Sam Rolfe Movies

Paladin (Richard Boone) and two strangers named Fisher (James Best) and Broderick (William Schallert) find themselves the prisoners of embittered cattle baron Louis Strome (Kent Smith). Strutting around his captives, Strome explains that his wife was recently murdered--and that the suspected murderer was seen skulking around the ranch in the dead of night, dressed entirely in black. Now all three prisoners are slated to hang at sunrise, unless one of the three confesses to the murder! As the minutes agonizingly tick away, Paladin must figure out how to extricate himself from this death-trap. . .and to learn all the facts surrounding the death of Mrs. Strome. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The premiere episode of Have Gun, Will Travel finds cultured gunslinger Paladin (Richard Boone) already headquartered at a fancy hotel in San Francisco, casually thumbing through a pile of newspapers in search of an assignment. Heading to New Mexico, he offers his services to wealthy rancher Jesse Reade (Harry Shannon), accepting his usual thousand-dollar fee to head South of the Border to rescue Reade's daughter Nancy (Janice Rule) from the clutches of bandit Dave Enderby (a pre-Hawaii Five-O Jack Lord). Risking his life to infiltrate the outlaw-controlled town of Perdido, Paladin finds that Nancy is in no mood to be rescued; she is in love with Enderby, and in fact is now the bandit's wife. Now Paladin must figure a way to disillusion Nancy and prove Enderby to be a thorough rat--and to escape safely from Perdido in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Karl Malden plays an air force sergeant who is tempted by a better-paying civilian job. Malden's daughter Natalie Wood is in love with a young colonel (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) whom her father regards as an insolent hothead. The younger man proves his worth during jet maneuvers, while Malden decides that he's of more value in the service than as a working stiff. Bombers B-52 has some excellent moments, including a well-staged variation of the obligatory "breaking the news to the pilot's widow" scene. The film earned latter-day notoriety in the 1980s when a prominent movie historian analyzed the script (by Irving Wallace) and found an overabundance of sexual innuendo--including such in-flight dialogue as "She's unable to receive fuel" and "Request jet penetration!" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the best and most fondly remembered of the classic black-and-white adult Westerns, Have Gun, Will Travel starred Richard Boone as a gunslinger for hire who traveled under the name of Paladin. Headquartered at the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco, the college-educated Paladin spent his leisure hours pursuing the finer things in life: gourmet food, vintage wines, classical music, the best literature...and, of course, the most beautiful women on the West Coast. But whenever his professional services were called upon by a potential client, Paladin would slap on leather and issue forth his famous business card: "Have Gun, Will Travel. Wire Paladin, San Francisco" (the card was, of course, embossed with the image of a chess knight, or paladin). On the job, Paladin ritualistically dressed in black, his pearl-handled revolvers ever at the ready. Though he tended to operate outside and sometimes above the law, Paladin was scrupulously honest, adhering to a rigid code of honor. This, however, did not prevent him from verbally assaulting clients who had lied to or misled him -- which happened more than once in the course of his perambulations throughout the West. Once the job was done (usually by filling the villain of the week full of holes), Paladin bade farewell to those he had helped and rode back to San Francisco alone...always alone. If he felt particularly poetic, Paladin would mutter a few words of Shakespeare, appropriate to the occasion. Although Richard Boone was the only regular who appeared on each episode, Kam Tong was frequently seen as Hey Boy, the Hotel Carlton's best bellhop and Paladin's unofficial general factotum. Some episodes featured Lisa Lu as Hey Boy's female counterpart, a maid who answered to Hey Girl. Many of the series' episodes were written by such top-rank talent as Irving Wallace and Gene Roddenberry, while among the directors were Lewis Milestone, Andrew V. McLaglen, Buzz Kulik, and Richard Boone himself. Produced by Sam Rolfe, Have Gun, Will Travel ran on CBS for six top-rated seasons: from September 14, 1957, through September 21, 1963. The series' famous opening theme music was composed by Bernard Herrmann, while its closing theme, "The Ballad of Paladin"," was written by Richard Boone, Sam Rolfe, and Johnny Western, the latter doubling as singer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alan Ladd plays real-life air force hero Captain Joseph McConnell Jr. in this inspirational biopic, while June Allyson does her usual as McConnell's anxious, waiting-nervously-at-home wife. Assigned to the medical corps during WWII, McConnell takes private flying lessons so that he'll qualify for pilot duty. After serving with distinction in the war, McConnell becomes a pioneer in the testing of jet aircraft. The film ends when McConnell dies while testing a new Sabre Jet. If June Allyson seems genuinely broken up upon learning of her screen husband's death, it may be because the real Captain Joseph McConnell died only a few weeks before filming started on The McConnell Story, necessitating a hurriedly rescripted ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The powerhouse combination of star James Stewart and director Anthony Mann score another cinematic bullseye in The Naked Spur. Stewart plays a taciturn frontiersman who loses his home while he's off fighting the Civil War. To raise enough money for a new grubstake, Stewart becomes a bounty hunter in Colorado territory. His first quarry is fugitive, killer Robert Ryan. Stewart's efforts to bring in Ryan and collect the reward are compromised by the presence of Ryan's loyal girl friend Janet Leigh and Stewart's two disreputable sidekicks, wily prospector Millard Mitchell and disgraced Union-officer Ralph Meeker. There's plenty of "cat and mouse" byplay between Stewart and Ryan before the brutal climax; the drama is intensified by the fact that both men are on the outer rim of total insanity. The Oscar-nominated screenplay for The Naked Spur was cowritten by Sam Rolfe, who was later one of the creative forces responsible for the similarly no-nonsense TV western series Have Gun, Will Travel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide