Buzz Martin Movies
- 1963
This WW II adventure chronicles the real-life courage of President John F. Kennedy when he was a Navy lieutenant in charge of the illustrious PT 109. Among the adventures they had was the courageous rescue of Marines stranded upon the isle of Choiseul. As they flee, their little boat is split in half by a Japanese destroyer. The survivors then make a long, dangerous swim to an island. One of them is too badly injured to do it, so Kennedy helps him. Later, the future leader braves many dangers to get to another island to radio for help. This video also contains a newsreel chronicling the President's assassination and a cartoon short featuring Foghorn Leghorn. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cliff Robertson, Ty Hardin, (more)
- 1962
The word "dysfunctional" hardly begins to describe the condition of the murderous Coombs family. Conducting his own "survival encounter", sadistic patriarch Avery Coombs (Kent Smith) has ordered his son Jayce (Richard Rust) to attempt to track down and kill his other son Tully (Buzz Martin). Managing to escape his family's clutches, Tully asks Paladin (Richard Boone) to help him stay alive. But Avery warns Paladin to mind his own business--or risk being hunted and killed himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
During the Civil War, Confederate soldier Jess Bradley (Buzz Martin) becomes separated from his outfit and wanders into a Union camp. Though the Northern troops are inclined to treat Jess like any other prisoner of war, sadistic Colonel Martin (Crahan Denton) has other ideas. Not only does Martin shoot Jess' pet dog in cold blood, but he also sentences the hapless Southerner to a firing squad for no other reason than he feels like it. But Martin will pay the price for his cruel behavior thanks to a "visitor" from another dimension. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Justin Groton (Buzz Martin), sole surviving member of a vicious outlaw family, has been in jail on a murder charge since the age of 13. Now Justin is approaching his 21st birthday--and as such, he will be legally eligible to hang for his crime. It is up to Paladin to convince a flint-hearted judge (Liam Sullivan), and an angry mob, that Justin has already suffered enough for his transgressions and should be spared the hangman's rope. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Oklahoma land rush of 1889 provides the starting point for this western drama, based on a novel by Edna Ferber. Yancey Cravat (Glenn Ford) is an impulsive, short-fused cowboy who has married an immigrant woman, Sabra (Maria Schell). Together, Yancey and Sabra claim a homestead, and Yancey starts a newspaper. While he doesn't have much of a head for business, Sabra does, and when she takes greater control of the paper, it grows into a profitable and influential journal. Eventually, Yancey becomes a well-recognized figure, and it's suggested that he run for public office. However, Yancey finds himself unable to support legislation that would steal more land and mineral rights away from the Native Americans who first settled the land. Cimarron was previously filmed in 1931; this version reduced the role of stereotyped black characters and has Native American actors playing the "Indians," including Eddie and Dawn Little Sky. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, (more)
If Warner Bros.' pageantlike The FBI Story resembles an episode of Jack Webb's Dragnet at times, it's probably because the screenplay was by veteran Dragnet scrivener Richard L. Breen. The film meticulously details the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from its formation in 1924 to the present day (1959, that is). The story is told through the eyes of FBI agent Chip Hardesty (James Stewart), who narrates the film. We see the FBI tackling such villains as the Ku Klux Klan, the mob, the Nazis and the communists. Subplots include the struggle by the federal agents to be given permission to carry firearms, a plight driven home when Hardesty's best friend (Murray Hamilton) is killed by gun-toting Baby Face Nelson (William Phipps). Offsetting moments like these are scenes of Hardesty's home life with his wife Lucy (Vera Miles), who at first opposed her husband's joining the bureau but who later becomesJ. Edgar Hoover's biggest fan. Excessively sentimental at times (it seems that the Hardesty family can never hold a party without receiving a terse telegram announcing yet another personal tragedy) and saddled with a rambling, stop-and-start continuity, the overall success of The FBI Story hinges upon its individual episodes, including a wowser of a pre-credits sequence involving matricidal mad bomber John Graham (Nick Adams). Since the film was made at a time when the FBI was considered to be of spotless reputation, don't expect to see any scenes of the bureau wiretapping civil rights leaders--or, for that matter, J. Edgar Hoover prancing around in drag. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Vera Miles, (more)
Pork Chop Hill was based on the eyewitness essays of ex-soldier S. L. A. Marshall. The film is set during the Korean "police action." While diplomats argue pointlessly over the shape of the negotiation tables at Panmunjon, United Nations troops bleed and die. Lieutenant Gregory Peck leads a 135-man unit on the attack of the Chinese-held Pork Chop Hill. When reinforcements finally arrive, only 25 of Peck's men survive (and they aren't the usual survivors we've come to expect from earlier, cliché-ridden war films). Among the American troops are such dependable performers as Harry Guardino, Woody Strode, Rip Torn, Barry Atwater, George Peppard, Robert Blake and Martin Landau. Former cowboy-star Bob Steele also shows up briefly as an American general. According to director Lewis Milestone, Pork Chop Hill was cut by nearly twenty minutes because the wife of star Gregory Peck felt that her husband made his first entrance too late into the picture. True or not, the film does show signs of post-production tampering, with flashes of several excised scenes showing up under the main title credits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, (more)
- 1959
Afraid to tell his pregnant wife, Francie (Joyce Meadows), that he has lost his entire 80-dollar paycheck in a poker game, stock clerk Irving Randall (John Smith) concocts a story about being mugged and robbed on his way home. As a "convincer" for his wife, Irving goes so far as to report the faux robbery to the police. But things get sticky when the cops arrest a man answering to Irving's description -- which of course he made up out of whole cloth -- and insist that Irving press charges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
