Nancy Gates Movies

In this drama, a remake of Hat, Coat and Glove (1934), a hard working attorney is upset when he learns that his long-suffering, neglected wife is having an affair with an accused murderer. This does not prevent the highly principled lawyer from representing the man and his wife in court. Not only does he get them acquitted, he also manages to keep the whole mess out of the newspaper. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Having remarried since the mysterious disappearance of his first wife Jocelyn four years ago, Mark Halliday (Philip Abbott) is understandably astonished when he sees a painting of a woman who is the spitting image of his missing wife. Halliday locates the artist, Arthur Clymer (John Baragrey), who insists that Jocelyn has been posing for him during the past several months. But Halliday declares that this is impossible -- and if anyone should know beyond doubt that this is impossible, it is Halliday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At Sword's Point is about the sons of Dumas' Three Musketeers--one of those "sons" being of the female persuasion, played by Maureen O'Hara. As the swash-buckling daughter of Athos, O'Hara joins the offspring of Aramis and Porthos, portrayed respectively by Dan O'Herlihy and Alan Hale Jr., as well as the bouncing boy of D'Artagnan, played by Cornel Wilde. These second-generation Musketeers are reunited by the ageing Queen Anne (Gladys Cooper), who wants to stem the villainy of her treacherous nephew, the Duc de Lavalle (Robert Douglas). Lunging and parrying throughout the French countryside, the new Musketeers save the day by preventing a marriage of state between the princess (Nancy Gates) and Lavalle, restoring the girl to her true love, prince Peter Miles. Technicolor is the only decided plus in the favor of the lazy and derivative At Sword's Point, which was completed in 1949 but remained unseen in RKO's vaults for three years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Growing increasingly fond of lovely Claire Amory (Nancy Gates), Ben Cartwright must deal with Claire's invalid brother Carl (Wesley Lau). Cruel and manipulative, Carl exploits his infimirities to force Claire to marry Ben whether she wants to or not. A real-life accident forced Lorne Greene to wear an eyepatch throughout this episode. Written by Mort Thaw and Lee Pickett, "His Brother's Keeper" first aired March 6, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

PRC's singing cowboy Eddie Dean once again brings law and order to a corrupt town in this average Western co-starring Roscoe Ates and Nancy Gates. When Red Gap's old sheriff (Edward Cassidy) is shot in cold blood by Ace (Mikel Conrad), a member of Brad Taggert's gang, the new lawman, Eddie, orders all firearms in Red Gap to be deposited in the sheriff's office. Taggert (I. Stanford Jolley) takes umbrage, of course, and hires a couple of gunmen (Russell Asrms and Marshall Reed) to rid the town of such nuisance. When that ploy fails, the villain falls back on crooked Judge Hammond (William Fawcett), but Eddie gets rid of him as well in favor of law-abiding Judge Walsh (Steve Clark) -- then the real Boss Villain reveals himself. Ates, Andy Parker, and the Plainsmen perform "A Miserable Ornery Coyote" and Dean sings "God's Little Lanterns" and "Moseyin' Along," the latter in a duet with leading lady Nancy Gates. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The last of the Randolph Scott/ Budd Boetticher collaborations, Comanche Station stars Scott as another "lone rider" who takes on a highly dangerous job. Scott must rescue Nancy Gates from her Comanche captors and return the woman to her husband. He is assisted by a trio of criminals, who are out for the reward money and who plan to divide the spoils with as few partners as possible. As his ranks diminish in the face of Indian resistance, Scott must finish his mission alone. Comanche Station was scripted by Burt Kennedy, later a top western director is his own right. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, Gildersleeve is assigned to be a contentious jury foreman who refuses, despite the opinions of all the other jurors, to believe that the gangster being tried is really guilty. He seems oblivious to the wealth of evidence around him. His redemption comes when the gangsters catch him and make him drive the getaway car. To stop them, he crashes into a tree and they are captured. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This modestly produced film version of Gregor Ziemmer's book Education for Death surprised everyone at RKO--and in the film industry--by becoming one the biggest hits of 1943. The "children" invoked in the title are borne on behalf of Adolf Hitler; according to the film, it is standard operating procedure in Nazi Germany for young girls to willingly submit to being impregnated by Aryan men (with or without the benefit of clergy) in order to sustain the "Master Race." Those who refuse are ticketed for sterilization, or worse. One of the holdouts is Bonita Granville, a German girl raised and educated in America whose taste of democracy has made her utterly resistant to Nazism. In the film's key scene, the near-naked Bonita is publicly flogged for her defiance, whereupon Bonita's lover, "good Nazi" Tim Holt, suddenly has an awakening of conscience and stops the whipping. This act of courage results in the executions of both Holt and Granville, but they willingly go to their deaths rather than accede to Hitler's demands. It is true enough that many people flocked to see Hitler's Children because of the sensational, censor-provoking aspects of the film, but equal numbers of filmgoers and critics also recognized the above-average artistic contributions of director Edward Dmytryk and scriptwriter Emmet Lavery (both of whom received substantial cash bonuses for their work on this film). Hitler's Children was the second biggest moneymaker of RKO's 1943-44 season, only slightly behind the Cary Grant vehicle Mr. Lucky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before he devoted his life to gimmicky horror epics, director William Castle turned out a series of compact westerns for Columbia. One of the best of the batch was Masterson of Kansas, starring George Montgomery as dandified gunslinger Bat Masterson. The screenplay, by future Maverick mainstay Douglas Heyes, contrives to unite Masterson, Wyatt Earp (Bruce Cowling) and Doc Holliday (James Griffith) together in a common cause. The three protagonists intend to protect an impending land exchange between honest rancher Merrick (John Maxwell) and peace-seeking Indian chief Yellow Hawk (Jay Silverheels) against the crooked chicanery of land baron Clay Bennett (David Bruce). The most interesting characterization is provided by James Griffith, who portrays Doc Holliday as a borderline psychotic with a death wish. Nancy Gates provides the feminine angle as Merrick's daughter Amy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arlene Howell makes her last series appearance as Southern-fried sharpster Cindy Lou Brown in this episode, in which Bret Maverick (James Garner) hires on as guide for a stagecoach line. En route to the far-flung outpost of Fort Doom, Bret discovers that among his passengers is the redoubtable Cindy Lou, who happens to be harboring a secret. Likewise keeping certain vital facts to herself--such as her plan to kill her husband--is another attractive passenger, Mrs. Chapman (Nancy Gates). The plot intrigues begin to breed like rabbits when the stagecoach is attacked by marauders. (Trivia alert: Diane McBain, appearing in this episode as Charlotte, later starred on the Warner Bros. TV cop show Surfside Six, which had been designed as a replacement for the same studio's Bourbon Street Beat...which, in turn, costarred Arlene Howell). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Carolyn Grant (Marie Windsor), a Monterey gallery owner, is playing the field and seems to have one too many men on her string, including her wealthy estranged husband, the local art critic, and even the fiancé of her shop assistant. So when Carolyn is murdered during an apparent break-in at her gallery, there are plenty of male suspects -- with the husband and father-in-law in the lead. Windsor's sultry temptress is the brightest spot in an otherwise so-so mystery, although her wickedness isn't quite at the level she achieved a year later as Sherry Peatty in The Killing. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide

Martha Bradford (Nancy Gates) was blissfully unaware that her husband Joe (Bruce Cowling) is leading a double life until she meets a woman named Rita (Doris Singleton), who insists that she is Mrs. Joe Bradford. Soon afterward, Joe is found murdered, and Rita's fingerprints are found at the scene. The dilemma facing Perry Mason (Raymond Burr): did his client Martha kill Joe, or is Wife Number Two the guilty party--or neither of the above? This episode is based on a 1944 novel byPerry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jim Bannon is back as enduring cowboy hero Red Ryder in Eagle-Lion's Roll, Thunder, Roll. As ever, Ryder's cohorts are Little Beaver and the Duchess, here played by "Little Brown Jug" (aka Don Kay Reynolds) and Marin Sais. This time, Ryder tries to prove that a series of cattle raids and ranch fires were not the handiwork of masked Mexican do-gooder El Conejo (I. Stanford Jolley). One of the genuine villains is played by Glenn Strange, a year or so after his impersonation of The Monster in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. While Jim Bannon's "Red Ryder" films made money, there were many "B"- western aficionados who felt that Bannon was an inadequate sub for previous screen "Ryders" Don Barry and Allan Lane; the late film-historian Don Miller suggested that Roll, Thunder Roll should have been renamed Stop, Bannon, Stop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide