Ed Stevlingson Movies
- 1969
- R
Last Summer is a frank coming-of-age tale that refuses to prettify its young characters or their activities. A group of aimless teens get together for sex, drugs and rock-and-roll on Fire Island. Timid, overweight Rhonda (Catherine Burns) is goaded into aberrant behavior by her peers, especially the promiscuous Sandy (Barbara Hershey). Enjoying Rhonda's discomfiture, Sandy encourages the boys in the group to gang-rape the poor girl. It was this scene, the first of its kind in a general-release American picture, that earned Last Summer its initial X rating. The film was later judiciously trimmed to qualify for an R rating without blunting its dramatic impact. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Barbara Hershey, Richard Thomas, (more)
- 1958
Veteran funnyman Morey Amsterdam eschews his usual "Buddy Sorrell" cheekiness to essay a serious role in this episode. Amsterdam is cast as disgruntled lockpicker Marty Dreen, who assists Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith Ben Alexander in their search for a payroll-check forger. This is the episode in which dedicated police detective Frank Smith is promoted to Sergeant--placing him, albeit briefly, on the same level as his partner Joe Friday. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Dismissed when first released, later heralded as one of director Alfred Hitchcock's finest films (and, according to Hitchcock, his most personal one), this adaptation of the French novel D'entre les morts weaves an intricate web of obsession and deceit. It opens as Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) realizes he has vertigo, a condition resulting in a fear of heights, when a police officer is killed trying to rescue him from falling off a building. Scottie then retires from his position as a private investigator, only to be lured into another case by his old college friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore). Elster's wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak), has been possessed by a spirit, and Elster wants Scottie to follow her. He hesitantly agrees, and thus begins the film's wordless montage as Scottie follows the beautiful yet enigmatic Madeleine through 1950s San Francisco (accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's hypnotic score). After saving her from suicide, Scottie begins to fall in love with her, and she appears to feel the same way. Here tragedy strikes, and each twist in the movie's second half changes our preconceptions about the characters and events. In 1996 a new print of Vertigo was released, restoring the original grandeur of the colors and the San Francisco backdrop, as well as digitally enhancing the soundtrack. ~ Dylan Wilcox, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Kim Novak, (more)
- 1957
The flourishing orchid business owned by Mildred Kimber (Anne Barton) may pass into the hands of unscrupulous florist Harry Marlow (Dan Seymour), who has arranged for Mildred's husband to lose all his money in a rigged poker game at the nightclub owned by Sam Lynk (Michael Emmett). Subsequently, Lynk is found poisoned to the death, and the evidence points to Mildred. Determined to prove Mildred's innocence, Perry (Raymond Burr) finds that DA Hamilton Burger (William Tallman) is more determined than ever to get a conviction--meaning that most of Perry's work will have to take place outside the courtroom! Based on a 1940 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner, this episode was remade in 1965 as "The Case of the Candy Queen." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
