Charles Drake Movies

This departure from the usual Mission:Impossible formula is a neat twist on the series' first-season episode "The Ransom." It all begins when IMF agent Jim Phelps is kidnapped by Syndicate boss Andrew Metzger (John Ireland). If his fellow agents ever want to see Phelps again, they must break into a Federal safety deposit box and steal an incriminating letter that would otherwise send Metzger to the Big House. Series regular Peter Graves (Phelps) also directed this episode. First telecast on December 2, 1972, "Kidnap" was written by Sam Roeca and James L. Henderson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Russ Meyer followed-up his delirious Beyond the Valley of the Dolls with this surprisingly straighforward drama, which offered little of Meyer's traditional tongue-in-cheek humor or remarkably proportioned women in favor of a serious message about the evils of censorship. A bookstore sells a copy of a notorious erotic novel, entitled The Seven Minutes, to a teenager who is later arrested for rape. A prosecutor on a crusade against pornography seizes upon this as an opportunity to have the book declared obscene, and the trial sparks a heated debate about the issue of pornography vs. free speech, as well as revealing a startling revelation about the novel's true author. Adapted from a novel by Irving Wallace, The Seven Minutes featured one of Meyer's more interesting casts, including veteran character actors John Carradine and Alexander D'Arcy, a post-Munsters Yvonne de Carlo, a pre-Magnum P.I. Tom Selleck, lounge comic Jackie Gayle, and Wolfman Jack as himself. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Hail, Hero! stars Michael Douglas in his screen debut as long-haired college student Carl Dixon. Reversing the usual procedure in late-1960s films, Dixon decides to quit school and enlist in the Army, even though he's already run afoul of the law as a Vietnam protestor. It is our hero's intention to use love, rather than bullets, to combat the Viet Cong. Needless to say, his idealism is no match for the harsher realities of war, but this doesn't stop him from endlessly spouting the sort of agit-prop rhetoric so beloved of filmmakers of the era. In addition to Michael Douglas, co-star Peter Strauss likewise makes his first film appearance in Hail, Hero! Dated in the extreme, the film is saved by the musical score by Gordon Lightfoot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Cheever's "misery in suburbia" short stories, brief and to the point, have always proven excellent TV fodder. Director Frank Perry's The Swimmer, adapted for the screen by Perry's wife Eleanor, is a rare, and for the most part successful, attempt at offering a Cheever story in feature-length form. Dressed only in swimming trunks throughout the film, Burt Lancaster plays a wealthy, middle-aged advertising man, embarked on a long and revelatory journey through suburban Connecticut. Lancaster slowly makes his way to his split-level home by travelling from house to house, and from swimming pool to swimming pool. At each stop, Lancaster comes face to face with an incident in his past. Informing Kim Hunter that he once harbored a secret love for her, Lancaster is mildly upset by Hunter's indifference. Elderly Cornelia Otis Skinner is incensed at Lancaster's intrusion in her backyard and orders him to leave. At the next home, Lancaster tries to seduce the nubile Janet Landgard, who'd once baby-sat for his daughters, but she runs away in horror. And so it goes: as each subsequent suburbanite peels off his self-protective veneer, Lancaster grows more and more disillusioned with what he thought was his ideal lifestyle. The more intensely painful episode is the confrontation between Lancaster and ex-mistress Janice Rule (this scene was directed, without credit, by Sydney Pollack). Thoroughly defeated, the all-but-naked Lancaster laboriously makes his way through the Connecticut woods in a blinding rainstorm, desperately seeking out his own home where he fully expects his "loving" wife and daughters to greet him. Not this time. Dismissed as too self-consciously "arty" at the time of its release, The Swimmer's reputation increased over the decades following its release thanks to constant late-night TV exposure. The film represents the first movie work of 22-year-old composer Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Money Jungle is an innovative mystery concerning some greedy oil companies in competition to secure off-shore drilling rights. Detective Blake Heller (John Ericson) is the hard drinking sleuth hired by the oil companies to try and keep the proceedings above board. He contends with a group that opposes the proposal and later finds there are elements against him in the very organization that hired him. Blake goes to local police lieutenant Dow Reeves (Nehemiah Persoff) when geologists start dropping like flies after being gunned down. Comedian Don Rickles stars in the straight role of crooked oilman Harry Darkwater in this offbeat detective story. Lola Albright croons two songs in her role as a gold-digging nightclub singer who turns out to be the ex-wife of one of the oil barons and owns lots of stock in the company. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The commanders of the Enterprise prematurely face the challenges of old age in this episode of the popular science-fiction series. While performing a routine survey of an unexplored planet, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and several other ships officers are unknowingly exposed to an unusual and potentially deadly form of radiation. This radiation accelerates the aging process and rapidly leads to physical and mental deterioration. Witnessing the command crew's weakened capabilities, the high-ranking Commodore Stocker -- initially on board merely as a passenger -- declares Kirk an unfit captain and assumes command of the Enterprise. Kirk, Spock, and the others, finding themselves increasing powerless and feeble, must quickly discover a cure for the illness, or else face an early death. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Kimble (David Janssen) uses the alias "Bill March" when he signs up as a deckhand on the Mexico-bound yacht skippered by Ralph Schuyler (Charles Bronson). The yacht's only passenger is Felice Greer (Anne Francis), who is heading toward a rendezvous with her embezzler husband Oliver (Charles Drake). What neither Kimble nor Felice realize is that Schuyler is an undercover cop, determined to put them both behind bars. But an engine-room fire radically alters the situation, placing Kimble on the horns of yet another "damned if he does, damned if he doesn't" dilemma. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This first episode of The Lucy Show's third season finds Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball) endeavoring to become closer with her teenaged daughter Chris (Candy Moore). In her efforts to "bond", Lucy joins Chris for a session at the local roller-skating rink. Unfortunately, once Lucy gets her skates on, it is impossible to get them off--and it's only a few hours away from a fancy formal dance with her current gentleman friend Walter Kendricks (Charles Drake). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this romantic comedy, a middle-aged postmistress from a small town goes to a post office convention in New York and promptly falls in love with a man who is engaged to another. His fiancee is a widow with a teenage son. The man really wants a family, but he also really wants the postmistress.Trouble ensues while he makes up his mind. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This third film version of the lachrymose Fannie Hurst novel Back Street stars Susan Hayward as Rae Smith the role previously essayed by Irene Dunne (in 1932) and Margaret Sullavan (in 1941). In both earlier films, Rae Smith sacrifices 28 years of her life to her married lover, who can never get a divorce and who compels Rae to squirrel herself away in a shabby back-street apartment. In contrast, Susan Hayward's Rae Smith is a fiercely independent fashion designer, whose fidelity to the very married John Gavin doesn't retard her livelihood in the least. Vera Miles makes a meal of her supporting role as Gavin's shrewish, alcoholic wife. Though cinematographer Stanley Cortez does his utmost, he can't completely hide the fact that Hayward is at least ten years older than her costars, making her seem more of a doting aunt than the "other woman" (the film might have been more effective had Hayward and Miles switched roles). Its plot inconsistencies and logic lapses notwithstanding, Back Street proved to be another hit for producer Ross Hunter. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Any movie with a title like Petticoat Pirates would be hard to dislike--and equally hard to believe. Anticipating the "feminist" films of the 1970s, the plot concerns a group of female officers in the British Navy. Angered by the sexism inherent in the Admiralty, the uniformed ladies stage a mutiny, taking a timorous male stoker as a sort of hostage. Not terribly credible to begin with, the film ultimately veers off into fantasy. Petticoat Pirates is both innocuous and inconsequential; you may have seen it, but chances are you don't remember it. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though the fact was played down by the Universal-International publicity department, Step Down to Terror (aka The Silent Stranger) is a remake of the 1943 Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece Shadow of a Doubt. Charles Drake plays Johnny Williams, a psychotic serial killer who returns to his hometown to visit his mother (Josephine Hutchinson) and widowed sister-in-law Helen (Colleen Miller), both of whom are ignorant of his criminal past. Johnny hopes to settle down and start life anew, but Helen, her suspicions aroused by visiting detective Mike Randall (Rod Taylor), discovers the truth about her beloved brother-in-law. Failing to talk Helen out of turning him in, Johnny methodically plots her murder. Will Randall show up in the proverbial nick of time? Shadow of a Doubt was remade again, under its original title, as a 1991 TV movie. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi