Jim Davis Movies

Lippert Studio's first 1951 release was the compact western 3 Desperate Men. The title characters are the Denton Brothers, played by Preston S. Foster, Jim Davis and Ross Latimer. Accused of crimes they didn't commit, the Dentons are obliged to become outlaws to survive. So long as they stay away from their home town, the brothers are able to pull off their crime spree unabated. But their fate is sealed the moment they head homeward to exact revenge against those who framed them. Critics of the period were satisfied with 3 Desperate Men, though it was felt that at least two of the three Dentons could have used some lessons in horsemanship. The film secured pretty good bookings for a Lippert production. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bob Hope plays a 19th-century insurance agent whose miserable sales record prompts his boss to send him out West, where he can (supposedly) do little harm. Hope manages to sell a $100,000 life insurance policy--to outlaw Jesse James (Wendell Corey), one of the worst "risks" in history! In his efforts to get the policy back, Hope finds himself being mistaken for Jesse, which is all part of the outlaw's plan to get Hope killed and thereby collect the policy money himself. But with the help of beauteous Rhonda Fleming (the essentially honest beneficiary to Jesse's policy), Hope gains a reputation as a lightning-fast gunslinger. In the inevitable shoot-out with the James gang, Hope is helped out by several famous Westerners, including Gary Cooper, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, James "Maverick" Garner, and even Tonto (Jay Silverheels). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Keith Larsen stars as the Apache Kid, an Indian scout. He is willing to cooperate with the US cavalry until his brother is killed by another Native American. The Apache Kid is permitted to seek revenge under tribal law, but white law does not recognize this ruling; as a result the Kid is branded a renegade. A fellow cavalry scout (Jim Davis) is ordered to stop the Kid, but decides instead to let him go and seek out justice in his own way. Supposedly based on fact, Apache Warrior was directed by Elmo Williams, who in 1952 was film editor for the landmark western High Noon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When his grandson (played by real-life son Ethan Wayne) is kidnapped by scurrilous baddie Richard Boone, Big Jake (John Wayne) sets out to deliver the $1 million ransom. On the off-chance that there'll be gunplay, Jake brings along his sons Patrick Wayne and Chris Mitchum. Maureen O'Hara plays Jake's estranged wife and Bruce Cabot provides comedy relief as a scraggly Indian Scout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Written by Paul Schneider, "Ride the Wind" was Bonanza's first two-part story. Ben Cartwright is willing to provide Charles Ludlow (Victor Jory) with money to help finance the new Pony Express service, but isn't keen on allowing his son Joe to join Ludlow's riders. Nor is the Paiute Indian tribe amenable to allowing the Pony Express to go across their land. Exacerbating the problem is Ludlow's assistant, Curtis Wade (Rod Cameron), who hopes to make a name for himself as an Indian fighter. The story is sufficiently exciting to make one forget that the real Pony Express had been disbanded some three years before the events depicted in this episode. Part One of "Ride the Wind" first aired on January 16, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally scheduled to air on March 18, 1961, the Bonanza episode "The Gift" finally made its first appearance on April 1 of that same year. Determined to capture a white Arabian stallion as a birthday present for his father, Joe Cartwright makes a treacherous desert journey to Yuma, Arizona. Attacked by Indians en route, Joe finds that his life is in the hands of Emeliano (Martin Landau), the mercurial Mexican who raised the stallion. Also appearing are Jim Davis as Sam Wolfe, Jack Hogan as Cash, and Joe Yrigoyen as Cayetano. "The Gift" was written by Denne Petticlerc and Thomas Thompson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Approaching a ghost town in answer to a job offer, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) finds he has walked into a trap. The only residents of the town are religious fanatic Joshua Murdock (John Dehner) and his deranged sons Micah (Paul Brent) and Malachi (a pre-Dallas Jim Davis). Convinced that McCord's "cowardice" at Bitter Creek has caused the town's ruin, Murdock prepares to exact a revenge of Biblical proportions. Featured as Grey Eagle is prolific Native American actor Iron Eyes Cody, best remembered as the "weeping Indian" in a famous series of anti-littering public service announcements. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part story, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) is again summoned to Washington by President Grant (William Bryant). This time, Jason is asked to infiltrate a group of insurrectionists who may or may not be plotting to assassinate the President and overthrow the government. John Carradine repeats his role as Jason's grandfather, General Josh McCord, in this story co-written by series star Chuck Connors--whose wife Kamala Devi also makes a guest appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The age-old enmity between cattle ranchers and settlers once again takes center stage in this slightly above-average Western filmed in Republic Pictures' Trucolor system. Walter Brennan plays Pop "Brimstone" Courteen, an ornery rancher who avenges the loss of the free range by robbing stagecoaches and banks. The Courteen gang, which also includes Pop's three sons, Nick (Jim Davis), Luke (Jack Lambert), and the reluctant Bud (James Brown), gets a bit of competition from The Ghost, a mystery outlaw who really is Marshal Johnny Tremaine (Rod Cameron). Tremaine's undercover investigation leads to McIntyre (Forrest Tucker), the sheriff of Gunsight, who is in the employ of the Courteens. In love with Molly Bannister (Adrian Booth), a settler, Bud turns against his ruthless family, but will Tremaine be able to save the boy from his father's wrath? ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Beautiful Adele Mara, who Republic Pictures took for granted for far too long, finally gets a chance to shine in this fine Western produced and directed by the dependent Joseph Kane. Mara plays Beth Martin, an Easterner traveling west to be reunited with her brother, Bob (Bill Williams). But Bob is not quite the hard-working miner that Beth and kid brother Tommy (Peter Miles) believed him to be and the newcomers quickly find themselves caught between double-crossing saloon owners Mike Prescott (Forrest Tucker) and Lincoln Corey (Jim Davis). Estelita Rodriguez, as Bob Martin's faithful girlfriend, performs "Second Hand Romance" and "I'm Goin' Round in Circles," both by Jack Elliott and Harold Spina. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Old man Ewing (Jason Robards) owns a ranch right next to the ranch of Ella (Jane Fonda). This is a source of two problems: Ewing wants to gobble up most of the land around the two ranches and also wants Ella's ranch; secondly, when Ella was too young to know better, she went to bed with the man, which, many years later, she considers to have been a grievous error on her part. A third problem arises when oil companies begin pressuring both of them to allow drilling on their land, and Ewing won't allow it -- on his or anyone else's land. Before long, war-veteran Frank (James Caan) enters Ella's life and helps her fight to save her land and her sanity, with added assistance from Dodger (Richard Farnsworth), an old local who knows the score. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Having proven itself as a viewer magnet during its five-episode trial in the spring of 1978, the multi-plotted prime-time serial Dallas launched its second season (and its first "full" one) in the fall of that same year, though it would not be until the series was moved from Saturday to Friday night that it would begin its rapid upward climb in the ratings. Already established as the series' antihero is the charming but thoroughly untrustworthy J.R. Ewing, eldest son of Texas oil millionaire Jock Ewing (Jim Davis) and his wife, Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes). Throughout the second season, J.R. carries on a two-pronged battle, not only feuding with the politically ambitious Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), the son of Jock's hated rival Digger Barnes (played briefly by David Wayne before the role is taken over by Keenan Wynn), but also engaging in a fierce power struggle over control of Ewing Oil with his honest younger brother, Bobby (Patrick Duffy) -- who happens to be married to Cliff's sister, Pam (Victoria Principal). This season marks the first appearance by J.R. and Bobby's other brother, Gary, played in the first three episodes of the year by David Ackroyd, who would be replaced by Ted Shackelford when it was decided to spin Gary and his wife, Valene (Joan Van Ark), into their own series, Knots Landing.

Perceiving Gary as a threat, J.R. connives to get Gary's daughter Lucy (Charlene Tilton) to move out of the family mansion, Southfork; however, many of his schemes come a cropper, such as his plan to marry off Lucy to millionaire Kit Mainwaring (Mark Wheeler) -- who turns out to be gay. J.R. also does his best to undermine Bobby by trying to break up his marriage to Pamela. This may not be too difficult, inasmuch as Bobby is considerably put out when he discovers that Pam was married before, to Vietnam veteran Ed Haynes (Robin Clarke). Meanwhile, J.R.'s troubled wife, Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), worried that Pam will bear a child before she will, embarks upon a "conception race" with her sister-in-law. Also, the viewer is introduced to Pam's mother, Patricia (Martha Scott), and her younger sister Kristin, played in two episodes this season by Colleen Camp (the role would be taken over on a permanent basis by Mary Crosby in season three). Almost immediately upon arrival, Kristin makes a play for Bobby -- which of course delights the devious J.R. In other developments, Morgan Fairchild makes her one and only appearance as Bobby's old flame Jenna Wade, a role that would ultimately be played, as a "regular," by Priscilla Presley. Miss Ellie faces a crisis when her presumed-dead brother, Garrison (Gene Evans), shows up, insisting that he is rightful owner of Southfork; Susan Howard is introduced as the politically well-connected Donna Culver, who proceeds to cheat on her husband with Southfork's sullen and secretive manager, Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly); and after facing political ruin at the hands of J.R., Cliff Barnes steps up his vendetta against the "man you love to hate." As the season rushes to a close, a pregnant Sue Ellen is rushed to the hospital to bear a son, John Ross Ewing III -- but J.R., who doesn't trust his wife any farther than he can throw her (he's already tried to have her locked away in a sanitarium), is convinced that his rival Cliff is the baby's father! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide