Joan Elan Movies
- 1962
Richard Connell's venerable suspense yarn "The Most Dangerous Game" was the obvious inspiration for this nail-biting episode. Summoned to Oregon to help lumberwoman Vanessa Stuart (Joan Elan) fend off her enemies, Paladin (Richard Boone) arrives to discover that he has been lured into a trap. Debauched Russian monarch Prince Radachev (Leonard Kinskey), a hunting aficionado, has grown bored with merely tracking and killing animals and birds. Now Radachev wants to hunt down a human quarry--and Paladin fits the bill perfectly! The climactic chase sequence was filmed on location in Bend, Oregon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Bret (James Garner) is hired by pretty Connie Coleman to protect her ranch's cattle drive to Abilene. While our hero has his hands full with Indians and such, poor Connie sells her herd for several thousand dollars--in counterfeit money. None too pleased that all his work is for naught, Bret sets about to catch the counterfeiter and make him fork over some genuine greenbacks. And yes, that timid, somewhat chubby youngster playing Connie's brother is indeed a 23-year-old Robert Redford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Forced to bail out over the Sahara desert, WW2 flyer Harold Wilenski (Wesley Lau) is eventually taken to a field hospital to recuperate from a bad case of desert sunstroke. As he lies in his hospital bed, his face swathed in bandages, Wilenski suddenly begins taking on the mannerisms of ancient Egyptian prince, whose tomb has never been found. An Egyptologist named Brimley (Luis Van Rooten) confirms that there is indeed something amiss about Wilenski--but the extent of the "possession" is not revealed until the startling finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
George Baxter (Jack Raine), a courier for the South African Diamond Company, arrives at his firm's California office to find the place in a state of disarray, with a strange girl (Joanna Moore) standing the middle of the room. Baxter concludes that the place has been robbed, but before he can say or do anything the girl has ducked into the nearby office of Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), claiming to be a typist for a temp agency. Later on, Baxter is found murdered, and a man named Duane Jefferson (Alan Marshall) is charged. Perry wants to defend Jefferson, but the man refuses to identity the woman who could prove his innocence (and guess who that woman is?) Based on a 1956 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner, this episode offers a genuinely shocking twist just before the climax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
In dire need of quick money to repay a debt, Bret (James Garner) agrees to act as guide when three visiting Britishers, all members of the Belcastle family, decide to go on a bear-hunting expedition. Unfortunately, the little party is ambushed by bandits and left to die in the desert. Though Bret thinks that the best course of action would be to chase after the outlaws, the Belcastles do not agree--leading to some very unforseen complications. (Fan alert: this is James Garner's favorite Maverick episode). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
James Garner stars as WWII hero Major William Darby in this characteristically gusty William Wellman combat film. Darby organizes a highly-trained group of rangers, to be deployed in behind-the-lines activities in Italy and Northern Africa. The first portion of the film details the training, with time out for a few comic and romantic interludes; the second part shows Darby's Rangers in full, ferocious action. In addition to Garner, Warner Bros. used Darby's Rangers to spotlight another of its TV stars, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes; Bill Wellman Jr. also shows up in the supporting role of Eli Clatworthy. The film was adapted from the book by Major James Altieri. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Etchika Choureau, (more)
- 1955
Director Robert Z. Leonard brought his 31-year association with MGM to a rousing close with The King's Thief. Set in England during the reign of Charles II (drolly portrayed by George Sanders), the film stars Edmund Purdom as Michael Dermott, who sets about to steal the crown jewels on behalf of his king. The current possessor of the gems is the wicked duke of Brampton, played with relish by a cast-against-type David Niven. Ann Blyth is a decorative heroine, while one of Michael Dermott's cohorts is played by a young, muscular Roger Moore. The plot of The King's Thief, purportedly based on fact, is merely an excuse for the nonstop swashbuckling of star Edmund Purdom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, (more)
- 1953
Because of its misleadingly sensual title and the participation of screenwriter/director F. Hugh Herbert (author of the once-notorious "The Moon is Blue"), Girls of Pleasure Island was ballyhooed in 1953 as the ultimate in sex and sin. In truth, the film is an innocent, inconsequential WW II comedy, designed to showcase Paramount's crop of "new faces." Leo Genn plays Roger Halyard, a stiff-upper-lip British gentleman who lives on a South Pacific Island with his three nubile, naïve daughters, Violet (Joan Elan), Hester (Audrey Dalton) and Gloria (Dorothy Bromiley). Hoping to shelter the girls from the lascivious advances of the opposite sex, Halyard is thwarted when 1500 Marines arrive to transform the island into an aircraft landing base. Despite the best efforts of Halyard, his housekeeper Thelma (Elsa Lanchester),and marine colonel Reade (Phil Ober), romance blossoms between the three girls and a trio of handsome leathernecks (one of whom is a young Gene Barry). Top billing in Girls of Pleasure of Island is bestowed upon Don Taylor as Lieutenant Gilmartin, whose warm relationship with Hester Halyard (Dalton) carries most of the plotline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Taylor, Leo Genn, (more)
In this farce, an enigmatic writer begins using the pen-name Lom, a popular writer believed dead. The dead writer "returns" to peruse his newest book, which he didn't write. He soon meets the woman who is using his name and after several engaging misdirections, the two fall in love and marry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
