David Wayne Movies
The son of an insurance salesman, David Wayne attended Western Michigan University. While working as a statistician in Cleveland, Wayne became attracted to the local theatrical activity. Auditioning for a Shakespearean repertory company, he won the role of Touchstone in As You Like It, which he performed before an audience for the first time at the 1935 Cleveland Exposition. In 1938, he made his first New York stage appearance in Escape This Night. Classified 4F at the outbreak of World War II, Wayne volunteered for the ambulance corps, subsequently serving as a Red Cross driver in North Africa. His theatrical career really began to pick up steam after the war: cast as Og the Leprechaun in the 1947 musical hit Finian's Rainbow, he became the first actor ever to win a Tony Award. The following year, he created the role of Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts, and in 1955 he was seen as Okinawan interpreter Sakini in Teahouse of the August Moon.While all of his major stage roles went to other actors in the film versions, Wayne enjoyed a substantial movie career of his own. Though he made his screen debut in 1947's Portrait of Jennie, Wayne was given "and introducing" billing in the Tracy/Hepburn comedy Adam's Rib (1949), in which he played capricious composer Kip Lurie. After playing Joe, cartoonist Bill Mauldin's mud-caked infantryman, in Universal's Up Front (1951), Wayne spent most of his screen time at 20th Century-Fox, where, among other things, he did two co-starring stints with Marilyn Monroe (1952's We're Not Married, 1953's How to Marry a Millionaire), played theatrical impresario Sol Hurok in Tonight We Sing (1953), starred as a tragedy-plagued small-town barber in the underrated Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie (1953) and portrayed schizophrenic Joanne Woodward's long-suffering husband in Three Faces of Eve (1957). One of Wayne's co-stars during his Fox years was Una Merkel, who once remarked "I loved David Wayne. I think he's one of the finest actors we have. He's so good they don't know what to do with him."
One place where they evidently did know what to do with Wayne was television, where he worked steadily from 1948 onward. Besides playing such prominent personages as Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain and even "Old Scratch" (in a 1961 telecast of The Devil and Daniel Webster), he appeared in classic individual episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Twilight Zone, played "special guest villain" The Mad Hatter on Batman, and was a regular on the weekly series Norby (1955), The Good Life (1973), Ellery Queen (1975, as Inspector Queen), Dallas (1978), and House Calls (1980). In addition, Wayne appeared with New York's Lincoln Center Repertory, and was one of the hosts of the NBC weekend radio potpourri Monitor. Curtailing his activities in the late 1980s, David Wayne retired altogether in 1993, after the death of his wife of 51 years. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Academy Award nominee Paul Winfield stars alongside young Jeff East in this 1974 musical adaptation of Mark Twain's classic Huckleberry Finn. East plays the title character, a whip-smart lad who heads off on a journey down the mighty Mississippi along with his pal Jim (Winfield). The film also stars Harvey Korman and David Wayne. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- 1987
We've been told that Poker Alice, a Boston-bred lady of means who managed a wild-west gambling hall and bordello in the 1870s, was based on a real person. She certainly seems real as portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor in this made-for-TV film (Taylor's first). After winning her house of ill repute in a five-card stud game, Taylor finds true love in the form of bounty hunter Tom Skeritt. Also in hand is George Hamilton as Taylor's slick partner "Cousin John" (the original ads for this film billed Hamilton and Taylor as "The King and Queen of Hearts"). In addition, Susan Tyrrell shows up for a down-and-dirty cat fight with the feisty Taylor. Poker Alice rode into TV land on May 22, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1987
- R
This low-budget actioner is set in a world gone mad with the fear that WW III is imminent and centers on a survivalist who has stashed away a veritable armory of high-tech weapons to protect his family. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Steve Railsback, Marjoe Gortner, (more)
- 1985
In one of the series' best episodes, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) and Sheriff Tupper (Tom Bosley) are taking a bus trip from Cabot Cove to Portland, Maine, when the vehicle makes a stopover at a roadside inn. Before long, one of the other passengers--a bank robber recently released from prison--turns up murdered. As it happens, practically everyone on the bus except Jessica and Tupper had a powerful motivation...and this may well be one of those rare instances in which the Most Likely Suspect turns out to be the guilty party after all! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1984
- R
In this slapstick chase-adventure, some unlikely heroes try to outwit each other for possession of a huge stash of cash hidden on the train they are all riding together. The comedy is a little uneven here or at least not to everyone's taste, and the pace is fast-forward frantic. Josef (Ed Lauter) and Georgiana (Pamela Stephenson) manage to break into her father's estate and swipe $5 million in cash from the safe, with plans to spirit the money across country on a train. Meanwhile, Michael (Michael O'Keefe) is a con man being chased by irate women on a roller derby team who have reason to be angry with him. He zips into a second-hand clothing store and dons the disguise of an army uniform, hoping to board a train for New York unnoticed. But when an officer gets suspicious at the station, Michael retorts that he is escorting a nearby coffin -- a coffin that actually contains the stolen $5 mil. The thieves are also nearby, but for reasons of their own, they go along with Michael's charade. Along for the ride are a neurotic woman (Beverly D'Angelo), an eccentric train conductor (David Wayne), a stowaway Vietnam defector, a blond woman of the underworld, a nymphomaniac, and briefly, a crafty con man (Louis Gosset Jr.). From that point onward, episodic vignettes are tossed here and there as the train moves ever closer to New York, and the protagonists try to outmaneuver each other for the money. Viewers may note that along for his fourth cinematic ride is Jim Carrey in a bit part. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael O'Keefe, Beverly D'Angelo, (more)
Tim Conway as woeful boxer Bags and Don Knotts as his dim-witted sidekick Shake are out to save a gym and do the impossible in this predictable, cliched comedy from director Michael Preece. The setting is the 1930s and Bags is trying to make it as a boxer. Gangster Mike (Robin Clarke) decides to take advantage of the two losers, so he sets Bags up for a big championship match against a bruiser appropriately nicknamed the Butcher (Michael LaGuardia). At stake is more than the one-sided match, the dull duo's friend "Pop" Morgan (David Wayne) has bet all he has on Bags -- he needs money to save his gym from the clutches of the gangster. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tim Conway, Don Knotts, (more)
- 1979
Filmed in and around Houston, Girls in the Office is an easily digested TV movie with an all-video-star cast. The office is in a large Houston department store. The girls are four in number: Susan Saint James, Barbara Eden, Penny Peyser and Robyn Douglass. The film follows the quartet as they try to balance their jobs with their love lives. Some of the ladies opt for business, others for pleasure; look at the cast and figure out who does which. The viewer's interest in Girls in the Office is entirely dependent upon how appealing one finds its stars. The film couldn't help but do well when it was first telecast in February of 1979: its competition was the McLean Stevenson sitcom Hello, Larry. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Made up to look like a septuagenarian, Henry Winkler plays Benedict Slade, a Scrooge-like miser living in a tiny New England town during the Depression. Slade goes Scrooge one further by repossessing items from a poor farm couple and an orphanage on Christmas eve. While reading a copy of Dickens' The Christmas Carol in his home, Slade is visited by his own set of Spirits Past, Present and Future, including his Hell-dwelling late business partner (Kenneth Pogue). Lensed in Canada, this made-for-TV film premiered the week before Christmas of 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1978
The locale of Anna Sewell's 1906 novel Black Beauty was changed from England to Maryland in this five-part TV miniseries. Still, the script adheres to the basic chronology of the Sewell original. In Part One the wife of incapacitated farmer Tom Gray sells the frisky colt Black Beauty. In Part Two, first telecast February 1, 1978, Beauty does the "Lassie" bit by rescuing her new master (Cameron Mitchell) from a storm and locating a doctor for her expectant mistress (Diane Ladd). This episode ends with Beauty facing certain death, first from a fire, then from a fever. The remaining three 60-minute episodes of Black Beauty were broadcast on February 2, 3 and 4, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
For her dramatic acting debut, singer Marie Osmond chose this sentimental adaptation of the venerable Yuletide short story The Gift of the Magi, previously filmed in 1952 as a segment of the omnibus feature film O. Henry's Full House. Set in turn-of-the-century New York, The Gift of Love casts Osmond as young heiress Beth Atherton, who gives up her life of privilege and luxury to become the wife of poverty-stricken immigrant Rudi Miller (Timothy Bottoms). Though he finds work as a clerk, Rudi is unable to afford a decent Christmas gift for Beth, nor is she able to scrounge enough money from the household budget to purchase a gift for her husband. What happens next hinges on the fact that Rudi is inordinately proud of his gold watch, while Beth takes equal pride in her long, flowing hair. Produced by star Marie Osmond's brothers, The Gift of Love made its ABC network debut on December 8, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1978
Earl Hamner Jr. of The Waltons fame cowrote the teleplay for Lassie: The New Beginning with Jack Miller. The venerable female collie is now owned by two orphan children (Shane Sinutko and Sally Boyden). She accompanies the kids on a hazardous journey from Arizona to Southern California in search of their only living kin. You won the bet--Lassie does rescue the children in the (ta da!) nick of time. John McIntyre and Jeanette Nolan costar in this 100-minute TV movie. Lassie: The New Beginning was first telecast in two parts on September 17 and 24, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Reilly, Lee Bryant, (more)
- 1978
Didi Conn, who skyrocketed to fame thanks to Saturday Night Fever (77) and You Light Up My Life (78), did nothing for her career with the made-for-TV Murder at the Mardi Gras. Conn plays a loopy young Philadelphia waitress who witnesses a murder during the New Orleans Mardi Gras celebration, but can't get anyone to believe her. The murderer, who is disguised variously as a large pink rabbit and a headless gorilla, spends most of "Fat Tuesday" pursuing poor Didi Conn up street, down alley, and around the other costumed revellers. With an all-TV cast, it's hard to tell at first whodunit--since all the actors have played the mystery killer at one time or another in their careers. The biggest mystery is the participation of director Ken Annakin, who surely does not list Murder at the Mardi Gras on the same resume as his earlier Swiss Family Robinson, The Longest Day, and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
In the Glitter Palace was the first made-for-TV movie in which lesbianism was a crucial plot factor. Chad Everett stars as a defense lawyer and erstwhile detective, whose gay client is Barbara Hershey. She is on trial for murdering her slimy blackmailer (played by that master of sliminess, Anthony Zerbe). Among Hershey's lesbian friends are Salome Jens and Diana Scarwid, who may know more than what they're telling Everett. Just because In the Glitter Palace was a groundbreaker in regards to its subject matter doesn't make it a better movie; strip away the "relevance," and you've got just another by-rote whodunit. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chad Everett, Barbara Hershey, (more)
- 1975
A cruel cougar terrorizes a pioneer family in California during the 1890s in this adventure. Fortunately, the unsettled settlers are soon protected by a friendly wild dog. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1975
Ellery Queen (also known as Too Many Suspects) was the 78-minute pilot film for a TV series based on the fictional intellectual author/sleuth created by cousins Frederick Dannay and Manfred Lee. Jim Hutton plays Ellery (the tenth actor to do so on screen!), while David Wayne is his police inspector father. The plot, set in 1947 Manhattan, involves the murder of a fashion model. Fifteen minutes before the fade-out, Ellery turns to the audience, presents the clues, and asks us to solve the murder--a cute if unnecessary trick, since Ellery's got the case all worked out and the killer is no surprise to anyone who's watched TV murder mysteries in the last 25 years (the actor in question has said "I did it!" so often that it's a wonder he can walk the streets without being apprehended). Ellery Queen was a pet project of the TV writing team of Richard Levinson and William Link (of Columbo) fame. After the subsequent Queen TV series expired after a single season, Levinson and Link revived the notion of a murder-solving novelist and changed the gender of the protagonist--and the result was Murder She Wrote. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The Apple Dumpling Gang stars Bill Bixby as Russell Donovan, a slick frontier gambler. In Runyon-esque fashion, he is compelled to look after three precocious oprhaned kids. He can't handle the responsibilities alone, so he agrees to an in-name-only marriage to hoydenish stagecoach driver, Magnolia Dusty Clydesdale (Susan Clark). Fortuitously, they discover that a mine belonging to the kids' late father is worth millions. This brings several disreputable characters into the storyline: bumbling "nice" bandits Theodore Ogelvie and Amos (Don Knotts and Tim Conway), and deadly "bad" bandits headed by Frank Stillwell (Slim Pickens). Based on a novel by Jack M. Bickham, The Apple Dumpling Gang was successful enough to spawn a sequel-not to mention several future screen teamings for Don Knotts and Tim Conway. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bill Bixby, Susan Clark, (more)
- 1974
One of Mark Twain's best-loved stories becomes a screen musical in this family-friendly adaptation. Mischievous Huckleberry Finn (Jeff East) is a 15-year-old boy who has long had a difficult relationship with his often violent father. When Dad tried to kidnap him, Huck decides to run away from home, and heads out of town on a raft. Huck is soon joined by Jim (Paul Winfield), a runaway slave who is no more eager to see his master than Huck is to see his father. As the two friends make their way down the Mississippi, they're faced with a variety of challenges and adventures, including a run-in with a pair of shabby but dignified actors, The King (Harvey Korman) and The Duke (David Wayne). Produced in association with Reader's Digest magazine, which in 1973, scored a box-office hit with a musical version of Twain's Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn featured original songs by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, who also wrote the songs for a handful of Disney hits, including Mary Poppins. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeff East, Paul Winfield, (more)
- 1974
This somewhat clunkily titled TV movie was an offshoot of producer Quinn Martin's series The FBI. Robert Foxworth plays Depression-era desperado Alvin Karpis, who for nearly five years eluded capture while committing bank robberies, kidnappings and murders. Karpis finally comes acropper when the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover (Harris Yulin) enters the case. Since this film was made long before Hoover became every filmmaker's favorite historical villain, he is depicted in shining-knight terms, a sharp contrast to the loathsome Karpis. Producer Martin had planned to produce six to nine additional TV-movies based on authentic FBI files, but dropped the project after only three entries. The FBI Vs. Alvin Karpis was first telecast November 8, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
This third film version of the 1928 Ben Hecht/Charlie MacArthur Broadway hit The Front Page was the first one permitted to utilize all the salty profanities in the original play. Director Billy Wilder cast his two favorite leading men, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, as ace reporter Hildy Johnson and ruthless newspaper editor Walter Burns, respectively. The plot of the Hecht/MacArthur play remains intact: Burns pulls every underhanded game in the book to prevent Johnson from leaving his Chicago paper to get married, and in so doing the two journalists uncover a cesspool of political corruption, centered around the planned execution of anarchist Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton). Carol Burnett has an extended cameo as Williams' tart girlfriend, Mollie Malloy. The Front Page was remade for a fourth time in 1988 as Switching Channels. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, (more)
- 1973
This episode stars David Wayne as a reclusive, ill-tempered tycoon. While he doesn't suffer fools (or anyone else) very well, Wayne is devoted to his collection of valuable books. When one of his rarest volumes disappears from a supposedly impervious glass-enclosed case, troubleshooting detective Banacek (George Peppard) is called onto the case. George Lindsey, best known as Goober on The Andy Griffith Show, co-stars as the local constabulary. The Greatest Collection of Them All was the January 10, 1973, installment of the TV series Banacek. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1973
In the conclusion of a two-part story, Ironside (Raymond Burr) has degenerated from a respected law enforcement officer to a seedy skid-row bum, apparently because 10-year-old murder witness Jerry Abbott (Lee H. Montgomery) was killed while in the Chief's protective custody. What even Ironside's loyal assistants are unaware of is that little Jerry is still alive, and that the Chief is only posing as a derelict to flush out the murderer. The situation reaches the crisis stage when two attempts are made on Ironside's alive--and the Chief can't summon the aid of his associates without blowing his cover. This episode features two original songs by David and Marty Paich: "Street Song", peformed by Carol Carmichael; and "Way Up Here", sung by Marty Paich. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1973
In the first half of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Chief Ironside is assigned to protect little Jerry Abbott, an autistic 10-year-old who has witnessed a murder. Not long afterward, the newspapers are reporting that Jerry himself has been killed--and that Ironside, tortured by guilt, has quit the force, crawled into a booze bottle, and ended up a derelict on Skid Row. But is this grim situation everything it appears to be? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1972
This unsold pilot film was reminiscent of the 1956 syndicated TV weekly The Tracer. Michael Witney plays the "catcher" of the title, a former agent of the Seattle Missing Persons Bureau. Now in private practice with his new partner, Harvard grad Jan-Michael Vincent, Witney hires out to people looking for "vanished" friends and relatives. His first assignment is to locate missing coed Catherine Burns, a quest complicated by a cumbersome murder. Anne Baxter guest stars as a car dealer who pops up with the Vital Clue. The film was lensed on location in Boston, Memphis, Atlanta and Hot Springs, Arkansas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1972
This is the first of several episodes of The Streets of San Francisco in which the viewers bear witness to crimes in progress and are provided all the evidence virtually from the outset, placing them several steps ahead of Detectives Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas). In this case, the catalyst for the story is street vendor Wally Sensibaugh (David Wayne), who takes it upon himself to track down the muggers who have stolen his life savings. Sensibaugh's odyssey leads him down several strange paths--all of them linked with the murder of a city housing commissioner. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The "Andromeda Strain" is a deadly extraterrestrial virus. It is brought to Earth when a research satellite crashes near a tiny Arizona town. Everyone in the community dies within days, except for a baby and an "insulated" drunkard. Recruited from labs all over North America, doctors Charles Dutton (David Wayne), Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill), Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid), and Mark Hall (James Olson) don radiation suits and race against time to isolate and destroy the virus. The film is based on a novel by Michael Crichton. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Arthur Hill, David Wayne, (more)
