Merry Anders Movies

Blood Legacy was also released as Legacy of Blood (as was a like-titled, though dissimilar, 1978 film). Looking older than dirt, John Carradine plays a crotchety millionaire who wills his fortune to his estranged children. There is, of course, a proviso. The kids, all grown up and none too savory, must spend a week in Carradine's estate. Naturally, this leads to a lot of petty spitefulness...which in turn leads to murder. Jeff Morrow and Faith Domergue, who in happier times co-starred in This Island Earth, show up as two of the heirs, as do 1950s favorites Merry Anders and Dick Davalos (James Dean's brother in East of Eden). Rudolfo Acosta is top-billed as a local sheriff who must contend with seven days' worth of carnage. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cosmos 1, an interstellar spacecraft, is heading to its home base after a long mission when it receives a distress call from its sister ship, Cosmos 3. Some of the ship's Centaurian crew -- members of a once proud race who are now subservient to humans from the fleet's home world -- have rebelled. Cosmos 3 crashes on Solarius, an unexplored planet in a young star system, leaving behind five survivors, among them the Lt. Anderson and Zenda, human/Centaurian couple. The Cosmos 1, under the command of Admiral King (Wendell Corey), makes the three month journey to Solarius at the speed of light, during which, because of the time paradoxes involved in light-speed travel, 18 years elapse on the planet. A landing party led by First Officer Scott (Keith Larson) begins searching for the wrecked ship and any survivors, and discover that this is a tropical world, beautiful and dangerous, filled with exotic birds and flowers, huge lizards and snakes, deadly insects and other animals, and crystaline pools and boiling pits. Meanwhile, Linda (Irene Tsu), a young Centaurian from Cosmos 1, gets lost in the jungle and is rescued by Tang (Robert Ito), a young man living in the primordial forests -- she discovers that he is a Centaurian and the son of Anderson and Zenda. The two are attracted to each other, even as the crew of the Cosmos 1 is trying to rescue her and keep themselves alive. A conveniently timed volcanic eruption forces the issue of how far the admiral can carry this mission. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

In this western, a gunslinger runs from the Dawson gang and decides to return home to the wife he abandoned many years before. There he finds that his infant son has grown into a thuggish hellion who has been lead to believe that his mother is dead. He also hates the father who left him. The mother isn't dead. She works as a saloon keeper, but her son doesn't recognize her. The father and son end up staging a showdown, and the father quickly outdraws his son. Later, the Dawsons catch up to the gunfighter. His son plans to do nothing to save him, but then he learns that his father left because his mother had cheated upon him. The son changes his mind and rides out to save his dad. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Scuba-divers plot a bank robbery on lovely Catalina island in this caper movie. After the heist, the thieves dive into the see with their booty and swim for their getaway boat. Unfortunately while fleeing, the ring leader's chief assistant suffers a heart attack; more trouble ensues when a police bullet punctures the leader's air tank. Though he is now starving for oxygen and tired, the villain keeps going. Just as he is about to board the boat, he is sucked in to the crafts powerful propeller and dies a grisly death. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A full year before the debut of Warner Bros.' TV series The FBI, a pilot of sorts was filmed under the title FBI Code 98. Jack Kelly heads the cast of this Dragnet-style docudrama, wherein the action is underlined by William Woodson's stentorian off-camera narration. The main plot concerns a disgruntled mad bomber, who uses his heightened knowledge of electronics to stay one step ahead of detection. The all-Warner-contractee cast includes Maverick's Kelly, Ray Danton, Andrew Duggan, Philip Carey, William Reynolds (later a regular on The FBI), Peggy McCay and Merry Anders. Originally intended as a TV special, FBI Code 98 was released theatrically instead. The film was produced by Stanley Niss, the author of the book on which the screenplay was based. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After a nuclear holocaust, a group of scientists travel to the future and find a world in tatters, where the human survivors must constantly defend themselves against mutated beasts. Upon seeing the future of the earth, the men would like to return to 1964, but find it may not be possible. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

When she comes to work in a Southern California hospital so she can be near her beloved sister, a nurse finds herself in a sordid situation. Upon her arrival, she learns that her sister inexplicably killed herself. Not believing this for a moment, she enlists the help of her former brother-in-law and soon gets involved with a drug-addicted smuggler engaged in illegally selling babies to childless parents. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this socially conscious drama, a girl is impregnated during a rape. Because she did not report the crime to the police, she ends up getting involved with an illegal abortion racket. The film is also known as Case of Patty Smith. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Air Patrol is a 62-minute Cinemascope programmer, specifically designed for lower berths in 20th Century-Fox double-feature programs. Willard Parker and Robert Dix play a pair of airborne detectives, in search of a couple of art thieves. The criminals have made a clean getaway, courtesy of a helicopter. Using what few clues they have (including a cryptic ransom note), Parker and Dix climb into their own copter and take chase. The high-above-the-clouds climax, photographed by John M. Nickolaus Jr., is the best part of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this crime drama, several people gather at an inn adjacent to a prison where a man is scheduled to be executed at midnight. Just as the clock is about to strike twelve, a man comes in and confesses the crime. He is arrested. The rest of the guests, who have come to retrieve the original inmate's loot from a safety deposit box, now try to get their hands upon the loot. Treachery and mayhem ensue. Eventually someone calls the police and everything works out for the best. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Well-made considering its six-day shooting schedule, this "B"-grade cops 'n robbers drama by Jack Leewood features Gene Nelson as Dan, an ingenious thief living on the edge at the moment. Dan has just cheated a mobster out of some stock in order to use it as collateral on a loan -- and now he has to save himself by replacing the stock with the money its worth. In order to do that, he figures out a complex scheme to steal some diamonds from a display case in a museum, use them to get an insurance sum, and put the real diamonds back before his fake substitutes are found. He co-opts a few people to help him on this plot, and the action begins. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this rollicking takeoff of the TV western series Bonanza, Jim Backus guest stars as wealthy rancher Joe Wheelwright, the owner of the vast Subrosa spread. Figuring that it is time his sons Moose (Jake Sheffield), Henry (Larry Chance) and Small Paul (Evan McCord) were married, Wheelwright hires Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) to escort three prospective brides from San Francisco. As it turns out, however, the ladies have their own ideas about matrimony--and there are other more serious obstacles in Bart's path. Featured as one of three future "Mrs. Wheelwrights" is Kasey Rogers, better known as Mrs. Larry Tate on the TV sitcom Bewitched. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After an all-night binge, carnival owner Leo Torbey (Norman Lloyd) discovers he has purchased a trained monkey, whom Torbey's wife, Carol (Nita Talbot), despises at first sight. What Leo doesn't know -- at least at first -- is that his monkey, named Maria, is not a monkey at all, but instead a human female dwarf (Venus DeMars). And what nobody knows, until it is too late, is that Maria has fallen hopelessly in love with Leo...and that she has an insatiable thirst for vengeance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi