Paul Potash Movies
This story is taken from the real-life marriage of two people in the early 1960s. Helen North (Lucille Ball) is a widow with eight children who falls in love with Naval officer Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda), a widower with ten children of his own. The two marry as comedy ensues from the sheer numbers and diverse age groups of the offspring. Narration is used in the first half of the film to help set the stage for the impending nuptials. Van Johnson is the mutual friend who brings the couple together. Tom Bosley plays the harried doctor who makes a house call and finds almost two dozen patients under one roof. The newlyweds are soon off to the hospital when Helen becomes pregnant with the couple's first child in this amusing family comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, (more)
The President's Analyst is James Coburn, whose position makes him privy to any number of delicate government secrets. Thus Coburn becomes a most desirable prize for several secret-agent organizations, including the CEA and the FBR (we know who these folks are really supposed to be, even though the phony names were crudely dubbed onto the soundtrack after the film was completed). When Coburn becomes expendable, he finds a pair of strong allies in the form of likeable political assassin Godfrey Cambridge and gay Soviet spy Severn Darden. The main plot involves an insidious, unnamed concern that wishes to harness Coburn's talents in order to brainwash the president -- and everyone else in America -- into submission. The President's Analyst is a terrific, on-target satire of virtually every sacred cow of the late 1960s; the satire was so potent, in fact, that when the NBC network broadcast the film in the early 1970s, it was compelled to remove the picture's punchline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Coburn, Godfrey Cambridge, (more)
- 1965
Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) finds himself on the horns of an ironic dilemma. Pornographer Bert Anslem (James Gregory), against whom the FBI has been trying to build a case for months, has been kidnapped by career criminal Nick Kirby (Robert Doyle), who demands a $100,000 ransom. This places Erskine in the position of having to rescue Anslem--while simultaneously preventing the man's inevitable flight from the FBI's jurisdiction. Jill Haworth, who created the role of Sally Bowles in the original Broadway production of "Cabaret", appears as Anslem's daughter. (Note: some sources have incorrectly identified this episode as "To Free Mine Enemy"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1964
Social-climbing car thief Philadelphia Harry (Telly Savalas) thinks he's finally hit the big time when he steals a Rolls Royce belonging to millionaire Sheridan Westcott (Darren McGavin). But Harry's delight turns to dismay when he discovers the body of Westcott's wife in the back seat. Though he may be a thief, Harry would rather die than have people think he has stooped to murder -- and as it happens, death may be the only way out of this mess when Westcott, the real murderer, tells the police that his wife was still alive when the car was stolen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Darren McGavin, Telly Savalas, (more)
