Karen Norris Movies

National Intelligence Agent Dan Street (Richard Egan) is on the trail of some stolen laser rubies. It is assumed the agents will come after the raygun itself for their evil purposes. Count Romano (Michael Ansara) is the swimsuit-import mogul who tries to keep his head from going under while working for the enemy agents. The key to the mystery lies with Dutch (John Ericson), a Korean War veteran who fell into the hands of the brainwashing communists. Patricia Owens is Dan's love interest in this plodding suspense film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A pair of crooks conspire to rob the ticket booth at the Los Angeles Coliseum during a Rams game. Before they can perform the heist, the two must find precisely the right henchmen to join them. Each potential gang member must undergo a rigorous test of skill. Thanks to care and precise planning, the caper comes off smoothly and afterward the gang leader (Jim Brown) hides the money in the apartment of his ex-wife (Diahann Carroll). She only agrees to keep the money on the provision that he reform so they can get back together. Unfortunately, the wife's lust-crazed landlord (James Whitmore) busts into her house the next day and tries to rape her. During the struggle he kills her and then takes the loot. Later a crooked cop (Gene Hackman) investigates. Meanwhile, when the gang members learn that the loot is missing, they suspect a double-cross and engage in a huge battle. The cop finds the money and at first keeps it for himself. The head crook eventually figures out that the cop has it and so goes to him to make a little deal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Countess Framboise (Ann Sothern), aka Lucy's old school chum Rosie Hannigan, is now selling real estate. Lucy (Lucille Ball) tries to help her friend land a big commission by inveigling Mooney (Gale Gordon) into renting an "ultra-modern" apartment. Unfortunately, the apartment's door locks automatically for the weekend, leaving Lucy, the countess, and Mooney trapped with no food or water for three days! This episode actually marked the first of three appearances this season of Ann Sothern as the countess, but was telecast second for the sake of continuity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bumbling Aunt Clara pays another visit to the Stephens family. Taking Clara at her word that she doesn't want to be pampered, Samantha and Darrin assign the old dear to babysit a pair of precocious children. This turns out to be a big mistake when Clara casually informs the kiddies that she is a witch -- then sets about to prove it. First shown on April 1, 1965, "There's No Witch Like an Old Witch" was written by Ted Sherdeman and Jane Klove. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lazy Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) is faced with two problems: How to bring customers to the Shady Rest, and how to dig a drainage ditch at the lowest possible cost. Joe ends up tackling both problems by speading the rumor that there's been a valuable silver strike on the Shady Rest property. Glenn Strange, whose other roles include the Frankenstein monster and Gunsmoke's Sam the Bartender, is seen as would-be prospector Hawley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Minerva Doubleday (Phyllis Love) hires Paul Drake (William Hopper) to act as courier in the sale of her Uncle Homer's (Will Kuluva) rare Confederate half-dollar, which is supposedly worth $50,000. But what follows is a maelstrom of theft, embezzlement, blackmail, and finally murder, with George Parsons (Hunt Powers) as the victim. Lucky for accused killer Minerva that Paul Drake is a close associate of lawyer Perry Mason (Raymond Burr). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, Deke Gentry (Kirk Douglas) is a lawyer who gets an unusual assignment from Chloe Brasher (Thelma Ritter), a wealthy widow, owner of a successful hotel chain, and one of his most prominent clients. Chloe has three daughters, sensible Kate (Mitzi Gaynor), bohemian Jan (Leslie Parrish), and heath food fanatic Bonnie (Julie Newmar), and she wants Deke to find them husbands. Though Deke protests that matchmaking is outside his traditional area of expertise, Chloe is insistent, and he ends up taking the job. To be sure that he's going through with it, Chloe assigns her security chief Joe (William Bendix) to keep his eye on Deke. Eventually, Deke fixes up Bonnie with Harvey Wofford (Richard Sargent), a meek IRS agent, and pairs Jan with artist Sam Travis (William Windom), but Kate turns out to be the hardest Brasher sister to marry off, until he throws his own hat into the ring. Richard Sargent would later shorten his first name to Dick and find success on the popular television comedy Bewitched. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of a two-part story, Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon) are freed from the bank vault in which they've been locked up for 18 hours. In trying to explain to the media how she accidentally locked the door in the first place, Lucy succeeds in trapping Mooney in the vault all over again! The only person in town qualified to open the vault is candy manufacturer Mr. Bundy (Jay Novello), who'd once served time as a safecracker. Unfortunately, the temptation of all that money proves too much for the "reformed" Bundy, and he ends up robbing the safe and taking Lucy and Viv (Vivian Vance) hostage! The episode's riotous climax finds our two heroines, tied back to back, happily hopping around to sample the tasty confections in the back room of Bundy's candy store. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Herbert Rudley guest stars as Beverly Hills psychiatrist Dr. Twombley. When Jethro needs a certificate of health for his fifth-grade classroom, he decides to visit Mrs. Drysdale's doctor, who, of course, turns out to be Twombley. The results of this momentous meeting would send Sigmund Freud back to Vienna in search of new subliminal symbols, especially when Jethro offers his own peculiar interpretation of a series of ink-blots. "The Clampetts Get Psychoanalyzed" first aired on May 8, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An unusually tense and intelligent political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate was a film far ahead of its time. Its themes of thought control, political assassination, and multinational conspiracy were hardly common currency in 1962, and while its outlook is sometimes informed by Cold War paranoia, the film seemed nearly as timely when it was reissued in 1987 as it did on its original release. It opens with a group of soldiers whooping it up in a bar in Korea as their commander, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), arrives to inform them that they're back on duty. These men obviously have no fondness for Shaw, and he feels no empathy for them. While on patrol, Shaw and his platoon are ambushed by Korean troops. Months later, Shaw is receiving a hero's welcome as he returns to the United States to accept the Congressional Medal of Honor, and several of the soldiers who served under Shaw repeatedly refer to him as "the bravest, finest, most lovable man I ever met." It soon becomes evident that after their capture by the Koreans, Shaw and his men were subjected to an intense program of brainwashing prior to their release. While several are troubled by bad dreams and inexplicable behavior, it's Capt. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) who seems the most haunted by the experience. In time, Marco is able to piece together what happened; it seems Raymond Shaw was programmed by a shadowy cadre of Russian and Chinese agents into a killing machine who will assassinate anyone, even a close friend, when given the proper commands. On the other side of the coin, Shaw is also used for political gain by his harridan mother (Angela Lansbury), who guides the career of her second husband, John Iselin (James Gregory), a bone-headed congressman hoping to win the vice-presidential nomination through a campaign of anti-Communist hysteria.

The Manchurian Candidate features a host of remarkable performances, several from actors cast cleverly against type. Frank Sinatra's edgy, aggressive turn as Marco may be the finest dramatic work of his career; Laurence Harvey's chilly onscreen demeanor was rarely used to s better advantage than as Raymond Shaw; James Gregory is great as the oft-befuddled Senator Iselin; and Angela Lansbury's ultimate bad mom will be a shock to those who know her as the lovable mystery writer from Murder, She Wrote. George Axelrod's screenplay (based on Richard Condon's novel) is by turns compelling, witty, and horrifying in its implications, and John Frankenheimer's direction milks it for all the tension it can muster. While Frankenheimer's career has had its ups and downs, The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds (1966) suggest that he deserves to be recognized as one of the most brilliantly paranoid American filmmakers of the '60s. Entertaining yet unsettling, both films indicate that things in the '60s were not what they seemed, with a resonance that still echoes uncomfortably in the present. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This third film version of the lachrymose Fannie Hurst novel Back Street stars Susan Hayward as Rae Smith the role previously essayed by Irene Dunne (in 1932) and Margaret Sullavan (in 1941). In both earlier films, Rae Smith sacrifices 28 years of her life to her married lover, who can never get a divorce and who compels Rae to squirrel herself away in a shabby back-street apartment. In contrast, Susan Hayward's Rae Smith is a fiercely independent fashion designer, whose fidelity to the very married John Gavin doesn't retard her livelihood in the least. Vera Miles makes a meal of her supporting role as Gavin's shrewish, alcoholic wife. Though cinematographer Stanley Cortez does his utmost, he can't completely hide the fact that Hayward is at least ten years older than her costars, making her seem more of a doting aunt than the "other woman" (the film might have been more effective had Hayward and Miles switched roles). Its plot inconsistencies and logic lapses notwithstanding, Back Street proved to be another hit for producer Ross Hunter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although not as well known as Pillow Talk (1959), this romantic-comedy pairing of stars Rock Hudson and Doris Day earned an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. Hudson stars as Jerry Webster, a Madison Avenue advertising executive who has achieved success not through hard work or intelligence but by wining and dining his big-shot clients, even setting them up on dates with attractive girls. Jerry's equal at a rival agency is Carol Templeton (Day). Although she has never met him, Carol is disgusted by Jerry's unethical antics and reports him to the Ad Council. Jerry avoids trouble with his usual aplomb, sending a comely chorus girl, Rebel Davis (Edie Adams), to seduce the council members. When Jerry subsequently makes Rebel the star of television commercials for a nonexistent product called VIP, the spots are accidentally aired by perplexed company president Pete Ramsey (Tony Randall). Carol becomes determined to win the VIP account away from Jerry, but after she discovers the truth, she again reports him to the Ad Council. Jerry skirts out of trouble a second time by producing VIP, an intoxicating candy quickly whipped up by company research scientist Linus Tyler (Jack Kruschen). VIP's extreme effects lead to a one-night stand between bitter rivals Jerry and Carol, with unexpected consequences. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide