Nelson Leigh Movies

In Part Two of "The Pursued", Mormon rancher Heber Clawson (Eric Fleming) is burned out of his home and shot to death by a bigoted mob, spurred on by a demented self-ordained minister. It is up to the Cartwrights to provide safe passage for Heber's two wives Susannah (Dina Merrill) and Elizabeth Ann (Lois Nettelton)-and to secure emergency medical attention for the seriously injured, and very pregnant, Elizabeth Ann. The story takes a positive turn when a new minister tries to undo the damage wrought upon the Mormon women. Written by Thomas Thompson and Marc Michaels, Part Two of "The Pursued" originally aired on October 9, 1966. Both Parts One and Two were removed from the Bonanza syndicated package when the series aired on the Family Channel cable network, reportedly because the story's religious message did not jibe with the beliefs of network chairman Pat Robertson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Claiming to have seen the One-Armed Man on the night of Helen Kimble's murder, Army captain James Eckhardt sends a letter to Donna Taft (Jacqueline Scott), the sister of fugitive Richard Kimble (David Janssen). When asked why he hasn't previously come forth with this valuable information, Eckhardt explains that he was stationed in Europe at the time of Kimble's trial. Accepting this story, Kimble is prepared to turn himself over to Lt. Gerard (Barry Morse) so that he can appear at a court hearing...until he learns a terrible secret about the troubled Captain Eckhardt. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Althhough she is on her deathbed, wealthy Be Be Brent (Anne Barton) is sufficiently hale and hearty to enrage her relatives by leaving the bulk of her estate--one million dollars--to her nurse Hetty Randall (Anne Seymour). The family members hire Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to contest the will, but instead he ends up with another murder case on his hands. This time, the victim is Justin Grover, and the accused is a girl named Madeline (Sherry Jackson)...whose last name is also Randall. Former "beefcake" leading man Jon Hall, who hadn't appeared on TV since 1958, came out of retirement to play a major role in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rod Serling penned the story on which this crime melodrama was based. The trouble begins when as a policeman rushes toward the scene of a robbery. En route he hears a woman scream in a dark alley and gets there just in time to see someone tearing away. The cop calls out, but the runner does not stop. The cop opens fire and fatally shoots a young teenage boy. Apparently the youth had only accidentally bumped the lady and knocked her down. Though the cop is eventually acquitted, his reputation amongst his peers is destroyed. This leads the disgraced officer to launch his own investigation in hopes of clearing his sullied name. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A man wearing dark glasses steals a valuable necklace from the showroom window of a jewelry store--then returns the item and walks away. It turns out that this is a mere "dress rehearsal" for an actual robbery planned by store employee Karl Addison (John Conte), who intends to use the fact that an upcoming operation will render him temporarily blind as his alibi. Alas, things go terribly wrong, and Addison is killed. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) enters the scene when his client James Kincannon (Jack Ging) is charged with Addison's murder. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The plot gets under way when artist Jack Culross (Britt Lomond) fakes his own suicide so that his paintings will increase in value. Upon discovering that her husband is still alive, Culross' wife Edna (Lori March) tracks him down and angrily confronts him. Not long afterward, Culross is found dead for real, and Edna is charged with the crime. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) must find out who else knew of Culross' phony suicide--and who else hated him enough to kill him. With this episode, Wesley Lau becomes a regular as Lt. Anderson, though in many episodes he is still billed among the supporting players. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Seven-year-old Peggy Smith (Laurie Perreau) has spent most of her life at the exclusive Westcroft Boarding School. Her tuition has been paid by an unknown person, who has also sent Peggy a doll each year. Curious about her benefactor, and wishing to find out who her parents were, little Peggy consults attorney Perry Mason (Raymond Burr). It turns out that Peggy is the granddaughter of wealthy recluse Courtney Jeffers (Francis X. Bushman), whose hard heart melts the moment he sets eyes on the child. But no sooner has Jeffers acknowledged that Peggy is his granddaughter than he is bludgeoned to death--and the person accused of the crime is Linda Osborne (played by Maggie Mahoney, real-life mother of actress Sally Field), who at Peggy's request is defended by Perry during the inevitable courtroom intrigues. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Robert Preston plays the flip side of his eternally ebullient Professor Harold Hill in Dark at the Top of the Stairs. Preston portrays an early 20th-century harness salesman, fully aware that his product is rapidly becoming obsolete. He tries to compensate for his own lack of self-esteem by cheating on his patient wife Dorothy McGuire; Preston's "other woman" is played by Angela Lansbury. Meanwhile, daughter Shirley Knight falls in love with Jewish boy Lee Kinsolving, who kills himself in the face of relentless bigotry. And McGuire's sister Eve Arden is stuck in a loveless marriage with spineless Frank Overton. Robert Eyer plays the young alter-ego of William Inge, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning play on which this film is based. Eyer's fear of the "dark at the top of the stairs" is meant to be symbolic of the other characters' inner demons, a fact that Inge drives home every three minutes or so. In typical Inge fashion, an unlikely happy ending is reached just before "The End." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

At the height of a nasty corporate power struggle, embezzling accountant Robert Doniger (Phil Terry) is murdered. The man accused of the crime is Edward Nelson (Herbert Rudley), who had earlier hired Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to protect him from threats he'd received from his spiteful wife Sylvia (Virginia Arness) and from business rival Frank Avery (John Stephenson). Now Perry must assemble enough evidence to prove that Nelson is not a murderer,and that someone else in his circle of "friends" is the guilty party. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Don Murray stars as a humble cowboy with aspirations for bigger things. He borrows money from his dance-hall girlfriend Lee Remick to buy a ranch, then dumps Remick in favor of banker's daughter Patricia Owens. Murray runs for political office, and in so doing is compelled to join a posse in search of his best friend Stuart Whitman, who has turned rustler. Anxious not to compromise his climb to the top, Murray stands by in silence as Whitman is lynched. In the end, however, Murray regains his essential decency when he is shot while trying to protect his ex-girlfriend Remick from bullying land baron Richard Egan. Based on a novel by A. B. Guthrie Jr., These Thousand Hills may look and sound like a western, but it has "film noir" written all over it. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rear Admiral Matt Sherman (Cary Grant) visits the submarine Sea Tiger on the morning of its decommissioning and reminisces about his time as the first commander of the boat, in 1941. Three days after Pearl Harbor, the sub is damaged during an enemy air raid in the Philippines; rather than abandoning her, Sherman and his chiefs refloat the boat. He's forced to accept the services of Lt. (jg) Nick Holden (Tony Curtis), who has no sea experience. Sherman appoints Holden -- a born conniver, deal-maker, and scrounger (his motto: "In confusion, there is profit") -- as supply officer, and through a series of burglaries and petty thefts he gets the Sea Tiger seaworthy again. Up to this point, the movie is an increasingly amusing service comedy, akin to the lighter moments of Mr. Roberts, running on Grant's wry exasperation and Curtis's cool arrogance, coupled with Arthur O'Connell's periodic sardonic yet optimistic jabs at their situation and Gavin MacLeod's fidgety nervousness. The Sea Tiger puts to sea ahead of the Japanese with a quintet of stranded army nurses aboard. The film shifts to a new level of humor as the officers and crew try to cope with living in close quarters with five attractive women in their midst. Grant gives a very witty performance as a man who is both exasperated by the situation he is in, having to adjust his masculinity to keep it from clashing with the feminine sensibilities of his guests, and also trying to control the mating urges of his men, starting with Holden, who can't stay away from Lt. Duran (Dina Merrill). Complicating matters more is Grant's awareness that the Sea Tiger is a "virgin" -- she has never engaged the enemy, but when they finally do, the accident-prone Lt. Crandall (Joan O'Brien) causes their torpedo to miss a tanker and sink a truck (probably the funniest sight gag in the movie). The boat also gets an accidental coat of pink paint when their supply of red and white runs low, and ends up carrying several Filipino families -- including two pregnant women. Since neither the Japanese nor the Americans officially has a pink submarine, the Sea Tiger ends uphunted by both sides and come under attack by an American destroyer. That's where the women's presence becomes a godsend. The movie ends 18 years later, with Holden a serious career navy man and responsible father, married to Duran, and Grant married to Crandall, who is as accident prone as ever. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Prominent surgeon Walter Brennan comes to the conclusion that his talents are on loan from God. He retires from his lucrative practice and moves to a small town, there to donate his money to charitable religious causes. Brennan's avaricious family maneuvers to have the old doctor declared legally incompetent and unable to manage his money. Fortuitously, Brennan's faithful granddaughter (Marion Ross) is an attorney, and she takes on her grandfather's court defense. Thanks to the testimony of his grateful patients, Brennan is declared sane and is permitted by court decree to spend his money any way he chooses. God Is My Partner has been pared down from its original length to 73 minutes by its TV distributor; the abbreviated running time still gives Walter Brennan ample opportunity to charm the birds out of trees with his lovable irascibility. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi