Perry Lopez Movies

Tennis player Walter Richmond (Robert Horton) finds a perfect doubles partner in the shapely form of attractive young widow Laura Gild (Betsy Von Furstenberg). As the two get to know each other better, the insatiably curious Walter begins asking questions about Laura's dear, departed husband. It would have been far better, however, if Walter had kept his curiosity to himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Leon Uris from his own novel, the film follows a group of World War II marines, from Basic Training to Battlefield. Major Van Heflin knows that his men are spoiling for a real fight, but must make do with the desultory skirmishes assigned them by the Brass. All this changes with an onslaught of heavy-duty battling in the South Pacific. Aldo Ray plays a tough leatherneck who falls in love with demure Nancy Olson, while James Whitmore, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone and Raymond Massey costar. And watch for young Justus McQueen, cast as private L.Q. Jones; McQueen liked his character name so much that he adopted it as his professional cognomen. Composer Max Steiner's musical score earned him an Oscar nomination. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this badly misconceived pseudo-biography of the legendary Cuban revolutionary -- played, incredibly, by Omar Sharif -- Che Guevara takes up the cause as a rebel fighter under the direction of Fidel Castro, played -- also incredibly -- by Jack Palance. Guevara, a young Argentine doctor, proves his worth under the heat of guerilla warfare and, gaining the respect of his men, becomes the leader of a patrol. Castro is impressed by Guevara's tactics and strict discipline and makes him his chief advisor. When Castro defeats the Cuban dictator Batista after two years of fighting, Guevara, under Castro's nod, directs a series of massive reprisals -- but Guevara dreams of fermenting a worldwide revolution. After Castro backs down during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Guevara accuses Castro of being a Soviet dupe and leaves Cuba. Under disguise, Guevara lands in Bolivia, where he attempts to begin his dream of a worldwide peasant revolution, but the Bolivian poor will not follow his lead, and his band find themselves starving in the Bolivian jungle and pursued by the Bolivian army. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Universal Pictures introduced audiences to yet another classic movie monster with this superbly crafted film, originally presented in 3-D. The story involves the members of a fossil-hunting expedition down a dark tributary of the mist-shrouded Amazon, where they enter the domain of a prehistoric, amphibious "Gill Man" -- possibly the last of a species of fanged, clawed humanoids who may have evolved entirely underwater. Tranquilized, captured, and brought aboard, the creature still manages to revive and escape -- slaughtering several members of the team -- and abducts their sole female member (Julie Adams), spiriting her off to his mist-shrouded lair. This sparks the surviving crewmen to action -- particularly those who fancy carrying the girl off themselves. Director Jack Arnold makes excellent use of the tropical location, employing heavy mists and eerie jungle noises to create an atmosphere of nearly constant menace. The film's most effective element is certainly the monster itself, with his pulsating gills and fearsome webbed talons. The creature was played on land by stuntman Ben Chapman and underwater by champion swimmer Ricou Browning -- who was forced to hold his breath during long takes because the suit did not allow room for scuba gear. The end result was certainly worth the effort, proven in the famous scene where the Gill Man swims effortlessly beneath his female quarry in an eerie ballet -- a scene echoed much later by Steven Spielberg in the opening of Jaws. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Vic Powers (Lloyd Bridges) leads a specialized rescue unit known as the Flying Fish. When an American economics professor is kidnapped by a malevolent Latin American dictator, the call goes out to recover the victim. The unit is equally adept in or out of the water. Ricardo (Nico Minardos) is the resident beachcomber recruited to provide the team with valuable information vital to recovering the missing professor. The specialized unit travels by air, land and sea to meet their objective and races against time to avoid an international incident that could tip the balance of power in favor of the dictator. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Though heavily advertised as Delmar Daves' Drum Beat, this film owed its existence to producer-star Alan Ladd. The star is cast as a veteran Indian fighter Johnny MacKay, who because of his close relationship with the Medoc tribe is sent out to negotiate a peace treaty. Once he has arrived in Medoc territory, Johnny (Ladd) must contend with the misspent emotions of his childhood sweetheart Toby (Marisa Pavan), the sister of Indian chief Manok (Anthony Caruso). Jealous over Johnny's relationship with pretty Nancy Meek (Audrey Dalton), Toby has cast her lot with renegade warrior Captain Jack (Charles Bronson), who honors no treaties. Though the film has a Native American villain, Drum Beat is largely sympathetic to the plight of the Indian. Based on a true story, the film is distinguished by J. Peverell Marley's breathtaking exterior photography, and by Victor Young's ballad-like musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A desert town is held in a grip of terror by the three crazed Brent brothers--Alvah (Mike Kellin), Theo (Perry Lopez) and Bobby Joe (Brad Weston). Unless the townsfolk come up with a huge pile of money, the Brent boys have threatrened to poison the water supply. It is up to Paladin (Richard Boone) to save the town and settle the brothers' hash once and for all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

I Died a Thousand Times is a scene-by-scene remake of the 1941 crime-drama classic High Sierra. Jack Palance steps into the old Humphrey Bogart role as Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, the ageing bank robber who intends to pull off one last heist before retiring. Sprung from prison by likeable crime boss Big Mac (Lon Chaney Jr.), Earle is commissioned to mastermind the robbery of a resort hotel. His partners in crime include the hotheaded, immature Babe (Lee Marvin) and Red (Earl Holliman), as well as "inside man" Mendoza (Perry Lopez). Also along for the ride is Marie (Shelley Winters), a dance-hall girl whom Babe has picked up. Marie falls in love with Earle, but he has eyes only for Velma (Lori Nelson), the club-footed daughter of a farmer (Ralph Moody) whom Earle had earlier befriended. Intending to use his share of the loot to finance Velma's operation, Earle goes through with the robbery, only to be thwarted by the ineptitude of his partners, the treachery of the late Big Mac's successors, and, finally, the fickle Velma. With the faithful Marie by his side, Earle makes a desperate escape into the High Sierras, but fate is still against him. Essentially an itinerary of what has previously "clicked" in High Sierra, I Died a Thousand Times makes a few concessions to changing tastes and mores; the stereotype comedy-relief character played by black actor Willie Best in the original film, for example, has been replaced by the more "acceptable" (at least by 1950s terms) stereotyped Mexican played by Gonzales-Gonzales. While the 1955 film cannot match the excellence of its 1941 role model, I Died a Thousand Times works pretty well on its own terms. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like M*A*S*H and Catch-22, both released the same year, this military comedy takes place in an earlier war but is really a thinly disguised treatise on the modern-day insanity and avariciousness then unfolding in Vietnam. Clint Eastwood stars as Kelly, a former lieutenant whose illusions about the glory of war, if he has any, are lost when he is busted in rank for following some poorly considered orders in World War II France. After capturing a friendly German officer, Kelly learns the whereabouts of millions of dollars in gold bars, earmarked to finance a military payroll. Taking advantage of a three-day liberty, Kelly assembles a motley trio of fellow soldiers to help him sneak behind enemy lines and retrieve the booty. They include Big Joe (Telly Savalas), a gruff sergeant; Crapgame (Don Rickles), a supply sergeant already enriching himself as a black marketer and con man; and the hippie-like tank commander Oddball (Donald Sutherland). Since crossing into enemy-held territory means heading in the opposite direction of the retreating Allies, Kelly and his men encounter armed resistance. Receiving word of their campaign, the vain General Colt (Carroll O'Connor) mistakes the quartet of freelancing scam artists for all-American heroes. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this stylish caper drama, Andy Hammond (Donald Sutherland) is a detective working with an insurance company who is investigating the theft of $3 million in diamonds. While Andy is initially eager to crack the case and bring the burglars to justice, his attitudes begin to shift when he meets Paula Booth (Jennifer O'Neill), a wealthy and beautiful woman who whose father Paul (Patrick Magee) is well-known as a "fence" for stolen goods -- and is the prime suspect in the robbery. Robert Duvall appears in a key supporting role as Ford Pierce, a straight-arrow police detective working with Andy to find the missing gems. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

George Washington McLintock (John Wayne) has a saddlebag full of trouble. The owner of the largest ranch in the territory, which also includes a mine and a lumber mill that he built up himself, should be a happy, fulfilled man, but he isn't. His wife, Katherine (Maureen O'Hara), walked out on him two years ago without a word of explanation and has been living back east and running in very fancy circles. He's getting older, a fact of which he's constantly reminded as friends around him decline in health. He's being challenged by their sons, eager to make their mark on the territory, and by the homesteaders who are pouring in with the support of the government, hoping to farm on land that's just barely adequate for cattle to graze on; he's got government officials underfoot, including an inept Indian agent (Strother Martin) and a corrupt land agent (Gordon Jones); the thick-headed, longwinded territorial governor, the honorable Cuthbert H. Humphrey (Robert Lowery), and the government back east are trying to push the Indians -- whose chiefs are some of McLintock's oldest enemies and his best and most honored friends -- by shipping them off to a reservation, where they'll be cared for like old women; and to top it all off, Katherine is coming back to secure a divorce and take custody of their 17-year-old daughter, Rebecca (Stefanie Powers), who's been at school back east and no longer likes anything to do with the West, any more than her mother does. All of that -- plus the presence of a young hired hand (Patrick Wayne) who's interested romantically in McLintock's daughter -- is the setup for a sprawling comedy Western with serious overtones, part battle-of-the-sexes and part political tract.

McLintock! was made mostly to keep John Wayne's production company solvent in the wake of the losses incurred from the production of The Alamo. Wayne needed a film that could be made quickly and have mass appeal, and he got more than he bargained for in James Edward Grant's screenplay, which owed a little to both The Taming of the Shrew and The Quiet Man. Shot in the spring of 1963 and premiered in late November of that year, McLintock! proved to be one of the star's most popular and successful films of the '60s. It was a prized possession of the Wayne estate and was held unavailable for all of the '80s and beyond until they missed the copyright renewal in 1991 -- after that, it emerged in numerous substandard videocassette and DVD editions. There was an authorized VHS edition from MPI in the early '90s, and there were legitimate showings on WTBS, but until 2005 there was no decent quality DVD version. Late that year, Paramount Home Video, working under license from the Wayne estate, released a beautiful letterboxed DVD edition loaded up with extras. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Frank Freeman Jr., son of the longtime head of Paramount Pictures, made his debut as producer with the opulent but empty Omar Khayyam. Cornel Wilde stars as the legendary Persian poet, here depicted as not only a philosopher but a scientist, politician and great lover. As the Persians gear up for war against the Byzantines, Omar occupies his time by romancing Sharain (Debra Paget), the favorite wife of the Shah (Raymond Massey). He also does his best to foil a plan by Hasani (Michael Rennie), leader of the Cult of Assassins, to murder the royal family. While many of the characters and events are based on fact, it is difficult to believe the story or the dialogue for more than ten minutes at a stretch. Singer Yma Sumac, then famous for her four-and-a-half octave vocal range, is somehow woven into the proceedings. When Omar Khayyam laid an egg at the box-office, a Hollywood wit, taking into consideration the Southern heritage of Frank Freeman Jr., assessed the results as "A loaf of bread, a bottle of coke and you-all." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide