Guy Williams Movies

The devotion of an army general to military morality becomes a psychosis in this drama. Most of the story is told in flashback as the general stays in Belgium to wait for his upcoming trial for the slaughter of innocent people in Vietnam. In one flashback, he is seen killing his wife after he catches her with another man. Many scenes of his actions in Vietnam are also witnessed. Back in the present, he is seen killing his daughter when he catches her with an orderly. In turn, the orderly kills the sadistic general. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Season three of Lost in Space finds the Space Family Robinson and company escaping from the planet they had been marooned on throughout season two. Their vessel, "Jupiter II," is now able to hop from planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy, with the addition of a hitherto unseen space pod in which the travelers are able to shuttle back and forth. Alas, they are no closer to returning to their own world than they had been in previous seasons. The closest the travelers come to Mother Earth is in the episode "A Visit to a Hostile Planet," in which the Jupiter II passes through a time warp and emerges in 1947, where it is promptly assumed to be an alien UFO! By now, the series' nominal stars -- Guy Williams as Professor John Robinson, June Lockhart as Maureen Robinson, Mark Goddard as pilot Don West -- had been all but relegated to the background by permanent "special guest star" Jonathan Harris in the role of shifty, cowardly space stowaway Dr. Zachary Smith. Most of the episodes deal with the interplay between Dr. Smith and young Will Robinson (Bill Mumy), who innocently refuses to see any bad in the old reprobate, and between Smith and the Jupiter II's talking robot, who trades one-liners and insults like an intergallactic vaudeville team. With all this going on, the two other female cast members, Marta Kristen and Angela Cartwright as Judy and Penny Robinson, barely get any screen time at all. As was the case in season two, the third and final season of Lost in Space boasts an impressive array of guest stars, all of whom enter into the spirit of things with ripe, Armour Star Ham performances. Worth noting this season are future Hill Street Blues stars Daniel J. Travanti as the punkish leader of an outer-space motorcyle gang in "Collision of the Planets"; and best of all, Stanley Adams as a disgruntled giant carrot in the unforgettable episode "The Great Vegetable Rebellion." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in black-and-white, the first season of Lost in Space took itself more seriously than subsequent seasons -- at least at the outset. Set in 1997, the series began as the Robinsons, a family of space travelers preparing for a five-year exploratory voyage to the Alpha Centauri star system in the "Jupiter II." Unfortunately, an enemy spy named Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) intends to sabotage the mission and kill the family, with help of his malevolent robot. But when the Jupiter II blasts off, Dr. Smith is trapped inside the vehicle with his intended victims: Prof. John Robinson (Guy Williams); his wife, Maureen (June Lockhart); his children, Judy (Marta Kristen), Will (Bill Mumy), and Penny (Angela Cartwright), and ship's pilot Don West (Mark Goddard). Thanks to Smith's dirty work, the ship veers way off course to an unchartered planet where the Robinsons et. al. will spend the remainder of the season. It had been intended to kill off both Dr. Smith and the evil robot after the first five-episode story arc; instead, the robot "reforms" and becomes an unending fount of valuable information for the space castaways, periodically bursting forth with cries of "Warning! Warning!" and "Danger! Danger!" and dealing with matters beyond his ken by muttering metallically, "That does not compute." As for Smith, he evolves from snarling villain to cowardly buffoon, whom the others inexplicably tolerate, even though Smith's perfidy and duplicity causes nothing but trouble for them. The notion to "serialize" the episodes is dropped early on in favor of self-contained stories, though each episode ends with a cliff-hanging preview of the following week's installment. Unlike the next two seasons of Lost in Space, guest stars are kept at a minimum during season one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As originally conceived by executive producer Irwin Allen, the weekly, 60-minute Lost in Space was to have been a relatively serious sci-fi opus called The Space Family Robinson. Set in 1997, the series focused on astrophysicist Dr. John Robinson (Guy Williams), his wife, Maureen (June Lockhart); and their children, Judy (Marta Kristen), Will (Bill Mumy), and Penny (Angela Cartwright), all of whom were blasted into space on the "Jupiter II." Placed in suspended animation, the family was on a mission to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system four light years from Earth. But the Jupiter II's computer malfunctioned, the ship was thrown way off course, and the family woke up several years ahead of schedule to find themselves lost in space. In the series pilot, the main characters were joined by Jupiter II's pilot, Don West (Mark Goddard) -- and no one else. CBS was impressed by Space Family Robinson, but the network insisted upon a title change and also demanded that a villain be added to the proceedings. Thus the project was re-christened Lost in Space, and the pilot episode was reshot so the Jupiter II's malfunction was due to the treachery of an enemy spy named Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), who had sabotaged a robot aboard the ship and programmed it to kill the Robinsons and abort the mission. Unfortunately for Dr. Smith, he was accidentally trapped in the Jupiter II and hurtled into space along with the Robinsons, hence the new title of the pilot show, "The Reluctant Stowaway" (portions of the original pilot, which was top-heavy with expensive special effects, were edited into the series' first five episodes). It had been planned that both Dr. Smith and the killer robot would be eliminated from the series after its inaugural five-episode story arc, but CBS saw potential in both characters and insisted that they be retained.

The network's decision proved to be a brilliant one in terms of the series' ratings: gradually morphing from a cold-hearted assassin to a supercilious, cowardly buffoon, Dr. Smith was easily the show's most popular character -- next to the now-benign robot, who turned out to be a veritable cornucopia of useful technical information and also came in handy when warning the Robinson family of impending danger. Between the Lost in Space pilot and the series proper, it had also been decided to drop the original intention of serializing the episodes, though each installment ended with a coming-attractions "cliffhanger." Finally, what started out as a straightforward, straight-faced endeavor gradually evolved (or, in the minds of less enchanted viewers, devolved) into a semi-humorous exercise in Batman-style camp, replete with such colorful guest villains as a scurvy space pirate (with a robotic parrot), a Brandoesque space-cruising cycle bum, and even a huge talking carrot! The first season, filmed in black-and-white, found the Robinsons stranded on an uncharted planet. The series switched to color for the second season, in which the "Jupiter II" was repaired and the space travelers blasted off -- only to be marooned on another mysterious planet. Season three did a more efficient job of living up to the series' title, as the Jupiter II hopped from planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy, though no closer to "home" than before. The 83 episodes of Lost in Space have flourished in syndication and on such cable-TV services as The Sci-Fi Channel ever since the series' initial CBS run, which lasted from 1965 to 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

First telecast March 22, 1964, "Return to Honor" served to introduce onetime Zorro star Guy Williams in the role of Ben Cartwright's nephew Will-a potential replacement for Adam Cartwright, should Pernell Roberts make good on his repeated threats to leave Bonanza. As the story opens, Ben receives word that Will has been murdered in the neighboring town of Pine City. In truth, the wounded Cartwright cousin is hiding out from a gang of counterfeiters whose engraving plates he has "borrowed." Others in the cast include Arch Johnson (Butler), Robert Wilke (Marshal), Hugh Sanders (Doctor), Gregg Palmer (Gannett) and Bill Clark (Jenner). "Return to Honor" was written by Jack Turley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unique among Bonanza episodes, "The Companeros" does not feature any of the series' top-billed stars, but instead focuses exclusively on Ben Cartwright's nephew Will, played by Guy Williams. Guest-star Frank Silvera is cast as freedom fighter Mateo Ibara, who hopes to enlist his old friend Will's support in helping Benito Juarez assume the presidency of Mexico. Despite his fondness for Ibara and his wife Carla (Faith Domergue), Will finds himself questioning Mateo's true motives. Anthony Carbone, a familiar face in many an American-International movie epic, is here seen as Vincente. First telecast on April 19, 1964, "The Companeros" was written by Ken Pettus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Captain Sindbad was based on an Arabian Nights story, was filmed in Germany, and starred an American leading man (Guy Williams), a German leading lady (Heidi Bruhl) and a Mexican villain (Pedro Armendariz). How's that for cultural diversity? Anyway, the story involves Sindbad's (Williams) efforts to enter the impenetrable castle where the evil El Kerim's (Armendariz) heart is being kept. So long as his heart is outside his body, El Kerim is invulnerable, enabling him to be as wicked and despotic as he chooses. Sindbad comes to the rescue just seconds before the heroine (Bruhl) is about to be crushed to death by an elephant. Despite the mortality rate on both sides, Captain Sindbad is pure kiddie-matinee stuff, adroitly put together by director/cinematographer Byron (War of the Worlds) Haskin and boasting top-notch special effects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Mark Twain's classic tale, this lively 16th-century-set comedy drama chronicles the misadventures and the lessons learned by two disparate and discontented look-a-likes who swear that the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this one-hour spin-off of Walt Disney's popular TV series Zorro, the tiny pueblo of Los Angeles is again targeted for plunder by a bandido. This time, the villain is Ramón Castillo (Ricardo Montalban), an old enemy of leading citizen Don Diego (Guy Williams). Stumbling onto the fact that Diego and the dashing masked do-gooder Zorro are one and the same, Castillo plans to use this knowledge to keep Zorro away while he steals an Army payroll from the fat and fatuous Sergeant García (Henry Calvin). "Auld Acquaintance" originally aired as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part Zorro adventure, dashing Mexican bandit leader El Cuchillo (Gilbert Roland) and his gang are diverted from robbing a stagecoach by alluring señorita Chulita (Rita Moreno). Changing his plans, El Cuchillo decides to hide out in the pueblo of Los Angeles to steal a valuable cache of silver from the local warehouse. But that dauntless masked do-gooder Zorro (Guy Williams) (aka Don Diego de la Vega), is not about to let that happen. Originally telecast as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology, "El Bandido" was a one-hour spin-off of Disney's popular weekly series Zorro, which ran from 1957 to 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Taken from the Walt Disney "Zorro" television series, this film was created from a number of episodes starring the popular masked hero (Guy Williams). ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

At the height of his TV fame, flamboyant pianist Liberace starred in the lavish Warner Bros. production Sincerely Yours. A remake of the old George Arliss vehicle The Man Who Played God, the film casts "Mr. Showmanship" as famed concert pianist Anthony Warren, who at the height of his popularity is stricken with deafness. Learning to lip-read in record time, Warren sits in his luxurious New York penthouse apartment, using high-powered binoculars to spy on the various strollers in Central Park. Warren soon discovers that others have problems worse than his own and sets out to help those less fortunate souls.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide