James Nusser Movies
John Wayne plays a lawman who has to deal with the problems of fatherhood in a big way in Cahill: United States Marshall. Wayne is J.D. Cahill, whose singular desire to track down law breakers strains his relationship with his two teenage sons --17-year-old Danny (Gary Grimes) and 12-year-old Billy Joe (Clay O'Brien). The film begins as Cahill is hot on the trail of a gang of outlaws. After the big showdown, he returns to town to discover that the local bank has been robbed. The sheriff and the deputy have been killed, and four bank robbers are imprisoned in the jail. He is stunned when he finds out that one of the robbers in jail is Cahill's son Danny. It seems that during Cahill's absence from home, his two sons have been enticed into a criminal life by nefarious outlaw Abe Fraser (George Kennedy). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Gary Grimes, (more)
- 1972
In this episode from the first season of the long-running television series The Waltons, 16-year-old John-Boy (Richard Thomas) is deemed old enough to go hunting and he volunteers to join a turkey shoot. But John-Boy hates the idea of killing animals, and when a prize bird is in his rifle's sight, he finds that he can't pull the trigger. John-Boy is worried that his father (Ralph Waite) will think he's a coward, but soon John-Boy is given another opportunity to prove his bravery. Meanwhile, Mary-Ellen (Judy Norton-Taylor) has been saving her money to buy a baseball glove, but when G.W. Haines (David Doremus), a boy that she likes, begins spending his time with a pretty girl, Mary-Ellen wonders if she should buy a nice dress instead in hopes of winning back G.W.'s attentions. The Waltons: The Hunt first aired on October 5, 1972. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- PG
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, (more)
- 1964
Still a few steps ahead of the law, Kimble (David Janssen) makes it to a railroad yard and hops a freight car already occupied by Neil Pinkerton (Paul Richards) and Matt Mooney (Lou Antonio). It turns out that Kimble's travelling companions are a pair of convicts who have escaped in a mass prison breakout. Forced to join Pinkerton and Mooney as they make their getaway, Kimble ends up in an isolated house occupied by Mona Ross (Shirley Knight) and her mother (Virginia Gregg). Now the fugitive faces a tricky problem: He must pretend to hold the terrified Mona captive while devising a strategy to save her life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
In this western, a sheriff attempts to exact his revenge against the desperadoes who cost him his job. The former lawman successfully gets rid of the bad hombres and clears his name. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
While on a fishing trip, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and Paul Drake (William Hopper) reel in a most unusual "catch": a beautiful girl named Sally Fenner (Peggy Castle), who had jumped into the ocean while fleeing a pack of guard dogs on the island estate of George Alder (David Lewis). Naturally, Alder turns up murdered, and Sally is charged with the crime. Assuming Sally's defense in court, Perry finds that there is no shortage of people who would liked to have seen Alder dead--including someone who was very, very close to him. This episode is based on a 1950 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner, and would be refilmed in 1965 as "he Case of the Impetuous Imp". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Fos Capper (Andrew Duggan) wants to marry Flora Stancil (Peggy Webber), but her brutish brother Ben (Robert F. Simon) refuses to give permission: after all, if Flora leaves home, who could Ben find to do all his chores for free? So determined is Ben to break up his sister's romance that he tries to provoke Capper into a gunfight. Knowing Ben's reputation as a dirty fighter, Matt (James Arness) tries to intervene, but things take a surprising turn just before fadeout time. This episode is based on the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of June 17, 1956. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Soft-hearted Kitty (Amanda Blake) is persuaded to hide handsome Steve Esler (Brett Halsey) from a lynch mob comprised of cattlemen. Steve insists he has been rustling cattle merely to avenge his father, who years earlier was brutally beaten by a trail crew. Matt (James Arness) is as sympathetic as Kitty towards Steve. But crusty old Doc suspects that the baby-faced fugitive is manipulating everyone's feelings--and that he is nowhere near the innocent lamb he makes out to be. This episode is based on the Gunsmoke radio broadcast of September 27, 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
Future action-film superstar Charles Bronson is cast against type as Crego, a coward who has built up a reputation as a fast gun by only challenging kids and oldsters who aren't quite as quick on the trigger. Goading his victims into slapping leather, Crego kills every one of them--and Matt (James Arness) can do nothing, since Crego is always able to claim self defense. Somehow, Matt must expose Crego as a yellow-belly without breaking (or even bending) the law himself. Featured in the cast as a townsman is James Nusser, long before he became established in the recurring Gunsmoke role of town drunk Louie Pheeters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
A truly kinky holdup man is the target of police detectives Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander). The perpetrator follows the same MO on each occasion: after committing a robbery, he handcuffs his victim to the nearest lampost, car bumper, drainpipe, barber pole, or what have you. Inasmuch as they're the only ones legally permitted to use handcuffs, the two detectives are determined to bring the lock-happy felon to justice. This episode was later adapted as short story in a 1957 paperback "Dragnet" anthology aimed at the school book-club trade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The original radio version of Gunsmoke was in its third year on the air when the TV version made its CBS network bow on September 10, 1955. Replacing radio's William Conrad as Matt Dillon was tall-in-the-saddle James Arness, whose chief claim to fame at that time was his portrayal of the title role in the 1951 sci-fi thriller The Thing. Arness was a protégé of film superstar John Wayne, who in a good-luck gesture appeared on camera at the beginning of the opening episode, "Matt Gets It"--which like virtually all of the episodes seen during Season One was adapted from one of the original radio scripts. No sooner had this first episode gotten under way that Gunsmoke staked out its claim as TV's first "adult" western with a startling sequence in which hero Matt Dillon was shot down and nearly killed by the heavy of the piece! During its earliest episodes, the series boasts a different opening sequence than the familiar one in which Matt Dillon and an unknown assailant square off for a showdown in Dodge City's deserted Main Street. These initial episodes find Matt philosophically wandering around the town's cemetery "Boot Hill", as he introduces the story at hand via offscreen narration. Also, Milburn Stone's Doc Adams is younger and less cantankerous than he'd been in later years, while Amanda Blake's Miss Kitty is flashier and more flirtatious with Matt Dillon (Their relationship would always remain ambiguous, though it was clear from the "body language" of the two characters in the first season that they might have had something going on in the off-hours). Only deputy Chester, played by Dennis Weaver, is fully formed from the outset, though Chester's famous limp is a bit inconsistent--and, in at least one episode, he doesn't limp at all! Evidently in hopes of luring viewers away from NBC's high-rated The George Gobel Show, the producers of Gunsmoke stuffed the series' first season with no fewer than 39 first-run episodes,which were spread out over a nine-month period with but a handful of reruns. Appearing in several of these episodes are a number of actors who'd worked on the radio Gunsmoke, including John Dehner, Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, Jeanne Bates and Lawrence Dobkin; and in the episode "The Pest Hole", Howard McNear, "Doc Adams" in the radio version, is seen as hotel keeper Mr. Bradley. Also seen on Gunsmoke's maiden season are such stars in the making as Charles Bronson, Claude Akins, William Hopper, Sebastian Cabot and DeForest Kelley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Arness, Milburn Stone, (more)
- 1953
Filmmaker Hugo Haas unfolds his usual cautionary "old man-young woman" story in One Girl's Confession. Perennial Haas leading lady Cleo Moore stars as Mary Adams, whose first step on the road to ruin is a $25,000 robbery. Mary hides the money, then confesses to the crime, secure in the belief that she can dig up the loot upon her release from prison. A few years later, Mary is placed on probation, whereupon she takes a waitressing job at the seaside eatery run by Dragomie Damitrof (Haas). A chronic gambler, Damitrof is on the verge of losing his café when Mary offers to loan him money. When Damitrof begins spending cash like a sailor, Mary is convinced that he's located her hidden loot, whereupon she hits him on the noggin and leaves him for dead. Deciding that the money is too much trouble, Mary donates the rest of the loot to an orphanage and confesses to Damitrof's murder. But that's not the end of the story .... ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cleo Moore, Hugo Haas, (more)
