Aram Katcher Movies
A recently released mental patient may well wonder who the looney ones are in this drama that chronicles his strange homecoming. He has been gone many years and during that time, his father has married a very young woman. He then discovers that the maid is a full-blown witch, the cat has disappeared and finally the chauffeur is busily chasing after his newest mistress. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1967
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat Boone, Terry-Thomas, (more)
- 1967
Amateur military strategist Tony (Larry Hagman) is certain that, had he been around to give advice to Napoleon, the little corporal would never have been defeated in battle. Too bad that Tony has told all this to Jeannie (Barbara Eden), who immediately whisks her master back to the Napoleonic Era, the better to change the course of history. Unfortunately, Napoleon (Aram Katcher) scoffingly dismisses Tony as a two-bit fortune teller--and before long, Nappy has grown sick and tired of the curious stranger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Doris Day and Rod Taylor star in this romantic comedy as Janet and Mike Harper, a married couple who relocate to England when Mike is transferred by the company for whom he works. While Janet and Mike seem to be happy together, the trip across the pond seems to bring on a case of the Seven Year Itch; he has his head turned by his new secretary, while she meets an amorous antique dealer. While the Harpers both begin to see the error of their ways, will they both retreat in time to save their marriage? The supporting cast includes Hermione Baddeley, Reginald Gardiner, and former presidential press secretary turned journalist Pierre Salinger. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Day, Rod Taylor, (more)
- 1963
In this crime drama, an East Coast gangster comes to LA and sets up operations in an abandoned mansion where he and his cohorts plan a caper involving the box-office at the Hollywood Sports Arena. To make the job easier, the handsome gangster pitches woo to the pretty, but lonely arena cashier who becomes the sole witness to the crime. After the robbery, the nefarious villain kills his helpers and dissolves their corpses in a bathtub full of stolen acid. After disposing of them, the murderous crook heads for Brazil and spends all of the loot. Eventually he decides to return and that is where he makes his fatal mistake. Right Hand of the Devil was shot on a low-low-budget and is essentially a vanity film for director Aram Katcher who also wrote, produced and starred in the picture. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aram Katcher, Lisa McDonald, (more)
- 1958
Harry Keller, the man who directed the extra scenes in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, receives solo directorial credit in The Female Animal. Hedy Lamarr stars as Vanessa Windsor, a beautiful but ageing film star whose life is saved on the set by handsome extra Chris Farley (George Nader). Falling in love with Chris, Vanessa finds herself in competition with her own adopted daughter Penny (Jane Powell). Meanwhile, poor Chris struggles to become his "own man", and not merely the sexual plaything of two predatory females. Stealing the film from the nominal stars are Jan Sterling as a fading beauty with romantic notions of her own, and James Gleason as a crusty but likeable agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hedy Lamarr, Jane Powell, (more)
- 1957
Zsa Zsa Gabor plays twin sisters in this campy Red Scare espionage thriller from the late 1950s. She plays the nurse to Joseph Stalin, who didn't die in 1953 after all. The death was all a nefarious scam in which the leader faked his death, had his face surgically rearranged and then moved to Greece with a fortune in Soviet currency. Nurse Zsa Zsa, who is also Stalin's lover. Unfortunately, she told no one where she was going. When her twin discovers her missing, she worries and hires an ex O.S.S. agent to find her. After much searching and danger, the agent finds the wicked dictator and sees that he this time his reign of terror is permanently ended. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lex Barker, Zsa Zsa Gabor, (more)
- 1956
Tony Dumont (Rory Calhoun) is none too trustworthy at the beginning of Flight to Hong Kong. A dealer in contraband goods, Dumont is the bane of his girlfriend Jean Blake's (Dolores Donlon) existence. She wants him to go straight, but the other woman in his life, novelist Pamela Vincent (Barbara Rush), wants him to remain a crook--the better to provide material for a book she's writing. Dumont has a belated change of heart when he steps on the toes of the Mob once too often. Flight to Hong Kong also includes brief stopovers in San Francisco, Honolulu, Tangiers and Macao. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rory Calhoun, Barbara Rush, (more)
- 1953
- NR
Clemson Reade (Cary Grant) is the kind of man who wants to marry an old-fashioned girl, one who will stay home and take care of her husband. However, he's fallen in love with Priscilla "Effie" Effington (Deborah Kerr), who has an exciting career with the State Department that she has no intention of giving up. Clemson has the poor timing of proposing marriage to Effie just as she's in the middle of trying to resolve a major political crisis with the Middle Eastern nation of Bukistan; the United States wants to stay on Bukistan's good side, thanks to their plentiful reserves of oil. Tired of waiting for Effie, Clemson decides that he needs to find a potential bride who will follow his lead instead of her own, and he soon meets Princess Tarji (Betta Saint John), daughter of the King of Bukistan, who has spent her life learning to faithfully serve her man. Clemson half-seriously sends a telegram proposing marriage to Tarji, which touches off a political tempest in a teapot when Tarji responds by visiting the United States. The State Department decides that someone should look after Tarji while she's in America, and who should be given the assignment but Effie; to Clemson's chagrin, Effie uses her time with Tarji to enlighten her about the more liberated status of women in the West. By the way, don't bother looking for Bukistan in your atlas, the country doesn't really exist. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, (more)
- 1953
Paris Model is quickie producer Albert Zugsmith's answer to such multistoried films as Tales of Manhattan. Linking the four stories presented herein is a Paris-original gown, "Nude at Midnight." The gown is first purchased by "good bad girl" Gogo Montaine (Eva Gabor), who hopes to impress her date for the evening, the Maharajah of Kim-Kepore (Tom Conway, who happened to be Gabor's brother-in-law at the time, a fact that wasn't ignored in the film's publicity). Next, the gown is illegally copied in the U.S., leading to a major social gaffe involving secretary Betty Barnes (Paulette Goddard), her boss Edgar Blevins (Leif Erickson) and Blevins' wife Cora (Gloria Christian). Next, Marion Parmelee (Marilyn Maxwell) wears the gown to coerce her husband's boss (Cecil Kellaway) into giving hubby a promotion. And finally, Marta Jensen (Barbara Lawrence) dons the gown in hopes that her erstwhile beau Charlie Johnson (Robert Hutton) will pop the question. Tom Conway makes a return appearance in this final sequence, as does 1930s comedy favorite El Brendel and Hollywood restaurateur Prince Michael Romanoff. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Gabor, Tom Conway, (more)
- 1953
During the early days of East Indian independence in 1947, a native rebellion threatens a hotel full of Britishers, Europeans and Americans. Gunrunner Alan Ladd could care less about anything other than his own neck. Ladd runs up against the resistance of a pacifist Indian leader (Charles Boyer), who hopes to quell the factional disturbances. Falling in love with Deborah Kerr, blind daughter of missionary Cecil Kellaway, Ladd decides to forego mercenary involvement in India's internal affairs and to shepherd the stranded non-Indians to safety. Paramount was overproducing again in 1951, so Thunder in the East didn't go into release until 1953, at which time its story was outdated enough to result in utter indifference from the paying public. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Ladd, Deborah Kerr, (more)
- 1953
This remake of John Ford's The Black Watch (29) stars Tyrone Power as British army captain stationed in India in 1857. Shunned by his fellow officers because he is a half caste, Power defies the social structure of the era by falling in love with the daughter (Terry Moore) of his superior officer. Power proves his loyalty to the Crown by quelling an uprising, led by his Indian boyhood friend (Guy Rolfe). The actors do their best, but the storyline is trite and stilted when dwelling on matters of honor and romance. King of the Khyber Rifles works best as an action picture--and in this respect it is immensely superior to the earlier John Ford film, which almost plays like a comedy when seen today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Power, Terry Moore, (more)
- 1952
Back at the Front is the second of two film comedies based on the wartime cartoons of Bill Mauldin. As in Up Front, the principal characters are woebegone GIs Willie and Joe: Tom Ewell is back as Willie, but Harvey Lembeck replaces David Wayne as Joe. The original purpose of Mauldin's newspaper cartoons--to give enlisted men a surreptitious means of blowing off steam concerning the iniquities of war and the occasional idiocies of their officers--is completely ignored in Back at the Front. Instead, we are offered a very standard spy plot set in postwar Tokyo, involving femme fatale Mari Blanchard and a shipment of booby-trapped food tins. Back at the Front could have been done just as well with Abbott and Costello--better, in fact. Watch in the closing scenes for David Janssen, playing a one-line bit as a rookie soldier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Ewell, Harvey Lembeck, (more)
A handful of strangers are suddenly thrown together as America goes face-to-face against the Communist threat in this curious example of Cold War exploitation. A few people are enjoying drinks in a Manhattan cocktail lounge - television reporter Vince Potter (Gerald Mohr), vacationing tractor tycoon George Sylvester (Robert Bice), cattle baron Ed Mulfory (Erik Blythe), Congressman Arthur Harroway) (Wade Crosby), aimless party girl Carla Sandford (Peggie Castle), and cheerfully dunderheaded bartender Tim (Tom Kennedy). As they discuss the state of the world and their disinterest with U.S. defense and paying taxes, one Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy) begins swirling his brandy snifter, and before long the other patrons are lulled into a hypnotic state, where they're given a sneak preview of what to expect when an unnamed Communist nation invades the West Coast. Mulfory is able to return home just in time to see his ranch flooded by enemy sabotage, armed troops take over Sylvester's factory, the Congressman watches as Reds seize power, and the suddenly patriotic Carla falls in love with Vince as he covers the brave but futile resistance dished out by our ill-equipped and poorly-prepared military forces. Spectacularly paranoid and loaded with often tattered stock footage, Invasion USA was shot in a mere seven days on a budget of $127,000, and ended up earning its producers well over a million dollars upon its initial release in 1952. Superman fans take note: Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill, both of whom played Lois Lane in the 50's television series The Adventures of Superman, appear in Invasion USA's supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gerald Mohr, Peggie Castle, (more)
- 1951
Filmed on location in Italy, The Light Touch served as a showcase for MGM's newest female star Pier Angeli. The title refers to the nimble-fingered technique utilized by art thief Sam Conride (Stewart Granger). Sam is a cog in the wheel of the operation controlled by illegal art peddler Felix Guignol (George Sanders). Angeli plays Anna Vasarri, a young painter who'd like to reform Sam but who is unavoidably sucked into the illicit activities orchestrated by Guignol. Sam endangers Anna's life as well as his own when he masterminds a solo theft, intending to leave Guignol in the lurch. An unexpected jolt of religiosity forces Sam to mend his ways, much to Anna's relief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stewart Granger, Anna Maria Pier Angeli, (more)
- 1950
Roger Quain (Howard Duff) arrives in Europe to look after the welfare of two zoo-bound black panthers. Catherine Ulven (Marta Toren), a secret agent for an unnamed country, decides to smuggle a valuable piece of film to America by hiding it in the collar of one of the big cats. If it were this easy, the film would be over in ten minutes. Instead, enemy agents Denson (Philip Friend), Paradou (Robert Douglas) and Kopel (Dorn) target Roger, Catherine, and the panthers for extermination. Thus the stage is set for a thrill-packed pursuit through the mountains of Switzerland. Spy Hunt is based on the somewhat more credible novel Panther's Moon by Victor Canning. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Howard Duff, Märta Torén, (more)
