Jim Hayward Movies

Hooterville Valley comes to a complete standstill when the Hooterville Cannonball ceases operation. The reason? Longtime engineers Floyd (Rufe Davis and Charley (Smiley Burnette) are feudin', fussin' and a-fightin'. As usual, it falls to Kate (Bea Benaderet) to patch up the feud and get things running again. Fans of the films of John Ford will appreciate the appearance of cadaverous character actor Hank Worden (the half-witted "Mose" in The Searchers, among many other roles) as a Hooterville farmer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this violent western, a Mexican gunslinger is permanently disabled while trying to save his boy from the hangman's noose. After the incident, the former gunfighter is sentenced to four years in prison. Following his release, he gets revenge upon the lawman responsible for his conviction by abducting eight people. He informs the sheriff that he will kill one hostage every ten minutes until he comes to see him. Following the death of three people, the sheriff finally agrees, the story ends on a brutal and ironic note. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An armored mail truck has been held up by three masked bandits, and 22 sacks of registered mail have been stolen. Though badly beaten, mail guard Bud Huston (Don Warren) is able to recall that one of the bandits was referred to as "Sid." But the clue that enables Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) to close in on the outlaws is a $20 bill that has somehow ended up in the possession of a petty thief. This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of May 15, 1952. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A handful of suburban couples discover that emotional turmoil lurks behind the placid exterior of the planned community of Sunrise Hills in this drama based on the novel by John McPartland. David and Jean Martin (Jeffrey Hunter and Patricia Owens) find their relationship starting to crumble after Jean is raped by Troy Boone (Cameron Mitchell), an alcoholic war veteran who has been unable to readjust to civilian life. Meanwhile, Troy's wife, Leola (Joanne Woodward), wants to start a family, but Troy isn't interested in having children. Jerry Flagg (Tony Randall) is a used car salesman who turns to drink to deal with the disappointments of his career and his life, which is more than his wife, Isabelle (Sheree North), bargained for in their relationship. And Herman Kreitzer (Pat Hingle) is the good-hearted proprietor of a hardware store who wants to help his Japanese-American assistant Iko (Aki Aleong) find a new home. Though Herman's wife, Betty (Barbara Rush), discourages him because of the reaction that she foresees from the rest of the community, she eventually sides with him and joins him in the effort to help Iko assimilate. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. makes the first of several guest appearances as Dandy Jim Buckley, a gentleman gambler best described as "Bret Maverick without scruples." After they're both tossed off a riverboat, Jim and Bret (James Garner) head to Deadwood in hopes of getting even with bare-knuckle boxer Battling Krueger (Pat Comiskey), the man responsible for their ignominious plight. Our heroes end up wagering heavily on a boxing match between Krueger and brawny backwoodsman Noah Perkins (Mike Lane)--but when Noah fails to show up for the bout, the hapless Bret ends up in the ring. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ginger Rogers ended her 23-year association with RKO Radio with the indifferent musical comedy western The First Travelling Saleslady. Ginger and Broadway favorite Carol Channing (whose only starring film this was) play a pair of corset salespersons who head westward in 1897 to hawk their wares. Finding a limited market for corsets, the ladies switch to selling barbed wire, which rests not at all well with cattle baron James Arness. Rescuing Ginger and Carol from Arness' hired guns are horseless-carriage inventor Barry Nelson and callow young cowpoke Clint Eastwood. Whenever asked about First Travelling Saleslady in later years, Carol Channing would blithely refer to it as "the picture that killed RKO"; she wasn't too far wrong in this assessment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Kettles in the Ozarks was the eighth of Universal's "Ma and Pa Kettle" series--minus "Pa" (actor Percy Kilbride had left the series). Carrying on without the Kettle paterfamilias, Ma Kettle (Marjorie Main) and her large brood of children head for the Ozarks to visit her brother-in-law Sedge (Arthur Hunnicutt). She spends a good portion of the film's running time outwitting three bootleggers who've set up shop in Sedge's barn. Ma also accelerates Sedge's marriage to Bedelia Baines (Una Merkel), to whom he has been engaged for two decades. Kettles in the Ozarks suffers from the absence of Percy Kilbride, but the climactic slapstick battle with the bootleggers is well up to par. Una Merkel, who played Sedge's erstwhile sweetheart, would recall years later that she fought tooth and nail with her agent to get out of Kettles in the Ozarks, but eventually had a wonderful time on the set thanks to the kindness and cooperation of star Marjorie Main. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this tearjerker, a woman, depressed with the course of her life after two failed marriages and a tepid career, decides to return to her hometown and find happiness with her ex-boyfriend. Unfortunately, his cruel and manipulative mother presents a formidable obstacle to their happiness. To prevent them from marrying, she at first fakes a heart attack, but then ends up dying of the real thing. The couple marries anyway, but the husband's happiness is marred by memories of his mother's death. The lonely wife then begins an affair with a French writer. When the husband finds them in a hotel room, the affair ends. It is not long before the despondent woman tries to take her life. Fortunately she fails, and things begin to improve when her husband releases his guilt and begins concentrating on their marriage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The talented David Wayne is afforded a rare movie starring role in Allied Artists' The Naked Hills. Wayne plays prospector Tracy Powell, whose all-consuming lust for gold motivates the plot. Heading to California during the '49 Gold Rush to try his luck in the mineral-rich mountains, Powell is forever one step behind those who are smarter and swifter than he. Meanwhile, Powell's wife Julie (Marcia Henderson) waits patiently at home for her husband to return from his many lengthy absences. At film's end, the older-but-no-wiser Powell is still chasing rainbows, with the fabled pot of gold still just beyond his reach. The excellent supporting cast includes James Barton as Powell's grizzled partner and Keenan Wynn and Jim Backus as a pair of claim-jumping sharpsters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sequel to the second-season episode "Panic in the Sky", Clark Kent's friend Gary Allen (Robert Lowery) has been missing ever since the night Kent's alter ego Superman (George Reeves) prevented a huge meteor from crashing into Metropolis. When Gary resurfaces, he is just as invulnerable and indestructible as Superman, the result of being exposed to the meteor's radiation. In fact, the public at large is now convinced that Gary and Superman are one and the same, especially since he, like Superman, is weakened whenever coming into contact with Kryptonite. This situation is exploited by a pair of crooks named Van Wyck (Steven Geray) and Rufus (Bob Foulk), with potentially dire consequences for Clark's fellow reporters Lois (Noel Neill) and Jimmy (Jack Larson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Everybody knows that the favorite expletive of "Daily Planet" reporter Perry White (John Hamilton is "Great Caesar's Ghost!" With this in mind, imagine White's shock and dismay when he is confronted with the ghost of Julius Caesar (Trevor Bardette). Before long, all of Metropolis is seriously questioning White's sanity--which is precisely the intention of a gang of crooks who hope to discredit Perry's testimony at a criminal trial. Looks like Superman (George Reeves) is going to have to do some ghost-busting in this one! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this deceptively titled and paced Western, Kirk Douglas shines in the hyper-macho role of Dempsey Rae, a good-natured drifter with a mysterious past up from Texas, a top hand with a gun, a horse, or a herd, who can even play the banjo and sing. He rides into a Wyoming town in a freight car, in the company of much younger drifter Jeff Jimson (William Campbell), who knows even less about the West than he does about life. Dempsey gets Jeff out of a few scrapes with the law, and both get hired by the foreman (Jay C. Flippen) of the Triangle Ranch. With 8,000 head, the Triangle is already the largest spread in the territory, but the new owner from back east, Miss Reed Bowman (Jeanne Crain), arrives with plans to move in another 22,000 head onto the open range, threatening to squeeze out the smaller ranches completely. Meanwhile, the other ranchers plan on saving some of the grass for winter feed and fence it off with barbed wire. When Bowman discovers that she can't hold onto Dempsey as either a man or a foreman, she seduces Jeff -- who's too quick to become a man -- to run interference on him, and hires a crew of gunmen led by Steve Miles (Richard Boone) to tear down the wire. A range war is about to break out, and Dempsey, who wants no part of barbed wire and carries the scars to show why, plans on pulling out. But then Miles and his men overplay their hand, and Dempsey throws in with the smaller ranchers. The body count suddenly starts going against Miles, who digs in for a final fight, and now it's Jeff and Bowman who find themselves caught between two unstoppable forces that they've helped unleash. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

A car with two men visible in it pulls up to a Los Angeles service station at night, with a single attendant (Dub Taylor) working. As he starts to pump the gas, he doesn't see the third man come around the side until it's too late and he's knocked cold. The trio carries out their robbery but before they can finish, a motorcycle cop rolls up. A gun battle ensues, and one of the robbers is shot, as is the police officer. Now a manhunt is on for the trio, all escapees from San Quentin who were making their way south; the other two give the wounded man enough money to get to the apartment of a former cellmate of one of them, Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson). But Lacey is genuinely trying to go straight and live a clean, honest life with his wife, Ellen (Phyllis Kirk), and wants nothing to do with anyone he knew in prison, or with harboring an escaped prisoner. He's even more unhappy when Dr. Otto Hessler (Jay Novello), another ex-con and a veterinarian, arrives to treat the gunshot victim. But when the hood dies, matters get even more complicated -- Lacey's life becomes a nightmare as the police arrive, led by the hardboiled Det. Sgt. Sims (Sterling Hayden), who doesn't believe that any hood ever goes straight. Sims doesn't believe that Lacey's claim of knowing nothing of the escapees, and is ready to send him back to prison on a parole violation -- even though his parole officer (James Bell) believes him -- when he won't cooperate. And worse still, the other two escapees, Doc Penny (Ted de Corsia) and Ben Hastings (Charles Buchinsky, aka Charles Bronson), force their way into Lacey's home, insisting on hiding out there and threatening Ellen. And as they're now a man short, they want Steve's help on a major heist they're planning -- and will kill Ellen if he doesn't cooperate. Soon Lacey is up to his neck in a daylight bank robbery, timed to the minute, and his wife is at the mercy of a mentally deficient, sexually deviant confederate (Timothy Carey), while the police still seem to be following every trail but the right one. Steve realizes that he is the only one who is going to be able to save himself or his wife from this nightmare, and isn't convinced that he'll get out of it alive -- but by then, between being put on him by Sims and his unwanted companions, he's prepared to die in order to save Ellen. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide