Jonathan Hole Movies

Fresh from her six-year stint on Lassie, June Lockhart is cast as Mona Harvey, the wife of wildly eccentric sculptor Hannibal Harvey (Sean McClory), and the principal stockholder in the highly respected publishing firm owned by her uncle Everett Stanton (Stuart Erwin). In dire need of $10,000, Hannibal takes advantage of Mona's temporary absence to shake down Everett for the money, arranging for his model Bonnie (Sue Ane Langdon) to deliver a blackmail note. But Mona gets her hands on the note and decides to confront Bonnie--and as a result, she and Hannibal show up just in time to find the girl's corpse, and to be charged with murder. Looks like it's going to be another one of those days for overworked defense attorney Perry Mason (Raymond Burr)! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Accused of murder, Hoss Cartwright puts his life in the hands of celebrated lawyer Whitney Parker (James Gregory). Unforunately, Parker's glory days are behind him: more to the point, he is now the town drunk. The Cartwrights struggle to keep Parker sober long enough to save Hoss from the gallows. Also in the cast are Michel Petit as Jamie, Hal Baylor as Durfee, William Mims as Evans, and Jason Johnson as the Doctor. Written by Mort R. Lewis, "A Man to Admire" first aired on December 6, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In 4 for Texas, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin star as Zack Thomas and Joe Jarrett, a pair of rival mountebanks who spend most of the film battling over who will control the gambling and wenching in 1870 Galveston. Though they'd as soon cut each other's throats than cooperate, Zack and Joe are forced to unite against a pair of common enemies: crooked banker Harvey Burden (played by Victor Buono, a favorite of director Robert Aldrich) and cold-blooded outlaw/hired-gun Matson (Charles Bronson, virtually the only person in the film who takes his role seriously). The heroes also battle over the affections of well-endowed heroines Elya Carlson (Anita Ekberg) and Maxine Richter (Ursula Andress), both of whom are sharp-witted businesswomen who match Zack and Joe scam for scam. The Three Stooges show up for a moment, in which they repeat their "point to the right" and "State of Texas" routines, and get into a fracas with feisty little old lady Jesslyn Fax. Also making guest appearances are Arthur Godfrey and Teddy Buckner and His All Stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Andy infuriates Aunt Bee with his assertion that all the Mayberry women are gossips. To get even, she fabricates a rumor that a travelling shoe salesman is really a talent scout for the TV series Manhattan Show Time. Five points to anyone who guesses what happens next! Like many first-season episodes, "Those Gossipin' Men" was written by Jack Elinson and Charles Stewart. The program first aired on January 16, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bret (James Garner) is determined to foil the never-ending efforts by Big Ed Murphy (John Dehner) to rob the bank owned by Col Dutton (Wendell Holmes). Figuring that the best way to save Big Ed from himself is to remove the temptation, Bret conspires with Foursquare Foley (Gage Clarke) to steal the bank's money themselves, then hide it in a safe place. In fact, Foley has already dug a tunnel under the bank for this purpose...a fact that should have put Bret on guard from the get-go. This final episode of Maverick's third season also marks the next-to-last appearance by James Garner as Bret Maverick (discounting the later TV and movie sequels). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This poignant episode catalogues the many strange occurences and paranormal phenomena surrounding the death of President Abraham Lincoln in April of 1865. It is well documented that both Lincoln (here played by Barry Atwarter) and his wife Mary Todd (Jeanne Bates) both had premonitions of his violent death. What is less well known is that, throughout the country, thousands of other people bore witness to ominous signs and portents...a blood-red moon, the sounds of sobbing, eerie visions of a distant shore... ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This episode was based on an earlier Rod Serling TV play, in which a losing baseball team was saved by a 70-year-old pitcher. In the Twilight Zone version of this yarn, the old man was transformed into a muscular robot named Casey (Robert Sorrell), who comes to the rescue of the cellar-dwelling ball club skippered by Mouth McGarry. Winning game after game, Casey ultimately comes acropper when he suddenly develops human emotions -- and an unwillingness to see anyone lose a ball game! When first filmed in mid-1959, "The Mighty Casey" starred Paul Douglas as Mouth McGarry. Unfortunately, Douglas was in the last stages of the devastating illness that would kill him, and the producers were uncomfortable with his appearance on the screen. After Douglas' death, the episode was refilmed with Jack Warden as McGarry, with Alvin Ganzer taking over the directorial reins from Robert Parrish. "The Mighty Casey" finally aired June 17, 1960, as the next-to-last Twilight Zone of the 1959-60 season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On probation for car theft, young Jimmy Morrow (Peter Miles) tries his best to "go straight", only to be accused of stealing a priceless Spanish cross. Worse still, Jimmy is charged with the murder of the relic's owner, Curtis Runyan (Donald Randolph). Out of sympathy for Jimmy's beleagured parents, Perry (Raymond Burr) agrees to handle the boy's defense. (Trivia note: Peter Miles is the brother of actress Gigi Perreau, who'd played Perry's client in the first-season episode "The Case of the Desperate Daughter".) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On a perfectly ordinary day, the management of an airline receives a note demanding a half-million dollars from someone who claims to have put a bomb aboard one of their planes. When the device, a tiny but dead electronically-triggered explosive, is found, they're told that there's another -- the FBI and the news media are all present as it is retrieved. One of those who sees the drama unfold on the news is Paul Molnar (James Mason), an electronics expert, who suddenly finds himself in the middle of a nightmare along with the rest of his family-- he and his wife (Inger Stevens) and their young daughter are kidnapped by Paul Hoplin (Rod Steiger), a former army buddy of Paul's, who duped him into designing the devices, and now wants Molnar's wife to act a courier for the money. With her husband and daughter in the hands of two of the gang (Angie Dickinson, Jack Klugman), she is made to pick up the money and make her way across New York while a clock is ticking on their lives -- and she must survive being left guarded by Steve (Neville Brand), an ex-con, murderer, and sexual predator, and the least-tightly-wrapped of all Hoplin's gang. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this sea-going suspense drama, Edwin Rumill (James Mason) is the former first mate of an ocean liner who leaps at the chance to have a vessel under his full command. However, the S.S. Berwind is no ship to write home about, a freighter from the mothball fleet whose captain has recently died. The crew is often ill-tempered, and Mahia (Dorothy Dandridge), the wife of the ship's cook, doesn't make anyone more comfortable with her flirtatious nature. Rumill learns that the bad attitude of his crew has a sinister undercurrent: two of the hands, Leroy Martin (Stuart Whitman) and Henry Scott (Broderick Crawford), have hatched a scheme to murder Rumill and the rest of the crew, bring in the ship as salvage, and sell it to the highest bidder, expecting to earn close to a million dollars. Rumill must rally support if he and the other men hope to survive. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Beaver (Jerry Mathers) is enlisted to watch everyone's coats and valuables while Wally (Tony Dow) and his friends play baseball. Once the game is over, Lumpy Rutherford (Frank Bank) lumbers over to Beav, demanding the return of his watch. Only one problem -- there's no watch to be found. Fearing Lumpy's oafish wrath, Beaver goes to incredible lengths to cough up the necessary 25 dollars for a replacement...leading to a memorable episode at the local bank. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Crooked "sportsman" Billy Joe Kane (Lawrence Dobkin) is promoting a race in the Mojave desert, in which he is wagering that his posse will be able to track down any contestant before reaching the finish line. Accepting the challenge, Paladin (Richard Boone) enters the race--and, confirming his suspicions, he quickly finds that Kane is willing to commit murder rather than pony up the prize money. Thus it is that Paladin bends the rules a bit by utilizing a unique form of transportation: a US Army camel! This is the first of several Have Gun--Will Travel episodes written by future Star Trek maven Gene Roddenberry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Opposite Sex is an opulent musical remake of Clare Booth Luce's The Women (1939). June Allyson stars in the old Norma Shearer role, playing the virtuous wife who loses her husband to scheming Joan Collins (as the Joan Crawford character). At first agreeing to a divorce, June decides to win hubby back by utilizing the same crafty feminine wiles that Joan had employed to lead him astray. Doloress Gray plays the counterpart to Rosalind Russell's vitriolic gossip. The original The Women boasted an all-female cast: the remake includes several male characters, played by the likes of MGM contractees Leslie Nielsen and Jeff Richards. Dick Shawn, Jim Backus and Harry James are also on hand, billed as "special guest stars." The satirical bite of The Women has been softened in The Opposite Sex, but musical fans should have a good time. Sammy Cahn, Nicholas Brodszky, Ralph Freed and George Stoll were among the songwriters; Collins, Allyson and Jeff Richards perform musical numbers in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide