Joe Flynn Movies

A round robin of betrayal and murder takes up most of the running time in this episode. First off, Elise Taylor (Diana Van Der Vlis) falls in love with Bish Darby (James Best), who is married to a woman named Jackie (Madeleine Sherwood), who in turn makes arrangements for Bish to die and for Elise to be blamed. But someone beats Jackie to the punch -- namely, the husband of another woman with whom Bish is fooling around. Ultimately, Elise is punished for her indiscretion...but not in the way that Jackie had expected. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This one-hour, police-story melodrama does not focus on the two-legged officers commonly found chasing the bad guys, but a four-legged K-9 corps German Shepherd named "Wolf" (played by Rocco), whose training forms a large part of the story. Wolf is put through his paces so that when the time comes, he can join up with his bosses and head out to capture some nasty arsonists, intent on torching buildings to collect insurance money. Given that Wolf's fans are likely to be the younger set, any ingrained clichés and lines of uninspired dialogue will not be a great problem. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

It's late Thursday night at the local paper and a savvy city editor, a world-weary but upright writer, and a beleagured copy boy prepare to put the next day's paper to bed. Suddenly two stories come over the wire. In the first, a young girl has gotten lost in the city's storm drains, and her life is endangered when a terrible storm erupts and the sewers begin to fill with runoff. In the second, the grandson of the writer is among a team of missing Air Force pilots who were attempting to set a record flying from Hawaii to Washington, DC. This suspenseful, newsroom drama chronicles the ways in which these situations affect the workers as they try to get the paper out on time. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hypochondriac Walter Bedecker (David Wayne) would do anything to feel better -- including making a deal with the Devil. When His Satanic Majesty makes an appearance in the form of the jovial Mr. Cadwallader (Thomas Gomez), Walter enters into a contract whereby he will be given perfect health and immortality. Unfortunately, Walter soon discovers that eternal life isn't all it's cracked up to be, while his wife Ethel suffers spectacularly from Walter's efforts to "spice up" his existence. Several 1960s TV icons appear in supporting roles, including commercial "stars" Virginia Christine (aka Mrs. Olsen) and Dick Wilson) (Mr. Whipple), The Beverly Hillbillies' Raymond Bailey, and McHale's Navy's Joe Flynn. First telecast November 6, 1959, "Escape Clause" was written by Rod Serling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before she was "domesticated" as Consuela in TV's Marcus Welby MD, Elena Verdugo was the hip-swinging heroine of Panama Sal. The story finds Sal Regan (Verdugo) singing and dancing for her supper in a low-class Panamanian dive. Wealthy Dennis P. Dennis (Edward Kemmer) takes a liking to Sal, and decides to do the "My Fair Lady" bit. He takes the girl back to the States, where, after teaching her the social graces, he makes her famous as a high-toned supper club songstress. Along the way, Dennis falls in love with Sal, much to the dismay of his wealthy pals, who try to break up the romance. Not meant to be taken seriously, Panama Sal is an enjoyable diversion from the waning days of Republic Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Payne always felt that he delivered his best screen performance in The Boss. Set in the years following WW1, the story concerns a small-town veteran named Matt Brady (John Payne), whose brother, machine politician Tim Brady (Roy Roberts), arranges for Matt to get a cushy government job. When Tim dies, Matt takes over his operation, eventually assuming control of the entire state (which judiciously remains unnamed in the film). Though a successful power broker, Matt is unable to win the woman he loves (Doe Avedon), so he settles for another (Gloria McGhee) whom he treats atrociously. A falling out with his best friend/severest critic Bob Herrick (William Bishop) sets the stage for the ruthless Brady's inevitable downfall. Though all the names were changed to protect the guilty, audiences in 1956 were quick to perceive that the film was a thinly disguised attack on the Pendergast machine of Kansas City, Missouri. Coproduced and cowritten by John Payne, The Boss falters only in its overreliance upon anachronistic newsreel footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With his movie career fading in 1955, Bob Hope was amenable to writer/director Mel Shavelson's suggestion that Hope try something different. The Seven Little Foys was the first of Hope's two "straight" biopics (the second was 1956's Beau James). Though not completely abandoning his patented persona, Hope does an admirable job of impersonating legendary Broadway song-and-dance man Eddie Foy, right down to the soft-shoe shuffle and affected lisp. A successful "single" in vaudeville, Foy meets and marries lovely Italian songstress Madeleine Morando (Milly Vitale). The union results in seven children, moving the Foys' priest to comment "we're running out of Holy water" after the seventh baptism. Hardly an ideal family man, Foy leaves Madeleine and her sister Clara (Angela Clarke) behind in their Connecticut home to raise the kids, while he rises to spectacular career height. Returning home after attending a testimonial for George M. Cohan (James Cagney, who played this unbilled cameo on the proviso that Hope turn over Cagney's salary to charity), Foy discovers that his wife has died of pneumonia. Months pass: Foy sulks in his rambling house, while his seven kids run roughshod. Foy's manager (George Tobias) suggests that the entire family be assembled into a vaudeville troupe called The Seven Little Foys. Though the kids are profoundly bereft of talent, the act gets by on its charm, and before long Foy is a bigger success than ever. But when Foy and the kids are booked into the Palace on Christmas Day, Aunt Clara decides that the kids are being cruelly exploited, and arranges for the authorities to arrest the act on charges of violating a state law barring children from singing and dancing. The authorities decide to drop the charges when the kids rally around their father, declaring their genuine love for him--but the deciding factor is a quick demonstration that the kids can't sing or dance to save their lives! The Seven Little Foys is a standard Hollywood whitewash job, emphasizing Eddie Foy's virtues (including his on-stage heroism during the infamous Iroquois Theatre fire of 1903) and soft-pedaling or ignoring his faults (e.g. his capacity for alcohol). Wisely, the scenes between Bob Hope and the seven children playing the Little Foys (including Father Knows Best's Billy Gray, The Real McCoys' Lydia Reed and Leave It to Beaver's Jerry Mathers) are refreshingly free of cloying sentiment. Also, Hope is a good enough natural actor to convince us that he deeply cares for his children without gooey effusions of emotion. The film's hands-down highlight is the "challenge dance" between Foy (Bob Hope) and Cohan (James Cagney)--a lasting testament of the superb terpsichorean talents of both men. The Seven Little Foys was narrated by Eddie's son Charley Foy, a fine comedian in his own right. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide