Collier Young Movies

Will David Janssen never stop being a fugitive? In the made-for-TV Night Chase, he's a Los Angelino on the lam after shooting his wife's lover. Believing he's killed the man, Janssen boards Yaphet Kotto's taxi and orders Kotto to head for Mexico. The film's level of suspense holds up until the end, when the logic holes begin widening. Night Chase went into production with the more appropriate title The Man in the Back Seat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this 2-hour "NBC World Premiere" pilot film for the TV series Ironside, we learn how San Francisco chief-of-detectives Robert Ironside (Raymond Burr) came to be confined to a wheelchair. Felled by a sniper's bullet, Ironside is retained by the force as a special officer for the Frisco police force. With the help of Sgt. Ed Brown (Don Galloway) and officer Eve Whitfield (Barbara Anderson), the irascible Ironside is assigned to find out who his assailant was. Appearing in cameo roles are Wally Cox, Lilla Skala, and an unbilled, pre-Laugh In Tiny Tim.The Ironside pilot premiered on March 28, 1967; the series itself ran from 1967 through 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actual, documented cases of the supernatural, the paranormal, and the occult are dramatized in the first season of the half-hour anthology One Step Beyond. Differentiating this season from previous ones is the fact that 13 of the final 14 episodes were filmed in the United Kingdom, rather than in the series' usual Hollywood stomping grounds at the MGM studios. This was essentially an economy move, designed to utilize "frozen funds" accrued by MGMduring WWII; also, at the time these episodes were produced (1960), there was a move afoot by both American and British commercial television to turn out "dual-market" programs that would appeal equally to viewers in both countries. Whatever the reason for the relocation, the major benefit to One Step Beyond is an influx of first-rate British acting talent, including such familiar players as Christopher Lee of Hammer horror fame , Lois Maxwell (later Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films), Andre Morell (frequent portrayer of Dr.Watson in British-produced Sherlock Holmes movies), Peter Wyngarde, Elizabeth Sellers, and Anton Diffring. But no matter where the episodes were filmed this season, Hollywood-based actor John Newland continues to serve as the series' narrator and director. Among the season's best episodes are "Tidal Wave," a story of psychic projection that would later be remade as the pilot for the One Step Beyond sequel The Next Step Beyond; "The Death Waltz," starring Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched) as a spoiled Army brat whose vanity results in a terrifying supernatural backlash; "The Promise," with Star Trek's William Shatner in the grim retelling of a WWII-era premonition; and "The Last Round," spotlighting a pre-superstardom Charles Bronson as a disgraced boxer who experiences an epiphany courtesy of a long-dead colleague. Season three's most uncharacteristic episode -- and one of its most compelling -- is "The Sacred Mushroom," a semi-documentary in which hostJohn Newland and One Step Beyond producer Collier Young participate in a strange experiment to see if a certain species of mushroom can enhance one's psychic powers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actual, documented cases of the supernatural, the paranormal, and the occult are dramatized in the first season of the half-hour anthology One Step Beyond. Series host/director John Newland is our guide to the land of the unexplained, beginning his tour with the season opener, "Delusion," starring Suzanne Pleshette (The Bob Newhart Show) and Norman Lloyd (St. Elsewhere) in the story of a man who can predict the future of the people to whom he has donated blood -- or can he? Later episodes include "Brainwave," with George Grizzard in a bizarre new twist on the timeworn tale about a medical corpsman who must perform an operation via short wave radio instructions; "The Night of the Monster," a "Sasquatch" yarn featuring John Marley (The Godfather); "Father Image," with Hawaii Five-O's Jack Lord as a young man experiencing eerily familiar visions while assuming charge of a seedy theater inherited from his father; "Earthquake," a reenactment of a well-known urban legend which gained coinage just after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906; "The Day the World Wept," a compendium of inexplicable events and curious coincidences which occurred at the time of Lincoln's assassination; The Clown," a Felliniesque story of jealousy and misinterpreted visions starring Mickey Shaughnessy and Yvette Mimieux; and "The Visitor," a "message from the grave" story featuring Joan Fontaine and a young Warren Beatty. Arguably the most fascinating of the second season One Step Beyond episodes is the two-part "The Peter Hurkos Story," starring Andrew Prine as the celebrated and controversial Dutch psychic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This fact-based episode is set in 1912, just before Grace Farley (Barbara Lord) is to embark on her honeymoon with new husband Eric (a pre-Avengers Patrick Macnee). Although she lives in a land-locked area, and despite the fact that the couple will be honeymooning in Switzerland, Grace has a nightmare in which she sees herself drowning in the ocean. Shortly thereafter, hubby Eric shows up with the news that he's changed their travel plans--and that he has booked passage on the maiden voyage of the "Titanic." Though the ending of this story would at this point appear to be a foregone conclusion, there are several surprises in store for both Grace and the viewer . . .and as a bonus, host John Newland links the episode's climactic "psychic wave" sequence with a remarkable novel written in 1898, which predicted the fate of the "Titanic" down to the tiniest detail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Stirling Silliphant from his own novel, Huk was filmed on location in the Philippines. George Montgomery heads the cast as a plantation owner who struggles to fend off native insurrectionists (the "Huks" of the title). He is aided in this effort by fellow planter John Baer, whose wife Mona Freeman harbors a secret love for Montgomery. The thrill-packed conclusion finds Montgomery and Baer working shoulder to shoulder to save a boatland of women and children from the Huk guerillas. Ramio Barri portrays the Huk leader as a villain pure and simple, making it easy for the audience to sort out the good and bad guys in this somewhat jingoistic endeavor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Private Hell 36 was one of the last feature-length efforts by Filmmakers, a company created by producer Collier Young and his then-wife Ida Lupino. Young and Lupino also wrote the script for this grim crime melodrama, wherein two detectives Cal Bruner (Steve Cochran) and Jack Farnham (Howard Duff Lupino's future husband) are assigned to track down $300,000 stolen in a bloody hold-up. The two cops manage to locate $80,000 of the booty, whereupon Bruner, not the most ethical of men, suggests that he and Farnham split the money 50-50 and keep their mouths shut. Also involved in this conspiracy is a nightclub singer (Ida Lupino), whose motivations are a tad on the mysterious side. When Farnham decides to turn honest and hand the money over to his superiors, Bruner responds with the business end of his revolver. The very small cast is rounded out by Dean Jagger as the detectives' boss and Dorothy Malone as Duff's understandably worried wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Daniel Mainwaring took this story right out of the headlines of the day, penning this true story of a mass murderer who was eventually executed in San Quentin's gas chamber. Released during McCarthy's witch-hunt, Mainwaring was not given credit because Howard R. Hughes, who produced it under RKO, refused to give credit to any "radicals." The story is that of two men on a fishing trip who pick up a hitchhiker. He turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who has committed multiple murders, a sociopath who hates humanity because of his own abuse as a child. He also has an affliction which terrifies these two men: an eye which is permanently open, thereby never allowing them to know if he is really asleep or just faking it--something which he does with regularity to scare them...letting them take off and then meeting up with them just as they feel they have escaped from him. A tense thriller skillfully directed by the only female director of the time, Ida Lupino, it is a suspenseful tale of terror on the highways. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

On the Loose was produced by the Filmakers Organization, consisting of producer Collier Young and director Ida Lupino (Mrs. Young at the time). Joan Evans stars as Jill Bradley, a teenager with an undeserved reputation as a "bad girl." No one -- not even her parents Melvyn Douglas and Lynn Bari -- will give Jill the benefit of the doubt. Only when the girl attempts suicide are her selfish parents awakened to her plight. Intriguingly, On the Loose was scripted by the husband-and-wife team of Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert, who happened to be the real-life parents of star Joan Evans. Though most Filmakers productions were directed by Ida Lupino, On the Loose was helmed by screenwriter Charles Lederer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Young Lovers is the more familiar title of a 1950 drama originally released as Never Fear. Sally Forrest plays a beautiful young dancer who is crippled with polio. Forrest's dance partner Keefe Brasselle wants to see her through her illness, but the embittered Forrest prefers to be alone. Only by allowing others to share her grief is Forrest able to pull herself together and go on with her life. Though The Young Lovers is listed as Ida Lupino's directorial debut, she'd previously helmed Not Wanted (49) (also starring Forrest and Brasselle) when official director Elmer Clifton fell ill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An unusually disturbing noir from a director better known for more mainstream fare like High Noon and From Here to Eternity, Act of Violence focuses on a WWII veteran haunted by his past. A film that was close to the director's heart, he said that it represented "the first time that I felt confident that I knew what I was doing and why I was doing it." Van Heflin stars as Frank Enley, a contractor living a peaceful life in a small California town, when Joe Parkson, a man who served in the army with him, arrives in the area, intent on killing him. He follows Frank to a lake where he's fishing but is unable to kill him. When a lakeside bartender tells Frank that a man with a limp is looking for him, Frank is frightened, realizing why he has come. He tells his wife, Edith (Janet Leigh), that Joe is a man who spent time with in a Nazi POW camp, who is now mentally ill, and that he intends to avoid him. When Frank goes to Los Angeles for a business convention, Joe arrives at his house and tells his wife that her husband is responsible for his injury and for the deaths of a number of men. Fearing for her husband's life, Edith heads for L.A. with Joe not far behind. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide