Kurt Kasznar Movies

For its third animated-cartoon presentation, ABC Afterschool Special offers a streamlined adaptation of Edmond Rostand's romantic play Cyrano de Bergerac. The best swordsman and wittiest raconteur in all France, Cyrano de Bergerac (voiced by José Ferrer, recreating his most famous Broadway role) also has one of the largest noses known to man, and it is for this reason that he is reluctant to declare his love for the beautiful Roxanne. This, however, does not prevent Cyrano from helping his handsome but somewhat cloddish friend Christian win Roxanne's hand, simply by surreptitiously feeding flowery dialogue to Christian while the latter pitches woo. Cyrano was produced by the busy Hanna-Barbera studios. ~ Rovi

Inspector Erskine puts out an A.P.B. on a gang of art thieves led by Ken Meade (Joseph Campanella). The brazen criminals have managed to steal a valuable statue right in the middle of an art auction. Though Meade does a nice job of eluding the Feds, he'd be better off allowing himself to be captured: an unknown assassin has targeted the clever thieves for elimination, one by one. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

For its second season, Land of the Giants opened with a new credit sequence and different John Williams theme music, that was less suspenseful and more action/adventure oriented -- in lieu of the first season's chase motif, this one spliced and juxtaposed the action sequences from various episodes into a kind of mosaic related to the series. This change in the opening credits reflected a slight change in the series as well, although the key plot elements from the first season remained -- the "little people" from Earth stranded in the wrecked sub-orbital passenger ship Spindrift, still trapped on a planet where everything was 12 times larger than on Earth. There was more character variation but also a softening of many of the edgier character attributes from the first season -- now in their second year in this alien world, the Spindrift crew and passengers are usually working together more harmoniously, and they know each other better, so there are fewer surprises in that area of the plotting.

The key difference was that they also know more about the giants and their world, and are able to work a little more pro-actively in seeing to their own needs. The plots also took an occasional wilder turn, such as having the Spindrift crew interacting with aliens from other worlds (including two played by Bruce Dern and Yvonne Craig), and even engage in attempts at time travel ("Wild Journey"), with help from those aliens. It is in one of those episodes that they learn that, at least in one potential variation of the past, if the Spindrift had not passed through the space-warp to the giants' home world, it would have been destroyed in flight to London in an accident. The actors were clearly having more fun with their roles in the second season, especially Kurt Kasznar's Alexander Fitzhugh -- now a somewhat more reliable (if still slightly unpredictable) member of the party, he becomes more likable but still shows his devious side every so often. Kasznar, a theater veteran with long experience on-stage, unlike everyone else in the cast (which makes his performances sometimes seem like they're taking place in a different production), obviously relished the chance to be a farceur -- a very rare opportunity on American television in the 1960's, especially in a dramatic series -- and ran with it. Deanna Lund and Heather Young were still as pretty as ever, with Lund showing a cuter and more playful side -- though she still could have stepped right from this show into Melrose Place or Gossip Girl without skipping a beat; and Don Matheson, Gary Conway, and Don Marshall were making more of their lines in this season's episodes. Most of the plots continued to gravitate toward the desire of the little people to return to Earth, and the giants' pursuit of their capture, but there were also a handful of light-hearted episodes in Season Two: One in which the "little people" meet an Irish giant (?!!!), played by Alan Hale, Jr. (of the then-recently cancelled Gilligan's Island) who believes in leprechauns; and an eerie fantasy tale involving the actual Pied Piper of Hamlin (played by Jonathan Harris of the then-recently-cancelled Lost In Space), who has come to work his evil magic on the giants' world.

Land Of The Giants was massively expensive to produce, because of the outsized (and sometimes under-sized) props and sets needed and the requirement for a huge number of takes and camera set-ups for the different perspective shots, as well as any special effects required. As a result of these costs and ratings that weren't as high as the producer or the network had hoped for, it was cancelled after the 1969-70 season. Had Land of the Giants gone to a third season or beyond, many of the participants believe that the plots would eventually have had the little people repairing their ship, at least to the degree that they could move to different locales on the giants' planet. Fans of the series, however, were able to content themselves to some extent with three surprisingly good -- indeed, downright excellent, by the usual standards of the genre -- "novelizations" of the series, authored by veteran science fiction writer Murray Leinster: Land of the Giants, Land of the Giants 2: The Hot Spot, and Land of the Giants 3: Unknown Danger, published by Pyramid Books in 1968 and 1969. Those books not only make an effort to explain how the giants -- 12 times larger than us and, by the laws of physics, 144 times more massive -- can move around, or survive, and gives a wonderfully plausible explanation for why the little people are hunted (and it has to do with a lot more than mere curiosity). For those who want to see a more ambitious vision of what the show could have been, but never got to be in just two seasons, the books are worth tracking down. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

The basic premise of Land Of The Giants, along with most of the attributes of the seven characters, is established in the first episode, "The Crash". The sub-orbital passenger ship Spindrift, en route from Los Angeles to London, is drawn into a glowing space apparition that carries them to a world exactly like Earth -- except that everything, people, animals, plants etc., is 12 times larger than on Earth. And as the crew and the passengers soon discover that they are subject to capture and experimentation by whatever inhabitants of this planet might trap them.

Within that framework, however, the series did undergo changes during the first season. In the first episode, the giants -- who are seen mostly in the guise of a scientist and his assistant -- are seen as distant, distorted figures, the size differential almost disorienting to the camera; and they are heard only indistinctly, speaking in muffled and distorted voices, and it's not clear at first what language they might be speaking. In other words, the size differential is emphasized to the degree that the giants and the "little people," as we later learn Earth visitors are referred to, are isolated from one another even in each others' presence, as sentient beings. This creates an eeriness to their interactions and adds an element of isolation in the point of view of the main characters in the early episodes that was lost in subsequent shows, as the point-of-view changed along with the way that the giants were presented.

In later shows, the giants' voices are fully comprehensible and they are speaking English and communicating with the "little people." And we discover that there is a government bounty on them. And we learn that most of the planet seems to be organized as a worldwide totalitarian state, similar to some of the Eastern bloc communist countries, with a secret police service -- a similarity that residents of many of those countries picked up on and resonated to very strongly, once the series started running in Eastern Europe in the 1970's. One such member of that service, Inspector Kobick (Kevin Hagen), investigates enough cases involving the Sprindrift's complement, that he actually at one point refers to the ship's commander, Captain Steve Burton (Gary Conway), by his last name -- a major concession to Burton's essential humanity and Kobick's own inability to ignore it, despite his official position.

During the first season, many of the episodes revolve around the Spindrift's crew and passengers trying to patch up their vessel for an eventual attempted return to Earth -- if they can get the equipment they need, if they can reach escape velocity, and find a space-warp that will take them back to Earth. There are so many barriers to their escape, that sheer curiosity about how they might overcome any of these obstacles made one want to tune in from week to week, this despite the fundamental concept behind the series being scientifically absurd -- people and animals (or anything else) 12 times larger than normal will, of necessity, weigh 144 times as much, and be incapable of movement, and it's not even a matter of weight so much as mass, which is independent of gravity. But the series was presented with enough of a brisk pace and sense of adventure so that few viewers were bothered by this matter (anymore than anyone ever tuned out The Adventures of Superman over the matter of how he flies . . . .).

The visitors are still learning about the giants' planet and social order during this season, and coping with their own individual motivations. This is especially true where Alexander Fitzhugh (Kurt Kasznar), an embezzler on the run with a million dollars, is concerned; he has a soft spot for the orphaned boy Barry Lockridge (Stefan Argrim), who looks up to him because Fitzhugh is wearing a US Navy commander's uniform (which is clearly a disguise, but one maintained for the run of the show), but otherwise is a sometimes unstable personality. The others aren't too much better -- Mark Wilson (Don Matheson) is a high-powered businessman and engineer who has an agenda of his own; and Valerie Scott (Deanna Lund) is a wealthy playgirl accustomed to getting her own way in most things. There were enough places for friction to keep the show interesting on a basic character level across the first season.

The first season credit sequence of the series has always been a point-of-interest for television and music mavens. Most of it is comprised of an animated motif in which a diminutive figure, representing the "little people," is being stalked by a much larger shadowy figure with a searchlight, while John Williams' sting-laden theme music plays, building gradually in intensity, in the background. Both the design and the music for this sequence bear a striking resemblance to the opening credits for Kraft Suspense Theater, which had aired across the early and middle 1960's on network television -- and had a similar musical accompaniment by . . . John Williams. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Code Name: Heraclitus is an expanded version of a TV drama first seen in January of 1967 on Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre. Stanley Baker stars as a British spy who investigating the past of Signe Hasso, the widow of secret agent Kurt Kasner. Hasso is suspected of selling cold war secrets to the Communists. To ascertain the truth, it is necessary to "rebuild" Kasner and send his living counterpart behind the Iron Curtain. Though originally advertised in TV Guide as a two-part Chrysler Theatre drama, it appears as though Code Name: Heraclitus was whittled down to 60 minutes for its first telecast, then later released in its uncut form to European movie houses. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Perils of Pauline appropriates the title and nothing else from the legendary 1914 Pearl White serial (and also bears no relation to the 1947 Pearl White biopic of the same name, which starred Betty Hutton). Pamela Austin plays Pauline, a young heiress who finds herself plunked into one peril after another: a typical dilemma has Pauline at the mercy of an adolescent sheik. Pat Boone plays Pauline's millionaire childhood sweetheart, who follows the girl throughout the world to declare his love but who always manages to miss her as she hops from country to country. The best performances are delivered by the supporting cast, including Terry-Thomas, Edward Everett Horton, and comic actor/cartoon voice-over expert Hamilton Camp. "Camp" in fact is the byword of Perils of Pauline, which is deliberately overacted and hoked up in the manner of the contemporary Batman TV series. Perils of Pauline was the pilot film for a projected weekly TV series that underwent several format changes (including one that would have featured Larry Storch as the top-hatted villain) before the producers gave up on the project altogether. The plucky Pauline is played by Pamela Austin, who'd risen to fame in the 1960s as the "Dodge Rebellion" girl in a series of popular car commercials. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this, the third in the Matt Helm special-agent series, Dean Martin plays Helm who's called to save those aboard a hijacked U.S. spacecraft. Ambushers is generally regarded as the weakest of the Helm films, lacking inspiration at most levels. ~ Rovi

The two romantic leads in this standard but well-acted political drama renew a famous pairing that began with The King and I in 1956. Deborah Kerr is Lady Diana Ashmore, caught at the wrong side of the Hungarian-Austrian border in 1956, and Yul Brynner is Major Surov, a Russian commander who works at the border crossing. With the outbreak of the 1956 rebellion, the Budapest airport is shut down and Diana, along with other international travellers, are forced to reach Vienna by bus. Along for the ride is one of the Hungarian dissenters hunted by the police, Paul (Jason Robards, Jr. in his screen debut). Diana and Paul are in love and she is determined to protect his secret. Major Surov suspects a rebel is hidden on the bus, but he does not know which passenger is the guilty one. As interaction continues at the border, Diana is attracted to the Major and his complex character, even against her will. Their developing relationship and strong personalities carry the story from start to finish. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The second edition of the famous fairy tale anthology Shirley Temple's Storybook (and the second to be telecast live), was this semi-musical version of the Grimm brothers' "Rumpelstiltskin." Because miller Hanz Franz (Kurt Kasznar) has bragged to one and all that his daughter, Elsa (Phyllis Love), can spin straw into gold, the poor girl is spirited away by royal tax collector Lord Karsch (a decidedly pre-Lost in Space Jonathan Harris) and locked in a room in the palace of the king (John Raitt). Here, Elsa is given an ultimatum: spin gold and win the king's hand in marriage, or suffer a terrible fate. Coming to the girl's rescue is an odd little man from the Black Forest named Rumpelstiltskin, who offers his magical assistance -- but his price is Elsa's first-born child. The title character is played by celebrated Israeli pantomimist Shai K. Ophir, an ironic bit of casting in that the Grimms' original Rumpelstiltskin was obviously intended as an anti-Semitic stereotype (though not, of course, in this production). John Raitt sings "A Lonely Heart and a Friendly Face"," specially written for this program by veteran Hollywood tunesmiths Mack David and Jerry Livingston. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Farewell to Arms is the second film version of Ernest Hemingway's World War One novel--and also the last film produced by David O. Selznick (Gone with the Wind). Rock Hudson plays an American serving in the Italian Army during the "War to End All Wars". Jennifer Jones is his lover, a Red cross nurse. They have a torrid affair, which results in Jones' pregnancy. As the months pass, Hudson and Jones lose contact with one another, and Jones believes that Hudson has forgotten her. But a battle-weary Hudson finally makes it to Switzerland, where Jones is hospitalized. The baby is stillborn, and Jones dies shortly afterward, murmuring that her death is "a dirty trick." Filmed on a simpler scale in 1932 (with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes starring), A Farewell to Arms was blown all out of proportion to "epic" stature for the 1957 remake--so much so that its original director, John Huston, quit the film in disgust. Still, the basic love story is touchingly enacted by Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Yvonne de Carlo is at her most smokily exotic in the Republic "special" Flame of the Islands. Filmed on location in the Bahamas, the story focuses on Rosalind Dee (Ms. DeCarlo), a cabaret singer who aspires to enter High Society. To this end, she comes into possession of a great deal of money through rather underhanded means. Rosalind forms a partnership with gambling-club owners Wade Evans (Zachary Scott) and Cyril Mace (Kurt Kasner), building the establishment into a gathering place for the Elite. Along the way, she attempts to rekindle a romance with randy playboy Doug Duryea (Howard Duff), but it is true-blue Kelly Rand (James Arness) who rescues Rosalind from gangland intrusion in the final reel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jump into Hell is one of the first films to deal with the ongoing conflict in Vietnam or, as it was still known in 1955, French IndoChina. The 56-day battle of Dien Ben Phu is herein reenacted, with several French volunteers emerging as the heroes. Arriving in IndoChina by parachute, Captain Guy Bertrand (Jacques Sernas, here billed as "Jack") and his comrades make a courageous stand against the Communist forces. Before their inevitable doom, the men conjure up visions of the mademoiselles they left behind. Jump into Hell was scripted by novelist Irving Wallace, whose attitudes towards Western intervention in Vietnam would undergo a radical change within the next 15 years. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi