Ruta Lee Movies

Although advertised as a "reunion" of former I Dream of Jeannie stars Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman, the made-for-TV A Howling in the Woods is actually a vehicle for Eden, with Hagman contributing a glorified cameo role. The scene is a remote wooded area in Nevada, where disillusioned housewife Liza Crocker (Eden) has arrived for a solitary camping trip. It so happens that Liza's "sanctuary" is located near the small and cloistered town where she was born -- a town that does not necessarily want to have her back. As Liza's husband, Eddie (Larry Hagman), searches for her in hopes of a reconciliation, the heroine is terrorized by the mournful sound of a howling dog, which triggers painful and frightening memories that she had hoped were long, long buried. Based on a novel by Velda Johnston, the underrated and almost unbearably suspenseful A Howling in the Woods debuted November 11, 1971, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Newly arrived in Heaven, mystery writer Alexander Arlington (John Williams) asks permission from Recording Angel Wilfred (Alan Napier) to return to Earth so that he can find out who murdered him. The list of suspects is formidable indeed, including not only Arlington's faithless wife Carol (a pre-Gunsmoke Amanda Blake), but also his nephew and his secretary. In his efforts to reconstruct the crime, Arlington succeeds only in getting himself bumped off all over again -- and it looks for a while as though he'll never discover "whodunit." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Audie Murphy continued to make 1950s-style westerns into the 1960s. In Bullet for a Badman, Logan Keliher (Murphy) is framed for murder by onetime friend Sam Ward (Darren McGavin). Keliher escapes to mete out justice and to reclaim his former wife (Ruta Lee), whom Ward has married. The escapee gradually comes to realize that the true villain of the piece is not his ex-friend but instead his ex-wife. A Bullet for a Badman was shipped out to the lower halves of Universal's drive-in double bills for the 1963-64 season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) receive a tip that middle-aged dope addict Denson (Rodney Bell) has recently purchased some 30 caps of heroin, which he plans to sell. Not only has "trailer trash" Denson ruined his life and his family with his drug habit, but he is also allowing his nineteen-year-old daughter Josie (a young Ruta Lee) to date a slimy dope pusher (Dennis Cross) in order to secure an endless supply of "H". This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of September 15, 1955. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sci-fi drama is set aboard a nearly derelict spaceship about to fail. With little remaining supplies and little oxygen, only a few of the crew will survive to make it back to Earth, leaving them to decide which of them must die. The film is also known as The Doomsday Machine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Premiering December 1, 1984, First and Ten was a raunchy HBO TV series about a third-rate football team. Delta Burke starred as Diane Barrow, who acquired the California Bulls as part of a divorce settlement. The series had quite a cast turnover during its six years on the air; one of the longest-lasting costars was none other than O. J. Simpson. Two ersatz feature films were compiled from the first-season First and Ten episodes. The second of these was the 101-minute The Team Scores Again; the guest stars in this patchwork feature included Geofrey Scott, Clayton Landey and Fran Tarkenton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This filmed version of the 1927 George Gershwin Broadway musical Funny Face utilizes the play's original star, Fred Astaire, and several of the original tunes, then goes merrily off on its own. Astaire is cast as as fashion photographer Dick Avery (a character based on Richard Avedon, the film's "visual consultant"), who is sent out by his female boss Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) to find a "new face". It doesn't take Dick long to discover Jo (Audrey Hepburn, who does her own singing), an owlish Greenwich Village bookstore clerk. Acting as Pygmalion to Jo's Galatea, Dick whisks the wide-eyed girl off to Paris and transforms her into the fashion world's hottest model. Along the way, he falls in love with Jo, and works overtime to wean her away from such phony-baloney intellectuals as Professor Emile Flostre (Michel Auclair). The Gershwin tunes include the title song, "S'wonderful", "How Long Has This Been Going On" and "He Loves and She Loves"; among the newer numbers is Kay Thompson's energetic opener "Think Pink". For years available only in washed-out, flat prints, Funny Face was eventually restored to its full Technicolor and VistaVision glory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The comedienne who shot to stardom as "the world's worst housewife" offers an intimate look at her life and career on the eve of her farewell stand-up performance. Phyllis Diller has been keeping her fans in stitches for nearly half-a-century. A gleefully self-depreciating comic whose outlandish sense of style always set her apart from the pack, Diller not only recollects her rise to stardom, but also allows viewers into her home to show just what life is like behind the scenes. A press conference leading up to her final performance showcases the quick-witted Diller at her unscripted best, with additional rehearsal and dressing room footage showing just what an incredible impact she has had on the world of show-business. Additional appearances by Rip Taylor, Don Rickles, Roseanne Barr, Red Buttons, and Lily Tomlin offer a chance for some of Diller's best known fans to reflect on their fondest memories of the star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Duplicitous German officer Col. Becker (H.M. Wynant), hoping to trade assignments with Klink, tries to persuade the Kommandant that being transferred to the Russian front wouldn't be so bad. Learning of Becker's schemes, Hogan concocts a plan of his own whereby Klink will unwittingly appropriate some top-secret German documents. To cinch the deal, Hogan arranges a cozy tête-à-tête between Klink and sexy Soviet spy Olga (Ruta Lee). Written by Arthur Julian, "To Russia Without Love" first aired on January 31, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A small town in the Midwest goes in big for the folk music craze that followed in the wake of the twist. The thin plot has some romantic interplay between two amorous couple, but mainly the film serves as a showcase for some non-offensive music from the collection of stars. Johnny Cash, Sheb Wooley, The Brothers Four and George Hamilton IV are some of the musical acts featured. Wooley, famous for his novelty tune "Purple People Eater", co-wrote the title song with musical supervisor Fred Karger. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Marjorie Morgenstern (Natalie Wood) is an 18-year-old, middle-class, Jewish girl from New York who wants nothing more than to be an actress, despite the hopes and wishes of her parents (Everett Sloane and Claire Trevor) that she graduate from college, marry, and settle down to have a family. At the urging of her more worldly friend Marsha Zelenko (Carolyn Jones), she takes a job at an upstate camp, and, one night when sneaking onto the grounds of a neighboring resort, meets and falls wildly in love with the entertainment director, Noel Airman (Gene Kelly). A Lothario with a gift of song as well as dance, Airman romances Marjorie and tries to teach her something of theater, suggesting that she change her name to Marjorie Morningstar, which she does. He intends to enjoy her company for the summer, until her aging uncle Samson (Ed Wynn), who is also working at the resort, tells him of the family's concerns for the girl. Noel and Marjorie end up linked romantically, despite their best efforts to stay away from each other. Marjorie gives up a potential romance with a slightly older, successful doctor (Martin Balsam) and resists the honest entreaties of Airman's assistant, Wally Wronken (Martin Milner), and tries to get Airman to straighten up and fly right; she can't get her own acting career off the ground, but she owns Airman's heart. Instead of biding his time at writing a musical that he's been working at for four years, and spending his summers working in the Catskills, Noel tries to work in the advertising world -- he also finds himself just as troubled by the stable family life and religious life that Marjorie comes from as he is attracted to her personally. He is also bitterly disturbed by the fact that his one-time assistant Wally Wronken is now a successful Broadway playwright, the darling of critics and audiences, with backers eager to sign checks to produce his work. Unable to pursue a life in business, or remain faithful to Marjorie, he reaches a crisis point from which only she can rescue him -- together they try to build a life and he tries to finish his long-gestating masterpiece, which proves a disaster when it gets to Broadway. Noel abandons Marjorie, and when she goes to find him, Wally warns her off, explaining that Noel has to return to a place where he can feel successful, like the Catskills resort where they met, where he can be the big fish in the tiny pond. Her marriage over and her girlish ideals behind her, she sees Noel back in his element, wowing young acting students with his skills, and finally turns to the one man who has loved her for precisely who she is all along, Wally. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Widow Grace Wheeler (Joan Weldon) tells Bart (Jack Kelly) and his friend Big Mike (Leo Gordon) about a gold mine in Mexico. She even offers to guide them South of the Border and lead them to the treasure's hiding place. Unfortunately, the Mexican government is also interested in laying claim to the gold--as is a quartet of bandits who have a cute habit of killing anyone who gets in their way. Ruta Lee delivers another bravura guest performance as a brassy dance-hall gal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide