Irving Wallace Movies

Rod Serling, a master of speculative scriptwriting, penned the screenplay of The Man. Set a few days into the future, the story contrives to kill off the President, the vice president, and virtually everyone in line of succession in a bizarre accident. This turn of events elevates African-American senator James Earl Jones directly into the Oval Office. Based on a novel by Irving Wallace, The Man was originally intended as TV movie, but released theatrically because most sponsors were afraid of its supposed controversial content. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Irving Wallace, The Prize takes place in Stockholm, where several laureates gather to accept their Nobel Prizes. At first, the film concentrates on iconoclastic novelist Paul Newman, but he is temporarily shunted to the background when physics expert Edward G. Robinson is kidnaped and replaced by his wicked twin brother. The real Robinson is to be spirited behind the Iron Curtain, while the "fake" Robinson is to disrupt the awards ceremony with an anti-American tirade. Newman gets wind of the plot, and with the help of Swedish foreign office functionary Elke Sommer, he endeavors to rescue the real Robinson and expose the phony-who has yet another trick up his sleeve before the film is over. We'll go along with the fantastic plot convolutions of The Prize, provided we don't have to swallow the premise of another man's voice emanating from that familiar Eddie Robinson mug. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paladin (Richard Boone) accepts a job from wealthy Sid Morgan (Denver Pyle), who claims he needs protection from outlaw Howard Gorman (Steve Gravers). While escorting Morgan and his young fiancee Stacy (Jacqueline Scott) to Silver City, Paladin confronts Gorman, who does indeed seem to have a vendetta against Morgan. Only too late does Paladin discover that he and Gorman have been maneuvered into a bloody showdown merely for Morgan's perverse amusement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Victor Mature, in one of his last leading man performances, plays Hank Whirling, the owner of a financially shaky circus who is trying to get back on his feet, despite cutthroat competition from a rival organization. He also has a younger sister (Kathryn Grant) to watch out for. After arranging for a bank loan, he discovers that he's got two new members of "management" to contend with: persnickety bank officer Randy Sherman (Red Buttons), who is put there to safeguard the loan, and press agent Helen Harrison (Rhonda Fleming), who is hired by Sherman to help get the Whirling Circus some publicity. Hank can't abide the presence of either of them, or, more to the point, the idea of sharing his authority, though Randy means well and Helen is very good to look at and does know her job. The circus owner can barely take the time to deal with either of them, however, with shows to give and an apparent saboteur at work, who grows bolder with each passing day and finally starts getting people killed. In the course of trying to save the show, aerialist Zack Colino (Gilbert Roland) commits himself to a headline-making publicity stunt -- covered heavily by television news as well -- that Helen merely rattles off without thinking, of walking a wire across Niagara Falls. Colino also figures heavily in the denouement, a tense chase under the big top that develops as the man responsible for the train wrecks, escaped animals, fires, and other sabotage is identified and goes on the run. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Paladin (Richard Boone) hires on as bodyguard for waspish English author-poet Oscar Wilde (John O'Malley), who has come West as part of an American lecture tour. A pair of disgruntled hooligans named Jim and Chris Rook (Richard Shannon, Jack Hogan), angry that they were beaten out for the bodyguard assignment, retaliate by kidnapping Wilde and attempting to murder Paladin in the process. Although many of the Wildean epigrams heard on this episode are genuine ("A man can't be too careful in the choice of enemies"), several were created from whole cloth by scriptwriter Irving Wallace, later the author of such bestselling novels as The Prize and The Word. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The plot of The Burning Hills is motivated by revenge, which only a few years earlier had been on the Motion Picture Code's no-no list. Cattleman Trace Jordan (Tab Hunter) seeks retribution for the murder of his brother, killed at the behest of cattle baron Joe Sutton (Ray Teal). Before long, however, it is Jordan who is being pursued by Sutton's henchmen. Accompanying Jordan on his flight is his Anglo-Latino girlfriend Maria Colton (a miscast Natalie Wood). Clearly designed to cash in on the teenaged fan following of Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood, Burning Hills is nonetheless entertaining enough to please even nonfans of the stars. The film is based on a novel by Louis L'Amour. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jump into Hell is one of the first films to deal with the ongoing conflict in Vietnam or, as it was still known in 1955, French IndoChina. The 56-day battle of Dien Ben Phu is herein reenacted, with several French volunteers emerging as the heroes. Arriving in IndoChina by parachute, Captain Guy Bertrand (Jacques Sernas, here billed as "Jack") and his comrades make a courageous stand against the Communist forces. Before their inevitable doom, the men conjure up visions of the mademoiselles they left behind. Jump into Hell was scripted by novelist Irving Wallace, whose attitudes towards Western intervention in Vietnam would undergo a radical change within the next 15 years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gambler From Natchez is one of a group on non-Cinemascope films released by 20th Century-Fox's Panorama Pictures subsidiary. Dale Robertson stars as a 19th century adventurer who returns to his home town of New Orleans, only to find that his father has been killed for allegedly cheating at cards. The father's disgrace trickles down to Robertson, and soon he, too, is an outcast. Grimly determined to clear his name, our hero methodically tracks down the three reprobates responsible for his father's death, intending to ruin them by any means available. Gambler From Natchez boasts two leading ladies: Debra Paget plays a spitfire swamp girl, while Lisa Daniels is a more socially respectable heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actor Dick Powell made an impressive film debut with the taut atomic-age suspenser Split Second. Convicts Stephen McNally, Paul Kelly and Frank DeKova escape to a ghost town in the Nevada desert. Only it isn't exactly a ghost town, but a "dummy village" constructed for the purpose of A-bomb testing. The criminals hold several hostages, including reporter Keith Andes, nightclub singer Jan Sterling, selfish socialite Alexis Smith, her doctor-husband Richard Egan and her newest boyfriend Robert Paige. Andes suspects that the deserted town is at Ground Zero of the latest bomb test, but he can't convince the convicts until it's almost too late. The best and most horrifying sequence occurs near the end, when the criminals, accompanied by the duplicitous Ms. Smith, discover that they're driving towards the A-bomb target instead of away from it. Novelist Irving Wallace collaborated on the script of Split Second with Chester Erskine and William Bowers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Despite its ebullient title and the presence of lightweight dancing star Dan Dailey, Meet Me at the Fair has a lot more meat on its bones than most musicals of the early 1950s. Dailey plays an early-1900s medicine show huckster who finds himself the reluctant guardian of orphanage escapee Chet Allen. As he grows fond of the boy, Dailey becomes determined to thwart the corrupt system that allows substandard orphan asylums to operate while political hacks get rich on government funding. Dailey wins the confidence (and love) of orphan committee member Diana Lynn, who helps to foil the machinations of crooked district attorney Hugh O'Brien. The darker aspects of Meet Me at the Fair are lightened by director Douglas Sirk's marvelous recreations of backstage life at the turn of the century. The film is also a special treat for fans of Scatman Crothers, who is never less than terrific as Dan Dailey's sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Only at Republic studios would action star Richard Arlen head the cast of a muscial comedy. In That's My Baby, Tim Jones (Arlen) and his girl friend Betty (Ellen Drew) try to pull her dad, the appropriately named R. P. Moody (Minor Watson), out of a deep blue funk. On the verge of suicide, Moody is cheered up by a series of musical numbers, performed by the likes of bandleader Freddie "Schnickelfritz" Fisher and pianist Gene Rogers. The film's highlight is an animated sequence produced by Dave Fleischer, who'd left Paramount several years earlier to form his own independent cartoon firm. The screenplay for That's My Baby was the handiwork of no less than novelist Irving Wallace! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide