Gene Evans Movies

Alfred Hitchcock's long-running TV suspense anthology moved from NBC to CBS for its eighth season on the air, and in the process expanded from 30 to 60 minutes, necessitating a change in title from Alfred Hitchcock Presents to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Gig Young guest stars in the first of these "hours" as Duke Marsden, businessman by day, high-rolling gambler by night. Although his wife, Alice (Martha Hyer), has threatened to leave him if he doesn't give up poker, Duke enters into a high-stakes game in order to save his younger brother, Chuck (Robert Redford), from catching the gambling bug himself. Unfortunately, Duke's main opponent in the big game is a former gangster who is a notoriously sore loser. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Gordon M. Douglas specializes in comedy and action films, and here he puts the two genres together for a generally successful, well-acted chase drama. Two partners, Jim (Clint Walker) and Shawn (Roger Moore) have had the good fortune to find a gold fortune, but just after their strike, they end up in serious trouble. Word of their newfound status gets out to the wrong people, and before they have any time to cash in their chips and retire, they are running like the wind from a variety of money-grubbing marauders whose only goal in life is to return Jim and Shawn to their original impoverished state. As the chase heads toward a climactic moment, everything builds up to a convenient, if unconvincing conclusion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In the tenth episode of Walt Disney's 17-part miniseries Tales of Texas John Slaughter, John (Tom Tryon) has settled into his new cattle ranch in Tombstone with the Howell family -- father David (Regis Toomey), mother Rachel (Nora Marlowe), and high-spirited daughter Viola (Betty Lynn) -- as his friends and neighbors. Receiving word that his children Willie (Brian Corcoran) and Addy (Patricia Gorman) will soon be joining him, John is delighted. But delight turns to disappointement when the kids, who haven't seen John in years, regard him as a stranger and their new home as hostile territory. Making matters worse, outlaw Loco Crispin (Gene Evans) is cutting a swath of terror throughout Arizona. "Desperado From Tombstone" originally aired as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rear Admiral Matt Sherman (Cary Grant) visits the submarine Sea Tiger on the morning of its decommissioning and reminisces about his time as the first commander of the boat, in 1941. Three days after Pearl Harbor, the sub is damaged during an enemy air raid in the Philippines; rather than abandoning her, Sherman and his chiefs refloat the boat. He's forced to accept the services of Lt. (jg) Nick Holden (Tony Curtis), who has no sea experience. Sherman appoints Holden -- a born conniver, deal-maker, and scrounger (his motto: "In confusion, there is profit") -- as supply officer, and through a series of burglaries and petty thefts he gets the Sea Tiger seaworthy again. Up to this point, the movie is an increasingly amusing service comedy, akin to the lighter moments of Mr. Roberts, running on Grant's wry exasperation and Curtis's cool arrogance, coupled with Arthur O'Connell's periodic sardonic yet optimistic jabs at their situation and Gavin MacLeod's fidgety nervousness. The Sea Tiger puts to sea ahead of the Japanese with a quintet of stranded army nurses aboard. The film shifts to a new level of humor as the officers and crew try to cope with living in close quarters with five attractive women in their midst. Grant gives a very witty performance as a man who is both exasperated by the situation he is in, having to adjust his masculinity to keep it from clashing with the feminine sensibilities of his guests, and also trying to control the mating urges of his men, starting with Holden, who can't stay away from Lt. Duran (Dina Merrill). Complicating matters more is Grant's awareness that the Sea Tiger is a "virgin" -- she has never engaged the enemy, but when they finally do, the accident-prone Lt. Crandall (Joan O'Brien) causes their torpedo to miss a tanker and sink a truck (probably the funniest sight gag in the movie). The boat also gets an accidental coat of pink paint when their supply of red and white runs low, and ends up carrying several Filipino families -- including two pregnant women. Since neither the Japanese nor the Americans officially has a pink submarine, the Sea Tiger ends uphunted by both sides and come under attack by an American destroyer. That's where the women's presence becomes a godsend. The movie ends 18 years later, with Holden a serious career navy man and responsible father, married to Duran, and Grant married to Crandall, who is as accident prone as ever. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

A perennial of the "Shock Theatre" TV circuit of the 1950s, The British The Giant Behemoth owes a great deal to the earlier American sci-fier The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. A Cornish fisherman is found covered with what looks like radiation burns. Before he dies, the fisherman utters the word "behemoth," citing a monster alluded to in the Bible. It isn't long before England is besieged by a dinosaur-like monstrosity, evidently the by-product of atomic fallout. Only a high-powered torpedo stands between the Giant Behemoth and the helpless British citizenry. The film's stop-motion animation is pretty good, considering the tight budget; all the title character lacks is the distinctive personality of a King Kong, Godzilla or Gorgo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three juvenile-delinquents launch a reign of terror upon those who witnessed a deadly auto accident in this exploitation drama. The kids got into trouble while joy-riding down a California road in a stolen car. For malicious fun, they deliberately sideswipe a car and then accidentally hit another car, causing all the passengers therein to die. The first couple they hit survives, and now, to keep the two from testifying, the punks begin terrorizing them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Brooding Gregory Peck arrives in a small western town to witness the hanging of the men whom he holds responsible for the murder of his wife (they've been arrested for an unrelated crime). Through the help of a duplicitous executioner, the gang escapes--taking Kathleen Gallant as hostage. The vengeful Peck hunts the fugitives down and kills them in cold blood. He is forced to ask himself if he's any better than the criminals when he discovers that the fugitives, though justly convicted of murder, had nothing to do with his wife's death. The Bravados is as grim and compelling as the earlier Henry King/Gregory Peck western The Gunfighter. And yes, that's "Curly" Joe DeRita, of Three Stooges fame, in the role of the menacing hangman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his second solo starring film after breaking with Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis plays cartoonist George Baker's classic GI misfit The Sad Sack. Lewis' constitutional inability to do anything right brings him under the scrutiny of gorgeous Army psychiatrist Phyllis Kirk. She discovers that Lewis possesses a photographic memory, making him valuable enough to be transferred to a top secret assignment in Morocco. Assigned along with buddies David Wayne and Joe Mantell to guard a new weapon, Lewis deviates from his task when he falls in love with sexy nightclub performer Lilliane Montevecchi. She spurns him, so the heartbroken Lewis deserts the army and joins the Foreign Legion. When enemy spy Peter Lorre discovers that Lewis has memorized the assembly instructions for the secret weapon, he and his minions kidnap Lewis, Wayne and Mantell. With the help of Montevecchi, Lewis thwarts the baddies and becomes a hero--but within minutes, he's fouled up again, so it's back to permanent KP duty. Jerry Lewis still needed a straight-man foil at the time of The Sad Sack so Paramount provided him with David Wayne and Joe Mantell. By the time Geisha Boy rolled around in 1958, Lewis was finally able to carry a picture by himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

If Jet Pilot seems hopelessly out of date today, imagine how filmgoers in 1957 reacted when this relic from 1949 was taken off the shelf. Many, many years in the making due to the maniacal tinkering by producer Howard Hughes (who reportedly lost $4 million on it - a massive sum back then), the film was deemed unreleasable upon completion; only when Universal-International took over distribution of a handful of RKO Radio productions did it finally see the light of day. John Wayne stars as an air force colonel stationed in an Alaskan outpost only 40 miles or so from the Soviet Union. Wayne is put in charge of Russian jet pilot Janet Leigh, who claims that she wants to defect. Actually, Leigh is a Communist spy, but thanks to Wayne's affectionate attentions she is won over to the side of Democracy. Thus it is that Leigh rescues the Duke when he is kidnapped and nearly brainwashed by her Commie comrades. Jet Pilot was eventually bought back from U-I by Hughes for his personal collection; not only did he buy into the propagandistic plotline, but he was also enthralled by the aerial scenes, some of which were staged by legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager. The 1949 production date for a number of sequences explains not only why so many of the actors look young for 1957, but the existence of several supporting cast members who had died in the interim (such as Jack Overman and Richard Rober). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Six convicts plan a prison break and are successful, though their ringleader (William Bendix) is injured in the attempt. He promises to share the fortune in gold he has stowed away if they help him get to a doctor. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location at Montana's Glacier National Park, Cattle Queen of Montana makes excellent use of the diverse talents of Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan. Stanwyck is cast as Sierra Nevada Jones, who hopes to stake her claim in the cattle business despite opposition from hostile land barons. She is helped along by government agent Farrell, even though he's officially on hand to find out who's been inciting the local Indian tribes into attacking the whites. Lance Fuller delivers a well-balanced performance as Colorados, a college-educated Indian chief who hopes to bring peace to the land. Long a fixture of TV's Late Late Shows, Cattle Queen of Montana was briefly reissued theatrically when Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Mickey Spillane, The Long Wait stars Anthony Quinn as an amnesiac who may or may not have committed a murder. Picking up the pieces of his life, Quinn wanders into a hotbed of small-town intrigue and corruption. Characters essentially to the action are highly respectable bank president Charles Coburn, gangster Gene Evans, and silky femme fatale Peggie Castle. The climax, described by historian William K. Everson as "a typical Spillane head-on collision of sex and violence", finds the trussed-up Quinn and Castle struggling to kiss each other while being goaded on by sadistic gunsel William Conrad. As for the story's surprise outcome. . .well, some things are better seen than said. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide