Mary Fickett Movies

Pueblo is a 2-hour videotaped special, originally telecast March 29, 1973 on ABC Theatre. Hal Holbrook stars as commander Lloyd M. Bucher, who in January of 1968 was forced to surrender the USS Pueblo to North Korea. The drama is staged in an impressionistic manner, with dramatized transcripts from Bucher's subsequent Naval Review Board testimony flashing back to isolated moments of terror and torment during the Pueblo crew's 11-month sojourn in a North Korean prison camp. Despite network restrictions of the era, Pueblo is refreshingly frank, right down to the first-ever TV display of a familiar obscene gesture (which the American prisoners explain away to their captors as a "salute"!) Written by Stanley R. Greenberg, Pueblo was later adapted to a stage play, starring Shepperd Strudwick as Bucher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mary Fickett is cast as Erin O'Donnell, an Irish girl raised by the Sioux in Paiutes. Falling in love with Erin, Hoss Cartwright does his best to shield her from the bigotry of the townspeople. But Erin regards Hoss' efforts as futile, citing the tribal prophecy that she is "the wolf child, born to fight and die for the Indian.". Given the mortality rate of the Cartwright boys' sweethearts, it isn't hard to predict the outcome of this melancholy tale. Written by Sandy Summerhays, "Erin" was originally telecast on January 26, 1969, then rebroadcast by NBC on June 4, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) joins forces with Willard Thornton (Wendell Corey), newly appointed Special Crime Commissioner of Chicago, to ferret out the brains behind a huge criminal combine. What Ness doesn't know (but the audience does) is that Thornton himself is a member of the combine, in cahoots with crooked lawyer Barney Lubin (a pre-All in the Family Carroll O'Connor). Thornton and Lubin ultimately precipitate their own downfall when they try to rub out fellow hoodlum "Country Boy" Parrish (Albert Salmi)--who, after escaping with his life from the traditional "one-way ride", finds himself in even greater danger at the hands of lovelorn hash-house waitress Emmy Sarver (Mary Fickett). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bing Crosby scores in a rare unsympathetic role in the MGM domestic drama Man on Fire. Crosby plays well-to-do businessman Earl Carleton, recently divorced from his wife Gwen (Mary Fickett). Bitter over the breakeup, Carleton doggedly maintains custody of his son Ted (Malcolm Broderick), refusing his ex-wife visitation rights and even kidnapping the boy when the courts rule against him. As Gwen's new husband Bryan Seward (Richard Eastham) sagely observes, however, Carleton is basically a nice guy who is trying in vain to convince himself that he's an unforgiving louse. It takes the combined efforts of young Ted, Carleton's new lady friend Nina (Inger Stevens, in her film debut) and sensitive Judge Randolph (Anne Seymour) to bring out Carleton's best side. Though Bing Crosby does no singing in Man on Fire, the title tune is perfomed over the main credits by the Ames Brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide