Phil Garris Movies

Determined to "change the world" in a hurry, home-grown terrorist Eric Stone (Geoffrey Deuel) has no qualms about resorting to violence. Together with fellow conspirators Gilbert Manning (Tom Falk), Karen Wandemere (Diane Ewing), and Knox and Allen Hiller (Wayne Maunder, Mark Jenkins), Stone has cut quite a swath across the country, wreaking all manner of destruction on government property. With time running out and only a handful of leads at his disposal, Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) must locate the Federal building that has been booby-trapped with a time bomb by the arrogant would-be revolutionaries. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this service comedy set during World War II, Capt. Cash (Dick Shawn) and Lt. Christian (James Coburn) are given orders to invade a small but strategically important village in Sicily. To their surprise, none of the natives offer the slightest resistance to the Americans taking over their town, who present only one stipulation -- the main event on the town's annual social calendar, a football match followed by a wine festival, is scheduled to happen in a few days. If the Americans would be kind enough to let them have their party, they'll hand over the town without a fight. Cash and Christian think that this plan sounds reasonable enough, and a few days later they and their men are drunkenly whooping it up with the townspeople when both German and U.S. surveillance planes spot the festivities. Thinking the wild party looks more like some sort of battle, both the Germans and Americans make plans to send in troops. Screenwriter William Peter Blatty would enjoy greater success a few years down the line with The Exorcist, a novel about a different sort of conflict. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Uncle Martin (Ray Walston) has trouble controlling his super-powers when he contacts the common cold, an affliction unknown on Mars. Fixing up a special pill to cure his malady, Martin leaves the powerful potion within reach of Tim (Bill Bixby), who accidentally consumes the pill and falls fast asleep just before he is to review an "outer space" exhibit at a local department store. Taking over Tim's assignment, Martin is appalled by the exhibit's glaring inaccuracies and pens a devastating pan--thereby infuriating pompous store owner Trimble (played by former "Great Gildersleeve" Willard Waterman), who happens to be one of the biggest advertisers in Tim's newspaper! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dance With Me, Henry was the screen swan song for the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Most of the action takes place in Kiddieland, an amusement park owned by soft-hearted Lou Henry (Costello). An inveterate collector of strays, Lou has adopted orphaned kids Shelley (Gigi Perreau) and Duffer (Rusty Hamer), and has also provided a safe harbor for chronic gambler Bud Flick (Abbott). Bud's enormous gambling debts bring Lou under the scrutiny of gangster Big Frank (Ted De Corsia), who in turn is being monitored by DA Proctor (Robert Shayne). When Proctor is murdered, Lou finds himself the number one suspect. The film concludes with a riotous chase through the carnival grounds, with Bud and Lou just a few steps ahead of the bad guys. Both Abbott and Costello seem tired and worn out in Dance With Me, Henry, but a few bright moments manage to seep through the malaise of moldy old jokes and half-hearted sight gags. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Glenn Miller Story traces Miller's rise from pit-orchestra trombone player to leader of the most successful big band of his era. June Allyson is on hand as Miller's wife, Helen, who learns the value of patience when Glenn spends his wedding night jamming with Gene Krupa and Louis Armstrong. Given an officer's commission during World War II, Miller helms the swingin'est military band ever heard. In December of 1944, a plane carrying Miller disappears while flying over the English Channel. In memoriam, radio stations all over the world suspend their regular broadcasts to play such Miller standards as "Moonlight Serenade," "Chattanooga Choo Choo," and "Little Brown Jug." Many of Miller's contemporaries, including his first big-time boss, Ben Pollack, appear as themselves. The success of The Glenn Miller Story inspired Universal to give the go-ahead for another musical biopic, 1956's The Benny Goodman Story, with Steve Allen in the title role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The spirit of love is back, and she's working in retail in this bubbly romantic musical comedy. Eddie Hatch (Robert Walker) is a window dresser at a large department store; he's become especially fond of one of his mannequins who looks like the sort of girl he'd like to meet, and one night he impulsively gives the dummy a kiss. To his tremendous surprise, the mannequin comes to life, and it turns out to be inhabited by the spirit of Venus, the Goddess of Love (Ava Gardner). Suddenly, romance is in the air as Eddie's fellow employees throw caution to the wind and finally express their infatuations with their co-workers; however, Eddie is too intimidated to follow through on his feelings for Venus, even though she'll only be in human form for 24 hours. Adapted from a popular Broadway musical, One Touch of Venus features a number of memorable songs by Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash, including "Speak Low" and "The Trouble with Women," though a number of other songs they wrote for the stage production were replaced for the film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Jane Featherstone (Joan Davis) is a staid, almost pathologically repressed professor at a small midwestern college, who gets roped into impersonating a friend while on a trip to New York. It seems the friend (Gloria Stuart), the wife of the dean of the college, has written a steamy bestseller under another name, and is supposed to go to her publisher's office in New York to collect her royalty checks. She's too embarrassed to appear personally before her publisher -- who has never met her -- and persuades Jane to stand in for her. But a series of misadventures culminating with a hard bump on the head leave Jane with a temporary case of amnesia and, thanks to publicist Jerry Marlowe (Jack Oakie), believing that she really is the author of the steamy adventures in the book in question, and that she has lived that life. Soon she's living out the role, all of her previous inhibitions gone, much to the delight of Jerry and his employers and the distress of Jane's straight-shooting would-be paramour Eddie Caldwell (Kirby Grant) and officials at her college, who are ready to dismiss her. Jane eventually regains her memory, but not before the damage has been done to her struggling school -- she vows to at least save the school, and to do it must make one more public appearance in her "libertine" guise. Caught in the middle of Jane's antics are devious hanger-on Mischa Auer and shipping magnate Thurston Hall, whose own marriage (to Jacqueline DeWitt) is strained to the breaking point. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi