Sandy Descher Movies

For reasons which he prefers to keep secret, wealthy industrialist Cameron Burgess (Paul Stewart) hires shady music promoter Clete Hawley (Richard Carlson) to groom a likable but untalented British rock singer named Sandy Chester (Martin Horsey) for superstardom. Soon afterward, Hawley is murdered, and Sandy is charged with the crime. Fortunately, Burgess is a client of Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), who agrees to defend the shaggy-haired suspect in court. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dave Brewster (Adam Williams) arrives to take his new job as an electronics technician at a top-secret Air Force base in California. With him are his wife Anne (Peggy Webber) and their two children, Bud (Mikel Ray) and Ken (Johnny Crawford), who are all apprehensive about this sudden transplant, as well as the spartan existence that all of the families live under. No sooner do they arrive, however, then Bud and Ken see a strange light in the sky pointing to the beach, and soon after that seem to be receiving increasingly powerful -- and detailed -- telepathic communications from an unseen source. The boys are drawn, along with the children from the other families, to a lonely cave near the beach, where an alien presence, in the form of a huge (and ever-growing) brain, has hidden itself. At first, it uses the children to try and persuade the more reasonable of the parents that their project -- a missile called The Thunderer, which will place a hydrogen bomb in orbit, capable of being used on any target in the event the United States is threatened -- is too dangerous to complete. But the parents aren't prepared to listen, either because they don't understand the danger, or because they genuinely believe in the conduct of the Cold War, as in the case of Hank Johnson (Jackie Coogan); or because they're too angry and belligerent, like Joe Gamble (Russell Johnson), who is at a dead-end in his job and has taken to alcoholism and abusing his wife (Jean Engstrom) and stepson (Johnny Washbrook). As the launch approaches and the children's entreaties are ignored, the alien takes more direct action with their help, and they soon find a potential ally in in Dr. Wahrman (Raymond Bailey), the inventor of The Thunderer, who is also the only man on the project smart enough to realize that he may not have all the answers. But the military head of the project (Richard Shannon) is stil prepared to launch The Thunderer, regardless of its inventor's doubts. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The Opposite Sex is an opulent musical remake of Clare Booth Luce's The Women (1939). June Allyson stars in the old Norma Shearer role, playing the virtuous wife who loses her husband to scheming Joan Collins (as the Joan Crawford character). At first agreeing to a divorce, June decides to win hubby back by utilizing the same crafty feminine wiles that Joan had employed to lead him astray. Doloress Gray plays the counterpart to Rosalind Russell's vitriolic gossip. The original The Women boasted an all-female cast: the remake includes several male characters, played by the likes of MGM contractees Leslie Nielsen and Jeff Richards. Dick Shawn, Jim Backus and Harry James are also on hand, billed as "special guest stars." The satirical bite of The Women has been softened in The Opposite Sex, but musical fans should have a good time. Sammy Cahn, Nicholas Brodszky, Ralph Freed and George Stoll were among the songwriters; Collins, Allyson and Jeff Richards perform musical numbers in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This meticulous and unusually long cinemadaptation of Sloan Wilson's best-selling novel The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit stars Gregory Peck as an ex-army officer, pursuing a living as a TV writer in the postwar years. Hired by a major broadcasting network, Peck is assigned to write speeches for the network's president (Fredric March). Peck comes to realize that the president's success has come at the expense of personal happiness, and this leads Peck to ruminate on his own life. Extended flashbacks reveal that Peck had experienced a torrid wartime romance with Italian girl Marisa Pavan, a union that produced a child. Peck is torn between his responsibility to his illegitimate son and his current obligations towards his wife (Jennifer Jones), his children, and his employer. Among the many life-altering decisions made by Peck before the fade-out is his determination to seek out a job that will allow him to spend more time with his family, even if it means a severe cut in salary. The superb hand-picked supporting cast of The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit includes Ann Harding as March's wife, Keenan Wynn as the man who informs Peck that he'd fathered an Italian child, Henry Daniell as a detached executive, and an unbilled DeForrest Kelley as an army medic (who gets to say "He's dead, captain"!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Interrupted Melody is the inspirational filmed biography of world-renowned Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence. Eleanor Parker plays Ms. Farrell, while her vocal renditions, ranging from selections from Madame Butterfly to MGM's own Over the Rainbow, were dubbed by Eileen Farrell, who would be with the Met from 1960-1966. The story traces Marjorie's long, hard road to the top, her success on two continents, and her turbulent marriage to American doctor Thomas King. While touring South America, Lawrence is stricken with polio, which not only abruptly ends her career but briefly robs her of the will to live. The rest of the film is devoted to Ms. Lawrence's emergence from depression and her triumphant comeback. William Ludwig and Sonya Levien shared an Academy Award for their cinemadaptation of Marjorie Lawrence's autobiography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 20th Century-Fox Hour (later syndicated as The Hour of Stars) ran on CBS just shy of two years, from October 1955 through September 1957. An anthology program, the series typically featured readaptations of 20th Century-Fox feature films for a sixty-minute TV airslot. The 1955 production of Miracle on 34th Street - a reworking of George Seaton's 1948 blockbuster and Christmas perennial - was just such an example and became one of the first episodes of the series. The program makes its home video debut following recent appearances on The Fox Movie Channel. In this slightly condensed version of the Seaton story, Thomas Mitchell takes over the Edmund Gwenn role, portraying Kris Kringle, Teresa Wright plays Doris Walker, and Sandy Descher stars as her daughter, Susan Walker, filling the role originally made famous by Natalie Wood. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

According to some eyewitness reports, the feud between Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis was at its peak during the filming of Three Ring Circus. Other observers have noted that the boys behaved with thorough professionalism throughout the shoot. Whatever the case, the film offers a comparatively relaxed Martin and Lewis, wandering through a thinnish plot with amiable finesse. The boys play a couple of ex-GIs who use their discharge money to finance a trip to Florida, where Jerry Hotchkiss (Lewis) hopes to land a job as a circus clown. Pete Nelson (Martin) isn't quite as ambitious, though he decides to stick around when he meets gorgeous circus owner Jill Brent (Joanne Dru). As the plot rolls merrily on, Pete finds himself assisting temperamental aerialist Saadia (Zsa Zsa Gabor), while Jerry does his best (which is none too good) as the assistant to lion tamer Schlitz (Sig Ruman). When Puffo the Clown (Gene Sheldon) drinks himself into oblivion, Jerry takes Puffo's place, proving his worth by getting a crippled child to laugh. The songs are mostly forgettable, with the exception of the now-standard "It's a Great, Wide, Wonderful World." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's Paradise Revisited, MGM's The Last Time I Saw Paris is a star-studded soap opera, luxuriously lensed by director Richard Brooks. In his last film as an MGM contractee, Van Johnson plays reporter Charles Wills, who while covering the VE Day celebrations in Paris, meets and falls in love with the gorgeous Helen Ellsworth (Elizabeth Taylor). Soon afterward, Charles and Helen are married. Charles supports his wife with a low-paying wire service job, devoting his evenings to writing a novel. After numerous rejections, Charles is more than willing to give up writing and live off the revenue of a Texas oil well in which he'd invested. As he squanders his newfound riches on creature comforts, he loses his literary ambitions and, slowly but surely, the love and devotion of his wife. His self-destructive behavior is halted only by a devastating tragedy. Donna Reed costars as Charles sister-in-law Marion, who carries a torch for him throughout the picture, and Eva Gabor contributes a supporting role. Since lapsing into public domain in 1982, The Last Time I Saw Paris has become a cable-TV and video-store fixture, though print quality varies sharply. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gus (George Winslow) is the young son of divorced industrialist Dave Jennings (Richard Widmark). Unable to cope with Gus' mischievous streak, Jennings places the boy in a day-care center. Gus' teacher Lydia Marble (Joanne Dru) manages to curb the boy's prankishness, and along the way falls in love with Jennings. Enter the villainess of the piece: Jennings' ex-wife Joyce (Audrey Totter), who claims that the divorce is invalid and demands a huge sum from Jennings, lest she claim custody of Gus. In the end, it comes down to priorities: does Jennings value his son over his money, or vice versa? My Pal Gus is no Kramer vs. Kramer, but it does pass the time in an agreeable manner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide