Jeffrey Hunter Movies

In this Spanish drama, a lifelong friendship falls apart when the buddies fall in love with the same girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The thin plot of this film takes place during the Napoleonic invasion of Germany and is a backdrop for displaying several nude females. Susanne (Terry Torday) is the hostess of a well-known house of ill repute on the Lahn River. Susanne travels to Italy to deliver a message to Count Enrico (Jeffrey Hunter), an amorous lover under the spell of Napoleon's sister. She sets him up with a bride and manages to uncover some military secrets in the court of the amorous emperor. Folk songs were written about this actual historical hostess who dazzled young students with her legendary beauty. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this western a desperado suffers an identity crisis in a frontier town. While he struggles to find the truth, he manages to save the town from a crazed, manipulative gambler. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Opening with a montage depicting its subject's Civil War exploits, Custer of the West carries us across four years of fighting in less than four minutes of screen time. The Civil War ended, George Armstrong Custer (Robert Shaw) longs for action and to hold onto his rank of general, so General Phil Sheridan (Lawrence Tierney) sends him West, admitting that there will be no nobility to his cause there -- the government and the people want the land, and that means getting the Indians off of it by any means necessary. He arrives in time to see a party of Cheyenne (whom the real Custer never fought) kill a pair of miners by sending them rolling down a long hill in a runaway wagon -- that motif is repeated, in ever more striking, elaborate, and violent fashions, in two subsequent action scenes. Custer organizes his command around Major Marcus Reno (Ty Hardin), depicted as an ambitious officer with a drinking problem, and Captain Benteen (Jeffrey Hunter), a humane officer with a strange, almost mystical streak, who understands the Indians better than anyone else in Custer's command. Also present are Mary Ure as Custer's loving wife and Robert Ryan in a very flamboyant performance as a larcenous sergeant who comes to no good end after being stricken with gold fever. After getting his command into the shape it needs to be -- mostly by running everyone except a lone sergeant into the ground in an extended drill -- he carries out his mission, quietly detesting the motives behind his orders but executing them out to the letter. Regarded as a hero in the East, Custer returns to Washington only to jeopardize his career by testifying about the corruption he's found around him in the West. He is left a political pariah but once more. Sheridan intercedes, again getting Custer posted with the Seventh Cavalry now engaged against the Sioux. He is, by this time, disillusioned with the army that he serves and the politicians and the business interests in whose service it functions. Though he craves the glory that comes with battle, he sees soldiering of the type he is being asked to carry out as little more than organized slaughter, even relying on machines to do the killing in ever more indiscriminate ways with none of the contest between men, of strategies, and arms and resourcefulness -- that was his real joy. The demons and goals that drive him culminate with Custer's disastrous action at Little Big Horn, which is beautifully (if not necessarily accurately) staged, in a stunning visual and aural denouement. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Ed Stander (Robert Morse), with the help of an all-star cast, teaches Paul Manning (Walter Matthau) the fine art of philandering in A Guide for the Married Man. Paul, happily married to sexy Ruth (Inger Stevens), has no burning desire to cheat, but Ed makes the prospect sound very attractive. Finally taking the "big step" with a glamorous brunette after months of careful preparation, Paul finds that he loves his wife way too much to betray her -- while the ever-careful Ed ends up in divorce court. Among the myriad of "advisors" peppered throughout Guide for the Married Man are Art Carney, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Jayne Mansfield, Terry-Thomas, and Carl Reiner. The best guest-star vignette features Joey Bishop as a man caught in bed with another woman by his wife -- whereupon he calmly puts on his clothes, straightens up the room, and quietly responds to his wife's outrage by saying "What bed? What girl?" Adapted by Frank Tarloff from his book of the same name, Guide for the Married Man was directed by Gene Kelly, who makes a cameo "appearance" of his own as a voice on a TV set. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The starship Enterprise is diverted to Star Base 11 by a message supposedly sent by the ship's former commander, Fleet Captain Christopher Pike, and received by the ship's first officer, Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Upon arriving, however, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) discovers that Pike has been paralyzed by injuries from a space disaster and could not have sent the message, or even asked to have had one sent. Kirk tries to unravel the mystery, unwilling to believe that Spock could lie, but also troubled by Spock's longstanding loyalty to his former captain. Spock then kidnaps Pike and commandeers the Enterprise, locking the ship on a course for Talos IV, a mysterious planet that is off-limits -- on penalty of death -- to any Star Fleet vessel. Adding to the mystery is the fact that the only Earth ship ever to visit Talos IV was the Enterprise, under Pike's command with Spock as science officer, 13 years earlier. Kirk boards the Enterprise in the company of Commodore Mendez (Malachi Throne), but is unable to divert the ship's course. Spock insists upon a formal court martial for mutiny, during which he begins presenting a visual account of the Enterprise's first visit to Talos IV. The trial board sees how the ship was baited to the planet and Pike was kidnapped, taken below the surface by the inhabitants, who have the power to cast perfect illusions. An emergency signal interrupts the trial, as Star Fleet notifies Mendez that the Enterprise has been receiving images from Talos IV in violation of regulations. Kirk is relieved of his command, Mendez is ordered to do anything necessary to prevent the ship from reaching Talos IV, and Spock now faces a death sentence. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

In this sci-fi spy thriller, a secret agent for Espionage, Inc., is assigned to stop the Dragon, a Chinese communist organization, from detonating a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Set in Kentucky during the slavery days of the Old South, this adaptation of the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe tells of the workings of the underground railroad, a secretive system formed by whites and blacks which allowed slaves to escape into the northern states. This drama, directed in Yugoslavia by Hungarian Geza Radvanyi, tends to stray from the original story and contains many contradictions to historical fact. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Brainstorm is a somewhat contrived but still well done and frightening thriller written and well-directed by actor William Conrad. Jim Grayam (Jeffrey Hunter) is a young scientist who saves Lorrie Benson (Anne Francis) from committing suicide. They fall in love, but Lorrie's husband Cort Benson (Dana Andrews), who had driven her to the brink of suicide before, discovers that Jim has had a history of mental instability and fabricates obscene phone calls and other actions to create the impression that Jim is unstable. The pair decide to murder Cort, using insanity as a defense. The film has a series of interesting plot twists and a plausible ending, and the performances are generally excellent with Conrad's direction maintaining a good pace and an excellent visual style aided by a good, simple musical score by George Duning. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

Though a slave, Lacer (Jeffrey Hunter) is well respected as a talented architect. After falling for Pennelope (Mylene Demongeot), the amorous slave of proconsul Maximus (Massimo Girotti), Lacer runs into trouble. He is soon sent off on search for gold, but finds that his orders are intended to get rid of him. He must think fast if he is to stay alive. Arnold Perl adapted this sword and sandal feature from Florence A. Seward's novel. Perl would go on to write the screenplay for Spike Lee's 1992 drama, Malcom X. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Two young women have been murdered in the woods surrounding the campus of a college, and in each case the victim's body was sliced up in surgical fashion. While the police investigate the possibility that one of the faculty members is the killer, medical student Daphne Grey (Vera Miles) lives in mortal fear that she might be the next victim. Even so, Daphne agrees to act as bait in a scheme concocted by her psychology-professor boyfriend, Harold (Jeffrey Hunter), to trap the murderer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This is a routine docudrama on the life of George R. Tweed, a World War II hero played by Jeffrey Hunter. Tweed was trapped on Guam from the day when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and began their Pacific campaign. Tweed manages to survive detection throughout the long war years, and when the time comes for the Allies to invade the island, he is instrumental in signaling information to them from his hidden base on a hilltop. Although the events depicted are based on facts, those facts and the character of Tweed himself are sacrificed at times to the demand for dramatic effects. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Edmond O'Brien became the latest actor to try his hand at directing in Man-Trap (he'd previous functioned as codirector on 1957's Shield for Murder). Jeffrey Hunter stars as an impressionable fellow whose old marine buddy (David Janssen) talks him into a questionable business venture. Hunter joins Janssen in a plot to hijack nearly four million dollars from the Mob. The results are far from beneficial, either for Hunter or his alcoholic, promiscuous young wife (Stella Stevens). Man-Trap was adapted from John D. MacDonald's novel Taint of the Tiger. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi