Lester Shorr Movies
Distinguished lighting director Lester Shorr had been photographing films since the silent era, but is best known for his television work. In 1954, he won the first Emmy for his camera work. He went on to direct the filming of numerous series. His innovations include the use of several different cameras to film a television production. In addition to working in television, Shorr also continued occasionally filming low-budget feature films. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1956
Filmed on location in the Colorado Rockies, Running Target, per its title, is a feature-length chase. When a group of convicts break out of jail, sheriff Arthur Franz vows to bring the fugitives in without gunfire or bloodshed. Unfortunately, some of the members of Franz' posse don't see things his way: bartender Richard Reeves, for example, is a staunch advocate of the "shoot first and ask questions later" brand of justice. And then there's Doris Dowling, who joins the posse ostensibly because her gas station has been held up by the convicts -- but who is secretly in love with one of the escapees. Running Target represented one of the earliest credited efforts of top cinematographer Conrad Hall, who also collaborated on the script. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Dowling, Arthur Franz, (more)
- 1956
James Mitchell stars as a gunslinger-turned-parson in The Peacemaker. Arriving in a hostile western town, Rev. Terrall Butler (Mitchell) intends to win over the townsfolk with faith rather than force. His religiosity is immediately put to the test when Butler tries to mediate a feud between the local ranchers and farmers. He then must face down the vicious gunmen hired by railroad mogul Gray Arnett (Herbert Patterson), who intends to lay his tracks through the territory despite the protests of the farmers. The Peacemaker was the first and last effort from Hal B. Makelim Productions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mitchell, Rosemarie Bowe, (more)
- 1956
In this steamy drama, three sisters learn that their father has died in a plane crash, and they begin fighting over his enormous estate to see who is to be the principal heiress. One of the sisters is particularly wicked. Wanting it all for herself, she maims one of her siblings so badly that the girl kills herself. She then hires the man who flew the plane the day their father died to help her kill the second sister in exchange for a piece of the fortune. The pilot agrees, but then falls in love with the second sister and marries her. The evil sister gets revenge by telling the new bride that she is having an affair with the pilot. The distraught sister is just about to jump off a cliff when the pilot and the bad seed accidentally drive over the cliff themselves. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathleen Hughes, Sara Shane, (more)
- 1957
Hot rodder Richard Hartunian storms off after a spat with girlfriend Leigh Snowden. Shortly afterward, the car in which Leigh is driving is involved in a crack-up, injuring her and killing the driver. Since the car had been run off the road by a reckless driver, Hartunian is the Number One Suspect. Only on the eve of the Big Race is our hero exonerated. Also appearing in Hot Rod Rumble are Brett Halsey (future star of the immortal Speed Crazy), Wright King (late of Johnny Jupiter), and stand-up comic Joey Forman. The film was originally released on a double bill with Allied Artists' Calypso Joe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leigh Snowden, Richard Hartunian, (more)
Crooked sheepherder Jeb Drummond (Everett Sloane) is caught trying to graze his flock on the Ponderosa without permission. Ben Cartwright orders Jeb and his sons Billy (Ray Daley) and Burton (Tom Reese) to get out and stay out. But Jeb has other plans -- and he kidnaps Ben's son Adam to make sure those plans are carried out. First telecast on February 13, 1960, "Blood on the Land" was written by Robert E. Thompson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, (more)
- 1964
This is the first of numerous westerns produced by A.C. Lyles which became famous not for their stories but for who played in them--all the stars being veterans not often seen on the screen anymore. As far as plot line, essentially we have a badguy who has become a good guy (read that ex gunfighter turned judge) and meets his past in his own court room. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dale Robertson, Yvonne De Carlo, (more)
Told via flashback by a saloon keeper to a census taker in a tiny Texas town, this brutal, adult-oriented western offers the tale of a drifter who settles down to marry a woman he doesn't love so he can get at her inheritance. When that is exposed, the drifter flees and does not return for eleven years. He rides back into town with a fortune that he earned while hunting buffalo. The town's crooked banker and two thugs ride out to greet him. Thinking that the only way the reprobate could have gotten so much money is from rustling cows, they engineer a brutal reception that results in his being branded with a big "T." Naturally, the drifter passes out during his painful ordeal and when he finally comes to and learns the truth about the situation immediately gallops off to get his bloody revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chuck Connors, Michael Rennie, (more)
- 1967
Producer A.C. Lyles managed to do quite well for himself in the 1960s by making low-budget westerns crammed full of familiar faces whose stock in the film industry had slipped a bit. Starring in Arizona Bushwackers were such celebrities of yesteryear as Howard Keel, Yvonne De Carlo, John Ireland, Marilyn Maxwell, Scott Brady, Brian Donlevy, Barton MacLane and James Craig. Keel is cast as a Confederate POW who is pardoned when he agrees to patrol the West on behalf of the Union. Assigned to a wide-open Arizona town, he stands up to such disreputable types as a crooked sheriff (MacLane) and saloon-owner Ireland. When legal means fail, the ex-POW resorts to six-guns and fists to keep the peace. Yvonne De Carlo's part was to have been played by Betty Hutton, but the latter actress could not adapt to A.C. Lyles' "get it right on the first take" approach. Arizona Bushwackers may be cheaply made, but it is consummately acted by its strong ensemble cast and sturdily directed by Leslie Selander. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Howard Keel, Yvonne De Carlo, (more)
When Woody Allen's fans refer to his "earlier, funnier" pictures, they often cite his directorial debut as a shining example. Co-written by Allen and Mickey Rose, this side-splitting takeoff of crime documentaries stars Allen as Virgil Starkwell, a sweetly inept career criminal. The film's most celebrated sequence involves Virgil's inability to write coherent holdup notes ("I have a gub"), but others include Virgil's losing battle with a recalcitrant coke machine and his misguided effort to emulate John Dillinger by carving a gun out of a bar of soap (his weapon disintegrates in a heavy rain). As was often the case in Allen's early films, not all the gags work, but for the most part, Take the Money and Run is a delight, enhanced by the on-target supporting performances of Janet Margolin, Marcel Hillaire, and (uncredited) Louise Lasser, as well as the energetic musical score of Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Janet Margolin, (more)
- 1969
Master animator Chuck Jones has created this full length fantasy, his first since being name director of MGM's animation department. A young boy (Butch Patrick) is bored with his life in San Francisco and finds himself in a fantasy land where letters and numbers are at war with each other. He drives through the Phantom Tollbooth and into an animated fantasy land. The voices of Mel Blanc, June Foray and Daws Butler are featured in this story taken from the book by Norton Juster. The boy tries to rescue twin Princesses Rhyme and Reason, who have been banished to a castle suspended in mid air above the kingdom. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Butch Patrick, Daws Butler, (more)
- 1970
- PG
Set in the immediate post-Civil War era, The McMasters stars Brock Peters as a black Union soldier who finds he must figuratively fight the war all over again. Returning to his southern hometown, Peters quickly learns that nothing has really changed: he is a "free"man in name only. Peters' ex-master Burl Ives magnanimously gives the former slave a plot of land, but only Native-American David Carradine and his tribesmen are willing to work for a black man. The "invasion" of Indians serves to stir up the racial divisiveness even farther, thanks to local rabble-rouser Jack Palance. The McMasters was originally released in two versions with two different endings, succinctly summing up the film's "no easy answers" stance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burl Ives, Brock Peters, (more)
