James Daly Movies
American actor James Daly got his start while still a child by appearing in community theatre in his home-town of Wisconsin Rapids. After graduating from Cornell University in 1941, Daly worked his way up to Broadway in 1946 as Gary Merrill's understudy in Born Yesterday. He spent the next few years dividing his time between New York City and Wisconsin. It was in that state's capitol, Madison, that Daly's daughter Tyne was born; Tyne Daly later became a star in her own right, as did James' son Timothy. James Daly won the Theatre Guild award in 1950 for his work in a revival of Shaw's Major Barbara, and co-starred later that year with Helen Hayes in still another revival, The Glass Menagerie. Film work didn't give Daly the starring roles he'd enjoyed on Broadway, but from his first major film The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) onward, the actor secured a niche as a dependable character player. He also flourished in television, winning an Emmy award for the drama special "The Eagle and the Cage," playing the title role in the much-rebroadcast drama "Give Us Barabbas," and starring in two long-running weekly series, Foreign Intrigue and Medical Center. He also is well-remembered for his role in the TV anthology Twilight Zone where he portrayed a beleaguered Manhattan executive who imagines himself to a simpler and more peaceful time and place in the half-hour fantasy "A Stop at Willoughby." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1959
The career of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun (Curt Jurgens) is the focus of this film. Supposedly bullied by the Nazis into working for the Third Reich, the end of the war leaves the rocket man with a decision to take his talents to either Russia or the United States. He chooses the U. S., but controversy follows the gifted scientist wherever he goes. Some resent his collaborations with the Nazis, while others in the government are more than willing to turn their heads in deference to his genius. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Curd Jürgens, Victoria Shaw, (more)
- 1957
Adapting a made-for-TV play that he had directed for the screen, John Frankenheimer made his feature film debut with this sensitive father-son drama. Tom Ditmar (James Daly) is a movie studio executive who has a strained relationship with his teenaged son Hal (James MacArthur). Hal is arrested after an incident in a movie theater in which he was provoked into slugging the manager, Grubbs (Whit Bissell). Hal is rude to the police officer, Sergeant Shipley (James Gregory). Tom Ditmar gets the charges dropped but doesn't believe his son's story. Hal goes back to talk to Grubbs to try to get him to tell his father what really happened. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James MacArthur, Kim Hunter, (more)
- 1956
For its final program of the 1955-56 season, the prestigious CBS Sunday-afternoon anthology Omnibus offered a 90-minute salute to animation, featuring two distinctly different segments. Dominating the proceedings is a dramatization of the court-martial of Col. Billy Mitchell, which has previously served as the basis for a Gary Cooper feature film. After making public attacks on the Navy's antiquated policy regarding aviation warfare, Mitchell was in October of 1925, brought up on charges by his superior officers. In a tense courtroom climax, Mitchell (played by James Daly, the father of contemporary actors Tim Daly and Tyne Daly) details the deficincies of the Navy's attitude towards air power by predicting a future bombing raid on the Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii--by the Japanese.Jack Lord, still several years removed from Hawaii 5-0, appears as Major Allen Gullion. The second half of this broadcast consisted of a documentary film, The Daily Life of a Test Pilot, focusing on Major Stuart R. Childs of Edwards Air Force base, California. This Omnibus season closer was hosted by the ubiquitous Alistair Cooke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1955
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In this 1955 Otto Preminger film, Gary Cooper stars as World War I hero Brigadier General Billy Mitchell. The film recounts Mitchell's efforts to prove the viability of a strong air force. The hidebound military higher-ups refuse to finance aviation any further, figuring that the strength of the United States lies in its navy. When a friend is killed by flying a faulty plane, Mitchell charges the War and Navy department with incompetence and criminal negligence. When the brass tries to quietly court-martial Mitchell, they are forced into the open by the strength of public opinion, largely in Mitchell's favor. Subjected to the grilling of prosecutor Alan Guillon (Rod Steiger) during his trial, Mitchell sticks to his guns, even outlining a potential Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor unless the military wises up and strengthens its air power. Elizabeth Montgomery makes her film debut in the role of Margaret Landsdowne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Charles Bickford, (more)
- 1955
From the 1950s "Front Row Center" series, a made-for-television adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel about the unhappy marriage between a psychiatrist and one of his patients. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- 1954
This video features two television shows representative of '50s Cold War paranoia and xenophobia at its best. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1950
One of the finest and most troubling films to come out of Universal-International, The Sleeping City tried to emulate some of the cinéma vérité elements of The Naked City (which had been produced at Universal's facilities). The producers got the permission of the city of New York to shoot at Bellevue Hospital, and, in exchange, opened the movie with a disclaimer spoken by star Richard Conte, stepping out of character to point out that nothing like the story in this movie ever happened at Bellevue and offering tribute to the actual hospital and its staff. That's the last reassuring moment that one will find in this eerie crime drama -- in the first six minutes, a young doctor taking a break from work is shot in the head, and the police can't find a clue even as to a possible motive. Inspector Al Gordon (John Alexander) decides that he has to put some men on duty at the hospital, and one of them is Fred Rowan (Richard Conte), a detective with experience as an army medic, masquerading as an intern. What Rowan finds is a high-pressure world in which interns are hopelessly squeezed for time, sleep, energy, and -- most of all -- money, and walk a fine line on the edge of personal and professional disaster. His roommate, Steve Anderson (Alex Nicol), seems especially desperate. The only relief from the bleakness and tension, on a personal level, comes from the attentions of Ann Shelton (Coleen Gray), the ward nurse in traumatics, where Fred is assigned, and the good-natured needling of Pop Ware (Richard Taber), an elevator operator who likes to take an avuncular interest in the interns around him. But before he can get too far in his investigation, potential witnesses start dying around Rowan , and one of his friends at the hospital is threatened. Soon the whole scheme and the motives for the murders suddenly become clear, along with Rowan's earlier failure to spot the clue he needed. He also suddenly recognizes the involvement of the people closest to him at the hospital, but before the squad can move, he also finds his own life at risk. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Conte, Coleen Gray, (more)
