Maurice Marsac Movies

Doris Day plays a swinging, mod-attired agent of espionage (yes, that Doris Day) in this caper comedy directed by Frank Tashlin. Patricia Fowler (Day) is an industrial spy who is hired to work undercover at a cosmetics company. While posing as a low-level employee, she is to get the goods on a new formula they intend to market. However, it turns out that makeup isn't all this firm has to sell; they're also involved in an international drug-smuggling ring, and she finds herself doing battle with other agents willing to kill to ensure that the flow of narcotics is unabated. Her adventures cause her to cross paths with Christopher White (Richard Harris), a fellow agent with whom Patricia is soon romantically involved, and together the couple locate the secret lab of cosmetics tycoon and evil genius Stuart Clancy (Ray Walston). While this was a game attempt to update Day's squeaky-clean image, it was not terribly well received; one year and three films later, Day retired from movies to devote herself to television work, and quit showbiz altogether in 1973 (with the exception of a short-lived talk show that aired in 1984). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Kirby (Jack Hogan) is accosted by two American GIs, Roberts (Nick Adams) and Driskoll (Roger Perry)--one of whom takes a shot at him. All three men are subsequently taken prisoner by British corporal Tommy Behan (Gavin MacLeod), who is convinced that they are German infiltrators. To be sure, there is a German spy in the vicinity...and Kirby begins to suspect that the "ringer" is Behan himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ideal and reality clash in this humorous tale of the heist that could have been. As scheming career cat burglar Harry Dean (Michael Cane) prepares to steal a priceless statue from the world's richest man, he seeks out the assistance of Eurasian showgirl Suzy Chang Shirley Maclaine). Though the likeable rogue's plan seems foolproof as he conveys the details to his partner Ram (Robert C. Carmel), the execution proves a detailed study in Murphy's Law. Constantly reinventing the plan as his originally ideal spirals ever more out of control, it seems as if Harry's heist is destined to fail. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Wounded in combat, Saunders (Vic Morrow) awakens to find himself dressed in a German uniform. In order not to give himself away to the Germans surrounding him, Saunders pretends to have been rendered speechless by shell-shock. In his laborious efforts to make his way back to the American lines, Saunders has some memorable encounters with the "enemy", among them a big-hearted German sergeant (Bert Freed) and an embittered German doctor (Ivan Triesault). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dr. Marsh Tracy (Marshall Thompson) is an animal behavioral research director who travels to East Africa with his daughter Paula (Cheryl Miller) in this engaging wildlife saga. While Tracy develops a relationship with anthropologist Julie Harper (Betsy Drake), Paula befriends the visually challenged lion named Clarence. Because his eyes are crossed, Clarence has never been able to rely on hunting for survival, so the family adopts the lovable lion. Richard Haydn plays the schoolmaster with comic flair as he runs scared from the harmless king of the jungle. The evil Gregory (Maurice Marsac) is the leader of a group of mercenaries who plan to capture Julie's beloved gorillas and sell them for profit. Clarence later traps Gregory in a slapstick scene to save the animals from danger. The film served as a pilot for the television series Daktari. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a Yankee musician is working in Paris when he encounters a movie star chasing after her naughty French poodle Monsieur Cognac. The name is most apropos for the little doggy is quite the lush when it comes to booze. This suits the hard-drinking musician just fine and the two go out on a bender. Later the star and her father find the toasted twosome. The star begins falling in love with the musician. Despite her father's objections, the two get married. Unfortunately, Mr. Cognac accompanies them on the honeymoon. He becomes quite jealous of the woman's new husband and ruins their wedding night. Because she refuses to relinquish the dog, their new marriage is nearly destroyed. They separate until the husband manages to bring home Pink Poupee, a charming female poodle. Suddenly Mr. C forgets all about his jealousy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Now that the swanky Beverly Hills dress shop "House of Renée" has been converted into the "House of Granny" (complete with potbellied stove), Jed and Jethro hope to make a thriving business of the establishment. Intending to one-up the competition, they begin opening up the shop at the crack of dawn. Alas, the Beverly Hills police assume that the shabbily garbed Clampett menfolk are burglars. The conclusion of a two-part story arc, "The House of Granny" first aired on April 29, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marching into an open field, Saunders (Vic Morrow) and his men are greeted with a barrage of machine-gun fire by a wounded GI named Murfree (Roddy McDowall). Once he has downed his weapon, Murfree explains that he is on his guard against Nazi spies who, disguised as Americans, have infiltrated the Allied ranks. It turns out, however, that the baby-faced gunner is harboring a secret, which only a fellow soldier named Larkin (William Bryant) knows...and Murfree sees to it that Larkin will never tell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This lavishly produced, big-budget comedy (it cost $20 million in 1964 dollars) stars Shirley MacLaine as Louisa, a widow who is worth $200 million dollars. However, she's convinced that her fortune is cursed, and she wants to give all her money to the IRS. As she explains her sad tale to her psychiatrist, Dr. Stephanson (Robert Cummings), it seems that when Louisa was young she had the choice of marrying rich playboy Leonard Crawley (Dean Martin) or poor but decent Edgar Hopper (Dick Van Dyke). She chose Edgar, but soon he became obsessed with providing a fine home and fortune for her; he got rich but worked himself to death in the process. Despondent, Louisa flies to Paris, where she strikes up a romance with expatriate artist Larry Flint (Paul Newman). When Larry invents a machine that creates paintings based on sounds, he becomes wealthy and famous -- and dies. Louisa returns to America, where she figures to break her streak by marrying Rod (Robert Mitchum), a business tycoon who already has lots of money. He resolves to take life easier and becomes a farmer, only to die in a strange accident with a bull. Louisa is drowning her sorrows one night at a sleazy night spot when she falls for second rate entertainer Jerry (Gene Kelly). They marry, and a now-wealthy Jerry develops a relaxed, carefree quality to his act that makes him a huge star, which leads to his being crushed by a mob of his biggest fans. What a Way to Go! boasted a screenplay by Betty Comdon and Adolph Green that featured many amusing film parodies and a score by Nelson Riddle; it also marked the final screen appearance of comic actress Margaret Dumont, best remembered as Groucho Marx's straight woman in several films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this generation gap movie of the early 1960s, Sandra Dee is Mollie Michaelson, a teenage rebel enamored with long-haired hippies and radical anti-nuclear political causes. Her involvement in such activities sends her ultra-conservative father Frank (James Stewart) into a tizzy. His reassuring wife is played by Audrey Meadows. Frank's furor deepens when Mollie is sent to Paris on an art scholarship. Back at home, Frank picks up a popular magazine and finds that his daughter has posed on the cover for a radical artist, Henri Bonnet (Philippe Forquet). He pursues her to save her from further degradation, but he ends up in a café in the wrong part of Paris just as it is raided by police. They arrest him on trumped-up and erroneous charges, and he struggles to prove that he's not guilty. This film was based on a play by Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Captain Sindbad was based on an Arabian Nights story, was filmed in Germany, and starred an American leading man (Guy Williams), a German leading lady (Heidi Bruhl) and a Mexican villain (Pedro Armendariz). How's that for cultural diversity? Anyway, the story involves Sindbad's (Williams) efforts to enter the impenetrable castle where the evil El Kerim's (Armendariz) heart is being kept. So long as his heart is outside his body, El Kerim is invulnerable, enabling him to be as wicked and despotic as he chooses. Sindbad comes to the rescue just seconds before the heroine (Bruhl) is about to be crushed to death by an elephant. Despite the mortality rate on both sides, Captain Sindbad is pure kiddie-matinee stuff, adroitly put together by director/cinematographer Byron (War of the Worlds) Haskin and boasting top-notch special effects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One major film star referred to director Nicholas Ray as a "loser," because of Ray's alleged willingness to let his more temperamental actors walk all over him. Evidently, Ray had a very compliant and cooperative cast in King of Kings, inasmuch as the film emerged as one of the most disciplined Biblical epics ever made. Jeffrey Hunter is cast as Jesus Christ, delivering a wholly credible performance in this most taxing of roles (never mind the wags who referred to the film as "I Was a Teenage Jesus"). Siobhan McKenna is a radiant if somewhat overaged Mary; Hurd Hatfield offers a properly preening Pontius Pilate; Rip Torn portrays Judas more for the tragedy than the treachery; Robert Ryan (a personal favorite of Ray's) is one of the best John the Baptists you're ever likely to see; and Harry Guardino convincingly interprets Barabbas as a firebrand political extremist. The only false note in the casting is the MGM-dictated selection of teenaged Brigid Bazlen as Salome. The best aspect of the film is its handling of the days after the Resurrection; the "Jesus sightings" are offered as secondhand information, so as to retain some of the mystery inherent in the Scriptures. King of Kings was previously filmed in 1927 by Cecil B. DeMille, with a middle-aged H.B. Warner as Jesus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide