Carol Lynley Movies

Those who learned to dislike Conrad Richter's novel The Light in the Forest when it was required reading in high school will be pleasantly surprised by this Disney adaptation. In his second film appearance, James MacArthur plays Johnny Butler, a white youth who was captured by the Delaware Indians in infancy. In 1764, a peace treaty is signed between the Delaware and the British, requiring that all white captives be returned to their families. But 18-year-old Johnny, now known as True Son and now thoroughly assimilated into the tribe, violently resists being torn away from the only life he has ever known. Kindly Indian scout Del Hardy (Fess Parker) tries to help Johnny through his transitional period; the same cannot be said by Johnny's Indian-hating Uncle Wilse (Wendell Corey), who vows to kill every Delaware he meets. Only by defeating Wilse-and, by extention, his own inner demons-will Johnny ever be able to readjust to the white lifestyle without totally turning his back on his adoptive Indian family. Carol Lynley makes her screen debut as Shendandoe, Johnny's white sweetheart; likewise making his entree into films is TV director Herschel Daugherty. Partially filmed on location in Tennessee, Light in the Forest benefited from the expertise of technical advisor Iron Eyes Cody. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Henry Levin followed up this light romantic comedy with Where the Boys Are and started a beach trend going. This conventional story stars one of his favorite actors Clifton Webb as Robert Dean, the father of two lively teen-age daughters. He and his wife Mary (Jane Wyman) accompany their daughters on a South American junket. Meg (Jill St. John) and Betsy (Carol Lynley the 17-year-old model turned actress) are the teens. Since Robert is a psychiatrist, one would assume he has the inside scoop on the teen years, but as the family make stops in Lima, Sao Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro it is clear that the daughters are winning the day. Handsome young men enter the picture, and it is not long before romance follows right behind. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Scripted by Dalton Trumbo and directed by Robert Aldrich, this off-beat, almost eclectic film could be hailed as a thinking person's western. It is the dark cat-and-mouse tale of a sherrif's hunt for a philosophy-spouting criminal in the midst of a great cattle drive. The outlaw killed the sherrif's brother-in-law. During his flight, the outlaw pauses long enough to drop by the ranch where his former lover lives with her husband and 16-year-old daughter. While there, the rancher hires him to lead a cattle drive to Texas. The sheriff soon catches up, but he decides to help the killer with the drive before bringing him in. Along the way, the two men gain a grudging respect for one another. Also the sheriff begins to fall in love with the rancher's wife, while the crook finds himself drawn to her lovely daughter. The rancher ends up killed during the trip and this allows the romances to bloom until the widow tells the outlaw an awful secret about the young woman he loves. Grecian-style tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Carol Lynley stars as Sister Pamela, a young novitiate who is robbed of a priceless statue of St. Francis entrusted to her care. Suffering a crisis of faith, Sister Pamela leaves the order, intending to track down the thief and recover the statue. The events that follow involve a young outlaw named Jimmy Bresson (Clu Gulager), a duplicitious pawnbroker named Wormer (Don Hanmer), and an ostensibly reformed gangster named Downey (Robert Armstrong). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tom Tryon plays the title role in this Otto Preminger version of the Henry Morton Robinson novel. In his matriculation from Monsignor to the College of Cardinals, Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon) must undergo several grueling life experiences: standing up to bigots in Georgia, defying Nazis in Austria, and so on. The film boasts cameo appearances by Dorothy Gish, Cecil Kellaway, John Saxon, John Huston, Robert Morse, Burgess Meredith, Raf Vallone, Ossie Davis. Incidentally, Tryon eventually quit acting and became a popular novelist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

20th Century-Fox gussied up its 1954 hit Three Coins in the Fountain for the 1960s, and the result was The Pleasure Seekers. Three American girls in search of wealthy husbands head to Madrid. Ann-Margaret is an aspiring performer, Carol Lynley is a secretary, and Pamela Tiffin is an art student. Ann-Margaret ends up with a Spanish doctor (Andre Lawrence), Carol with an American journalist (Gardner McKay), and Pamela with a man of noble birth (Anthony Franciosca). Gene Tierney, once a leading lady at 20th Century-Fox, takes a back seat to the studio's new starlet crop in a glorified "guest star" stint. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the mystery novel by Marryam Modell (using the pseudonym Evelyn Piper), Bunny Lake Is Missing is a bizarre study in motherhood, kindness, enigma, and insanity. Ann Lake (Carol Lynley), an American freshly relocated to England, wishes to drop off her daughter Bunny for the girl's first day at a new nursery school. Oddly, Ann cannot locate any teachers or administrators, only the school's disgruntled cook (Lucie Mannheim). She is forced to leave Bunny unsupervised in the building's "first day" room, under the reassurance that the cook will be responsible for the child. When Ann returns in the afternoon, the cook has quit and Bunny Lake is missing. The school's remaining employees vehemently deny ever seeing the child, and Ann desperately calls her older brother Stephen (Keir Dullea) for help. Ann was raised fatherless and never married; she and Bunny have lived under Stephen's care and protection for the majority of both their lives. Stephen is enraged by the irresponsibility of the staff, but as Scotland Yard begins its investigation, it comes to light that he had never officially enrolled a child at the school. When Police Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) begins to unravel the Lakes' lives and search their belongings, he discovers that not only did Ann once have an imaginary childhood daughter named "Bunny," but that the young Bunny seemed to have no tangible possessions at the Lake apartment. Bunny Lake (whom we have yet to see onscreen) may not be missing: she may not even be real. Terrified that Newhouse will now abandon the search for the girl, the hysterical Ann sets out to prove her sanity and, in the process, surprisingly uncovers the true psychosis behind the disappearance of her little Bunny Lake. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide

Another semi-successful attempt to adapt the works of American fantasist H.P. Lovecraft to the screen, this is loosely based on the short story The Shuttered Room (also an alternate release title for the film), a story which is purported to be more the work of "posthumous collaborator" August Derleth. The story involves a couple's return to the creepy old ancestral home, located on an island in New England, in which they soon discover the dark secret hidden behind a heavily-locked door in the attic... a door the fearful townsfolk declare "must never be opened." Oliver Reed delivers one of his patented gruff, over-the-top performances as the local nutcase, and director David Greene creates a suitably moody atmosphere, but much like the Roger Corman-produced The Dunwich Horror, this film fails to act on the spooky potential of its theme. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Roy Thinnes was the star of this 1967-1968 science fiction series, about an Earth poised on the brink of alien takeover. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

America is no longer the home of the free in this futuristic drama. Now the country is ruled by a powerful, tyrant and his henchmen. The story centers on two brave underground rebels who work to usurp the dictator and restore democracy to the beleaguered land. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

British agents drop like skeets in this convoluted espionage film. Jonas Wilde (Richard Johnson) is a successful British secret agent who wants to hang up his license to kill and retire. His superior, Canning (Harry Andrews), agrees to accept his resignation if he agrees to one last case -- killing a Czechoslovakian defector currently being held by the Americans. Wilde goes along with Canning's plan and, with the help of his housekeeper Rhoda (Diana Dors), completes the mission. But then Jonas is captured by CIA agent Lucinda (Sam Wanamaker), who reveals that an unknown agent in the British secret service is the force behind getting fellow British agents killed. When Jonas and Canning's wife, Barbara (Sylvia Syms), travel to Canning's headquarters, he is told that a British agent has been murdered. Jonas proceeds to take the dead agent's niece Mari (Barbara Bouchet) onto a boat for questioning and discovers false names, deceptions and increasing amounts of dead bodies. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Diana (Carol Lynley) is the wealthy, mentally unbalanced woman who seduces the local golf pro Jerry (Paul Burke). She proposes they each do the other a favor by eliminating their rivals. The drunken golfer laughs and agrees to kill Diane's psychiatrist Dr. Haggis (Whit Bissell), believing Diane is kidding. She is dead serious and kills the golfer's main competitor Mike (Philip Carey) by running him over with a golf cart. Diane tape records their conversation and uses it to blackmail the golfer into going through with his end of the bargain. Jerry goes to Dr. Haggis with the problem while police Lieutenant Gavin (Stephen McNally) is called in to solve the murder of the rival golfer. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide