Trevor Bardette Movies

A lame racehorse is healed with the aid of a youngster's loving care and is able to enter the famed Kentucky Derby. ~ Rovi

A mosquito bite gives Martin (Ray Walston) a case of "sympsympatheticus", causing him to act and think like a race horse named Sweet Sue, which had also been bitten by the same insect. At the same time, Sweet Sue has begun displaying Martin's behavior and intellect! The outcome of the story hinges not only on Martin's actions but also on such venerable racetrack-movie cliches as the kindly old horse owner, his feisty granddaughter, a crooked gambler, and the obligatory Big Race. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This charming tale is about a young girl's father and his slightly erratic behavior after sampling a refreshing alcoholic beverage. Although Papa Jack Griffith (Jackie Gleason) never appears to be drunk, his "delicate condition" is well known to his family. His wife is definitely unhappy over his penchant but loves him just the same. He is adored by his youngest daughter, six year old Corinne (Linda Bruhl). When he tries to buy a pony for Corinne, he not only gets the pony but the entire broken down, debt ridden circus as well. This is too much for wife Ambolyn (Glynis Johns), who packs up the kids and heads for her father's house in Texarkana. Jack follows with the entire circus in pursuit to take his loving family back home. He also hoodwinks some local investors to put money into a proposed drug store, thereby circumventing a blue law that forbids the sale of alcohol. Gleason's performance contain many fine moments that run the full spectrum of human emotions and clearly illustrates why he has deservedly been referred to as "The Great One." ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Brilliant artist James Callahan (Phillip Abbott) is burdened with two heavy crosses: He is not only an alcoholic, but also a social pariah because of his marriage to Paiute woman Esther (Donna Martell). When Adam Cartwright tries to extricate Callahan from his drunken self-pity, his efforts are blocked by an Indian-hating rabble rouser named McDermott (Morgan Woodward). First seen on October 20, 1963, "The Toy Soldier" was written by Warren Douglas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Both Adam Cartwright and fugitive killer Luke Martin (Robert Vaughn) seek shelter from a storm in the way station run by old Jesse (Trevor Bardette) and his granddaughter Marty (Dawn Wells). Sensing that the impressionable Marty is fascinated by the charismatic Martin, Adam intervenes and tells the killer to leave the girl alone and clear out. Marty is crestfallen when Martin takes his leave, but before long the outlaw shows his true colors. Others in the cast include Dorothy Green as Lucy, Walter Reed as Tim and Raymond Guth as Lafe. Written by Frank Cleaver, "The Way Station" was originally shown on October 29 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After a confrontation with a roughneck named Merton (Gene Lyons) in a seedy flophouse, Paladin (Richard Boone) rides off into the mountains--only to be waylaid and robbed by Merton's gang. Left without food, weaponry, a horse or a coat, Paladin must now make his way through a treacherous, snowswept mountain range. En route, he meets a pair of father-and-son prospectors who could offer him assistance...but strangely refuse to do so. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Brent Maverick (Robert Colbert) in his last series appearance) witnesses a robbery in a post office--then looks on as Sheriff Joe Holly (George Wallace) shoots and kills both thieves. If that were all Brent had seen, the story would be over: unfortunately, our hero has also spotted the sheriff helping himself to the stolen loot. When Holly is subesquently killed as well, Brent is accused of being both a robber and a murderer--and the source of all his problems turns out to be a pair of deceptively sweet sisters (Elizabeth MacRae, Randy Stuart). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Paladin (Richard Boone) gallantly agrees to protect baby-faced Jenny Lake (Ellen Clark) against a man named Wilson (Peter Leeds), whom Jenny claims is an unwanted suitor. In short order, Wilson manages to bushwack Paladin--who promptly returns the favor and follows Jenny to a den of counterfeiters. It turns out that Wilson wasn't a "masher" at all...nor is sweet little Jenny all that she appears to be. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jo Ann Blanchard (Patricia Hardy) seeks the help of Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) in reclaimed her ranch and her prize stallion, both of which have been claimed in a foreclosure by neighboring rancher John Brant (Trevor Bardette). Subsequently, Brant is killed, and at first it appears as though the horse kicked him to death. But murder will out, and Jo Ann is charged with the crime--whereupon Perry really begins to earn his retainer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Robert Mitchum (who also wrote the story and served as executive producer) stars in Thunder Road as Lucas Doolin, a Korean War veteran who returns home and promptly rejoins the family's bootlegging business. His father, Vernon (Trevor Bardette), runs the still and heads the family, while Lucas handles the driving and transporting of the moonshine (mostly to Memphis), and his younger brother, Robin (James Mitchum), takes care of the car he uses to outrun the competition and the Treasury agents; and their mother, Sarah (Frances Koon), keeps the home. Lucas is a better driver than anyone around, and he and Robin have rigged a few tricks on the car that surprise the Treasury men -- but Robin is nearly 17 and tired of just working under the hood; he wants to drive like Lucas. Lucas doesn't want his brother to become a transporter, though, preferring that the teenager stay in school and stay straight with the law. But Lucas is pretty easy to idolize, looked up to by most of their neighbors for his driving skills, among other attributes, and the object of affections of lots of women between Harlan and Memphis, most especially teenaged neighbor Rozanna Ledbetter (Sandra Knight). He appreciates her admiring and lustful gaze, though he has all the woman he can handle and wishes that she were that interested in Robin, who's her own age and just as attracted to her in his own awkward way. Lucas and his family have always been able to outrun the revenue agents, even with a new man, Troy Barrett (Gene Barry), assigned to the territory and out to get him -- they're dedicated and tough, but they're not killers. However, now they're hearing of a new threat in the guise of a Memphis-based gangster named Carl Kogan (Jacques Aubuchon), who wants to take over the Doolins' operation and all the other moonshining activity in Harlan County. He's already offered a lot of money, but the Doolins and most of their neighbors running stills are too independent for that, and now he's sending in muscle, and that gets a young neighbor of theirs (Jerry Hardin) killed. But Lucas was pretty tough before the war, and he learned a thing or two about combat in Korea, and is not about to let either revenue agents or a bunch of strong-arm men from the city get in his way, and he has the car and the firepower to back up those sentiments.

When Kogan goes too far and kills a Treasury man, Lucas also picks up an unintended ally in agent Barrett, whose highest priority becomes indicting Kogan. The problem is that indictments and prosecutions aren't what Lucas is about -- he means to meet shot-for-shot and take more personal action, especially when his family becomes involved in Kogan's machinations. One thing he always swore to any and all within hearing range was that he'd keep Robin from becoming a transporter, and kill anyone who tried to make him one. And when Kogan manipulates a situation where Robin is lured into driving, Lucas means to make good on that vow. Director Arthur Ripley (1895-1961), a music and dance student-turned-editor-turned-gagman and short-subject specialist and academic (whose preceding feature film, 12 years earlier, had been the eerie Cornell Woolrich-based thriller The Chase), working in tandem with second unit directors James Casey and Jack Lannan and second unit photographer Karl Malkames, keeps the action moving at a brisk pace. Robert Mitchum is the center of gravity to the movie, though, which contains the quintessential Mitchum performance, the actor making his work look so easy that he could almost seem lazy if he weren't so magnetic in the role. He helped make Thunder Road into a national success, but the movie always had an extra-special resonance in the South, where it was shot and set. Thunder Road continued to generate annual five- and six-figure ticket sales from drive-ins in the border and Southern states for 25 years after its original release, a factor that caused United Artists and its successor organizations to purposefully delay its release on home video until the end of the 1980s. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

In this western, a Texas Ranger quits his job after he is chastised for bringing back so many dead outlaws. When he gets a deputy sheriff's job, he soon finds himself mixed up in a range war against an avaricious rancher determined to have the whole range for himself. The deputy simultaneously begins an affair with the greedy rancher's wife who wants him to kill her husband. In the end, she kills him herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A bizarre western that at times veers dangerously close to outright burlesque, Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend concluded Randolph Scott's long-term contract with Warner Bros. and sat on the shelf for nearly two years before being dumped on the double-bill market in 1957. Scott and two fellow cavalry officers (Gordon Jones and a very young James Garner) have their clothes stolen while skinny-dipping. Offered new apparel by a group of Quakers (or are they Mormons? It is never made quite clear), the threesome go on to prevent James Craig from supplying the territory with faulty guns and ammo. Dani Crayne (the wife of actor David Janssen at the time) seductively warbles "Kiss Me Quick" and a young Angie Dickinson lends further femininity to the proceedings. Much of this is strangely watchable, but as a western Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend can never make up its mind whether to play it straight or for comedy. Not too surprisingly, director Richard L. Bare had gotten his start helming the studio's "Joe McDoakes" comedy shorts in the 1940s. A final paradox: There is nary a shoot-out in the entire film. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Strong acting and direction overcomes the more cliched aspects of Red Sundown. It all begins when gunslinger Alec Longmire (Rory Calhoun), weary of living up to his reputation, decides to hang up his firearms and start life anew as a cowpuncher. Before long, however, Alec is obliged to strap on his shooting irons as the deputy of sheriff Jade Murphy (Dean Jagger). It's for a good cause, of course: Murphy hopes to avoid a violent range war with a nonviolent show of force. Will Longmire be able to keep the peace without resorting to his six-guns, or will his hand be forced by crooked land baron Rufus Henshaw (Robert Middleton) and Henshaw's menacing hired gun Chet Swann (Robert Middleton)? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi