Donald Losby Movies
Two parents worry about the feelings of their love-struck teenage son in this engaging romantic comedy. Grif (James Garner) and wife Jenny (Debbie Reynolds) are concerned about their son Davey (Donald Losby). When his girlfriend is slated for a tour of Europe, the teenage boy is heartbroken. Grif, a photographer by trade, draws the assignment as a photo journalist to cover the girl's tour. Jenny is swindled by Mr. Tilly (Terry-Thomas) who takes her money as rent payment on a Riviera villa. The house is owned by a French playboy who allows the pretty mom to stay. Comedy ensues when a jealous Grif discovers wife Jenny in a bikini given to her by the amorous Frenchman. Prolific songwriter Jimmy Webb provides the music for this feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Debbie Reynolds, (more)
Although John (Guy Williams) has warned his son Will (Bill Mumy) to stay away from the matter-transfer "maser beam" left behind by the Taurons in the earlier episode "The Sky is Falling", Will activates the device to keep Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) from messing with it. Instantly, the beam transports Will all the way back to earth, where in addition to searching for some much-needed carbon tetrachloride to help repair the Robinsons' ship, the boy also attempts to tell the citizens of a rural community who he is and where he comes from. But the locals don't believe his story--after all, weren't the Robinsons supposed to have perished in space?--and prepare to pack Will off to an orphan asylum. Featured in the cast is Sheila Matthews, the wife of Lost in Space producer Irwin Allen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
While the police search for a robbery suspect, Kimble (David Janssen) takes refuge in an orphanage. Here he is "adopted" as an uncle by Sean (Donald Losby), a lonely, troubled child who faces institutionalization in a mental hospital. Knowing that Kimble is a fugitive and assuming that he's the holdup man, Sean blackmails Kimble into helping him escape from the orphanage--and taking three other "problem" kids along. One of the youngsters is played by eleven-year-old Ronny Howard, who at the time was still going strong as Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show; also, the actress playing orphanage official Miss Edmonds is Brett Somers, onetime wife of Jack Klugman and later an inescapable presence on the TV gameshow circuit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Perhaps the most popular and influential songwriter in the history of country music, Hank Williams Sr. didn't have a long recording career (only four years), but after passing away on New Year's Day, 1953, at the age of 29, he became a legend of American music practically overnight, and this biopic puts a veneer of Hollywood gloss on the story of his rise to fame. Hank Williams (played by Donald Losby as a young man) is a boy growing up poor in a small Alabama town who learns how to play guitar from itinerant musician and shoeshine man Teetot (Rex Ingram), who looks out for the boy. After Teetot's untimely death, young Hank sets his sights on a career in music; years later, Williams (played as an adult by George Hamilton) is performing as part of a traveling medicine show when he meets Audrey (Susan Oliver), who recognizes the full extent of Hank's talent. At Audrey's urgings, Williams joins forces with manager Shorty Younger (Red Buttons) and music publisher Fred Rose (Arthur O'Connell), and with their help Hank becomes a rising star in country music, developing a loyal following through hit records, heavy touring, and appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. However, Williams doesn't cope well with the pressures of fame, and despite the help of his friends and the guidance of his wife, he begins missing shows, developing a reputation as an unreliable performer, and drinking heavily. Produced by legendary B-movie magnate Sam Katzman, Your Cheatin' Heart featured 15-year-old Hank Williams Jr. re-creating his father's vocals for the film's soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Hamilton, Susan Oliver, (more)
En route to Death Row after being wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife, Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) escapes his captor Lt. Gerard (Barry Morse) in a spectacular train crash. For the next four TV seasons, Kimble will live the life of The Fugitive, travelling from town to town, state to state, in search of the "One-Armed Man" who actually murdered Mrs. Kimble. In this first episode of Season One, Kimble, using the alias James Lincoln, lands a job as a bartender in Tucson. Soon he becomes deeply involved in the plight of the bar's piano player Monica Welles (Vera Miles), who is being tormented by her brutish husband Ed (Brian Keith), a wealthy and politically powerful rancher. Establishing the pattern followed by virtually every subsequent Fugitive episode, Kimble places his own freedom (and life) in jeopardy by coming to Monica's rescue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Hoping to catch a band of cattle rustlers, the Cartwrights lay a trap for the bandits, while Adam Cartwright scouts the area for possible thieves. Coming upon the injured Matthew Grant (John Archer), Adam assumes that Grant is one of the rustlers. Knowing that his father Ben intends to shoot first and ask questions later, Adam tries to get Grant to confess his crimes and turn himself over to the authorities. Bethel Leslie and Donald Losby appear respectively as Grant's wife Ann and son Jody. First shown on February 18, 1962, "The Jackknife" was written by Frank Chase. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, (more)
Ira Levin wrote the stage comedy Critic's Choice as a good-natured retort to a comment made by critic Walter Kerr. In his essay How Not to Write a Play, Kerr noted that the worst possible scenario would involve a drama critic forced to review a play written by his wife (we should mention that Kerr's own wife was noted playwright Jean Kerr). Levin utilized this very scenario, and the result was a Broadway hit. Less successful artistically was the 1962 film version, though with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball as stars, the film couldn't help but clean up at the box office. Hope portrays theatrical critic Parker Ballantine, while Lucille Ball plays his wife Angela. Feeling "useless," Angela writes a play as a lark, then is amazed when it is optioned by a major producer. Parker does his best to get out of the responsibility of reviewing the play (which very well may be as bad as he thinks it is), but cannot escape the responsibility. Much of the verbal wit of the Levin original is sacrificed in favor of one-line quips; there is also an overabundance of gratuitous slapstick during a little-league game and the climactic "opening night" sequence. Still, Hope and Ball work together well as always. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, (more)
Roger Corman's stripped-down remake of Universal's 1939 period classic elevates that film's supporting player Vincent Price to the starring role, essayed in the original by Basil Rathbone. Price chews scenery as hunchbacked mad monarch Richard III, who ascends the throne through murder (including the Duke of Clarence's wine-vat drowning), torture (lovely Sandra Knight gains a few inches on the rack), and elaborate deception. Bloody events and plot twists notwithstanding, this low-budget outing is painfully threadbare for a period piece, even in comparison to Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films for AIP from the same period. The film's saving grace is found in Price's manic performance, which ranks among the horror legend's most flamboyant. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Price, Michael Pate, (more)
First telecast March 3, 1961, this is a deft reworking of the first-season Twilight Zone episode "Mr. Bevis." Making his second appearance on the series, Burgess Meredith stars as Luther Dingle, a mild-mannered salesman whom a pair of Martians select for a most unusual experiment. The aliens endow Dingle with the strength of 300 men, a gift which he eventually abuses and loses. The ending of this one is a beaut. Don Rickles costars as an obnoxious horse player, displaying the same comic invective with which he infested his nightlclub act. Written by Rod Serling, "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" would be remade, after a fashion, as the third-season Twilight Zone entry "Cavender Is Coming." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burgess Meredith, Don Rickles, (more)
The scene is a three-room shack at the end of a broken train rail, where dwell a careworn mother named Nan (Anna Karen), her dreamy-eyed son Doug (Donald Losby), her cynical daughter Callie (Candy Moore), and Grandpa (Edgar Stehli), a former railroad worker who talks only of the past. Despite their squalid surroundings, Grandpa assures the children that life is worthwhile if they only have the patience to "look and listen"; he also promises little Doug that he'll never leave him without saying goodbye. But Grandpa dies before keeping his promise, breaking Doug's heart...until a strange and wonderful manifestation occurs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
George Marshall directed this breezy romantic comedy starring Tony Randall and Debbie Reynolds. Randall plays Lorenzo Charlton, a stuffy tax investigator sent to the farm of Pop Larkin (Paul Douglas) and Ma Larkin (Una Merkel) to find out why they haven't been paying taxes. He discovers that the Larkins, instead of money, use a homegrown barter system. Their complex economic network causes Lorenzo to drink one home brew too many. Awakening from a hangover, he sees a vision of loveliness before him -- the Larkin's spunky daughter Mariette (Debbie Reynolds). Enraptured by Mariette, he decides to stick around and help the family out of their onerous tax burden. Further research reveals an ancestral claim dating to the Civil War -- in reality, the government owes the Larkins $14 million. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Debbie Reynolds, Tony Randall, (more)
Based on a successful stage play, The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker loses in this adaptation to film by becoming more serious than an all-out farce. The setting is the end of the 1800s and the intrepid Pennypacker (Clifton Webb) runs a sausage company with two thriving plants in Philadelphia and Harrisburg. He shuttles back and forth between the cities and with equal aplomb, between two households. He maintains one wife (Dorothy McGuire) and eight children in one city, and another wife (Jill St. John) and nine children in the other. When one of the Mrs. Pennypackers finds out about his deception, the unruffled businessman sees no reason for her emotional reaction. Victorian inhibitions and rigidities are set against ultra-modern thinking, embodied in the people the bigamist admires -- like Darwin, the feminists (!), and free-thinkers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clifton Webb, Dorothy McGuire, (more)
Conceived as a Gone With the Wind for the CinemaScope generation, Raintree County wasn't quite as successful as its role model, but it still proved a moneyspinner for MGM. Elizabeth Taylor stars as a spoiled Southern belle who falls in love with pacifistic Indiana youth Montgomery Clift. Though Clift is engaged to Eva Marie Saint, what Taylor wants, Taylor gets, and she isn't above using the dirtiest of deceptions to win Clift's affections. When the Civil War break out, Clift, a staunch abolitionist, joins the Union, much to the dismay of true-to-Dixie Taylor. While Clift is off fighting the war, Taylor descends into a depression that deepens into insanity. At war's end, Clift tries to come to terms with Taylor's lunacy for the sake of their child. But the strain proves too much for both of them, leading to an operatic climax which curiously segues into a happy ending (happy for some of the characters, anyway). If Montgomery Clift's performance--and appearance--seems to fluctuate wildly throughout the film, it is because he was involved in a serious auto accident during shooting, one that left both physical and emotional scars from which he never completely recovered. The 187-minute Raintree Country (reduced to 168 minutes after its initial roadshow engagements) was adapted by Millard Kaufman from the best-selling novel by Ross Lockridge, Jr. (whose own life story was infinitely more tragic than anything in his book). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, (more)














