Jim Davis Movies

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

Monte Walsh (Lee Marvin ) and his pal Chet Rollins (Jack Palance) are two over the hill cowboys seeking work in the town of Harmony, Arizona in the final days of the Old West. They take a job at the ranch of Cal Brennan (Jim Davis) and meet an old friend Shorty (Mitch Ryan). Monte goes off to visit old flame Martine (Jean Moreau), a saloon girl suffering from tuberculosis. The ranch closes and Chet marries Mary Eagle (Allyn Ann McLerie), a widow who owns a profitable hardware store. He tries to talk Monte in to giving up his cowboy life and settling down. He asks Martine to marry him, but she declines and cites her deteriorating health as the reason for her refusal. Monte goes on a drinking binge and rides a wild horse through town. He is indignant when a rodeo owner offers him a job. Monte states he would rather spit on himself that resort to such degrading work. Shorty is soon unemployed and guns down local lawman (LeRoy Johnson). Distraught after the death of his beloved Martine, Monte goes after Shorty when he guns down Chet. This film marks the directorial debut for cameraman William A. Fraker. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Vanished earned a niche in video history as the first two-part TV movie. Based on Fletcher Knebel's novel, the story concerns the sudden disappearance of a top Presidential adviser. Grilled by the media, the President's press secretary (James Farentino) reveals very little, simply because he knows very little. But the chief executive himself (Richard Widmark) has more information than he's willing to make public; the FBI has proof that the vanished adviser was homosexual, and subject to blackmail. Based in part on the Lyndon Johnson/Walter Jenkins imbroglio of 1964, Vanished is given an aura of credibility via cameo appearances by Washington newscaster/journalists Chet Huntley, Herbert Kaplow and Martin Agronsky. The film was first telecast on two consecutive evenings: March 8 and 9 of 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ben Thompson (Robert Dix) rides through the wilds of Arizona seeking revenge in this violent, low-budget Al Adamson Western. For many years, Thompson has been searching for the Indian who killed his bride on their wedding day, with Death as his only companion. The man he seeks is Satago (John Cardos), the chief of the Yaqui, a renegade Apache tribe that has declared war on all white settlers. Ben teams up with Satago's half-brother, Joe Lightfoot (also played by Cardos), and when the duo comes upon a wrecked stagecoach, they try to keep the survivors safe in dangerous Indian territory. Along with hard-boiled gambler Jim Wade (Scott Brady) and his high-strung wife, Lavinia (Julie Edwards), are a mysterious preacher (John Carradine), hard-drinking madam Kansas Kelly (Paula Raymond), and Althea (Darlene Lucht), one of Kelly's "working girls" who takes a shine to stoic cowboy Ben. There's more danger than just the Yaqui to deal with when a pair of unscrupulous gun runners join the group, and revenge and bloodshed rules the day despite Ben's struggle to get the women to safety. The action is commented upon with a philosophical air by the Voice of Death (Gene Raymond) in this downbeat film, which was released under several titles including Five Bloody Graves, The Gun Riders, and Five Bloody Days to Tombstone. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide

A clan of Carolina moonshiners struggle to outsmart the revenuers and deliver their potent brew in this crime drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Having struck pay dirt with his 1958 western Rio Bravo, Howard Hawks more or less remade the picture twice in the 1960s. The first of these rehashes was El Dorado, with Rio Bravo star John Wayne back for more. Wayne plays a gunfighter who rides into El Dorado to link up with his old pal, sheriff Robert Mitchum ("It's the big one with the big two!" declared the film's advertisements). Wayne has turned down a job with evil land baron Ed Asner, who'd hoped to drive a family off the land that he needed for its water. That family, headed by R.G. Armstrong, is convinced that Wayne is working with Asner; when Armstrong's son Johnny Crawford dies, Wayne is held responsible, earning him a bullet in the spine from Crawford's sister Michele Carey. A year passes: Wayne returns to El Dorado, in the company of his new saddle pal James Caan. They find that Asner is still up to his old tricks, and that Mitchum has descended into alcoholism. Several plot twists and power shifts ensue, leading to the slam-bang climax, with the partially paralyzed Wayne, the newly crippled Mitchum (on crutches), and the concussion-suffering Caan battling together to stave off Asner's minions. The final long-shot, of Wayne and Mitchum limping off together arm-in-arm, is one of the most enduring images in the entire Hawks canon. If they loved it twice they'll love it thrice: in 1969, John Wayne and Howard Hawks teamed up for a third Rio Bravo derivation, Rio Lobo--which, like the first two films, was scripted by Leigh Brackett. Incidentally, that's famed artist Olaf Weighorst (whose paintings appear in the title sequence) in a cameo as the gunsmith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An insane, renegade cavalryman leads his vicious band of outlaws into a series of brutal raids against settlers and local Indians in this western. Fortunately, a former gunslinger and a brave Indian agent ride up to save the imperiled pioneers. ~ Sandra Brennan, 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

Michael Rennie guest stars as Charles Briswell, an accused murderer whom Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) rescues from a miner's kangaroo court. Jason's motives aren't entirely humanitarian: Briswell claims to have been a witness at the battle of Bitter Creek, and thus is in a position to clear McCord of cowardice charges. But as Jason escorts Briswell to the nearest army post, he begins to suspect that the man isn't being entirely open and above-board with his "eyewitness" testimony. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

William "One Shot" Beaudine's companion piece to the equally nonsensical Billy the Kid vs. Dracula represents a memorable closing to the eccentric "Z"-movie auteur's amusing body of work. The hare-brained concept finds the legendary outlaw Jesse James (John Lupton) stumbling into the decrepit lair of Maria Frankenstein (Narda Onyx) -- not the daughter but the granddaughter of the infamous monster-making Baron. Maria is, of course, following in Grandpa's footsteps by creating a creature of her own, transplanting the dormant but still-intact brain of Frankenstein's original monster into the body of one of James' cohorts. The lumbering, homicidal monster -- imaginatively dubbed "Igor" -- begins terrorizing townsfolk until the inevitable showdown between living and undead gunslingers. Though not as flamboyantly awful as its predecessor (mainly due to the absence of John Carradine), this is still worth a look for trash-movie completists. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

When Chris Carlyle's (Jay North) family leaves their farm for the city, Chris must give his pet puma up to the local zoo. When Chris discovers the terrible conditions that the animals are being kept in, he manages to find a way to set all of the creatures free, much to the dismay of the local residents. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide