Jim Bannon Movies

Damon Runyon's story "Little Miss Marker" gets a mid-'60s update in this comedy. Steve McCluskey (Tony Curtis) is the manager of a nightspot in Lake Tahoe owned by Bernie Friedman (Phil Silvers). Steve is the kind of guy who has heard every sob story in the book and is not easily impressed, but his hard heart begins to soften a bit when he meets Penny Piper (Claire Wilcox), a young orphan girl with no one to turn to and nowhere to go. Steve grudgingly takes her in and soon grows fond of the tyke. Penny thinks that Steve needs to get married and settle down, so she starts playing Cupid, trying to set him up with pretty Chris Lockwood (Suzanne Pleshette). However, Steve is still reeling from his failed first marriage and isn't so sure that another trip to the altar would be good for him. The film's finale sends Steve on a wild chase through Disneyland. Forty Pounds of Trouble marked the feature directorial debut of Norman Jewison, who would go on to make In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, and Jesus Christ Superstar. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Thanks to the notorious gangland conference in Appalachian, New York, the word "Mafia" was on everyone's lips in 1959. Rushing to capitalize on this fact was the low-budget expose Inside the Mafia. Grant Richards plays a Lucky Luciano type who is about to return to the US after several years' deportation. Richards arranges for an upstate New York gangland meeting, where minor mob functionary Cameron Mitchell plans to depose big boss Ted DeCorsia. Mitchell also intends to murder Richards so that he can rule the Mafia unfettered. But Richards is still master of his own fate, and he guns down his competition during the gang conference before surrendering to the police. Inside the Mafia told the public little that wasn't already known, but the film served its purpose of cashing in on a "hot" title. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Having been summoned Westward by a letter from her husband, who claims to have a valuable silver mine, Linda Harris (Erin O'Brien) arrives to find that she is now a widow. Enlisting the aid of Bret Maverick (James Garner), Linda embarks upon a perilous journey through Indian territory in search of her late husband's mine. Taking refuge from an Indian attack, Bret and Linda find themselves trapped in a way station with the Fallon family--who turn out to be the same outlaws who murdered Linda's husband, and are now determined to trick her into leading them to the silver (and of course bump her off as well). This episode is based on "That Packsaddle Affair", a short story by celebrated Western author Louis L'Amour. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Within its own modest limits, The Great Jesse James Raid is a well-crafted western. Willard Parker plays Jesse James, who when the film opens is seen comfortably settled into respectable retirement. At the instigation of the unscrupulous Bob Ford (Jim Bannon), Jesse leaves hearth and home behind to commit one last robbery. Somewhere in the deep recesses of a mine is $300,000 in hidden loot, and Jesse aims to get his mitts on it. Featured in the cast of The Great Jesse James Raid are Barbara Payton and Tom Neal, whose turbulent real-life romance resulted in a great deal of negative publicity. The film is stolen by Wallace Ford as a Scripture-quoting dynamiter; perhaps it is true, as one historian observed, that Ford was in more movies than anyone else in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Phantom from Space is a far better film than its lurid title and skintight budget would indicate. The scene is Santa Monica, where the community is plagued by what seems to be a serial killer. Thanks to a pre-credits sequence, the audience knows that the murderer is a visitor from outer space, who becomes invisible upon shedding his spacesuit. Government agent Hazen (Ted Cooper) teams with LAPD lieutenant Bowers (Harry Landers) to track down the extraterrestrial fugitive. It gradually develops that the space man is not a predator, merely a very frightened and defensive individual, but by the time this realization is made, it's too late for him. Efficiently directed by W. Lee Wilder (Billy's brother), Phantom from Space boasts some very impressive special effects for a film of its type, courtesy of special-effects technician Alex Welden and optical effects specialist Howard Anderson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Hard-working leading lady Jane Nigh attains top billing in 1952's Rodeo. It's all about rough-and-ready gal Nancy Cartwright (Nigh) who takes over a travelling rodeo after the manager skips town with the payroll. Under her guidance, the show becomes a money-making proposition. Unfortunately, in her efforts to prove her value as a businesswoman, Nancy makes a careless remark to aging but proud ex-rodeo star Barbecue Jones (Wallace Ford). A near-tragedy ensues, prompting the rodeo workers to walk out on Nancy when she needs them most. But Slim Martin (John Archer), the rodeo's main attraction, manages to convince his fellow workers that Nancy is a "good egg" after all. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Assembled by the same production team responsible for the minor sci-fi classic Rocketship X-M, Unknown World isn't quite in the same league as its predecessor. The plot is set in motion by Dr. Jeremiah Morley (Victor Kilian), who theorizes that mankind could save itself during a nuclear attack by resettling far beneath the earth's surface. To prove his theory, Morley builds the Cyclotram, a combination drill and exploratory vehicle, with the financial assistance of playboy Wright Thompson (Bruce Kellogg), who insists upon joining the expedition to the earth's core. After several hair-raising adventures, the Cyclotram and its surviving passengers reach a cavern nearly 2000 miles beneath the surface. The cavern contains all the necessities of survival save one: the atmosphere renders anyone living within its walls sterile. Deciding that it isn't worth hiding in the center of the earth if only one generation will survive, the explorers endeavor to get back to the surface -- but who will survive this journey? The obligatory female lead in Unknown World is played by Marilyn Nash, who'd been discovered by Charlie Chaplin for the 1947 film Monsieur Verdoux. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Charles Starrett plays lawman Steve Forsythe in Ridin' the Outlaw Trail. Somewhere along the line, of course, Steve is obliged to don the mask of The Durango Kid, mysterious righter of wrongs. The "wrongs" in this instance include the theft of $20,000 in gold, and the "kidnapping" of a blacksmith's forge! Jim Bannon, who only a few months earlier had played the heroic Red Ryder, provides the villainy in this fast-paced "Durango Kid" entry. The musical chores are handled by Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboys. Sunny Vickers, a pert young starlet who was apparently being groomed for bigger things by Columbia, is the heroine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

William Bendix is perfectly cast as a diehard baseball fan who hates umpires with every fibre of his being. Bendix' devotion to baseball has lost him job after job, so his father-in-law (Ray Collins)--who happens to be an umpire--forces Our Hero to enroll in umpire school. Eventually Bendix learns to respect his new job, even gaining a measure of popularity by earning the nickname "Two-Call Johnson" (the result of double vision brought about by an overdose of eye drop medicine). But when Bendix calls a play against a popular pitcher, he is accused of cheating by the angry fans. Forced to disguise himself to get to the Big Game, Bendix arrives at the ball park to a chorus of "boos." Exonerated by the pitcher, who praises the umpire's honesty, Bendix is the hero of the day...until he makes another unpopular call two seconds later. Kill the Umpire is climaxed by a zany chase sequence scripted by former cartoon director Frank Tashlin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Monogram's Bringing Up Father series, based on the popular comic strip by George McManus, hit a high point of sorts with 1950's Jiggs and Maggie Out West. Joe Yule Sr. (Mickey Rooney's father) and Rene Riano are perfectly cast as nouveau riche Jiggs and Maggie, who head thataway when Maggie inherits a goldmine. As usual, Maggie spends her time trying to climb the frontier social ladder, while down-to-earth Jiggs is more interested in finding a plate of corned beef and cabbage. Dinty Moore, Jiggs' favorite pubkeeper, is played by Tim Ryan; he is brought into the plot as the owner of a western saloon. The climax finds Jiggs and Maggie facing certain death at the hands of an outlaw named Snake Bite (Jim Bannon), who hopes to claim the mine for his own. Artist George McManus, who started Bringing Up Father way back in the early 1900s, makes a gag appearance as himself. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Glenn Ford is top-billed in Man From Colorado, though he's anything but a hero. Ford plays a seriously disturbed Civil War vet who kills because he enjoys killing. William Holden, Ford's army buddy, tries to stem Ford's homicidal tendencies. When Ford is appointed the "hanging" judge of a Colorado town, Holden signs on as his deputy. The final break between the two onetime friends comes when Holden casts his lot with a group of disgruntled miners whom Ford has disenfranchised. A fistfight in a burning building brings the no-nonsense Man From Colorado to a brutal conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi