Betty Lou Gerson Movies

Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) simply can't understand why Rob (Dick Van Dyke) has not yet shown up at a get-together at the Petrie home with her Aunt Mildred (Amzie Strickland) and Uncle Edward (Harold Peary). What Laura doesn't know is that, earlier in the day, Rob had incurred an accidental head injury with what he thought was a prop violin but which turned out to be the genuine article. Suffering from temporary amnesia, Rob has wandered off to faraway Red Hook, NJ, where, identifying himself as "Antonio Stradivarius," he is currently the star attraction at a wild party!. How is he going to explain this one to Laura once he recovers his wits? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rob (Dick Van Dyke) feels like a fish out of water when he and Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) are invited to a literary party honoring poet Henry Walden (Everett Sloane). For one thing, he's the only comedy writer in a room full of poets and novelists. For another, it appears that he has been invited by mistake, especially since the hostess (played by Doris Packer) constantly refers to him as "Mr. Petroff." This doesn't stop Rob from getting inveigled into making a huge contribution to a literary scholarship fund in Walden's name. As Rob broods over how he can possibly afford such a donation, Henry Walden himself shows up at the offices of "The Alan Brady Show," wryly explaining that it was he who invited Rob to the party -- and further explaining his rather surprising ulterior motive! Dick Van Dyke Show creator Carl Reiner makes a cameo appearance as bearded avant-garde poet Yale Sampson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This Disney animated classic is based on the children's story by Dodie Smith. The story involves the canine pets of a struggling composer and his wife: Dalmatians Pongo (male) and Perdita (female). Perdita gives birth to fifteen spotted pups, cuing the entrance of the scheming Cruella De Vil. She demands that the dogs' owners sell her the pups, but she is shown the door instead. Under cover of night, Cruella arranges for the pups to be stolen. The human police are baffled, but the "dog network" is alerted by Pongo and sent to rescue the pups. It is discovered that Cruella has been rounding up every Dalmatian she can get her hands on, hoping to use their pelts to make one spectacular fur coat. The dogs rescue the 15 pups, plus 86 others stolen by Ms. DeVil. After an eventful escape, the 101 Dalmatians make their way home--whereupon the composer pens a hit tune, "Dalmatian Plantation". 101 Dalmatians represents the Disney animation staff at its very best, and as a bonus introduces the world to Cruella De Vil, one of the greatest movie villains--cartoon or "real"--of all time. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Millie Crest (Ruta Lee) is in big trouble. Already framed for embezzlement, Millie could also face a charge of "stolen identity" by posing as Fern Driscoll (Helene Stanley), a woman who is supposed to have died in a car accident in which Millie was involved. The beleagured girl has also stabbed seedy private eye Carl Davis (Robert Bray) in self-defense--and now Davis is dead. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is going to have to work overtime to earn the retainer (all of 38 cents!) given him by poor Millie (or is it poor Fern)? Based on a 1958 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner, this episode was remade in 1965 as "The Case of the Fanciful Frail". ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Wealthy Helene Delambre (Patricia Owens) is discovered late at night in the factory owned by her husband Andre (David Hedison). Helene stands beside a huge metal press, which has crushed the head and arm of her husband. Held for murder, the near-catatonic Helene refuses to tell anyone--not even Andre's brother Francois (Vincent Price)--why she did it. Francois cannot help but notice that Helene reacts in mortal terror when a tiny flies zips through the room. Nor can he disregard the statement made by Helene's son Philippe (Charles Herbert) that the fly has a curious white head and leg. When Francois pretends that he's captured the fly, Helene relaxes enough to tell her story. It seems that Andre, a scientist, had been working on a matter transmitter, which he claimed could disintegrate matter, then reintegrate it elsewhere. After a few experiments, Andre tried the transmitter himself. Just as he stepped into the disintegration chamber, a fly also flew into the chamber. We aren't immediately shown the results of this, save for the fact that Andre afterward insists upon keeping his head and arm covered. Alone with her husband, Helene abruptly removes the covering, revealing that Andre now bears the head of a fly! His atoms have become mixed up with the fly, and now he is unable to reverse the procedure. Deciding that his transmitter will be a bogy rather than a blessing to mankind, Andre smashes the apparatus and burns his notes. He then instructs Helene, via body language, to crush his fly-like head and arm in the press. Neither Francois nor inspector Charas (Herbert Marshall) believe the story...until, while staring intently at a spider's web in the garden, they see a tiny entrapped fly with Andre's head and arm, tinnily screaming "Help me! Help me!" as the slavering spider approaches (If you're wondering why Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall do not look one another in the eye during this scene, it is because they couldn't deliver their dialogue without dissolving into laughter). Infinitely subtler than the admittedly excellent 1986 remake, the 1958 The Fly is one of the definitive big-budget horror films of its decade. Best bit: the prismatic "fly's eye view" of the screaming Patricia Owens. The Fly was adapted from George Langelaan's short story by James (Shogun) Clavell. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This drama is set inside a girl's reformatory. When one of the teens has a baby, the other girls rally together to conceal and care for the infant. The troubled young women soon become as a family until the guards discover the child and take it away. This angers the inmates who begin rioting and destroying their prison. During the scuffle, a young woman escapes and is able to join up with her lover. As they flee the police, their car crashes and both of them die. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Undercover Girl was leading-lady Alexis Smith's least-favorite film, though she is professional enough to give it her all. Per the title, the film casts Smith as rookie policewoman Christine Miller, who volunteers to go undercover to avenge her father's death. Posing as a drug dealer, Christine inveigles her way into a vicious narcotics ring. Inevitably, she is found out, and it's up to police-lieutenant Mike Trent (Scott Brady), who's fallen in love with Christine, to come to her rescue. Few surprises await the viewer in Undercover Girl, though director Joseph Pevney manages to extract a great deal of suspense during the climax. Nineteen-thirties leading-lady Gladys George has a poignant minor role as a homeless woman ruined by drugs. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of the most famous of the anti-communist tracts of the late 1940s, Republic's The Red Menace plays like a merciless lampoon of the genre when seen today. After a portentous introduction by one Lloyd G. Davies, described as a member of the Los Angeles City Council, the film concentrates on disgruntled ex-GI Bill Jones (Robert Rockwell). Having been victimized by crooked real estate agents, Jones turns to the government for help, only to come away empty-handed and mad as a wet hen. Obviously, the susceptible Jones is ripe for plucking by the American Communist Party. Using slogans, bribes and even sex to recruit disenfranchised souls like Jones, the dirty Reds hope to spread their poison to the entire U.S. of A. Fortunately, Jones and another commie dupe, schoolteacher Nina Petrovka (Hanne Axman), smarten up just in time. The HUAC and Joe McCarthy needn't have searched so diligently for subversives: according to The Red Menace, all they would have had to do was arrest anyone wearing a baggy suit or sporting a bad haircut. Some modern-day viewers begin laughing the moment the opening title of Red Menace, wherein an animated octopus wraps its tentacles around the Free World, fades into view. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi