Richard Kiley Movies

The "regeneration" of blacklisted director Edward Dmytryk was expedited when he was hired by producer Stanley Kramer to helm the location-filmed melodrama The Sniper. In the interests of political expediency, Dmytrk was required to direct Adolphe Menjou, one of the most virulent Red-baiters of the HUAC hearings. Shorn of his trademarked mustache, and with his famous expensive wardrobe replaced by a humdrum business suit, Menjou turns in one of his best performances as a world-weary San Francisco detective assigned to track down a mad sniper. From the beginning, the audience knows that the criminal is psycho Eddie Miller (Arthur Franz), who is possessed of the notion that he must kill every beautiful brunette woman who crosses his path. Some audience sympathy is elicited by Miller's pathetic attempts to rid himself of his obsession, but this never gets in the way of the film's suspense. The excellent supporting cast includes Richard Kiley as a police psychiatrist, Marie Windsor as Miller's first victim, and Mabel Paige as the sniper's snoopy landlady. An unbilled Wally Cox shows up briefly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bonar Colleano, who spent the war years playing brash Americans in British films, makes his final screen appearance in the Stanley Kramer production Eight Iron Men. Set during WW II, the film follows the exploits of a small Army squadron, billeted in a bombed-out house on the front lines. Tensions mount as the men attempt to save one of their number, who is trapped behind enemy lines and heavily surrounded. Essentially a single-set film (it was based on A Sound of Hunting, a stage play by Harry Brown), Eight Iron Men works better as a character study than a war flick. Colleano dominates the proceedings as a self-styled Lothario, while Arthur Franz, Lee Marvin, Richard Kiley, Nick Dennis, James Griffith, George Cooper and former child-star Dick Moore likewise register well. For no discernible reason, the screenplay manages to include several extra characters, including Mary Castle as "The Girl" in a dream sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on actual events, The Phenix City Story tells the tale of a wide-open "Sin City" in Alabama (across a bridge from Columbus, GA, and just a stone's throw from the Ft. Benning Army base) where gambling, prostitution, and any number of other vices were tolerated openly by the law, most of it centered on the main downtown drag, 14th Street, thanks to the 50-year influence of organized crime on the local government. Reform groups, mostly in the form of vigilantes, had tried to clean up "the wickedest city in the United States" before, even taking the law into their own hands and wrecking some of the establishments, only to be stymied by the courts (which were otherwise indifferent to activities on 14th Street). At the outset of the movie, set in 1954 -- when the actual events took place -- a new reform group is trying to organize and attempting to get the city's most prominent attorney, Albert Patterson (John McIntire) on their side; so are the club owners on 14th Street, led by Rhett Tanner (Edward Andrews), a cheerful, affable sort with a mean streak not far from the surface. But Patterson wants no part of either side's activities -- he's been a reformer, even a successful candidate, only to see his efforts come to little, and has also successfully defended Tanner and the others on 14th Street in an investigation of a murder of which they weren't guilty. Now he's old, and he wants to sit back with his wife and enjoy the return of his army office/lawyer son, John (Richard Kiley), and his family from Germany. But when the 14th Street boys, led by Clem Wilson (John Larch), go too far beating up Patterson's friends, and involve his son John, and then turn to murder and intimidation, it forces the elder Patterson and his son to join the reformers.

The Phenix City Story runs 87 minutes, but most prints also include a 13-minute preface, compiled from newsreel footage and interviews with the original participants, that provides background on the events that inspired the film (and also spoils a few plot points). Ironically, given the negative image that it portrays of Alabama, the movie was surprisingly well-received in the state at the time; residents were simply fascinated by and taken with the notion of a feature film set in their home state and even including a couple of actual local residents in its cast. Director Phil Karlson was to enjoy even greater success 18 years later with a similar story about one man fighting a city turned bad, Walking Tall, which included many similarly staged action scenes amid its somewhat wider plot-canvas. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Another of the handful of Playhouse 90 dramas that were filmed rather than telecast "live", "Homeward Borne" is based on a novel by actress Ruth Chatterton. Upon returning from war duty, fighter pilot Bob Lyttleton (Richard Kiley) is surprised to discover that his has a new son. Actually, the boy is a European war orphan, adopted by Bob's wife Meg (Linda Darnell). Though Meg loves the boy unconditionally, Bob resents the child's presence, since it conjures up painful memories of his years in combat. Richard Eyer, a child actor best known for his roles in such theatrical features as The Desperate Hours and Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, is cast as Tommy Lyttleton. In 1958, Homeward Borne was released in syndication as part of a Screen Gems feature-film package, thereby obscuring its TV roots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A jealous man is confronted with his worst fear in this thriller. Merritt Blake (Richard Kiley) is an architect from the United States who is invited to work on a project in Spain. Since he cannot speak Spanish, Blake is in need of an interpreter, and he hires Mari Zarubia (Carmen Sevilla), a beautiful Spanish woman, to serve as his translator. Zarubia's boyfriend, Antonio (Jose Guardiola), does not trust Blake, and follow him as he travels the countryside with Zarubia, convinced he intends to steal his woman away. Antonio's paranoia becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when Blake and Zarubia find themselves falling in love, which only feeds his violent jealousy. Spanish Affair was shot on location in Spain, with Sam Leavitt's VistaVision camera work making the most of the nation's scenic backdrops. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This video chronicles the finals days of Christ's life, the Resurrection and Peter reformation. ~ All Movie Guide

15 years after defecting to the Communists, disillusioned American atomic scientist John Streyer (Richard Kiley) secretly returns to the United States. Not surprisingly, Streyer's homecoming is greeted with outright hostility by former friends and loved ones--and worse, a Red assassin has surfaced with orders to kill him. Arthur Ward (Philip Abbott), the boss of FBI inspector Lew Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), makes it his personal mission to locate Streyer before the killer does. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the two-hour pilot film for the subsequent TV "occult" anthology, series creator Rod Serling hosts three macabre short stories, introducing each with a framed portrait in a nocturnal art gallery. The first story stars Roddy MacDowall as a covetous nephew who murders his uncle, suffering the consequence of being possessed by a family painting. The second story stars Joan Crawford as a blind, thoroughly despicable millionairess who purchases the eyes of down-and-out Tom Bosley in order to enjoy 12 precious hours of sight. The final tale involves a Nazi war criminal (Richard Kiley), who attempts to evade his pursuers by escaping into a painting in a museum. The middle sequence is by far the best, directed with youthful bravado by 21-year-old Steven Spielberg. An uneven package, Night Gallery was nonetheless infinitely superior to the series that followed, which suffered from too much network and studio interference and not enough Rod Serling. The Night Gallery pilot was first telecast November 8, 1969; the series ran from 1970 through 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This documentary combines black-and-white with color photography to tell the story of heavyweight boxing champion Mohammed Ali, formerly known as Cassius Clay before his religious conversion to the Black Muslims. Richard Kiley narrates, and personal accounts from Joe Louis and Ali himself firmly puts Ali in an elite group of boxers that is second only to Louis in the sport's popularity and stature. Fights from director Jim Jacobs film library show Ali against Henry Cooper, Floyd Patterson, Jerry Quarry and the controversial knockdown of Sonny Liston. Ali proclaims himself to be both the greatest and the prettiest fighter ever to enter a boxing ring. Legendary trainer Cus D'Amato is on hand to keep his prizefighter focused and takes his boxer's self-promoting flamboyance in perspective. The late Malcolm X gives his opinion about Ali, and the champ meets one of his childhood heroes from Hollywood, comedian Stepin Fetchit, whom Ali credits with providing him with a knockout punch lifted from the actor's screen antics. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this made for TV movie meant to be the pilot for a big city newspaper series, a young reporter takes his job too much to heart when covering the story of a middle-aged businessman accused of murder when he kills a young man who was assaulting an old man. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

A charming doctor who kills his female patients is discovered by a private detective in this made for television movie. ~ All Movie Guide