Linda Evans Movies

The Big Valley was the last major successful network Western series of the 1960s, running four seasons, from 1965 through 1969; none of the others that came after it, Branded, Hondo, Lancer, etc., even came close to that kind of longevity. Most of its appeal, besides high production values, lay in its casting and the starring role played by Barbara Stanwyck (or "Miss Barbara Stanwyck" as she was referred to in the credits) as Victoria Barkley, the matriarch ruling over a huge ranch outside of Stockton, CA, and the San Joachin Valley. Stanwyck was also a partner in the series' production company, Four Star. The Big Valley opens in the year 1876, six years after the death of Victoria's husband, Thomas Barkley, who was shot to death amid a battle with the railroad, and in the first episode the railroad is once more trying to take the land of the homesteaders adjacent to the Barkley ranch. The series' model was very obviously Bonanza (along with elements of the movie Duel in the Sun), which, with a relatively inexperienced cast, was already a hit in its fourth season at the time this series was conceived. The sensibilities of the period being what they were, Victoria Barkley could not have produced four siblings from different husbands, as Lorne Greene's Ben Cartwright had by different wives on Bonanza -- but her offspring were still as varied as the Cartwright family. The Barkleys, in the opening, include three brothers, Jarrod (Richard Long), the oldest and the lawyer, mature and deliberative; Nick (Peter Breck), the ramrod of the ranch, bold but also very hot-tempered; and Eugene (Charles Briles), the youngest, who looks up to both of his brothers (who goes off to college and, after the first season, is never seen or mentioned again); and one daughter, Audra (Linda Evans), who is by turns spoiled and vulnerable, and solitary.

In the first episode, a mysterious young man named Heath (Lee Majors) arrives at the ranch, claiming to be Tom Barkley's illegitimate son -- which sends Nick into a rage that nearly has him killing the visitor, until he joins the Barkley brothers in defending their neighbors from the railroad. The Barkley ranch may not have been as big as the Ponderosa on Bonanza, but it was just as attractive to would-be interlopers and troublemakers, and across four seasons the series managed to put some fresh twists on a lot of Western conventions, mostly by virtue of what Stanwyck's presence allowed in the way of scripting. With more acting and filmmaking experience than the rest of the cast combined, she could put her own stamp and fresh, interesting interpretations on stories as old as the "Vanishing Lady" ("The Disappearance") -- the same story that inspired Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes -- and even prison stories ("Four Days to Furnace Creek") in later seasons. The other prime actor in the series was, oddly enough, Lee Majors, who, at the outset of his career, understood the notion of less being more. His approach to the role of Heath in the first seaon is reminiscent of Steve McQueen with a touch of James Dean and Dennis Hopper. Whereas Richard Long did his best with a role that was usually fairly dullish, Breck tended to overact in his role, which, when it wasn't very physical, tended to get difficult speeches that required more subtlety than he had as an actor. As for Linda Evans, she was so untrained as an actress that she was actually occasionally interesting to watch in her scattershot approach to the role, which, as a solitary romantic dreamer, lent itself to a certain amorphous quality. To the audience's relief, she also got better during the later seasons of the show and was a fully competent actress by the series' end.

The first season of the series was devoted principally to establishing who the Barkleys were, the dimensions of their 30,000-acre ranch (which, in addition to cattle, included a mine, timber, a vineyard, orange groves, and -- in keeping with the sensibilities of the mid-'60s -- included at least one black ranch hand), and establishing the characters' individual personalities. Stanwyck evidently believed that scarcity created demand, and in many of the episodes, her work was confined to no more than two or three major scenes, enough to keep audiences satisfied while not overexposing her on the small screen. By the end of the season, youngest son Eugene was gone from memory and Jarrod, Nick, Heath, and Audra were the focus of the series, along with Victoria. The series was the creation of renowned author A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman, and produced by Arthur Gardner, Arnold Laven, and Jules Levy. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This amusingly weird, painfully threadbare production pits a town of lethargic ex-hippie parents against their own offspring, who have been transformed into pasty-faced zombies (with cute little black fingernails) after their school bus passes through a cloud of radioactive fallout from a nearby nuclear plant. The kids' condition makes it difficult to for their deadbeat parents to reach out to them, thanks to their newly-acquired tendency to turn everyone they touch into an overcooked brisket in two seconds flat. In keeping with zombie-movie rules of engagement (as established in Night of the Living Dead), the bodies begin piling up before the nominal hero (local sheriff Gil Rogers) arrives at an effective zombie-killing method -- which in this case involves cutting off the children's hands. The most entertaining moments in this cheap and silly film come from its painfully bad attempts at horror and -- even more laughable -- social commentary. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This two-part TV movie was originally titled Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues. A follow-up to Rogers' phenomenally successful 1980 made-for-TV The Gambler, the film charts the further adventures of frontier "plunger" Brady Hawkes (played by Rogers, of course). Also making a return appearance is Bruce Boxleitner as Brady's bucolic protégé Billy Montana. This time around, Linda Evans guest-stars as sexy bounty hunter Kate Muldoon, who helps Brady rescue his kidnapped son. When this second Gambler film was first telecast on November 28 and 29, 1983, it proved to be even more popular than the first, leading to still more sequels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The frontier of the title is Australia, the locale for this sprawling four-hour TV movie. Linda Evans stars as an American divorcee who marries an Australian cattleman (Tony Bonner). He dies in a plane crash, leaving Evans and her two teenaged stepchildren stranded on a drought- and debt-ridden ranch. She finds herself smack-dab in the middle of a feud between a covetous land baron (Jason Robards) and his idealistic son (Jack Thompson). With problems of her own, Evans refuses to take sides...until she falls in love with the son. The Last Frontier was filmed on location in Australia's Northern Territory and Barossa Valley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jim (James Garner) is hired by his former lover Claire Prescott (Linda Evans) to help pry her loose from a loan shark. But as often happens on The Rockford Files, Claire isn't telling Jim the whole truth. As the plot thickens, Claire continues to withhold vital information from the detective, nearly getting him killed in the process. The moment of truth finally arrives when a pair of murderous thugs kidnap Jim's dad Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.) , thereby setting up a most unusual "trade-off." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It is not merely jealousy that prompts psychology major Darcy Canfield (Rena Sofer) to mistrust her widowed father Derek's new bride Joan (Linda Evans) and Joan's daughter Melinda (Bridgette Wilson). In fact, the audience is way ahead of Darcy: Joan is revealed early on to be a serial killer of wealthy husbands, who with the help of the equally sociopathic Melinda has bumped off a number of former mates for their money--and, of course, Dr. Derek Canfield (Alan Rachins) is loaded! This time, however, Joan falls in love with Derek and drops her plans to bump him off. Not so Melinda, who now takes it upon herself to eliminate not only her stepdad but also her own mother. In the end, it falls to Darcy to use her college-honed psych kills in a desperate effort to expose Melinda before she can kill again! Capped by one of those endings which suggests that "it ain't over till it's over", the made-for-cable The Stepsister was first broadcast May 7, 1997 by the USA network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Steve McQueen's penultimate film deals with a fascinating western legend, founded on an insightful script by Thomas McGuane and Bud Shrake. Unfortunately, the film was done in by the five directors --Don Siegel, Elliot Silverstein, James Guercio, William Wiard, and McQueen himself-- that were, at one point or another, attached to the project. The film deals with the infamous Texas gunslinger Tom Horn. Horn gained fame for a variety of exploits; he served with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and was the Pinkerton detective who captured the notorious outlaw Peg Leg Watson. But as Tom Horn begins, something in Horn (Steve McQueen) has snapped. Tom quits the Pinkertons and hires himself out to rancher John Coble (Richard Farnsworth) to assist him in putting an end to his problems with the local homesteaders and rustlers. But Horn performers his job with a chilling intensity, killing so many people with such bloodthirsty rage that it is even too much for Coble and the ranchers to take. When Horn's violence cannot be stopped, Coble has to take the law into his own hands to put a halt to Horn's bloodbath. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide