Steve Frazee Movies
- 1961
Director Gordon M. Douglas specializes in comedy and action films, and here he puts the two genres together for a generally successful, well-acted chase drama. Two partners, Jim (Clint Walker) and Shawn (Roger Moore) have had the good fortune to find a gold fortune, but just after their strike, they end up in serious trouble. Word of their newfound status gets out to the wrong people, and before they have any time to cash in their chips and retire, they are running like the wind from a variety of money-grubbing marauders whose only goal in life is to return Jim and Shawn to their original impoverished state. As the chase heads toward a climactic moment, everything builds up to a convenient, if unconvincing conclusion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Walker, Roger Moore, (more)
- 1958
Will Rogers Jr. follows in the cinematic footsteps of his famous father in the evenly-paced western Wild Heritage. Rogers is cast as a frontier judge, given to his own special, down-to-earth brand of jurisprudence. In truth, however, Will Jr's role is a subordinate one; most of the film's running time concerns two families heading westward by covered wagon. When rustlers attack, it is the sons of the respective families who emerge as the heroes. One of the "good guys" is portrayed by Rod McKuen, long before he became Poet Laureate of the flower-child generation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Jr., Maureen O'Sullivan, (more)
- 1958
Craig Rhodes (John Derek) is the partner of gold miner Frank Davidson (Al Mulock). Frank's wife Lenore (Elaine Stewart) develops a yen for Rhodes, while he insists upon remaining honorable.The situation becomes prickly when a heavy snowfall forces Frank, Lenore and Craig to share close quarters, awaiting rescue. Adding to the tension is lecherous miner Luke Fulgham (Patrick Allen), who openly lusts after the heroine. Though set in the Canadian Rockies, produced by a Hollywood film company and boasting a largely American cast, High Hell is technically a British film, lensed in the Alps! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Derek, Elaine Stewart, (more)
- 1956
Filmed on location in the Colorado Rockies, Running Target, per its title, is a feature-length chase. When a group of convicts break out of jail, sheriff Arthur Franz vows to bring the fugitives in without gunfire or bloodshed. Unfortunately, some of the members of Franz' posse don't see things his way: bartender Richard Reeves, for example, is a staunch advocate of the "shoot first and ask questions later" brand of justice. And then there's Doris Dowling, who joins the posse ostensibly because her gas station has been held up by the convicts -- but who is secretly in love with one of the escapees. Running Target represented one of the earliest credited efforts of top cinematographer Conrad Hall, who also collaborated on the script. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Dowling, Arthur Franz, (more)
Packaged and sold as an outdoor actioner, Many Rivers to Cross is as much a comedy as anything else. Robert Taylor stars as 18th century trapper Bushrod Gentry, who is himself entrapped into marriage by the spunky Mary Stuart Cherne (Eleanor Parker). Escaping his marital responsibilities (which were impressed upon him on threat of death), Gentry heads into the North Country, with Mary in hot pursuit. Hero and heroine spend the rest of the picture taking turns rescuing each other from hostile Indians. Some of the humor is predicated upon the wholesale slaughter of the "redskins", and as such is a bit hard to take when seen today. Supporting Taylor and Parker are Victor McLaglen as the heroine's burly father, and TV-stars-to be James Arness (Gunsmoke) and Russell Johnson and Alan Hale Jr. (Gilligan's Island). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, (more)
