overrun by huge, hulking slime-covered subterraneans called Slime People, who appeared out of the sewers and other underground water concentrations. Appearing out of a strange thick fog apparently generated by a device of their own, they've killed hundreds, possibly thousands, panicked the population, fought the army to a standstill, and have now cut off the city with a wall of solidified fog. Gregory doesn't believe them completely, despite the presence of slaughtered corpses on the highways and back roads, until he gets to the television station where he works and screens the news footage. The quartet also makes contact with a young marine, Calvin Johnson (William Boyce), who was cut off from his unit and left for dead by the creatures. They manage to elude the Slime People and try to work out a plan for survival, making contact along the way with Norman Talliver (Les Tremayne), an eccentric writer, who is soon dispatched by the creatures. They discover the Slime People are impervious to harm by bullets or other convention weapons, their skin sealing up any wound instantly, but they can be killed by their own hollow-pointed spears, which don't allow wounds to close. That helps in fighting them off one-on-one, and the professor's reasoning that salt would be effective against slug-like creatures gives them a second weapon against the Slime People. But clearing them all out and freeing the city requires an assault against the creatures' own stronghold, which becomes even more essential when Bonnie is taken prisoner. Gregory and Cal manage to keep the Slime People busy long enough for the professor to destroy their fog-generating device. Overwhelmed by fresh air and sunlight, the Slime People start to collapse dead in their tracks, and the army is soon back in charge, doing what amounts to a literal mopping up operation. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- 1960
The story of a boy and his fish is chronicled in this heartwarming children's drama. The story centers around Raymie, a young boy who is determined to catch 'Old Moe,' a big barracuda who has become a local legend. Along with a variety of older fisherman, he sets up his gear on a California pier and patiently begins fishing for his prize; when he finally catches it, the tender-hearted lad decides to release the great creature. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Ladd, Julie Adams, (more)
- 1959
Working out of Bunco Detail, Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) set their sights on Tim and Doris Hubert (Donald Kirke, Mary Patton), a husband-wife team of con artists with a police record stretching back seventeen years. The Huberts have been out of circulation for a long time--but now they've come out of the woodwork to victimize a minister and his entire congregation (and that's only the beginning!) This episode was adapted from the Dragnet radio broadcast of February 22, 1951. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1958
This romantic melodrama centers on a love triangle shaped by the restless, dissatisfied girl friend of a crop-duster who refuses to marry her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1958
Produced at Republic Studios during that western-film factory's twilight years, Man or Gun stars MacDonald Carey as a drifter named Maybe Smith. Before he gets a chance to say "Like sands through the hourglass...", Smith gets mixed up in the lives of several timorous townsfolk, who suffer the despotic excesses of a powerful ranching family. James Craig plays Pinch Corley, the meanest member of the clan (Admit it now: you've never seen any other movie with characters named Maybe and Pinch) The title derives from Maybe's quandary over whether to take on the Corleys with his fists or with his gun. Man or Gun takes its sweet time (79 minutes' worth) allowing Maybe Smith to work out his problem. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1957
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are puzzled when two different women report that their husbands are missing. The descriptions of the missing men are remarkably similar, leading the detectives to one of two conclusions: Either the husbands were twin brothers, or there's a bigamist on the loose. Guess which conclusion proves to be true. This is one of a handful of black and white Dragnet episodes written directly for television, with no previous radio version. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1956
Popular LA radio deejay Dick Whittinghill more or less plays himself in this episode, in which Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) try to find out who stole a platinum-and-diamond wristwatch worth $1500. The timepiece had been sent to radio personality Beetle Buckingham (Whittinghill) as a gift by his "number one fan" Myrna Hopkins (Virginia Vincent in an Oscar-worthy performance), who has been besieging Buckingham with on-the-air phone calls. Though at first she denies stealing the watch, Myrna finally confesses to the crime--and in the process, reveals her desperate loneliness. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1955
Battle Taxi is set during the height of the Korean War. Sterling Hayden plays an officer of the Helicopter Air Rescue Service, whose job it is to save wounded or stranded soldiers from hostile territory. Arthur Franz costars as a lieutenant assigned to the copter service, who at first resents his position but eventually realizes his importance in the scheme of things. The film sticks to basics, eschewing any and all romantic subplots -- in fact, there isn't a single female character in the picture! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sterling Hayden, Arthur Franz, (more)
