Hal K. Dawson Movies

Richard Widmark is Brock, a salty NYC cop who retires to a small town in California. Brock's plans to become a peaceful orange farmer are interrupted when his Native American ranch hand (Henry Darrow) is accused of murdering the local sheriff. Before long, Brock himself has been appointed sheriff, and has trouble adapting his big-city technique to the less hectic style of his adopted community. Brock's Last Case was supposed to be the pilot for a weekly series. As it turned out, the title was prophetic. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Working out of the West Valley Division in this episode, Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) join forces with a police helicopter unit. In the course of events, the two cops take to the air to chase after a spectacularly reckless motorcyclist, as well as other assorted traffic violators. Featured in the cast are Peggy Webber, a longtime stalwart of the "Jack Webb stock company", and ace stuntwoman Regina Parton. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Wealthy J.J. Gideon (Otto Kruger) disapproves of the romance between his grandson David (Karl Held) and David's secretary Dorine (Patricia Barry). As it happens, Gideon has good reason to be upset: Dorine is a duplicitous golddigger who swindles David out of $10,000, claiming that she needs it to get her husband Tony out of her life. Pretty soon, Tony is out of his own life as well--and David, who was seen fighting with Tony just before the man's death, is charged with murder. Evidently Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) takes quite a shine to David while preparing his defense; during the series' fifth season, David Gideon would return on a semi-regular basis as Perry's new legal assistant. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A confused horror yarn set in the Deep South, Alligator People stars Richard Crane as a husband who becomes accidently separated from his new wife (Beverly Garland) during a train ride. She tracks him down to the swamplands surrounding his family mansion. Her reunion with her husband is tarnished by the fact that he's been partially transformed into an alligator! This is the handiwork of doctor George MacReady, who's been conducting curious experiments with gators and humans. Garland must figure out a way to save her mutated husband from both the scientist and a drunken alligator hunter (Lon Chaney Jr.). The story is told in flashback, as psychiatrists try to figure out what has driven Garland insane. The Alligator People was the last film directed by Roy Del Ruth, light years away from his glory days at Warner Bros. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A brave cowboy/ex-con hits the dusty trail as the leader of a major cattle drive in this western. He is offered the job by the very townspeople his gang terrorized a few years before. They are also the same people who put him in the slammer, and even though he accepts the task, he secretly plots his revenge. He gets it by proving himself courageous and honest. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Loving You was the most autobiographical of all Elvis Presley's movies, and, not coincidentally, features the most naturalistic, easygoing performance of his early career. He plays Deke Rivers, a truck driver with a penchant for singing and a raw animal magnetism where women are concerned. He attracts the business interest of publicity agent Glenda Markle (Lizabeth Scott), who sees a potential gold mine in Deke. She hires him to appear with a band that she handles, fronted by aging country & western singer Tex Warner (Wendell Corey), who used to be romantically involved with Glenda and is now a client. Pretty soon he's pulling in bigger crowds and generating more excitement than Tex did during his best days (which drives the older singer to start drinking again), but also a lot more controversy, too. Deke is so provocatively sexual a presence on-stage that some citizens in the southern and border states where the band is working think that what he does is immoral. Girls can't keep away from him, their boyfriends despise what he symbolizes, and their parents are aghast, even as concert promoter Carl Meade (James Gleason) smells a fortune to be made from this boy. Glenda parlays these disputes and a ban on one of Deke's performances into a national television event. Amid all of this, Deke reveals the private, vulnerable side that no one ever knew -- that he's not even Deke Rivers (it was a name he took off a gravestone), but an orphan named Jimmy Tompkins, and that he's never had a home. He also reveals that he's attracted to Glenda, mistaking (with her encouragement) her interest in his talent with a personal involvement, but he's also drawn the the band's female singer, Susan Jessup (Dolores Hart), who could genuinely love him, and offers him a caring family of her own that would accept him. Deke and Glenda's conflicts are eventually straightened out, and Deke gets to say his piece and sing his music on network television. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Taciturn marshal-turned-bounty hunter Henry Fonda rides into a small town where greenhorn deputy Anthony Perkins is sole representative of the law. Sensing that the boy could use some seasoning, Fonda makes it his mission to teach Perkins how to protect himself against the criminal element. Though diametrically opposed in personality, the older Fonda and the younger Perkins find they are kindred spirits in their dedication to their work. Using the lessons taught him by Fonda, Perkins is able to prove his worth by taking on town hothead Neville Brand. Directed with a minimum of slack and flab by Anthony Mann, The Tin Star was later spun off into the TV series The Deputy, which starred Henry Fonda and Allen Case. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Escaped criminal Sam Cobbett (John Cassavetes) breaks into a remote farmhouse and takes a young woman named Mary Schaffer (Marisa Pavan) hostage. At first, Sam has the upper hand in the situation, but as the night progresses, he becomes unnerved by Mary's peculiar behavior. Especially off-putting is the fact that Mary does not flinch whenever Sam raises his voice -- nor does she ever take her eyes off his face! Lamont Johnson, who went on to direct several memorable episodes of The Twilight Zone, essays an acting role on this occasion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Three for the Show is a musical remake of the 1940 comedy Too Many Husbands, which in turn was based on a play by Somerset Maugham. In her next-to-last film, Betty Grable plays Julie, a popular musical comedy stars whose husband Marty (Jack Lemmon) is reported missing in action during WW2. After an appropriate waiting period, Julie makes plans to marry Marty's best friend Vernon (Gower Champion), even though she still carries a torch for her "late" husband. After the wedding, who should show up but Marty, demanding his rights as a husband. At first appalled, Julie eventually begins to enjoy the notion of two husbands. In the original film, the plot was never resolved; in the remake, Marge Champion plays a sidelines character named Gwen, so it's a safe bet that Vernon will lose out to Marty in the Julie sweepstakes. Most of the songs in Three for the Show are old standards, written by such notables as the Gershwin brothers, Gene Austin and Hoagy Carmichael. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Up until its surisingly mundane finale, A Lawless Street is one of the best of the Randolph Scott westerns of the 1950s. Scott plays famed marshal Calem Ware, whose strenous activities on behalf of law and order have exacted a toll on his personal life. Keeping the peace in the town of Medicine Bend, Ware hopes to someday be reconciled with his ex-wife Tally Dickinson (Angela Lansbury), now a touring musical comedy star. Just as Tally arrives in Medicine Bend, Ware is forced to deal with big-time criminals Thorne (Warner Anderson) and Clark (John Emery), not to mention their hired gun Baskam (Michael Pate). Will he do his duty and rid the town of his outlaw element, or will he hang up his guns as Tally wants him to? One of the highlights of A Lawless Street is a lively saloon-hall number performed by Angela Lansbury, who is quite a dish in her revealing stage wardrobe. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bing Crosby does the Academy Award-bid bit in the atypical role of a self-pitying alcoholic, but it was his co-star, a deglamorized Grace Kelly, who won the Oscar for her performance in The Country Girl. This adaptation of Clifford Odets' play stars Crosby as Frank Elgin, a once-famous Broadway star who's hit the skids. Hotshot young director Bernie Dodd (William Holden), a longtime admirer of Elgin, tries to get the old-timer back on his feet with a starring role in a new play. But Dodd must contend with Elgin's hard, suspicious wife Georgie, who seemingly runs roughshod over her husband. Dodd holds Georgie responsible for Elgin's lack of self-confidence and his reliance upon the bottle--a suspicion fueled by Elgin himself, who insists that Georgie has been suicidal ever since the death of their son. When Elgin goes on a monumental bender during the play's out-of-town tryouts, the truth comes out: it is Elgin who is suicidal, and Georgie has been the glue that has held him together. Adopting a now-or-never stance, Dodd forces Elgin to stay off the sauce long enough for the play to open--and, in spite of himself, falls in love with Georgie. A few Hollywood liberties were taken with the Odets original, including a slightly altered ending. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This concluding episode of a two-part story was excerpted from the theatrical feature Superman and the Oil Man. The digging of an oil well in the town of Silsby has caused a race of subterranean "Mole Men" to escape to the earth's surface. All the Mole Men want is to be left in peace, but their bizarre and grotesque appearance arouses the fear and bigotry of the local citizens. It is up to visiting reporter Clark Kent (George Reeves to prevent the situation from getting completely of hand--and the only way he can do this is to transform himself into Superman. Note that Phyllis Coates, who plays Lois Lane, has lighter hair than usual: This is because Superman and the Mole Men was filmed before production began on the Adventures of Superman TV series proper--even though this two-part adaptation was not telecast until the end of the series' first season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In 1880s New York City, newspapers were engaged in a free-for-all competition, with the respectable practitioners such as Joseph Pulitzer leading a horde of sheets that included every kind of yellow rag imaginable. Newspaperman Phineas Mitchell (Gene Evans) is so appalled by the brand of journalism practiced by The Star, the newspaper where he works, and its publisher, Charity Hackett (Mary Welch), that he gets himself fired. But instead of looking for another job, he decides to start up his own newspaper, The Globe, which will adhere to principals he has developed across his career. This immediately puts him on a head-to-head collision with The Star and Hackett, who scoffs at Mitchell's ideals but is frightened of his resourcefulness and ideas -- all of which combine to make the feisty little under-financed newspaper a more honest and exciting read than her own publication. And Mitchell's embrace of cutting-edge technology, such as the Linotype machine, and innovations such as by-lines and newsstands only heighten her mixed feelings of admiration and fear. When Mitchell seizes upon the Statue of Liberty, newly-delivered from France but without a base to stand on (or an appropriation from Congress for the money to build one), The Globe takes on this cause. A circulation war -- and then an all-out war -- breaks out between the two newspapers, with fraud, violence, bombings, and other mayhem visited on Mitchell's enterprise. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi