Joe Hamilton Movies

Prosperous Poughkeepsie undertaker Arthur Motherwell (John McGiver) is looking forward to handling the funeral for Stanton C. Barryvale (Howard Smith), the richest man in town. Barryvale's family members have insisted upon a huge and ostentatious funeral -- and, of course, the cost is no object. But as he prepares to embalm Barryvale, Motherwell is shocked when the dead man suddenly arises from the dead...and then demands that his own personal funeral arrangements be carried out. This episode is based on a story by writer/director Garson Kanin, of Born Yesterday and Adam's Rib fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This musical spoof of Westerns featured Lee Marvin in dual roles that won him a Best Actor Oscar. Jane Fonda stars as the title character, a prim schoolmarm returning to her hometown of Wolf City, Wyoming, after receiving an Eastern education. On the train ride, Cat meets up with a pair of friendly, charming crooks, Clay Boone (Michael Callan) and his uncle, Jed (Dwayne Hickman), the former becoming hopelessly smitten with the naive but tough Cat. Upon arriving home, Cat discovers that her eccentric father, Frankie (John Marley), is being threatened with bodily harm by a development company that desperately wants his land. When Frankie is murdered by ruthless, noseless killer Tim Strawn (Marvin), Cat straps on a pair of six-shooters and persuades Clay, Jed, and her father's loyal Native American hand Jackson Two-Bears (Tom Nardini) to sign on as her posse. In her quest for revenge, Cat also recruits Kid Shelleen (also played by Marvin), a one-time fearsome gunslinger who's now a hopeless alcoholic. Cat Ballou (1965) is interspersed throughout the narrative with appearances by Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole as a pair of balladeers who comment on the action musically in Greek chorus style. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Git! tries very hard within its low-budget limits to offer Disney-style family entertainment. Jack Chaplain plays 17-year-old Deke, who rescues a woebegone Irish setter from a sorry demise. Teaming up with Elaine (Heather North), the daughter of widowed dog-breeder Andrew Garrett (Richard Webb), Deke tries to transform the pooch into a first-class hunting dog. Not that there aren't any setbacks: in fact, the film is virtually nothing but setbacks for the people the audience cares about. During its 92-minute running time, Git! manages to accommodate three songs, none of them as interesting as the dogs paraded before the camera. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

From at least the 1930s on to the 1970s, the upbeat protestant minister, Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, ministered to the well-heeled and upwardly mobile of the United States from his pulpit at the Riverside church on Fifth Avenue in New York City. At least as positive-thinking as the similarly cheery Dale Carnegie (How To Win Friends and Influence People), his lift-yourself-by-your-bootstraps message of good cheer was perceived as unorthodox by many within the churches he grew up in. After many decades of preaching his message, summed up in his best-selling book The Power of Positive Thinking, he was enshrined as a sort of secular saint. His influence reached to Presidents and corporate heads, and his name became synonymous with a kind of extraverted wholesomeness which has long since vanished. This biopic traces his career in the most respectful possible manner. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Filmed under the title Prehistoric World, Teenage Caveman stars future Man From UNCLE Robert Vaughn as the eponymous hero, known only as The Boy. A member of a primitive tribe living in a desolate valley, The Boy has been warned never to journey into the Forbidden Area, lest disaster or death befall him. But after participating in a bear hunt, The Boy and his spear-carrying fellow tribesmen head into the Forbidden Area in search of fresh game. One by one, the intrepid hunters are killed off by quicksand, stock-footage dinosaurs and other such impediments to progress. Exiled by his tribe for venturing into the Forbidden Area, The Boy is compelled to live for a time in an isolated cave, where he is comforted by the Maiden (Darrah Marshall), who has fallen in love with him. Later on, the Boy once more risks life and limb by entering the Forbidden Area. It is at this point that he is told the horrible truth of the Valley's history by a very old man who is dressed in what looks like a 20th-century radiation suit. Without revealing the "surprise" denoument (surprising only to those who've never seen a post-apocalyptic movie), it can be noted that Teenage Cavemen comes to a close with the words "The Beginning." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Once again, Barney arrests the wrong person (this time it's the bank president!), and once again he finds himself the laughingstock of Mayberry. Andy encourages Barney to forget his troubles and go along on a picnic-during which Andy and Helen briefly get lost in cave. Though the two picnickers manage to find their way back to town, a nervous Barney has already organized a search party-and it is up to Andy to save Barney from yet another humiliation. This is the episode which imparts the vital information that bats lay eggs in your hair and make you go crazy. First telecast on January 6, 1964, "Barney and the Cave Rescue" was written by Harvey Bullock. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Barney is on another of his anti-speeding crusades ("I'm gonna nip it-nip it in the bud!"), but the Mayberry police force has only one patrol car. To improve departmental efficiency, Barney purchases a WW1-vintage motorcycle and sidecar. Before long, Barney is zipping all over town, merrily issuing tickets for the slightest infraction-and of course, driving everyone crazy. Written by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, "Barney's Sidecar" originally aired on January 27, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gas station owner Wally (Trevor Bardette) fires his mechanic and pump jockey Gomer Pyle, insisting that Gomer talks too much and works too little. Inasmuch as Gomer is also booted out of his little room in the back of Wally's station, Andy invites his now-homeless friend to move into the Taylor house. Before long, all of Gomer's former customers have followed him to Andy's garage-while both Andy and Wally begin to have second thoughts about their recent actions. First shown on November 4, 1963, "Gomer the House Guest" was written by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Carol Burnett Show was one of the most popular and best loved comedy-variety series to grave American television in the 1970's. In 2001, Carol Burnett and fellow cast members Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, and Vicki Lawrence reunited for this comedy special, in which they take a look back at some of the most memorable moments from the show's run, screen some previously unseen bloopers and outtakes, take questions from the studio audience, and share their memories of being part of television history. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director Irvin Kershner, better known for his big-budget films like The Empire Strikes Back, joins with scripters and lead Don Murray to create this moving and effective docudrama. The story is based on the experiences of real-life Rev. Charles Dismas Clark (played here by Murray), a Jesuit priest devoted to working with young ex-convicts who face uphill battles in trying to re-integrate into a society that discriminates against them. At focus is the struggle of Billy Lee Jackson (Keir Dullea) with his personal demons as he gets involved in crimes which are not of his doing alone. His case illustrates the nature of the majority of cases, and like the majority, he pays in spades for his "mistakes." A powerful argument for looking at the horror of the death penalty and society's responsibility for crime, this well-wrought story is compelling and consistently effective. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Solid Gold Cadillac was adapted from the George S. Kaufman-Howard Teichmann Broadway hit of the same. Both the play and film were predicated upon the notion of a humble ten-share stockholder triumphing over a corrupt big-business board of directors, but there was one significant difference. In the stage version, septuagenarian Josephine Hull starred as Laura Partridge, a sweet little old lady who asks several embarrassing questions at a stockholder's meeting. In the film version, Laura's age is lowered by at least four decades to accommodate star Judy Holliday. In both versions, a romance develops between Laura Partridge and Edward L. McKeever, the owner of the corporation she takes on. McKeever (played in the film by Paul Douglas, Holliday's co-star in the Broadway version of Born Yesterday) is an honest man, which is more than can be said for his self-serving board of directors (Fred Clark, John Williams, Ray Collins et. al.) With McKeever's covert help, Laura, who has been given a dummy executive position in the corporation in hopes that she'll shut up, forms a stockholder's association intent upon throwing the rascals out. Though the dialogue in Solid Gold Cadillac is consistently entertaining, the film's best line goes to Judy Holliday: Describing her brief career as an actress in a Shakespearean troupe, she recalls ruefully that "No one's allowed to sit down unless you're a king." George Burns, taking over from the stage version's Fred Allen, provides the wry scene-setting narration. Currently available TV prints of The Solid Gold Cadillac have restored the original Technicolor final shot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide