Stanley Farrar Movies

Arthur Godfrey, at one time the most popular (and powerful) personality on radio and TV, makes a guest appearance in this episode. Hoping to persuade Godfrey to appear in the Riverboat musical being staged by the Danfield Little Theater, Lucy (Lucille Ball) is willing to go to great and near-impossible lengths to achieve her goal. She is even willing to travel all the way to Godfrey's home in Virginia--and then the fun (?) begins. The original songs heard in this episode were written by Max Showalter), who appears as Lucy's former beau Vinnie Meyers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ubiquitous Untouchables guest star Nehemiah Persoff makes his final appearance as criminal mastermind Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik. Determined to drive Guzik out of the bootlegging business, Elliot Ness secretly begins supplying Jake's rivals with illegal booze. Ness hopes this heightened competition will force Guzik to import a huge new shipment of liquor, thereby bringing the crook out in the open so the Feds can close in. Knowing that Ness is watching every move he makes, Guzik enters into an unholy alliance with an old enemy, "Bugs" Moran, to ship in the liquor undetected. Problem is, Moran still holds Guzik partly responsible for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre which wiped out Bug's gang--and worse, so does a vengeful young punk whose thirst for vengeance will bring about practically everyone's downfall. Appearing as Bugs Moran in this episode is Harry Morgan (Dragnet, M*A*S*H, succeeding such previous Morans as Lloyd Nolan and Robert J. Wilke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Once again, Opie has to contend with a young bully. This time, it's Steve Quincy (Kim Tyler), a new kid in town who has been taunting and coercing the other kids into such anti-social activities as breaking windows and stealing apples. Opie would like to clean Steve's clock, but is worried that he'll make his Sheriff father look bad if he is caught fighting in public. Best bit: Barney's overconfident demonstration of his "steel-like" stomach muscles. Watch for Richard Keith, formerly "Little Ricky" on I Love Lucy, as one of Opie's pals. Written by Harvey Bullock, "One-Punch Opie" was first seen on December 31, 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Andy, Opie and Barney haven't the heart to tell Aunt Bee that her freshly preserved pickles taste like kerosene. Rather than hurt Bee's feelings, the boys surreptitiously replace her pickles with the store-bought variety, all the while praising Bee for her "magic touch" in the kitchen. Their well-meaning plan backfires when Bee decides to enter her pickles in a blue-ribbon competition. First telecast on December 18, 1961, "The Pickle Story" was written by Harvey Bullock. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In another of scriptwriter Marion Hargrove's "westernizations" of classic literary material, this episode is based on 18th century British playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan's drawing-room comedy "The Rivals". In the original 1775 play, two young men, Jack Absolute and Ensign Beverly, exchange identities so that the wealthier Jack can win the heart of heroine Lydia Languish, who would otherwise reject him because of his wealth. In the Maverick version, Bret Maverick (James Garner is the "Beverly" counterpart, trading places with British playboy Jack Vandergelt (played by future Maverick costar Roger Moore), who pines for the beautiful Lydia Linley (Pat Crowley). The supporting cast includes Neil Hamilton (Batman's "Commissioner Gordon") as Jack's irascible father, who shows up at precisely the wrong time; Barbara Jo Allen (aka "Vera Vague" of radio fame) as language-mangling Mrs. Mallaver, the Maverick equivalent of the original play's imperishable Mrs. Malaprop; and Dan Tobin as Mrs. Mallaver's would-be suitor Lucius Benson ("Lucius O'Trigger" in the Sheridan play). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While enjoying a leisurely ocean cruise in the company of secretary Della (Barbara Hale), Perry (Raymond Burr) is approached by passenger Anna Houser (Lurene Tuttle), who is worried about the wellbeing of her husband Carl (Theodore Newton). Not long afterward, Carl is seen jumping off the ship, an apparent suicide--but when the body is recovered, it turns out that he was shot. Accused of murder, Anna puts her fate in the hands of Perry, who in the course of piecing things together unearths the fact that Carl had once accepted a huge bribe while serving on a jury. And how does that mysterious wheelchair-bound passenger, whose face is completely wrapped in bandages, figure into the story? This episode is based on a 1938 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A mayoral candidate is booted out of town after he is gulled into a gunfight and kills his rival. This western chronicles his adventures as an outlaw. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Ginger Rogers ended her 23-year association with RKO Radio with the indifferent musical comedy western The First Travelling Saleslady. Ginger and Broadway favorite Carol Channing (whose only starring film this was) play a pair of corset salespersons who head westward in 1897 to hawk their wares. Finding a limited market for corsets, the ladies switch to selling barbed wire, which rests not at all well with cattle baron James Arness. Rescuing Ginger and Carol from Arness' hired guns are horseless-carriage inventor Barry Nelson and callow young cowpoke Clint Eastwood. Whenever asked about First Travelling Saleslady in later years, Carol Channing would blithely refer to it as "the picture that killed RKO"; she wasn't too far wrong in this assessment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Betty Grable's final film was a remake of the 1934 Bing Crosby-Miriam Hopkins musicomedy She Loves Me Not, which in turn was based on a play by Howard Lindsay. Betty and Sheree North star as a couple of striptease "artistes" who have the bad luck to witness a murder. Hoping to evade the killer, the girls hide out in a small college town, where they immediately win the hearts of the male frat brothers. One of these is overaged undergrad Robert Cummings, who falls for Betty, while Sheree settles for not-terribly-bright Orson Bean. A subplot concerns the unending get-rich-quick schemes of college president Charles Coburn. Before the story can be resolved, both Betty and Sheree are placed under hypnosis, with hilarious results. It could not have rested well with Betty Grable that Sheree North stole the show in How to Be Very, Very Popular--especially with her energetic rendition of "Shake, Rattle and Roll"--but Betty was on the verge of retiring anyway, so what the heck? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like so many other films that were once considered "lewd" and "scandalous", The French Line seems as harmless as Pollyanna when seen today. Essentially a remake of The Richest Girl in the World, the film stars Jane Russell as Mary Carson, an incredibly wealthy Texas oil heiress. Lucky in investments but unlucky in love, poor Mary can never keep a fiance: either they're fortune-hunters or they don't want to marry anyone so rich and powerful. Thus, while on an ocean voyage to France, Mary poses as the model of dress designer Annie Farrell (Mary McCarthy), hoping to attract a man who is interested in her for herself, and not her millions. That man turns out to be dashing stage star Pierre (Gilbert Roland), but there's many comic complications and misunderstandings before the happy ending. What shocked the censors in 1954 was Jane Russell's sizzling musical number "Lookin' for Trouble", in which she performed an uninhibited bump-and-grind while wearing nothing more than a seven-ounce glorified bikini. While Ms. Russell herself was offended by her skimpy costume, she saw nothing wrong with the dance itself, pointing out that she intended it as a parody of a "burleycue" number. The professional blue-noses disagreed, however: the film was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency and denied a Production Code Seal. Eventually, producer Howard Hughes got the Seal--along with a million dollars' worth of free publicity, which is what he intended all along. Filmed in 3D, The French Line is the film that was ballyhooed with the classically tasteless ad campaign "J.R. in 3D--It'll knock both your eyes out!" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of several low-budget mellers directed by scriptwriter Maxwell Shane, Fear in the Night was based on the short story Nightmare by William Irish (pseudonym for Cornell Woolrich). In his first starring role, DeForest Kelley plays Vince Grayson, a young man who has a terrible nightmare wherein he sees himself killing someone. When he awakens, Vince finds a couple of pieces of evidence indicating that his dream was no dream. Detective Cliff Herlihy (Paul Kelly) doesn't believe that Vince has killed anyone, but agrees to investigate. While taking shelter from a storm in a remote mansion, the detective and the young man stumble upon a mirrored room -- just like the one in Vince's dream. The frenzied Vince is nearly driven to suicide, but Detective Herlihy deduces that his friend's nightmare was the handiwork of Lewis Belnap (Robert Emmett Keane), the mansion's owner, who is a dabbler in hypnosis. Fear in the Night was remade in 1956 as Nightmare, with Kevin McCarthy and Edward G. Robinson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide