Raymond Bailey Movies

At the behest of Elliot Ness (Robert Stack), "Untouchable" Enrico Rossi (Nick Georgiade) goes undercover to pinpoint the source of some 190-proof grain alcohol being smuggled into Chicago. The trail leads to an outwardly respectable pharamaceutical firm, run by E. Carlton Duncan (Edward Andrews) and Brooks Wells (Henry Jones)--who are actually the Brittano brothers, racketeers in cahoots with mob boss Johnny Torrio (Charles McGraw). The trick now is to turn one Brittano against the other--which proves deceptively easy during an evening of drunken revelry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wake Me When It's Over is a zany service comedy in which Ernie Kovacs plays the latest in his long line of military captains. Kovacs and his men are stationed at a dead-end Japanese island. World War II vet Dick Shawn, redrafted through a clerical error, arrives on the island and decides to liven things up. Using the materials at hand, he supervises the building of a hotel, using the island girls as the staff. The military brass investigate when it's obvious than the servicemen are having too much fun on the island. Kovacs would love to have Shawn stay, and says so at Shawn's court-martial, but the reluctant draftee is mustered out of the service as accidentally as he'd been brought back in. Ernie Kovacs and Dick Shawn work so well together in Wake Me When It's Over that one can only feel an intensified loss over the early deaths of these two comic masters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hypochondriac Walter Bedecker (David Wayne) would do anything to feel better -- including making a deal with the Devil. When His Satanic Majesty makes an appearance in the form of the jovial Mr. Cadwallader (Thomas Gomez), Walter enters into a contract whereby he will be given perfect health and immortality. Unfortunately, Walter soon discovers that eternal life isn't all it's cracked up to be, while his wife Ethel suffers spectacularly from Walter's efforts to "spice up" his existence. Several 1960s TV icons appear in supporting roles, including commercial "stars" Virginia Christine (aka Mrs. Olsen) and Dick Wilson) (Mr. Whipple), The Beverly Hillbillies' Raymond Bailey, and McHale's Navy's Joe Flynn. First telecast November 6, 1959, "Escape Clause" was written by Rod Serling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While guiding his ship through Japanese waters at the height of WW2, Captain Will Fielding (Whit Bissell) becomes seriously ill. Only an emergency operation will save Fielding, and the only man qualified to perform the surgery is Pharmacists' Mate Harris (George Grizzard), a dissolute, self-pitying drunkard. Nervously agreeing to take charge of the operation with instructions relayed via short-wave radio, Harris is certain that he will never pull it off--until he receives inspiration from a most unexpected source. Featured in a small role is a young Robert Osborne, years before he became the resident host and film expert for the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hired by a group of concerned businessmen, Paladin (Richard Boone) agrees to help rid the New Mexico town of Santa Maria of its outlaws. En route to his assignment, Paladin meets an eager young Native American named Charley Red Dog (Scott Marlowe), who claims to be a Federal Marshal. When it is revealed that Charley earned his "credentials" by way of a correspondence school, Paladin decides to let the Indian prove his worth and gain the respect of his white contemporaries by assuming the responsibilty of cleaning up Santa Maria. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Among the passengers in a westbound stagecoach are Paladin (Richard Boone) and Della White Cloud (Dolores Vitina), the Eastern-educated daughter of an Indian chief. Despite her manners and gentility, Della is treated with hostility by her bigoted fellow passengers--all except for Paladin, who knows what it feels like to be an outcast. Ultimately, everyone's fate rests in the hands of Della when an outlaw named Ed Rance (John Doucette) shows up to steal a gold box hidden on the coach. Like the 1939 film classic Stagecoach, this episode is based on a short story by 19th century ironist Guy de Maupassant (who is given full screen credit!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the fourth episode of Walt Disney's ten-part miniseries Elfego Baca, gunslinger-turned-lawyer Baca (Robert Loggia) has been made a partner in the Sante Fe law firm run by J. Henry Newman (James Dunn). In this capacity, Elfego again comes to the aid of rancher Don Estaban Miranda (Gilbert Roland), whose land is coveted by a railroad company. When Don Estaban's land deed "mysteriously" disappears and his ranch is besieged by hired thugs, Elfego wonders if he will have to forsake his new peaceful ways and resort to gunplay. "Law and Order Inc." originally aired on the Walt Disney Presents anthology series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Grim, almost unbearably intense, I Want To Live is the story of the life and execution of Barbara Graham (Susan Hayward) a perjurer, prostitute, liar and drug addict. The product of a broken home, Graham works as a shill, luring gullible men into crooked card games. She attempts to go straight, marries the wrong man, and has a baby. When her life falls apart, she returns to her former profession and is involved in a murder. Despite her claims of innocence, she is convicted and executed. Robert Wise directs the uniformly fine cast with grim efficiency, telling Graham's story in a series of adroitly crafted scenes that won him a well-deserved Academy Award nomination. However, the film belongs to Susan Hayward who gives a intense, shattering performance without one false note. Her performance is so grimly focused that she is, at times, almost unbearable to watch. The final scenes, which lead up to Graham's execution, are exhausting in their emotional intensity as the audience is spared nothing of Graham's agony, despair and desperation when she finally loses the long battle to save her life. Whether one sees Graham as a murderer or a hapless victim of society, the power and relentless, sordid reality of her story leaves an indelible memory in the mind of the viewer. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

A steamship docks in San Francisco, and as one of the passengers, Philip Dressler (Raymond Bailey), is waiting for a cab after clearing customs, a baggage handler suddenly grabs one of his cases and throws it into a taxi, which takes off. In the ensuing getaway, a police officer is killed, but not before he gets off a shot that takes the fleeing cab driver's life. What Lieutenant Ben Guthrie (Warner Anderson) and Inspector Al Quine (Emile G. Meyer) can't figure out is why two men are suddenly dead within a matter of seconds, all for a seemingly inexplicable baggage snatch. The truth begins to come out when an examination reveals that a small ornamental statue in Dressler's case is loaded with half a million dollars in pure heroin. Then the bodies start turning up -- beginning with a baggage handler at the docks. Guthrie and Quine uncover a plan by a drug syndicate to use innocent, unsuspecting tourists visiting the Far East as unknowing drug couriers -- and now that the original method of retrieval at the docks has unraveled, thanks to the wheelman being an addict who got himself killed, another method is improvised.

Enter a pair of hitmen from out of town, Dancer (Eli Wallach), a soft-spoken psychopath with a perfect memory and not a trace of conscience, and his philosophical mentor and "handler," Julian (Robert Keith). Taken around San Francisco by their mob-employed driver, Sandy McLain (Richard Jaeckel), a juicehead who's not quite as good a wheelman as he thinks he is, the hitmen start collecting the latest shipment of heroin from three new arrivals: a ship's crew member who knows too much for his own good, a wealthy husband and wife, and a woman and her young daughter. They calmly go about their business, Dancer and his silenced pistol taking care of any "problems" while Julian runs interference and discusses issues of grammar and speech with him, and adds to his collection of "last words" from Dancer's victims -- until the last shipment turns up missing. It seems the little girl (Cheryl Callaway) found the bag of white powder hidden on the doll her mother bought her, and used it to powder the doll's face....Now Dancer and Julian have to disrupt the planned drop to "The Man" (Vaughan Taylor) to explain the short count, and to do that they have to keep the little girl and her mother (Mary Laroche) alive, at least long enough to tell their story. Meanwhile, Guthrie and Quine keep getting closer, following the trail of bodies and putting together a description of the two killers. But can they find them before the kidnapped mother and daughter join the other victims? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Elvis Presley delivers one of his finest early performances in King Creole. Elvis plays a teenager named Danny Fisher, who is forced to drop out of school to help support his ineffective father (Dean Jagger). Drawn to trouble like a magnet, Danny is saved from a jail term by New Orleans salloonkeeper Charlie Le Grand (Paul Stewart), who gives the boy a job as a singer. It isn't long, however, before local gang boss Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau), a shadowy figure from Danny's criminal past, puts the muscle on the boy, insisting that Danny sing at his establishment. To lure Danny to his side of the fence, Maxie relies upon the seductive charms of his gun moll Ronnie (Carolyn Jones), while Danny's true love Nellie (Dolores Hart) suffers on the sidelines. In addition to the expected musical numbers (which are cleverly integrated into the storyline), the film's highlight is a brief exchange of fisticuffs between Elvis and Walter Matthau. Together with Jailhouse Rock, King Creole is one of the best filmed examples of the untamed, pre-army Elvis Presley. The picture was adapted from Harold Robbins' novel A Stone for Danny Fisher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The many undersea exploits of a Navy frogman provide the basis of this episodic adventure based on the true story of naval commander Francis D. Fane. The exciting underwater sequences include actual footage of divers swimming with sharks and a 300-foot dive. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The screen's great existential science fiction film, The Incredible Shrinking Man stars Grant Williams in the title role. While catching some rays on his brother's yacht, Scott Carey (Williams) is enveloped by a mysterious dark cloud. Soon after, he discovers that he's getting thinner -- and smaller. Despite the assuring attitude of his family doctor (the inevitable William Schallert), Scott is losing an inch's worth of height with each passing day. It is finally determined that he has developed an "anti-cancer," a by-product of a new strain of insecticide. By the time he's reached the size of a small boy, Scott has become world-famous. But the phenomenon has adversely affected his personality, turning him into a tyrant, lashing out at the world in general and his faithful wife in particular. An anti-toxin briefly halts the shrinking process, whereupon Scott joins a midget troupe, where he is briefly "accepted" for what he has become. But before long he's shrinking again, becoming so tiny that he is forced to live in a dollhouse. When Scott is attacked by his pet cat, his wife assumes that he's been killed; in fact, Scott, by now so minuscule that even a garden-variety spider poses a deadly threat to him, is hiding in his cellar. By film's end, Scott is no larger than an atom. Uncertain of what is in store for him, he steps out into the mists, summing up his newfound philosophy: "Smaller than smallest, I meant something too. To God there is no zero. I still exist!" Adapted by Richard Matheson from his own novel, The Incredible Shrinking Man is enhanced by its superb special effects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide