Henry Vars Movies

Just as they did for 1965's Shenandoah and 1968's Bandolero!, director Andrew V. McLaglen and screenwriter James Lee Barrett team up with actor James Stewart for this Western about a band of ex-convicts trying to go straight. Stewart stars as Mattie Appleyard, the leader of the group. After serving his time, Mattie retrieves a 25,000-dollar check from a banker who looked after his funds while he was in prison. Along with his two pals, Mattie intends to use the money to open up a general store and make a fresh start. Unfortunately for them, the banker and a former jailer both look to stand in the way of their dreams. George Kennedy, who also had roles in Shenandoah and Bandolero!, co-stars as Dock Council, the former prison official, and a young Kurt Russell appears in one of his first non-Disney films. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

This unappealing suspense film stars Ronald Foster and Erika Peters as a couple who arrive at a decrepit old mansion only to find that the previous occupants -- a group of circus freaks -- have yet to vacate the premises. Worse, it seems that the mischievous tenants are quite adamant about defending their territory against all outsiders while waiting for their keeper to return, and their methods of dissuading unwanted guests apparently include murder. This is a passable spook-house exercise, with lots of severed limbs flung at the hapless protagonists and and a silly cop-out ending, but the use of actual circus freaks as the villains (probably a cost-saving measure for the filmmakers) is more than a little disconcerting. The circus giant is played by a young Richard Kiel. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a divorced man begins looking for his ex-wife who married his former business partner. Hal Weston's search leads him to LA where he enlists the aid of Li Sheng and the sneaky Osgood. He is told that his partner died. Investigating further, he discovers that he did not die. Actually he murdered the ex-wife and then had Li Sheng's father, a surgeon, fake his death certificate. He then buries the woman in his coffin and proceeds to use his mistress to collect on his life insurance policy by having her pose as the widow. Osgood then learns that the crook had the doctor change his appearance so he looked just like Osgood. He figures that he is next on the business partner's hit list and so kills him first. In the end, Weston kills Osgood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this standard children's story -- with a few teen songs added -- the head of Burberry Elementary School, Harry Davis (Eddie Albert) is the proud father of two boys, Timmy and Billy (Donnie Carter and Butch Patrick) who wish they were bears. If Dad was bothered before by this wish, things only get worse for him because the boys meet a gypsy who gives them a spell they can say that will grant their wish. Along with a bit of their sister's freckle cream (a necessary ingredient), the boys accomplish their transformation. Now Dad has a lot more to worry about. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The oft-filmed Gene Stratton Porter novel Freckles was given its last screen treatment to date by 20th Century-Fox in 1960. Filmed on location in Northern California, the story concerns the title character, a self-effacing young man, played by Martin West. Though handicapped by a missing hand, Freckles hopes to prove his worth in timber country. He does so by rounding up a gang of lumber thieves headed by Duncan (Jack Lambert). Veteran western heavy Roy Barcroft is effective in the sympathetic role of a timber baron, while Carol Christensen is appealing as Barcroft's daughter and West's love interest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cliff Brandon (Victor Mature) is a US pilot serving in China in 1943, flying supplies to Allied soldiers in Burma. He's the best at what he does in the air, but he's also emotionally cut off from everyone around him, disillusioned by the loss of men in his command during nearly two years of war. When he's not in the air on a mission, or riding his new men (including Stuart Whitman, Tige Andrews and Johnny Desmond) to learn their jobs as fast as they can so they can survive, he's usually either passed out drunk or getting there on the ground. One night, while staggering out of his usual watering hole, he chances to meet an elderly Chinese man and, after a barely understood conversation, hands him a pile of money. When Cliff awakens the next day, he discovers that he's bought three months of housekeeping service from the man's daughter, Shu-Jen (Li Li Hua). At first he's at a loss over what to do about her -- he would gladly send her back to her father, until he learns from local missionary Father Cairns (Ward Bond) that Shu-Jen (whose name means "precious jewel") is the sole supporter of her family; and that if he sends her back, they'll return his money as a matter of honor, and have to sell her services as a housekeeper again; and that the next time that may be to someone who is a lot less honorable than Cliff, and could destroy the rest of the girl's life. So they're stuck with each other, and in the course of three months together Cliff discovers through Shu-Jen a joyous side to life that he'd forgotten -- his men even notice that he smiles occasionally, and he actually seems like a human being, enough so that Cliff soon wants more out of life than just day-to-day survival; he wants a life with Shu-Jen. And despite her initial misgivings, they decide to marry. But duty constantly beckons to Cliff, especially when he's moved to a forward base to support a new Allied offensive -- he isn't there for the birth of their child, but he is able to bring them both to him, only to find that the war is now on both their doorsteps. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Republic's The Unearthly was originally released on a double bill with The Beginning of the End. John Carradine chews the scenery as Professor Conway, who claims to have discovered a gland which enables his patients to live forever. Alas, most of Conway's human experiments are failures, left to scream and gibber in the doctor's cellar. His latest "volunteer", a beautiful neurotic named Grace (Allison Hayes), arouses Conway's libido, and as a result he is hesitant to operate upon her; the same does not apply to another patient (Sally Todd), whom Conway inadvertently transforms into a nonagenarian. Fortunately, a police officer (Myron Healey) posing as an escaped convict manages to put an end to Conway's unearthly experiments. Harry Thomas' makeup work on Dr. Conway's hideously deformed human guinea pigs is the only worthwhile aspect of The Unearthly. Tor Johnson makes another of his appearances as mute monstrosity Lobo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ben Stride (Randolph Scott, in a role originally slated for John Wayne) trudges stoically through the West, hunting down the seven men responsible for the murder of his wife in a Wells Fargo station holdup. As the film opens, we see him dispatching two of the miscreants during a driving rainstorm. Though the victims are deserving of their fate, the script is careful to detail the moral deterioration of Scott, who'd quit his sheriff's job to go on this unauthorized death hunt. Also turning up is Bill Master (Lee Marvin), not one of the bandits per se but actually a villain from Stride's past who happens upon the situation and sees a chance to make off with some loot. This film marked one of the few Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher collaborations not released by Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide