Robert Lowery Movies

Doris Day peers through layers of camera gauze to star in The Ballad of Josie, a second-rate variation of Cat Ballou. For openers, Day is arrested for the billiard-cue bludgeoning of her late husband. Upon her acquittal, she takes up sheep ranching in Wyoming. To prove herself as good as any man, Day organizes the other frontier wives into a woman's suffrage movement. She succeeds in establishing her equality, winning good-guy Peter Graves in the process. Ballad of Josie was produced by Norman MacDonnell, who was on firmer Western ground when he was producer of the radio and TV series Gunsmoke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a gunfighter is hired to clean up the chaotic streets of Emporia, Wyoming. The gunfighter arrives and finds that his ex-lover is there and is married to the town preacher. Though the two are still attracted, they resist temptation. When he sees how violent the town really is, the gunman sends for help. As soon as his friend gets there, the two begin cleaning up the town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When Chris Carlyle's (Jay North) family leaves their farm for the city, Chris must give his pet puma up to the local zoo. When Chris discovers the terrible conditions that the animals are being kept in, he manages to find a way to set all of the creatures free, much to the dismay of the local residents. ~ Iotis Erlewine, 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

Hampered by a quickie conclusion, this routine melodrama by Reginald LeBorg features twin sisters, Sabena and Dara (Marcia Henderson) who are identical in physical appearance but about as alike as night and day. The evil twin learns that her good-hearted sister is about to come into some money and so she plots to get her hands on the lucre instead. What can be so difficult since the two of them look alike? She poses as her angelic counterpart but then runs into a series of problems that lead up to the abrupt ending. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Perry (Raymond Burr) is summoned to Manzan Valley to settle a bitter land dispute. His client is Judy Bryant (Sarah Marshall), who claims the the boundary on her property was illegally changed when the river was rerouted. Judy's key witness is her no-good stepfather Amos (Robert Lowery), who agrees to testify on her behalf--but only if she ponies up $10,000. Soon afterward, Amos is blown to bits by a homemade bomb, and Judy finds herself facing a murder charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This effective gangster film on the notorious New York mobster Jack "Legs" Diamond is interspersed with moments of comic relief and was released just a few months after The Purple Gang shot their way across the silver screens in the U.S. Ironically, that gang and Diamond met their ends in the same year, 1931, and their rise was largely due to Prohibition. "Legsie" (Ray Danton) gets his name because he was a dancer, but he gets his reputation because he double-crosses anyone. He is a psychopath who works his way up the body count to the top of his own network of rackets. Along the way he meets and marries his wife Alice Schiffer (Karen Steele) and survives three attempts on his life that send him to the hospital each time. His reputation for "invulnerability," the inability of the police to touch him, gangsters who kill each other off, the racketeering with union bosses, and the hijacking of liquor shipments are all elements found in this film and The Purple Gang as well. Watch for a young Dyan Cannon in a bit part as Dixie, back when her first name was spelled like everyone else spells Diane. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Bret (James Garner) finds himself in the middle of a "convention" held by some of the west's most notorious outlaws, including Jesse James (William Shaw), Belle Starr (Jean Willes), Cole Younger (Gregory Walcott) and Black Bart (George Barrows). To keep himself from being perforated with bullets, Bret allows the desperadoes to mistake him for famous lawbreaker Foxy Smith, who has sent word ahead that he is planning the greatest hold-up in history. Covering himself, Bret claims that he plans to rob the Denver Mint, secure in the belief that the outlaws will merely laugh in his face--but they don't. Featured in the cast is a very young Joel Grey as a petulant, whiny Billy the Kid; and a pre-Beverly Hillbillies Nancy Kulp as a sentimental waitress. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Parson and the Outlaw is a cheapjack rally of washed-up movie actors, leftover sets and cobwebbed cliches. Anthony Dexter, who failed to scale the heights after starring in the 1951 biopic Valentino, plays Billy the Kid, once more as a victim of society. The parson of the title is Sonny Tufts, who by 1957 was already a national joke ("Sonny TUFTS?") Billy the Kid tries to mend his ways thanks to the intervention of the parson, but he winds up plugged and planted trying to avenge the preacher's murder. Even such able supporting actors as Marie Windsor, Jean Parker and Bob Steele look embarrassed by their tawdry surroundings. One of the last and least of Columbia's programmer westerns, Parson and the Outlaw is best buried on Boot Hill and forgotten. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This live Playhouse 90 episode dramatizes the life of celebrated Washington party-giver Perle Mesta, who had earlier served as the inspiration for the 1950 Irving Berlin Broadway musical Call Me Madam. The wife of prominent steel manufacturer and political adviser George Mesta (Robert Lowery, Perle (played as an adult by Shirley Booth) rises to prominence in the WW2 years by throwing lavish parties in which people who otherwise wouldn't have given one another the time of day were gently forced to commisserate like ladies and gentlemen. In recognition of her social achievements, Perle is ultimately appointed Minister to Luxembourg by President Harry Truman. Prominent in the supporting cast is gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, in rare dramatic role as Maizie Weldon. The real Perle Mesta makes an appearance in the closing segment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sequel to the second-season episode "Panic in the Sky", Clark Kent's friend Gary Allen (Robert Lowery) has been missing ever since the night Kent's alter ego Superman (George Reeves) prevented a huge meteor from crashing into Metropolis. When Gary resurfaces, he is just as invulnerable and indestructible as Superman, the result of being exposed to the meteor's radiation. In fact, the public at large is now convinced that Gary and Superman are one and the same, especially since he, like Superman, is weakened whenever coming into contact with Kryptonite. This situation is exploited by a pair of crooks named Van Wyck (Steven Geray) and Rufus (Bob Foulk), with potentially dire consequences for Clark's fellow reporters Lois (Noel Neill) and Jimmy (Jack Larson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical comedy, a young woman endures the drudgery of working as a charwoman in her aunt's hotel. She is not paid much for her hard work. To make her drab existence a little more exciting, she enrolls in a correspondence charm course, which unbeknownst to her is a scam. Soon the swindlers show up and plan to use her to help them con her aunt and a bank president out of their money. When one of the con men sees the good hearted girl working with the orphans on her family farm, he has a sudden change of heart. Her life takes a sudden turn for the better when oil is discovered under her farm. Suddenly the drab little drudgess finds herself living like a duchess. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After a number of overproduced, overlong western "specials," Wild Bill Elliot went back to basics with a series of Monogram/Allied Artists "B"s. In the 62-minute The Homesteaders, Mace Corbin (Elliot) is hired to pick up a consignment of dynamite on behalf of a group of Oregon homesteaders. But evil land-baron Kroger (James Seay), coveting the explosives for himself, lays a trap for Corbin. En route, Our Hero must contend not only with Indians and the elements, but also with his disreputable partner Clyde Moss (Robert Lowery), who is in league with Kroger. A strange, "cleansing" ending caps this interesting pocket western. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide