Rod Taylor Movies

A Gathering of Eagles stars Rock Hudson as a colonel in the peacetime Strategic Air Command. His devotion to his duty as a wing commander takes a toll on his men, his marriage, and his own well-being. It is to Hudson's credit that he was willing to put his image on the line with this essentially unsympathetic characterization, and a tribute to his underrated ability as an actor that he compels us to care for him. Popular British leading lady Mary Peach makes a rare Hollywood appearance as Hudson's English wife. An unexpected bonus to A Gathering of Eagles is a semicomic musical piece, "The SAC Song," by dilettante satirist Tom Lehrer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Viewers know they're in a 1959 comedy film early in the proceedings of Ask Any Girl, when secretary Shirley MacLaine is advised by her new supervisor Jim Backus to wear a sweater "a size too small." But she is a good girl: like Doris Day, she won't offer any carnal favors unless a wedding ring is part of the bargain. She targets irresponsible CEO Gig Young for matrimony, asking Young's sober-sided older brother David Niven to help her out. The highlight of Ask Any Girl is Shirley MacLaine's extended drunk scene in the club car of a commuter train. The film was based on a satirical novel by Winifred Wolfe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Most of you know what this is about. For the benefit of the two of you who've never read a tabloid, Prince Charles of England married Lady Diana Spencer in a pomp-and-circumstance wedding telecast all over the world in 1981. David Robb plays Bonnie Prince Charlie, while Caroline Bliss portrays Lady Di. This TV movie came out almost simultaneously with The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana, a far superior (and equally unsuspenseful) production starring Christopher Baines and Catherine Oxenberg. Caroline Bliss faded into obscurity, but Catherine Oxenberg was back for the 1992 TV-movie "sequel" (dictated by Destiny, as it were), titled Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two gladiators are captured by an Amazon army, and are forced to fight against invading pirates. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Danielle Steel's Palomino opens with a female photographer named Samantha Taylor visiting the California ranch of her good friend in order to get herself together after Samantha's marriage dissolves. While there Samantha falls for Tate Jordan, one of the ranch hands, but he feels he is unworthy because her ex-husband is a famous television personality. He breaks off their relationship. Samantha works through her grief by photographing cowboys. Soon she suffers a terrible accident that leaves her paralyzed. She goes through a painful rehabilitation. Her friend passes away, leaving Samantha the ranch in the will. Samantha returns to the ranch and begins to put her life back together yet again when Tate returns and the pair confronts the lingering pain from their brief time together. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Picking up where Season Seven of Falcon Crest left off, Season Eight finds the scheming Melissa (Ana Alicia), former wife of powerful vintner Angela Channing's grandson Lance (Lorenzo Lamas), assuming full charge of the Falcon Crest winery, unceremoniously evicting Angela (Jane Wyman) from the premises. Unfortunately for Melissa, her triumph will prove to be short-lived: after losing both her child and her lover, she goes bonkers, setting fire to Falcon Crest and perishing in the conflagration. But while Melissa is definitely out of the picture, Angela's son Richard Channing (David Selby), presumed killed by the sinister organization "The Thirteen" at the end of the previous season, is actually still alive. As for "The Thirteen", the entire group is assassinated en masse by the unhinged Senator Ryder (Charles Frank), who also tries to bump off Richard before he is himself dispatched by Richard's wife Maggie (Susan Sullivan). Meanwhile, Angela's efforts to regain control of her financial empire are blocked by Pilar Ortega (Kristian Alfonso), the daughter of Falcon Crest's foreman Cesar Ortega (Castulo Guera). Pilar has married Lance, who is now in league with Richard to industrialize the Tuscany valley's wine fields with the help of a phony humanitarian organization run by "The Consortium" (apparently his brush with death vis-à-vis "The Thirteen" has not taught Richard a thing) In a further effort to take over Angela's business, Richard kidnaps Angela and subjects her to a "haunting" from the late Melissa (actually a lookalike)--and when she escapes his clutches, Richard claims the incident never happened and suggests that Angela has gone crazy. But before Richard can be named conservator of his mother's estate, Angela suddenly weds Frank Agretti (Rod Taylor), a relative of the departed Melissa. Astonishingly, this hasty action proves that Angela is in her right mind, and ultimately leads to Richard's arrest! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The family in "flight" is played by Rod Taylor, Dina Merrill and Kristoffer Tabori. While taking an airborne vacation to Mexico, the family crash-lands somewhere in the Baja peninsula. Having taken the vacation as a means to patch up a variety of differences, the family is forced to pull together to survive. At times, however, it looks like no one will return to tell the tale. Made for television, Family Flight debuted October 25, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Stevens' sprawling adaptation of Edna Ferber's best-selling novel successfully walks a fine line between potboiler and serious drama for its 210-minute running time, making it one of the few epics of its era that continues to hold up as engrossing entertainment across the decades. Giant opens circa 1922 in Maryland, where Texas rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict (Rock Hudson) has arrived to buy a stallion called War Winds from its owner, Dr. Horace Lynnton (Paul Fix). But much as Bick loves and knows horses, he finds himself even more transfixed by the doctor's daughter, Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), and after some awkward moments, she has to admit that she's equally drawn to the shy, laconic Texan. They get married and Leslie spends her honeymoon traveling with Jordan to his ranch, Reata, which covers nearly a million acres of Texas. Once there, however, she finds that she has to push her way into her rightful role as mistress of the house, past Bick's sister, Luz (Mercedes McCambridge), who can't accept her brother's marriage or the changes it means in the home they share. Also working around Reata is the laconic ranch hand Jett Rink (James Dean) -- from a family as rooted in Texas as the Benedicts but not nearly as lucky (or "foxy"), Jett is dirt-poor and barely educated at all, and he fairly oozes resentment at Bick for his arrogance, although Luz likes him and for that reason alone Bick is obliged to keep him on. One thing Jett does have in common with his employer is that he is in awe of Leslie's beauty; another is his nearly total contempt for the Mexican-Americans who work for them -- Jett and Bick may have contempt for each other, but either one is just as likely to dismiss the Mexican-Americans around them as a bunch of shiftless "wetbacks." Luz feels so threatened with a loss of power and control that she decides to assert herself with War Winds, yet another "prize" that Bick brought back from Maryland that resists her authority -- then decides to ride the stallion despite being warned that no one but Leslie is wholly safe on him, and spurs him brutally in an effort to break him, which ends up destroying them both in the battle of wills she starts.

After Luz's death, Jett learns that she left him a tiny piece of land for his own, on Reata, which he refuses to sell back to Bick, preferring to keep it for his own and maybe prospect for oil on it. Meanwhile, Leslie and Bick have their own problems -- Leslie can't abide the wretched conditions in which the Mexican families who work on Reata are allowed to live, taking a special interest in Mr. and Mrs. Obregon and their baby, Angel; but Bick doesn't want his wife, or any member of his family, concerning themselves with "those people." Leslie's humanity and her independence push their marriage to the limit, but Bick comes to accept this in his wife, and in four years of marriage they have three handsome children, a boy and two girls, and a loving if occasionally awkward home life. Meanwhile, Jett strikes oil on his land -- which he's named Little Reata -- and in a couple of years he's on his way to becoming the richest man in Texas, getting drilling contracts on all of the land in the area (except Reata) and making more money than the Benedicts ever saw from raising cattle. Bick is almost oblivious to the way Jett grows in power and influence across the years and the state, mostly because he's got his own family to worry about, including a son, Jordan III (Dennis Hopper), who doesn't want to take over the ranch from him, but wants instead to be a doctor; an older daughter, Judy (Fran Bennett), who wants to study animal husbandry and marry a local rancher (Earl Holliman) and start a tiny spread of her own; and a younger daughter, Luz (Carroll Baker), who's just a bit man-crazy and star-struck by the movies.

The American entry into the Second World War and the resulting need for oil forces Bick to go into business with Jett and allow him to drill on Reata, and suddenly the Benedicts are wealthy enough to be part of Jett Rink's circle, which includes the governor of the state and at least one United States senator at his beck and call -- and Luz develops a serious crush on Jett, who likes his women young and is especially attracted to her, as Bick's and Leslie's daughter. Young Jordan marries Juana, a Mexican-American nursing student (Elsa Cardenas), and his father accepts it begrudgingly, with help from Leslie. The war kills Angel Obregon (Sal Mineo), a death that even affects Bick, but the Benedict family gets through it wealthier than ever and grows some more with the birth of Jordan IV to Jordie and Juana. When the family attends a gala opening of Jett Rink Airport, which concludes with a dinner honoring Jett's success, however, young Jordan's wife is humiliated by Jett's racist edicts, and he is beaten up by Jett's men after punching the oil baron. Seeing this, Bick challenges his old rival to the fight that's been brewing for a quarter of a century and wins by default, Jett being too drunk to defend himself or to hit; he's also too drunk to make the grand speech that was to climax the celebration, and he ends up alone in the ballroom. The Benedicts have it out with each other, young Jordan accusing his father of being as much a racist as Jett, and Leslie caught in the middle between her husband and her son. It looks like the Benedicts may lose each other, until an encounter with a racist diner owner forces Bick to stand up and get knocked down (more than once) defending his daughter-in-law and his grandson.

Seen today, Giant seems the least dated of any of James Dean's three starring films, in part because it addresses issues that remain relevant more than 50 years later, and also because it has the best all-around acting and the best script of any of the three. Taken in broader terms, it's even better, with two of the best performances that Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson ever gave, and perhaps the second best of Hudson's whole career (after Seconds) -- the only unfortunate element at modern theatrical screenings is the tendency of younger viewers, who only know him in terms of the revelations late in his life of his being gay, to laugh and snicker at elements of Hudson's characterization; but his work is so good that the titters usually fade after the first 30 minutes or so. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Hell on Frisco Bay is a slam-bang return to the sort of gangster fare turned out by the yard at Warner Bros. in the 1930s. Alan Ladd plays ex-cop Steve Rollins, who serves five years on a manslaughter rap. Upon his release, Rollins dedicates himself to finding the real killer. He soon learns that the man responsible for the frame-up was Victor Amato (Edward G. Robinson), the crime kingpin who rules the roost on the docks of San Francisco. Hoping to keep the heat off his operation, Amato "invites" Rollins to join his gang. Had Rollins accepted at this point, the film would have been over; instead, he doggedly pursues the gang boss with the help of such allies as cast-off gangster moll Kay Stanley (Fay Wray) and police lieutenant Dan Bianco (William Demarest). Amato is so desperate at one point that he orders the murder of his own nephew; surely a man with this sort of temperament is doomed to a horrible demise, and that's just what happens. Joanne Dru costars as Rollins' estranged wife Marcia, who believes in her husband but doesn't relish the notion of his being shot full of holes by Amato's goons. At the time of the film's release, the critics went overboard in their approval of Edward G. Robinson's full-blooded reprisal of the sort of role which made him famous (Robinson himself hated the part, but needed the work). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rod Taylor and Britt Ekland lend their talents--and a measure of box-office insurance--to the Spanish Hot Spot. The film is set on the Riviera, where passions run high and the money flows like water. Two lovers intend to top off their vacation on the Cote D'Azur with a daring robbery. Their target: a very wealthy, very nasty tycoon. But the tycoon has a virtual army of henchman, meaning that the plot will not be resolved any sooner than the film's allotted running time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set during the time of the brilliant Queen Elizabeth I of England, this adventure tale is loosely based on the exploits of Sir Francis Drake (Rod Taylor). He was one of the Queen's leading commanders in the battles with Spain over the gold of the New World. Drake is shown wearing several hats, so to speak. He is a pirate who has no problems about raiding Spanish gold arsenals. He is a military commander who plans and executes naval battles with the Spanish armada -- and wins. He is a diplomat who knows how to maneuver in courtly circles -- but that does not stop him from trashing a Spanish-backed plan to assassinate the Queen. Although this costume drama by Rudolph Maté is not without a few minor flaws, Drake's adventures should entertain most audiences, especially the younger set. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide