Charles Marquis Warren Movies
Novelist/scripter/director Charles Marquis Warren was a regular contributor to The Saturday Evening Post almost before the ink on his Baltimore City College diploma was dry. A friend and protégé of jazz-age novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, Warren acted as Fitzgerald's agent in the latter's final years. After serving as a naval officer in World War II, Warren gained a foothold in Hollywood as one of America's foremost experts on western lore (though his first scripting assignment was the contemporary court-martial drama Beyond Glory[1948]). Many of his western novels were adapted for the screen, beginning with Only the Valiant (1951). Warren was given his first opportunity to direct with 1951's Little Big Horn, a low-budget precursor to the adult-oriented, psychological westerns which proliferated during the next twenty years. Of his many subsequent directorial assignments, Blood Arrow (1958) is of special interest, inasmuch as many of its story elements were expanded upon in the Oscar-winning Dances With Wolves (1990). A prolific tiller of the TV-western field, Warren wrote and directed the pilot episode for the long-running series Gunsmoke (1955-75); he went on to create and produce the 1958 Eric Fleming-Clint Eastwood weekly Rawhide, and acted as executive producer of The Virginian, television's first 90-minute western. In recognition of his wartime service, Charles Marquis Warren is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This western saga finds Jess Wade (Elvis Presley) as a reformed gunfighter who is stalked and captured by his former band of outlaws. Vince (Victor French) is the heavy who orders Jess' cheek to be branded with a hot iron. The gang terrorizes a small town by threatening to use a gold-plated and jewel-encrusted Mexican cannon on the innocent population. Presley sings only one song (the title track) in the last dramatic role of his career. The feature has the look and feel of the popular spaghetti westerns of the time. This routine western would be followed by the truly gaugeable The Trouble With Girls and Change Of Habit. Presley revived his live performing career soon after the forgettable last two films and continued touring until his death on August 16th, 1977. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elvis Presley, Ina Balin, (more)
- 1968
Warfield (Glenn Ford) is the dispassionate ex-gunslinger who joins forces with peaceful neighbor Forbes (Arthur Kennedy) to help him track down the Apache Indians who have kidnapped Warfield's wife and children two months prior. In searching for the abductees, the hardened gunslinger eventually keeps a level head while the even-tempered Forbes turns into a cold-blooded killing machine. Warfield and Forbes eventually complete their personality changes that lead to the inevitable western showdown. Initially a television movie made for ABC, the company decided to release the film only in theaters. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Arthur Kennedy, (more)
- 1966
Meanest Men in the West is basically a pair of episodes of The Virginian, chopped up by Universal Pictures' editing department and mashed together (with help from some voice doubles) into what could almost pass for a coherent plot. Judge Henry Garth (Lee J. Cobb), owner of Shiloh ranch, becomes the object of a revenge plot by Kalig (Lee Marvin), a criminal whom the judge sent away to prison for ten years. In the recut version of the two shows (of which the first was directed and written by Samuel Fuller), Kalig sends his half-brother (played by Charles Bronson, in footage from a completely unrelated episode of the show) to kidnap Garth's ranch foreman, the Virginian (James Drury). Not all of it makes sense, but since the two stories were never supposed to be related, that's understandable. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1958
This melodrama tells the tale of a great battle between the French Foreign Legion and the rebellious Arab tribe, the Tuaregs, who fight it out upon the blistering Sahara sands. Just before the Legionnaires embark upon their dangerous mission, the commander discovers that he is being cuckolded by his lieutenant. Because the mission is urgent, there is no time to fight over the commander's wife. Unfortunately, as they travel, the tension between the two mounts and they begin squabbling over how to plan the attack. Their inability to work together results in tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Keith, Barbara Hale, (more)
- 1958
Phyllis Coates, TV's erstwhile Lois Lane, essays one of her largest film roles in Blood Arrow. Coates is cast as a devout Mormon girl whose mission is to transport smallpox vaccine to her friends and neighbors. Unfortunately, this requires her to journey through hostile Indian territory. Appointing themselves as the girl's unofficial protectors are Indian scout Scott Brady, trapper Don Haggerty and (reluctantly) gambler Paul Richards. Any resemblance to Stagecoach and The Outcasts of Poker Flat were probably intentional. Incidentally, Don Haggerty was the father of Dan Haggerty, star of TV's The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Brady, Paul Richards, (more)
- 1958
A brave cowboy/ex-con hits the dusty trail as the leader of a major cattle drive in this western. He is offered the job by the very townspeople his gang terrorized a few years before. They are also the same people who put him in the slammer, and even though he accepts the task, he secretly plots his revenge. He gets it by proving himself courageous and honest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joel McCrea, Gloria Talbott, (more)
After a shaky start opposite NBC's George Gobel Show during its first season, TV's foremost "adult" western Gunsmoke steadily accrued new viewers throughout Season Two, ending the year as America's 8th most popular program. And by the end of Season Three, Gunsmoke was TV's top-rated series--a fact not lost on the other networks, as witness the veritable flood of new westerns series during the next two years. Few if any changes were been made in Gunsmoke's format during its third year on the air. Certainly, nothing was done to dampen the popularity of its stars: Matt Dillon as Dodge City's taciturn marshal Matt Dillon, Dennis Weaver as Matt's bucolic-but-brave deputy Chester Good, Amanda Blake as attractively tarnished saloonkeeper Kitty Russell and Milburn Stone as crotchety Doc Adams. By this time, many of the series' familiar trademarks were not only firmly in place, but were rich sources of satire and parody on the various comedy shows of the period: Kitty's ubiquitous "Be careful, Matt" whenever Dillon went out on a dangerous mission; Chester's pronounced limp and spectacular inability to make a decent cup of coffee; the ongoing battle of wits between Chester and Doc; and of course the famous opening sequence, with Dillon squaring off against an unidentified gunslinger in the middle of Dodge's Main Street. Incredibly, although 78 episodes had already been filmed and 39 more were offered during Season Three, the series was still relying heavily upon scripts adapted from the radio version of Gunsmoke, which ran from 1952 through 1961 (some of these were "visualized" by no less a writer than Sam Peckinpah). And as in the past two seasons, the supporting casts of those 39 episodes were filled to overflowing with familiar names, notably John Dehner, Jeanette Nolan, Robert Vaughn, Pernell Roberts, Jack Lord, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Jack Klugman, Harry Dean Stanton, June Lockhart and Jack Cassidy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Arness, Amanda Blake, (more)
- 1957
Copper Sky was directed by Charles Marquis Warren, one of the prime movers of TV's Gunsmoke. The scene is a small western town that has been decimated by an Apache raid. The only survivor is drifter Jeff Morrow, who was locked up in jail at the time of the massacre. Before long, Boston schoolmarm Coleen Gray arrives in town, only to discover that there's no one left alive for her to teach. Releasing Morrow, Gray joins him in an arduous journey to the nearest white settlement--clear across the desert. Given the fact that Morrow is a heavy drinker with a bad attitude andGray is straight-laced and remonstrative, it doesn't take a film historian to figure out that Copper Sky is yet another variation on The African Queen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Morrow, Coleen Gray, (more)
- 1957
Western writer/director Charles Marquis Warren makes one of his periodic excursions into horror with The Unknown Terror. Filmed in Mexico, the story focuses on three American adventurers (John Howard, Mala Powers and Paul Richards) who search for a missing explorer. They stumble across the Cave of Death, the forbidden domain of a mad scientist (Gerald Milton) who has developed a "killer fungus." Before long, one of the trio has fallen victim to the homicidal mold. It is up to the survivors to escape the scientist's clutches and warn the rest of the world of the now-known terror that festers in the wilds of Mexico. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mala Powers, Paul Richards, (more)
- 1957
Trooper Hook is played by Joel McCrea, but top billing goes to Barbara Stanwyck in this multilayered western. McCrea plays a Cavalry officer sent to rescue Stanwyck, who had been captured by Indians years earlier. Upon reaching the Indian village, McCrea discovers that Stanwyck, forced into marrying the chief, has a young son (Terry Lawrence) whom she refuses to desert. After intensive persuasion, Stanwyck permits McCrea to bring herself and her son back to her white husband, John Dehner--who refuses to have anything to do with the child. But after Dehner's death, both Stanwyck and her son find happiness with McCrea. Trooper Hook was written and directed by Charles Marquis Warren, an old western hand who was responsible for many of the best hour-long Gunsmoke TV episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, (more)
- 1957
Ride a Violent Mile is an economically produced western with a Civil War background. Penny Edwards stars as Susan, a Union spy who poses as a dance-hall girl in a Confederate-friendly frontier town. Susan hopes to prevent the Mexican government from casting its lot with the South, and to do that she must halt a Confederate cattle drive. Enlisting the aid of boyfriend Jeff (John Agar), our heroine does her best to scare off the cattle. The heavy of the piece is sheriff Marshal Thorne (John Pickard), who turns out to be a secret operative for the Johnny Rebs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Agar, Penny Edwards, (more)
- 1957
In this routine possession potboiler, Peggie Castle plays a suburban housewife being slowly driven mad by the intrusive, restless spirit of her husband's first wife, whose soul has been tainted by her participation in a Satanic cult headed by high priest Father Renall (Otto Reichow). The woman's husband (Arthur Franz) and his sister (Marsha Hunt) decide to infiltrate the cult in order to put an end to its murderous practices, but it is only through the intervention of a former cultist (Marianne Stewart) that they are able to overthrow the evil master's reign of terror once and for all. The tepid screenplay by Catherine Turney is an adaptaion of her novel The Other One. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peggie Castle, Arthur Franz, (more)
- 1956
After closing down his film studio, producer Robert L. Lippert took charge of Regal Films, a subsidiary of 20th Century-Fox designed to turn out low-budget, non-CinemaScope productions. One of the first of these films was the modest western The Black Whip. Colleen Gray, Angie Dickinson, Adele Mara and Dorothy Schuyler play four women of questionable morals who conspire to help a notorious outlaw escape the law. The ladies are ushered into a stagecoach by the village elders and ordered to get out of town and stay out. En route to their next destination, the ladies' coach breaks down at a way station managed by Hugh Marlowe. As Marlowe repairs the wheels, an outlaw gang rides up, demanding that the girls be handed over to them. By this time, the ladies have no use for the bad guys, but Marlowe is too mild-mannered to intervene. He finally outfoxes the villains by using brains instead of brawn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Marlowe, Coleen Gray, (more)
- 1956
Season Two of Gunsmoke introduces the series' now-legendary opening sequence, as Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) shoots it out on the deserted main street of Dodge City with an anonymous opponent (Matt, of course, outdraws the man. He always does). Over the years, this opener would be periodically refilmed, not only to reflect the expansion of Dodge City but also to accommodate the ever-encroaching age lines on Matt Dillon's face. As was the case in Season One, most of the episodes in Gunsmoke's second season are adapted from scripts originally written for the radio version, which ran from 1952 through 1961. Among the best of these is "Custer", in which a villain gets off scot free, only to meet his fate (off-screen) at the Little Big Horn; "The Mistake", wherein the far-from-infallible Matt Dillon arrests the wrong man, and suffers the consequences; "No Indians", a grim, uncompromising tale of a brutal massacre perpetrated by a gang of psychotic outlaws; and "Bloody Hands", in which Matt, worried that he's beginning to enjoy killing people, turns in his badge--much to the (temporary) relief of the ever-fretting Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake). In other words, Gunsmoke was a far cry from the bravura juvenile heroics of The Lone Ranger and The Gene Autry Show! In addition to such Gunsmoke supporting-cast stalwarts as John Dehner, Vic Perrin and Lawrence Dobkin, the second-season episodes include appearances by such noteworthy actors as Angie Dickinson, Cloris Leachman, Tommy Kirk, Andrew Duggan, Simon Oakland, Denver Pyle, Strother Martin, Stuart Whitman, Russell Johnson, Sebastian Cabot and Jack Kelly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, (more)
- 1956
In this typical 1950s Western, cowboy Wes Tancred (Richard Egan) is publicly vilified after killing a famous gunslinger who was a public hero. In fact, the hero was a villain, and Tancred killed him in self-defense, but Tancred is so scorned for his act that there is a mean-spirited ballad sung about him wherever he goes. On the run from his infamy, he comes to the small town of Table Rock and finds that it has been taken over by a gang of outlaws. To redeem his name, Tancred comes to the aid of the besieged Sheriff Miller (Cameron Mitchell). He also takes under his wing the son of a stagecoach operator who has been killed by the gang of outlaws. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Egan, Dorothy Malone, (more)
- 1956
Former lawman Troy Carver (Wilton Graff), an old friend of Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness), arrives in Dodge with a travelling sideshow, where Troy is making a living showing off his sharpshooting skills. Lee Polen (Martin Kingsley), a farmer with long-standing grudge against Carver, also shows up in town intent upon killing the old man. Though Matt is aware that Carver is going blind, the aging gunman defiantly insists upon handling Polen himself--thus setting the stage for a surprising, and ironic, finale. This episode is based on the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of July 18, 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Though he insists he shot in self defense, Jerry Shand (Val Dufour) may hang for the killing of affable hardware salesman Andy Culley (Maurice Manson). Investigating, Matt finds out about Culley's bloody past during the Civil War, which may well prove that Shand is telling the truth. But the only person who knows the whole story, and the only one who can clear Shand, is hard-bitten saloon girl Belle Archer (Marion Brash)--and she's not talking. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Soft-hearted Kitty (Amanda Blake) is persuaded to hide handsome Steve Esler (Brett Halsey) from a lynch mob comprised of cattlemen. Steve insists he has been rustling cattle merely to avenge his father, who years earlier was brutally beaten by a trail crew. Matt (James Arness) is as sympathetic as Kitty towards Steve. But crusty old Doc suspects that the baby-faced fugitive is manipulating everyone's feelings--and that he is nowhere near the innocent lamb he makes out to be. This episode is based on the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of September 27, 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Elderly simpleton Nip Cullers (John Dehner) shambles into Dodge City looking for a wife. Mercilessly taunted by the local dance hall girls, Nip is protected by Kitty (Amanda Blake)--whereupon the old coot declares that she will become his bride, going so far as to notify a preacher and arrange a church wedding. Outraged by Nip's presumptive behavior, Kitty threatens to blow him apart with a shotgun if he ever comes near her again. Shortly afterward, Matt (James Arness) and Chester (Dennis Weaver) find Nip lying in an alley, a shotgun wound in his back--and surrounded by the footprints of a woman. This episode is based on the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of July 30, 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Some two dozen men have been killed by Comanches just outside of Dodge; the only survivor of the attack is Amos Cartwright (Eduard Franz), a white Indian scout who has lived with the tribe for years. Will Bailey (DeForest Kelley), brother of one of the dead men, accused Cartwright of betraying the victims for the sake of his Indian bride. Matt (Dennis Weaver) tries to intervene before Amos and Will end up killing each other, but full justice is delayed until the episode's shocking conclusion. "Indian Scout" is based on the same-name Gunsmoke radio broadcast of August 20, 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
An epidemic of unkown origin forces Matt (James Arness) to set up an makeshift hospital in the jail, with Kitty (Amanda Blake) and her girls taking care of the stricken patients. Racing against time, Doc (Milburn Stone) must pinpoint the source of the epidemic, but he may not be up to the task. Ultimately, Chester (Dennis Weaver) puts his own life on the line to save his fellow townsmen--and at the same time, the pompous Mr. Matthews (Patrick O'Moore) learns a lesson in tolerance when he is quarantined along with his "inferiors." Featured in the supporting cast is Howard McNear, who played Doc Adams in the original radio broadcast of The Pest Hole, first heard on April 14, 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
The menfolk of Dodge City are impressed and intimidated by amazonian Lena Wave (Dee J. Thompson), who defies the gender rules of the era by talking, fighting and cussing like a man--and treating her diminutive boyfriend Emmett Fitzgood (Terry Becker) like a dog. The only male not terrified by Big Lena--other than Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness), of course--is Nate Bannister (Joel Ashley), who is determined to get even with Lena for killing his pal. Even allowing for the unorthodox nature of the plotline, the ultimate outcome is completely unexpected. This episode is based on the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of February 6, 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) welcomes his old friend Hack Prine (Leo Gordon) to Dodge City. What Dillon doesn't know is that Hack is now a hired killer--and his latest assignment is to gun down Matt, so that Dolph Trimble (George D. Wallace) can help his outlaw brother Lee (Hal Baylor) bust out of jail. When Matt finally figures out what Hack is planning to do, he is faced with one of the biggest moral dilemmas of his life. This episode is adapted from the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of July 5, 1952. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
